Unexpected Admirer (19 page)

“Now, there is a car waiting for you right through that door. A plane is waiting for you, and your luggage will be sent back to you.”

Melissa watched as Noelle moved toward Bryce and Bryce looked for her, but Tyson was moving her out of his line of sight.

“You’ll go now, or tomorrow’s paper will have a picture of the two of you in a very compromising position. How will that go over in that small town of yours and that teaching position you hold so dear.”

She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t even question him.

“Leave.” He opened the door to the outside, and just as he’d said, a car waited for her.

What choice did she have?

She stepped toward the car, and the door to the arena slammed closed behind her.

Jesse was singing his heart out, but it was because he knew this was the end. The end of the tour—the end of an era.

Oh, it’d been fun, but he was moving on. Damn! By Christmas he’d be a father to a pre-teen. Okay, he had to clear his mind. That nearly caused him to miss a note.

The number was over, and the music and lighting changed. The tempo slowed, and the stage crew delivered two stools to center stage.

Cell phones and lighters illuminated and already the crowd was cheering, but he couldn’t wait for the roar with his news. This was going to be the grandest moment in the history of Jesse Charles’s concerts.

“We’re going to take it down a bit.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “This song is very special to me. See, I admire someone an awful lot. And we’ve made some plans.”

Again, the crowd’s approval was growing, and he hadn’t even given them the news.

Jesse stood and started toward the side of the stage. “Yesterday I asked this beautiful woman to marry me, and she said yes. So now I’d like to bring her out here and introduce you to the future Mrs. Charles.”

The arena erupted.

Jesse turned to see Melissa walk toward him, but instead a very pregnant Noelle Camillo was walking toward him.

The noise from the crowd pierced his ears.

Noelle sauntered toward him, cupped his face in her hands, and planted a long, wet kiss on his lips.

The crowd was eating it up.

Jesse gripped her hand and covered the mic on his cheek. “Where is Melissa?”

“Honey, she left.” She took the hand that gripped her wrist and set it on her enlarged stomach. “She knows we’re having a baby. She sends her best.”

He wasn’t sure how to leave twenty thousand people, but running out of the arena had crossed his mind.

Unfortunately, he was a showman and that meant the show must go on.

Chapter Sixteen

There had been only one choice when Melissa stepped foot onto that plane, which waited to take her back to her life, and that was to call William and ask him to be there when she arrived.

At least he hadn’t disappointed her.

The moment she saw him standing there she’d run to him. She had wrapped her arms around his neck and held him.

William’s arms came around her, and he let her stand there, in the middle of the airport, and cry on his shoulder.

“C’mon, let’s get you home.”

Melissa stumbled after him in the high heels that had now become too tight since her ankle had swollen on the plane.

Her body shivered. There was snow in Colorado, and she hadn’t planned to be home and was unprepared.

William stripped off his coat and helped her into it.

“I’ll go get the truck, and I’ll pick you up.”

She nodded as she wiped away the tears from her cheeks. He smiled and gave her a nod, then headed out into the fresh snow, with no coat, to get his truck.

The tears nearly froze to her skin as she stood there waiting, but there was no end to them. How had she been so foolish to think it was all true? It was just a joke to the rich and famous. Oh, she’d seen those shows and the movies where they took some average person and made them look famous. God, what a fool she was and how stupid she looked.

As she lifted her hand to wipe away more tears, the ring on her finger caught the light. She fisted her hand.

She’d send it back in the morning. Yes, that’s what she’d do. Send back a two karat ring in a plain envelope. It would serve him right.

William pulled the truck up to the curb and hurried out to help her in. Once she was strapped in, he took her face in his hands.

“I’m glad you’re home.”

He shut the door and walked around to climb in the other side.

She braced herself for the barrage of questions and the
I told you so
to begin, but William focused on the road.

Not a single word was uttered between Grand Junction and the decent into Aspen Creek. That was when Melissa reached for William’s hand and held it in hers.

“Thank you for coming for me,” she said softly.

“I told you I’d always be here for you,” he offered non-accusingly.

“He asked me to marry him.” Another tear fell.

“I assumed that might have been the case by the rock on your finger.”

She looked down at the ring. “Yes.” She blew out a long breath. “What an idiot I was.”

“No. You thought he loved you. You wouldn’t agree to marry someone if you weren’t in love.”

She nodded, and now the tears turned to sobs. “I hate how this feels.”

“You’ll get over it. You’re a strong woman.”

This was why William had always been in her life. He knew her better than anyone.

Her cell phone rang in her purse, but she silenced it.

“Was that him?”

“I would assume so.”

“You’re not going to talk to him?”

She shook her head. “No. Never again.”

William didn’t say another word about the trip or the ring that adorned her finger. Melissa was thankful for his silence.

Her demeanor must have been less than grand when she returned to school because no one came to her to ask about the media coverage that had taken over the entertainment shows. But she’d heard the whispers, and she wondered when they would stop.

Now all she cared about was Christmas break and time to hide in her own home, away from the world. It would be enough time for everyone to forget that she was an idiot and had been used by a very powerful man. A very powerful man who had lied to her.

It would be just enough time for Jesse Charles and that woman to move on with their lives.

As the final bell of the day rang, Melissa dropped her head on her arms.

She heard the door close, and she looked up.

William stood there with a cup of coffee in his hand. “I thought you could use some. Your mom said she was picking up Jonah so you could stay and catch up.”

She wanted to be gracious, but it was hard. However, she managed to smile and reached for the cup as he crossed the room.

“Thank you.”

“Hard couple days?”

“I just want holiday break to get here, and I want to hide in my house.”

William sat on the edge of her desk. “I wanted to take you to find a new car.”

“I guess I need to do that.”

“What about his truck? What are you going to do with that?”

Melissa was going to be civil when she spoke about him, but in her head, she was thinking of pushing the truck off a cliff.

“As soon as I have something to drive, I’ll call Bryce and make him send someone for it.”

“How about tomorrow after school? There was a lot in Grand Junction that had some nice options.”

She nodded. At least William would keep his promises to always take care of her.

As he left her room, Emmy walked in, or rather snuck in, as Melissa didn’t even realize she’d been standing there until she made some kind of noise.

“Hello, Emmy.”

“Hi.” She moved further into the room, her hands twisted around each other. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. I know everyone is staying their distance, but that just isn’t my style. I also know I knew more than everyone, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Are you okay?”

The tiny, petite woman must have an amazing set of lungs, Melissa thought. She could run sentences on for days.

“I’m fine. I feel a little foolish, but I’m fine. Nothing a holiday break won’t fix.”

Emmy nodded. “Have you talked to him?”

Melissa shook her head. “Nope. I find no need.”

“I read that…”

“Emmy, it’s over. I was the biggest idiot to ever walk the earth. Now I look like a fool.”

“No, you look brokenhearted.”

And didn’t she feel it, too?

Emmy started to step back, as though to retreat. “Well, if you need anything, you just let me know. I’m a good ear and a great secret keeper. By the way, your hair still looks great, and it did in the papers and at the Lakers game, too.” She was almost to the door. “I’m heading into town. I have to mail off a piece of artwork for a contest. I don’t know why I do that. I never win, but maybe someday, right?”

“You’re going to the post office?”

“Yes.”

Melissa looked down at her bag at the small box she’d wrapped up. Even Melissa had too much of a heart than to send the ring back in the envelope she’d originally thought of.

She picked up the box and walked toward Emmy. “Will you just hand this over? It’s all ready. I calculated the postage online.”

“You’re sending him a gift?” she asked as she looked down at the name.

“No. Trust me. It’s no gift. I’m giving him back a burden.”

Emmy’s brows narrowed and she nodded, but left with the very expensive ring in the box. Melissa wondered if it would ever make it to him. Then she thought about it and decided she really didn’t care.

As promised, the next day William met Melissa at her house after school to pick her up. She parked the truck at the curb and not in the driveway, hoping that the phone call she’d placed during her lunch break would result in Bryce getting someone to come for the truck.

She was grateful to have had it, but she didn’t need a daily reminder of how stupid she was.

William drove to the lot in Grand Junction where he’d scoped out a few cars. He thought an Acadia would be a great choice for her with all-wheel drive and yet it wasn’t a monster of a truck, like the one she’d parked out in the street.

The salesman showed her nearly every car on the lot, but Melissa’s head just wasn’t into it. She didn’t care about cars. She didn’t care about safety and mileage. What she cared about was that stupid song was playing in the background and that no one but her could hear it. Jesse’s voice was still in her head. It was still in her heart, and she hated that it affected her.

“Melissa, what do you think?” William asked, snapping her out of her mindless wandering of the lot.

“I think I want to go home.”

The salesman was inching back, pretending as if he was checking on the car or a smudge on the paint.

William stepped closer to her. “You need a car.”

“I need everyone to stop tiptoeing around me.”

“You made a mistake. We all make them.”

“And were any of your mistakes on Entertainment Tonight?”

He rubbed his hand over his forehead. “Let’s just get you a car. Let’s get home, and we can talk about what we’re going to do now.”

“We’re? When did this become our issue?”

“When you left to sleep with the man and I told you I was in love with you.”

That had the salesman excusing himself and high-tailing it into the office.

“So, this is what you’d expected?”

“Of course it was.” He moved in closer. “C’mon, he’s a nice kid, but he’s a kid. What does he know about a family and a stepson?”

“You don’t know him.”

“And now you’re defending him?”

She was, and she didn’t know why.

Her ankle was aching in the cold. Her heart was breaking in her chest. And she just wanted to go home and lock herself in her bedroom again.

William reached his hand to her cheek. “Don’t mourn this forever. This isn’t what you had with Martin.”

But it was and only she knew it. Even if it might have only been a month in the works, she’d loved the man and she had wanted to marry him.

William moved in closer. “Listen. This is really bad timing, but I think I should put it out there.” He took a deep breath, and it hung in the frozen air. “I know you could never love me as you did Martin, but I would like to be your husband and a father to Jonah. Would you consider that?”

Melissa stood there, freezing, with her mouth hanging open. That had to have been the worst marriage proposal she’d ever heard. And worse yet, she was so depressed she was considering it.

Well, not yet. She wanted to be pissed just a little longer, and she was very pissed with William Scott for even moving in like that.

“Find me a damn car and tell me where to sign the papers. I don’t even care if I have to pedal it.”

She moved around him and walked back to the car.

Melissa ended up with the white Acadia William had seen when he’d gone to Grand Junction to pick her up from the airport.

It was a good car. She was pleased he’d put up with her long enough to get the papers signed.

As she parked the new car in her driveway the next day after school, she noticed the pickup truck was gone. A part of her was thrilled to not have the reminder sitting there taunting her. The other part ached—he was gone.

Melissa walked through the front door just in time to see Jonah run down the hall and slam his door. Melissa’s mother followed until she saw her standing in the doorway.

“What happened to Jonah?” she asked.

“He got into a fight at school.”

Melissa set her bag down on the floor. “He got into a fight? He’s never been in a fight before.”

“He’s never had anything to fight over.”

Melissa didn’t like where this was going. “Jesse?”

“Yes.”

She dropped her shoulders and went to his room. She knocked, but Jesse’s voice had been cranked up on the speakers so she entered.

Seeing the face of the man she’d loved on her son’s walls hurt nearly as bad as seeing her son crying. Melissa shut the door and sat down on the bed next to him.

“I hear you were fighting.”