His Melody (16 page)

“You see, Melody? You see what an asshole he is?” Donnie shouted. So his brother had accomplished his goal. Good for him.

“Well. That was real adult. Real mature,” Melody said from his left.

He didn’t have any defense for himself so he stood there, fingers pressed to the side of his mouth, watching Nina make a fuss over Donnie and try to get him to hold his head back. Avery was holding packs of frozen peas out to the two of them.

Melody stepped in front of him. She took a bag of the peas from Avery and handed it to him. “That’s gonna bruise.”

Austin took his fingers away from his mouth and stared at the blood on them. “You think?” Donnie had gotten him with that damned class ring of his. Why couldn’t he ever walk away from a fight with his brother? He tried, but he never succeeded.
 

“C’mon.” She nodded toward the house.

“Huh?”

“What, did he knock your brain loose?” she cracked with a little laugh. “Let’s get it cleaned up. See how bad it is.”

He followed her into the house. He couldn’t help but watch the way her short cotton skirt clung to her hips as she walked ahead of him. She led him to the half bath near the stairs. He leaned against the sink, and she wet a cloth and pressed it to the corner of his mouth. He winced a little in anticipation at first, but relaxed at the gentleness of her touch.

“Just a little cut,” she murmured, close enough that he smelled the vanilla scent on her skin. He leaned in closer to get a better
sniff,
barely aware he was doing it.

“You’re not mad?” Austin asked.

“About what?
You and your brother playing Neanderthal games?
That’s between you two, I guess. But can I ask you a question?” She concentrated on his cut and avoided his eyes.

“Shoot.” He shifted the pack of frozen peas a little higher on his jaw.

“What is it between you two?”

“He likes to provoke me.” He shrugged.
And a girl.
Some lies.
A few disappointments.
Nothing he wanted to tell her.

“Why do you let him?”

“I try not to.”

She rinsed and wrung the cloth out in the sink, and he watched his diluted blood chase water down the drain. “Well. I don’t think it’ll need stitches. It’s already starting to clot, I think.” She put her fingers on his jaw and turned his face toward the mirror above the sink. “See?”

He put his hand over her and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “Thanks,” he mumbled. He thought that night in the kitchen as he often did.
The cool sweetness of her mouth.
Her soft, warm body under his hands.
That flimsy nightgown.
And then earlier that day in his office.
He couldn’t get the things he’d wanted to do to her out of his mind. Probably because he still wanted to do them.

“Sure,” she said, pulling her hand from beneath his. “Austin, I—I want to ask you about that notebook I found. It doesn’t belong to Avery or Donnie. And there’s a—”

“No.” He walked to the door of the small room. “Would you drop it already? Throw that thing away and forget you ever saw it. I don’t know whose it is, and you need to quit bugging me about it. Dammit.”

She looked stunned, but all she said was, “Okay.” Her eyes hardened. “No need to yell at me. I was just asking a question.”

“About something that I already told you I don’t want to talk about.”

“Well, I guess I’ll get back outside then.” She pushed past him.

Chapter Nineteen

When Melody got back outside, Jen grabbed her, ready for a full report.

“Well?” Jen’s eyes were wide and she made a flurry of gestures indicating that she should spill. Melody guessed she would be curious, too, if she hadn’t spent the past couple of weeks with the Holt brothers.

Vernon chose that moment to turn the volume up on a Mariah Carey song, so Melody was pretty sure they could talk without being overheard, especially since they were sitting in a couple of chairs off to the side, away from the picnic table where most everyone else was.

“Well, Austin and Donnie basically hate each other,” Melody said.

Jen snorted. “No kidding.”

“No one will give me the whole story on it, but I think it has a lot to do with Austin going away to New York and even more with him coming back here,” Melody said. She filled Jen in on what little she knew about Austin.

Jen pulled her long, dark hair away from her face and settled it behind her shoulders. “So Donnie’s not happy about the shop being left to Austin.”

“Yeah and I get the feeling that’s not the half of it. Especially after what we saw just now.”

“I’d say you’re right about that my little amateur detective friend.”

Melody raised an eyebrow. “I’m the little one, eh? You’re what…five feet with those platforms you have on?”

“Ha ha.” Jen grinned, bumping Melody’s shoulder with small, pale one. “Funny girl.”

Melody slumped in her chair.

“What’s wrong?”

“I dunno. I just wish they got along better. They’re family.”

“Aw. I know how important family is to you.” Jen rubbed her shoulder.

Melody had never had a big family. It was just
her
and her mother after the divorce. Her dad hadn’t had the will to live after his family and his music career were taken from him. He’d pickled his liver with cheap whiskey a few years after the divorce. He never even got to see Melody graduate high school. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Her parents had been only children, so no aunts and uncles. Her paternal grandparents lived in California, so she didn’t see them much, and her maternal grandparents lived in Jamaica, so she saw them even less often. “There has to be something I can do,” she said, thinking of Blanche.

“If anybody can figure it out, it’s you,” Jen said. “I’m pretty much convinced there’s nothing you can’t do.”

She laughed humorlessly. “Except keep my job.”

“Hey.” Jen playfully swatted her shoulder. “Stop that. You know that man’s an unreasonable jerk. Besides, you know what I’m going to say.”

Melody rolled her eyes. “Oh yes I do.”

“And I’m still going to say it. It’s way past time for you to strike out on your own.”

“Maybe.”

“You know the money thing is just an excuse. A weak one.”

Melody didn’t respond to this one. She picked at the chipped polish on one of her pinkie nails instead. She needed to fix that. Maybe she should escape upstairs right now and fix it.

“Look,” Jen said. “Let’s go have a good time, you’re not allowed to sulk. You’re over here in the corner and Grayson—”

“Oh yeah. I’m not talking to him.”

“What happened?”

“He was an ass. Again.”

“Nope. Unacceptable. C’mon. We’re dancing.” Jen stood and reached for Melody’s hands.

“Stop, Jen.” She made no moves toward Jen.

Jen didn’t listen, not relenting until she got Melody on her feet. “I know one you can’t resist,” Jen said in a devious tone. She called over to Vernon. She could really project her voice for such a little person. “Vernon. You have some Al Green for me? Love and Happiness.”

“Sure do.”

“Throw it on and turn it up loud.” Jen turned to Austin who was nursing his pride and a beer at the same time it seemed. She beckoned to him. He just looked at her. He was soon to learn Jen didn’t take “no” for an answer.
From anybody.

Jen went over, grabbed him, and wouldn’t relent until he was out there with them, dancing with his beer still in his hand. Before the first refrain, she had everybody up and dancing.

#

That night, Jen insisted they go out to karaoke once she found out the bar—the one and only in town—had karaoke on Saturday nights. She was able to talk everyone into it except Vernon and Leigh Anne. They needed some quality time because Vernon had been on the road for so long and would soon be leaving again. Avery, Donnie, Nina, and their friends had come along and were behaving themselves for the most part. Donnie even got up and sang a Toby Keith song. Jen had a magic touch.

Jen was addicted to karaoke. She had a great voice, and she enjoyed the attention. The problem was Jen almost always conned Melody into singing, and Melody was less than confident in her own voice even though Jen tried to convince her she could sing. Yeah right. Jen just wanted someone to karaoke with.

Melody watched Austin whenever she thought he wasn’t looking while Jen sang Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Nina sang Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About.” Melody thought about how nice it’d be to give people something to talk about, all right, when it came to Austin. Then again, he was secretive and guarded those secrets furiously. What was so great about getting involved with someone like that? Not that getting involved was really an option. She was leaving town soon. Possibly as soon as less than twenty-four hours from that moment.

Still, he wasn’t easy to ignore and probably wouldn’t be easy to forget. She’d known that from the moment he’d come out of his shop, wiping his hands on that filthy rag of his. And part of her wanted to force her way through that tough shell of his and take away whatever it was that was hurting him. Show him that some people could be trusted and that opening up could be a good thing.
A healing thing.

“Feel at home back in the spotlight?” Donnie snickered and looked around Nina and the others.

“Sure,” Austin said. The way he said it was pretty neutral, but his green eyes hardened, and his angular jaw locked.

Melody glanced at the bruise on his cheek and was glad he didn’t take the bait again.

“What, you ain’t gonna throw another hissy fit?” Donnie feigned shock. “Oh, I guess you still want to pretend you can fool Melody. That she hasn’t figured you out yet.”

Jen jumped up. “I think it’s time for another song.”

Melody groaned when she heard the opening bars of “Try a Little Tenderness.” That was Jen’s favorite song. Jen always got into that song like no other; for the length of that song, she thought she was Otis Redding. Jen gestured wildly for her to come up. Melody shook her head, but she knew it wouldn’t do her much good to protest.

After dragging Melody to the front of the bar, she said, “You know I was never going to let you out of this.”

Melody laughed. “Wishful thinking.” She took the mic and Jen told the guy manning the karaoke machine to start the song over again. He did.

Nodding and moving her hips in time with the slow rhythm of the song’s beginning, she tested the opening words to the song. She was tentative and shaky as usual at the beginning, but as people started to clap along at the chorus, she gained more confidence. Then her eyes found Austin’s, and her voice became stronger. She realized she was singing to him from that moment on.

At the end of the song, she barely heard the applause erupting around her. Her heart raced when Austin stood, starting a standing ovation. She dropped her eyes away. Handing the microphone off to the host of the karaoke night, she hurried back to her seat.

“I guess it’s my turn.” Austin stood and stretched.

She watched the muscles flex in his arms as he stretched. She just couldn’t help herself. “I didn’t know you karaoke,” Melody said.

He chuckled. “I’ll bet there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Not from lack of trying
, she thought.

As Austin was walking to the stage, Melody caught a wink and a nod between Donnie and the guy manning the karaoke machine.

For a moment, Austin stood motionless as “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang came on. Then he frowned at the screen in confusion before looking at the karaoke guy who only shrugged. The beginning of the first verse rolled by before a glint of understanding lit up his eyes. He glared in his brother’s direction. Donnie grinned, stood up, and took a bow. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called, “M.C. in the house!” Then he guffawed at the top of his lungs.

In answer, Austin smoothly picked up in the middle the second verse of “Rapper’s Delight” as if he’d written the song himself and knew every word inside out.

At the end of the song, Melody was stunned and convinced. If Donnie’s comment hadn’t done it, Austin’s performance would have. She felt the CD through the skin of her leather clutch, still staring at Austin. He pulled his chair up next to hers and sat down. Looking straight ahead, he said, “So now you know.”

She turned to stare at his profile and nodded. “I guess I do.” Pulling the CD from her purse, she handed it to him.

He laughed tonelessly. “Where in the world did you find that?” He flipped it over in his hands a couple of times.

“Found it while I was cleaning your office. It’s you?” She was unsure of whether he would tell her what she wanted to know, but she was completely certain if she listened to that C.D., she would hear Austin’s voice.