Need You Now (Love in Unknown)

chapter 5





Caine drove through Town Square in his golf cart, feeling more than a little ridiculous. Jemma Hartsfield and her minions stopped in to see him today. They made no bones about reminding him that the mayor should use the kind gift he’d been given by the town. They hadn’t seen him in it lately. Easier to drive the stupid thing for a little while than listen to them nag him constantly.

“Are you the mayor or the circus ringmaster?”

He slowed to a stop and turned to see the man who’d called out to him. Micah Carr had just come out of the bakery, a little boy in one hand, a red Rangers backpack in the other. The boy looked exactly like his father had when they’d met so long ago, all boney limbs and dark brown curls. “Bite me, Carr. Nice to see you. Cutting out early? Must be nice.”

“Mom wanted a few hours in the shop.” Micah shook his head, walking over to him. “Figured Jax and I could walk home instead of staying cooped up inside all day. Jax, this is Caine. You know Uncle Gage? This is his big brother. He and I’ve known each other since we were your age.”

Caine shook the solemn little boy’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Jax studied him through big brown eyes. “Why are you driving such a little car? Don’t you have a big one?”

“I do.” Caine laughed. “This is a special car, though. It’s called the Mayor Mobile. Only the mayor and his friends can ride in it. You want me to give you a ride home?”

Jax looked up at his father, eyes lighting with excitement. “Can we, Dad? You’re one of his friends.”

Micah looked to Caine for confirmation before nodding. “Sure, buddy. I get shotgun, though.”

“Okay.” Jax rolled his eyes, scrambling up onto the backseat of the cart. Micah ducked in and folded his long legs.

“Been a while,” Caine commented as he softly pressed the gas pedal. He waved to some of the moms of his Little League players as they passed, chuckling when they turned their heads for a better look at Micah.

His friend gave him a sideways glance before nodding. “Yep. Kinda hard to stay in touch when we’re on opposite ends of the country.”

“Uncle Caine? Did you really know my dad when you were little?”

Caine looked over his shoulder. Mel’s nephew was looking around, curious eyes taking in every detail from a new perspective. Uncle Caine. He liked the sound of that.

“I did. We got into a lot of trouble together over the years.” He chuckled, remembering some of the shit they’d pulled. “I remember on summer, we had to be about eleven, we decided to build a tree house in that big oak tree in your backyard. We worked for hours getting scrap wood from all over town. The day we were ready to start building, your Aunt Mel threw an absolute fit.”

Jax giggled. “Aunt Mel got mad? About what?”

Micah nodded to one of the old men who frequented the coffee shop looked back at his son. “I made the mistake of telling her she wasn’t allowed to help us or play in our tree house.”

“Lesson numero uno of dealing with your Aunt Mel, Jax. Never, ever tell her she can’t do something. It’ll make her ten times as likely to want to do it.” Caine decided to take the long way around the park to get to Rosebush Drive. Let Jax see more of the town that way. Along the way, the little old ladies who gathered each afternoon to walk around town for exercise shouted out greetings that he acknowledged with a wave. The old houses lining the streets looked like cheerful ladies in brightly colored Victorian dresses.

“What’d she do?”

Caine smiled at the memory. “Your Grandpa Ethan took us aside and told us we had two options. Either we built Mel a clubhouse of her own or we let her in ours. Excluding girls was not something real men did.”

“So we let her in ours.” Micah shook his head, one hand gripping the top of the golf cart as they took a corner a bit faster than was perhaps wise. “But we told her no tea parties and no dolls.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes, the two men comfortable in the realm of nostalgia, Jax seemingly fascinated by the fact that he was riding in a new machine. They rounded the corner and started past Guadalupe Park. “Hey! Look, Dad, there’s a maze. Have you been inside it?”

“Sure. Everyone’s been in there at some point.” Micah turned around. “Anyone tell you the story yet?”

“Uh-uh. It looks super cool. Like something out of my video games.”

Caine’s grandfather would have liked the kid’s description of the family monument. “My grandpa had it built. It was a gift to the town for it’s one hundredth birthday, back in 1956. His grandpa started the town and he wanted to do something special. So he decided to build the maze for all the boys and girls of Unknown. At the center, there’re two swings in the spot where my great-great-great-grandpa proposed to his wife. One’s named James and the other is Susan. The town got its name on the day he proposed to her.”

“Why’d they give it such a weird name?”

They drove around the far end of the park, afternoon sun glinting off the green-brown Guadalupe River. Kids were starting to fill the park, parents sitting on benches chatting.

“It was a little joke between Grandma Susan and Grandpa James.” Caine turned the cart down Rosebush Drive. “She said she came to Texas to explore the great Unknown. So when he asked her to marry him, he asked her to marry him and explore the Unknown right here on the banks of the Guadalupe.”

Micah and Caine laughed at the gagging sound coming from the back. “Mushy love stuff. Gross!”

“I’ll remind you of that in about ten years, little man,” Micah said. Caine pulled the cart to a stop in front of the big blue house that had been his home away from home before his parents sent him away.

Jax scrambled out. “Thanks for the ride, Uncle Caine. The Mayor Mobile is pretty cool. But not as cool as Uncle Gage’s motorcycle.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t get to ride on Uncle Gage’s motorcycle until you can drive, so enjoy the Mayor Mobile,” Micah said. “Go on inside. I want to talk to Uncle Caine for a few minutes.”

The boy sighed heavily before going inside, waving over his shoulder. Caine switched off the golf cart and twisted to face his friend, arm braced on the steering wheel. “Good to be home?”

“Yes.” Micah rubbed the back of his head in indecision, a habit he’d had since they were kids. “And no.”

Caine frowned. The tall gangly kid he’d known had filled out into a muscular, stoic guy with shadows in his eyes. Life had dealt them both a few shitty hands, but they’d come through it. “Well, our humble town might not be as busy as New York City, but if you ever need a guys’ night out, you know where to find me and Gage.”

“I’ll definitely hit you up for a game of pool down at the Fortune Saloon.” Micah glanced back at the house. “I love being a dad, but I miss talking to adults about something besides baked goods.”

Holding out his hand, Caine laughed as Micah went through the complicated hand motions they’d made up when they were seven. “It’s good to have you back, man. I’ve missed having you around.”

“Me too. Me too.”

Caine drove back toward Town Square feeling as if a small part of his life was shifting back into place. Nothing had felt right since he’d come back from the Caribbean and lost Mel, but things had started to shape up in the last year. He’d won the election, got to work with his brother every day, took care of the town their family had started. Now he had his best friend back in his life. Mel was even talking to him. Yup, things were definitely looking up.

#

Mel looked at the clock on her computer and cursed. If she didn’t leave now, she was going to be late meeting Gage for lunch at the Fortune River Cafe. To her delight, she’d actually had a busy morning for once. A stomach flu was making its way through the local middle school and Doc wasn’t in the office. There wasn’t much she could do except prescribe fluids, but at least she kept busy. She’d just been sending off an e-mail to a colleague back in Charlotte when she lost track of the time.

Standing up, she started toward the antique coat rack by the door to grab her bag when her desk phone started ringing. Glancing at her watch, she hesitated for a moment before picking up the phone. Hopefully it was Gage saying he was running late, too. “Unknown Clinic. This is Dr. Carr.”

“Aren’t you gone yet, bitch? You don’t belong here. F*ck off and get out of town.”

She slammed the receiver down, annoyance warring with wariness. That was the second such call she’d received. Apparently the surge in business over the last few days didn’t mean everyone in town was okay with her presence.

Snatching the purse off the rack, she hurried downstairs and out of the clinic. Shrugging her shoulders, she tried to get the needles of fear to leave her back. Who kept calling her? And why did they want her to leave town? As she’d told Gage after the break-in, she honestly had no idea who could want her out of town that much. Briefly, she thought about telling Gage about the calls, but she dismissed the idea. Not much he could really do about it, except become overprotective and overbearing, just like he did in high school when the dumb jocks would antagonize her. That kind of behavior was the last thing she wanted or needed right now.

The warm Texas sunshine did a lot to settle her. She even managed to smile on command when she passed Jemma Hartsfield and a few other members of the Garden Club. Walking past McBride’s Bookstore, she saw Finn McBride sitting behind the counter. She'd never met a grumpier man. As a kid, she'd kept her trips to the only bookstore in town as short as possible. If she wanted to browse and indulge her inner bookworm, she'd go to the library. Just a few years older than her dad, Mr. McBride set the bar for misanthropes in the town. She knew every now and then her mother or Jemma or one of the other women in town would try and coax him into participating in the monthly Friday Festival on the square, where book readings or local crafts were offered to entice customers. He always refused to do more than keep his doors open a few extra hours.

The Fortune River Cafe matched the other red buildings on the square, all built in the early nineteen hundreds, but inside was pure retro diner. Candy apple red walls were accented by white trim and black and white tile floors. Chrome-trimmed booths lined the walls and the long dine-in counter stretched along the right side of the restaurant. Although her mother told her it had received a new coat of paint a few years before, not much had changed since she'd left. The waitresses even wore the same slim black shorts and bright blue polo shirts.

Gage sat at the back corner booth, thumbing through the menu even though he’d had it memorized for years. She slid into the unoccupied bench with a sheepish smile. “I’m so sorry I’m late. This flu’s kept things hopping and I totally lost track of time.”

“No problem. I haven’t been here long.” Gage drummed on the table with nervous energy. “Been a while since we’ve been able to do this.”

“Definitely beats the cafeteria at Maddox High,” she said.

Tiffany, one of the waitresses who’d worked in the cafe for years, skipped over to take their orders, black ponytail bouncing as she walked. “Hey there, Chief Gage. Weren’t you just in here two days ago?”

“Oh, you know I can’t resist a good burger, Tiff.” He handed her his menu. “Besides, Doc Carr here hasn’t visited since she’s been back, so I thought I’d drag her out of the office for a little while.”

Tiffany grinned down at Mel. “Well, Melody Carr. Never thought we'd see you living here again. Smart girl like you, I'd thought you'd be working at a fancy hospital in New York or somewhere."

Mel had thought that too at one point, after she and Caine broke up. The idea of coming back to Unknown had eaten at her for months. Her practical mind had dismissed it as anxiety over running into Caine again and having to pretend like nothing had happened. In reality, she knew that the lost, helpless little girl in her would see him and beg him to forget that she’d ever broken up with her. Years apart had given her enough perspective to realize that a past relationship was no reason to give up on her childhood dream of being the town doctor. Sure, she’d thought she’d have a few more years of experience under her back before she came home, but this was her town, just as much as it was Caine’s.

“Doc Booth and I made a deal when I was twelve. All I had to do was get through medical school and he’d finally retire. Clara would’ve hunted me down and dragged me back here by my ear if I didn’t hold Doc to his end of the deal.”

“Lord knows she’s had the patience of a saint with that man.” Tiffany chuckled. “What’ll it be, Doc? And none of that healthy crap here. You need some meat on those bones of yours.”

“When you put it like that.” Mel studied the menu quickly. “Cheeseburger with mustard and ketchup and some of those yummy Cajun fries. And a Coke to drink.”

Gage ordered a jalapeño and onion ring burger with extra fries and Mel shook her head. "I'm going to go ahead and book your future doctor's appointments right now. Ten years and your arteries are going to be seriously nasty."

“Back off, Doc Mel-bell. I plan to enjoy life, not worry about the future.”

They talked for a few minutes until their food arrived, then conversation lulled a bit. "How's your mom doing?"

“Mama?” Mel dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. “Better, health wise at least. Not sure about the rest. You know how she is. So hard to tell.”

Gage nodded, mouth turned down in a frown. “I know what you mean. Even before your dad passed, trying to get her to slow down was like trying to budge Mount Rushmore. Glad you and Micah got through to her.”

“Don’t tell her she’s slowed down or she’ll catch on. Right now we've got her thinking she's just switched her focus to Jax. Thankfully, Micah says she's sleeping most nights and remembering to eat and relax a bit. Jax being surgically attached to his Nintendo games certainly helps keep her relaxed."

He fiddled with a fry, not quite meeting her eyes. "She's been real lonely, Mel-bell. I saw her when I could, but she misses your dad something fierce. Everyone in town's done what they can, but she shut down."

Shut down. Yeah, that sounded about right. Sadly, a trait she and her mother shared. She knew that when life got hard, she buried herself in her work. For crisis management, it wasn't a bad coping mechanism. She’d had the 4.0 GPA after she transferred to UNC for the last two years of undergrad to prove it following her split from Caine. And the overtime hours her intern year after the Daniel fiasco. And the six papers published in medical journals in the four months since she’d ended things with Andrew. Some people might not think it was healthy emotionally, but it'd helped more than crying and wallowing on a couch ever had.

“Micah worried that she'd lost the will to live for a while there," Mel said. "I told him he was being dramatic. She was mourning for Daddy and she had every right to, but Mama is way too independent to curl up and stop living just because her husband died. She just needs time to work it through."

Gage raised an eyebrow, taking a drink from his soda. "Mel, there's working it through and there's working herself to the bone."

“Okay, so she’s taken it a bit far." Mel couldn't fight back the wave of guilt. She knew she should have been here for her mom. She’d wanted to stay in town after the funeral but Andrew had told her she couldn't. He’d said she would be an idiot to miss any more than two days of her residency, even for her father's death. He wouldn't hear of her coming back to town to check on Mama, either. Said he'd miss her too much. What a crock. If she'd stayed or come to visit more, she might have seen how lost her mother was, how much she needed her family.

She squared her shoulders. "The most important thing is that she's doing better and she's got her family around her now."

“We'll keep her with us for as long as we can. You know we'd all be lost without our Mama Em." Gage squeezed her hand, a rare show of affection from him. To offset the gesture, he picked up a French fry and threw it at her. With aim he’d perfected during their middle school lunches together, the potato projectile landed in the hint of cleavage revealed by her shirt.

Staring down, Mel broke into helpless laughter. Digging the fry out, she threw it back at him. “Ass.”

“Twerp,” Gage said. The fry landed in her hair this time.

“Jerk face.”

God, it was good to be back here with her best friend. She needed this. All of the medical books and intricate techniques she learned couldn’t match up to the fun she had being around him. They’d been apart for too long. So much had changed. It was nice to know that they could still make each other laugh.

#

Caine stopped at the Fortune River Cafe a week after the very unexpected, very welcome phone call from Mel to pick up a black coffee for himself and a mocha for her. No sudden moves, that was the party line right now. He’d seen Mel only in passing, but that was by choice. Better to ease into this slowly. Let her get used to having him around before he took things to a different level. Hence the coffee. Friends took friends coffee, especially when one friend had worked the night shift at the hospital the night before.

Forgoing the golf cart, he walked through Town Square with a little spring in his step. There’d been a few hot days, but the beautiful spring weather didn’t show any sign of fading, there weren’t any disturbances in town, and he could bring Mel coffee without her freaking out. That put this day, only a few hours old, as a pretty freaking great day.

Micah’s truck sat at the front of the bakery. Caine nodded to his friend through the window but didn’t stop in. They had plans to have poker night at Gage’s that evening. Things on the square were still quiet. The morning rush didn’t really start until eight or so, once kids were sent off to school. Making his way down the side of the building. Caine caught sight of Mel’s car. He almost dropped the coffee cups.

The cute little blue car she’d owned since high school looked like it had spent the night in the middle of a Harlem graffiti war. One of the side mirrors hung from its cords, the mirror smashed. Florescent spray paint glinted in the early morning sun. Skank! Bitch! Get out of town! No one wants you here!

“Shit.” He hurried up the stairs, a million different scenarios running through his head. All Caine could think about was making sure Mel was all right. He needed to see her. Hands full of coffee cups, he kicked at the door with the side of his foot. It felt like a million years before Mel came to the door, wet hair hanging around her bathrobe-clad shoulders.

“Caine? What are you— Please tell me that coffee’s for me. I’m running late and I forgot to set the coffee pot last night.” Her smile quickly faded after he shoved the coffee into her hand and pulled her close, narrowly missing drenching them both in steaming hot liquid. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

He pulled away and looked her over to make sure she was okay. “I came over to bring you coffee. I knew you had the night shift last night. But when I got here I saw— Jesus, Mel, somebody trashed your car. Scared the shit out of me. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Mel tried to move past him to survey the damage, but he blocked her. “Have you called Gage yet?”

“No. My hands were full and I wanted to check on you first.” He paused, collecting his swirling thoughts. Who would do this to her? Seeing the hate spewed on her car, he wanted to drop the coffee cups, scoop her up, and drive until she was safely at his house where there was security cameras on all the entrances. Every protective instinct in him screamed, beating at his chest louder than the heartbeat in his ears.

Mel reaching into his pocket, handing him his phone. “Call your brother. I’ll get dressed and then go take a look. Don’t want to give the lovely citizens of Unknown anymore to talk about than they’ll already have. Me, in my bathrobe, with the mayor? Way too much gossip for this early in the morning.”

Rolling his eyes, Caine called Gage and watched as the streak of ratty pink bathrobe that was Mel disappeared into the bedroom. “Gage, get over to Carr’s Cakes. Now. Someone vandalized Mel’s car.”

Not waiting for a response, he hung up.

“What time did you get home last night?” he asked Mel when she came back into the living room. The bathrobe had been replaced by jeans and a flower-print blouse. Strappy sandals covered her feet. She really had no business looking so pretty in the middle of a crisis.

Mel frowned. “I guess around four? No one came into the ER, so I left a few minutes early.”

“So, this happened sometime in the two hours between you getting home and Micah opening the bakery.” He shoved his hand through his hair. Someone had been outside her apartment while she was asleep. “Jesus, what if they were waiting outside when you got home?”

She rolled her eyes and took a long drink of coffee. “Caine, I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. Now, can I go look at the damage or not?”

He moved to intercept her. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Is it that bad?” The skepticism on her face both worried him and comforted him. Whoever was doing this, she had no clue they were gunning for her personally.

“It’s pretty bad.” Banging on the front door stopped him from elaborating. Brothers, his and hers, stood on the small landing, their faces dark with protective anger. Finally, someone was taking this situation seriously.

Gage entered first, more imposing than usual in his uniform instead of jeans and a button up. Micah still wore his baker’s apron and the flour-smudged Carr’s Cakes t-shirt. “What the hell happened?” Micah asked, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“I don’t know,” Mel said. “Everything was fine when I came in early this morning. Did you notice anything when you got here?”

Micah shook his head, frowning a little. “No, I parked in front and went straight in.”

“How bad is it really?” Mel directed her attention to Gage. “Tell me the truth. Or better yet, let me see my car. Somebody is being overprotective and won't let me go down there."

Caine braced his hands on his hips, looking at the ceiling. Stubborn woman. “Not overprotective. Just protective. I saw you after what happened to the clinic. This is worse, Mel.”

Micah hesitated. “I agree, sis. You really don’t want to see this.”

“What is so bad? A few broken windows? Come on, guys. I’m not seven anymore. This isn’t a dead bird in the woods that will make me cry. I’m an adult and this is my car. Now move your stubborn asses out of my way and let me see it.” Hazel eyes darkened to almost brown. Uh-oh. Storm ahead. She’d gone from annoyed to pissed.

Gage and Micah stepped aside, hands in the air, surrendering to her just like they always did. Pansies. Caine stayed in front of the open door, refusing to move even as Mel pushed at him. Somebody needed to protect her.

“Caine, if this whole being friends thing is going to work, you’re going to have to stop wrapping me in cotton wool and let me deal with my own problems.”

He wanted to stay where he was, to keep her from knowing it wasn’t a random act of vandalism. She’d take everything on herself, just like she always did. But short of locking her in her room and barricading the door, he knew he really couldn’t stop her. She’d always down whatever the hell she wanted and damn the fallout. So he moved aside and let her go. But he followed her, ready to catch her when she saw the car.

“Holy hell.” Mel stopped on the bottom stair. “Who would do this? Why would they do this?”

Caine squeezed her shoulder. “I don’t know. That’s what we have the police chief for.”

“Right.” Gage’s agreement came from just behind him. His brother had shifted into cop mode somewhere between the top of the stairs and the bottom, his face lined with concern. “I’m already running checks on all of the local hooligans. Has anyone had a problem with you at the clinic?”

Mel walked over to the car, circling it slowly. “No. The few patients I’ve seen have been mostly kids. At the hospital, I’ve treated a few burns and broken arms. Nothing serious enough to piss anybody off.”

“Doc said there were some people in town not too happy with you taking over for him,” Micah said, moving to stand beside his sister. “But I can’t imagine anyone from around here doing this just because you took over the clinic.”

Caine’s eyebrow shot up in surprise. As mayor, he normally heard rumblings if there was something in town that pissed off more than two people. Apparently, they’d either kept their mouths shut around him because of his connection to the family or he needed to pay attention to something besides work for a change. “Is this true?”

Mel looked ready to stamp her foot in frustration. She looked ready to kick the tire, but presumably thought better of it. “Stupid, close-minded people. Doc says they don’t like the idea of a woman treating them, especially one as young as me. What they really don’t like is that I had the guts to go away, get a doctorate, and still come back to Unknown to build a life.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this.” Gage wrapped an arm around her shoulders with an easy camaraderie that sent a pang of envy through Caine before he could stop it. Of course she still turned to Gage when the shit hit the fan. She’d let him in ever since they were kids and had never stopped.

“Until we do, you need to be more careful.” Caine shifted into his mayor persona, taking charge of the situation the only way he knew now. “Talk to the hospital, tell them you need to only be scheduled for day shifts. Make sure you have your cell phone with you and charged at all times. If you’re out after dark, call one of us before you get out of the car, so we know you’ve made it home safely. Is there a security system installed upstairs?”

He directed the last question at Micah.

“Yeah, Dad had it installed when he had the bakery’s set up. Got a deal on it or something. Mel knows the code, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.” She moved to stand toe-to-toe with Caine, her jaw set in a hard curve that didn’t bode well for him. The Carr temper took a while to stir up, but once it got going, a man could come away scorched. “I can also take care of myself, as all three of you know very well. I think you’re all overreacting—“

Caine snorted. The air between them crackled with electricity. If they’d been alone, he might have diffused the situation by silencing her with a kiss. But with her brother and his watching, he settled for standing his ground. “Overreacting? Mel, are you looking at the same car that I am? Are you reading those neon words?”

“What my brother is trying to say is that we all care about you and we want you to be safe,” Gage said, stepping between them. “It might sound overprotective, overbearing, whatever you want to call it, but it’s better to take too many precautions than for you to get hurt.”

Mel glowered at all of them. He’d never tell her this, but she was kind of cute when she got this mad. “Fine. I will take precautions. But do not think for one second that I will let any of you start controlling what I do. You couldn’t do it when I was ten and it sure as hell won’t work now.”

Caine wanted to argue with her. To tell her she just needed to go from work to home. But he knew better. Sharing a look with his brother and Micah, he accepted defeat as gracefully as he could. For now.