Wild For You (Always a Bridesmaid 3) (9 page)

Chapter Seven

The scene at the police station was bad, but not as bad as Nick had been expecting. Melody didn’t cry, and Nick didn’t give in to the urge to punch the wall when he heard the exact details of what this Seth bastard had done to her.

Nash, of course, was a total pro, as Nick had known he would be—his big brother had always been the perfect one.

Nash made Melody feel safe and listened to, and assured her that her identity would be kept secret, even from her family, if that’s what she wanted. He sent a team to search the bar for signs of a struggle and issued a “stop and hold” order to make sure other officers in the county had Seth’s description and knew he was wanted for questioning in Summerville.

Nash assured Melody that she was doing the right thing. Even if this ended in nothing more than a misdemeanor charge and fine, she’d still done something important. She’d stood up for herself, and hopefully helped deter Seth from victimizing another woman.

Given the situation, Nick couldn’t have asked for things to go more smoothly. Still, after two hours of statements and paperwork, relieved was too gentle a word to describe how grateful he was to be walking out of the station with his arm around Melody.

Melody, the girl he was dating.

The thought was simultaneously weird as hell, and the best thing that had happened to him in years. He just hoped he was ready for this. He hadn’t planned on getting involved with anyone, but he couldn’t deny that it felt way better to be making plans with Melody than thinking of new ways to avoid her. And it wasn’t like he could keep her out of his mind for more than ten minutes at a time anyway.

He was already slipping on the concrete at the edge of the Relationship pool, might as well dive in and see what the water was like.

They drove to the diner in silence, but not an uncomfortable one. They just both needed time to process the events of the evening and pull themselves together. As soon as they were seated in a shiny red diner booth, two cups of coffee steaming on the table between them, the conversation came easier than Nick had expected.

They talked about Melody’s time in culinary school, and Nick’s apprenticeship with an Atlanta tattoo artist. Melody confessed that she was surprised by how much she loved Nick’s work, and that she had never expected a tattoo to affect her as strongly as his phoenix.

Nick was about to tell her that he had been just as affected by her singing—he really had been ridiculously psyched when he thought he’d have the chance to hear her sing tonight—when her cell phone rang.

Melody glanced at the display and frowned.

“Who is it?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “But I guess I should answer, in case it’s someone at the police department.”

She tapped the screen and brought the phone to her ear, but after her initial “hello,” she fell silent, lips parting in surprise as the person on the other end of the line spoke rapidly in a distressed tone. Nick couldn’t make out the other person’s words, but the fact that he or she was upset came through loud and clear.

“No, please, Lila,” Melody said after several minutes. “No, really, I— Please, I—” She broke off, obviously having difficulty getting a word in. “It isn’t your fault. Really. Please don’t blame yourself.” She paused, nodding at something the other woman was saying, “Yes. Okay. Absolutely. I appreciate your call.”

Melody met Nick’s eyes, giving him a reassuring smile. He relaxed the hands he’d fisted on top of the table. He hadn’t even realized he’d tensed up until that moment, but something about Melody stirred up protective instincts he usually only felt around his nieces and nephews. It was strange, but not in a bad way.

Not a bad way at all.

“Oh, really?” Melody’s smile widened. “Thank you so much, I—” She nodded for a few beats before adding, “All right. I’ll definitely think about. Thanks again, Lila. Have a good night.”

She hung up, blinking at the phone before looking up at him. “That was Lila, the bass player for
Ghost Town Double Wide
,” she said. “Apparently the police called her to see if she had any information on Seth’s whereabouts. They told her he’d tried to attack a girl at the bar, and she was calling to apologize. Seth’s out of the band and she plans to talk to the manager of
The Horse and Rider
about getting him banned from the bar for life.”

“That’s great.” Nick frowned as an uncomfortable thought drifted through his head. “But how did she know you were the girl the police were talking about? I thought Nash was keeping that confidential.”

“She heard what Seth had done and put two and two together,” Melody said, slipping her phone into her purse. “Apparently he was talking about me the other night in a way that made Lila and the others uncomfortable.”

“Asshole,” Nick cursed.

Melody sighed. “Yeah. But she said that she never thought he was dangerous, just gross, or she would have called to warn me. Anyway, whatever he said was the last straw for her. Lila and the other two band members have been debating getting rid of him for a while. They kicked him out yesterday, and are looking for a replacement. She said they were just waiting to make sure they had a drummer lined up before she asked me to take the job as their new lead singer.”

Nick’s eyebrows lifted. “What do you think about that? Would you be uncomfortable in the bar after what happened?”

“ I don’t know… As long as Seth isn’t allowed in, I don’t think so,” she said, her expression firming with determination. “I don’t want to let what he did make me afraid. If I do, then he wins.”

Nick shook his head. She just kept surprising him.

“What?” she asked.

“I knew you were tough, but…I’m impressed,” he said, nudging her foot affectionately under the table. “And proud of you, if that doesn’t sound too condescending.”

“It doesn’t, though you have done condescending pretty well in the past,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him as their harried waitress set their plates down and scurried over to get the order of another table.

“Sorry,” Nick said with a sheepish grin. “Treating you like a kid helped me keep my mind off how much I wanted to kiss you.”

“But now you don’t have to keep your mind off of how much you want to kiss me,” she said, leaning across the table to brush a kiss against his lips.

Nick’s eyes slid closed and electricity skittered through him like a tattoo needle drawn along the surface of his skin, setting his nerve endings to sizzling. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but by the time Melody sat back down, his jeans were already tighter than they were before.

The way she affected him was wild. It was going to be hell keeping his hands off her.

Still, he couldn’t help but wish she’d agreed to his ten date minimum. For some reason, the more he got to know her and want her, the more he wanted to wait.

“I don’t think we should count this as date one,” Nick said as they dug into their food—pancakes and bacon for him, strawberry crepes and sausage on the side for her. “I want to take you somewhere nice.”

“This is plenty nice,” Melody said. “I’m not a high maintenance girl, Nick. I’m as happy at a diner as a fancy restaurant.” She shrugged and stabbed another bite of crepe. “And I know neither of us has a lot of money to spare right now.”

“I thought you just got a raise,” he said, teasing.

She rolled her eyes while she chewed. “Yeah, two hundred dollars a month, right in time for my rent to go up a hundred and fifty dollars in October. My landlord is a monster.”

“My landlord is cool,” Nick said. “John and I rent a place above a bodega near the bowling alley. It’s not in the best part of town, and smells like chips sometimes, but it’s huge and only five hundred a month.”

“You’re kidding me,” she said, eyes widening as she shook her head. “Maybe I should look into something near downtown. I just hate to move.”

“Moving fucking sucks,” he agreed, pausing when he realized what he’d said. “Sorry about that.”

“About what?” she asked, cocking her head.

“You know, the bad language.” He shrugged and stuffed another bite into his mouth, feeling uncomfortable for bringing attention to it if she hadn’t noticed.

“As long as you’re not being mean to me, Nick, I don’t give a fuck about your language,” she said in the sweetest voice imaginable.

The combo of the sweet voice, innocent smile, and enthusiastic use of the “f-word” was enough to make Nick choke on his pancake, and Melody break out into laughter. When he finally recovered and was able to suck down a drink of water, she was still grinning, a satisfied gleam in her eyes.

“You’re pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you?” he asked. “Are you always this unpredictable?”

“I don’t know.” Her smile grew a little wider. “I’ll confess that I’m not totally myself lately. I’ve been trying new things and so far I’ve been enjoying a little unpredictability in my life. Is that okay with you?”

“That’s more than okay with me,” he said, appreciation in his tone. “But I’m still not tattooing you.”

Her lips pushed into a pout. “Why not? I wasn’t joking. I really love your work. I haven’t been able to get that phoenix out of my mind.”

He almost confessed that he didn’t tattoo girls he was sleeping with, not since he was twenty and a girl threatened to cut his dick off for working on her the day before he broke up with her. Nick had assumed she would just be glad to have received the tattoo free of charge, but Viola hadn’t seen things that way.

Instead, he bit his lip and thought for a minute. He didn’t want to think of Melody as just another girl he was sleeping with. She was already more than that, and they hadn’t even slept together yet, so…

“Give it six months,” he said, stabbing another bite of pancake. “If you still want it then, I’ll do it in exchange for a kiss and a plate of that shepherd’s pie you made for the Downey wedding.”

“Sounds like a deal.” Melody smiled, but it wasn’t any of her usual smiles. There was something nervous beneath the surface, nervous but excited. Nick recognized the feeling because he felt it, too. He wasn’t sure what was happening between them, but so far every moment he spent with Melody was better than the last.

They finished their meal and Nick drove her home in her car, assuring her he could catch the bus across town to his place.

“My car doesn’t work half the time. I’ve got the bus schedule memorized,” he said, lingering in her doorway. “I had fun tonight. Well, most of tonight,” he amended.

“Me, too,” she said, leaning against the doorframe. The lamplight from inside caught her hair and turned it into a halo around her face. “Thank you. For everything you did.”

“Thank you for giving me a chance to show you I’m not always an asshole.”

She laughed. “You didn’t exhibit even a smidgeon of asshole-ish-ness all night.”

“It’s a new record,” he said, grinning as he leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Good night.”

“Good night,” she whispered, her cheek brushing against his lips again.

Soft cheek, so soft he wanted to kiss it again. So he did. And then he couldn’t seem to resist letting his lips tease along her jaw, down her neck to her bare shoulder. His tongue slipped out, teasing along her clavicle as her breath rushed out in a breathy little sigh that left no doubt she was as affected by the chemistry between them as he was.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in for a little while?” she asked.

“I shouldn’t,” he said, forcing himself to pull away and take a step back into the hall. “But do you want to hang out tomorrow? I’m booked at the shop until three, but I can get John to cover after that. We could go out to the lake or something.”

“I’ve got to help Lark and Aria cater a baby shower tomorrow afternoon,” Melody said with a sad twist of her lips. “How about Tuesday?”

“I’ll pick you up at four,” Nick said, resisting the urge to kiss her goodbye one last time. With Melody, stopping was definitely harder than starting. “Sleep tight.”

“You too,” she said with a giggle he didn’t completely understand, but that he liked. A lot.

Nick trotted down the stairs and onto the sidewalk, grinning like an idiot. He was halfway to the bus stop when his phone rang.

He dug it out of his pocket and glanced down at the screen.

Nash.

“Did you catch the bastard?” Nick asked, not bothering with a hello. “Can I tell Melody you’ve got him in custody?”

“Unfortunately, no. There was no sign of the guy at the bar or his apartment, but we’re still looking,” Nash said, then added after a slight pause. “I actually called to talk to you about something else.”

“What’s up?” Nick asked, suddenly wary.

Nash had that “big brother” tone in his voice, the one that usually led to them getting into an argument. Nash and Nick had always been close for brothers born almost a decade apart, but they’d done their share of clashing, too. Nash was a rule-follower from way back; Nick was a rule-breaker. Nash believed in doing things the way they’d been taught by their parents; Nick didn’t want his parents, society, or anyone else telling him how to live his life.

“Is there something going on between you and Melody?” Nash asked. “Something more than you just being there for a friend?”

Nick paused, resenting Nash sticking his nose into his private business.

But then, Nash had come through for Melody in a major way tonight, and Nick couldn’t see the harm in coming clean. His and Melody’s families were going to find out they were dating sooner or later.

Still, a part of him didn’t want to share anything about him and Melody. Their relationship was still too new and…private. He wasn’t ready for them to belong to anyone else.

“Nick, are you there?” Nash asked, clearly irritated.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Nick said. “And I heard you. Why are you asking?”

“I’m asking because Melody’s sister is my wife,” Nash said, in a patronizing way that made Nick vow to apologize to Melody again for having ever used that tone with her. “I’ve never stuck my nose into your dating life before, but Melody isn’t just any girl. She’s my family, and I care about her. She deserves to be treated well by a man who respects her.”