His Melody (22 page)

“Thank you.” She put a hand on his arm. He’d left his coveralls back at the garage. He now wore khaki shorts and a blue T-shirt along with a beat-up pair of old loafers and a baseball cap.

“Welcome.” He kissed her cheek before pulling the hat low over her forehead. “We’d better get down to the river.” He ran his fingers over the side of her face, touched the backs of them to her collarbone.

“What’s the rush?” She wanted him to move his fingers lower, but he took them away from her instead.

“If we don’t get going now, we might not make it there,” he said, giving her a hungry look as he put the key in the ignition and turned it.

She scooted closer to him on the bench seat. “Is that a promise or a threat?” Maybe she didn’t want to make it there. She started to lose sight of her goal while sitting so close to him, breathing in the strong, clean scent of the soap he’d used to clean up a little while earlier.

He put the truck in reverse and backed out of his spot. “Little bit of both.” He put the truck in gear before resting a hand on her knee.

“Good,” she said.

He moved his hand halfway up her thigh.

When they got to the river and saw Donnie’s SS low rider, Austin exhaled slowly through his nose. “You’re not gonna let this thing alone, are you?”

“No, I’m not going to give up on you two if that’s what you mean,” she said. “Now, you gonna teach me how to fish or not?”

“Let’s go,” Austin said. He hopped out of the truck. Melody hopped out of her side. Before she could offer to help, Austin had grabbed both poles and the tackle box. They headed down a dirt path from the parking area to the river.

Donnie was sitting on the riverbank with his own fishing supplies when they got there. He leaned back on the rock he was sitting on and said, “Well, well.”

“Thought you were getting rid of me for the rest of the day, didn’t you?” Austin said. He reached behind him for Melody’s hand, and she gave it.

Donnie lifted his eyebrows well over his black sunglasses. “You invited him.” Donnie had enlisted in the marines for his first few years after high school, and he said that now he couldn’t stand to wear any kind of sunglasses except for plain black ones because that was all he’d ever worn while in the corps.

“I did,” Melody said.

“I should have known,” Donnie muttered.

“You two need to stop shutting each other out. Do you know what it’s doing to your family? Your mother?”

“Look, Melody,” Donnie said. “I know you mean well, but what happened between us…it’s done, and there’s no going back.” Donnie snapped the line on his pole from the water. “There’s just no ‘fixing’ us up and letting bygones be bygones. He’s a snake, blood or not, and I’d just as soon as not have anything to do with a snake.”

“What if we just sit here and fish together? You two don’t have to say anything to each other. We’ll just all three fish.”

Donnie stopped reeling his line in. “Yeah, well, I guess too much talking’d scare the fish off anyway.”

Melody turned to Austin. “So show me how to do this.”

He grinned. “First, you’ll need one of these.” He handed her the rod. Then he showed her how to bait the hook and cast the line. After that he said, “Now, if you actually catch anything, I’ll show you the rest.”

“Ha ha.” Melody rolled her eyes, but she was laughing as she did it. She sat on the broad, flat rock next to Donnie. Austin sat on her other side. The three of them sat there, waiting for something to bite and listening to insects buzz by and birds chatter off in the distance. Occasionally, Donnie took a swig of beer; he’d brought his red cooler down to the river with him. He offered a beer to Melody, but she declined it. Austin sat hunched over, watching the river, with his mouth set in a firm line. She would’ve loved to know what he was thinking, but didn’t dare ask.

“I think I got something,” Melody said. The rod started vibrating in her hand.

“Hold the rod steady,” Donnie said.

“Start reeling it in. Don’t give him too much slack,” Austin said.

The two men started firing directions at her about how to reel in her catch in between arguing with each other, and she couldn’t make sense out of any of it because they were both jabbering at the same time and often saying contradictory things.

Austin had moved behind her after she stood in order to get a better grip on her pole. He put his strong arms on the outside of hers and guided her as he spoke. Together, they reeled in a decent-sized, extremely slimy catfish.

“I did it!” Melody shouted. “Gross,” she said after getting her first close up look at the bug-eyed gray-brown fish.

“Be careful of the whiskers,” Austin said.

“I’m going to let you handle the whiskers and everything else,” she said, handing him the pole.

He laughed. “I thought you wanted to fish.”

“Yeah, well, it’s all fun until you actually catch one,” she said.

“Is that your philosophy about other things as well?” he asked. He took the fish off the hook. It flopped around on the ground.

“Throw it back. Please,” she said.

He did as asked.

“To answer your earlier question, not always,” she said.
 

He wiped his hands on his shorts. “Good to know.”

“That’s the question she should be asking you, stud,” Donnie said from where he sat on the rock. Austin remained standing, but cast his line back into the water. He clenched his rod, and his jaw locked.

They fished in silence for a while. Eventually, Donnie said, “You never told her about Kristen, I reckon,” Donnie said.

“Not really,” Austin said quietly.

Melody remembered the name going with the cashier with the sad eyes in Zip’s Supermarket. Austin had mentioned her that night in the bar, too.

“So why don’t you tell her?”

“Donnie was crazy about Kristen, but she had eyes for me.”

Donnie mumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

Austin continued with the story like Donnie hadn’t made a sound. “He asked her out, and they went out a couple times. Then she asked me to one of those Sadie-Hawkins dances.”

“We dated, and you stole her,” Donnie said. “If you’re going to tell it, tell it right.”

“I didn’t steal her.”

“Yeah, go right on telling your lies like you have for the past twenty-nine years.”
“Oh, Lord.” Austin continued, “Just so we can get on with this, let’s say I stole her.”

“You did.” Donnie jerked his line from the water. “And you broke her heart by cheating on her with Lil and then you ran off to New York City and left them both behind,” Donnie said, nostrils flaring.

Austin looked down at his hands.

“She was never the same after that.” Donnie shook his head in disgust. “I loved her with everything I had, but—didn’t matter. Wouldn’t even look at me after
he
broke her heart.” Donnie glared at Austin before continuing. “She married the first guy who came along after Austin. She has four kids and a husband, but she
ain’t
happy. She’s miserable. I hear she’s a drunk, I don’t know if that part’s true, but whether it is or not, all her misery is ‘cause of you,” Donnie said. He glowered at his brother.

Austin stared into the river, still grasping his fishing pole.

“I don’t know why Dad left you everything. You’re such a fuck-up.”

“I don’t know why, either, but he did.”

“You know you should have given me and Avery our due and gotten the hell out of here. Why’d you come back here and mess everything up for everybody?”

“Funny. I came back here to try and fix everything. Obviously, that didn’t work out.” Austin glanced at his brother, his upper lip curled in a sneer.

Melody said, “Donnie, are you happy with Nina?”

Donnie glanced at her sideways. “That’s a strange question to ask. And the answer is yes of course.”

Melody nodded, looking down at the sun glinting off the red metal of her rod before turning back to Donnie. “Do you love her?”

“The answer, once again, is yes. Of course.”

“Then would it be fair to say that things worked out for the best?”

Donnie didn’t say anything.

Melody reeled in her line and set her pole on the ground beside Donnie’s. “I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.” A shiver went through her spine as she remembered her conversation with Blanche yet again. Either the woman was really wise as well as a little crazy or she really did have the gift of foresight. In any case, Melody had a feeling she’d been right about Melody being there to help heal old wounds.

Donnie pulled her out of her reverie by speaking. “Are you now? You really believe that? So you’re telling me to turn the old cheek, huh? So he can do something else shady to me? Steal from me yet again? Who knows what he’d steal this time?”

“I don’t want to steal anything from you, Donnie,” Austin said quietly. “I also don’t want to feel like I’m paying for the same dumb old mistakes over and over. You know.” Austin whipped his head around so that he was facing his brother. “You act like you’ve never made a mistake, never done anything dumb in your whole life.”

“Have you?” Melody asked. “Ever made a mistake, Donnie?”

Donnie grinned, sat back on the rock, and popped open a fresh beer that he’d taken out of the cooler a few moments earlier. “There was this one time.
During basic training.
I got the bright idea to sneak a girl back to my room at the barracks even though we were pretty much on lockdown at the time.” Donnie laughed to himself. “Whew, boy, did I pay for that one.”

Melody grinned. “You’re done paying for it now, though, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I see where you’re going with this one, Mel.” Donnie stood up and stretched. “I gotta take a whiz. I’ll be back in a sec.” He walked off toward the woods.

Melody scooted closer to Austin on the rock. He put down his pole and put his arm around her shoulders. She turned his face up to his. He gave her a gentle peck on the lips.

“I done good, huh?” she asked.

He laughed. “I reckon.” He pulled her closer. “I’m going to miss you like crazy, you know that?”

“You could always come with me,” she said. “Have you thought any more about what I said?”

“And live in Aphrodisia’s shadow?” he said in a joking, good-natured tone that had a bit of an edge to it. “Nah. No thanks, babe.”

“But you wouldn’t—”

“Don’t ruin the moment,” he murmured before capturing her lips in a full, searing kiss. He moved his hand under the hem of her shirt, pressing his rough, calloused hand to the hot, soft skin of her flat abdomen. She moaned and leaned into the kiss. All coherent thought left her brain. She was going to miss him like crazy, too.
All because he was still being stubborn.
At least she got him to budge on one thing. Maybe that was a sign of things to come. She could only hope.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After they left the river, Melody and Austin took the long way home. She watched the trees and farms passing by the window on her side of the truck.

Ahead, she saw a shed-like building with a low roof. A hand-painted sign on the side of the road leading toward it advertised fresh produce for sale.

“Austin, can we stop there? At the produce stand?” Melody asked. She loved visiting the huge farmer’s market back home in DeKalb. There were no farmer’s markets in Sweet Neck—no need for them when almost everybody who wasn’t a farmer had at least a small vegetable garden patch in their backyards.

“Sure,” Austin said, slowing down the truck. He pulled off the road several yards away from the building, which wasn’t far from a gas station.

“I want to pick up a few things for your mother and the house,” Melody said, opening her door. She hurried over to the stand.

“Hello,” an older man with a shock of white hair and a weathered face gave her a partially toothless smile.

“Hi,” she said, returning the smile. Her eyes roamed over the bright oranges, yellows, reds, and greens of the tomatoes, squash, peppers, cabbages, and other vegetables on display. Over to the side were watermelons, cantaloupes, strawberries, and even a few bunches of grapes.

“Hi, Gene,” said Austin, walking up behind her.

“Austin Holt! Good to see you, boy!” Gene said, holding out his hand. Austin grabbed it and shook. “How’s your mom and them?”

“Everybody’s good. How are your wife and Beverley?” Austin said.

“Good, good. I don’t know who’s more stubborn is all.”

Austin laughed. He leaned in and murmured to Melody, “Beverley is his goat.”
Melody nodded and laughed, loving having him so close.

“Who’s your friend?” Gene asked.

“I’m sorry, don’t know where my manners went. Gene, this is Melody. She’s from Atlanta, but she’s staying here for a while. Melody, this is Gene. One of the best farmers there ever was and all-around good guy. Knows his way around a tiller motor, too,” Austin said.

Melody smiled and shook Gene’s hand. She chatted with him while she picked out her fruits and vegetables, but something kept nagging at the back of her mind about the way Austin had introduced her. It made her feel like her time there was so temporary. Well, she guessed it was, but still. Was he in a hurry to get rid of her?