“It was a late night last night,” Melanie said.
“I got your text after I landed,” Adam said. “What happened?”
“Simon was being a jerk,” Tilly said. “And Mel came to get me.”
“Pumpkin,” Adam said, holding a hand out to his daughter. She came forward and hugged him. Adam squeezed her tight, shutting his eyes for a moment, then he released her. “We’ll figure this out, okay? I’m pretty excited about becoming a grandpa. And I’ll talk to Simon’s parents, and—”
“I’m not ready for that,” Tilly said.
“Leave it to me, Tilly,” Adam said, and there was a note of finality in his voice that was a relief to Melanie—another adult was taking over. She could step back now.
“Thank you for all of this, Mel,” Adam said. “You always were the one who held us all together.”
“I was,” Melanie agreed. “But I’m glad you’re here. Tilly needs you.”
“Why don’t you get packed, Tilly,” Adam said. “Let me talk to Mel.”
Tilly headed out of the kitchen, and Adam came closer to Melanie and bent down to kiss her cheek. She stepped back, avoiding his touch.
“I miss us being a family,” Adam said, his voice low.
“You miss me taking care of things,” Melanie replied.
“Yeah,” Adam replied, then sighed. “I wasn’t good to you. I wish I hadn’t messed up like that—”
“Adam, this is long finished,” Melanie said. “We’re divorced.”
“I know...” Adam met her gaze. “Is there someone else?”
“You don’t get to ask that,” she replied with a shake of her head. “After all you put me through, you have no right to ask that question.”
Adam smiled faintly. “So there is.”
He was so confident, so sure of himself, and she could see now why she’d been drawn to him and had continued trusting him all those years. There wasn’t any visible chink in that armor.
“You should know that Tilly knew you were cheating on me the entire time,” Melanie said. “All the kids did.”
Adam’s easy smile fell. “What?”
“The kids see more than we think,” she replied. “And I’m only telling you this because I think it’s done a real number on her. She thinks our marriage is the norm, and it’s what she has to look forward to.”
Adam swallowed. “Look, I made some mistakes, but—”
“Do you want her with a guy who lies to her and cheats on her?” Melanie asked, raising her eyebrows. “She figures that’s the trade-off in order to be loved.”
“I know my daughter—” Adam started, his gaze snapping, and she could feel the fight rising in him.
“Not as well as you think,” Melanie replied tiredly. “And I have no intention of having a fight with you in my kitchen. You two are due for some long honest talks, and I truly hope it helps her, because otherwise, she’ll be with Simon or some other guy who treats her the same, and it will be because she saw more than you thought.”
Adam pressed his lips together. “I think you can leave my daughter to me.”
Melanie cocked her head to one side, regarding her ex-husband with new eyes. There it was—the line he always drew, be it ever so subtly. These were his kids, not hers. Of course, he missed her...she’d held his private life together, but he wasn’t going to change any more than Simon would.
“For the record?” Melanie said. “I raised Tilly, too, and I love her. Deal with Simon as you see fit.”
Would it make any difference? Likely not. The Isaacs family dynamic would go on, and Melanie would be cut out. Tilly came out with her suitcase and Adam stepped forward to take it from her. He headed for the door, leaving Tilly and Melanie momentarily alone.
“Thank you for—” Tilly shrugged “—letting me stay for a bit.”
And this was goodbye. Tilly would go off with her dad, and Melanie would likely never see her again. Because that was how divorces worked when the kids had never been yours to begin with.
Tears welled in Melanie’s eyes. “Anytime. I mean that. I know I’m not your real mom, Tilly, but I’m the one who raised you. And I’ll always be here for you. I’m what you’ve got.”
Tilly nodded. “Okay.”
Melanie wrapped her arms around the girl’s thin shoulders and pulled her into a hug. It wouldn’t change anything, would it? Tilly wouldn’t need her again.
“This doesn’t have to be goodbye—not forever,” Melanie said.
“Yeah...” Tilly’s chin trembled.
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere,” Melanie said, smiling past her own tears. “And you obviously know how to find me.”
“Mel, I’ve been feeling really bad about what I said before,” Tilly said. “About how we knew about Dad cheating and all that, and...”
“Hey—my relationship with your father wasn’t your fault, or your business. Don’t worry about it.”
“I was going to tell you a few times,” Tilly said, “when I was younger, but Michael said that if I told you, you’d divorce Dad and leave us, and I didn’t want you to go.”
Tilly met Melanie’s gaze tearily.
“You were afraid I’d leave you?” Melanie breathed.
Tilly nodded. “Because Mrs. Brent left Mr. Brent when she found out he was cheating on her, right? And Mrs. Klein did. And Mr. Cossens divorced Mrs. Cossens when he found out about her yoga instructor, and—”
“I get the idea,” Melanie said. “You kids carried around a bigger burden than I ever thought.”
“I guess so.”
They’d known too much, hidden too much and tried to control what they could in their world. It was sadly touching that Tilly had hidden that information in hopes of keeping her stepmother. Maybe Melanie hadn’t been quite so rejected as she’d thought.
“I might have divorced your dad, but I’m not gone,” Melanie said. “Okay? I’m still yours, Tilly. And I always will be. I’m the one who tucked you in, and read you stories. I was your Tooth Fairy and your Easter Bunny, and the one who baked for your bake sales every year... No one can change that, Tilly. No one can take back that time that was ours, together.”
But even as she said it, she realized that the time was slipping away. The past wouldn’t change, but the future certainly would.
“I wish I’d been better to you,” Tilly said softly.
“Oh, sweetie,” Melanie said. “You were a kid. I can forgive that. I suggest you do, too. I love you, okay?”
Tilly leaned in to give Melanie one more hug, and the door opened again and Adam came back inside. He spotted Tilly’s last two bags and came forward to collect them.
“Let’s go, Tilly,” Adam said. “I need you to fill me in on Simon.”
Adam would be good for that much—Simon would be quaking before Adam was done with him. Melanie grabbed a box of granola bars from the cupboard and pressed them into Tilly’s hands. “In case you get hungry.”
Tilly smiled, and she followed her father to the door. Melanie stood in the doorway, watching Tilly get into her father’s black pickup truck.
“I’ll send a guy for Tilly’s car,” Adam called.
“Sure.” Melanie nodded and watched as he got back into the truck. Adam undid the window and met her gaze with a sad smile.
“It was good to see you again,” Adam said.
“Yeah...” Melanie took a wavering breath. “Take care of her.”
Adam did the window back up, and the vehicle started to pull away.
How many summers had ended this way—the family leaving a few at a time, and Melanie left alone in the lake house to get things cleaned up for the season? How many times had Melanie stood on this step, her heart sad and full and tired and overwhelmed, and knowing that the time was slipping away far too quickly?
She shut the door and looked around the little
lake house—the cozy kitchen, the living room that she could finally redecorate if she wanted to, without the fear of it being demolished by a houseful of kids.
And yet...if by some miracle Tilly let her be a grandma to her baby—and at the thought, her heart sped up just a little bit in hopeful anticipation—then she might have little feet in this place again.
If she stayed.
The thought settled around her as she looked around the place. She’d told Tilly that no one could take away their time together, and that was true. No one could erase the fifteen years of her marriage, what it had meant, or where it had failed her. Even if she moved to a new house, those years wouldn’t be erased.
She’d thought that Adam was in the cracks of these walls, but after seeing him today, she realized it wasn’t him in the cracks, after all—it was her. These had been her summers, her relationships, her stepkids, her hopes and her dreams...even her heartbreak. But these walls had absorbed her soul...not Adam’s.
And those last fifteen years has been her marriage, too. There was no going back, only forward. She wouldn’t sell this lake house—she would finally decorate it to her own tastes, and she was going to wake up morning after morning with Blue Lake out her window, a cup of coffee in her hands and a determination to live a life that was true to her own heart. She was going to take those courses and start over.
Melanie pulled out her phone and started a group text to the women of the Second Chance Club.
Do you girls want to come to my place by the lake? We can sit on the deck with a bottle of wine and toast new beginnings. I could use some company.
Her phone started to ping with replies almost immediately.
Renata replied, I can make it. The kids are with their dad for the next two weeks, so I’m completely free.
I need your address and your wine preferences. I’m in. That was Gayle.
You had me at sitting on your deck by the lake. What time? Belle.
There was a pause, and then Angelina’s text came last. Of course! I sense an update is coming? Tell me in person. I’ll be there.
Tears misted her eyes. She’d wanted a fresh start, and she was getting one—with some good girlfriends she didn’t realize she’d needed, and the lake house she hadn’t thought she wanted.
* * *
LOGAN TOSSED HIS bag into the back of the pickup truck and glanced at his watch. Graham had sent him a text and his flight was coming in early. As quickly as that, his time here in Mountain Springs was done.
He’d promised that he’d say goodbye to Melanie, and he intended to make good on that. Except this was feeling uncomfortably familiar—his instinct was to avoid those tough emotional situations. Saying goodbye to her was going to be harder than he’d anticipated. But it didn’t have to be a forever goodbye—Denver was only a few hours away. Yet, somehow, he knew whatever had happened here was ending.
The drive around the lake from Mountain Springs Lodge toward Melanie’s lake house was a long one because there wasn’t one direct road that made the loop. But when he finally managed to pull onto the drive that led to Melanie’s place, he felt a surge of relief.
It didn’t make sense. The last time they’d been romantically involved, they’d been teenagers. And now... Was it just that she’d been here for him during his own turbulent time?
He didn’t think so. He wasn’t so easily swept off his feet. And while he was grateful that she’d been here with him, his feelings for her weren’t rooted in something that selfish.
He was supposed to be too old for this attraction. But maybe it was better that he was heading out now, before he did something impetuous that he’d regret. Mel deserved a good guy who wouldn’t disappoint her, and if this trip back to Mountain Springs had shown him anything, it was that he wasn’t that guy. He still had to figure out how he’d messed up his marriage so badly before he let himself get entangled with another woman’s heart. He had to figure out how to stop making his father’s mistakes.
He’s already broken Caroline’s heart, and he couldn’t break Mel’s...again.
Logan pulled into Melanie’s drive and parked between Melanie’s SUV and Tilly’s little sports car. The kitchen curtain flicked, and then the front door opened. Melanie was wearing a pair of jeans now, and a gauzy pink blouse that brought out the color in her cheeks. She was barefoot, and she stood there, waiting for him. This wasn’t going to make saying goodbye any easier.
“Hi,” he said as he got to the door.
“I wasn’t expecting you.” She smiled, though, and she sounded pleased to see him. “If I’d know you were coming, I’d have asked my friends to stop by another evening.”
“You’re expecting company?” he asked.
“In an hour or so. There’s still time.” She stepped back. “Come on in.”
Logan followed her inside, and he noticed that a few things had changed again since he’d been there last—the table was in a different spot and the couches and chairs in the sitting room had been rearranged, too.
“I was going to see if you felt like buying me breakfast tomorrow morning before you left,” she said. “Or... I could buy you breakfast. I’m not overly picky over who pays.”
She was so lovely standing there—her warm gaze meeting his expectantly, humor tickling her lips—that he wished he could say yes.
“I’m actually heading back to Denver tonight,” Logan said. “Graham’s flight comes in early.”
Her smile fell. “Already?”
“Yeah...”
He dropped his gaze. Here was where he was supposed to say goodbye, wish her well, head on back out and pretend that those kisses and long hours together hadn’t meant anything. Logan stood there for a moment just looking down at her bare feet, at those pink painted toenails, then he said, “Come visit me.”
“In Denver?”
No, it was a terrible idea. What was he doing? Except he couldn’t quite bring himself to take it back, either. He stepped closer and caught her hand. “Come see me, Mel. I’m going to miss you. I had no intention of starting anything, but I think we did...didn’t we?”
“This is a bad idea, Logan,” Melanie said.
“I know,” he said with a helpless shrug.
“So what are we supposed to do?” she asked, shaking her head. “Date long distance? Again?”
“I’m not a kid anymore,” he said, his voice lowering to a growl.
“Neither am I,” she said. “I don’t think it’s smart to play with this. I’m freshly divorced. I’m in no way ready for...for....” She looked around as if she’d find the words in the air. “You left me once, and I’m not willing to sit out here in Mountain Springs and pine for you again.”
“Then come to Denver,” he said.
“I’m staying here.” She shook her head. “This is where my life is. This lake house...sure, it’s full of memories, but they’re my memories! And at this age, I need them—hard as they are. They anchor me. They tell me who I am. I have a plan, and I threw over my own ambitions when I married Adam. I’m not doing that again.”
“Then visit me,” he said.
“As friends, or something more?” she asked.
They weren’t friends—they were most definitely past that line. But he would only mess up a committed romantic relationship. All he could offer was the same battered heart he’d given Caroline. No better, no worse. And if this visit home had taught him anything, it was that he was more like his father than he’d ever dreamed. He was still the same man who’d made his wife wonder what it would be like to be free of him...
“As...whatever we are right now,” he said. “This.”
“This?” She shook her head. “This is a recipe for heartbreak, at least for me. I’m not ready to trust another man with my future, and you’re not ready to give your heart over to another woman. So what are we even doing here?”
�
�I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling something!” Logan retorted. “What am I doing here? I’m following my heart! Is it stupid? Maybe. But I don’t want to just walk away, Mel! Give me some credit for that!”
Tears rose in her eyes and she pressed her lips together. “Maybe I’m telling you to walk away. Guilt-free.”
“And if I don’t want to?” He caught her hand again and pulled her closer. “What if I want to try?”
Melanie didn’t answer, and he dipped his head to meet her lips. She let out a soft sigh, leaning into his kiss as he wrapped his arms around her. She felt so good in his arms, the perfect shape to melt into his embrace. And it had been so long since he’d felt this way—filled with longing and excitement. He pulled back and looked down into her glistening eyes.
“You’ll rethink this in Denver.” Her voice shook as she pulled out of his arms.
“Rethink it? Is this what you think of me, the guy who would forget about you with a change of scenery? Mel, I love you!”
He startled himself when the words came out, but they were true. He’d fallen for her with the same enthusiasm he had the first time, and whether it was good for him or not, there was no going back on it.
“You...” Whatever she was going to say evaporated on her lips.
“I love you,” he repeated. “You’re incredible. You’re beautiful. You’re insightful and kind and...and too good for me. It isn’t logical, because logic says I should just go home and put the last week behind me. It’s crazy. It’s fast.”
“It’s all of those things!” Melanie said, wiping a tear from her cheek. “You should go home!”
“Not until I know if I’m alone in this,” he pleaded. “If it’s just me, then fine. I can accept that. I’ve made a fool of myself, but maybe you’re worth feeling like a fool for. But if you feel something—”
“You should go home,” she whispered again.
His heart fell to the pit of his stomach, and he stared at her in mortification. “I’m sorry, Mel. I should have...”
Their Mountain Reunion (The Second Chance Club Book 1) Page 20
