Need You Now (Love in Unknown)

by Lunsford, Taylor M.

  Being the nice mother she was, Emma let her get a few delicious mouthfuls of food in her stomach before continuing the lecture.

  “Melody, why on earth are you still at work at this time of night? Micah and Caine both say you haven’t come up for air in weeks. Even Gage is worried about you.” Her mother pinned her with a direct look that didn’t leave any room for escape.

  “I’m trying to establish here, Mom. Things are finally starting to pick up. On top of that, I have three papers that I promised to write for a medical journal.” Mel took another bite. “In case you forgot, Mama, this is me, your daughter. Never met a book I didn’t like. I’m happiest when I’m working.”

  Emma looked around the room, her features drawn with worry. “I know that. I’ve always admired your work ethic and your intelligence. But you still need to slow down. Finish up your dinner and go home. We’ve already had one member of the family succumb to exhaustion. We don’t need another.”

  Mel shook her head. “Mama, I’m fine. I’m eating. I’m sleeping. Good Lord, sometimes I miss Daddy. He’d tell you to stop worrying about me. I’m a grown woman.”

  “You used to try that line on me when you were a little girl, too.” Mel saw her mom’s shoulders sag with grief. “I miss him, too, sweetheart. Every day. But he would be worried about you, too. This is Unknown, Texas, not New York City. In case you’ve forgotten, people stop working by six and go home to have dinner with their families. Anything that didn’t get done today will still be here tomorrow. I promise.”

  Mel flinched a little, hoping her mother didn’t see it.

  “I’ll be fine, Mama. I swear. I inherited this habit from you, you know.”

  “Have you even been going on dates? I heard you and Kevin went on a second date weeks ago, but then nothing. What happened?”

  Mel returned her attention to her food. She did not want to go into the whole dating mess. Especially not right now. “I just realized that Kevin wasn’t exactly what I thought he was. Somewhere along the way, I guess I realized maybe I need to be patient and wait until I find my Prince Charming the old-fashioned way.”

  “I see.” Compassionate understanding. That’s what she could always count on from her mother. “You’ve always done things your own way. Just don’t use your work as a way to hide from your life.”

  #

  “Caine, she’s going to work herself to death. It’s time to get worried.”

  Just the fact that Gage called him told Caine how bad it was. One of his brother’s best traits was his ability to compartmentalize. Gage never told him about the secrets Mel shared with him and he never told her anything Caine told him. At Micah’s house the other night, Gage had stayed mostly silent as Micah and Caine discussed possible ways to get Mel to stop working. He’d said they should just give her more time to settle in. Apparently, time was up.

  “I’ll handle it.” Caine looked at his bathroom, adjusting the last candle he’d sat beside the tub. “Tell Micah and Emma not to worry. I’ll have Mel with me this weekend, but I don’t think she’ll want them to know that just yet. I’m pretty sure she still hasn’t told them about the first time we were together.”

  His brother laughed. “First? You really think that Mel’s going to give you a second chance?”

  After the weekend he had planned, he doubted she’d have any other choice. The night she’d gotten drunk, she’d let her guard slip just enough for him to know there was still hope for them. Yeah, they had a lot to work through. But there was hope.

  He surveyed his handiwork. Candles covered every surface of the bathroom. A fluffy yellow robe hung on the back of the door. A plate of her favorite chocolates sat on a low stool by the tub, right next to the champagne bucket of the rose champagne she secretly loved. Strawberry cheesecake ice cream was in the freezer for after the dinner he’d spent all afternoon fixing. Everything looked perfect. Now all he needed was to go get the girl.

  Pulling to a stop in front of the clinic, Caine paused for a second. Maybe driving his classic Aston Martin DB6 Volante was overkill. But tonight was just as much about wooing Mel as it was about getting her to relax. The Volante only came out on special occasions, and this definitely counted.

  “Well, hello there, Mr. Mayor.” The flirtatious greeting came not from Mel but from the overly hair-sprayed, overly made up secretary behind the front desk. Sandra? Sally? He couldn’t remember her name. When she batted her eyelashes at him, he worried that some excess mascara might hit him in the face. “Here for a check-up?”

  “No. Is Dr. Carr in her office?” The waiting room was empty, thank God. No one to distract Mel or give her an out.

  The secretary’s face fell. Ah. Another member of the fan club. Every single woman in town seemed to labor under the delusion that he would sweep them off their feet and carry them off to his mansion. Too bad for them, he already had someone in mind. “Oh. Yeah. I think so. I’m surprised she doesn’t just live there at this point.”

  “I’m here to fix that.” Tapping a fist on the desk, he turned and jogged up the stairs. He stopped in front of the antique mirror in the hall to make sure everything was perfect. Collar in place, hair windblown. Blazer open. Excellent.

  Caine didn’t knock on Mel’s office door. When storming the castle to carry off the fair maiden, knocking didn’t exactly fit into the battle plan. Plus, he would have missed the priceless look of complete shock on her face when he breezed through the door like he owned the place. “Good afternoon, sunshine.”

  “Caine? What are you doing here? Don’t you have a law practice and a town to run?” Mel stared up at him, trying to process something.

  He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Everyone needs to take a break. Especially you. I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but it’s not exactly normal to work until nine every night.”

  Mel tugged him to a stop in the middle of the office. “Okay, who ratted me out? I know it can’t be Mom or Micah, since they don’t know that you and I have ever been anything more than friends. They’d send Gage, not you. That only leaves Gage. Damn it. I never thought he’d be a double agent.”

  “Gage only does what he thinks is best for everyone, especially you. And I’m the mayor. I know what happens in my town, Mel.” Caine grabbed her purse off the coat rack by the door and put a hand on her back to propel her out of the office. “And since he’s on duty this weekend and your brother and your mom have to take care of Jax, it’s up to me to get you to slow down and relax.”

  Arms crossed, she glared up at him, her face etched with pain. “I can’t go with you, Caine. I can’t. There’s…there’s too much between us. Too much that’s happened to me. After the other night, I—“

  He cut her off. “After what happened the other night, you owe me this. You owe me the chance to kidnap you and carry you back to my lair so we can figure this out, once and for all.”

  To his surprise, she didn’t try to stop him again as he led her down the stairs and past a stunned Sandra. “How exactly do you plan to do— Is that your car?”

  He bit back a smirk. “It was Grandfather Maddox’s pride and joy. Gage still pouts that I inherited it.”

  He silent admiration of the car bought him the few minutes necessary to help her into the front seat and pull away from the curb. The top was down, so there was a slight risk of someone seeing them together, but he brushed aside any real concern. He’d prefer it not be blasted around town that he was taking Mel Carr to his house in his fancy car, for Mel’s sake. Micah probably wouldn’t be too happy about what Caine wanted to do this weekend. Still, that was something he’d worry about after he got Mel back. All he planned to worry about for the next twenty-four hours was getting Mel to breathe and let him pamper her.

  “Where are you taking me in this really, really amazing car?” Mel asked as they neared the edge of town. She sounded disgruntled but resigned. He’d take either over openly hostile.

  “I am taking you out to my house.” He turned down the long country r
oad that would lead them into Maddox family land and eventually to the sprawling house the previous generations of Maddoxes had added onto over the years. “You’re going to stay with me tonight.”

  Caine waited, hands tightening on the steering wheel, knowing he was in for it. He’d already run through this conversation a dozen times in his head since he’d started planning yesterday.

  “Staying with you? Caine, what is this? Are you crazy? I can’t stay with you. Ghosts of Maddoxes past would rise up and stage a protest at the Golden Boy letting the baker’s daughter stay at Fortune Hill as a guest.”

  “You’re not just the baker’s daughter, sunshine, and you know it.” He put an arm across the back of her seat, running his hand through her ponytail as the wind teased it. “I care about you, Mel, and you’re really worrying everybody. You need a break. Let me do this for you. Please.”

  He felt her staring at him, almost heard the wheels turning over and over in her head as she made a mental pro/con list. Finally, he felt her shoulders rise and fall under his arm in a heavy sigh.

  “I guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I? You’ve kidnapped me and brought me out to the middle of nowhere in your car. Unless I want to call my brother to come and rescue me, I’m stuck with you.”

  Stuck with him? Not exactly an enthusiastic response, but reluctant acceptance was workable. The reluctant part of the equation would hopefully go away after she saw what he had planned for her. When they were together in college, she’d never let him do anything to spoil her. She’d always been very conscious of the fact that his family came from money and hers didn’t.

  Maybe ten years apart would make her a bit more receptive to the pampering he could give her. He’d taken great care not to be too extravagant. Understated luxury. That had been his theme as he set everything up. Caine knew enough about Mel to know that she’d balk at anything outrageous. She’d never liked being the center of attention.

  “I always forget how big this place is,” Mel murmured as he pulled up to the house. “I used to be so scared to come out here.”

  “That’s probably because my mother, the dragon lady, lived here. She’d scare even the bravest man.” Olivia Maddox had ruled Unknown for Fortune Hill for thirty years, mingling with only the wealthiest members of the county. Anyone whose parents didn’t make at least seven figures a year was not welcome to cross the threshold. He smiled at the memory of how much her butt had clenched because her sons preferred to spend all of their time with the Carrs, a middle class family, rather than running around Fortune Hill and playing with the children of more influential families.

  Mel gave a little shudder. “I remember the death glares she’d send me whenever Gage, Micah, and I stopped by here to get Gage clothes to stay at our house for the weekend. She hates me.”

  “Good thing she and Dad moved to Houston five years ago.” Caine helped her out of the car and led her inside. “I brought in an interior decorator the week after they left and had the entire house redone.”

  He was proud of the house. It was classic, elegant, and comfortable. Everything functional rather than decorative.

  “I love it. At least I don’t feel like I’m going to break anything if I breathe on it. Did your mother make you take off your shoes whenever you came in, or was that just the three of us?”

  “Even I, the favorite child, didn’t dare mess up her precious white carpets.” He laughed. “Trust me, those were the first things out of the house. Gage and I ripped them up ourselves, just for the perverse glee in destroying them.”

  Mel giggled, a sound that warmed his heart. Giggles mean the start of relaxation. “I wish I could have been there to help. For some reason, those white carpets featured prominently in some of my more vivid nightmares.”

  “Mine, too.” He escorted her into the living room.

  “So what’s the plan?” She turned around, admiring the raised ceilings and the leather couches. Her high heels echoed off of the red tiles.

  Caine did his best to look innocent. “Plan? What sort of plan do you mean, Dr. Carr?”

  She rolled those pretty hazel eyes of hers and crossed her arms. “Please. You’re a Maddox. You don’t stage a kidnapping like this without having a carefully orchestrated plan of action. So lay it on me. What’s first on your agenda?”

  “First on your agenda, you mean.” He kept his face a carefully neutral mask. “Come upstairs with me.”

  The feel of her slender hand in his gave him an extra bump of confidence. Without hesitation, he took her to his bedroom. A bit presumptuous, perhaps, but he’d designed the master bathroom to be an oasis of bliss. The other bathrooms were nice, but nowhere near the level of his. Before leaving, he’d given instructions for Serena, his housekeeper, to light all of the candles and run a bubble bath with lavender scented bubbles.

  “Oh. Wow.” Mel stopped in the doorway, her jaw dropping. The deep sunken tub glistened. Late afternoon light streamed in through the beveled glass, the soft orange and pink hues accented by the candlelight. “This is the first part of your plan? I should be kidnapped more often.”

  “I’m a particularly kind captor. Now, you go ahead and soak in the tub as long as you like. That robe on the door is for you, sunshine. There’re pajamas and other necessary items in the bag on the counter. Serena, the housekeeper, put all sorts of spa stuff, masks and scrub and whatever, in that basket. Help yourself to the champagne and chocolates, but make sure to leave room for dinner.”

  Mel glanced up at him distractedly, still taking in the room before her. “Dinner?”

  “Yes, dinner. That meal you enjoy skipping.” He tilted her chin up to get her attention. “Enjoy yourself. I’ll be downstairs cooking whenever you’re ready.”

  Impulsively, he kissed her forehead before leaving her to enjoy her bath. Truthfully, he wanted to kiss more than her forehead, but he was taking baby steps. No sudden movements. For now, they were still safely in “friend” territory. He had to ease her into crossing the border to be more than friends.

  Chapter 9

  Mel came very close to dozing in Caine’s ridiculously amazing bathtub. The lavender fragrance of the bubbles lulled her into a blissfully drowsy state and the bubbly pink champagne gave her a pleasant buzz. Muscles she didn’t even know were tense started to relax. Even the effort to get out of the tub sounded like it would be too much for her. She could live in this tub.

  At the back of her mind, though, questions tugged through her sluggish thoughts. The biggest question was why was she here? She needed to be moving forward, not back. Every relationship she’d been in had taken a piece of her away. Those first weeks of summer after her freshmen year at Brown were seared into her brain. She’d never been so miserable in her life. Trusting a man who’d already done damage in the past was hard. But she knew after that night at her apartment, whatever her reasonable, practical side told her, she still wanted Caine.

  Still…Desire didn’t make the pain go away.

  Eventually, the scents of food began to mix with the bubbles, and her stomach started to rumble. With a moan, she lifted herself out of the edge of the tub, blowing out the candles before standing up. Of course, the towels were fluffy, but blue rather than the standard bachelor white. The tiles beneath her feet were toasty warm instead of freezing. Big surprise. Wrapped in one of the towels, she went over to the bag. Unmarked, the pretty blue bag held several tissue-wrapped items.

  Intrigued, Mel pulled each package out before opening them. There were pajamas made from lighter-than-air, sunshine yellow cotton, the classic kind with a button-up top and drawstring pants. A silky slip nightgown of the same color. And underwear. Really fabulous underwear, all lace and silk in several different shades.

  She bit her lip, staring at the clothing. Technically speaking, this was so not the type of thing a friend would buy another friend. Unless, one of those friends was a Maddox. Her mind went back to the night Caine came to her apartment. The relaxed nerves in her body began to tingle and pop at the
memory of his body pressed to hers, his hands moving over her skin. By putting any of these on, she would be sending him a message. But what message did she want to send?

  Leaving her hair down, she pulled on her selection and slid the robe on over it. Prepared, but cautious. That was the motto for tonight. She didn’t know what Caine thought was going to happen. Hell, she didn’t know what she thought was going to happen. Everything in her was trying to battle it out for an answer. She didn’t like confusion. Clear, direct answers made her happy. But nothing about her relationship with Caine was clear or direct. There were still so many things about each other they didn’t know.

  After tucking her hair behind her ears, she left the bathroom and made her way through the house.

  The only thing about Caine’s house that resembled the mausoleum she’d visited as a kid was the exterior. Everything else looked so much warmer and more inviting. He’d done well for himself, and reclaiming the house only emphasized that point. Coming back to Unknown, running for mayor, that was part of his dream, even if it was a family expectation. But she was pleased he’d done things his way. She felt better about being friends with him, knowing that he wasn’t as concerned with the trappings of status as he had been when they were together in college.

  “There you are.” Caine grinned at her as she entered the big, open kitchen. “I thought I might need to send search and rescue in after you.”

  She returned his smile, leaning over the counter to peer at the food he was dishing up. “I could live in that bathtub. It’s kind of ridiculous. Are those mashed potatoes?”

  “With green beans and steak. My cooking skills aren’t as fancy as Micah’s, but even I can make pretty decent comfort food.” He winked. “I used your mom’s recipe for potatoes. Extra sour cream and cream cheese.”

  Nodding for her to follow him, he took the plates into the dining room. More candles. The man certainly knew how to set a scene. That was a new skill. One that she liked, apparently. One bite of mashed potatoes and she moaned. “Wow. When you set out to spoil a girl, you sure know how to pull out all the stops. My favorite chocolates, favorite champagne, favorite food. New clothes.”