Whisper Me and Roar: A Second Chance Romance

by Bri Stone

  “Oh, Momma.” I reach out and hug her and go straight for the food.

  “But save some for your sister.” She calls after me. I glance at Melinda and then back at her.

  “Why?” I ask slowly.

  Dad kisses Momma’s cheek and stalks off after the missing rabbit. Momma then fidgets with the end of her frilly top because she knows we talked about this.

  “Because Phoebe is here. Out in the shed.” She smiles her weird smile and gets lemonade from the fridge.

  “Jeez, Momma. I told them to wait until later.”

  “It’s okay.” Melinda touches my forearm gently.

  My unsure feelings are clouded by the banana pudding set in front of me with a fresh country fried steak.

  “I’m going to go help your dad. It’s so nice to meet you, Melinda. We’re gonna’ have so much fun this week.” Momma hugs her again and prances out of the kitchen.

  I let out a small breath I didn’t know I was holding. I rub Melinda’s knee and smile.

  “See? Told you there was nothing to worry about.” I wink at her.

  She guzzles her lemonade and sets it down before responding. “Mhm. I haven’t met everyone else yet. What if your sisters don’t like me? You told me they were protective.”

  “They’re protective of their rooms, not of me. Don’t worry, sweetness.”

  “You’re just saying that so you can eat your food.”

  Melinda knows me so well. I take a spoon of the pudding and feed it to her. “I see why it’s your favorite.” She goes for more and I fill her in on some family stuff as I eat. Just about my sisters and who they’re with and what not, a little bit more about what they’re like.

  Melinda absorbs it like its material for one of her classes, and I’m again swooning in how much she wants to be accepted by my family. I just wish she knew she didn’t have to. Family means everything to me, but if they didn’t like her for whatever reason, I’d never let her go because of it. All I care about is how we feel about each other.

  Once I clean up after myself I take her out to the barn, walking the grounds a little to show her around.

  “It is a real farm,” Melinda says as she looks on at the grazing horses and cows.

  “Yeah, a little.”

  “And—it makes food for other people too? Like Hillshire?”

  I laugh aloud as I hold her hand. She nudges me away as I laugh at her. “Yeah, just not as lucrative I suppose. We sell dairy, bison game, and grains. My dad only turned it into a business about fifteen years ago. But everything we eat comes from the farm.” I explain.

  “That’s so cool.”

  We approach the stable barn where the girls always hang out, where the prize horses stay.

  “You think?” A small ramp leads up and we stand on the steps

  “Yeah. I thought that only happened in movies.”

  “Melinda, you surprise me.”

  I take her inside. The work space is large, hay covers the floor and on either side are the stables with our four prized horses. I feel Melinda looking at them as we walk by, and I see Phoebe out by the wash bin we use for the saddles, dressed in next to nothing as per usual when ad isn’t around. Pink tube top, cheeky shorts, that’s Phoebe.

  “Hey,” I call out as we get closer.

  She drops the hose and turns, smiling when she sees Melinda. I spoke to all my sisters individually so they wouldn’t gang up on me when I told them she was coming. We agreed they wouldn’t come on the first day, but Phoebe lives to annoy me.

  “Pete, hey! And you must be Melinda.” She hugs her too and I think Melinda is starting to get the hospitality thing.

  “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” Melinda stands about an inch shorter than my sister.

  “It is so nice to meet you. Pete talks about you all the time. Well, when he isn’t ignoring my calls, at least.” Phoebe punches my shoulder and I glare softly at her while she laughs. “And you are just so gorgeous. More than any of the models I work with.” Phoebe giggles and goes back to washing down the saddle.

  “Thank you. Were you in the last Seventeen spread?” Melinda asks, and I have no idea what she’s talking about.

  “Ugh, I hated it. But my agent insisted on it.”

  “Oh. Well, it was great. I feel like I’m meeting a famous person.”

  Phoebe shrugs her off and the two engage in conversation. They seem to take to each other pretty easily and I become a bystander as Phoebe hands me her cleaning supplies to put away.

  “You never told me how the two of you met.” We follow Phoebe inside, as she brushes down her horse, Vail. I lean over the stable behind her with Melinda.

  “Pete was being odd,” Melinda says.

  “That isn’t surprising. Seriously,” Phoebe points at me, “he’s the weirdest dude ever.”

  I reach across to tug her hair and she shrieks. “I know Pete is like the big shot on campus or whatever, but he’s actually really nice.” Phoebe finally talks me up like we talked about.

  “He is.” Melinda smiles at me.

  Phoebe finishes up and we walk back to the house.

  “The rest of us are coming over the next few days, so you don’t have to meet them and their band of rugrats all at once,” Phoebe says.

  “But their husbands—ugh. Such chums.”

  “You’re just mad because you’re single, Phoebe,” I say.

  She shoves me playfully and I do the same. We end up going back and forth until I hitch her small frame over my shoulder and trek back to the house, Melinda laughs behind us. I don’t set her down until we’re in the foyer.

  “You know, you forget we share a bathroom when you do things like that.”

  “Shut up.” I roll my eyes and turn to Melinda. “Ready for the tour?”

  She nods in response when my parents appear again, coming around the corner of the living room to the foyer. “We didn’t find the damn thing, but it will show up eventually.” Dad turns the corner and sees us, then Phoebe. “Now baby girl, we talked about this.” He says to her with that tone in his voice.

  “Dad—” she whines.

  “And we have guests.” He turns to Melinda, who smiles slightly.

  “Melinda understands. It’s hot outside.”

  “We’re inside. Go change.” He stands firm and my mom just shrugs. Phoebe crosses her arms as she walks off upstairs.

  “I’m going to give Melinda a tour,” I tell my parents and tug Melinda with me before they say anything. My mom would try and join in and give the history of each room. The house itself has been in the family for quite some time and recently renovated so it wouldn’t fall over or something.

  I take her through the girls’ rooms all lined up, and then the reading room and den on the second floor. The walls are lined with family pictures, a few from my first football games.

  “It’s so home-like.” Melinda says.

  “Yeah, it has its charm. This is my room.” I clear my throat, just as nervous as the first time I brought her in my room at the house with the guys.

  I lead her inside and almost turn her right back out when I see my room. Now I know how long Phoebe has been in the house. My bedspread has been changed to pink, my bed topped with stuffed animals left behind by the little ones. And a nice pink play pony by the foot of the bed.

  “Pete—” Melinda holds back laughter as I glare into the room, then my face softens as I look at her. I huff, hold up a finger to tell her to wait.

  Then I head through the bathroom to Phoebe’s room yelling, “Phoebe!”

  PETE

  * * *

  I might have had a few mini heart attacks all through my family arriving. By the time I left for the game, everyone, including the grandparents, was here. My sisters and their husbands, and their kids, a few of which thought Melinda was a princess because of the bright blue dress she had on at the time. But everyone loved her, just like I said they would. And my sisters loved to remind me how they never thought I would get a girl as beautiful as her. Mom cook
ed a lot of course, and dad and I worked the farm. When Ryan, Price’s husband, tried to help herd the cows, I had never seen anything funnier. My sisters all married men who had and knew nothing to do with farms and I don’t know if that was on purpose or not.

  But finally, we were all together and Melinda wasn’t all worked up anymore. We were both having a great time with all the family traditions.

  “So, I’ll be here alone?”

  “You won’t be alone, sweetness. My family comes up for the holiday and to watch the.”

  Melinda is practically hanging on my leg when I get ready to leave for the game.

  “Okay.”

  I smile at her, kiss her quickly, and then pull my team shirt from my drawer—one of the extras. It’s bright yellow and probably three sizes too big for her, but I can’t wait to see her wear it.

  “What’s this?” She looks at my shirt, turns it over where Buchanan is written over the number nineteen. “Your team shirt?”

  I sit next to her on the bed, resting my hand on her knee. “Yeah, I want you to wear it today. So, you can be my bumblebee again.” I lean against her as she laughs.

  “They really didn’t think that color through. Of course, I’ll wear it.” She turns her lips to me and I kiss her.

  I hold her waist softly as I deepen the kiss, my other hand curling at the nape of her neck. Her dress rides up her thighs softly as I turn over and end up straddled over her on the bed. She smiles against my lips softly and wraps her arms around my neck. Our tongues slip against each other and I taste the sugar lemonade she’s been drinking since she got here. I keep kissing her, getting out of hand but not prepared to do anything about it. It’s still just so surreal that she’s in my childhood bedroom, and we’re making out on the couch. My body flushes against hers, and I inhale sharply for air and kiss her again. It’s the best good luck kiss ever, until the door swings open suddenly.

  “Mommy—Peepee is wrestling with Melinda!” I know the voice to be Sanders.

  I groan, rolling off her as she laughs softly. I start to wonder what Penny must have told him, for him to think what we were doing is wrestling.

  We won the game by two touchdowns. It was nothing new to have my family taking up an entire subsection of stands. I love how they always come and support me every year for the Thanksgiving game, and it gets bigger almost every year. But my sisters have been stagnant on the baby making for two years. I don’t see anyone in particular as I pass in the team huddle to the locker room.

  I chat with Jim and Daniel for a while until the stadium starts to empty out. Jim is heading to his parents’ place back in Austin, and Daniel is avoiding going to his.

  “Happy Thanksgiving, man.” Jim hugs me goodbye, and I do the same to Daniel.

  I go out to my truck in the athletic parking lot, planning to drive straight home as I always do. When I get half a mile from the gate to the house, the cars start showing up. My family has to account for half the gas consumption over the holiday weekends in Waco. But I get to the front soon enough and end up parking out back by the barn. The sunset washes over some of the kids are playing out in the pig pen. I stop by our flower bed that my mother keeps and pick up a bunch of orchids in light pink because I know it’s Melinda’s favorite color. I wipe the dirt off on my jeans and step into the house.

  I find the family spread out in the living and dining room, greeting me as I walk in. My grandparents from both sides are at the tea table, and I greet them first as I move through the room. Once I find Pepper, she tells me Melinda is in the kitchen and I get worried because the girl can’t cook to save her life.

  “Melinda are you cooking?” I walk in, finding Momma at the stove, Phoebe on the counter looking at her nails, and my other two sisters helping with the prep work.

  “No, just peeling. Are those for me?” She wipes her hands off, her eyes going bright as she looks up at me. I take her in, the way the yellow shirt fits her small frame, but somehow, she made it fashionable with her black frilly skirt, leaving enough of her legs out to distract me. She’s just beautiful.

  “Yeah, sweetness.” I smile and hand them to her. She takes them and smiles softly, sniffing them once before I hug her close and give her a quick kiss.

  “Aww, Pete is so sweet to everyone but us.” Phoebe ruins it.

  Melinda giggles as I frown at her and fling potato peels across the room at Phoebe.

  Momma scolds us and I smile, hug her hello and kiss her cheek. “You did so great today.” She squeezes me tight.

  “Thanks.” And then she hands me my pre-dinner of a bowl of mac and cheese. I feel content to have Melinda sitting on my lap at the only free chair in the whole house as I eat.

  My family spends the rest of the day talking about football and my future, asking Melinda about hers and meaning it. I’ve seen how fake they can be around Piper’s lawyer boyfriends and I am happy they show honest interest in Melinda. It just meant so much. I explained to Melinda that Pepper’s husband didn’t always get leave to come, and this year he didn’t. What’s worse is he has been away on tour for two years, since their youngest Ben was born.

  We went through the whole evening up to the pie, having moved into the living room where I kept Melinda perched on my lap. Her scent, her warmth, her softness against me—it grounded me even in my home where I never thought I would need it.

  The doorbell rang, and Momma thought aloud that it was one of the far-off neighbors or the social worker that comes by every year to pick up the extra food she donates. But it wasn’t that when Momma came rushing back in with her flowery dress flowing about until she ran into Dad and behind her walked in Darrum, Pepper’s husband, dressed in his Blues. Even I was shocked, and I told Melinda what was going on to watch her be almost as happy as everyone else.

  But it was nothing like watching his kid run into him and nearly tear him down, even the littlest one who hasn’t even seen him since he was four months old. And watching Pepper falling into him like her other half has come back and she needs to reattach herself.

  I hold Melinda tighter and kiss her softly before I pull back to look in her eyes and I realize when we graduate, and she goes off to med school and me to the pros, it may be exactly like that for us.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I tell her, and we leave the house for the quiet outside.

  I walk her up to the barn and stop by the patch of grass under two huge elk trees. I hold her hands as I sit on the tire swing in front of her.

  “You having a good time?” I kiss her hands.

  “Yeah, I am. That was so sweet, and emotional too.”

  “Yeah, it was. I had no idea he was coming. He left right after nine eleven, so things have been rough with Pepper.”

  She coos her sympathy and I kiss Melinda’s pouting lip, holding her close as I look in her eyes.

  “I need you to know that I love you, Melinda. I’ve fallen in love with you so completely that it’s made of me now. And I want everything with you—I want every holiday, and every day, and every smile and good morning. I love you.” I smile with dry lips as I reveal what’s been plaguing my thoughts for so long.

  I know I love her, and I know I will never love anyone else, and I take that in stride because I know Melinda might not feel the same way. I look in her eyes and discover that I don’t need to hear her say it, and it’s not what I was even looking for. It’s in how she clutches my hands and her eyes tear open her soul and everything it hides.

  “Pete… you love me?” She says it like I’ve just told her I love Brussels sprouts.

  “Yeah, I do love you.”

  She licks her lips, looking down at herself. Her pale pink dress looks so perfect on her, the neckline demure yet still driving me crazy, the way it wraps her full waist and flares out over her hips. She doesn’t know how perfect she is to me, how beautiful she is, how much I love her.

  “You’re so odd.” She laughs once, almost a snort as she shakes her head.

  “Yeah. Your perfect match.” I kiss
the corner of her mouth and pull back to meet her gaze. I tilt her chin to me and stare her brown eyes down.

  “You don’t have to say it back, that’s not what this is about. But I know it from the way you look at me, the way you kiss me and hold me tight sometimes. We’ve got the love bug.” I splay my hand over her tummy and tickle her as I grin.

  Her hand covers mine and her fingers entwine with mine. “You’re cocky.” She whispers.

  “I’m right.” And I kiss her before she can say anything else.

  Before she can even think to question me, I pull her down onto me and kiss her for everything we’re worth. Our lips tighten around each other, molding to each other, as I kiss her so hard I feel it more than being tackled. It’s the only way I can describe us—that I’ve been knocked over and taken down by an unsuspecting person. Melinda, my Melinda. I love her so, so much.

  I carry us both off the tire swing and disappear in the barn. I find the haystack off to the corner, as big as a king bed, and I lay her down. I break my lips from hers and kiss down her soft neck to find a spot on her collarbone that makes her give the sweetest mewl.

  My hands on her hips grow mad at the fabric, and I itch for it to be gone. I take every second in stride and make sure she is with me at every step. When I kiss her, when I undo the zipper of her dress, when I tug the straps down to expose her skin. The creamy white bra she has on dances off her brown skin in the dim light of the barn. I lean on one hand, the other caressing her face, tracing over the swells of her breasts and down to take the rest of the dress off her. And I travel back up her body, over the creamy skin of her thighs, my hand never parting from her warm skin until I reach her matching panties.

  “You’re beautiful, Melinda.” I look into her eyes, big and trusting as she gazes back. “I’ve got to have you.” I gravel.

  Her lips quiver as they part, and I need to kiss her, or I feel I might explode. Her fingers edge up my shirt and we both tug it away as our lips separate.

  “You can, Pete.” Her voice is so soft it’s just a feather in the near darkness.