Make Me Melt

Evernight
Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2014 Nicki Day

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-173-8

Cover Artist:
LMK
Graphics

Editor:
JS
Cook

ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

DEDICATION

This is for anyone who has
ever loved and lost. Whether it be your first love, or
your
last, some loves are unforgettable.

MAKE
ME MELT

Nicki
Day

Copyright © 2014

Chapter One

Vicky Browning
rounded the bend of the desolate country road, which led to her hometown of
Dove Creek, Colorado.  The drive from Denver had been long and tiring. The
heavy snow of the night before had packed down on the interstate causing
traffic to move at a snail’s pace. It only got worse once she made it to the Eisenhower
Tunnel. The normally two lanes of traffic had been reduced to one. Large trucks
had lined the sides of the highway on either side of the tunnel as they waited
for conditions to improve before continuing.

She was thankful for
her Dodge Durango. It was an earlier model and didn’t have as many bells and
whistles as the newer luxury versions did, but it offered her comfort in
knowing that it was reliable—and the four wheel drive had never failed her once
in the harsh Colorado winters. 

As the mountains
began to drift farther away in her rear-view mirror, Vicky wondered if she had
really made the right choice in coming home for the holiday. Her mother had
been hounding her relentlessly for weeks, to come and visit. Missing last
month’s Thanksgiving dinner likely pushed her mother over the edge into full-fledged
nagging mode. It didn’t matter that she’d claimed to have other plans.
 All that mattered to her was that her daughter hadn’t been home. Again. 

Maybe that was why
she was so afraid to come back home after so many years away. Her mom had been
worried about her ever since the divorce. No matter how much she’d insisted she
was doing fine, her mother refused to give up the incessant questions on a
daily basis. 

The odd thing of it
was, she did feel okay. She hadn’t even cried during the breakup. The initial
shock of hearing that Brian had been having an affair hadn’t even lasted very
long. In a strange way, she didn’t even feel that surprised. 

Their flame had
dwindled years earlier. They never made love, much less touched or offered a
simple gesture such as a kiss. So when she heard that he had found someone else
and wanted to marry the other woman, she couldn’t even muster the emotion of
feeling sad. That in and of itself surprised her. Had she fallen out of love
with Brian and didn’t even realize it? Their marriage had only lasted three
years and she couldn’t even pinpoint what or when things had changed between
them.

On some level she
felt guilty for not being a more attentive wife to Brian. The lack of touches
and kisses in the night had not been one sided. She couldn’t help but feel
responsible that he had strayed. Despite this guilt she never felt remorse.
Having prided herself as always being the type of person who believes
everything happens for a reason, she considered her failed marriage to be one
of those things.

The closer she got to
Dove Creek the more she dreaded seeing her mom. She’d be fussing over her in no
time. It was that constant pestering that had Vicky avoiding her mother’s calls
every chance she got. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk to her mother. She
loved her. It was just the constant worry and nagging that became too much for
Vicky to contend with. 

As her thoughts
drifted so did her tires. Suddenly her Durango skidded against the snow packed
roads and began sliding off onto the shoulder. Clutching the wheel, she tried
to remain calm while the vehicle slid towards the side of the road, narrowly
missing a man walking there.

Then just as quickly
as it had begun, the moment was over. Her heart pounded as she slowed the
Durango down to a stop in order to get her bearings. Her adrenaline raced
through her veins as she glanced back at the man and then over at the ditch,
which lay beyond the shoulder of the road. 

She took in a deep
breath and waited a moment while trying to get her composure back. It certainly
wouldn’t make for a very good Christmas if she ended up totaling her car.
Especially since it was the one asset she had in her life since accepting a
payoff from Brian for their house. 

After spending a few
minutes by the side of the road, she placed the car in drive and slowly inched
forward until she was certain she wouldn't hit another patch of ice. 

This time she took her
drive much more cautiously. The town was only a few miles away now and the several
hour road trip was nearing an end. 

She looked around at the
foothills that were strewn along the landscape west of the Rocky Mountains. In
Denver it had surprised her how few people even knew that Dove Creek existed.
Then again, how many people ventured past the beautiful mountains to the area,
which bordered Utah? Maybe that was partially why their population hadn’t
managed to increase by much of anything in the last fifty years.

The tall steeple of
the only church now stood visible in the distance. It sat just on the outskirts
of town as one of the tallest buildings in Dove Creek. The fact that she could
see it at all, despite the light snowfall was promising. She hoped to not get
stuck in Dove Creek any longer than the holidays. She knew from experience that
a winter storm out here could leave you cut off from the larger towns for an
exponential amount of time. 

As she continued on
she finally met with that familiar and in some ways proverbial fork in the
road. The symbolic red octagon sign offered more possibilities than merely
deciding which direction to take.

She slowed her car to
a stop and took a look around at the miles of foothills and barren landscape
that surrounded her small hometown. If she turned right, in a half hour she
would be walking back into her mother’s home for the first time in thirteen
years. If she went left, she could easily turn around and be back on the
interstate in less than an hour.

No matter how tired
she felt, she couldn’t help but want to go left and drive the eight hours back
home. True to her word and the promise she’d made her mother, she turned her
steering wheel to the right and turned onto the main road, which led to
town. 

 Her hesitation
was replaced with a smile as she neared East Street and saw the glimmer of
Christmas lights twinkling even amidst the daylight hours. She stopped at the
corner of Fourth Street and looked across the park to where the city tree stood
proudly. For a moment she felt a twinge of nostalgia, remembering how exciting
it had been to her as a little girl to watch the townspeople decorate that
tree.

She took a left onto
Fourth Street and then turned right down Colorado Street. Now only minutes from
her mother’s house she drove down the small two-lane road which led her though
the north side of town. The fences were decorated with green foliage and holly
berries, wreaths were hung on doors and trees sparkled through front
windows. 

Taking in the beauty
of the holiday decorations she couldn’t help but feel a sense of warmth. This
town might be small, but it was filled with people who cared about one another.
They looked out for another. It was the exact opposite of the type of
environment she’d become accustomed to in the Mile High City. 

For the first time in
weeks she wasn’t just coming back home. She was happy to be there. Though she’d
forgotten, she really missed this place. 

Chapter Two

Michael Barnett
watched the Durango as it pulled away. In his younger and more hot-headed days
he probably would have shouted some expletives at the driver while giving them
his long middle fingered salute.  He’d grown up a bit since then. The
Marines had seen to that. There was no room for attitudes in the Corps. 

He took the pack from
his back and set it down on the cold snowy ground. Opening the front
compartment he pulled out a bottle of water and took a healthy drink before
replacing it. From as far as he could tell he was only a couple of miles from
town.

The small plane he’d
chartered from Denver had arrived at the Dove Creek Airport an hour before.
He’d made pretty good time since arriving back on his home turf, walking a good
four miles plus toward town. 

He could have
arranged a ride from someone at the airport, or even called his mother to pick
him up. That would have ruined the surprise he’d been planning, though. As far
as Gloria Barnett knew, her son was far away in the Kunar Province of
Afghanistan. Little did she know that her youngest son had set boots back down
on American soil five days earlier.

His mom always hated
to be left in the dark on any of her kids' plans, but with her nagging him the
last three years to come home for Christmas, he thought it would be a nice
surprise to pop in without her being any the wiser.