Defining Moments (A Moments In Time Love Story 2) (9 page)

Heat climbed into the car, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes for a long time, trying to calm down. Melisa was not coming back. He’d made himself believe it was a phase, but now he could feel her slipping out of his life. She told him she loved him. She kissed him. But all that didn’t mean jack if she wasn’t willing to fight for their marriage. For the second time since they’d taken their vows, he felt a baby was more important to her than everything else. Even him. The way it had seemed when they were trying to get pregnant. Now it was confirmed.

He wiped the sweat off his brow and inhaled deeply. Then he started the car and drove like a zombie through town, hoping he could pay attention well enough to avoid another accident.

Why the fuck couldn’t she see that the baby was his as well? Why couldn’t she understand that the decision the doctors had asked him to make had been the hardest thing he had ever done in his life? He’d done things that would make anyone cringe with fear. He walked through fire almost daily at his job, but the possibility of losing her had almost killed him. He would forever remember the day the doctor came to look for him in the hospital waiting room, his face showing that something was wrong even before he said the words. Heat had listened attentively as the doctor explained they had to perform a procedure that would result in only Melisa or the baby surviving, and that Heat had to make a choice that no man should be asked to contemplate. The doctor had walked away with Heat’s answer, unaware of the storm raging inside him.

Heat remembered thinking that after his shift at the hospital, that doctor would probably go home to his wife and kids. They’d all sit at the table for dinner, and the only choice he might have to make is whether he wanted rice or potatoes as a side dish. Or a beer instead of a Coke. But Heat’s choice would change his life forever.

He’d told Melisa that, if he had to, he would do it all over again. And he would. He would choose her every time. She was everything to him. He didn’t want to live in a world without her in it. Maybe that was selfish, but no one could judge him until they were faced with the same dilemma. He would forever live with his decision. And he hoped once Melisa forgave him and returned home, they would work through this horrible trauma together. But she was choosing to be alone.

He managed to arrive home safely. But a home without Melisa in it was just a house. He wanted her back, he wanted their life back. He did not make the decision to save her life only to end up with nothing. He was determined to fight tooth and nail for her.

He entered the kitchen, took a bottle of water from the fridge, and went upstairs to the bedroom, where he took a big swig and then lay on the bed with his hands clasped behind his head. There had to be a way to save their marriage.

An hour later, he knew the answer and picked up the phone. If what he had in mind didn’t work, nothing else would.

Melisa was crying hard as she scrambled in her purse for her keycard. When her fingers closed around it, she pulled it out and immediately dropped it. She bent down to retrieve it, but crumpled onto the cream-colored carpet in a heap of sobs. She couldn’t find the strength to get up. So much had happened, she wasn’t even sure anymore which slice of pain belonged where, or which teardrops belonged to which hurt. Everything merged into one big pool of liquid misery that flooded her throat and washed over her cheeks.

“Melisa?” a man’s voice said. She wiped her eyes and sniffed. Without looking up, she knew it was him.

He lowered himself to the floor and placed a hand on her back, moving it around in circular motions. “I know you’re in pain.”

At his words, Melisa cried even harder—the heart-wrenching, high-pitched keening of someone whose heart was being snapped in half. With every sob, the two pieces of her heart fell further apart, unable to find each other, to fix each other.

“Give it to me.” Scott extracted the keycard from her hand, unfurling her fingers one at a time.

He straightened up again and Melisa listened to the clicking sound of the keycard being accepted and the door being opened. She was powerless to resist the next thing that happened. Scott had picked her up and was entering the room with her, one arm around her back and another under her legs. When he reached the bed, he laid her on top of the sheets, removed her sandals one after the other, and positioned her against the pillows until she was comfortable.

He sat on the edge of the bed, and gazed down into her tearful eyes. His face was masked with the same concern he had shown when they had been a couple and she felt unwell. “Can I get you anything?” he asked and she shook her head.

“A glass of water, maybe?”

“No.” She did want something, she just wasn’t sure what it was.

His smile curled one side of his mouth and her heart started beating fast. “I’m sure what I brought you will change your mind. It will make you feel better. I’ll be right back.” He smoothed the hair back from her face and rose.

He returned less than a minute later carrying a mug, and she recognized the rich chocolate aroma immediately. A small smile snuck up on her. “Oh, my God, how did you get that?”

“I made it at the inn. Mrs. Drawbridge was kind enough to let me into her kitchen. She even lent me her flask to carry it in. Here.” He handed her the warm mug. For a moment, he didn’t move his hands from beneath hers.

Melisa looked down at both their hands cupping the mug, and the steam from the hot chocolate warmed her face. She blinked and looked up into his eyes, detected a flicker of hope there. She shook her head.

Scott removed his hands but remained seated close to her.

“Thank you for this.” Melisa took a sip of chocolate and an image of their babymoon weekend to New York came to mind, but she brushed it away before it brought along all the emotions from that time.

Scott nodded. “I shouldn’t have returned.” He looked hurt. “You were happy and now I’ve hurt you. Please forgive me, Melisa. If you want me to leave town, I will.”

“It’s not just you.” Melisa placed the cup on the bedside table. “Heat and I were going through a difficult time before you came along. We lost our baby a few weeks ago. You just complicated things.”

Scott gathered her into his arms and rocked her while stroking her hair. The way he’d held her for hours after their miscarriage years ago. They had healed together. Why hadn’t she been able to do the same with Heat? Most importantly, why was she finding comfort in the man who had betrayed her instead of her husband? She willed her body to pull away from Scott but it refused. Maybe she was soaking in the moments she had lost when she thought he’d died and she’d never see him again. “We wanted that baby so much. She was already a part of our lives.”

“Is that why you’re staying here? You needed time away?”

“It was hard to return home from the hospital. I will go back eventually. I’m just not ready yet.” She wasn’t sure if she would ever be ready.

“You do love Heat, don’t you?” Scott’s voice was a broken whisper.

Melisa pulled away from him. “I do. But the loss hurt our relationship.”

“I’m sorry,” Scott said. The two words were simple, but soaked with anguish, regret, and jealousy at the man who had stepped into the shoes he had willingly abandoned. But he had no right to feel those feelings. He had to respect that Melisa had moved on. He didn’t have anything to give her anyway. His days were numbered. “Talk to me. Tell me about your life…after I left.”

As if a gate had been opened, Melisa told him everything, even things that were none of his business. She told him about how Heat had rescued her from the fire that she had mistakenly set at the Oasis Shelter on the night of Carlene’s wedding, how he’d been there to teach her how to live again. She hesitated at the part where they fell in love again, but Scott begged her to continue.

“It hurts,” he admitted. “It hurts so damn much, but I want to hear it… everything, please.” He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself.

Melisa had the feeling he wanted to punish himself for what he had done to her.

“I was in pieces after you were gone. I completely lost myself. It was so hard…” A sob escaped her.

Scott held her again and buried his face into her hair.

The hair on the top of Melisa’s head dampened with his tears. He was crying with her. “I should never have left you. I should have told you everything. Maybe things would have turned out different.”

Melisa wasn’t too sure about that. If he’d stayed, he might have ended up in prison, and Heat would have been there to comfort her. The chance was high that they would have ended up right back here, because even as Scott held her, Melisa knew she loved Heat more. She knew it would have been just a matter of time before they ended up together again.

She broke their embrace and wiped her eyes. “Why are you here? I couldn’t reach you at the inn. I thought you didn’t want to see me again.”

“I admit it hit me hard to hear about you and Heat. But I respect your choices. What matters is that you’re happy.” He paused and kissed the tip of her nose. “I came to say goodbye.”

Melisa’s heart clenched. “You’re leaving? I thought… You said you were staying for a month.” She had never expected him to walk back into her life. Now that he had, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to leave again. Especially now that she knew the cancer would take him so soon.

“There’s nothing I’d love more than to stay. But I can’t. It wasn’t fair of me to show up and turn your world upside down. I have to leave before I hurt you more than I already have. I already got what I came for. I saw you again, even for a short time. I’ll die happy.”

“You can’t go.” A hot lump blocked her throat as she shook her head. “Don’t go.” She grasped at straws. She was certain his departure now would hurt as much as it had the first time.

Scott embraced her and she clung on as if she could keep him with her that way.

Feeling his heart beat, Melisa wished she could do something to make it beat for longer than only a few more months. “Stay here. We can tell Heat. You can trust him. He loved you. He’ll understand…eventually. We can take care of you together.”

“No. I’ve done enough harm. I can’t continue to stand in your way. I love you too much.”

Although Melisa had still had a tiny flame burning in her heart for Heat, the day she married Scott had been the happiest day of her life. With him, she had found a home.

They had a big wedding after graduation. The ceremony had taken place in a romantic chapel in Serendipity and the reception on a luxury boat.

They were just starting a life together and couldn’t really afford such a lavish wedding. But they didn’t pay a dime for it. Some months after Scott had popped the question, Melisa had stumbled upon a contest in a bridal magazine. Without holding out any hope, as she had never won anything in her life, she’d half-heartedly entered. Three weeks later, she got a call. They had won an all-expenses-paid dream wedding and honeymoon. Melisa saw it as a sign that they were meant to be together.

As they said their vows, Melisa said goodbye to Heat and the future they would never have. Sure, she had felt a tiny twinge at having to let go of the past, but the happiness and contentment she’d felt at the prospect of her future with a wonderful, committed man like Scott overrode that pain.

“From the moment I met you, I knew you were my future,” Scott said, grinning. He took her breath away, looking handsome in his black, designer suit. “I knew I’d found my home in your heart. You give me a reason to take the next breath. Melisa, I promise to live each day striving to make your life the best it can be. I will love you and protect you and put you before myself. Thank you for agreeing to be my wife.”

Melisa’s heart wrapped itself around his words, allowed them to seep into its depths, to revive, to restore, to mend every broken piece of her. When it came her turn to say her vows, she crumpled up the piece of paper she had written them on and grasped his hands. She would speak straight from the heart. “The promise I make to you today, I will never make to another man. From this moment until forever and a day, I will belong to you alone. I will wake up each morning ready to love you more than the day before. You came into my life and taught me how to love.” When they started dating, she had told him about the man who had broken her heart, but not that that same man was his best friend, and best man. “You’re everything I’ve been waiting for, my love. I promise you my heart and all of me.”

After the reception, the guests left the boat, and Melisa and Scott stayed. They would be spending the first night of their marriage there before leaving in the morning for their honeymoon in Tahiti.

Melisa gasped when they stepped into their cabin. It was decorated all in white, except for bouquets of yellow roses everywhere she looked and fresh rose petals scattered over the double bed. She was in heaven and Scott was the perfect man to experience it with.

“Ready for our wedding night?” Scott asked as they sank onto the soft bed and he scattered kisses all over her face.

“More than anything. I can’t believe we’re married.” She giggled, feeling a bottomless sense of peace and happiness.

“I can. I knew we were meant for each other, even before we met. My heart has always been beating to the rhythm of yours, my love.”

Melisa laughed. “Is that a line from a song?”

“No.” He removed her tiara and loosened her hair, allowing the shiny curls to cascade down her shoulders and back. “Those words are straight from my heart.” He tugged at the ribbons that held her wedding gown corset in place and Melisa felt instant relief…and her body starting to respond to her new husband.

After undressing Melisa, Scott took his time exploring her curves, kissing, licking, and breathing love into every corner of her, reminding her that she was the only woman for him. With every touch of his fingers on her tingling skin, he left the mark of his love. Scott didn’t stop until he’d pushed her beyond the point of no return. When she finally welcomed him into her body and they merged, they moved together in exquisite harmony, and ecstasy flowed through Melisa’s body like warm honey. Then the passion they created exploded. Yet she had never felt more whole, more intact. He had put her back together, piece by piece.