Holiday Promise (Hollyberry Harbor #2)

Chapter 9

NINE

Something was wrong.

Everything had changed.

Melody didn’t know what it could have been, or how to pinpoint the moment exactly, but she could feel it. The air had shifted. The way Blake treated her was vastly different.

While he still spent time with her after Max had gone to bed, even their quiet moments in the dark of the night felt foreign and forced.

Two weeks of a relationship with Blake and all she could think of was that his work was stressing him out a little more than it had before. Thomas had brought some documents for him to go over. Maybe that was what bothered him.

She wanted to ask him, to have him confide in her, but she didn’t know where to start. A high-powered man like Blake didn’t need someone like Melody to talk to. He had a board of directors, an assistant, and any number of other corporate gurus that could put his mind at ease. What good would she do?

On a particularly cold night after Max had gone to bed and Blake had turned in early, she sat in the study, wide awake. The words on the page blurred before her eyes as she continued to go over that day in painstaking detail.

Everything had been going so smoothly. Then Thomas arrived and, bam, just like that, Blake was distracted. The lines around his eyes had increased. He became almost despondent.

It had to do with his work, she just knew it. What else could it be?

Except that wasn’t entirely true.

There was something else she’d discussed with Max when Blake had been right there.

She’d admitted that she hadn’t finished her schooling. Blake had reacted to her story. She’d thought he’d forgotten all about her little fib when she’d gotten hired—much like she had. It wasn’t until after she’d said it that she realized her mistake.

Melody had told Blake that she had a degree in child development. The nanny gig had been a dream come true when she’d needed the money. There was no telling how long the job would be for, but she was being offered room, food, and a wage that would allow her to return to school if she so desired.

Why had she lied about it? Such a stupid lie, too.

Now he knew she lied about her education. She wasn’t the person he’d thought he hired. Would he be so upset that he’d fire her? So far, he hadn’t mentioned the degree thing. That was why she kept telling herself that he hadn’t remembered her interview.

She dug her hands into her hair and heaved a sigh. There were at least a half a dozen times since that evening that she’d nearly gone up to him and asked him to tell her what was bothering him. Melody had wanted to corner him much like she had on that day he’d come back from his work trip and demand that he behave like an adult and approach this issue head-on.

The problem with that was not knowing which theory was the right one.

Melody grew restless. She needed to do something, but what? She got to her feet with the intention of going to the kitchen for some tea, but noticed a light on down the hall where Blake’s office was located.

Quietly padding toward it in her stockinged feet, she paused right outside the door and peered around the wall. Her stomach churned when she realized what she’d caught him doing. The book on his desk was more than familiar. She had nearly every page of the album memorized by now. In the beginning, Max wanted to look through it every single day. Slowly, as his grieving wore on, he flipped through it less and less.

She couldn’t remember a single time when she’d seen Blake go through it, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. Every single picture in that album had the one person who had been ripped from their lives.

Blake glanced up at that moment and Melody sucked in sharply as she withdrew, pressing her back against the wall. She couldn’t be caught spying on him. That would most definitely destroy any sort of relationship they still had.

Melody inched down the hallway back to the study, where she’d left one light on. There would be no getting tea tonight. If she was lucky, Blake wouldn’t come investigating before she made it to her room.

The entire walk back to the study and then to her room, her heart pounded like she’d just run a marathon.

Not only was he disappointed in her education and credentials, he was looking at pictures of her . Melody wasn’t enough for him. That was the only conclusion she could draw from that encounter.

The fact that she thought she could fill a hole he had in his heart was laughable. Her embarrassment continued to fester, growing bigger and more volatile than before. Explaining away her lie was one thing. But competing with a ghost? She didn’t think she could do that. What would she say? The only arguments that came to mind sounded callous and unfeeling.

No one needed to be reminded that their dead spouse wasn’t coming back.

Wet, warm tears streaked her face. There was no one she could blame but herself in this situation. She’d known it wasn’t smart to let her get her hopes up. She knew she was the kind of person who had a tendency to get too attached to people. Heck, she’d gotten so attached to Max that she couldn’t envision a life where she wasn’t going to be part of his life.

She was a fool.

Melody didn’t know what prompted her to do so, but she reached for her phone. Initially, she intended to call her sister, but thought better of it. The details of her relationship were still secret.

Instead, she called the one person who might be able to shed some light on the subject at hand.

“Melody? What time is it? Are you okay?” Thomas’s groggy, then concerned voice came through the phone loud and clear. “What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry to call you this late…” she didn’t have any excuses. It was only ten, but for someone like Thomas, it was late enough he’d already gone to bed.

“It’s fine. Really. Is everything okay? Is Blake?—”

“Everything’s fine,” she assured him, though she felt like that was a lie as well. “There’s just a few things I wanted to ask, if that’s okay.”

“Of course. We’re friends, remember?”

She flushed, knowing full-well that wasn’t what Thomas had intended when he’d given her his phone number. “Do you remember when you stopped by with those documents?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Was everything okay? Is everything at work going the way… it’s supposed to?”

“Sure, why?”

She hesitated. Discussing personal and business with Thomas didn’t feel quite right. But she didn’t have much of a choice unless she wanted to risk losing more than she wanted to. “Is Blake?—”

“I know you two are dating,” he murmured.

“You do?” She shouldn’t have been surprised. Thomas knew everything about Blake. It would’ve been easy to look through his financials and see that Blake had bought her flowers last week.

“It wasn’t that hard. One look at the way you two stare at each other…” His voice trailed off, but she didn’t miss the hint of disdain in it.

“You don’t think it’s appropriate,” she murmured.

“You want my advice?”

She didn’t speak. There were several reasons she wanted him to tell her what he thought and just as many why she didn’t want him involved.

He sighed, his exhaustion coming through with that one breath. “He’s your boss. It’s not really appropriate for that reason alone. You’re in his home, with his kid all day. It wouldn’t be hard to manipulate you?—”

“He didn’t manipulate me,” she shot back.

Thomas was quiet for a moment. “One way or the other, there’s a power difference between the two of you. But let’s say there wasn’t. What do you think is going to happen after the holidays? Do you think everything is going to remain the same? Let’s assume that this relationship of yours grows even deeper. Okay, so what’s next? You get married and you have to spend days on end without him because of his work?”

She hadn’t thought that far, but Thomas was right. Blake might have been spending more time with his son for the holidays, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t revert back to the man he was before. There was a reason he’d hired a nanny to care for his son. There were several weeks when he barely saw Max. At first, it had really frustrated her, but then she’d learned to accept it. Children all over the world had parents who traveled for work.

But could she handle being with someone who did? That was a choice she’d have to be willing to make, and consequently one that she wasn’t sure she could.

“I hate to say this,” Thomas murmured, “but you have to consider all the possibilities. It’s been a year since Alison passed. If there’s even a chance he was just passing the time with a pretty face, do you think you could handle learning the truth?”

Those were the words that shattered her resolve. It would make sense for Blake to start distancing himself if his end goal was to break things off. That would make it so much easier to remain ‘professional’ after it was over. Everything Thomas has said made sense.

Which only made her feel even sicker to her stomach. “I have to go,” she murmured numbly. “Good night, Thomas.”