Need You Now (Love in Unknown)

chapter 3





Mel still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to let her mother set her up on a blind date. She really didn’t need to hear her mother encouraging her to “get back in the saddle.” Hell, she’d only been in town two weeks before her mother started encouraging her to start dating. Honestly, it had been so long since Mel had been “in the saddle” that if she weren’t a medical professional, she’d be convinced those parts had closed up from disuse.

So she’d caved. She’d let her mother talk her into going on a blind date. If setting her up with a random guy made Mama happy, she’d go with it. Anything to help both of them move on and start living their lives again.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d really seen her mother smile, let alone laugh. They talked nearly every day, but it wasn’t the same. Their talks in the last year had been stilted at best, her mother too wrapped up in grief and her too wrapped up in her own problems to be happy. Mel missed the easy laughter and banter that her parents shared. They’d sometimes both get on the phone with her and it would be like she was at home in the family kitchen rather than a thousand miles away in North Carolina.

Mel sat in her office, filling out a chart for one of her few patients. Doc Booth had pulled back to part time, but most of the older patients still insisted on being treated by him. Since they made up a majority of the regular patients, Mel wasn’t terribly busy. After spending her life always studying or practicing medicine, doing nothing drove her absolutely crazy.

She still shook her head over a run-in she’d had the week before with Mrs. Brown. Mel had just come out of the bakery when she bumped into the widow of the former mayor.

“Melody Carr. I never thought I’d see the day.” The diminutive little old woman drew herself up to her full height. “Never in all my life did I think to see the day when we’d have a woman doctor. Your granddaddy would be appalled.”

Mel had put on her best smile. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d heard this same litany over the past few weeks. It stung a little –okay a lot-- that no one in her hometown seemed to give a damn that she’d worked her ass off at some of the best schools in the country to come home and take care of them. “Well, Mrs. Brown, I know my daddy was sure proud the day he watched me graduate from medical school. He and Mama always taught me to do my best and use the gifts God gave me.”

The eighty-five-year-old sniffed. “Be that as it may. I certainly don’t know how you’ll find a man to marry you. Decent men don’t want a wife who’s had more schooling than him. It just isn’t fitting for a girl to have so much schooling.”

While she sounded like she’d never evolved past the 1950s, Mrs. Brown’s sentiments seemed to be shared by a lot of people in town. Education beyond high school had only become common place in Unknown in the last twenty years. Even then, the kids who went to college usually didn’t come back. Still, Mel loved being home. It would just take a little time to get the town to see things her way.

Mel’s cell phone blasted out an excerpt of her favorite David Garrett violin piece, breaking the cloying silence of the long afternoon. The number showed up as blocked, but she was only expecting to hear from one person today. Her blind date must be calling.

“Hello?”

She could hear someone breathing on the other end, but they didn’t respond.

"Hello?" Why wasn't this guy responding? Had she been butt dialed?

The voice that finally spoke was harsh and low, hoarse enough that she couldn't tell whether it was a man or woman. "Bitch. Leave town while you can."

Before she could say anything, the line went dead. The hair on the back of her neck stood up a little. Okay, so not her blind date. Seriously creepy. Maybe it was a wrong number. Briefly, she thought of telling Gage about it, but with a blocked number there wasn’t much he’d be able to do. She shivered a little before trying to turn her attention back to her patent's file. Unsettled, she struggled with the paper for several minutes before her phone rang again, causing her to jump a good half a foot out of her seat. She fumbled a little, almost dropping the phone before she could answer it.

Her greeting this time was a bit less cheery than before. “Hello?”

“Hi. Is this Melody?” The voice on the other end sounded warm, maybe a little nervous, but definitely eager.

“Mel, this is Ian Douglas.” She could almost hear the smile in his voice. “Emma gave me your number and insisted I give you a call to set up a date.”

She’d known this was coming, but Mel still had a “deer in the headlights” moment. If she wanted to back out of this, now would be the time. But she’d asked for this. She wanted to make her mom happy and she needed to get on with her life. No more living in past hurts. “Yeah, she mentioned that you’d be calling. What did you have in mind?”

Ian cleared his throat, a reassuring sign that he was just as nervous as she was. “I thought we could meet at Sage Place at seven tomorrow night.”

Meeting at the restaurant. Smart move. Sage Place earned him extra points. The nicest restaurant in town was the perfect place for a quiet date. Fancy enough to be impressive, but also not so popular that they’d run into half the town there. More time to get to know each other a little better, less chance of getting run through the gossip mill. “That sounds perfect. I’ll see you then.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Who are you going to see?” Gage’s voice made her jump in her chair. He stood in the doorway, an eyebrow raised at her, obviously more interested in butting into her personal business than using the manners her mama taught him.

Glaring at him, she sat her cell phone aside. “Ever heard of knocking? I swear, Gage Maddox, you’d think you were raised in a barn.”

“Best friend’s privilege. So, who are you going to see?” Gage sat down across from her, looking rakishly handsome with his grin and nicely pressed navy blue uniform. She knew from their many phone conversations that he only wore the uniform when he had to go over to the courthouse on official business.

“If you must know, Mr. Nosy, I’m going on a date tomorrow night.” Mel shuffled the papers, not wanting to meet his eyes. She loved Gage like a brother, but it felt awkward talking about her love life with him, especially given the fact that he was the brother of one of her exes.

“A date? Really. Who with? Where’d you meet him?” Gage immediately shifted into big brother mode. She hated when he did that.

She sighed, fighting the urge to press her fingers into her temples. She didn’t need an interrogation right now. “I haven’t met him yet. Mama set me up with him. His name’s Ian Douglas.”

"A blind date? You? What in the world for?" Gage sat forward, bracing his arms on his knees. "Pretty woman like you, letting your mother set you up?"

Mel rolled her eyes. Friendship obviously caused blindness as well as over-protectiveness. "In case you haven't noticed, I've never exactly been swimming in boyfriends. Besides, I haven't been in town long enough to meet anyone. Mama offered to set me up, so I let her. We're just going to dinner, Gage. Not eloping.”

Gage knew better than anyone that she'd only had three boyfriends. Her second boyfriend, Daniel Ericson, had asked her out the day they started their second year in med school. They’d met at a mixer hosted by the dean of the medical school and hit it off right away. To Mel's eye, he’d been everything Caine Maddox wasn't. A scholarship student from Maine, Daniel worked the nightshift at the hospital as an orderly to pay for books and rent. Blond floppy hair and a wiry frame gave him a refreshingly adorable, nerdy appearance.

For three years, they’d been the perfect med school couple. They rarely saw each other except to have sex or study together. Everything was easy and comfortable. If they talked about serious commitment, it was in that far away land of “after we’re done with residency.” Still, she’d thought she loved him and that he loved her. That is, until, on graduation day, she’d walked in on him screwing his roommate –-- whose name happened to be Christopher.

"Ian Douglas? I think he's that new fireman that moved to town a few months back." Gage frowned a little, eyes narrowing. "Don't know too much about him. Keeps to himself. Which means you need to be careful."

Mel shook her head, suppressing a frustrated groan. "You do realize that I'm old enough to know how to take care of myself on a date, don't you? You're worse than Micah. Stop worrying. I'll have my cell phone and we're meeting at the restaurant."

Gage smiled ruefully. "I've been worrying about you since we were kids, Mel-bell. Can't stop it. Just be careful."

The next day, as she got ready, Mel recalled the last time Gage had warned her to be careful. She hadn't told anyone about her first “date” with Caine, especially not anyone back in Texas, so she'd been surprised to get a call from Gage the afternoon before the date. He’d told her to be careful then, too. Caine was his brother, but the years he'd spent away in prep school worried Gage.

"He's not the same boy you played with as a kid," he'd warned. Maybe she'd have been better off if she'd listened to him.

Tonight, she pulled on a simple, chocolate-colored silk dress, one of the few she owned. Stepping into gold high heels, she double-checked her make-up in the mirror and left for the restaurant. Time to take a leap into the deep end of the pool. Hopefully, this time she’d swim instead of treading water.

#

Caine would rather be at home, drinking a beer and watching the Rangers game. Instead, he sat at one of Sage Place’s round tables with members of the city council, listening to them congratulate themselves on being the smartest men in town. This monthly dinner always seemed to last forever. Same food, same people, same conversations. Never mind that there were parks that needed improvement or that the senior center was severely understaffed. His father’s friends had sat on the city council for the last three decades and they liked things exactly as they were.

He took a long sip from his scotch, but the burning alcohol did little to make the evening better. At least the food was good. Bored, he let his gaze wander around the large, open dining room. For a Friday night, the restaurant was fairly quiet. A few married couples sat scattered through cozy booths, on dates while the kids stayed at home with a sitter. A small group of older women occupied a corner table, clucking to each other about whatever it was women over sixty talked about.

Movement by the door caught his eye. A woman, her dark brown hair pulled up in a simple knot, stood at the hostess stand. Her dark brown dress stood out in lovely contrast to her creamy skin. The deep V gave away just a hint of cleavage, almost as flirtatious as the skirt that floated around her knees. He knew those legs, that skin. That hair.

Mel.

What was she doing here? She hated getting dressed up, hated fancy dinners. That was one of his favorite things about her. Unlike so many other girls he’d dated…been with— whatever you wanted to call it — she never demanded he take her out for fancy dinners. His last girlfriend spent so much time in heels and expensive dresses, he’d started to think that they were surgically attached to her skin. Yet here Mel was, looking like a beacon of light in this otherwise dull evening. Damn if she didn’t look sexy. Mel had certainly grown into her looks in the last ten years.

He glanced around, wondering if anyone would notice if he tried to seduce her into leaving with him for the evening. He’d much rather devote the attention he was wasting on this dinner to earning the privilege of tracing the creamy skin along her neckline, of tasting the sweetness of her lips. To convincing her to let him see her in nothing but those heels that made her legs look like they went on for miles. Caine shifted in his seat, thankful that the long white table cloth hid his reaction to Mel.

The hostess led her over to one of the darker booths at the edge of the dining room, directly in his line of sight. A small smile tilted her lips as she thanked the girl and accepted a menu. He had to go over and talk to her. They had a lot of unfinished business to discuss and they were ten years overdue.

Determined, he started to slide his chair back. Then Caine saw him. A guy who looked to be a few years younger than him shook hands with her and sat down. He wore a suit, but he looked a little like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes. His longish hair didn’t help him any. Suit, nice dress, fancy restaurant. Shit. Mel was on a date.

Narrowing his eyes, Caine searched his brain, trying to place the guy. He thought he might be the new firefighter who had moved to town not too long ago. Ian something. Nice enough guy, if he accurately recalled their one meeting. Still, he didn’t see the attraction between him and Mel. He always saw her with a well-educated man who could stand up to her and not be afraid of her intelligence. Mel couldn’t settle for a “nice guy;” that would never make her really happy.

It would be so easy for him to go over there and show her how wrong that Ian guy was for her. Jealousy was a new thing for him. He’d only really had two monogamous relationships in his life. The first had been with Mel and she’d been too young and shy to show interest in anyone else. Would he have felt like this if she looked at someone else back in college? He vaguely remembered seeing her at that Valentine’s Day party his fraternity hosted, talking with some other guy. He’d immediately gone over and turned on the charm. It’d be so easy to do it again. The adult inside him told him to be mature, to be happy she’d found someone who seemed to make her happy. But the college boy in him still bellowed that she was his girl, his and no one else’s.

The day her dad told him she never wanted to see him again still counted as the worst day of his life. Worse even than his almost-wedding day.

Seeing her again had thrown him off his game. If she’d been any other woman, he’d be over there starting up a conversation, convincing her to come home with him, but this was Mel. She always sent him a little off kilter. Back in college, he’d stolen a few of the romance novels she kept by her bed, just to get a better idea of what she might like. Maybe that’s what he needed to do now. Step back, look for the signs of what might fix things for them. They didn’t know each other anymore. Ten years was a long time. She needed to see that he wasn’t the idiot he’d been ten years ago.

He was beginning to see that she wasn’t the quiet, nerdy young girl she’d been back then either. It was there, in the confident set of her smooth shoulders, the ease of her smile. Men didn’t scare her anymore. He remembered how small and lost she’d seemed the day he helped Ethan and Micah move her into her dorm at Brown. He’d promised to look out for her that day, to protect her from guys who would hurt her. At that Valentine’s party, she’d been so shy. It took him half an hour and a beer to coax her into conversation with him.

It would take a hell of a lot more than a beer and a smile to get her to talk to him now. He didn’t know what exactly went wrong with them ten years ago, but he knew that it was bad enough to cost him the only family he really cared about. He had a lot to make up to her, but he didn’t intend to give up.