Need You Now (Love in Unknown) (6 page)

“Not anyone in particular. Doc said that some of the older patients were upset that he was retiring and turning the clinic over to a woman who just finished residency. But I haven’t seen enough patients to get on anyone’s bad side and everyone loves Doc.”

Caine’s frown returned. “Anyone in town who’s said anything against you personally?”

Mel paused, trying to think. Briefly her mind flickered back to the strange call from the other day, but she dismissed it. “No. I mean, there’re people like Sandra who still think I’m a bit of a freak or an Ivy League snob. They don’t necessarily like me too much, but enough to do this? No. There’s no one.”

Gage returned to the entrance hall. “At first glance, it looks like some kids trying to score drugs, but I’ll get Stan down here with the county forensics truck and see what he can find. Once he gets through with everything, you and Anna and Sandra can get in here to clean up. I’ll have Stan take pictures and send them to your insurance company.”

“Have there been any burglaries like this?” Mel asked. A niggling doubt at the back of her mind told her that drugs weren’t the motive behind the break-in. The destruction of her office felt personal, not a random act of vandalism. The extent of the damaged bordered on vindictive. Maybe she was just overreacting. Gage would probably think so.

He shook his head. “Not recently. I’ll check in with the other clinics in the area and see if there’ve been any break-ins in the last year, but I haven’t heard anything.”

“So, I’ll stay here until the forensics guy gets here and have Anna help me get in touch with the few patients we had scheduled today. I need to get the files cleaned up and reorganized as soon as possible.” She took a slow, shuddery breath. “Thank God Doc is out of town. This would break his heart.”

“Sorry, Mel,” Gage said, “but until the tech’s gone over the place, I don’t want you touching anything. We’ll keep things locked up tight and I’ll have an officer stationed out front, but this is still a crime scene. Once we’ve gotten any evidence we can find, I’ll help you and Anna get the place straightened up. Anna will know who to call from home. And everyone in town probably knows about this by now, so you shouldn’t worry too much about your patients.”

Mel tightened her jaw, briefly considering putting up a fight, but her shoulders drooped in defeat when she saw the identical, immovable expressions on the Maddox brothers’ faces. “Okay. I guess I’ll head home then. Unless there’s anything you need me to fill out?”

“No. I’ll have some paperwork for Doc to fill out and we’ll need details about what’s missing, but that can wait until tomorrow. From the looks of things, it’ll take a little while for Stan to go over the place. He’s our only forensics tech and this place is bigger than our standard crime scene.”

After thanking Gage, Mel started to leave the clinic. A hand on her shoulder stopped her on the porch. “Where’s your car?” Caine asked.

Eyebrows arching, she stared at him for a second. She hadn’t expected him to follow her. Of course, nothing was going the way she expected today. “I walked this morning. Too pretty to waste gas.”

“Can I give you a ride? I know it’s not that far, but I’d feel better if you weren’t walking by yourself.”

Mel looked around for a car, but all she saw was Gage’s Jeep with UNKNOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT emblazoned across the side. “Didn’t you ride with Gage?”

“Nope. I brought the golf cart.” Caine pointed to the side of the house where a golf cart sat. Not just any golf cart, either. The sleek, top of the line vehicle sported the city seal and the label MAYOR MOBILE across the front.

Mel let out a choked laugh. “You’re not serious. You can’t be. There’s no way you drive that thing.”

“Oh, but I do.” Caine smiled ruefully. “Old Mayor Brown couldn’t walk around town very well towards the end, so the Garden Club and the Women’s Auxiliary joined up and raised money to buy the cart for him. When I took over, Jemma Hartsfield made it known that I had better use the damn thing or they would be highly offended.”

She couldn’t help it. In spite of everything, Mel burst out laughing. Maybe she was just a little hysterical. Caine stood there looking chagrined as she gasped for breath until she got herself under control. “I’m sorry. I just…I can only imagine what all of those snotty guys you hung out with in college would say if they saw this.”

“Do you want a ride or not?” he asked with exaggerated patience.

Mel shook her head, still stifling snickers. Through all of the pain and confusion that had been between them at the end, she’d forgotten how much he could make her laugh. If she wasn’t careful, he’d make her forget why she needed to stay mad at him. “No thanks. I’m fine, really. You and your golf cart go on back to City Hall. The walk will do me good. No offense, Mr. Mayor, but it would take a lot to get me in that contraption.”

Feeling better than she had a few minutes ago, Mel began the walk back to Carr’s Cakes. Hopefully Micah wouldn’t object to a little help. A whirring noise behind her drew her attention. As Caine’s golf cart zipped past, she succumbed to another laughing fit. The arrogant, self-important Caine she’d known would never in a million years have lowered himself to drive around in that thing. Looking down at her feet, she began to come to terms with the fact that he’d probably changed a bit more than she was willing to admit. This new Caine was going to make it hard for her to ignore him. She just hoped she could stay strong.

#

Caine couldn’t believe he was doing this. After she turned down his ride this morning, he doubted Mel really wanted to see him, but he had to see her. Despite her laughter, he’d seen how shaken she was by the break-in. Every summer he came home from school, he’d rarely seen Mel because she was always at the clinic, helping Doc Booth and Anna. It was her second home; a safe place where she could practice medicine. Someone had violated her sanctuary. Anger boiled inside of him at the thought. Things like this happened in larger towns, but Unknown’s crime rate was negligible. A few petty crimes and DUI’s. They might have had a homicide case twenty years ago. Stuff like this should happen here.

Going out and catching the bad guy’s was his brother’s job. So Caine had spent the day in his office, restless with the need to somehow fix this for Mel. He counted it a victory that he managed to last until after dinner before showing up on her doorstep. He’d even gone to the store to get a special gift for her. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the aged door of the apartment over the bakery.

Mel pulled the door open and he had to smile. Every time he’d seen her since her return to town, she’d looked perfectly put together, hair sleek and clothes fashionable. Not tonight. With her hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, she wore a pair of light blue cotton pajama shorts and a white camisole that peeped out from under a thin gray sweater. God, she looked gorgeous. It never stopped surprising him how beautiful she’d grown in the last ten years. She’d always been pretty in a sweet, innocent sort of way, but wow.

“Caine. What are you doing here?” She tugged the sweater tighter around her, obscuring his view. It didn’t matter how much she tried to hide, though, because he knew her body, even if the woman in front of him was a mystery.

“I wanted to check up on you. I know today was a little rough and I was— I was worried.” There was no other way to put it. He and Mel had never minced words with each other. Why start now?

Mel closed her eyes for a second before opening them again. “That’s really sweet of you, Caine, but I’m fine. You really don’t need to worry about me.”

Caine braced one hand on the doorframe. “I’ve always worried about you, Mel. Ever since we were little and you insisted you could do everything that Micah, Gage, and I could. You were so little and breakable. I remembered that today.”

Not waiting for her to invite him in, he pushed past her. All the years he’d known the Carrs, he’d never been up here before. It’d always been rented out. The apartment was cozy. Warm yellow walls, thick blue carpet. A big overstuffed couch and club chair took up most of the living room. The same old tube TV she’d had in college sat on a low table against one wall. Pictures of her family served as the only artwork. He saw a small kitchen off to one side. A low bar with wooden barstools served as the dining table.

“It’s not the Maddox mansion, but it’s home.” Mel’s voice held a defensive note. Though she rarely vocalized it, she’d always been wary when it came to his family’s money. Ethan and Emma Carr raised their children to value hard, honest work and his parents looked down on the concept.

“It’s great, Mel. I’m just surprised it feels so homey when you’ve only been here a few weeks.” He smiled, trying to lighten the mood. “I see you still insist on having every single book you ever owned with you.”

She shrugged. “Books are one thing that never let me down.”

Ouch. He picked up a well-worn copy of
Persuasion
from the end table. Unless he was mistaken, it was the same copy he’d bought her in a rare moment of thoughtfulness one rainy afternoon not long after they started sleeping together. “How many times have you read this thing? A million?”

“Only a few thousand.” She snatched it away from him, a blush flaming in her creamy cheeks. “What are you doing here? And what’s in that bag?”

Caine looked down at the paper bag from Jackson’s Grocery. “I thought you might need some comfort food, so I stopped at Jackson’s and got this for you.”

Mel narrowed her eyes and stepped just close enough to take the bag from him. Cautiously, she opened it, looking inside as if she expected to see a bomb or have a spider jump out at her. “Ice cream?”

“Not just any ice cream. Strawberry cheesecake ice cream.” Specifically, Ben and Jerry’s Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream. HIs ace in the hole.

Mel’s eyes narrowed, then her shoulders slumped a little. She met his gaze and for a second, all of the years faded away, just as they had that morning when he’d hugged her. Heat and light sparked between them, the air so charged it almost hurt for him to breathe. “You remembered,” she whispered.

It stung a little that she thought he would forget, but he knew she had every reason to think he hadn’t paid attention back then. “My ice cream deliveries were the only way I could see you some days. You were always so busy with classes, but I knew you’d stop working if I brought you ice cream.”

Mel’s spine stiffened and her expression shuttered. “I appreciate the gesture, but why are you doing this, Caine? And don’t try to sell me some bullshit story about being concerned for my welfare because it’s your duty as mayor.”

He leaned against the back of the chair, crossing his arms. He could lie. Say that Gage asked him to stop by or that Doc sent him. But he’d never been able to lie to her. Not successfully, anyway. “Come on, Mel. We’re both adults. Highly intelligent, mature individuals who don’t play games with each other. I didn’t want us to be over, remember? I care about you. I’ve never stopped. And a big part of caring about someone is being concerned when they’ve had a shitty day.”

“I’m fine. Honestly.” She bit her lip. Her tell. She was holding something back. “Look, I appreciate the ice cream and the concern. But if you’re trying to convince me we should be together again, don’t. I told you I’m trying to start a new life.”

Caine shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He tried to think of a more infuriating woman, but he came up with nothing. No one got to him as much as she did. “I understand that, Mel. I really do. I just wish we could start over. Be friends again. Like Anne and Captain Wentworth.”

Not waiting for her response, Caine pressed a kiss to her forehead and left. Let her stew on that for a while. He knew she would. For all of her scientific practicality, his Melody was a sucker for her books.

#

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Mel said as she swept up yet another pile of glass. Two days after the break-in, she and Gage were finally cleaning up the wreckage. She thanked God all the floors in the clinic were wood. It made their job easier. Anna was in Doc’s office re-filing papers while Sandra scrubbed down the exam rooms upstairs. With any luck, they’d be able to reopen their doors tomorrow and she could get back to convincing everyone in town she was perfectly capable of running the clinic in Doc’s place.

Gage pulled a hammer out of his tool belt. Along with being police chief, he was also pretty darn handy with home repairs, thanks to her dad. The boys spent one memorable summer month building a tree house under Ethan Carr’s strict supervision. “But I really did. It’s the law.”

“The law?” Mel raised an eyebrow, leaning down to scoop the glass into a dust pan.

“Yup. Best Friend Law Code, Paragraph E, Sub-section Twelve. Best friend must assist other best friend whenever really bad shit happens to them.” He readjusted the door of one of the cabinets in the storage closet. “Besides, you seriously suck at fixing things.”

“You might be right there.” Brushing a stray piece of hair back toward her ponytail, Mel continued to sweep. She sucked at fixing a lot of things, like her own freaking heart. She was supposed to be moving forward with her life, damn it. Not being thrown into a tailspin by her past with Caine.

“What’d my brother do?”

Mel blinked over at him. It took a second for her to realize she’d said that last bit out loud. “Did you tell him to come by and check on me the other night after the break-in?”

Gage scratched his head and wiped sweat off his forehead. Spring was taking a break today with a heat wave. The air conditioner had suffered enough damage that they’d opted not to turn it on until the inspector gave it a once over. “No, Mel-bell, I didn’t. But I’m not all that surprised that he did.”

“Why? Has he said something to you?” God, she sounded like a tenth grader asking for gossip in the hallway between classes. But she needed to know what Caine was thinking so she could figure out the best plan to get him out of her head once and for all.

She watched Gage hesitate, the war between good brother and good friend going on in his head. “He might have said a few things.”

Mel rolled her eyes and huffed. She knew that tone. That was the mysterious, guarded tone that had infuriated her to no end as kids. “What kind of things? Things about him wanting to mess with my head and drive me crazy?”