Need You Now (Love in Unknown) (7 page)

“Depends on your interpretation. He’s never come right out and said it, but I know my brother still cares about you. A lot.” Gage bent down, picking up new boxes of gauze to store in the cabinet he’d repaired.

“No, he doesn’t. He…” Mel searched for a plausible explanation. “He likes the idea of me. I was his rebellion and now that he’s settled into the life your parents planned for him, he wants to revisit the time in his life when he did what he wanted and never had to think about anyone else’s feelings.”

Gage laughed. “You really believe that bullshit you’re slinging? Because I don’t. I know my brother, Mel. I saw his face when I told him you were back. It’s more than just nostalgia. Don’t try to convince me you’re apathetic toward him, either.”

Biting her lip, Mel looked away. She picked up a few boxes of band-aids. Gage didn’t know the whole story of what happened that summer she ended things with Caine. All he knew was that his brother had betrayed her trust and she’d switched schools to avoid him. “He’s in my past, Gage. And I want him to stay there.” She did. She really did…

“I remember a time when you would have killed to go on a date with my brother. You used to follow him around with those big Bambi eyes even when you were a kid, doing stupid stunts with us to get him to notice you.” Of course he remembered. That’s how they’d grown so close. Caine and Micah would devise some scheme and they’d convince her or Gage to be the guinea pigs. Gage usually took the brunt of the stupider ideas, since they all knew her father would kill them if she was seriously hurt.

“I was what, eight? I’m twenty-eight now. That was just a schoolgirl crush.” One that turned into a hot, crazy, exhilarating college fling that had ultimately broken her heart. Which was exactly why she didn’t want to be within ten feet of Caine Maddox.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Gage propped a hip against the counter and watched her work. “Aside from the whole ex-boyfriend thing, Caine was your friend first. Why not give him a chance to at least get that back? You can never have too many friends.”

The sullen look she gave him ended that train of conversation. For the moment, anyway. She knew Gage wouldn’t leave it alone for long. Neither would her stupid brain, apparently. No matter how hard she worked, thoughts of Caine kept popping in.

Damn him and his sneaky little comment about
Persuasion.

It had taken her a month and several heavy make-out sessions to convince him to read the book in the first place. He knew the reason she loved it. She’d read a lot of books multiple times, but that one drew her in because it was a story of the power of love and forgiveness. Of true love finding its way back after eight years apart and miles of society. As a teenager, she’d loved the story because it gave her hope. Hope for her and Caine, if she were going to be completely honest. When he bought the book for her, she’d treasured that copy. It was her last connection to the man she’d been enchanted with her whole life.

Damn him.

The tug of war continued even as she let herself into her apartment after dinner with Gage that night. Mocking her,
Persuasion
lay on the end table, exactly where Caine left it the two nights ago. Muffling a sound of frustration, Mel went into the bedroom and flopped onto the cozy quilt. She wanted to crawl under it and bury herself away from the world. Instead, she pulled out her cellphone.

He answered on the first ring. “Hello?”

The deep baritone voice never ceased to send little tingles down her traitorous spine. She hated that he could still do this to her. “Hi. It’s me. Mel.”

“I know who you are, Mel. I’d recognize your voice anywhere.” Caine’s warm voice had her eyes drifting closed as she settled into the bed. She remembered letting that voice lull her to sleep after a bout of quick, passionate sex. She’d known he’d be gone in the morning, but she always felt secure in his arms. Apparently, old habits didn’t want to die.

“That was a low blow, you know.”

A rumble of a chuckle filled her ear. “The
Persuasion
comment. Yeah, maybe. But I’m guessing it worked since you’re calling me less than forty-eight hours later.”

She didn’t speak for several moments, biting her tongue, fighting the words with every breath. Her instincts said to run, but her heart said to tell him.

“This is not me agreeing to go out with you or anything.” She wanted that perfectly clear up front. Better for everyone that way. No false hopes or pressure.

“Then what is this?” There was no easy confidence in his voice anymore. Wariness, maybe, which she understood.

She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly before replying. “I guess this is me apologizing for being such a bitch last night. You were just being…You were just being you. You’ve always been the kind of guy who wants to take care of everybody and fix everything. I guess I forgot that. Which was stupid of me, because that was one of my favorite things about being your friend. And I really just wanted to say I’m sorry. For last night.”

She was sorry for a lot of things that had happened between them, but she didn’t intend to tell him that. This call was just about the previous night.

“I think you get a pass for last night. It’s a bit difficult seeing a place that’s so special to you wrecked like it was. How’d the clean-up go today?”

Mel chuckled and groaned, flipping onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. “Anybody ever told you that you’re too nice? Clean-up went really well. Although my muscles have already begun to lodge a protest. I’m not really used to that much cleaning.”

“What, you fancy doctor types don’t pick up after yourselves? Poor Anna.” Caine was actually teasing her. Teasing her the way he’d used to. It felt…nice. And unsettling.

“Yeah.” She didn’t say anything for a little while, instead studying the gentle rotation of the fan. “Look, Gage hinted that you want us to be more than friends.”

He sighed. “And I know that you’re not ready for that. I screwed up and you don’t trust me. I get that. So, quit biting your lip and tell me what’s going on.”

She quickly released her top lip. “I want us to try to be friends. If we can. I mean, if you want to. I just—“

“Breathe, Mel.” Caine’s words were barely more than a whisper. “You always tend to ramble when you’re nervous. I think we can manage friends. In fact, I’d really like that. It’s been difficult since I came back to town.”

Difficult. She almost laughed at that. “People not rushing to be BFFs with the mayor?”

“The mayor part hasn’t been the problem. It’s the lawyer part. Most of the cases I handle are for local businesses, but I take on some civil cases. Eventually, you’ve got half the town annoyed with you. You and Micah coming back to town is one of the best things to happen to me in a long time.”

They talked for a few more minutes, making idle conversation. When she hung up, Mel didn’t move for a long while, fingers rubbing absent circles over the patches of the quilt. Things felt a little more right in her world for the first time in years. If she thought too much about that fact, she’d run scared as hell. Right now, she’d just be happy to have her friend back.

Chapter 5

Caine drove through Town Square in his golf cart, feeling more than a little ridiculous. Jemma Hartsfield and her minions stopped in to see him today. They made no bones about reminding him that the mayor should use the kind gift he’d been given by the town. They hadn’t seen him in it lately. Easier to drive the stupid thing for a little while than listen to them nag him constantly.

“Are you the mayor or the circus ringmaster?”

He slowed to a stop and turned to see the man who’d called out to him. Micah Carr had just come out of the bakery, a little boy in one hand, a red Rangers backpack in the other. The boy looked exactly like his father had when they’d met so long ago, all boney limbs and dark brown curls. “Bite me, Carr. Nice to see you. Cutting out early? Must be nice.”

“Mom wanted a few hours in the shop.” Micah shook his head, walking over to him. “Figured Jax and I could walk home instead of staying cooped up inside all day. Jax, this is Caine. You know Uncle Gage? This is his big brother. He and I’ve known each other since we were your age.”

Caine shook the solemn little boy’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Jax studied him through big brown eyes. “Why are you driving such a little car? Don’t you have a big one?”

“I do.” Caine laughed. “This is a special car, though. It’s called the Mayor Mobile. Only the mayor and his friends can ride in it. You want me to give you a ride home?”

Jax looked up at his father, eyes lighting with excitement. “Can we, Dad? You’re one of his friends.”

Micah looked to Caine for confirmation before nodding. “Sure, buddy. I get shotgun, though.”

“Okay.” Jax rolled his eyes, scrambling up onto the backseat of the cart. Micah ducked in and folded his long legs.

“Been a while,” Caine commented as he softly pressed the gas pedal. He waved to some of the moms of his Little League players as they passed, chuckling when they turned their heads for a better look at Micah.

His friend gave him a sideways glance before nodding. “Yep. Kinda hard to stay in touch when we’re on opposite ends of the country.”

“Uncle Caine? Did you really know my dad when you were little?”

Caine looked over his shoulder. Mel’s nephew was looking around, curious eyes taking in every detail from a new perspective.
Uncle Caine
. He liked the sound of that.

“I did. We got into a lot of trouble together over the years.” He chuckled, remembering some of the shit they’d pulled. “I remember on summer, we had to be about eleven, we decided to build a tree house in that big oak tree in your backyard. We worked for hours getting scrap wood from all over town. The day we were ready to start building, your Aunt Mel threw an absolute fit.”

Jax giggled. “Aunt Mel got mad? About what?”

Micah nodded to one of the old men who frequented the coffee shop looked back at his son. “I made the mistake of telling her she wasn’t allowed to help us or play in our tree house.”

“Lesson numero uno of dealing with your Aunt Mel, Jax. Never, ever tell her she can’t do something. It’ll make her ten times as likely to want to do it.” Caine decided to take the long way around the park to get to Rosebush Drive. Let Jax see more of the town that way. Along the way, the little old ladies who gathered each afternoon to walk around town for exercise shouted out greetings that he acknowledged with a wave. The old houses lining the streets looked like cheerful ladies in brightly colored Victorian dresses.

“What’d she do?”

Caine smiled at the memory. “Your Grandpa Ethan took us aside and told us we had two options. Either we built Mel a clubhouse of her own or we let her in ours. Excluding girls was not something real men did.”

“So we let her in ours.” Micah shook his head, one hand gripping the top of the golf cart as they took a corner a bit faster than was perhaps wise. “But we told her no tea parties and no dolls.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes, the two men comfortable in the realm of nostalgia, Jax seemingly fascinated by the fact that he was riding in a new machine. They rounded the corner and started past Guadalupe Park. “Hey! Look, Dad, there’s a maze. Have you been inside it?”

“Sure. Everyone’s been in there at some point.” Micah turned around. “Anyone tell you the story yet?”

“Uh-uh. It looks super cool. Like something out of my video games.”

Caine’s grandfather would have liked the kid’s description of the family monument. “My grandpa had it built. It was a gift to the town for it’s one hundredth birthday, back in 1956. His grandpa started the town and he wanted to do something special. So he decided to build the maze for all the boys and girls of Unknown. At the center, there’re two swings in the spot where my great-great-great-grandpa proposed to his wife. One’s named James and the other is Susan. The town got its name on the day he proposed to her.”

“Why’d they give it such a weird name?”

They drove around the far end of the park, afternoon sun glinting off the green-brown Guadalupe River. Kids were starting to fill the park, parents sitting on benches chatting.

“It was a little joke between Grandma Susan and Grandpa James.” Caine turned the cart down Rosebush Drive. “She said she came to Texas to explore the great Unknown. So when he asked her to marry him, he asked her to marry him and explore the Unknown right here on the banks of the Guadalupe.”

Micah and Caine laughed at the gagging sound coming from the back. “Mushy love stuff. Gross!”

“I’ll remind you of that in about ten years, little man,” Micah said. Caine pulled the cart to a stop in front of the big blue house that had been his home away from home before his parents sent him away.

Jax scrambled out. “Thanks for the ride, Uncle Caine. The Mayor Mobile is pretty cool. But not as cool as Uncle Gage’s motorcycle.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t get to ride on Uncle Gage’s motorcycle until you can drive, so enjoy the Mayor Mobile,” Micah said. “Go on inside. I want to talk to Uncle Caine for a few minutes.”

The boy sighed heavily before going inside, waving over his shoulder. Caine switched off the golf cart and twisted to face his friend, arm braced on the steering wheel. “Good to be home?”

“Yes.” Micah rubbed the back of his head in indecision, a habit he’d had since they were kids. “And no.”

Caine frowned. The tall gangly kid he’d known had filled out into a muscular, stoic guy with shadows in his eyes. Life had dealt them both a few shitty hands, but they’d come through it. “Well, our humble town might not be as busy as New York City, but if you ever need a guys’ night out, you know where to find me and Gage.”

“I’ll definitely hit you up for a game of pool down at the Fortune Saloon.” Micah glanced back at the house. “I love being a dad, but I miss talking to adults about something besides baked goods.”

Holding out his hand, Caine laughed as Micah went through the complicated hand motions they’d made up when they were seven. “It’s good to have you back, man. I’ve missed having you around.”