“I get you. Have a nice day, Melody.”
“You too, Fox. Just, um, take care of my grandmother, okay?”
He met her gaze and nodded. “I will. I always take care of the people I care about. And I care about this town. Meaning, I care about you, too, Melody. I’m not going to make it complicated and messy by saying anything more than that, other than the fact that if you need me, I’m here. I’d like us to be friends because it seems as if we can’t stop meeting each other like this.”
She swallowed hard, and he watched the long line of her throat work. “Friends. I can do that. I think I could use a friend.”
He didn’t touch her, though something deep inside him wanted to. Instead, he said his goodbyes and walked out of the beautiful home with the two beautiful people living within it. This story had just gotten a little deeper, a bit more complicated. But this was his job, and he would figure out a way to make it work. And he hadn’t been lying to Melody. He took care of those in his circle, and these two women were now in his circle. What that meant, he didn’t know, but he was curious enough to find out.
Chapter 6
Melody couldn’t believe how fast time seemed to be going. Okay, it had only been a day since she’d last seen Fox at her house, and two days since she had met Loch outside of her studio, but she still felt as if the days were passing far too quickly. Soon, her studio would open, and she would be teaching full-time at a place that she not only owned but had literally put her blood, sweat, and tears into. Okay, it had been a paper cut inside her building that counted as the blood, but it counted nonetheless. And if she took into account every single blood blister and cut from dancing hours and hours a day to hopefully one day become a prima ballerina, then that was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears indeed.
Her dreams of dancing for the New York City Ballet and not only becoming a soloist but also a principal dancer might be long gone, but she still hoped she could have dancing in her life. She wasn’t the same person she was before everything had changed, but she still had the craft in her veins. Her grandmother had been a famous showgirl, using her hips, feathers, and legs to tell a story, even if others hadn’t known exactly what she was saying. Her mother had been a dancer, as well, but had given up everything early when she thought she wasn’t good enough. Melody didn’t know if that was true, and her grandmother wouldn’t tell her. But she had a feeling the drive her mother had with regards to Melody’s career and talent had come from the fact that she had never lived out her own dreams.
Melody had spent her younger years in dance classes, strength classes, and more, not having a childhood outside of the path she had been set on in that early stage of her life. And though others had chosen the path for her, she had gone willingly when she found the passion in dance.
She had danced for some of the best teachers that were out there because of her talent and who her grandmother was, and she would never take those lessons and honors for granted. When she was accepted to Juilliard, she had thought her dreams were finally coming true, even at the tender age of eighteen. Then, everything had shattered around her, and she had been forced to figure out who she was without dance being her sole reason for living.
At one point, she’d never thought she would dance again, and had thrown away all of her old training leotards and pointe shoes in anger and misguided guilt. No, she couldn’t quite seem misguided, could she? But that was another train of thought that she didn’t want to think about today. Not when she had so much on her plate.
Speaking of work, she opened up her laptop and bit her lip. She had been a coward for not checking her sign-up form the past two days since she’d opened it. She also hadn’t checked her emails beyond the important ones from the community center. The messages having to do with the dance studio that were attached to the form went to a separate email account she hadn’t opened in two days. That strange note that had to be spam had been moved into a special folder just in case, but she figured it was nothing important. She wasn’t special enough for an email like that anyway. Not anymore.
“If you want to be a businesswoman and be successful, you have to get your head out of your ass and check your freaking email. Don’t be a coward, Melody Waters.”
Now that she was talking to herself again in an empty home since her grandmother was out with Fox for a lunchtime interview, she knew she was close to jumping off the deep end. The fact that she also couldn’t stop thinking about Fox and how…nice it had been to see him was neither here nor there.
If she realized that nobody was signing up for classes, she would have to try and figure out what she was going to do with the mortgage payments on an empty building that no one would ever walk into again.
And, of course, if she kept rambling in her head about her own worries, she wouldn’t think about the fact that she hadn’t been able to see Fox this morning because her grandmother had left to walk towards the restaurant area of town on her own. Melody had been more than ready to walk her grandmother but, apparently, Ms. Pearl was clearly able to do things herself. Melody still worried, but Fox had texted her when her grandmother showed up.
She hadn’t given Fox her number, had been very careful not to do so that night and in the time she had seen him since, but Grandmother must have given it to him. She didn’t mind, though she probably should have, but when she put him in her contacts under his name and not something too sexy or mean, she figured they were well on their way to being the friends they had talked about rather than anything more heated like her subconscious and her lady parts might want.
She took a deep breath and opened the spreadsheet that her form fed into. Then she stopped what she was doing and blinked a few times.
It wasn’t empty.
It wasn’t even close to empty.
There were over twenty sign-ups in just two days. How the hell had that happened? Well, it wasn’t as if she didn’t know exactly how that had happened since she had put in tons of work and so had the other people around her, but she hadn’t thought this was possible. Not only were those twenty-plus people signed up for her classes, but they were also signed up for a variety of her classes. There were a set of children who wanted the beginner’s classes—boys and girls that would be in a mixed class. There were also a few intermediate students who wanted extra classes on top of the ones they were already taking out of town with another instructor. Though she would have to consider carefully and talk to their teachers to make sure they not only didn’t overwork themselves, but that they were all on the same page. As a child, Melody always had more than one instructor at a time, and it had helped to strengthen her dancing abilities. But she wanted to make sure that anyone she worked with was on the right path.
And even more amazing, there were a couple of adults who wanted to take a chance on the adult, beginners’ ballet class. It wouldn’t be for pure style or anything along the lines of what her intermediate or even the children would be doing. But there were some who wanted a class where they could learn the basic steps for flexibility, and others who wanted the class as more of a workout type of event. She had put both up as offerings and had them in her schedule, and it looked as if she would have at least a few in each class. She had a couple of additional classes that at least had two people in each, and she was beyond thrilled. The way she had scheduled her class load meant she would have about two or three classes per day, but nothing too strenuous on her physically. She didn’t have the flexibility or strength she once had, especially since the incident, so she knew she couldn’t put as much pressure on her body as she’d once been able to. But this way, she would have people coming in, her body would still get the exercise it needed, and her soul would still be attached to dance. The latter was something she hadn’t known she needed until it had been ripped away from her so suddenly.
And because some classes would be in the morning, some in the afternoon, and others in the evening, she would always have room to add additional classes if there was ever a need or the time, and she wou
ld have time to do all the administrative and business stuff that came with owning her own studio, as well. And her grandmother would be happy to hear that she’d also scheduled in time to just be. She hadn’t figured out exactly who she was without that one dream constantly at the forefront of her mind, but she was working on it. And moving to the small town and opening up a place just for herself was one way to get started.
Her hands were shaking by the time she went through each person to see what they had filled out in the form. She also had a few emails from concerned parents and even some of the adult dancers themselves who wanted to either return to dance or start again from scratch. She was of the firm belief that one was never too old to find their love for dance, even if that love of dancing might never lead to a career in it.
She went through and contacted each person, asking questions of her own and learning as much as she could from them without speaking or talking to them. She would learn what she would need as a teacher once she saw them move, and learn any limitations or strengths they had. She had one email from a concerned mother who had a daughter whom she hadn’t signed up yet, but she wanted to talk to Melody personally about things. Her daughter was autistic but so in love with dance that she wanted to learn how to be a pretty ballerina. Melody’s eyes watered at the love and protection in the mother’s words, and knew that even if she had to open up a separate class for the little girl and work twice as hard, she would make sure she got to dance. Melody had actually taken a class on how to teach children with special needs, but knew she was nowhere near where she needed to be in order to give the girl everything she needed. That meant Melody would have to do a lot more studying and talk to the mother and anyone else in the child’s life to make sure that they found the right routine and met the little girl’s needs. She knew some children were fine working with others in the same room for a dance class, while some needed individual attention. Melody would just have to work out a way to make that happen. She didn’t have the money to hire on another instructor right now, but that was in the business plan for later. When the time came, she would figure out what to do.
Melody immediately emailed back and told the woman exactly what she’d just thought, making sure that she knew that Melody was excited and honored about the opportunity to teach her daughter. Once again, she brushed tears from her eyes after she had finished the email. She’d been lucky growing up, being able to do things on her own without the help of others. But she had watched instructors berate those who couldn’t get it in one try, and she refused to be that person. Everyone deserved a chance to be everything they could be, and it had taken her losing everything to realize exactly how much that meant.
Off-kilter, she finished answering her new emails, put up some new social media posts to get the word out, and set aside her computer. She needed to get back into the studio to finish decorating, but her contractor had said they needed time to finish putting up the last bits of paint and other touches that she would just be in the way for. And with all this new energy thanks to the wonderful news and daunting tasks ahead of her, she figured she might as well stay in shape because there was a lot of dancing to come.
Thanks to meeting her new neighbor, she knew exactly where she could go to work out. Hopefully, they would let her sign up for a gym membership because there was no way she would be able to stay in dancing shape by just doing yoga at her house and running outside every once in a while. At her age and with everything her body had been through with dance and then later after she was hurt, she needed to do strengthening exercises that she couldn’t do at home. She knew her grandma would probably set up a whole gym in one of the various rooms that they had in the house if she had any idea that Melody needed it, but there was no way she was going to lean on her grandmother for that.
Making a decision, she cleaned up what she had left out since she still felt like a guest in her grandma’s home, and went upstairs to change into her workout gear. When she got to Loch’s place, she couldn’t help but grin at the sign. It literally said Loch’s Security and Gym. The man really did just about everything. She was half expecting a little add-on sign that said something about being a handyman but, apparently, that was just word of mouth.
When she walked in, Loch was behind the counter, scowling at something on his computer. He looked up as she made her way to him and let out a grunt. Not the most welcoming thing in the world, but it could have been worse. He could’ve literally shoved her out the door or something.
“Am I here at a bad time? I was wondering if I could sign up for a gym membership. Is that okay?”
Loch studied her before reaching under the desk in front of him and grabbing a stack of papers. “Sorry, having computer issues, and I’m getting annoyed. Not your problem, though. And, yeah, you can sign up for a gym membership. I don’t do yearly or locked-in fees. We go month-to-month because I know not everybody’s going to want to keep up with a gym membership for the whole year. We’re not one of those big chains.”
“That sounds perfect to me. But I’ll probably be in here all year since I need to keep up with my strength if I’m going to be teaching next door. And while I can get most of it from dancing, I’ll be more well-rounded if I do a full workout.”
“Just fill out the paperwork, and you can get started today if you want.” His gaze traveled over her clothes, and he gave her another nod. It didn’t feel sexual in the least. Whereas she knew if his brother had done that to her, she’d heat from the inside out under the scrutiny. “You look like you’re already in your gear, so I assume you want to work out today?”
“If I can. The guys next door are busy doing things I’ll just get in the way of, so it’s either this or twiddle my thumbs as I’m doing paperwork and wanting to bang my head against the table.”
“Don’t get me started on paperwork.” He grumbled again and left her to fill out what she needed to. When she was done, she handed it over, and he handed her a temporary card and took her photo, saying he would send over her real card in the next day or two.
He went back to working on whatever he was doing on the computer, and she wondered if it had to do with the gym or the secret security firm that she really had no idea about. Maybe she’d been reading too much recently because her mind kept going to secret agents and spies rather than what was probably just a guy and his team who put up security systems and cameras for houses. She really needed to get a life rather than letting her imagination wander.
She was so busy in her head, that she didn’t notice the man in front of her and slammed right into his very sweaty, very hard body.
She gripped his arms, his thigh going right between her legs as she pressed into him and looked up.
“Fox.” She practically breathed the word, her pulse racing. Of course, she would run into Fox at his brother’s gym. Of course, she would be clinging to him like a heroine in one of her favorite romance novels, her fingers digging into his biceps. Of course, his thigh would be pressed firmly against her crotch enough so he could probably feel the heat of her as she pulsated just from touching him—the day after they’d both promised each other they would just remain friends. Because this was Melody, and this was her life. What else could happen in a town named Whiskey with a man she’d had far too much whiskey with?
“Melody.” His voice came out more like a growl than an actual word, and he cleared his throat. “Melody, shit, I didn’t see you. Did I hurt you?”
She hadn’t let go of his arms, but he hadn’t moved away from her either. She was aware that there were other people in the gym, but she knew they weren’t looking at them. They were focused on their workouts and not the two of them clinging to each other as if they couldn’t get enough.
And because she thought that particular thought, she let go of him and backed away. Her inner thighs missed Fox’s touch immediately, but she ignored her traitorous lady parts and their needs and desires.
Damn them anyway. They always got her into trouble.
“I’m fin
e, and I’m the one who ran into you anyway.” She swallowed hard, doing her best not to think about how exactly he’d felt pressed up against her. He fit far too perfectly, and she hoped the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about it was because she was hyped up for the gym.
And in terms of rationalizations, she’d just reached a new level.
He frowned. “If you’re sure.” He reached out as if to touch her before lowering his hand. For two people who had vowed to try and be friends, they were acting far too awkward for their promises to be of any consequence.
“I am. So, I guess you come here often?”
If there were a sinkhole for her to fall into, she’d look for it because, dear God, what was wrong with her?
Fox’s mouth quirked into a smile, and Melody couldn’t help the internal sigh at the sight of it. She must not have been getting enough sleep if just that grin put her slightly on edge. Of course, it could also be the fact that she could still feel the heat of his body against hers.
“My brother owns the place, and I try to stay in shape, so I tend to come here instead of running outside. There’s a few too many hills on the side roads for my comfort, and during tourist season, which happens to be every season here for some reason, there’s way too many people to make jogging a thing.”
Now, all she could think about was him jogging, sweating, and looking far too attractive for his own good.
“Melody?” He slid his fingers through the part of her hair that had already fallen out of its ponytail and tucked it behind her ear. She licked her lips, unable to hold back even that barest of movements at his touch.
“I should go work out. I got a membership from Loch. Sorry again for running into you.” And before he could say anything else and possibly woo her into something she had already been fighting not to think about, she ran away. Okay, she didn’t quite run away, but she did walk really fast to the other side of the gym where the ellipticals were located. She could feel Fox staring at her but chose to ignore it as she got on the machine and then did the silliest thing ever and waved at him, giving him a very bright smile that he would probably know was false, then went about her workout.
Whiskey Reveals (Whiskey and Lies Book 2) Page 5