Need You Now (Love in Unknown) (21 page)

Jax nodded, almost eagerly. Mel hadn't seen him show this much interest in anyone besides his dad since he’d moved here. Caine had obviously made an impression on her stoic nephew.

“Boarding school sucked. The food was lousy, the boys were jerks. But the absolute worst part? My brother, your aunt, and your dad weren't there." Caine met her gaze. Would she ever stop getting this warm tingly feeling every time he looked at her like that? "Life without your best friends is miserable."

Jax frowned at him. "You're best friends with a girl? Why? All the girls at my school are stupid."

“A lot of girls are pretty stupid. But your aunt isn't. She was always pretty cool." He pointed to the big oak tree in the corner of the yard where an ancient tree house still sat amidst the branches. "She helped us build the tree house, remember?"

Mel jumped in. "He means they used me as cheap labor to bring them sodas and fetch nails. Jerks wouldn't let me do anything fun like use a hammer. And then they had the nerve to put up a sign that said 'No Girls Allowed.'"

“We had to have some place to escape to," Micah protested. "You were such a little pest, always following us around, begging to play with us."

“Hey, I always let you up," Caine said.

Gage snorted from beside her. “You were such a wimp.”

“Being nice does not make him a wimp," she argued.

Caine  shrugged, his eyes all soft and tender. Warmth sluiced through her, mixing with a healthy dose of desire. "What can I say? Those big eyes would look up, all teary and sad, and I couldn't say no. That's lesson one of being a guy, little man. Girls will use tears to get what they want. And it works."

She stuck her tongue out at him, making Jax laugh. "Aunt Mel's cool, I guess. But I don't want a friend that's a girl if it means I have to kiss her like you did when you got here. Yuck!"

“You’ll think differently someday," Emma warned. "Caine used to think girls were gross and now look at him."

Jax didn't look convinced, but Mel was. Whatever their past, Caine truly wanted to be with her now. That thought kept playing over and over in her head even after dinner was over, even though she tried to distract herself by helping clean up.

“Careful, Mel-bell. You're drooling, and we used up all of the paper towels to clean up Jax's soda spill earlier."

Gage’s voice startled her. She had been standing at the sink, rinsing off some of the dishes while Caine and Micah worked with Jax on his batting stance. She'd gotten a little distracted, watching the way Caine's biceps pulled on the soft gray fabric of his t-shirt. "I wasn't drooling. That's just dish water."

“Right, sure. And you couldn't take your eyes off of him all through dinner." He snickered, picking up dishes and starting to load them into the dishwasher. "I can't remember the last time I saw him this happy."

Mel felt her cheeks flush. "It’s so weird. Having him here. The place is the same, the people are the same, but the dynamic is different."

Gage took a dish from her. His grey eyes didn't leave her face. This man. He’d always been there for her, was always supportive. "Good different or bad different?"

“Good different." She didn't hesitate. Aside from her dad's absence, the changes felt right. A natural progression. "The only thing that could make it better would be to see you and Micah get out there in the dating world."

That earned her a disgusted face. "True sign of someone who is completely smitten. Trying to inflict your happiness on everyone else."

“I'm not...smitten."
Smitten
sounded like a silly little girl's emotions.

Shaking his head, Gage crossed his arms over his chest, a knowing smile on his handsome face. If she looked closely, she could see the resemblance between him and Caine. The line of the jaw, the curve of his mouth. It wasn't overt, but it was still there. The years she’d spent trying to block her memories of Caine had dimmed the impact of how much the Maddox boys were alike. “Come on, now, Mel-bell. This is me. I know you. I know him. You're both so stubborn. If you'd just stopped fighting it, you could have been happy years ago."

“I've been happy." Mel sighed. "Maybe not as happy as I am now, sure. But as much as I care for him, I don't need your brother to be happy."

It was true. She loved being with Caine, but she wasn't about to have her happiness depend on him. She was home. She had a great family, a wonderful best friend, and the job she’d always wanted. Happiness had been around before Caine Maddox and it would be around after him. She looked back out the window in time to see him lift a giggling Jax over his head. Who was she kidding? God help her, Caine might be the only person who turned her happiness into joy.

Chapter 14

“Did you get a summons?” Caine demanded as he barged into the police chief’s office Thursday afternoon.

Gage glared at the paperwork he was filling out. “Of course. Mother said she’d heard that you’d gone to a family dinner with your—and I quote— ‘flame of the month’, and protocol dictated that she reciprocate immediately. Are they going to stay at the house?”

“Apparently. They’re even hiring staff from the club to come and serve dinner.” Caine looked at the wall, wondering how much it would hurt if he punched it. Olivia Maddox qualified for hurricane status. With only a few hours’ notice, she expected her every whim to be catered to. And from the barely concealed disdain in her voice, he knew this dinner would be hell for everyone involved.

“Have you told Mel yet?” Gage looked as worried as Caine felt.

He shook his head, tugging his hair. “No. I wish I didn’t have to. Mother’s never been a big fan of the Carrs.”

“You’re going to have to do some serious groveling to get her to agree to this dinner. Especially on such short notice.”

“No shit.” Caine had already started to formulate a plan. “I’ve got a present stored up for a special occasion. I’ll break it out to soften her up and then hit her with the dinner.”

“It better be one hell of a present,” Gage warned.

No kidding. Caine got in his car and drove out to his house. Hating his parents was a waste of energy, but that didn't stop the bitterness of memory from souring his mood. As a kid, part of him had always wanted to please his parents, even when he wanted to escape them. They were family. His grandfather had kept them from being too full of themselves and their own importance. Grandpa James. God, he missed him. The Maddox family patriarch had made Fortune Hill truly feel like home. When he died, everything had changed.

Turning into the drive, Caine remembered the day he’d left Fortune Hill for boarding school. It had been a hot summer day, about a month after Grandpa James's funeral. He’d come in after spending the day swimming in the river with Gage and Micah. Mel had gone to the clinic to help Doc Booth. Even back then, she'd been determined to be a doctor. Olivia and Joseph, his picture-perfect parents, sat in the living room and told him that his bags were being packed. It was high time he went to a proper school, they’d said. One meant for boys of his position in life.

His first question had been why, of course. They’d just given him the standard parent response of “because I said so.” He’d wanted to argue, to stomp his foot and tell them to go to hell. But he couldn’t. Rule number one, his grandfather always told him, was to respect your elders. That day, he’d almost forgotten that rule. Every part of him wanted to act like a little kid and scream and slam doors and tell them he wasn’t leaving. He’d even briefly considered running away to the Carrs’ house. He knew they'd bring him home, though, and that his parents would get their way. So he’d said goodbye to his brother and left for Ardsmore Academy. That day had ended any real respect he’d felt for his father and only increased his dislike of his mother. They focused only on appearance, something he vowed never to do.

And now he had to tell Mel that they were being summoned before the king and queen of darkness. Swell. Luckily, he’d ordered the present right after their first date, intending to take Mel to New York or Boston for a long weekend and maybe a trip to the theatre. He hadn’t intended to use it as bribery, but in this case, he needed all the help he could get.

Later that night, present in hand, Caine climbed the stairs to Mel’s apartment. He’d grabbed a box of chocolates for good measure.

“Hey, you,” Mel said, pulling him inside before giving him a kiss. “Those aren’t for me, are they?”

He handed her the boxes. “Yes, they are. But before you open them, I have to confess that they’re a bribe.”

“A bribe? Hmm.” She set the boxes on the table. “Let’s see how bad the situation is.”

He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans to keep from helping her rip the paper off. Tessa had laughed when he’d confessed everything to her. He'd told her all about Mel years ago and she'd been happy to send the dress. Her only price in exchange was that she got to meet Mel ASAP.

“Oh, Caine. It’s gorgeous.” She held the aqua-colored dress up to her shoulders, admiring it. “This isn’t a Tessa Styles dress, is it?”

Time to come clean. “Yeah, it is. She and I went to boarding school together and are still pretty close. I ordered it a few weeks ago, hoping I could convince you to go to New York with me for a weekend.”

“A weekend in New York? Oh, I'd love to, but I can't right now. Not with the clinic and the hospital." Mel continued to run her hand along the silk.

“Yeah. See, that’s where the bribe part comes in.” He took a deep breath before plunging in. “My mother heard about my dinner with your family last weekend and is pretty insistent that you have dinner with my family this weekend.”

As expected, Mel looked mildly horrified. “This weekend?”

“Well, tomorrow night, actually. She and Dad will fly into the Maddox County airport on their plane tomorrow morning and stay the night at my place." He shrugged helplessly. "I did everything I could to change her mind or put it off, but she's fixated on the idea."

She sighed and gave him a disgruntled look. “You’re lucky this is a really damn good bribe, Caine Maddox. The chocolates were a nice touch, too.”

Relieved, he set aside the dress and pulled her into his arms. For the first time all day, everything melted away and he relaxed. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well, play your cards right and I might even let you spend the night here tomorrow night so you don’t have to have breakfast with the Wicked Witch.”

He laughed at that. Wicked Witch had been their code name for his mother growing up. Whenever she went out of town, Mel would sing “Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.”

By the time Caine picked her up the next night, neither of them was laughing.

“You look amazing,” he told her, helping Mel into his Aston Martin. “Mother’s going to turn pea green with envy when you tell her you’re wearing a custom Tessa Styles creation. Tess refuses to make anything for Olivia.”

Mel’s smile wasn’t as bright as usual, but she relaxed a little. "I think I might like this Tessa Styles for more than just her designs. Whatever happens, you and Gage are not allowed to leave me alone with the Wicked Witch."

“Don’t worry. We won’t.”

For the first time since he’d redone the place, it didn’t feel like he was coming home when he pulled up to his house. Caine knew why. Behind the front door, it wasn’t his personal space. No, tonight it was home turf for his mother. Gage sat on the front steps, tugging at his gray tie.

“Big bad police chief too scared to go inside without back up?” Mel teased as he helped her out of the car.

Gage nodded. “Scared. Smart. Same difference. You ready for this?”

The look Mel gave his brother spoke volumes. She didn’t want to be here anymore than they did. At least if Caine had to suffer through an evening with his parents, he’d have her by his side. It also helped that she looked phenomenal in that dress. The aqua silk gleamed again her skin and barely skimmed her knees. Long legs stretched down to what he’d heard women call “fuck me” heels that were doing their job by putting all kinds of ideas in his head. He kept his gaze away from the cleavage revealed by the low dip of her scooped neckline. The last thing he needed during this dinner was a hard on.

“It’ll be fine, sunshine,” Caine said. “Just remember that nothing she says has any effect on us. She doesn’t even line in Unknown anymore. The Wicked Witch’s powers are severely limited. This is all for show.”

Gage and Mel didn’t look like they believed his speech anymore than he did. Wrapping an arm around Mel’s waist, Caine led the way into the dragon’s den.

Just as she had for so many other agonizing dinners, his mother waited for them in the formal living room. For some perverse reason, when he’d redone the house, he kept the front room as the “formal” living room. Rather than the well-worn leather furniture of the great room, he’d bought a dark brown velvet couch, a brocade covered sofa in the same color, and two dark blue club chairs covered in a metallic looking fabric. A big glass coffee table stood in the center. He never came in here without getting flashbacks to his childhood. Now it replayed before his eyes.

His mother sat on the couch in an elegant, overpriced black dress that was so structured he thought her shoulders might poke someone’s eye out if they got too close. Joseph Maddox lounged in one of the chairs, long legs crossed, his suit—immaculate as always— was the same shade of gray as his once dark brown hair. Unsurprisingly, he already held a tumbler full of Caine’s best scotch in his hand. What did surprise Caine was the third person in the room.

Shit.

Portia.

“There they are. My sons.” Olivia’s recently botoxed lips stretched into a feline smile. “So nice to see you. It’s been too long.”

Caine clenched his teeth, tightening his hold on Mel in attempt to keep himself grounded. “Mother, you didn’t tell me that you were bringing a…guest.”

“Your mother realized right before we left that we’d have an uneven number for dinner and apparently that is bad luck.” Joe shook his head.

Olivia sniffed. “And Portia graciously agreed to save us from that faux pas.”