The Southern Bride

by Leonra Worth

  “This photograph says it all,” Betsy replied with one eyebrow lifted. “But you’re looking for work here?”

  “Yes. We’re both going to stay here for a while.”

  “How long is a while?” Betsy asked, serious now.

  “Maybe forever,” Melissa said. And because she was serious, too, she said, “I need this job and I plan to stay here, regardless of what Judson decides.”

  She’d just made the decision but it felt good to realize she’d be okay on her own. Melissa wasn’t sure when this new confidence had happened but it made her happy.

  She could love Judson and work toward having a life with him but she now saw what had been holding her back.

  Herself.

  Betsy sat giving her a shrewd stare. “I believe you.”

  She named the pay and promised a raise if everything went okay before the ninety day evaluation. “We depend on tourists to buy our artwork and our artists are juried and have to pass muster. We hold an art festival each spring so, as my assistant, you’d be highly involved in that, too.”

  “I’d love that,” Melissa said, excitement coursing through her. Now she’d have to wait and see what happened.

  “I’ve interviewed three other potentials,” Betsy said. “I’ll have to call them and tell them the position has been filled.”

  Melissa sat up straight. “You mean, by me?”

  “Do you want the job?” Betsy asked with a grin.

  “Yes. Yes, I do,” Melissa replied.

  “Good.” Betsy stood and shook out her voluminous skirt. “When can you start?”

  “I have to take care of some things back home,” Melissa replied. “But I could be back here in two weeks. Is that okay?”

  Betsy looked at the calendar. “Hmmm. I have a jewelry showing next weekend. I was hoping—.”

  “I’ll be here,” Melissa said. “Even if I have to drive or fly down for the weekend.”

  “You’d need to come a day early so we can get you acclimated and settled in,” Betsy said.

  “I’ll be here.” Melissa would do whatever she needed to do. Her assignments were scattered and random at best, so it shouldn’t be hard to give notice.

  Betsy came around the desk. “Okay, then. You have yourself a job. Do you have a place to stay?”

  “Yes.” Melissa shook her hand, but Betsy went for another hug. “We have the family cottage and Michelle has plenty of extra space.”

  “I’m so happy about their baby,” Betsy said. “Blessed.”

  Melissa wondered what Betsy’s story was. “We are all blessed.”

  “And now I am, too,” Betsy said. “Brodie told me I’d like you.”

  “Brodie is a great brother-in-law.”

  “I tried to nab him, you know,” Betsy said with a laugh. “But I knew the night Michelle walked in here that she was the only woman for Brodie Stevens.”

  “They’re very happy.” Melissa gathered her things and started to leave. She liked Betsy’s honesty.

  “Oh, we’ll want to plan your first exhibit, too,” Betsy called. “Probably in the fall. The snowbirds love local art. So get on taking some more beautiful pictures. You tell stories with your photos, Melissa.”

  Melissa left with such elation, she could barely breathe. She was about to call Michelle when her phone buzzed.

  It was Brodie. Panicked about Michelle and the baby, she sat in her car with shaking hands. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Melissa. Where are you?”

  “Just leaving the gallery. What’s wrong? Is Michelle worse?”

  “It’s not Michelle, honey,” Brodie said on a low note. “It’s Judson. I had to bring him to the hospital.”

  “I’m on my way,” Melissa said, tears pricking at her eyes.

  What in the world had happened to Judson now?

  “He apparently removed the boot he was supposed to be wearing and he drove for nine hours straight to get to Florida,” the doctor explained after Judson was out of surgery. “So we had to go back in and do some emergency repairs since he suffered two open fractures when he originally broke it months ago. Those take a lot longer to heal. If he hadn’t come to us, he might have ruined his leg or, worse, lost part of it through infection.”

  After the surgeon left, Melissa and Brodie waited to go into the recovery room to visit Judson.

  “So he basically ignored his doctor’s orders and neglected his rehab, too,” she said to Brodie, her voice shaking.

  “He’s a man, honey. We do stupid things. He came here to find you.”

  “And made things much worse on himself.”

  She started toward the recovery room, the sterile chill of the hospital’s wide hallways making her shiver. “I’m going to talk to him.”

  Brodie stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Hey, cut him some slack. I’m the one who offered him a job, on a whim at that. We shouldn’t have toyed with him. We goaded him into taking on two different jobs that required hard work. But I didn’t think his leg was this bad and I didn’t realize he’d push himself this far. I kept telling him to take it easy.”

  “He wanted the work,” she said. “He was trying to impress all of us.”

  “Just think long and hard about what you’re gonna say when you go in there,” Brodie said. “You don’t want to leave here regretting even more than you already do.”

  Melissa nodded. “You don’t have to stay. I’ll be okay. Go home and check on Michelle.”

  Brodie’s expression remained firm. “I’ll be here when you come out. After I see how he’s doing, I’ll go on home.”

  Melissa headed into the long hallway of the recovery room. A nurse showed her the curtain hiding Judson from the few other patients in recovery.

  Bracing herself, Melissa edged around the heavy curtain and inhaled a shaky breath. Judson was still, his eyes closed. He looked so young and at peace but she knew the turmoil inside his soul. He wouldn’t be happy when he woke up. Judson needed to be constantly moving. He needed wide open spaces and plenty of air.

  Had she been stifling him all these years?

  Judson woke with a start.

  “Hey, I’m here.”

  He looked around, panic setting in, to see Melissa standing there with a concerned frown on her pretty face. He remembered being on a ladder, laughing and talking to Brodie. Then the next thing he knew he was being wheeled down a long hallway toward a set of double doors.

  His leg had caved in on him.

  The memory of that searing pain caught up with him. He tried to sit up and then he glanced down and saw the white bandages on his leg. This nightmare was happening all over again.

  “I have to get out of here,” he said, the need to breathe overtaking everything else. He tugged at the oxygen tube in his nose, worked at the other tubes connected to his body.

  “No, Judson, you need to rest. You’re in the recovery room at the hospital. One of the best orthopedic surgeons in Florida operated on you to reset your leg.”

  Melissa, her voice shaky, her sea-green eyes wide with fear, her hand soft on his arm.

  He didn’t want to be here.

  He didn’t want her here either.

  “I’m okay,” he said, trying to find air. “Just leave me alone.”

  “No, I’m not going anywhere,” she said, that old stubbornness surfacing with each flash of color in her eyes.

  “You don’t need to be here,” he said through the pain of yet another failure. He’d pushed and pushed his body and now his body had betrayed him. He didn’t expect her to hang around waiting.

  “Where else should I be?” she asked, tears streaming down her face. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d taken off your therapeutic boot? That you needed help?”

  “Didn’t need anyone’s help. Have to heal on my own.”

  “You’ve been trying to heal on your own all your life, Judson. Let me help you. That’s what my mom was talking about. Compromise and a willingness to give to someone you love. But it also means a willingness to le
an on someone you love.”

  He hit his hand on the bed. “It’s too late. I’m never gonna be the same. I don’t have the rodeo. I can’t have you. Just go, Melissa.”

  “And all that talk the other night about this time making things different between us? Should I just forget that? Aren’t you tired of pushing me away?” She wiped at her eyes. “I’ve been rushing all my life to keep up with everyone—first my sisters and then you. It made me impulsive and crazy and... I’ve made mistakes. But no more. I’m tired of rushing and I’m tired of running away when things don’t go my way. I thought you wanted me with you. I guess I was wrong.”

  “No, I was wrong,” he said, mad at himself, hating what he’d done to her over and over. And yet, he didn’t have the courage to ask her to stay with him. “I was wrong to chase after you. Wrong to think someone like you could be with a man like me.”

  “You are wrong,” she said, her words full of a bittersweet whisper. “You’re wrong about so many things.”

  She looked as if she didn’t know what to say, the hurt in her eyes burning him worse than the pain throbbing through his body. “What about us?” she asked. “What about being here together and starting fresh? Are you going to give up on all of that again?”

  “I don’t have a choice,” he said. “I’m no good to anyone. I’ll always be a mess. Look at me. I screwed up again.”

  She leaned close, her hands on his arms, her fingers digging into his skin. “You do have a choice. We have a choice. I wasn’t sure until this moment and now I understand what I want. What I need to do.”

  He braced himself for her last goodbye.

  But she surprised him. “I’m not leaving you this time, Judson,” she said, her eyes flashing with fire. “You can push me away or hate me or treat me any way you want, but I’m not leaving. This is the real stuff. This is us, sitting on that piece of driftwood. Still and quiet. Whatever it takes, remember?”

  He hurt too much to argue with her, so he closed his eyes and willed her to disappear. Gritting his teeth against the pain and the hurt and the despair that cut through him like twisted wire, he pretended to be asleep. But he heard the nurse telling her to let him rest and that he’d be in a private room later that night.

  Judson prayed Melissa wouldn’t be waiting for him in that room. He didn’t want her here. He couldn’t bear to see her suffering because of him and his stupid mistakes. His pride hurt worse than his leg ever had.

  He didn’t need her pity. But, in his heart, he sure needed her. Worse than ever before.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A week later, Melissa stood with Brodie and Michelle, staring at the tiny little house where Judson was supposed to be living. Sam and Maddie were back now and together with a few of Brodie and Sam’s friends, they’d all pitched in to clean up the place and do a quick renovation.

  The little galley kitchen sparkled with creamy yellow paint and new appliances. The bathroom gleamed with new plumbing and fresh fixtures. The wooden floors, now buffed and polished, looked as good as new. They’d found bits and pieces of furniture from Brodie’s house, the cottage attic, and a flea market near the Surf Shack.

  “Everything’s ready,” Brodie said, turning to Melissa.

  “He won’t like that we’ve done this,” she replied, fatigue gnawing at her body.

  “He’ll like it soon enough,” Brodie said with an undertone of a threat. “This had been one crazy week.”

  A crazy week. She’d driven to Louisiana to gather her things, give notice at her two part-time jobs and finish up any loose ends. But there wasn’t much to do there. Her editor at the paper wished her well and her editor at the magazine asked if she’d come back for special assignments. She’d said maybe if it didn’t interfere with her new job.

  Then she’d kissed her parents goodbye, her dad’s warning of “Don’t let him made you regret this and don’t make me regret that I let you do this,” echoing in her ears.

  This time, they would do things her way. This time, she wouldn’t fall for Judson’s tricks by running away each time things got dicey. She’d prove to him and the world that she had staying power, no matter what.

  Except he didn’t even know she was back.

  Judson thought she’d left, after he’d pretty much refused to let her into his hospital room. And she had left, but... she’d also returned, ready for battle.

  She’d told Betsy upfront what was going on.

  “Men can be so dense,” Betsy said, her red heels clicking against the tile floor. “You need a latte and some dark chocolate. But... I love a good love story so you’d better keep me posted on this.”

  So that was new. And now this. Could she handle her new job and her new attitude and still deal with Judson and his old attitude?

  “Y’all can go now,” she said. “Bring him home and I’ll take it from there.”

  “Nope. Sam and I will take the first shift,” Brodie said in a tone that brooked no argument. “The boy is as stubborn as a snapping turtle.”

  Sam nodded. “We know the way of the gumbo now.”

  “How’s that going to help?” Maddie asked, her dark hair caught up in a disheveled bun. “Are you two going to pour gumbo down his throat?”

  “No, but we’re going to talk some sense into him,” Brodie said. “I just met the man all of three weeks ago and already, he’s getting on my last nerve. But he loves this place and he loves Melissa. And he’s a good worker. So I guess babysitting my new foreman who can’t work right now will be part of my schedule.”

  “None of you have to do this.” Melissa pointed out, touched that they’d done so much already.

  “You’re family,” Sam said in that quiet tone that made everyone listen. “Took me a long time to be able to say that.”

  Maddie smiled at Sam and then gave Melissa a sharp glance. “Leave it at that, sis. We’re all going to help. You don’t need to stay here day and night, nursing him. That didn’t go so well the last time.”

  “I don’t plan to do that,” she admitted. “I have a job now and I have to be there. But I’m going to make him see that I’m in this for the long haul.”

  Brodie grinned. “Meantime, we’ll hang around and finish sprucing up the place. And it’s a good time to start work on the big house, too.”

  Michelle smiled at that from her chair on the tiny porch where she’d been ordered to sit. “See, a silver lining. There’s always a silver lining.”

  “Thank you,” Melissa said, checking her watch. “I have just enough time to get cleaned up for the jewelry reception tonight.”

  “Okay then.” Brodie walked over to Michelle and leaned down to kiss her. “We’ll get little mama home and then Sam and I will go and spring Judson out of the hospital.”

  “And I’ll take over once the reception is over,” Melissa said.

  “Like old times,” Sam said, his finger moving over Maddie’s nose. “I miss you already.”

  “I’m right here,” Maddie said, her smile soft and intimate. “I’ll be in charge of our other ornery patient.” She winked at Michelle.

  “I’m not ornery and I’m not helpless,” Michelle said. “The doctor told me I’m fine now. I could have helped more.”

  “No,” they all said in unison.

  “One big, happy family,” Brodie said. “I love it.”

  He really did love it, Melissa decided. She had taken having a family for granted while Brodie and Sam had longed for the chaos of being a part of something.

  And so had Judson, only she’d been too wrapped up in herself and what she wanted to see that.

  She had a new perspective on things but... she still had a long row to hoe regarding Judson.

  Wouldn’t he be surprised when she showed up here later?

  They were trying to kill him.

  Judson grunted and growled. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “Apparently you do,” Brodie said, shaking his head. “Did you think a broken fibula would just magically snap itself back tog
ether?”

  “I thought I was well,” Judson admitted. “I did my PT and my leg felt pretty good.”

  “Yeah, well, you should have kept on doing your PT instead of shucking the boot and driving down here,” Brodie replied.

  “It’s been four months, man. I missed Melissa.”

  Sam and Brodie had picked him up from the hospital and told him they had the cabin ready for him. But Judson didn’t see how he’d be able to get around the place by himself. He had crutches and he could hobble but it was mighty hard to live a normal life.

  But then, he hadn’t been sure what he’d do once he was released from the hospital. Where would he go? Who could he call? He’d pretty much made everyone mad again.

  Melissa had left even after she promised she wouldn’t. Typical. Run away and hide from him. Hide her feelings. What did he care? He’d messed up big time and he knew that for sure when he saw Sam and Brodie at the door of his hospital room instead of Melissa. He didn’t dare ask them where she was.

  She’d sent the posse to bring him here to a new kind of prison. And they’d made him feel even worse when he’d seen how they’d spruced up the place. It was sparse and clean and all new and shiny. And Brodie told him they’d be out here a lot since they were going to go ahead and start renovating the big cabin.

  Watching out for him without telling him they were watching out for him.

  “We’re also gonna be in charge of your PT,” Sam had explained.

  “I’m going home,” Judson retorted. “Maybe back to Texas.”

  “No so soon,” Sam retorted back. “Don’t be stupid.”

  So here they sat, the three of them, watching a baseball game on the tiny television. Sam and Brodie came and went, tag teaming him. They’d stayed right here all afternoon, taking turns at staring him down. He had a bad feeling they were going to stay the night.

  “What do you think I’m gonna do?” he asked, wishing he could stomp right out of here. Wishing he’d never come here.

  He missed Melissa and remembered how he’d sent her away.

  When he heard a car roaring up the long gravel drive, he figured they’d called in reinforcements. He didn’t want to think about who’d take over now. He prayed not Mr. Roscoe or Miss Ruby.