Need You Now (Love in Unknown) (12 page)

Her jaw dropped a little. She stared at him in silence for a few moments. He held his breath, hoping that she'd let her guard down, that she'd let him in for real this time, instead of because she wanted to have sex. Slowly she stood, teetering a little. "I'm going to bed. Nothing is making sense right now and I just... I need to go to bed. You can see yourself out."

He probably should have left after he heard her bedroom door close, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Caine made himself comfortable on the soft, girly sofa, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. He might look back at this night and call himself a total idiot for talking about feelings when all she’d wanted was sex. He'd lay a bet on it. But he and Mel had been through too much for him to throw it all away by letting history repeat itself with a round of drunken sex and morning regrets. He meant every word he'd said to her. He’d chosen her and he hadn't changed his mind.

He’d just drifted off to sleep when he heard footsteps in her bedroom, followed by the distinctive sound of puking echoing from the bathroom. Right on schedule. He remembered Mel's first serious encounter with alcohol. They'd only been dating a few weeks and he'd taken her to a party at one of the fraternity houses. Being an Ivy League party, there'd been cheap wine to go with the cheap beer.

Mel only had maybe two plastic cups full, but she’d started puking on the way back to her dorm. Rather than leaving her to the tender mercies of a resident advisor, he'd taken her back to her dorm room and held her hair as she spent a few hours draped over the toilet of her postage-stamp bathroom. When she finally wore herself out and emptied every ounce of fluid from her stomach, he’d made her drink a little water and take an aspirin. Then, he held her in his arms until she finally fell asleep. Looking back, that might have been the night he’d lost the battle to keep her out of his heart.

He found Mel hanging over the toilet, her body wracked with spasms as it fought against the wine. She let out a ragged groan and pulled back far enough to rest her forehead against the cool porcelain. "Never, never again."

“You’re never going on a date with the stuffy lawyer again? I like the sound of that," he said lightly, taking a seat next to her.

She glared at him under her arm. "I thought I told you to leave."

He smiled. “I was there the first three times you and wine tried to be buddies. I wasn't going to leave you alone when I knew you'd get sick."

“Why did I think it would be a good idea to drink wine? I know it's been over nine years, but I shouldn't have forgotten." She moaned, sounding miserable.

“I vote we blame it on your boring, non-book-reading date." She started to laugh, but it quickly turned into another round of puking. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he used his other hand to hold her ponytail away from her face.

After she subsided a little, he grabbed a washcloth from the edge of the bathtub and rewet it in the sink. Caine draped the cloth over the nape of her neck, hoping to cool her overheated skin. When she spoke again, her voice was rough and scratchy. "Why are you being so nice to me? I've been such a bitch to you since I got back. Especially tonight."

“You haven't been a bitch, sunshine. You've acted like...an ex-girlfriend." He pressed his lips to her temple. Even ragged from a nasty hangover, she was still one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. "And I'm being so nice because the 'ex' part was never my idea."

A lot of things had happened between them, in the past and tonight. But when it came down to it, nothing mattered more than being here right now to make sure she knew she wasn't alone.

Chapter 8

After her really, really stupid late night encounter with Caine, Mel did what she did best. She buried herself in her work and refused to see anything else. A few weeks had passed since the attacks on the clinic and her car, and the town seemed to be getting used to her, if not necessarily accepting of her. Sandra kept the snipes down to ten a day and Anna kept Mel sane. A rhythm began to form— albeit an insistent, some would say obsessive rhythm.

Caine still called her every night at ten thirty on the dot. Since that night, she hadn’t gone on any dates, so she answered the phone, told him she was safely at home, and said good night. Many times, she’d just walked into the apartment from work when he called, but she didn’t need to tell him that. He probably wanted to talk about the night he spent at her apartment, but she had no desire to delve into that.

Truth be told, she was surprised he hadn’t pushed his way into her office or apartment and forced her to deal with it yet. Maybe he wanted to ignore it as much as she did. Pausing in the middle of writing up, a patient’s treatment notes, she laughed at herself. Yeah, right. Caine was just biding his time. That’s what Maddoxes did best.

God, she still couldn’t believe she let him come into her apartment, much less made out with him. She
never
got that drunk. Aside from a strawberry daiquiri or a hard cider when she went out with friends, Mel didn’t really drink. Medically, she knew that getting drunk not only dehydrated your body, it also lowered your mental response time. Which led to you doing really stupid things like making out with your ex-boyfriend and then yelling at him like a maniac.

Groaning, she covered her face with her hand, resting her elbow on the desk. She wished—oh, how she wished— that she couldn’t remember what she’d said. Sadly, it was burned into her head as vividly as the memory of the hangover she’d had the next morning. Why had she touched red wine in the first place? Oh yeah. The lawyer. He’d tried to call her once or twice, but she hadn’t had the guts to call him back. He was a nice guy, but he didn’t seem like the type who would sit on the floor with her and hold her hair while she puked.

That part of the other night still confused her. She’d thrown herself at Caine and he’d responded. That part made sense. Whatever their problems might have been back in college, chemistry hadn’t been one of them. Mel shifted a little in her chair, her body heating up at the memory of Caine’s hands on her. While she’d enjoyed what she thought of as healthy physical relationships with Daniel and Andrew, neither of them had set her on fire the way Caine did. He made her want to velcro herself to him and just live on his kisses the second his mouth touched hers.

She would have slept with him that night if he hadn’t gone all noble on her. All it had taken in college was one drunken deflowering and he’d been in her bed at least three nights a week. Now, he was too honorable to take advantage of her. That hurt. More than she was willing to admit. After two and a half years of Andrew making sure she felt less than she was, being rejected by Caine wounded her more than it should have. Now, with a clear head, she appreciated that he’d stopped it, but as a woman, she wanted to know she still had the power to make a man lose himself. Not that she was likely to do that now. Not with Caine, anyway. Holding someone’s hair while they dry heaved for three hours tended to put a damper on any sort of physical attraction.

Mel glanced at the clock. Eight at night already? Yikes. She looked at the medical book on her desk she’d been using for research for a tough case. There were only a few more pages in this section on childhood rashes. She could finish it up before coming home and grabbing some dinner.

The office phone rang. Shit. After hours calls never ended well. Sighing, she picked up the phone. “Unknown Family Clinic, Dr. Carr speaking.”

“
Poor bitch. All alone in the big old house. Get out of town. Go far away from here. Someone might get hurt."
The creepy, androgynous voice drifted through the line. Mel's body stiffened.

“Who is this? What do you want?” No answer. “I’m not leaving town. This is my home and I’m staying.”

Slamming down the receiver, she allowed herself a full body shiver. Maybe she should tell Gage about the calls. This was starting to go beyond creepy and into the realm of scary.

It took a bit of effort, but she finally regained control of her thoughts and went back to work. Work. The one constant, comforting thing in her life. If she ever lost it, she’d probably go crazy.

Halfway through the pages, a small cooler dropped onto her desk, causing her to nearly jump out of her chair. Her heart pounded like a racehorse’s hooves. She looked up, hand on her chest, trying to get a grip on her breathing.

“Mom!”

“I did knock, sweetheart.” Emma Carr stood on the other side of the desk, smiling at her daughter. The understanding aura around her mother was a little disconcerting. “You were too wrapped up in your book, as usual. I swear, your father used to have to carry you out of your room to get you to come eat when you got into a book. When did you last eat a real meal?”

“Um.” Mel shrunk back guiltily. “I think Anna grabbed something for us from the diner yesterday.”

Emma  made the chastising tsking noise she'd perfected during some of the kids’ less than stellar stunts. Mel seemed to recall that tactic was highly effective when Mama found out the boys convinced Mel to take all of their best mixing bowls to use as molds for clay army helmets. Only one of the glass bowls had survived. “Melody Elaine! I know you didn’t spend the past eleven years learning how to be a doctor only to totally ignore the basic steps of taking care of yourself. No wonder you look like a rail. You have to eat.”

“I eat.” Mel gestured toward the small refrigerator set up in one corner of her office. “Look in there. Anna keeps it stocked with yogurt and string cheese and fruit.”

“I’m not sure what kind of nutrition they’re teaching you these days, but I’m fairly certain that, healthy though they are, those things don’t count as a meal.” Emma opened the cooler. Tupperware clouded with steam replaced a few of the books that crowded the desk. “Your brother made some fabulous spaghetti Bolognese for dinner tonight with homemade garlic bread. Now put that book away and eat.”

Mel sighed. The aroma of tomatoes and garlic didn’t take long to make her stomach roar with hunger. Mel might burn water, but Micah had inherited his cooking talent from both Emma and Ethan. After years of working in fancy kitchens, Micah’s skills had far surpassed their parents’. Mel began to salivate as she pried open the container.

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.