Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise) (6 page)

“Oh, if only I could
convince that obstinate little miss to stand still and
hear
how much
Zeke loves her, Honor would be wedded and bedded by now,” Harmony complained
about her youngest sister, pulling a giggle from Melody.  “She thinks she’s not
worthy of him because of what happened, Mel.”

“Well, that’s
bullshit,” Melody returned sharply, pursing her lips.  “If anybody deserves
their happy, it’s your baby sister!”

“Preaching to the
choir, my friend,” Harmony declared with a sigh.  “But we McKinnons can be a
stubborn lot when we take a notion in our head.  It takes a lot to change our
minds.

“That sounds like a
Reardon trait, too.  Are we sure our families aren’t related?” Melody asked as
she laughed.

“Probably we are. I
think the McKinnons are kin to half of Tennessee.”  Leaning her head back
against her leather desk chair, Harmony stared at her friend.  “You know I
didn’t tell you all that stuff to bring you down right?  I just want you to
know that all of us…every single one of us… is screwed up in some way, but each
of us deserves a happy ending.  Maybe now that you’re home, you’ll find yours.”

Melody smiled tiredly. 
“I’d settle for Hooks and Books being a thriving success.  Love… I don’t know
if it’s in the cards for me.”

“You haven’t seen
anybody you might be interested in since you’ve been back.  A little birdy told
me that you were helped with some nasty car trouble by a wickedly hot hunk of a
man this morning.  Flat tire, was it?”

“Oh, my word!” Melody
exclaimed, her brown eyes widening.  “Is there anything in this town you don’t
know?”

“I’m part-owner of the
only decent restaurant in town, honey.  Not much gets past the McKinnon girls,”
Harmony disclosed with a mischievous smile.  “Patience pays for good gossip
with pieces of pie.  I expect Honor to kill her any day now,” she added with a
giggle.  “Now, who was the hottie?”

“May I remind you that
you have your own very hot hunk,” Melody teased, pointing at the picture on the
wall behind her friend.  “He’s hanging right there, remember?”

“Uh huh, he’s always watching
over me.  He also knows I love a good romantic mystery.  So, back to the
impeccable piece of man-meat that helped you this morning.  Who was he?”

Melody quickly filled
in her gal pal on the coffee chaos and flat tire fiasco that had consumed most
of her morning.  She finished with, “Honest to God, Harm, I didn’t know whether
to kiss him or kill him by the time my car was fixed.  And I have not a single
clue who he even was, but he knew
me
.  He knew my name was Melody.”

“Ooooohhhhh,
intriguing,” Harmony squealed excitedly. 

“No, Harm.  The word
you’re looking for is creepy.  Maybe scary.  Definitely disconcerting.”

“He rescued you from a
flat tire and bought you coffee,” she countered hopefully.

“It was crappy coffee
that I reimbursed him for by shoving money in his pocket.  And I
could
have changed that tire,” she argued, crossing her arms over her chest
defensively.  “He was one of those He-man, Master of the Universe types. 
Definitely not my type.”  Although, she had been engaged to Skeletor so He-man
would be a definite improvement.  When had she began thinking of men in terms
of cartoons from the 1980s?  Good Lord, this was ridiculous.

“Honey, the last type
you had didn’t work out so well,” Harmony noted gently.  “Maybe we should
reevaluate the type of man you gravitate toward.”

Melody shrugged before
admitting, “Okay, you might have a point there.  The guy today was still an
asshole though.  He used the c-word, Harm.  Out loud.  In front of me.”

“Honey, from what you
described, that barista
was
a c-word,” Harmony declared with a decisive
nod.

“True,” Melody
confessed under her breath. 

“You liked him,”
Harmony said softly, her lips tilted up in a small, knowing smile.  “A lot.”

Melody sank her teeth
into her lower lip guiltily because, let’s face it; she was busted.  “He was…
different,” she conceded softly.

“Different isn’t bad,”
Harmony stated cheerfully.  “In fact, where you are concerned, I think
different is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Hmmm,” she hummed. 
“Maybe.  But I’ll probably never see him again.  He probably just heard
somebody say my name while I was at the café or the bank or something.” 
Although, she was pretty certain that if she’d been in a building with him,
she’d have known it.  He just had the kind of energy around him that couldn’t
be ignored.  Plus, he was
huge
.  There really wasn’t any missing a man
that had to be every bit of 6’4”.  The stunning man had been massive… and those
eyes
.  Nobody could ever forget looking into those hypnotic eyes of
his.  They were like twin pools of blue yumminess.

“You’re daydreaming
about him again,” Harmony accused, her voice slightly raised to get the other
woman’s attention.

“Was not.”

“You totally were.”
Harmony grinned happily, unwilling to let her friend slide.  She was excited to
see someone as nice as Melody beginning to come back to life after a bad
breakup. 

“Whatever,” Melody said
dismissively.  “So, it’s getting late.  Do you think you have everything you
need for now?” she asked, as she slid a check across the desk toward Harmony.

Harmony tried to push
the check back at Melody.  “I told you that you’re my friend.  I don’t charge
my friends.”

“Listen, we’re both
businesswomen.  We both need to get paid for the job we do.  Take the check to
the bank and put it in your account, Harmony McKinnon Stone.  Don’t think I
don’t know how lucky I am that you’re even managing to fit me into your
schedule.  I’ve had my ear to the ground, too.  You’re a right hot commodity in
these parts.”

This time Harmony
rolled her eyes.  “I plan parties.  I don’t exactly fly rockets.”

“Don’t diminish what
you do.  You host frickin’
events
, girl.  You’re an up and comer, and
I’m lucky to have you on my team.”  Melody grimaced as she glanced down at her
watch.  She’d already been at Harmony’s house two hours, and her friend’s kid would
be home from school any minute.  “I’ve monopolized your afternoon, chick.  I’m
so sorry.”

“I’m not,” Harmony
snorted.  “It was nice to catch up and get some girl gabbing in between
business talk.  I can’t do that with most of my other clients.”

Melody laughed as she
stood from her chair.  “Well, I’m gonna scoot on out of here.  I’ve got a
contractor coming in tomorrow to look at how much it will cost me to renovate
the back office of the store and the builder is coming to show me the first
shelving units and get my approval to continue.   It’s gonna be a busy day.”

“Well, call me later. 
We’ll get together to finalize your guest list and get some more gossip time
in.  We’ve still got about two months to tweak this day and make it perfect for
you.  Plus, hopefully, you’ll have more information on your Mystery Man next
time we chat,” Harmony said longingly. 

“He’s not my anything,
Harm, but that sounds good,” she said as her friend followed her to the front
door of Harmony’s house.  “Thanks again.  For everything,” she added
meaningfully, giving the taller woman a hug. 

“Call me anytime you
need to talk, Mel.  I mean it,” Harmony said as Melody stepped out into the
sunny, but chilly December afternoon.

“I will,” Melody
assured her before hurrying to her parked car.  Climbing inside and tossing her
purse into the passenger seat, she started the engine, gave Harmony one last
wave, and pulled out onto the road, wincing at the rougher ride the vehicle
offered on its spare tire.  She knew she needed to have it repaired ASAP, but
she was exhausted.  She wanted a sandwich and a nap, in that order.  Then,
maybe she’d drive over to the 24-hour garage out by the interstate.  Surely
they could get her fixed up, right?

Mindlessly navigating
the country road, Melody made great time as she drove through exceptionally
light traffic toward her grandmother’s home – well, her home now, she supposed.
Turning onto her residential street in just under fifteen minutes, she smiled
as she saw the stately two story house at the end of the street.  “Home sweet
home,” she murmured, frowning as she passed a familiar black truck parked a
short distance down from her house.  Braking in the middle of the road, she
turned to look over her shoulder.

“It can’t be,” she said
out loud, staring at the shiny F150.  Of course, coincidence was not a word
that appeared in her vocabulary often.  Reaching for the cell phone she’d
dropped in the center console when she started the car, she thumbed through the
contacts until she reached Harmony McKinnon’s name and pushed send.

“Hello?” Harmony’s soft
voice greeted her with a tinkling laugh.  “I didn’t expect you to call so soon,
Mel.  Did you forget something here, hon?” she asked curiously.

“Uhmmm, no,” Melody
returned as she pulled her car into her driveway and stared through the opened
curtains of her living room’s picture window to see a familiar giant sitting on
her couch eating potato chips by the handful.  And was that a Great Dane
happily chewing on one of her shoes beside him?  Please Lord, let this be a
dream, she prayed silently, tightly closing her eyes for a full ten seconds
before reopening them and finding the huge animal looking out the window at
her.   She then moved her stunned gaze to where her asshole of an ex-fiancé sat
as he watched her from the confines of his luxurious red Porsche, which was ever-so-conspicuously
parked in front of her closest neighbor’s driveway.  Silently, she asked
herself how
this
had become her life?  Two stalkers in one day?   That
had to be some kind of record.   “I’m gonna need to ask a favor,” she said
tightly.  “Call your attorney brother-in-law for me.  I think I’m about to
commit a double homicide.”

“What?” Harmony balked
loudly, her friendly voice suddenly blaring in Melody’s ear.

“Let’s just say that my
ex-fiancé is sitting in his car across the street from my house, watching me. 
And that mystery man from this morning?  He’s sitting
inside
my house on
my freaking couch getting potato chip crumbs all over the place!  With a
freaking DOG, Harmony!” Melody stated, her voice shrill as she neared hysteria.

“Where are you?”
Harmony asked sharply, her voice growing worried.

“In my car,” Melody
replied, her chest tightening as her eyes volleyed from one intruder to the
other, a killing rage slowly descending over her.

“Stay there,” her
friend ordered sternly.  “Do not move.  I’m calling the Sheriff on my landline
now.  Zeke will have you some help out there, lickity split, honey.  You’ll
have a police officer there before you know it.”

“I don’t want the cops
for this, but I will need an alibi!  Because I’m gonna
kill
somebody,”
Melody yelled, her anger like a pressure cooker inside her head.  She was going
to blow sky high any moment now, she thought as she watched her ex slowly climb
out of his car and begin walking toward her.  Taking a deep breath, Melody
could tell by the set of Bradley’s classically handsome face that he wasn’t
going to go away easily.  “Tell Zeke to hurry, Harmony, because I can’t promise
I won’t kill Bradley Weller in the next ten minutes.  And, for the record, I
was serious about an attorney.  I think I’ll need one at my bail hearing,” she
growled before disconnecting the phone, pulling the small concealed handgun she
carried out of her purse, and shoving open her car door.  Climbing from behind
the wheel to face her most current nemesis, Melody shook her head at him.

“You need to stop right
where you are, Bradley,” Melody warned as she faced her former fiancé.  “I
don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t care,” she continued to state, still
standing behind her open car door as she stared furiously at her former lover. 
“You just need to turn around and leave the way you came.  Now.”

Her urge to growl only
increased when she saw that infuriating placating smile begin to curl her ex-fiancé’s
lips upward.  There went her nap, she thought bitterly as the man took another
step toward her.  She supposed the other uninvited interloper inside her home would
have to wait while she got rid of her first nuisance.    

As talented as she was
with her gun, she unfortunately doubted she could kill two men at the same
time, although she wasn’t necessarily averse to trying.

“You just need to turn
around and leave the way you came. Now.”  Her order was clear, concise, and
non-negotiable, and yet, Bradley Weller still stood there in front of her, only
the metal door of her car separating them.

“Baby, just give me a
chance…” Bradley began, his eyes darkening earnestly as he met her cold gaze. 

“No.”

“What?” he asked, his
angular jaw dropping at the sharpness in her tone.  Melody rarely denied him
anything, and his expression conveyed his surprise that she was denying him
now.  “Darling, give me a moment to…”

“I. Said. No.  I advise
you to leave now before the police arrive and I won’t press charges for
harassment, Brad.  Choose to stay and you do so at your peril.  I’m sure your
parents will love it when you call them to make bail,” she noted blandly,
though her eyes glittered dangerously.

“What?  You can’t be
serious,” Brad balked, shaking his head at the woman before him.  “Melody, this
isn’t you.  This isn’t the way you are.  You’re a kind, loving woman that
forgives easily.   I know our current situation is all my fault, darling, but…”

Melody smiled.  Not the
sweet, loving smile she had once awarded him, but instead it was a cruel smile
that never reached the deadened eyes that stared at him emotionlessly.  “This
is
me, Bradley.  The
new
me.  The ‘me’ that you made when I found out
my life with you was a total lie.  This is the ‘me’ that was created when I
walked into our dining room and found you rutting like a wheezing pig with my
so-called best friend. 
This
is the only me you get to see now.”

“God, I’ve hurt you so
much, Melody,” she heard him whisper raggedly, his good-looking face twisting
with regret.  It was an act, and she knew it, but he did a really good job at
looking crushed by her.   Asshole.  He deserved an Oscar nod for this little
performance, she thought as she watched his eyes fill with crocodile tears.

Melody released a
hollow laugh.  “Hurt?  Not even close.  You humiliated me, Brad.  You betrayed
me.  And for a while, I thought you had eviscerated me.  But now?  Now, I
realize that you did me the biggest favor of my life.  You showed me your true
colors and you saved me from a lifetime of pain.  So, no, I’m not hurt.  Not
anymore.  I’m just done.  Done with us.  And done with you,” she informed him
evenly, her head held high as she finally stepped out from behind the car door,
closing it with one hand as she held her gun at her side.  “Now, you need to
go,” she reiterated, gleefully noting the astonishment in his eyes when he
noticed the gun she held in her hand.

“You have a gun?  You
think you need a gun, Melody?” he asked, his voice rising as he pinned her with
his flashing eyes.  “You’d actually shoot me?”

“Only if I had to,”
Melody responded quickly, eyes narrowing.  “And yes, I have a gun.  I’m a woman
alone now, Bradley.  I have to protect myself.”

“From me?  You know me,
Melody!”

“That’s where you’re
wrong, Bradley.  I don’t know you.  You’re just somebody that I
used
to
know.  Now, you’re a stranger.  One that I want off my property immediately. 
We’ve got nothing left to say to each other,” Melody insisted as she saw two
women walking up the driveway toward them.  Relieved to see one of the women
was Patience McKinnon, Harmony’s sister, she relaxed slightly.  At least she’d
have some witnesses now. 

“Hey, girl,” Patience
called as she walked toward Melody.  “Harmony called me.  Abel’s in a meeting,
but I dropped the kids with Faith and ran by his office to get you a secret
weapon.  I might not be able to bring you my hubby, but I did snag his
right-hand woman and trust me, Maggie Winstead, here, is twice as dangerous as
Abel ever thought about being,” she added, jerking her head toward the
well-dressed red-headed woman walking beside her while simultaneously nailing Bradley
with an ugly look.

Melody absently noted
that Patience looked even better than she remembered.  The younger blonde woman
might have recently given birth to triplets and been in a horrible car accident,
but she still managed to look amazing. Her clingy blue hoodie and tight, black
yoga pants hugged her curvy figure and left very little to the imagination. 
The woman Patience had called Maggie was also gorgeous.  With long red hair and
a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose, she possessed a fresh-faced,
wholesome beauty.  And, boy howdy, could the woman fill out a dress, Mel
thought as she gazed at the obviously expensive, tasteful black sheath the
auburn haired woman wore.  She barely choked back a laugh as she watched
Bradley openly leer at the two other women.  She supposed he wasn’t going to
bother hiding the fact that he was a faithless prick any longer.

“Thanks, Patience. 
It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Winstead,” Melody murmured, greeting the pair. “But,
I think I have things under control.  Bradley was just leaving.”  Watching Brad
frown at the two women now staring at him, she noted his flushing cheeks.  She
wasn’t sure whether it was anger or embarrassment turning his face red, but
Melody was sure she didn’t care.  She just wanted him gone.

“Well, we’re here
anyway and I think we’ll just stay and help you see your intruder off,” Maggie
returned sweetly, her twinkling green eyes dancing merrily as she winked at
Melody.

Shooting a scathing
look at Maggie, Bradley sneered, “I’m not sure
who
exactly you are,
Miss,
but I am by no means an intruder!”
Clearing his throat loudly,
Bradley took another step toward Melody.  “Mellie, I’m not going anywhere until
we sort things out between us.  I love you, darling.  I know I might have made
a few mistakes, but it’s nothing we can’t work through
alone
.  Perhaps
your….
friends
should come back another time.  Honey, we’ve got to work
through our problems and we don’t need an audience for that.  Put the gun down,
baby, and tell these nice ladies to go home,” he demanded, keeping his voice
low, but gentle.

“First of all, we’re
not
nice
ladies.  Not to you, that’s for sure, you cheating prick. 
We’re the bitches that are here to make sure you don’t do any further fucking
damage to my friend.  Let’s be real clear on that.  And the way we heard
things, those so-called problems you’re whining about belong solely to you, asshat,”
Patience snarled, glaring at Bradley with a hateful gaze.

Melody automatically
smiled at Patience’s defense of her even as Bradley’s face tightened in anger. 
He wasn’t used to anyone going toe-to-toe with him.  Usually his money and
status intimidated any opponent he had into submission.  Obviously, he’d never
met
anybody
like Patience McKinnon.

“And from what I was
informed,” Maggie added, “You appear to be trespassing at the moment.  That’s a
criminal offense, you know,” she warned coolly.  “Local law enforcement doesn’t
look kindly upon intruders harassing innocent women around these parts.”

“I’m not trespassing! 
This is my fiancée’s home,” Bradley snapped harshly, his tall, lean body nearly
vibrating with anger.  “If anyone should go, it’s the two of you!”

“No, it isn’t,” Melody
denied sharply.  “You are the uninvited party, Brad.  I do
not
want to
talk to you.  Now or ever again.  We’re over.  There is nothing you can say
that will change that.  E-ver,” she explained tightly for what felt like the
thousandth time. 

“Melody, just hear me
out,” she heard Bradley began to whine, shoving a hand through his thick black
hair.  Once she thought that move of his sexy, the mussed strands of his dark
hair sexy when he ruffled it.  Now, she just felt slightly nauseated as her
temper began to spark dangerously.

“You
cheated
,
Bradley!  You shoved your dick into another woman while you were engaged to
me,” she yelled, her voice a touch shrill as her bad mood amped to epic
proportions.  “No!  Strike that shit.  You stuck your penis into
multiple
women
– women that – a-freaking-gain - were
not
me.  Me!  You know me, right,
Brad?   I’m that woman you were
supposed
to be in love with.  You know,
the one that you couldn’t be bothered to fuck.  You ignored her.  Well, that’s
not completely true.  You ignored me unless you had to take me off the shelf
and trot me around like a good show pony at whatever function your parents made
you attend.  I was
such
an idiot.  I actually thought you were just
overworked… putting long hours in at the office because your demanding father
was making you prove yourself.  That wasn’t it, though.  You were just putting
long hours in between the thighs of whatever woman would spread them for you! 
That’s why you never had the energy or desire to screw your fiancé, isn’t it?”

Bradley blanched as his
dirty laundry was aired for the neighborhood to hear.  “Melody, that is enough,”
he hissed, his angular jaw clenched.  “I admit, I’ve made some inappropriate
choices, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am still very much in love
with you.  It’s always going to be you for me and me for you, darling.”

“Do you smell that?” Patience
snorted, offering Melody a sidelong glance as she clenched her fists at her
side.

“Smell what?” Melody
asked tiredly, looking at her old friend with unhappy eyes as she fought the
urge to howl at the unfairness of it all.  Really, just when she was moving on
with her life, Brad the Cad had to waltz back into her life and mess everything
up for her. 

“The tsunami of horseshit
this asshole is blowing all over you.  I say you go ahead and shoot the mother
ducker,” she announced with a decisive nod at the gun in Melody’s hand.  “I can
almost guarantee you that Abel will find a way to get you off.”

“Yeah,” a deep voice
grumbled from behind the women, “But it’ll create a mountain of paperwork for
me, Patience.  I thought you liked me better than that.”

Turning, Melody’s eyes
widened on the newcomer.  Dressed in a pair of well worn jeans and a dark blue
dress shirt, the tall, good-looking man had a telltale gold star clipped to his
belt.  “The sheriff?” she asked in a whisper to each of the women standing on
either side of her.

“The Sheriff,” Maggie
confirmed with a grim nod.  “Hello, Zeke.  Fancy seeing you here.”

“Maggie.” He nodded to
the redheaded woman.  “Troublemaker,” he greeted Patience with a kiss on the
forehead and a gentle arm squeeze before turning and focusing his attention to
Melody.  “Ma’am, I’m Sheriff Ezekiel Monroe, but folks ‘round here just call me
Zeke.  I’m not sure we’ve had the pleasure of meeting before now,” he
introduced himself, offering her one hand as he took his Stetson off his head
with the other. 

Melody shook the
Sheriff’s hand.  “No, sir, we’ve never met, but my grandmother spoke fondly of
you before she passed, though.”

“Yes, ma’am, your
granny was a force to be reckoned with,” Zeke chuckled, his keen eyes moving
from the gun in Melody’s hand to the infuriated man behind her.  “Got a call
that there might be a spot of trouble over here in your neck of the woods.  You
alright?” he asked steadily, keeping his intelligent gaze trained on Melody’s
ex-fiancé. 

“My
fiancée
is
quite well,” Bradley interrupted the sheriff,  not bothering to even try and
conceal his irritation.  “If you and these ladies would please remove
yourselves, I’m sure Melody and I can resolve our issues
together
.”

“Damn, but you’re
really frickin’ thick, aren’t you?” Patience snapped, staring angrily at
Bradley.  “There is no you and Melody.  Haven’t you been listening to a word
the woman said to you, asshole?”

“And you are my EX-fiancé,
Brad!” Melody shouted at the hard-headed moron currently ruining her
afternoon.  “How the hell do you expect for us resolve our issues, Brad?  Can
you un-screw a woman?  Do you have some kind of magical powers that I’m not
aware of?  Can you time travel?  Is that it?  Can you go back in time and make
a different choice?” she railed, her temper growing hotter with every word she
uttered.  “No!  You can’t.  For God’s sake, you’ve been between the legs of
more women than my gynecologist has, Brad, and he’s been practicing for twenty
years!”  Blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she continued her tirade,
Melody’s hand tightened on her gun.  “This is done, Brad.  D-O-N-E!!!  Do you
hear me now?  Done!”

“Melody, honey, you and
I will
never
be done,” Brad contradicted her in a too-calm voice that
only served to heighten Melody’s fury.

“Now, see, that sounded
like a threat to me,” Melody heard a new, but reassuringly familiar voice
remark from behind her.  Turning, she watched the coffee nut from this morning
wading into the fray.

“And as Melody’s new
man, I gotta say…that doesn’t sit very well with me.”  Gasping as the hunk from
this  morning draped a heavy, possessive arm around her shoulders and smiled
down at her, Melody could only blink as he complained with a look toward her
parked car, “Woman, I thought I told you to take care of that tire this
afternoon.  That spare isn’t going to get you very far for very long.”

“I…you…” Melanie
sputtered, unable to believe this was happening.  Was the redneck caveman
actually berating her for not getting the tire to her car – which she bought
and paid for all by her lonesome – changed?