“Then you’ll never get to be a grandpa.” She kissed his cheek on her way past him. “I’ll give you a few minutes. If you’re not back, I’ll send Mom in here to find you.”
He cringed. “She’ll chew me out.”
But Melanie knew better. Her mother was her father’s perfect complement. And she hadn’t realized it until that moment, but her parents had the kind of relationship she wanted for herself. A lasting, strong partnership strengthened by love and honesty.
“For your sake, I’ll ask Gabe to put his hat back on.” She kissed her dad’s cheek as she passed him and left the stifling heat of the garage behind.
“How did that go?” Mom asked when Melanie returned to the table.
“He let me escape with two of his precious home brews,” Melanie said, handing one over to Gabe. “No matter how terrible it is, you have to say it’s the best you’ve tasted.”
“You’d have me lie?”
“To spare my daddy’s feelings?” She twisted the top off and took a sip, surprised that it was actually good. Dad’s early concoctions hadn’t been fit for consumption, but he had certainly improved with practice. “You bet I would.”
“She’s a bit of a daddy’s girl,” Mom said. “Always has been.”
“This one is actually pretty good,” Melanie said, inspecting the blue and gray label that read Anderson’s Secret Ale. “You won’t have to lie.”
A few minutes later, Daddy returned with a beer for himself. Her mother never drank, but was ever supportive of his various hobbies. As soon as Melanie spotted her dad, she nonchalantly placed Gabe’s hat on his head, slipped the chef knife from its position next to her father’s plate and hid it under the table. Gabe offered her a confused look before he smiled at her dad.
“Great-tasting brew, Mark,” he said. “How long have you been working at it?”
“Couple of years,” he said, tossing back a long swallow of his latest invention. “Everything I brewed at the start tasted like goat piss, but Melanie liked it for some reason.”
Melanie choked on her swallow of beer and set it aside, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she struggled not to cough up a lung. “It was horrible,” she said after she caught her breath. “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“She’s very sensitive to other people’s feelings,” Gabe said. “Well, except for Jacob’s. She has a blind spot with that guy.”
“He’s a jerk,” Melanie said.
“Biggest softie on the planet,” Gabe said. “You just have to see him around his daughter to recognize it. Kind of like your old man here.”
Melanie scowled at him. “My daddy is nothing like Jacob Silverton.”
Gabe’s knowing grin had her seeing red.
“Jacob is the lead singer, right?” Mom asked.
How did she know that?
“I filled her in while you were in the garage,” Gabe said to Melanie. “I think you’d like him, Linda.”
“I’d love to meet him. Actually, I’d love to meet all your bandmates. They all sound so interesting.”
“That’s one way to describe them.” Gabe laughed and patted Mom on the arm.
Dad didn’t seem to appreciate their chumminess, but Melanie’s relief was absolute. If Mom liked Gabe, she knew it wouldn’t be long before her dad came around. Mom had never taken a liking to Melanie’s past boyfriends, so she couldn’t help but take her obvious affection for this one as a positive.
“So how’s Nikki?” Mom asked, pushing her empty plate toward the center of the table.
“She seems better now that she’s out of that hospital,” Gabe said.
Melanie squeezed her eyes shut. She’d forgotten to warn him about her mother’s intense dislike for one Nicole Swanson.
“Hospital?” Mom asked.
“She went voluntarily,” Gabe said.
“How about dessert?” Melanie hopped up from the table and grabbed Gabe by the wrist. “Mind giving me a hand?” she asked, but she wouldn’t give him the opportunity to refuse.
“I thought Nikki was out of your life for good,” Mom said.
Gabe’s eyebrows drew together, and he glanced at Melanie.
“She was in need of a friend,” Melanie said, tugging on Gabe until he finally stood.
“That girl is always in need of something.” Mom exchanged a knowing look with Dad.
“Melanie’s too kind-hearted to turn away anyone as broken as Nikki,” Gabe said over his shoulder as Melanie towed him to the house.
“Too gullible, you mean?” Mom said.
Gabe didn’t have the opportunity to answer because Melanie tugged him into the house through the sliding door and closed it behind him.
“Is it common for you to hide things from your parents?” Gabe asked.
“Certain things,” Melanie admitted. “They really don’t like Nikki.”
“I gathered as much. Can I ask why?”
“They think she uses me.”
“She totally uses you.”
“I know, but I’m okay with that. They’re not. They think it’s best if I don’t associate with her at all.”
“A week ago, I would have agreed with them, but Nikki needs someone like you in her life.”
Melanie nodded. “They’ll never see it that way. It’s best to just not talk about her around them. They both get all riled up.”
“Now you tell me.”
She wrung her hands, and her engagement ring caught her eye, which reminded her . . . “I told my dad I’m moving to Austin.”
“I’m sure he took that well,” Gabe said.
“I don’t think he’s processed it all yet. Maybe we should escape before he does.”
The door slid open, and Mom looked into the kitchen at the two of them. “Your father tells me that you’re moving in together. In Austin.”
Too late for escape.
Chapter Nine
Gabe’s first meeting with his future in-laws could have gone better, but it also could have gone a lot worse. At least he hadn’t been chased off their property with a shotgun. Melanie was obviously upset, oscillating between hurt and rage over the argument she’d gotten into with her mother before she’d slammed out of the house with Gabe having no choice but to follow. Oddly, the argument had been over Nikki, not himself. Her parents were more on board with her marrying a tattooed, unemployed rock-star thug than living with the train wreck that was her best friend.
“So I take it they don’t know Nikki lives with you now,” Gabe said, instantly wishing he could keep his mouth shut as Melanie leaned so far against the passenger door he feared she might roll right out onto the side of the freeway.
“Of course they don’t know. You saw how they reacted.”
“Is there a reason why they don’t like her? Well, besides the fact that she’s unstable and uses you. Your parents don’t seem like the type to turn on someone in need.”
Melanie sighed. “You remember that story I told you about the tattooed bikers who harassed me as a girl?”
He nodded and took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at her. Her hands were shaking as she knotted her fingers in the hem of her sundress.
“Nikki was flirting with them and called me over.”
“Weren’t you like twelve?”
“Thirteen.”
“That’s no better. Was Nikki . . . ?” He couldn’t bring himself to ask if a little girl—and a thirteen-year-old was definitely a girl—had been promiscuous.
“Sexually active?”
Gabe winced and nodded. It would be bad enough to think of such a young girl fooling around with boys her age, but those bikers Melanie had described to him had sounded like grown men.
“Her father’s abuse started in elementary school.”
Gabe swallowed the nausea rising up his throat. “And your parents hold that against her?”
“What?” Melanie blurted. “Of course they don’t. She put me in what could have been a very dangerous situation, and they never f
orgave her for that.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. She probably thought you’d like the attention, because she likes it.” He could understand wanting to protect a daughter at the expense of someone else, but the more he learned about Nikki, the more he wanted to protect her—not only from those who might hurt her, but from herself. Someone needed to. He realized that Melanie had been doing that long before he’d come along.
“I know it wasn’t intentional. I don’t think most of the things she does that hurt me are.”
“What kinds of things?” He took her hand, smiling as the diamond he’d bought only hours ago dug into his palm.
Melanie shrugged. “Things.”
“I thought we were going to be honest with each other. Trust each other.”
“She sleeps with my boyfriends. Not all of them.” There had been that one who’d turned her down.
“You don’t have to worry about that with me,” he said, lifting her hand and kissing the inside of her wrist. “I’m a one-woman man and you’re my one.”
She smiled, her eyes misty. “Am I stupid because I keep taking her back? She always worms her way back into my life no matter how hard I push her away.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid at all,” he said, pulling into the parking lot behind her apartment building and putting the car into park. He was glad he was finished driving so he could brush her hair out of her lovely face and kiss the worry out of her expression. “You have a generous heart, Mel. Enough for Nikki and for me, for your parents and for all our future children.”
She lowered her eyes, which surprised him. He figured she’d take that as a compliment.
“Gabe?” she said after a moment. “If that groupie’s baby turns out to be yours, I . . . I don’t think I can love it.” She grimaced as if she’d said she wanted to harm the child.
Gabe hadn’t given Lindsey or her unborn baby a single thought for days. “Will you be jealous if I love it?”
She looked up, and the turmoil in her hazel eyes cut him so deep, he felt it through his entire chest. She nodded and closed her eyes, sending a single tear coursing down her cheek. She dashed it away.
“I don’t know why I feel this way. It’s not the baby’s fault. And if it’s part of you . . .” She reached for the door handle and tried to escape the very uncomfortable conversation she’d initiated. Gabe grabbed her hand to make her stay put.
“Finish what you were going to say.”
“If it’s part of you, I should love it. I know I should. I just . . . can’t.”
Gabe wasn’t sure what to say to that. He felt no connection to Lindsey’s unborn baby, but he would be a good father to the child if it was his. He’d already told Melanie as much. He wasn’t going to take back that vow just to make her feel better, because he’d meant it. He had no doubt that she’d come around if his newborn baby was staring up at her. She wouldn’t be able to hold a grudge anything so innocent and pure. He knew she wouldn’t. But they’d cross that bridge if—and in his mind that was a big fucking if—they came to it.
“If that’s the way you feel . . .”
“But I hate feeling this way. I’m a terrible person for wishing a baby didn’t exist.”
“You’re not a terrible person,” he said. “You just have a terrible wish.”
She jerked free of his grasp and opened the door. She climbed out and slammed the door behind her, clutching her stomach and breathing hard, as if she’d just played Sole Regret’s set list with one drumstick. This was really tearing her up inside. He climbed out of the car and moved to stand beside her, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and dialing Owen. The continually silent bassist didn’t answer Gabe’s call, so he left a message.
“Hey, Owen. I hate to ask anything of you at a time like this. I know you must be having a hard time with your brother’s situation.” God, Gabe felt like an ass for even bothering him. “I know it’s probably not something on your mind right now, but I was wondering when Lindsey is going to have that paternity test. I’d like to know if her baby is mine as soon as possible. I’m getting married, you see, and it’s something I need to know before I make this wonderful woman pledge her forever to me. So if you have any details on that test, please call or text. And if you need anything—absolutely anything—don’t hesitate to ask. I’m here for you. Take care, bro. I’ll stop in to see you when I get back to Austin in a couple days. And if you haven’t made up with Kellen yet—I still don’t know what he did—but for fuck’s sake, dude, give the guy a break. You know he’s your anchor. Always has been.”
Feeling stupid for leaving such a long and sappy message for a guy while Melanie listened in, Gabe disconnected the call and tucked his phone back into his pocket.
“I’m not sure if I should be glad or afraid that you did that,” Melanie said.
“I thought you wanted to know if the baby’s mine.”
“I do,” she said. “But what if I’m not ready?”
“Will you be ready in three months when the baby is born?”
She sucked in a laugh. “Probably not.”
“I don’t want this hanging over us. We need a plan of action.”
“I thought rock stars always went with the flow,” she said, linking her arm through his and tugging him toward the apartment.
He cocked his head to one side. “Have you met me?”
She laughed. “Fortunately, I have, and I never once took you for a rock star.”
For some reason her jest wiped the smile from his face.
*****
The next morning, Gabe filled the trunks and back seats of two cars with a bunch of what he considered useless girl stuff that would soon be cluttering up his house. He was a little cranky because his mattress-time with Melanie had been interrupted by Nikki forcefully inserting herself between them so she could sleep. This entailed her cuddling with Melanie, or rather, wrapping herself around Melanie like a starving python. There was no way in hell Gabe would put up with that bullshit when they reached Austin. If Nikki got scared in the night, she would just have to sleep with a pair of hot, smelly, slobbery, oft-times gassy Labradors.
“Are we stopping for breakfast?” Nikki asked, sweeping her hair back with the pair of white-rimmed sunglasses on top of her head.
“Not if we’re going to make it to Dallas by three,” Gabe said. That was when he’d told Adam to expect them, and Gabe wasn’t typically late for the appointments he made.
“But I’m hungry, and Melanie drank the last of the milk.”
“I asked you if you wanted some,” Melanie said, but she opened the trunk and rummaged around in bags until she came up with a box of granola bars. “Enjoy,” she said, handing a bar to Nikki.
Nikki immediately opened the wrapper and took a bite. “You’re riding with me, aren’t you?” she asked with her mouth full.
Gabe hid a self-satisfied grin. He’d deliberately crammed several heavy boxes, a thick comforter, and several extra pillows in the front seat of the Bug so Melanie would ride with him in her Toyota.
Melanie lifted a brow at her friend. “Would you ride with you if you had the chance to ride with him?” She jabbed a thumb in Gabe’s direction.
“Good point,” Nikki said. “I’ll ride with Gabe. You drive my car.”
For a second, Gabe thought Melanie was going to agree to that arrangement. He opened his mouth to protest, but Melanie said, “If this is going to work, you have to recognize that Gabe is my top priority. If you want to come, you will drive your car and I will ride with Gabe in mine, got it?”
Nikki crinkled her nose at Gabe, but took another bite of her granola bar and swung open the door of the Bug. “I’m stopping with you in Dallas,” she said as she climbed into her frivolous melon-orange car. Unlike Gabe, she actually looked good behind the wheel. “I want to say hey to Adam.”
She closed her door and started the car’s engine. Melanie knocked on the glass, and Nikki rolled down her window. “I’ll be careful.”
&nb
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