by Dawn McClure
All of them stopped walking to stare at Brian, and her two older brothers got vocal.
“Whoa!”
“Jesus, are you joking?”
Mel said nothing. She could only stare at Brian while her other brothers kept up their barrage of one-liners. “You’ve only known her a couple months.” “Are you insane?” “Have you even met her parents?” All good, honest questions, though none of them could wipe the goofy smile off Brian’s face.
She couldn’t speak past the shock of what he’d said. Not only that, he had The Look. She’d seen it on numerous co-workers throughout the last few years. Brian was headed down that deep dark place some called being in love.
“When you know, you just know,” Brian said with a shrug. “She’s my best friend, my first good-morning, my last good-night. She’s everything wrapped into one. When I’m not with her I feel...empty.”
Wow. Mel swallowed. She wished a guy would say that about her. Did Liam think that way about her? To be honest, she didn’t really think so. They were mature for their age. They both worked hard for what they had. They fit together as a couple and would make a good life together. A comfortable life.
What Brian was describing was new love. Fresh love. He was homed in on the excitement of it all, not the person Macy was. If they got engaged now, Brian would be making a mistake and Macy would be throwing a dress-burning party in less than five years.
Mel remained silent while Tim and George urged Brian to think things through before he asked for Jessica’s hand. They’d crowded around Brian in a semi-circle as though this was an intervention. Hell, maybe it was. They were warning him to get off the drug and stop chasing the high. Marriage was…serious.
She wanted to ask Brian a thousand questions, and only one managed to slip out before she thought better of it. “How are you certain she’s the one for you? Besides all that emotional stuff you just spewed. Seriously. How do you know?”
It was the same question she’d asked herself countless times since she’d seen the text on Liam’s phone. Proposing on Christmas Day? Not very original Liam. Did Liam feel empty when she wasn’t around? Was that why he’d asked her to move into his condo? Loneliness? She hoped whatever had spurred him to buy her a ring was more meaningful than that. She prayed he loved who she was as a person, and not just for the way she made him feel.
But something told her Liam put way more consideration into his proposal than her brother had in his. Liam wasn’t a fly-by-your-seat kind of guy, and she liked that about him. Brian was a wild card.
Brian looked at her, as dead-serious as she’d ever seen him. “Because I love her. What more reasoning do I need?”
The three of them stared at Brian, waiting for him to elaborate. In the distance the sound of an old truck engine crept down a dirt road. A few cows let the world know what they thought of the cold weather off in the distance. And then it went eerily silent as they eyed their brother in expectation.
He shrugged. “I love her. I don’t know what y’all are waiting for me to say.”
Tim clapped him on the back and whistled. “Well, who in the hell can argue with that? That’s exactly how I felt for Christina. Or feel, you know what I mean.” He looked at Mel. “Jesus, what a slip. She’d kill me if she’d heard that. Anyway, sometimes you can’t explain how you know when you’ve found the one. You just know. That feeling is deep inside your gut. You just feel like you’d die without that person.”
George piped in. “I’m twenty-eight-years-old and I’ve never felt like that. Now, I could have said I’d die if I didn’t get in a girl’s pants—"
“Jesus,” Mel muttered, giving George a dirty look.
She should be used to this kind of talk, having grown up in the midst of them. Everyone in town said they had an uncanny resemblance to one another, and looking at them now, she guessed that was true. They all had chestnut colored hair, although her brothers would merely call it a brown. Each had hazel eyes and a spattering of freckles across their nose and cheeks, which thankfully diminished the older they got. Unless, of course, they spent too much time in the sun.
She should be used to gutter talk, having grown up in the room directly next to theirs.
“What? I’m just being honest. Love? Marriage?” George shook his head, a corner of his lip lifting. “That’s intense, right there. I’d give it some time. Two months isn’t long enough to know you want to be with that person for the rest of your life.”
Mel couldn’t agree with George more. Two months? She had meat in her freezer that had been there longer than that.
“I’m telling you. It’s Macy,” Brian argued. “She’s amazing. And yeah, two months is long enough when you meet the right girl.”
Mel let her brothers talk amongst themselves while she walked back to the house to warm up, leaving them behind to clean out the horse stalls. Her toes and fingers were frozen, and she couldn’t feel her lips anymore. The football game had been a little rough. Getting hit in the cold was so much worse than when you were warm. It stung something fierce and she was still recovering from the hit Brian had given her.
As she walked toward the two-story brick house she’d grown up in, her thoughts tumbled around one another like bees in a disturbed beehive. Was Brian right? If you met the right person, did it take as little as two months to know you wanted to be with them for the rest of your life? She didn’t feel giddy and excited about Liam. No butterflies. She enjoyed his company. Sometimes. Well, most of the time. But empty without him?
She’d once felt that way about someone, but when one of them had to go off to college, and the absence had settled in, their hearts didn’t grow fonder. Jealousy and trust issues arose. No, she didn’t feel giddy with her current boyfriend, but she’d once known the feeling.
“You think a gentle wash cycle will make that jacket in any way returnable?”
Mel gasped and glanced up at the stairs leading to the front door of her mom’s house. Think of the devil and he shall appear. John stood on the porch looking down at her. When had he arrived? She turned to look behind her and saw what had to be his old farm truck. She’d not only walked right by his parked truck, but she’d been looking down and hadn’t seen him standing at her front door. Dressed in worn jeans, a red flannel peeking out of a brown jacket, and big brown boots, he looked like the Brawny man, only younger and with darker hair.
What had he said? “I’m sorry?”
He inclined his head her way. “The jacket.”
She glanced down and grimaced, not only at the reminder that the jacket was ruined, but the way she was reacting to John’s presence. All flustered. Breathless. Excited.
Giddy.
He asked you a question. Don’t just stand there like an idiot. The first retort that sprung to mind was to blame her brothers for the condition of the jacket, and though it would be an accurate accusation, she’d grown out of blaming her brothers years ago. When she looked up to tell John she’d pay for the jacket, a little blonde girl peeked out from behind John’s leg, freezing Mel’s comeback in her throat as solid as the water over the pond next to the barn.
The little girl—no more than six-years-old Mel guessed—wore a bright pink winter jacket that nearly swallowed her up, and two blonde braids trailed out of a white knit hat with a fluffy pom pom at the top. Her cheeks and the little tip of her nose were pink from the cold, and her eyes were the same color blue as John’s. The little girl regarded her with interest. Even from where she was standing several feet away, Mel could see she had John’s eyes.
As though two gears had clicked together and started moving after being stuck, Mel’s mind snapped to attention with the only explanation that made sense of what she was seeing in front of her.
My God, he has a daughter.
Chapter 6
Oh, he was going to have fun with this.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Mel thought Sarah was his daughter. The shocked look on her face, the darting of her eyes from him to his niece
several times—oh yeah. He could see the gears turning in her mind, attempting to correlate his having a daughter this age. Who the mother could be. Why her family hadn’t told her.
Oh yeah. Fun times were coming.
He snatched Sarah up and held her against his side, his forearm creating a seat for her. Before Sarah could say anything and ruin the joke, he quickly whispered, “Act like you’re my daughter,” softly enough so only Sarah could hear. And the great thing about his obnoxious, adorable niece? She wouldn’t ask why. Not if it called for a little mischief. She’d wait until later to get the scoop, and until that time came, she’d mess with the adult. And that adult happened to be the very person he’d been hoping to run into on his errand to Sophie’s ranch.
He'd tried to convince himself this morning that he hadn’t readily agreed to drop Sarah off only for the chance at seeing Mel, but he’d be lying if he said otherwise.
Thankfully he hadn’t rung the doorbell yet. Sophie would ruin the fun he was about to have. “Sarah, say hi to Mel. She’s an old friend of mine.”
Sarah put on her prettiest smile. “Hi, Mel.” Even her voice was sugar sweet. And the braids peeking out of her knit hat? Made her seem all the more innocent. There was no way Mel would think such a sweet thing would take her for a ride. Thing was, Sarah had a wicked intelligence about her. An old soul, Mike liked to call it.
It was one thing he and his brother agreed on wholeheartedly. Sarah, at this young age, was too bright for her own good. She was certainly the niece John loved to brag about, and yet he figured they were all going to be in trouble when she hit the teen years. She’d be running them in circles. The little girl he held might not be as knowledgeable as him due to her age, but he was not ashamed to say she was smarter. It was just plain truth.
“Uh…hi, Sarah,” Mel said, a little breathless. She stared at Sarah as though the intensity of her gaze would produce a birth certificate.
But who needed a birth certificate when he had the smartest five-year-old in Pine Grove on board with his plan? It certainly helped that she looked a lot like her father, which, in turn, made her look a lot like him.
“Daddy?” Sarah said. She’d put enough power behind her small voice so that it would carry to Mel. He smiled.
Mel’s jaw literally unhinged. God, Sarah was his favorite niece. His only niece, but what the hell. He looked at Sarah, knowing full well if he kept looking at Mel to gauge her reaction, he’d completely lose it. She was beginning to look borderline hysterical. Hopefully she couldn’t tell just how hard he was trying to keep it together. “Yes, dear?” he choked out.
Sarah smiled at him, those pretty blue eyes of hers sparkling with the knowledge that she had him right where she wanted him. “Can I have an iPhone for Christmas?”
He glanced at Mel and smiled. He knew his niece was smarter than he was, and now he knew she was twice as manipulating. He should have known she’d try to pull something along these lines. She was basically telling him to give her an iPhone or his cover was busted. Un-freaking-believable. “Honey, you remember what Uncle Mike said? He said you were too young to have a phone. I think he’s right.”
“Uncle Mike isn’t my daddy.”
You marvelous, sneaky little shit. “We’ll talk about it later,” he said, loud enough for Mel to hear. It shouldn’t surprise him that Sarah was going to milk the situation for all she could get. He’d been so hell-bent on wanting to tease Mel, he hadn’t thought this little shenanigan through.
Sarah, always a step ahead of adults who underestimated her—which he clearly had—said through her smile, “I’d very much like to talk about it now.”
“You’re pushing it,” he whispered to the little blonde devil.
“You want an actress you’re going to have to pay,” she whispered in return.
Well I’ll be damned. Yes, she was smart, but she still surprised him from time to time. He tightened his hold on her, but she only pinched him in answer. “I think you need more church,” he muttered.
“That’s what my mom says about you.”
Now that was not true. He went to church every Sunday, but he couldn’t very well argue with Sarah about it here. He turned back to Mel, putting an end to his and Sarah’s whisper war. “Kids, huh?” He didn’t know whether to be proud of how smart Sarah was, or horrified at how devious she could be. The clichéd job came to mind: she’d make a great lawyer. He’d feel sorry for anyone who tried to argue a case against her.
“I…I wasn’t aware you had a child.”
The joke had been meant only for a laugh, though looking at Mel now, he saw something in her expression that made him pause. She looked truly stricken, not merely surprised. They’d hung around each other long enough in the past that he could note the difference. He wasn’t a mean person by nature, and had never been the kind to tease another in such a way that they were upset, but he’d never expected her to be hurt by his having a child. For several surreal seconds he could only stare at her.
Before he could let the cat out of the bag, the front door behind him opened, and then he was lost in a series of squeals and promises of Christmas goodies.
“There she is! Your mama called and said you wanted to help me bake some cookies!” Sophie held her arms out and Sarah wiggled in his arms until John put her down.
Sarah ran over to Sophie and gave her a hug. Sophie acted like a grandmother, but she could easily pass for someone in their late thirties. As far as he knew she’d never dated after her divorce. Not once. Behind Sophie was Tim and Christine’s kids, Garrett and Heather, who immediately ran up to Sarah, and within seconds all three disappeared inside a house that, even from where he stood, smelled like cinnamon cookies.
“Thanks, Sophie. Mike appreciates it.”
Every now and then his brother’s wife, Helen, was called in on a day off, and her usual babysitter couldn’t take Sarah. One of the registered nurses at the Pine Grove Regional Medical Center had come down with a fever this morning, so Helen had been called in to replace her. With the kids out on Christmas break, Sarah’s babysitter had taken on a few more children, and not expecting Sarah today, had been unable to fit her in. John had to tend to cattle, getting ahead of this storm in time to help the Edward’s, but Mike was out shopping in Sioux Falls, and couldn’t come home. That had left him to drop off Sarah.
He’d quickly closed the hardware store. He’d stuck a note on the door with his cell number, in case anyone needed any emergency supplies and didn’t want to head out of town. He’d only be gone for an hour or so. Then he’d snatched Sarah up from Helen, who’d rushed off to the hospital, and here he was.
“Anytime,” Sophie said, heading back inside the house. She turned back just before she shut the door. “Do you want any cookies to go? Fresh cup of coffee?”
He shook his head, and she gave him a quick wave goodbye, then looked directly at her daughter before pulling the door shut. If Mel hadn’t been here, Sophie would have never let him go without insisting he come inside to shove hot coffee into his hand. That told him just how much she wanted him and Mel to talk. Wouldn’t surprise him if she locked the door against her daughter to keep her out there with him longer.
He looked back down at Mel, and instead of enjoying the fast one he’d pulled on her, he was feeling pretty guilty, considering at one point she’d looked like someone had hit her with a two-by-four and she was going to start crying at any second.
“Mike appreciates it? Sarah is Mike’s?”
“I was just teasing you. Sarah’s a good actress.” He headed down the porch steps and stopped in front of her, his hands shoved into his winter coat pockets. Lord, that jacket he’d loaned her was a disaster, but he decided to leave the subject be and focus on what he’d just seen. “That bothered you,” he said, stating what he thought was obvious.
She shook her head. “Just surprised me.”
He may not have seen her for years, but he could tell she was lying, because she wouldn’t look him in the eye. In fact, s
he found the front door of her mother’s house suddenly intriguing. “Surprised, huh? You looked a lot more than surprised.”
Her gaze snapped back to his. “Why would you having a child bother me?”
Her question had been posed more like an accusation, and the tone knocked him out of his playful mood. Yeah, why would his having a child bother her? He must have read her wrong. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time. “So, what happened? You fall in a pen of hogs?” he asked, motioning to her jacket with his chin. He knew her brothers were around and they likely had something to do with it. Their trucks were in the drive. But he wanted to change the mood of their conversation, and he figured a half-assed attempt at humor might do the trick.
She looked at the ground, her dark, long lashes covering the green of her eyes as she kept her gaze averted. “Impromptu game of football.”
He wished she’d look at him again. “Full on tackle, huh?”
“You know how they are,” she said to the snow-covered ground.
Seeing her again, a truth he’d long denied just kind of hit him. The type of hit that was strong enough to steal the breath right out of his chest. He’d missed her something fierce. Wished she were home for good and not just visiting.
Their lives had once been so alike and so intertwined. Something inside of his chest literally heated when he was this close to her. It had always been like this.
Both their families owned businesses on Main Street, and they’d attended all the same functions back in the day. Home football games. Brat feeds benefitting one group or another. Church potlucks. When he’d come home from college and had taken all those activities back up in the town he’d grown up in, she’d been gone. No more seeing her a few pews down in their quiet church on a Sunday morning. No more making sure she was warm at football games or asking her to save him a place in line at a fundraiser.