Wild For You (Always a Bridesmaid 3)

by Evans, Jessie

  “Nick’s not changing who I am,” Melody said, rubbing at the tops of her eyes, where a fresh headache was trying to get started. “I mean, maybe at first I wanted to show him that I wasn’t a stick in the mud, but now I…”

  She sighed and dropped her hand back into her lap, facing her mother head on. “I like who I am when I’m with him. He makes me feel alive and awake and more excited about the future than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m totally in love with him, Mom, more than I ever was with Brian. I know Nick and I have only been dating a short time and that may seem strange to you, but it’s true.”

  “It doesn’t seem strange,” her mom said, surprising her. “I knew I was going to marry your father by our third date.” She hesitated, sadness creeping into her eyes. “But I’m not sure Nick feels the same way you do, honey.”

  “Why would you say that?” Melody asked, her empty stomach gurgling unhappily.

  Candace chose that moment to bustle back into the room with a giant plastic mug of water with an accordion straw sticking out of the top.

  “Here’s that water,” she said, setting the mug onto the adjustable tray holder on one side of Melody’s hospital bed. “If you’re hungry, the cafeteria opens in ten minutes and the breakfast cart should be around in a couple of hours. I’ll be sure they know Melody’s cleared for a meal.”

  “Thank you,” Melody said, forcing a smile. She waited until Candace had checked her vitals a second time, and left the room before turning back to her mother.

  “Don’t let what happened tonight change your mind about Nick, Mom,” Melody said. “He really is a great guy.”

  Her mom crossed her arms and sat down on the corner of Melody’s bed. “I don’t think we should talk about this anymore until you’re feeling better.”

  “I feel fine, Mom, just tell me. Why did you say that?”

  Sue sighed. “Well, Nick was in here late last night, right after I sent your father home with Lark and Mason. You woke up for a few minutes around midnight, but went back to sleep almost immediately. Nick came in a little later and asked if he could stay. I said no, that he’d done enough for one night and stepped out into the hall to get the nurse. Before I could get back, he turned and walked out without another word.”

  “Well, you told him to go.” Melody sat up straighter. “Mom, how could you do that?”

  “My daughter was lying in a hospital bed because he decided to give her a horrible tattoo,” her mom said, indignation in her tone.

  “It wasn’t Nick’s choice,” Melody said, voice rising. “I asked him to do the tattoo. I’m the one who wanted it. I am a grown woman and no one forces me to do anything against my will!”

  “Honey, calm down and lower your voice,” her mom said in a dramatic whisper. “You’ll hurt yourself, and people might think we’re fighting.”

  “We are fighting!” Melody said in only a slightly softer voice. “I am not a baby, Mom, and I won’t let you turn Nick into a bad guy. You’re the one who told him to leave, and I can bet you weren’t sweet about it.”

  Sue huffed, a wounded expression on her face. “My manners might not have been at their best, but he didn’t even try to argue with me, Melody. If he really cared that much, it seems like he would have made more of an effort to stay.”

  Melody pushed the tray back to the side of her bed, and swung her feet over the edge on the other side.

  “What are you doing?” her mom asked, sliding from her perch.

  “I’m going to call Nick. Where’s my phone?” Melody hopped onto the ground, only swaying a little before her legs firmed up beneath her. She wasn’t quite herself, but she was a hundred times better than last night.

  “Get back in bed this second, Melody Anne,” her mom said, stepping in front of her. “You have been unconscious, you almost died, and I’m not—”

  “I feel fine, and I need to talk to Nick.” Melody started forward, holding her hospital gown together in the back for modesty’s sake, but her mom stopped her with gentle hands on her shoulders.

  “Where is my phone, Mom?” Melody insisted. “Either help me find it, or get out of my way.”

  “All right, I’ll get it, but you have to get back in bed first.” Her mother stood firm, staring up at her taller daughter with a no-nonsense look. “I mean it. You’re not too old for a spanking.”

  Melody laughed. She couldn’t help herself, even if she was angry with her mother. “Mom, I am way too old to spank and you know it. Besides, you never spanked me once in my entire life.”

  “Well, it’s not too late to start,” her mom said with a sniff, patting Melody’s arm with an affection that made it impossible to stay mad.

  “All right, I’m getting back in bed. See me go,” Melody said, easing back onto the mattress and sliding her legs beneath the sheets.

  Her mother retreated to the corner where she’d been napping earlier and lifted a canvas bag from the floor to the seat of the chair. “I had Aria stop by your place and bring you extra clothes and a toothbrush,” she said, her voice muffled as she burrowed into the bag. “I think I put your cell… Here it is.”

  She crossed to the bed and held out the phone. “But I’m not sure you’re supposed to use it in here.”

  “I’ll be quick,” Melody said, snatching her cell before her mom could issue any more warnings. A moment later, Nick’s phone was ringing.

  And ringing. And ringing. Ten rings, and she was sent to voice mail.

  Melody promptly hung up and dialed again, knowing by now that Nick wasn’t going to check his voice messages anyway. He always deleted them without listening. This time, however, the phone only rang twice before going to voice mail, which meant…

  She ended the call with a swift jab of her thumb.

  “He sent me to voicemail,” she said, her heart squeezing miserably in her chest. “Why would he send me to voicemail?”

  Her mother lifted her blond brows in a meaningful way, but didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to. Her unspoken “I told you so” hung over Melody’s head like a poisonous balloon, ready to pop open and fill the room with noxious fumes.

  Melody was getting ready to call a third time—this time to leave a message and tell Nick exactly what she thought of being sent to voicemail—when a knock came at the door.

  “Hey, the nurse said you were awake,” came a familiar voice. “Is it okay if I come in?”

  Melody looked over to find Brian waiting in the doorway with a dozen roses in one hand and a stuffed white bunny with a hind leg in a cast in the other. His usually carefully combed brown hair was sticking up on one side and his face looked puffy. He’d obviously been here for a while.

  “Of course,” Melody said, vaguely remembering a crazy dream she’d had the night before starring her, Brian, and a room full of flesh-eating zombies. She made a mental note to share the dream with Lark, who always had crazy dreams and loved hearing the weird nighttime imaginings of her sisters.

  “It was nice of you to stop by,” Melody continued, forcing a smile. “How did you know I was here?”

  “Your mom called,” Brian said, crossing the room to place the flowers on the table by her bedside before setting the bunny gently on her lap. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been here since eleven o’clock last night. Scariest night of my life.”

  So…at least one of the men in her life was concerned enough for her welfare to hang out in a hospital waiting room for hours.

  Too bad he was the wrong one.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nick tucked his buzzing phone into his pocket and quickened his pace down the street away from the police station, ignoring the wary looks his bruised face earned him from the few pedestrians out at this early hour. His jaw hurt and it was painful to talk, but that wasn’t why he didn’t answer Melody’s call.

  He wasn’t answering because this was Sarah Beth all over again, but worse. A thousand times worse. A million. His stomach boiled with misery, and a bitter, acrid, hopeless taste rose in his throat
.

  He had never felt so stupid or naïve, or so very, fucking sad.

  He had sat across from the guy with the roses and the stuffed bunny for a good twenty minutes before he’d realized the dude was there for Melody.

  By the time Nick got patched up in the E.R.—his wounds cleaned and two stitches slipped into a cut beneath his ear that Seth’s ring had made when that first punch connected—the other Marches had been back talking to the doctors on the floor where Melody had been transferred. It wasn’t until Mrs. March rushed out, and straight into bunny boy’s arms, that Nick had realized that the guy must be Melody’s ex, Brian, the one who texted her every few days, but who she had sworn she was finished with for good.

  But apparently almost dying had changed her mind.

  “She’ll be so glad you’re here,” Nick heard Sue March mumble into Brian’s yellow button up shirt before leading him back into the family-only area without a glance in Nick’s direction.

  A part of him had shriveled inside, but then he’d thought about how limp and terrifyingly still Melody had felt in his arms as he’d waited for the ambulance to pull up to the curb outside the shop. It had been the scariest event of his life, bar none. For a few horrible minutes, he’d been sure he was going to lose her, certain that the girl he loved was going to die and it would be his fault.

  In that moment, he’d hated himself. Could he blame Melody if she hated him a little, too? Maybe her ex seemed like a more comforting choice at the moment. Or maybe this was all her mother’s doing.

  Either way, he wasn’t going to slink away with his tail between his legs. He was determined to stay, and show Melody how much he loved her. He would convince her to give him another chance—a chance with no latex gloves or tattoos or stolen cars or anything else dangerous or unexpected in it. From here on out, they’d play things safe, and he’d make sure she never had to fear for her life again.

  So he’d waited until the other Marches trailed out of the waiting room—Lark and Mason shooting him sympathetic looks as they hustled an exhausted-looking Bob March out the door, Aria and Nash waving as they pushed a sleeping Felicity toward the parking garage in her stroller—before slipping unnoticed past the night nurse at the front desk, and sneaking down the hall to Melody’s room.

  Inside, he’d seen no sign of the ex-boyfriend, only Sue March sitting in a chair in the corner, tears still damp on her cheeks. He’d told her how sorry he was and asked if it would be okay for him to wait with her, confessing that he was really worried about Melody and wanted to be there when she woke up.

  Sue hadn’t hesitated to tell him no, that it was time for him to go home and that he’d done enough tonight, but it was Melody who convinced him staying was a lost cause. Only seconds after her mom left the room to get the night nurse to escort Nick out, Melody had moaned in her sleep and called out one name—Brian.

  Brian. Brian like it was the answer to every question. Brian like he was the lost thing she’d been looking for.

  Nick had turned and walked out without another word. He’d stalked down the hall, out into the parking lot, and kept on walking along the shoulder of the dark road leading away from the hospital at the far Southern edge of town.

  It had taken him two hours to reach the police station on foot, but he hadn’t cared. He had wanted to walk, to be lulled into a thoughtless state by the repetitive rhythm of his footsteps and put thoughts of losing Melody away until after he’d finished giving his statement about Seth’s attack to the police.

  And now he was finished and on his way home and Melody was calling.

  Why was she calling? To tell him it was over and that she was back with Brian? To tell him she had realized tattoos and sudden love and boys like Nick weren’t for her? If so, he didn’t think he could handle it, not after an exhausting, emotion-filled, sleepless night like the one he’d had.

  He sent her second call to voicemail and turned off his phone.

  Too bad his thoughts couldn’t be turned off so easily. He brooded all the way home, cursing himself for not telling her “no,” and refusing to tattoo her in the first place. Deep down, hadn’t he known better? Known that Melody was just going through an early-twenties wild phase and would come to her senses sooner or later? Known that she would regret the tattoo and Nick and every other out-of-character thing she had done during however many months they would have spent together before their relationship imploded?

  No. He hadn’t known better. Not even deep down.

  That was the worst part of all this, that he had really believed he and Melody were made for each other, that they were going to go all the way—rings, marriage, kids, growing old together, the whole nine yards.

  Now he couldn’t trust anything anymore—not Melody, not his heart, not even his own gut.

  He reached the downtown area just as the coffee shops and diners were opening up and ducked into Donut Time, claiming a booth at the back. He ordered a donut and a bottomless cup of coffee and watched the people come and go for over an hour, dreading heading home, where John would be waking up, no doubt wanting all the news on what had happened at the hospital.

  Nick had called his roommate last night while he was waiting to be seen by the E.R. doctors to let John know what was going on. Now he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to tell John that he hadn’t been allowed to stay with Melody, or that her ex-boyfriend had come to the hospital, or that he’d heard her call out Brian’s name in her sleep. He didn’t want to lie down in his bed and know that the other side was going to be empty for the foreseeable future. There was no way Melody was going to be moving in with him now.

  Finally, four cups of coffee later, a caffeinated, but still exhausted Nick drug himself out of his booth and out the door of the diner. He shuffled down the street toward home, feeling achy all over, thinking that whoever named this sensation heartache was way off base. This wasn’t just in his heart. This was his entire body down to his bone marrow, an ache that went deep into the core of him.

  He’d never imagined losing the woman he loved would be so physically painful, but it was, so bad that he decided to duck into the bodega and buy some extra strength pain killers before heading up the stairs to the apartment.

  Nick was so weary and sore and miserable that he was past the bowling alley and aiming straight for the bodega’s front door before he saw the woman sitting on the curb in front of his apartment, a blond woman with Melody’s exact same color hair, like honey and sunshine with a few caramel streaks mixed in.

  Something fluttered hopefully behind his ribs, but Nick was so certain this woman couldn’t be Melody that it wasn’t until she stopped stabbing a text into her phone and looked up to stare at the street in front of her that he realized he was wrong.

  “Mel?” he asked, his voice cracking.

  Her head spun his way, hair flying around her shoulders. Their eyes met and hers narrowed into a glare so intense Nick flinched in response.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked as she stood and started toward him.

  Even dressed in a wrinkled pair of khaki shorts and a faded brown Fun Mud Run 2010 T-shirt, she was gorgeous, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Despite the menacing look she was still aiming in his direction, Nick felt a smile tug at his lips. He was just so happy to see her, his aches and pains banished by the hope that swelled inside of him.

  Maybe he’d been wrong, maybe Melody wasn’t finished with him, after all.

  “What is wrong with you?” she snapped.

  Or maybe he was wrong about being wrong.

  “Good morning to you, too?” he said as she reached him, stopping so close that he could smell the lingering scent of medicine and hospital cleaner clinging to her hair, so close all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and tell her how glad he was to see her out of bed and feeling good enough to be mad at him.

  “No, seriously, I want an answer,” she continued. “What is the matter with you? Why did you send my call to voicemail? Why di
dn’t you call me? I mean, after the night we had, don’t you think I deserve at least a phone call?”

  “I’m sorry,” Nick said, exhaustion making his brain slower than usual. “Your mom told me to go.”

  “So? Since when is my mom your boss?” Melody asked, her voice squeaking with frustration. “She’s not even my boss and she’s my mom.”

  “And then your ex was there,” Nick said, scrambling to explain himself. “I heard your mom say you’d be glad to see him.”

  “I was not glad to see him. The only person I wanted to see when I woke up this morning was you, but you weren’t there.”

  “I would have been,” he said, indignation creeping into his tone. “But when I went to your room last night, you were moaning for Brian in your sleep. I didn’t figure you would want me around to interrupt your reunion. That bunny almost made me throw up, by the way,” he added, not bothering to hide his contempt. “What kind of guy gets a stuffed animal for a grown woman?”

  “The kind of guy who stays at the hospital because he’s worried about someone,” Melody fired back. “Instead of bolting at the first sign of trouble.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, I can’t be more like Brian,” he said, temper flaring. “I just didn’t—”

  “And as far as calling out Brian’s name in my sleep,” Melody interrupted, obviously not finished saying her piece, “that was probably because I was having a nightmare that Brian and I were trapped in his parents’ creepy old barn with flesh-hungry zombies, and I’d just watched one tear Brian’s face off.”

  “I don’t love him, or want to be with him anymore,” she continued. “But he’s still a nice guy and doesn’t deserve to be eaten alive. But even if I was calling his name because I was having some kind of steamy sex dream about him, it wouldn’t matter.”

  She took a deep breath, and barreled on. “Dreams are dreams, Nick, and I can’t be blamed for what I mumble while I’m asleep. I mean, seriously, I’ve had steamy dreams about people I hate. One time I had a dream that I was making out with my soccer coach from third grade who had hair all over his back,” she said with a shudder so cute Nick was possessed by the urge to hold her again.