“Okay.” Her eyes were closed and her lips swollen. She played with the thick hair at his nape. “I love your hair.”
“Good.” He liked his hair too, and he’d always worn it long. Some women didn’t like it, but there was nothing like the feel of a woman running her hands through it—like Melissa was doing—or gripping it when he went down on her.
Another time.
Cary lost track of time. Melissa tasted so good, and she was soft and hard at the same time. He loved the dip of her waist and the curve of her breasts. They were just enough for a handful. She liked it when he teased her nipples and squirmed when he licked her neck. Her legs were muscular. Her arms were lean. He really wanted to see her naked back.
He was in the middle of imagining possible sexual positions when Melissa pulled away.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s midnight.”
He frowned. “We’ve been making out for two hours?”
“Don’t be silly. We were fighting. Then I was crying. Then we were talking. Then we were making out.”
“Oh.” He kissed her again. “I’m glad we’re so efficient when we have time to see each other. We really get a lot done. A note for future meetings? You’re very fun to kiss.”
“You too, friend.”
“Friend?” He remembered. Friends who kiss. “Right. You’re very fun to kiss… friend.”
The corner of her mouth turned up and told him she knew he was full of shit.
“I need to go,” she said. “I have to get up early with Stu tomorrow. I should have been in bed two hours ago.”
He took a deep breath and felt his eyes drooping. “I’d love for you to just sleep here, but I also know that’s not going to happen.”
“Yeah… not. Probably ever.”
“Right.” He rubbed his eyes. “When is Abby’s next weekend in Paso?”
“This one. Why?”
He tugged her hair. “Because I want to take you out on a friendly date, friend.”
Melissa blinked like the idea didn’t compute. “I…”
She was imagining the gossip. Imagining the tongues wagging and the whispers. They were inevitable in a town the size of Oakville. The fact that the entire town probably knew Cary was in love with her was not even on her radar. She was thinking about school-mom gossip.
“Just think about it,” he said. “We could go into Metlin.”
“Okay.” Her eyes were still cautious. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good.”
Chapter Eleven
Melissa grabbed a cup of coffee from the pot on the counter. She’d been out at dawn with Stu, but the herd was moved to the upper pasture and out of the worst of the heat. They’d checked the water pump in the north pasture, and it was still working fine. They’d tagged two sections of fence that needed mending, but Stu said he and Leigh would take care of it later since it wasn’t urgent.
And suddenly, at ten in the morning, Melissa had time to sit down across from her mom with a cup of coffee.
“Hi.”
Joan smiled. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“I know.” She sipped the coffee. “Stu’ll have lunch with Leigh and then they were going out to fix some fence. Said they didn’t need me though.”
“How about that?” Joan put down the newspaper. “What will you do with your life?”
Melissa blinked. “I have no idea. You need some help in the garden?”
“Nope. Weeding’s done and it’s too hot to do more today.”
“Have you checked the goat pens?”
“Goats are happy in their jail.”
“Are the accounts done?”
“Finished them yesterday. I told you. You don’t remember?”
“Huh.” Melissa drank more coffee. “What do people do in the middle of the day when they don’t have a million things to do?”
“Have lunch with their friends—remember when you had those? Quilt. Read a book. Day drink? I don’t know. Maybe you should take a nap.” Joan’s eyes were smiling. “You’ve been out late a few nights this week.”
“At the committee meetings?”
“I’m pretty sure there was at least one other night you were late.” Joan tapped on her chin. “Now where were you?”
“Mom, stop.”
“I’m just going to say… it’s about time.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Okay.” Joan opened her paper again. “Maybe I’ll head over to Rumi’s for lunch. See what’s up over at the Nakamura place.”
“Mom…” No. Please no. This was exactly what she didn’t want.
“What?” Joan’s face was pure innocence.
“You know what? I should go into Metlin.” Melissa forced a smile. “Pick out bathroom tile and paint. Want to help?”
“Nope.” She smiled. “I’m not going to Rumi’s. I’m meeting with Sherry and Maria for the Jordan Valley Committee. I just felt like giving you grief.”
“Thanks so much.” Melissa grimaced. “That reminds me. I need to find out what’s going on with Devin and this company working on Allen Ranch. I have a bad feeling about it.”
“Nothing your brother-in-law does ever feels all the way legal.”
Melissa shrugged. “He knows how to walk right down that line, but I know what you mean. He’s…”
“Slimy.”
She grimaced. “Yeah. He is.”
Joan sipped her coffee. “You just be careful.”
“With Devin? I’m not worried about Devin.”
“With everything.” Joan rose and walked behind her, bending down to wrap her arms around Melissa’s shoulders. “Do you know I want to wrap your heart in Bubble Wrap and hold you like I did when you were Abby’s age?”
“I’m thirty-four.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She kissed Melissa’s head. “You’re still my baby.”
“Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, Lissa.”
She squeezed her mom’s arm for a few moments until Joan straightened and walked away. Melissa adored her mother, but for the first time in years, she wished she had someone other than Joan to talk to. She didn’t really have friends.
She’d had them once, before life turned upside down. But she was isolated on the ranch, and after Calvin died, the few friends they’d had drifted away. She had a couple of college friends she kept in touch with online, but they mostly lived in Texas. She was friendly with some of the moms at Abby’s school, but they weren’t friends. Not really.
Melissa had Joan and Abby. She had Cary. She had Rumi. She had her brother, Ox. And she had no one she could talk to about possibly starting a romance with her neighbor.
But she could drive into Metlin and keep working. Working was what she did best. She’d call Brian Montoya and see if he had time to pick out materials for the bunkhouse. They were making good progress, and she didn’t want to hold him up.
She could go by Tacos Marcianos for lunch. Go into INK and grab a new book for Abby. Maybe spend a few minutes with her brother.
She finished her coffee, grabbed the bunkhouse binder from the row of notebooks on her desk, and headed for her truck. On the drive into Metlin, she blared Pink on the radio and rolled the windows down before the day turned scalding.
It was nearly eleven when she pulled onto Main. After parking her truck by INK, she walked into the store and immediately looked for her brother.
Emmie spotted her. “Hey, Melissa!”
“Hey.” She walked over and gave Emmie a one-armed hug. “How’s it going?”
“Oh my God, she did not!”
The outburst from the office behind Emmie made Melissa and Emmie both turn their heads.
Emmie’s best friend, Tayla, was ranting at the computer screen in her converted office, which was open to both the bookshop and the tattoo studio where Emmie and Ox worked.
“Emmie, you’ll never believe what idiotic celebrity had a Handmaid’s Tale–themed birthday. Who does that
?” Tayla spotted Melissa. “Oh hey, Melissa. What are you doing here?”
“Rethinking my birthday plans now.”
Tayla rolled her eyes. “Seriously though.”
Melissa grimaced. “Yeah, that’s a new level of clueless.”
Despite the grimace, everything about Tayla made Melissa smile. The girl was hilarious and whip-smart.
Emmie, on the other hand, was smart, quiet, and low-key sarcastic, which suited Ox perfectly. Despite outward appearances, her brother was a big softie, and Melissa couldn’t have custom designed a better girlfriend for him. Emmie was exactly the person Ox needed.
Her brother had a heart of gold, but he could be horribly unorganized and wasn’t the best on follow-through. Falling in love with Emmie had given him focus.
“Anything new for Abby?”
Emmie’s eyes lit up. “Did she like Song for a Whale?”
“Loved it.”
“Okay, so it’s a graphic novel and I don’t have it, but I know Jeremy has it across the street at Top Shelf. It’s called Sea Sirens, and it’s amazing. I almost picked it up for Abby the other day, but I didn’t know if she was still liking fantasy and magic stuff.”
“Everything. She reads everything. She even reads to the goats. She says it’s soothing.”
Tayla said, “Your daughter is painfully adorable, Melissa.”
“Thanks. I like her.” Melissa glanced across the street. “The new book is at Jeremy’s?”
Emmie nodded. “I just saw it the other day.”
Melissa nodded. She hadn’t been inside Jeremy’s comic shop since last spring when Cary exhibited some of his photography for the monthly Art Walk hosted by the city.
She’d gone in expecting some cool ranching pics she could pick up for the house and walked out feeling like Cary had stripped her bare and left her hanging naked on the wall. Nothing about the picture was revealing—she’d been wearing work clothes—but something about Cary’s perspective had made her feel completely naked.
Melissa turned to Emmie and lowered her voice. “Um… the pictures Cary took at the ranch—”
“You mean that hot-as-fuck portrait your smokin’ silver-fox neighbor took of you and hung up for the town to see?” Tayla said. “It’s not there anymore.”
She could feel her cheeks turn red. “Right. Okay, thanks.”
Tayla walked over to the counter and sidled next to Emmie. “Soooo, Melissa.”
“Yeah?”
Tayla wiggled her eyebrows. “You and Cary. What’s going on there?”
Had she been wishing she had girlfriends to talk to about Cary? She was an idiot. She didn’t need anyone to talk to. Talking was overrated. “Uh, Cary and I are friends.”
“Friends?”
Friends who kiss.
Emmie put a hand over Tayla’s mouth. “Ignore her. She respects no boundaries.”
Tayla shoved Emmie’s hand away. “There’s something going on. I can tell. Look at her face.” Her eyes lit up. “Look, look, look! Things have happened, Emmie!”
“You think?” Emmie’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, she’s blushing.”
Melissa started backing out of the store. “Okay, so I’m gonna go grab that book now.”
Emmie held up a hand. “Um, Melissa, maybe you should—”
“I’m good!” She waved as she walked out of the shop. “I’m good. Going to get that book. Bye!”
She walked past Café Maya and waited at the crosswalk, staring at the ground and trying to get her face under control. She hated blushing and only did it when Cary’s name was mentioned. Apparently.
Shit.
She crossed the street, heading for Jeremy’s comic book shop.
“Sea Sirens,” she muttered. “Is that the same as mermaids? Is it a mermaid book?” She wasn’t sure how much Abby would like mermaids, but she wasn’t going to go back to Emmie’s. Not for all the books in— “Oof.”
She wasn’t looking and nearly ran into the door as someone opened it.
“Melissa?” Cary held the door open. “Hey.”
Of course Cary was in Jeremy’s shop. Of course he was.
“Hi.” She glanced in the shop, and the memory of last spring’s Art Walk came rushing back.
His face lit up. “I didn’t expect to see you today.” Without another word, he let the door to the comic book shop close, stepped up to her on the sidewalk, put one arm around her and kissed her.
She lost her head for a second, just like she always did when Cary kissed her. All she could think about was how his lips felt and how he smelled. After a stunned moment, she pushed him away.
“Hey.” She looked around. “Hi. Um, I didn’t know we were doing… that. In public.”
He looked amused. “Doing what? Kissing on the sidewalk in Metlin is practically a tradition for us. Of course, we weren’t fighting before we kissed, but I feel like we could skip that part.”
“One time,” she hissed. “One time is not a tradition.”
He smiled. “Two times now. That’s getting closer.”
She glanced over her shoulder toward INK. Were Emmie and Tayla watching? Probably. Just kill me now. “What are you doing here?”
“Going over a new climb with Jeremy. Want to come? Tayla, Emmie, and Ox are camping with us. You and Abby could come too.”
Melissa was too confused to think. “I… can’t think about that right now. Abby’s going to her grandparents this weekend.”
“It’s next weekend, so perfect.” He tucked her hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing her cheek. “What are you doing in town?”
“I had some free time, so I set up a meeting with Brian about the bunkhouse.” Half of her wanted to push his hand away and the other half wanted to lean into it and purr. She kept flashing between kissing him at Halsey Rock. Kissing him in front of the hospital. Kissing him on his bed.
Okay, that seemed like a lot. Maybe they were kissing more than average, but what was average for friends who kissed? She had no experience with any of this.
She shrugged her shoulder and he dropped his hand. “So… what are you doing here?”
He grinned. “Going over climbing plans with Jeremy. Like I just said.”
“Right.” She was an idiot. Her brain was gone. Why did Cary do this to her? It was probably all the kissing. “So there’s a book Emmie told me Jeremy has, and she thinks Abby would like it. That’s why I came over.”
“Nice.” He looked her up and down. “You look great today.”
“I’m wearing dirty jeans and a tank top.”
“I know.” He leaned closer. “But I’m choosing to imagine you naked.”
“Cary!” She looked around. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Why not? Are you imagining me naked now?”
Of course she was. How could she not be? The man was evil. “You are…” She opened her mouth. Closed it. “You’re in a mood today. And I’m going to go buy that book for Abby.” And not imagine anyone naked for a while.
“Okay.” He opened the door for her. “I’ll help.”
“I don’t need help.”
“Hearing that is definitely a tradition.” He walked close behind her and hooked a finger in her belt loop. “We could lose that one though, and you could just let someone—me, mainly—help you out from time to time.”
“I don’t need help picking out a book for Abby.”
“Want to go to lunch? What time is your meeting with Brian?”
“One, and I’m going to Tacos Marcianos for lunch.”
“Sounds good to me.” He peeked in her purse.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” He grabbed a granola bar from the outside pocket and opened it. “I love that you carry snacks with you all the time.”
“You know, those are for my kid.”
He finished it in three bites. “You should keep my energy up.” He raised one eyebrow. “You never know when you might need it.”
Okay, she was leaving that alone
. Melissa scanned the shop for anything that looked like kids’ stuff. “If you happen to also go to Tacos Marcianos for lunch, then I will see you there.”
“Hey, Melissa!” Jeremy waved from behind the counter. “Let me know if I can help you find anything.”
“Thanks. I wanted a book Emmie mentioned about sirens or something?”
“Oh, that’s in the—”
“I’ll help her,” Cary said. “I know where it is.”
“Okay.”
“What is with you today?” Melissa shot an annoyed glance at Cary. “You can let go of my jeans now.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “But I like getting in your pants.”
“Do you say things just to shock me? Because—”
“It’s so easy?” He herded her toward a stand of books near the front windows of the shop. “I’m not going to lie; I like it when you make that face. Gives me all sorts of ideas. And I love shocking you because you’re just so…”
“What?”
“Unflappable. I think that’s the word. You’re always together. Always on top of everything.”
“Not on top of you.” The words slipped out before she could stop them.
Cary barked a laugh. “Just tell me when and where. Where do you want to go this weekend?”
“What?”
“On our date.”
“I didn’t actually agree to that. I said I’d think about it.”
“You’ve had a few days to think.” He let go of her pants and put his arm around her to turn her toward the books. “Is this the one?”
It was. There was a little girl underwater holding a cat. She looked adorable, clever, and sassy, not unlike her daughter. “How did you know?”
“’Cause I saw it earlier and thought about buying it for her.” He picked it up and flipped it over. “There’s a talking cat. Abby would approve of a talking cat.”
Melissa stared at Cary. He was cocky, cranky, and infuriating, overly confident and utterly charming. And he was staring at a middle-grade graphic novel with the sweetest expression on his face.
Without a word, she hooked her arm around his neck, pulled his mouth down to hers, and kissed him. She stepped into his body, waiting for his arms—those strong, steady arms—to wrap around her.
Grit: A Love Story on 7th and Main Page 11