by C. L. Roman
He returns to his scrutiny of her. Her alabaster skin is flawless. Her lips are full, covered in a layer of shiny, pale pink gloss. He licks his lips unconsciously as his eyes linger there.
Her unusual eyes almost take his breath away, even from this distance. This woman is perfection.
Seth rubs his eyes and yawns. He stops mid-yawn when the woman giggles, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your yawn.”
That giggle was almost too much for him to bear. He looks up at her to find those teal eyes trained on him. He snickers, “No worries. I can always yawn again.”
She giggles again, causing Seth to tense up. She says, “The tow truck can’t be here for a couple of hours. I’ll go wait in my car.”
He responds with a little too much disappointment, “No! I mean, that’s not necessary. Stay here. I’m not very exciting, but at least you’re inside and warm and comfortable.”
She smiles as her shoulders seem to relax in relief, “Thank you. That would be nice.”
He stands to his full height, which is only about four inches taller than her. He gulps at their proximity and holds out his hand, “My name is Seth Healy. Pleasure to meet you.”
She takes his hand, sending pulses through his body, “I’m Melodie Sheehan. It’s nice to meet you, Seth.”
He blurts, “Melodie? Your name is Melodie?”
She smiles meekly, “Yes, why?”
He laughs sharply, “Oh, because I’m a songwriter, so melodies are very important in my line of work.”
She giggles and again, Seth tenses, “Really? I love music! I come from a musical family. My grandfather and my father are both musicians. My cousin has actually been on tour with a famous country music star lately. I’m really proud of him.”
He smiles, feeling inexplicably happy, as Melodie sets her purse on the kitchen table, “Your cousin? Is he or she in Nashville? I may know them.”
Melodie smiles sweetly, making him happier with each and every thing she does, “Yes, he’s in Nashville. His name is Bryce Chandler. Do you know him?”
Seth blurts in a very non-masculine high pitch, “Bryce? Bryce is your cousin?”
Melodie stares at him a moment, her mouth twitching as she tries not to laugh at his unrefined outburst, “Um, I take it you know him?”
Seth plops himself down on his sofa, “Holy shit! Bryce is your cousin…”
Melodie sits beside him, one eyebrow raised in question, “Yes, he is.”
Gathering himself, he turns toward her, “Bryce is one of my best friends. We’ve been friends for years.”
Melodie’s hands cover her mouth, her eyes wide, “Really?”
Seth grins as the coincidence sinks in, “Yes. We used to live across the hall from each other. I’ve actually worked with him on some songwriting for his solo album”
Melodie claps her hands in excitement, “Wow! What a coincidence!”
Seth nods, “I’ve tried to get him to do his own music for a long time. He’s too damn good…”
She touches his arm, “Right? I’ve told him that, too!”
Seth’s body tingles from her touch. He stares into her exquisite eyes for a moment before clearing his throat, “One thing, though. I’m gonna kick his ass for not introducing me to his lovely cousin.”
She blushes, “I was thinking exactly the same thing about his handsome friend.”
Now, he blushes and stands, “Would you like something to drink?”
She replies, “I would love that. Thank you.”
Standing in front of his refrigerator, he tells her, “I’ve got bottled water, Cokes, sweet tea and a Monster energy drink.”
Melodie laughs at the last item, “Tea actually sounds wonderful.”
She watches Seth as he prepares two glasses of tea. She’s very attracted to him. His tall, lean frame, tousled hair and adorable expressions have caught her quite off guard.
Then, for him to be one of Bryce’s best friends, well, that was just icing on the cake.
She normally doesn’t have such a strong attraction to someone this quickly, but Seth seems safe…almost familiar, even.”
Seth returns and offers Melodie a glass of tea. She takes it from his hand and sips it as he sits back down beside her.
She blurts, “Wow! This is incredible.”
He smiles as he takes a sip of his own, then replies, “I’m glad you like it. There’s plenty more.”
Her mouth is doing a happy dance as she swallows another gulp of tea. “Did you make this?”
He snickers, “Yes, I did. Hard to believe, I know.”
She tastes the sweet liquid again, “What in the world did you do to it? I’ve never tasted sweet tea like this. It’s incredible!”
He grins proudly, “I’m glad. It’s a secret family recipe.”
She frowns, “Secret?”
He laughs, “Nah, just kidding. We add some orange juice in when making the tea. I love it. One of my favorite things in life.”
She drinks again, “I can completely understand why.”
He adds, “This was my Grams’ thing. She had a way of making every single thing just a little better than normal.”
Melodie smiles, her heart leaping a bit at Seth’s comment about his grandmother.
Changing the subject, she asks, “Have you written anything that I might know?”
He blushes, “Actually, probably so.”
She claps her hands together, “Oh, please play something for me!”
He smiles and gulps, “Um, okay.”
He sets his glass of tea on the end table nearest him.
As he gets settled in CATSHIT, Melodie sets her own glass down on the other end table, smiling as she sees the University of Tennessee coaster.
Seth notices, swearing that every movement she makes seems to be like a graceful undulating wave.
Seth is suddenly quite uncomfortable, unusual heat is coursing through his body. In fact, he isn’t sure he won’t spontaneously combust.
He settles himself in the chair and wipes the sweat from his brow with his forearm.
He picks up the antique Gibson from the stand beside him.
Blushing, he looks over at her, “What kind of music do you like?”
She grins, displaying a set of perfect white teeth behind those pouty pink lips of hers. Seth damn near plummets off the chair into the floor.
She replies, with that damn silky voice, “I like all kinds of music. What do you specialize in?”
He clears his throat and checks the tuning on the guitar while he talks to her. The thing is surprisingly still in tune.
Finally, he is able to speak, “Well, I’ve written for a lot of different artists. Maybe you know this one…”
He begins to play one of his most successful songs. It isn’t the one that he wrote for his senior project, but this one did quite well, too. It’s a rock song that became the first single that put a band named Two Down on the map. It actually made the Billboard Top 10, but not to number one.
She claps her hands again and grins, “I love this song! You wrote this?”
Seth nods as he continues to play the song. Melodie closes her eyes and sways to the music. Seth is really struggling to hold himself together as he watches her.
Her movements are so fluid, so beautiful and graceful. He begins to wonder if he’s just imagining all of this or if she’s really this incredible. He has been sort of out of it lately.
He finishes playing the song, allowing the final chord to fade out as he looks over at her smiling face. She claps excitedly, bouncing on her butt, “That was wonderful!”
He just stares at her, seeming to phase out. There seems to be this bright aura of clear light around Melodie. He isn’t sure what’s going on with him, but it can’t be particularly good.
“Seth? Are you all right?” Melodie’s sing-song voice cuts through the silence.
Seth nods slowly, “Um, yeah, I’m okay. Sorry. Like I said, I haven’t been feeling well.”
Her
brow furrows as she stands and comes over to him. She feels his forehead with her hand. Her hand feels so cool against his brow. He sighs at her touch.
Scowling, she tells him, “You’re very warm. I think you have a fever.”
He sighs loudly, unable to stop himself.
As if on their own, his fingers begin to move over the guitar neck, creating a new, up-tempo melody.
Melodie jumps back and watches him with surprise. Seth’s eyes are closed as his fingers move over the neck of the guitar. It’s as if he’s disconnected from his hands.
His eyes pop open and he stops playing to quickly scribble notes on the blank staff paper on the nearby music stand. He puts his hands back on his guitar and begins to play effortlessly one part, then the next, stopping to write the music on the staff between each one. Melodie quietly sits back down on the sofa as she watches him, her eyes wide in surprise.
This goes on for another forty-five minutes until Seth writes a final note on the staff and then goes limp. Melodie rushes over to him and catches the guitar just as it is about to slip off of his lap. She sets it in the stand and gently shakes Seth’s shoulder as she whispers, “Seth, are you all right?”
He opens his eyes and looks up into hers as he mumbles, “There’s something about you…”
She looks down at him with concern, “We need to get you over to the couch so you can lie down.”
Seth clumsily stands for a moment before stumbling. Melodie manages to move him toward the sofa, but he stumbles such that he faceplants on it. Thankfully, it’s close to the chair.
She helps him lie back as he helplessly stares up at her. She sits beside him on the edge of the sofa and feels his forehead again. She scowls and then takes his wrist tenderly in her hand to check his pulse. Feeling his pulse racing, she stands and wanders down the hall in an attempt to find the bathroom.
While Melodie is uncomfortable to be rifling through the bathroom drawers, she figures Seth’s health is more important than the box of condoms or bottle of anti-depressants that might be in his bathroom. She manages to find a thermometer and a washcloth, which she soaks with cool water.
She returns to the den to find Seth staring at the ceiling mumbling to himself. Nothing is coherent, so she sits beside him again.
“Seth, put this under your tongue,” she commands. He opens his mouth and obeys. Once the thermometer beeps, Melodie blows a deep breath out as she reads the result…104 degrees. That’s not good.
She explains that she’s going to put the cloth on his head to cool him off. She asks him if he has any Tylenol and he feebly points toward the kitchen.
Melodie rifles through those cabinets, too, able to finally find the bottle of Tylenol. She rushes back over to Seth and picks up his glass of tea before sitting back down beside him.
His eyes are closed now. He looks so peaceful, but he really needs this Tylenol.
With a calm voice, she asks, “Seth, can you open your eyes for me?”
His eyes pop open abruptly, startling her. “Here, take this,” she says, holding out the Tylenol and glass of tea. He sits up and does as he’s told.
He looks up at her with a blank look. Melodie is very concerned as she deposits the tea back on the nearby table and returns to her spot beside him.
His eyes are still trained on her. In a moment, he gently frames her face in his hands and pulls her toward him and kisses her softly.
Melodie gasps in surprise, but feels a spark as their lips touch then a rush of extreme cold through her body. He ends the kiss, prompting her to hand immediately touch her lips. As she stares wide-eyed at Seth, she finds that his fingers are moving along his lips, too.
She shakily asks, “What was that?”
Seeming to be more clear, he asks, “You felt it, too?”
She nods slowly, “I sure did. What was it?”
Seth smiles weakly, “I don’t know. Truth is, I don’t know what the hell is going on at all.”
Beads of sweat are glistening on his brow. She touches his forehead again to find the heat almost completely gone.
She sits back with confusion, “Y-your fever has broken. How could that have happened so fast?”
Melodie has been a nurse for 15 years and she’s never seen anything like this.
Seth closes his eyes as she strokes his cheek. He whispers, “I don’t know.”
He opens his eyes, his lids feel so heavy, but he has to look at her. After a moment, he says, “Melodie, I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I’ve never written a song like that. I mean, in that manner.”
He continues, “I feel so drawn to you, and I don’t know why. From the moment I saw you at the door, there’s been this…current or something coursing between us. It’s so strange.”
She nods slowly, “I feel it, too. I normally wouldn’t walk into a strange man’s house like this. I’m usually so much more careful. But you…it’s like you’re drawing me to you.”
She continues, “In fact, I got mugged last night, so I’ve been very on edge today.”
Seth gasps as he sits up, “You got mugged? Last night?”
She nods, “Yes. Downtown. Some kid stole my purse and ran. A nice man stopped him and got my purse back for me.”
Seth shakes his head in disbelief, “Th-that was me. You mean we met last night?”
A smile creeps across her face, “Are you serious?”
He nods, “Yes…”
She murmurs, “I never got to thank you properly.” Her eyes focus on his mouth, she scoots toward him and very lightly kisses him. As she does, she puts her hand flat against his chest, grazing the cross with her pinky finger. She pulls her hand back abruptly, “Oh…my…gosh…”
Chapter 8
Seth looks down to see the Celtic cross necklace literally glowing. He gasps and touches the cross. It isn’t hot, it isn’t cold, but it continues to glow with a lovely soft white light that seems to be emanating from within.
Seth looks at Melodie, who is frozen in place looking at him. In a shaky voice, she asks, “Seth, what is happening?”
He shakes his head, “I-I don’t know.”
Both dazed and very confused, their attention is taken by a ringing phone. Seth stands and teeters, his head still swimming from whatever happened as he wrote the song.
He walks unsteadily into the kitchen. It’s not the landline phone. His cell phone is lying on the kitchen table with a black screen. Nearing Melodie’s purse, he hears the ringing clearly.
He turns to her, “It’s something in your purse.”
She stands and quickly rushes to his side, “That can’t be! My cell phone doesn’t have a signal.”
She reaches into her purse and pulls out the phone. She examines it, realizing that not only does it have no signal, the battery charge is completely gone.
Yet, somehow, the phone is still ringing in her hand. She drops the phone quickly onto the kitchen table and turns to Seth, wrapping her arms around his waist. She is shaking as she holds him tightly, “Seth, I’m scared.”
He pulls her into him protectively, “Me, too…”
The phone stops ringing prompting them to both look down at it. The dead cell phone registers a voicemail, indicated by the pop up message on the screen. Melodie’s lips are pressed tightly together as she shakes her head, “No…that can’t happen. No!”
He kisses her forehead, “Let me see what it is…”
He plays the message over the speakerphone. A man’s voice speaks, “Miss Sheehan, this is Ralph from the towing company. I don’t know what to say, but we can’t get to your car until this freak snowstorm passes. I’ll call you back when we can get out. I hope you’ve stayed at the house you called from. It’s nasty out there.”
The message ends leaving both Seth and Melodie with agape mouths.
She slowly asks, “Freak snowstorm?” Seth takes her by the hand as they rush to his back door. He pulls on the knob to open it, but it won’t budge. The two rush to the front door, Seth pulls it, but it won
’t open either.
He blurts with fear in his words, “What the hell is going on?”
Melodie clings to him again. Still in their embrace, they manage to shuffle to the front window. Seth releases her long enough to pull back the curtains for them to see the ground completely covered in a blanket of white. It looks to be several inches already and the still-falling snow is so dense that it’s hard to see too far out.
Melodie gasps, “It’s November…how is this possible?”
Seth pulls her protectively into him again and holds her tightly, “I don’t know.”
She clings to him, refusing to let go, when he says, “Come on, let’s go see what the television is saying.”
She nods, holding tight to his hand and forearm with both of hers as they move back into the den.
They sit together on the sofa, Melodie still clutching his hand tightly as Seth presses a button on the remote, springing the TV to life. He selects a local news and weather report. The hosts seem astonished as they discuss the strange weather. He changes to a few other channels that also feature confused hosts, all questioning how a snowstorm of this magnitude could come in November in Nashville.
While the snowstorm is bizarre, also alarming is that the stormed dumped this much snow in such a short amount of time. Everyone is stunned.
Suddenly feeling the overwhelming urge to play his guitar, Seth jumps up from the sofa, squeezing Melodie’s hand before rushing to CATSHIT and picking up his guitar. A beautiful, intricate melody immediately permeates the air.
Melodie sucks in a sharp breath as tears streak down her cheeks. She’s heard this before! She heard this last night…in her dreams.
Seth closes his eyes and plays as music flows through his body and into the air. This time, he is aware enough to press the record button so he can just play. The computer will record the music.
Seth can never remember a time when a song came this quickly. This one, especially.
He’s written two songs in the last two hours.
When he finishes the song, his body and mind are spent. The reaction is just as it was the last time. Melodie recognizes it and starts to stand to help him. But, this time, Seth manages to set his guitar on the stand and make it to the sofa on his own before flopping down limply with his weary head in her lap.