Wyatt placed a finger under her chin and forced her eyes to meet his. “I’m just sorry he soiled our first kiss.”
She smiled and pushed back the images of Nathan and laid a hand to Wyatt’s cheek. “Me, too.”
“I’ll make sure he’s not around to mess up the second one.”
The fact that Wyatt was already thinking about kissing her again brightened the dark spot Nathan had left.
“I’d like that.”
Sam’s diner sat on a corner of the main street in town. At one point Sam had changed the decor to resemble fifties rockabilly. As the years went on and the decay of use took its toll on the restaurant, the fifties gave way to a hodgepodge of seventies orange retro and nineties modern lines. In the end, it was a typical small town diner that made enough money to stay in business but not enough to warrant a redesign every decade.
Melanie showed up at eleven sharp and waited outside in Miss Gina’s van. Nathan sat in one of the booths in the front window and kept looking at his watch.
“Make him wait a few minutes,” Zoe said from the passenger seat.
Melanie had to grip the steering wheel to keep her hands from visibly shaking. “Him being here is a bad sign.”
“You’ve been muttering that for two days, Mel. Snap out of it and deal.”
“I don’t want to deal. I just want him to go away.”
“Maybe he’s ready to start paying child support.”
Melanie couldn’t help it, she laughed.
“Yeah,” Zoe said with a slight laugh. “That didn’t sound right coming out of my mouth either.”
Melanie grasped the handle on the door and shoved. “There’s only one way I’m going to find out what his game is.”
She jogged across the street to avoid a passing car and sucked in a fortifying breath as she pushed the glass door of Sam’s open. A bell above her head brought a few faces swiveling her way. She returned a couple of smiles and a wave from the waitress before forcing her attention on her ex.
“Three-piece suits have no place in River Bend,” she said the second she slid into the booth opposite him.
His eyes snapped to hers, then glanced at his watch. “Didn’t we say eleven?”
“Traffic.”
He narrowed his eyes and said nothing.
Just when she felt the need to squirm she remembered this intimidating quality he’d always played when they were together. His quiet, confident stares continually had her caving to whatever his demand was. It wasn’t until she’d broken away that she had realized he intimidated her with silence.
Melanie held his gaze, sat back in the broken-down booth, and lifted one corner of her mouth.
He broke first. “You’ve changed.”
She let her eyes sweep his frame in a very deliberate fashion and said nothing. He hadn’t, but she’d be damned if she was going to engage in small talk with the most disappointing person in her life.
“I know I haven’t been there for you and Hope.”
She huffed out a breath.
Nathan tilted his head and paused before he asked, “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“Yeah,” she said. Melanie met the eyes of the waitress. “Hey, Brenda . . . can I have a cup of coffee?”
“Sure, Mel.”
The bell sounded on the door and Melanie caught Luke out of the corner of her eye.
“Hey, Mel.” Luke didn’t offer a greeting to Nathan.
“Hey.”
Luke slid up to the counter and grabbed a menu.
He never grabbed a menu. The thing hadn’t changed in fifteen years. It was only when Zoe cooked in the back that the patrons of Sam’s were in for something new and exciting.
Brenda brought her coffee and cream from the back. “You need anything, I’m here.”
Nathan lifted a hand. “I’ll take a—”
Brenda turned away from him without giving him the time to finish his sentence.
Melanie kept in her smile. If Nathan thought he was going to come to River Bend with a welcome, he’d been mistaken.
Nathan had this tick under his left eye that always gave away his emotions before he voiced them. That tick started a slow twitch as he watched Brenda walk away.
“Why are you here?”
“I went to Bakersfield. You weren’t there.”
Leave it to him to avoid her questions. After a sip of the coffee she set the cup down and stared. “You didn’t fly all the way here to tell me I’ve changed and remind me that you’ve been the biggest deadbeat dad there is.”
“You took her away.”
“You left!” Her voice rose and Luke swiveled in his seat.
“You wanted me out.”
Yeah, she didn’t want the man any longer, but that didn’t mean he had to abandon his daughter. The old argument sat on her lips and stayed there. What’s the point, he’ll only deny everything like he always does.
Outside the diner, Jo pulled along the curb in her squad car and got out. All dolled up in her uniform, she placed her hat low on her head and walked into the diner.
“Hey, Mel.”
Instead of asking what Jo was doing there, Mel just smiled and waved.
If Nathan recognized Jo, he didn’t say anything.
“. . . another chance.” Nathan was talking, but Mel wasn’t listening. Her focus was now on Zoe, who slid in the back door before taking a seat at the counter with Luke and Jo.
“Another chance at what?” Mel asked, turning her focus on her ex and not the posse that was starting to form in the diner.
“Us. I want to give us another chance.”
She sat speechless for the space of two breaths. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. I’m in a better place now. I think we should—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Stop . . . just stop. That ship sailed a long time ago, Nathan.”
That tick kept twitching now, faster with every word. “Hope deserves a father.”
“Hope? You want to tell me what my daughter needs?”
“Our daughter,” he corrected.
She placed her hand on the table to avoid balling it into a fist. “You were the sperm donor, Nathan. You didn’t want to be a father.”
His eyes skirted over to the counter. “Melanie, keep your voice down.”
“Don’t tell me to keep my voice down. You have no right.”
“Melanie!”
“Don’t Melanie me.” God, how she hated that when they were together.
Nathan took a deep breath and turned his back to the others in the restaurant and lowered his voice.
“I didn’t come here to fight,” he told her.
“Did you think you could come here and we not fight?”
“I want to work things out.”
Her eyes caught Zoe’s before moving back to his. “And I want you to leave.”
“Hope deserves a father.” His words caught in her chest.
“She deserves someone who isn’t going to leave the second things get hard.”
He nodded and his face softened. If it wasn’t for his telling tick, she might believe he was actually listening to her. “I’m an attorney now, Melanie. In a much better place . . .”
Of course he was. He didn’t have a child or a family to worry over while he finished his education. She would love to be happy for him, but all she could feel was envy. He’d fulfilled his dreams while she was eating noodle soup and driving around in crappy cars. Or better yet, bumming a ride from her friends in their cars.
She shook the negative thoughts from her head and thought of Hope.
She had Hope, and she wouldn’t trade that for an education or a title.
“It’s great that you continued with your life, Nathan.”
He grinned as if she�
�d given him a gift.
“But I don’t need you.”
That grin fell.
“I want to be a part of Hope’s life.”
“That’s going to be a little hard to do, living in California.”
“When you come back—”
“We’re not coming back,” she cut him off.
He glanced around the diner and scowled. “What do you mean?”
“Hope and I are staying here. I’ve already enrolled her in school for the fall.”
“My God, Melanie. You’re better than this place.”
She laughed. “But not better than Bakersfield?”
Nathan flicked a crumb left by another patron off the table as if it were an ant.
“You ran away to Bakersfield. If I had known you were there, I would have . . .” his words trailed off.
“Would have what, Nathan? Come galloping in on your trusty steed and rescued us from my crumbling apartment and shitty school?”
“Yes. All that.”
He kept glancing at their audience, who were doing a great job of keeping their backs to them while remaining silent enough to hear most of the conversation.
“Well you’re too late. And unless you plan on sticking around, there is no reason for you to see Hope and mess her up. She doesn’t need you. We don’t need you.”
The bell over the door rang again.
Wyatt’s frame filled the door.
His smile filled her heart.
Wyatt offered a single nod and moved toward the growing crowd. When Melanie turned her attention back to Nathan, that tick was going full steam.
“He’s not her father.”
Was that jealousy? “No, and unlike you, he’s not pretending to be either.”
“I don’t have to pretend.”
She tried to put an end to this once and for all. “Go home, Nathan. I’m giving you a free pass. Go live your life and leave us to live ours.”
His snarky smile started to replace his tick, and that had Melanie’s heart beating too fast in her chest.
“That’s not how this is going to play out, Melanie.”
She didn’t care for the conviction in his tone. “And how is this going to play out?”
His silence unnerved her this time.
Jo stepped up to the table, the sound of the belt holding all her cop toys clapping along the way. “You’re okay here, Mel?”
“She’s just fine,” Nathan said.
“Mel?”
The fact that Nathan didn’t bother looking at Jo gave a twist to her stomach. He was up to something . . . had need of something. He just wasn’t giving her any clue as to what.
“I’m going home to clear my calendar for a while, then I’ll be back.”
Melanie swallowed hard. “You don’t have to—”
“I’m not leaving my wife and child here forever.”
Again with the wife thing. “I’m not your—”
Nathan reached over to pat her hand.
Melanie pulled back as if stung.
Jo placed her hand on the table and leaned in front of them. “I think you should leave.”
It was then Nathan looked up to see every set of eyes in the diner on him.
He lifted both hands in the air before scooting out of the booth.
Once on his feet, he looked down at Jo and smirked.
His parting words were directed at Melanie. “I’ll be back.”
Then he was gone.
CHAPTER TEN
Melanie’s ex slithered out the front door of the diner after a sneer that should have been illegal. The door no sooner shut than Zoe moved in beside Melanie and put her arm around her. As much as Wyatt wanted to be the one to comfort her, he had other things he was much better at doing.
He leaned toward Luke and kept his voice low. “I’m going to follow him.”
Luke offered a nod while Wyatt moved out the back door.
The dark sedan Nathan drove belonged in a B movie filled with espionage and spies . . . not in the sleepy town of River Bend.
It wasn’t as if Wyatt could blend in with traffic, and he wouldn’t know how to do it if there were any. He pulled up behind Nathan’s rental and kept an appropriate distance while they inched through town.
It wasn’t until they passed Miller’s and the gas station that Nathan started to stare through the rearview mirror.
Wyatt kept an empty look on his face and tailed the man.
As soon as they passed the last speed limit sign stating thirty miles per hour, Nathan sped up.
Wyatt kept pace without getting too close. The two-way road had several blind corners and more than a few four-legged critters that crossed the thing.
When Wyatt had to take a corner a good fifteen miles per hour faster than he’d ever done before, he started to mutter, “Why are you in such a hurry?”
They passed the cemetery, rounded another corner before the long stretch of road leading to R&B’s. Instead of blowing past the bar, Nathan skidded the car into the gravel and pulled to a stop.
He sat behind the wheel with the engine running for several minutes, giving Wyatt the impression he was going to rip out of the parking lot just as quickly as he’d pulled in.
Nathan pushed out of the car, dark sunglasses over his eyes, and started for the door to R&B’s . . . then, as if it was a second thought, he twisted in Wyatt’s direction and marched across the gravel lot.
Wyatt jumped from his truck, shut the door, and leaned against it with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Out for a Sunday drive,” Wyatt replied.
“Screw you.”
The words you’re not my type sat on his tongue unsaid.
“Messing with another man’s family is always a mistake,” Nathan told him.
“Is that some kind of threat, Counselor?”
Nathan was only a couple of inches shorter than Wyatt; his build told Wyatt that Melanie’s ex didn’t spend all his time behind a desk pushing papers.
“Just a statement, Redneck. Melanie and Hope are mine. You’d do well to remember that.”
The man thought he was insulting him. Instead, the compliment made Wyatt smile.
“I’m not sure how the rules are in your county, but here in Redneckville a man takes care of his family, provides for them. If he doesn’t, he leaves that role open for another to take over.”
Nathan shuffled his feet and Wyatt kept going. “In case you haven’t noticed, Melanie has a family here that doesn’t include you. And family in Redneckville take it personally when you screw with one of their own.” Wyatt ended with a nod.
“Is that a threat?”
Wyatt grinned. “Just stating facts, Counselor.”
Nathan clenched his fists several times before taking a deep breath. Wyatt didn’t bother to unfold his hands and waited.
“You don’t scare me.”
That was unfortunate. The fact the man was lying to himself was a terrible quality.
Nathan turned on his polished heel and took long strides to his car. Once there, he turned and waved a finger in the air. “Stop following me.”
“Call the sheriff,” Wyatt muttered to himself before sliding behind the wheel and pulling in behind Nathan as he drove away.
Nathan pulled into the parking lot of a motel several miles outside of town.
Wyatt took pleasure in every glare the man tossed his way.
Wyatt sat in his truck for about an hour before Nathan reappeared with a suitcase in hand. He took note of Wyatt’s presence, tossed the case in the trunk, and drove away.
By the time Wyatt returned to River Bend, the town had all but closed up for the day, only the diner and R&B’s still showed signs of life.
He took
the liberty of showing up at Luke’s uninvited.
Luke didn’t question his presence, just opened the door wide and let him in.
“Wanna beer?” Luke asked, turning his back and heading into his kitchen.
“Have anything stronger?”
“Ohh, that bad?”
Wyatt let the door slam behind him. “Long day.”
Luke removed a bottle of Jack from the cabinet above his fridge and placed it on the kitchen table before searching for a clean glass.
Wyatt swung the forgotten pizza box toward him and opened it in hopes of a few scraps. Without asking, he grabbed a slice and bit off a cold end with a moan.
“It’s like college all over again,” he said between bites.
“I wouldn’t know,” Luke said.
Straddling a chair, Luke took a pull on a beer and waited a few seconds while Wyatt took the edge off his hunger and washed it down with a shot of whiskey.
The burn in the back of his throat warmed him with a shiver.
“Well?”
Wyatt shoved the last bite into his mouth and reached for another piece before talking. “Followed him to the airport in Eugene.”
“So he’s gone.”
Wyatt spoke around the pizza. Why did cold pizza on an empty stomach taste so good? One of life’s questions, to be sure. “Not for long.”
“You spoke with him?”
“Briefly.”
Luke reached for one of Wyatt’s fists, glanced at his knuckles. “Care to elaborate?”
Before relaying the conversation he’d had with the man, it was time to hear a few facts from Luke. “Tell me what you know about him.”
Luke shrugged. “Just what I’ve heard from Jo over the years. Melanie met him in college, before long she was pregnant and dropped out. Not sure what came first, now that I think about it. Jo wasn’t living close when all that happened and my ties to Zoe had been cut. Everything I heard was long past it happening.”
“Were they married?”
Luke shook his head with a shrug. “Couldn’t tell you. Everyone said yes a couple of years ago. It’s only been in the past few weeks that Melanie claimed all that was a lie.”
Wyatt poured another couple of fingers of Jack and kicked it back. “Does Melanie make a habit of lying?” He hated to ask but wanted to know for many reasons.
Doing It Over (A Most Likely to Novel Book 1) Page 11