His Temporary Wife (The Brides of Sunflower Falls #2)

Chapter 17

seventeen

All through dinner, Tony felt Melody pulling further away. He knew he’d fucked up somehow earlier, but other than Damien talking about Robert pissing off the feds in addition to the local cops, he wasn’t sure why she’d be pulling back.

Was it his parents finding out about the baby?

Something else?

Was she sick? Did they need to go to the hospital? She had finished the sandwich.

He, Zach, Damien, and his father cleared the table. His mom went with Aspen to gather up the kids, who were likely sacked out on the couch in the TV room. He paused to check on Melody, but she shook her head at him and went to the door that led out to the pool deck.

“Anthony.”

“Coming, Dad.” Fighting off the urge to follow her out and swear to slay all her dragons, he took the remaining trash into the kitchen.

Zach was loading the dishwasher, and Damien was replacing the bag in the garbage container. His dad held out the mostly full bag, and Tony dropped what he carried into it. While his dad took it out to the garage, he looked over at Damien. “How worried do I have to be that the feds want to talk with me?”

Damien leaned back against the counter. “Let’s wait for your dad to come back.”

A minute later, his dad came in and went to the sink to wash his hands. He looked over at Damien. “How worried do we have to be about the feds wanting to speak with Anthony?”

With a snort, Damien shook his head. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be worried, but I didn’t get the impression that Anthony was a target of any kind. They just want all the information they can get from him about Robert and anyone Robert may have brought with him.”

“Do I need to send Melody back to Sunflower Falls? I don’t want her getting mixed up in anything.”

Damien frowned at him. “She just got here.”

“And I don’t want her or the baby to be in danger.”

“You realize she’s here for more than just you, right?”

Tony thought back over the hours since Melody arrived. “She didn’t say anything about why she came out.”

Zach turned and shook his head. “That’s because you never gave her the chance or asked. You have your head so far up your ass.”

Scowling at his friend, Tony crossed his arms against his chest. “What?”

“Anthony Michael.”

He winced. His dad pulling out the middle name was never a good sign.

“What did we teach you about communicating with your partners?”

Zach leaned against the counter next to Damien. “Can’t blame him too much. Melody’s not the most communicative person either.”

His dad sniffed. “She’s not my child.” He jerked a thumb in Tony’s direction. “He, however, is. You make sure your partner is always on the same page. Making assumptions of what they want or understand is only going to lead to heartbreak.”

“I’m not making assumptions.”

Zach crossed his arms against his chest. Damien blinked. And his father snorted.

“Son. It sounds like you are most certainly making assumptions. Go out there and speak with her. I know I would very much enjoy being a part of my grandchild’s life, and your mother will make your life hell if you do anything that prevents her from doing the same. I won’t stop her. Melody seems like a nice woman, and I’d like to get to know her better. That’s not likely to happen anytime soon if you screw this up.”

“Are you trying to direct me?”

His dad snorted. “Hell, no. I’m trying to father you. But being your father absolutely helped me become a better director.”

He scowled at his dad. “You’re welcome.”

His dad jerked his head back to the living space. “Go speak with her. We’ll get the rest of this cleaned up.”

Damien nodded. “I’ll call you tomorrow. I need to get Aspen and the kids home, anyway.”

In the living room, he could hear his mom and Aspen talking as they got the kids moving. Melody’s voice wasn’t in the mix, so she hadn’t come back in and joined them. He looked out to the pool deck where she’d been headed and saw the glow of a phone screen in the darkness.

Heading out there, he didn’t try to muffle any of his movements. But when he sat down on the lounger next to Melody, she jumped and dropped her phone.

He picked it up and handed it to her. There was a photo of Button lunging for a camera, mouth open, on the screen. Laughing, he met Melody’s gaze. “Who’s taking care of her?”

“Ana. My mom’s got Mayzie, and the motel’s all booked up for the county fair.”

“That’s right. I’d forgotten about that.”

Melody paused in the act of taking her phone back, then nodded. “Of course you did. Why should you remember things like county fairs? People who order from fancy French restaurants don’t go to county fairs.”

He frowned. “Hey. What’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

He reached out and took her hands in his. The feel of her skin against his soothed the part that was getting worried about the direction this conversation was going in, but only a tiny bit. His dad had been right about kicking him out here. “It’s not nothing. You’re obviously worried about something.”

She blew out a breath. “It’s…just…” She bit her lip. “Look. We’re from different worlds. We should never have hooked up.”

Alarmed, he moved to sit next to her. He put his arm around her, but from the stiffness in her back and shoulders, he didn’t try to pull her deeper into his embrace. “Melody. Just because we had different experiences growing up…”

She exploded into action, getting up and pacing the pool deck. “Different? Try solar systems apart. Your dad’s an award-winning movie director. My dad has spent time in multiple jails for fraud. My mom runs a motel. Your mom hosts fundraisers that people give millions to.” She held up her hands palms out toward him. “I’ve done everything from laying tile to clearing out septic systems on jobs as needed. Your face was on my wall as a teenager.”

“Okay. You’ve done manual labor. I have, too. Both my parents taught me you do whatever’s needed on a production to make it happen.”

She raked her hands through her hair. “You’re not getting it.”

He heard the frustration in her tone. Telling her he wasn’t because she was keeping it all bottled up in her head wouldn’t do anything to help. He leaned forward, hands clasped and elbows on his knees. “I’m trying to. I really am, Melody. Can you break it down as if I was a small kid? Because that’s how I’m feeling right now.”

Instead of answering, she walked down to the end of the pool and then turned to follow the edge. He realized she needed to let the energy out. Even though she’d flown out with Aspen and the kids on a private jet, she wouldn’t have had much room to move. Melody needed movement. Action. She did a lot of the office work for the business, but she was out on the site about as often as she was in the office.

And he realized what he’d been trying to do. Melody wasn’t one to be contained. Ever. And he’d been trying to contain her. Mold her. His idea of pampering and caring for her would just look to her like he didn’t accept her for who she was.

He let out a long breath as he watched her move around the pool. When she got to the doors leading back into the house, he worried for a moment that she’d just head back in and demand to be taken anywhere else.

She continued walking the edge of the pool, back toward him. Stopping in front of him, he could see the burning edge in her eyes as she stared at him. “You really want to understand?”

He nodded, not wanting to break the moment, and then realized she needed to hear his words as much as he needed the same from her. “Yes.”

Melody looked over her shoulder, and then sat down on the lounger he’d originally sat down on. “When I was growing up, things were rough.”

She paused again, her gaze on the pool. After a few moments, he reached out and laid his hand on hers. Relief hit him in the gut when she turned her hand over and gripped his.

“I need you to know that my father never hit me.” She went silent again. Then she drew in a deep breath. “But when I was in high school, my mom finally divorced him because he got into a fight with Eric. I wasn’t there. I’d been over at Ana’s. But when I came home, Eric had a bunch of ice packs on his face and hands with Uncle Stef checking him out, and Mom was on the phone with an attorney. That’s why I do all the self-defense courses. First Uncle Stef and Eric wanted to make sure I could handle it if my dad ever came back and lost it with me. I kept doing them because I liked the exercise and it helped me feel more steady with everything.”

He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, Melody. I figured out things weren’t great with your dad. I didn’t realize that had happened.”

She swallowed. “The thing is, I’d seen him, Dad, earlier in the day. I’d given him a key to the house. I’m why he and Eric got into the fight. He wouldn’t have been there if I hadn’ t given him the key.”

“Melody…” He started to get up, but she shook her head and held up her hand.

He watched the shadows on her throat undulate as she swallowed. “Dad could always talk me into doing anything he wanted help with. I wanted him to love me, us, so much that he’d stop getting into trouble. I always hoped that this time I’d do the thing that was just enough. And then Eric got hurt because of me.”

He squeezed her hand, unsure how to respond in a way that wouldn’t invalidate her feelings or experiences. He also didn’t want to stop her from feeling like she could share with him.

“I know you’re thinking I should probably go to therapy. I have. It helped. Intellectually, I know it’s not my fault. My dad could have found another way into the house. He could have just waited outside the door until one of us came home. But I’ve never been able to fully unload those feelings of guilt. They’re as real to me as the fact Earth is round.”

Tony cleared his throat. “I understand. I do. If I hadn’t agreed to bring Robert on as a partner in the production, he wouldn’t have had access to the actors and crew and subjected them to his behavior. I didn’t give him permission to do what he did, but I gave him that access.”

She looked at him. “When I found out you’d been lying about who you were, I felt like I was fourteen again. Finding out that I’d been stupid enough to believe someone who said he’d loved me just so he could take advantage of me. Hurt my family.”

Tony’s heart broke. If he could have kicked his own ass, and then her dad’s, he would have gladly done it. “I am so sorry. I will forever be sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. ”

Melody nodded. “Growing up, I always thought people weren’t giving my dad a chance. If they were just nicer to him, he wouldn’t feel like he had to do what he did.” She let out a quiet laugh, but he heard the pain in it. “Thing is, my dad always chose to do what he did. My mom and Uncle Stef shielded us from a lot, but I found out later he had fucked up my grandparents’ finances. Everyone in town knew. It really sucks being known as the child of the town fuck up who’d screwed over his own parents. I’d sometimes overhear Ana’s mom talking about me, and how I’d probably be a bad influence.”

Scowling, Tony moved to sit next to her again. This time, she allowed him to pull her into his embrace. “Well, that’s just shitty. Didn’t she realize you could have heard her?”

She snorted. “She probably meant for me to overhear. Ana’s mom, to put it kindly, is a bitch. That’s the thing about small towns. A lot of the stereotypes are true because some people want them to be. Ana’s mom wants to be the queen bee of Sunflower Falls, so she makes that happen, at least in her own mind, by putting people into the places she assigns them. My dad maybe doesn’t want to be the town fuckup, but he also doesn’t care about how his actions affect others. And he keeps coming back because he’s like a damn homing pigeon.”

He looked out over the pool to the darkness of the Pacific Ocean. The vast expanse had always made him feel small, but secure in this tiny part of the world. It was a steady presence that would be there long after he left this world. “But you love living there.”

She nodded against his shoulder. “I do. Because for every one of my dads, for every one of Ana’s moms, there are also people like Nancy, Harry, even Mrs. Smith. They make the town better. They give me an anchor in knowing there are good people who will take you as you are, and give you a safe space to land when life gets really shitty.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Melody periodically would rub her head against his shoulder. At one point, he looked down and saw her eyes were closed. “Melody?”

“Yeah?” Her voice was soft. She was drifting off to sleep, which wasn’t surprising considering the long ass day she must have had.

“Why did you come out here?”

“Hmmm? Oh. I’ve got a meeting on Monday with Triple H.”

He really was an ass. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Need anything from me?”

“No. Since you can’t leave, I’ll just use a car app to get there.”

Even half asleep, Melody put him in his place. She didn’t need him. And if there was anything she did need, she’d find a way to get it on her own. “Let’s get you up to bed.”

“Not sleeping with you.”

He let out a small laugh as he stood and tugged her up. “Not tonight. You’re already mostly asleep.”

“Jet lag’s worse than Ana’s mom.”

This time his laugh went deep to his gut. “Some day, you’ll have to tell me the story of Ana’s mom.”

Melody frowned as she stood and wobbled a bit. Once she’d gained her balance, by leaning into his side, she looked up at him. “I don’t know that anyone knows the whole story of Ana’s mom. We’ve never figured out why it’s like she doesn’t like Ana. I always thought the baby of the family was supposed to be the best loved one. But other than Bethie, and sometimes their dad, Ana’s family mostly ignores her if they’re not treating her like crap. ”

“Definitely a story for another day, then.” He led her back into the house and up the stairs to the room she’d claimed earlier.

But instead of heading into the bathroom to do whatever, she face-planted onto the bed.

He bent down and pulled her shoes off her feet. She sighed and rolled over. Then patted the bed next to her. “Come here.”

Melody’s eyes were closed, so he let out the grin. “I thought we agreed. No sleeping together tonight.”

“I’ll sleep. You hold me. I’m the person growing your baby.”

Letting out a small breath of relief, he toed off his own shoes and climbed into the bed from the other side. She rolled over again and scooted over and plastered her back to his front. He wrapped one arm around her hips and rested his hand on her stomach. She hummed, and then he heard her breathing even out.

Pressing a kiss behind her ear, he closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Melody. I’ll be better.”

She mumbled something and rubbed her ass against his cock. It began to harden, but he fought off the natural reaction to having her so close against him after so long. They needed to talk more. Tomorrow.

He’d find some way to show her he was both better than her father, and that he’d place her first instead of assuming he knew best. He closed his eyes and drifted off.