His Melody

by Nicole Green

  “You don’t have to do that,” she said. “I can pay for the labor.”

  “Do you want my mom to kill me? Besides, I want to.” And he really did. He had a strong urge to do anything he could to take away any of her sadness or frustrations that he could. He knew she’d had a lot of them in the twenty-four hours since they’d met. And after staying up all night talking to her, he knew she was something special. He’d been pretty tired at work all morning, but it’d been worth it.

  She smiled. “Thanks. Let me think about it, okay? I’ll let you know on Monday. I might just take the bus home and buy a new car. Let you have that one for scrap metal or something. I have no idea what my next move will be right now.”

  “Okay. But it really is a pretty decent car excepting your engine. I think with this new one, you could get some decent mileage out of it before you have to get another one.” He didn’t want her to leave town so soon. And if she did leave, he’d prefer it if she had a reason to come back. So he really wanted to fix that car for her.

  She nodded. “I need to make a call.” She rubbed a hand over her face and seemed stressed at the thought of that call. “After that, would you mind just taking me to get a few things? Is the Radio Shack open?”

  “Radio Shack closed at noon, but I’ll take you Monday.”

  “Okay.” She sighed. “That’s right. I don’t have any money yet anyway. I’d still like to get out of here for a while. Maybe I’ll go for a walk.”

  “I have to go to the grocery store for Mom. If you give me a minute to get cleaned up, you can come with me if you want.”

  “Sounds great. Thanks.” She stood and stretched. Her shirt rode up, exposing a flat, smooth inch of brown stomach. She walked to the doorway and looked over her shoulder. “Coming?”

  “Um yeah. In a little bit.” He needed a minute. And to think some very boring thoughts.

  She nodded. “I’m going to go see what all your mom needs from the store. I’ll be out back in the garden with her.”

  “Okay,” he said, watching her walk away. It only made his, uh, problem worse, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

  #

  Her call to the group’s manager had been exhausting. It’d taken all her effort to hold it together as she told the man it was all over. That she wasn’t going to be able to make it to Miami. All hope wasn’t lost for the group, not by any means. But it was all lost for her.

  After that horrible conversation, Austin drove them into town. When he stopped at the red light on Main Street at the one and only major intersection in town, she looked over at him.

  “Is this the only traffic light in Sweet Neck?” she asked in a teasing tone.

  “The only real one.” He gave an easy grin. “There’s one farther out. One of those blinking yellow ones.”

  “I can’t decide if that’s funny or not.”

  He laughed softly. The light turned green, and he drove forward.

  “What does Vernon do for a living? And Leigh Anne?” she asked as they drove past the store fronts that lined either side of Main Street.

  “Vernon’s a truck driver. Long distance. He’s leaving in a few days for a trip as a matter of fact. Sometimes, he helps Regan out with her horses. Mom works part-time as a bank teller.”

  “Oh.” She continued to stare through the windshield after that, and their conversation died away. She caught him glancing her way more than once from the corner of her eye, but she was lost in her thoughts and didn’t turn his way.

  #

  At the far end of Main Street, Austin turned onto a side street. After passing an empty lot, Zip’s was on their left.

  He pulled into a small parking lot, which was in front of an unimpressive squat brick building with glass double doors. The wooden white sign on the roof had faded red letters on it reading, “Zip’s Supermarket”.

  She looked at him and then back at the store.

  “What?” he said.

  “It sure ain’t New York, huh?”

  “Nope. Not New York.” Thank goodness. He’d left New York behind in a coke haze with only bad memories and shattered dreams to show for it. Nothing great about that place. If Leigh Anne, Vernon, and Regan hadn’t helped put him back together again, he probably wouldn’t have made it.

  They climbed out of his truck and headed for the store. He held the glass door open for her, appreciating the way her polo shirt hugged her curves as she brushed past him. Apparently, he was never going to learn when it came to her. Un-tucking his own shirt in what he hoped was a subtle move, he followed her into the store. He greeted almost everyone they passed.

  “You really know every single person in this town, don’t you?” she asked as they walked up and down the aisles. The aisles were packed in a little too close together, and the beige tiles were scuffed and cracked with age. These were things he’d never noticed as a little kid when he, Avery, and Donnie had raced up and down the aisles, chasing each other around the store and giving Mom a headache.

  He grinned. “In case you hadn’t noticed? Sweet Neck ain’t all that big of a place.”

  She laughed, and he tried to think of something to say that would allow him to hear that beautiful sound again.

  She said, “I was thinking. About what we were talking about last night.”

  He nodded and concentrated on putting things into the basket. He’d told her about life in Sweet Neck, carefully evading her every time she asked about New York. Grayson Meadows was dead, and he didn’t want to talk about anything connected to that life. He hoped she wasn’t going to try to turn the conversation in that direction again.

  They wandered up and down the narrow aisles for a while, tossing the things Mom had requested into the basket as they did.

  “So it seems like we’ve run into every person in this town except your girlfriend,” she said, picking up a can of peas and shifting them from hand to hand. Her diamond ring flashed under the store’s lights as she did so. He reminded himself that she wasn’t really married before reminding himself that it wouldn’t change a thing for him if she were. He couldn’t allow anything to happen with her. Nope. He wasn’t even going to think about it.

  “Ah. There’s a simple explanation for that.” He shifted the basket from one hand to the other. “I don’t have one.”

  “Really?”

  “Not right now. Not for a while actually. There’s Kristen,” he jerked his thumb at a brunette cashier. “She was my high school sweetheart. Married with four kids now. Remember the Miz Hardy I mentioned? The busybody? Well, that’s her daughter.”

  The brunette looked up at them briefly and then ducked her head back toward her cash register. He suppressed a sigh. He truly did ruin everything and everyone he touched.

  Austin pointed across the store at the deli. “And Lil. We sort of dated the summer before I moved away. Regan and I spent a little time together when I first came home,” he said, leaving out the fact that she’d held him together for a while, and he’d leaned on her too much and taken more than he should have from her. He felt guilty about it, but he didn’t want to get into all that. Getting into it would mean talking about New York. “All past. No current.”

  “Regan? Really?” She put the peas back on the shelf and turned her full attention to him.

  “Yeah. Why’d you say it like that?”

  “I guess I didn’t expect it is all. Isn’t she a lot older than you?”

  “If you call fifteen years a lot,” he said with a shrug. “But things like that don’t matter to me.”

  “So you two don’t have anything going on at all anymore?”

  “Nope. Just good friends. She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had,” Austin said. She’d saved him.

  “I still can’t believe the women in this town would let you stay single,” she said with a shake of her head.

  He gave a little laugh. “Around here? People don’t get dazzled by things like Grayson Meadows.”

  “But I’m sure they still appreciate a go
od looking man.” Her eyes flitted over his chest.

  “I’m good looking am I?” He avoided telling her that he was tainted. No respectable woman in Sweet Neck would be caught near him. But he spent some time with the less respectable ones. He hadn’t even done that in a good while, though.

  “Please. Don’t pull that. Ex male model? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Gollum?” She snorted.

  “Let’s just say I don’t look in mirrors all that often anymore,” he said. Vanity hadn’t gotten him anywhere he wanted to be.

  She moved closer to him. “What happened to you, Austin Holt?”

  He almost wanted to tell her. She was so close and beautiful and soft. But he couldn’t allow himself to do it. He was done with opening himself up to people other than Leigh Anne, Vernon, and Regan. Plus, she would be gone in a few days.

  He pointed behind her, brushing his arm against hers as he did so. “Mom needs new batteries for the flashlights. Over there. By the cash registers.” He murmured the words much closer to the soft curve of her ear than was necessary.

  She stumbled backward a little, bumping into a display rack of some sort of kitchen gadgets. He steadied the display as she nodded and turned toward the cash registers. She was adorable. Those shorts were torture for him, though. Very long legs, very short shorts. She couldn’t have possibly gotten them any shorter without showing off her panties to the world. If she was wearing any. Why was he thinking about her panties? Why torture himself like that? Time to get his thoughts away from that very dangerous place.

  That evening, before dinner, Melody and Austin sat in the family room, which used to be called a parlor back in the house’s original, high-society days. Melody sat on the davenport—which as far as Austin could tell was a fancy name for a big, old couch. The high-ceilinged, vast room was mostly filled with furniture his great-great-grandmother had placed in it years before his parents were even twinkles in their parents’ eyes. He guessed it was all antique stuff by now. His mom would know. She loved that Antiques Roadshow.

  They made small talk. He could tell she wanted to ask him more about his past, but he wasn’t encouraging her to bring it up. All that was better off left where it was—behind him.

  All was fine and good until Donnie bounded into the room.

  “Hey, y’all!” the tall hayseed said in his booming voice. By normal people’s standards, it would have been a shout. That was just the way Donnie talked, though. Full volume. He walked over to Melody and sat on the opposite end of the davenport from her. Austin stayed where he’d been sitting all along on a chair across from them. “What are y’all talking about in here?” Donnie asked.

  “Not much,” Melody said, giving Austin a look he couldn’t read.

  “Pshaw. Austin has a lot of good stories. You haven’t been telling her any of your real good stories, Austin?” Donnie gave him a challenging look.

  “I don’t have any worth telling,” he said, giving his brother a warning look.

  “Aw, he’s just puttin’ on,” Donnie said. “There’s lots he could tell you.” Donnie put his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, and smirked before saying, “Don’t let him fool you.”

  “I reckon you’d be best off keeping your mouth shut when it comes to things that don’t concern you,” Austin said.

  Donnie chuckled. “That’s my brother for you.” He paused and put on an exaggerated show of tapping his chin with his finger and trying to look like he was thinking about something. Must have been hard since thinking wasn’t something Donnie had a lot of experience with. Finally, he said, “Yeah, Austin. I guess you’re right. Your life in New York couldn’t have been all that great. I guess you screwed that life up and then had to come down here looking for someone else’s life to steal.”

  Melody looked back and forth between the two of them. He could tell from the tilt of her head and the confusion in her eyes that she didn’t know whether she should say anything or not.

  “Ignore him,” Austin said. “He’s bitter about the fact that he’s never really been good at anything his whole life.”

  “You know.” Donnie shot to his feet. “You, Grayson Meadows, can go fuck yourself.” He turned to Melody. “Sorry you had to hear that.” He walked out of the room.

  Austin turned to Melody and cut off the question forming on her lips by speaking first. “I think I’ll go see if Mom needs any help in the kitchen.”

  “I’ll come with you.” She stood.

  As they walked out of the room, the scent of vanilla trailed her. He wanted to push her soft black hair away from the sides of her face and find the source of that smell with his mouth. His charming brother had just reminded him of why he had to stay away, though. One thing Donnie had right—Austin screwed up lives. He’d done it to his own and to the people he cared about too many times to count. He wasn’t going to drag Melody into that mess as well.

  He’d made his decision about this long ago after he and Regan broke up. It was best for everybody if he didn’t get involved with anybody.

  Chapter Nine

  That evening, after dinner, Austin said, “There’s something I want to show you.”

  Melody raised her eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”

  “In the basement. C’mon.” He waved her toward the basement, and she followed him down there. As they descended the stairs, he said, “I used to be a D.J.” He flipped on a light.

  “Looks like it. You have an impressive collection here,” she said as she looked at the crates full of records stacked all around her. In a corner were several sets of speakers, a turntable, and other D.J. equipment. Out of all the rooms in this huge house she could probably get lost in if she went wandering around by herself, this small room in the basement was easily her favorite. Music was a big part of her life, and down here, it surrounded her.

  He reached into a bin, grabbed an album, and handed it to her.

  She looked down at the sleeve and grinned. “Miles Davis.”

  He handed her another.

  “John Coltrane.”

  And another.

  “Peabo Bryson.” She nodded. “Very eclectic.”

  He shrugged. “I like what I like.” The once over he gave her as he said that made her shiver.

  “I see,” was all she could think of to say in response.

  “I thought this might cheer you up, but we can go back upstairs if all this is a painful reminder.” His green eyes were filled with concern.

  She warmed all over. “What? Oh. No.” He must’ve taken her silence as a sign that she was upset. “No. I like it down here.” She liked that it was just the two of them and that he wanted to share this with her. She fanned herself with an album sleeve.

  He shifted a few crates to the floor from an old tattered loveseat. He sat down and patted the space next to him. She walked over and sat next to him.

  “Hand me that,” she said, pointing at one of the crates that rested on the floor.

  He picked up the crate and set it in her lap.

  She began thumbing through the album sleeves. “M.C. Lyte,” she said, pausing to look at one of the covers.

  He fingered the brightly colored album cover, his hand brushing against hers in the process. “That’s one of my favorites.”

  “Really?” She turned to look at him. A mistake because his eyes had a hypnotic effect on her.

  He nodded.

  She moved her gaze from the bristles of blond hair on his head to his strong jaw line and then down to appreciate the way his T-shirt fit over his biceps and pecks. She couldn’t help herself. It’d been so, so long. Since the divorce. And her ex-husband was the only man she’d been with since her junior year in college when they started dating. She bet—hoped? No, hoping was not the right thing—Austin could do things to her that her ex had never even heard of. Well, whether it was the right thing or not, she definitely hoped he could. More than that, she wanted him to.

  Trying to turn her attention to something else, she asked, “How many records do you h
ave?”

  He grinned. “Lost count a while ago.” He sat back on the loveseat and rested his arm over the top of the seat cushions. “I didn’t use all of this for D.J.’ing, but it’s all music I love.”

  “I see.” It was clear he loved music as much as she did if not more.

  Once again, she was fascinated by what she learned about Austin. That didn’t help her deal with her constant desire to touch him one bit. She was very much aware of how close the arm he’d slung over the top of the sofa was to the back of her neck.

  “You know what I’d love to do?” Besides you, she added that last part silently. She wanted to share a little of herself with him because he’d shared so much with her that night.

  “What?”

  “I want to be a music manager. Nobody to tell me what to do or when to do it. I could help artists pursue their dreams instead of being the one to curb those dreams because I have to keep some record company’s bottom line in mind. I already have a few people in mind who could be huge with the right management.” Her heart sank a little as this made her think about the hard call she’d had to make to the manager of the R&B group in Miami. When she’d had to tell him she wouldn’t be at the club Monday night, she’d felt like the walls were caving in around her. The group would be taking the stage in less than forty-eight hours and some lucky person would discover them. Her dream would become someone else’s reality in less than two days.

  “Why haven’t you done it yet?” Austin asked, breaking into her thoughts. “You probably have lots of contacts at the record labels and all the other right places. You’ve worked in the industry since you got out of college, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said, distracted by the fact that he’d been paying so much attention last night when they’d talked for hours. She’d told him that right after college and getting her C.P.A. license, she’d started out in the accounting department at a division of a major record label in California. She’d barely mentioned her ex who’d been a vice president there. The same ex who’d been the reason she moved clear across the country and back home to Georgia so she could start over free and clear of his shadow.