“You on the outs with Mellie?”
“What if I am?”
Keaton set down the bag of dog food and leaned against the kennel door. This wasn’t the Preston he knew of late. Since spending nearly every free moment with Mellie this summer, his friend had been like a big puppy, happy and carefree.
“Anything I can do?” Keaton asked, opening the kennel door. A terrier mix leapt into his arms.
“Nope. Not a thing.”
They continued to work in silence for several minutes.
“You take Mellie her mail?” Preston asked. The words seemed to be wrenched from him like he hated asking but couldn’t help himself.
“Yeah.”
“She say anything?”
“Not to me.” Now that he thought about it, that wasn’t like Mellie. “Never knew her not to have a complaint about something.”
A hint of a smile came and went from Preston.
“She was shockingly subdued when I stopped by.”
Preston nodded, that coming as no surprise to him. He finished feeding the dogs. Keaton noticed that the cats and other animals had already been fed. His row had several empty stalls, so he was finished at about the same time. Preston stored the food, turned off the lights, and locked the doors.
Keaton walked with him and stopped abruptly, his steps faltering. Standing in the middle of the shelter parking lot was Annie.
It felt like he’d been sucker-punched, and for one wild moment he couldn’t breathe. Generally, he was better prepared and could control his reaction when he saw her, but this time she’d caught him off guard. Right away his eyes locked on to her as if pulled by a magnetic force beyond his control.
She looked as stunned as he felt, but after a second she acknowledged him with a tight nod.
“Preston, do you have a minute?” she asked, dragging her eyes away from Keaton.
His friend stuffed his hands into his back pockets. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s Mellie.”
Preston’s entire body tensed. “What’s the problem?”
“She loves you.”
He snickered loudly and shook his head in denial. “She loves me so much she kicked me out of her house. Damn near shoved me out the door.”
“You frightened her.”
“Me? Look at me, Annie. Am I a scary guy?”
Annie wasn’t backing down. “You said you loved her.”
Keaton turned to his friend. He’d known that Preston had loved Mellie since he was a skinny high school kid. It’d broken his heart when she ran off all those years ago. When she’d come back to town, Keaton had urged him to make his move, only to be rejected.
Five years.
It’d taken Preston a long time to work up courage enough to let Mellie know how he felt. For a while everything seemed to be working out for him.
“Yeah, well, that was a big mistake.”
“It wasn’t a mistake,” Annie said gently. “She’s miserable—”
“Listen,” Preston said, cutting Annie off mid-sentence. “I gave it my best shot and learned my lesson. No guy wants to toss his heart in the ring and then have it stomped on, and that’s what Mellie did.”
“I know what you’re saying, but…”
Preston walked over to his truck and opened the door. “And no guy wants to hear that his declaration of love makes someone miserable. As far as I’m concerned it’s over.”
“Preston, please listen.”
“No!” he shouted adamantly. “I had my say, and I’m done making a fool out of myself.”
Both Keaton and Annie gasped. For as long as Keaton had known Preston, he’d never heard his friend raise his voice.
“I’m finished,” Preston insisted. “I’ve pined after that woman for years. Well, no more. It’s over, understand? I don’t want anything more to do with her. Mellie made it plain she doesn’t have feelings for me. Fine. I’ve accepted her decision and am grateful for the honesty. Didn’t really think I had a shot, anyway.”
“Can’t a woman change her mind?” Annie asked, and then, looking to Keaton, added in a low hush, “Or a man?”
Preston remained unconvinced. “You can tell her for me that it’s too late.”
Keaton had no clue Preston could be this stubborn.
“Won’t you at least talk to her?” Annie pleaded.
Preston was sticking to his resolve and refused to budge. “Heard all I want to hear from Mellie.”
“Okay, I understand how you feel. But tell me, what would it take for you to give her another chance?”
“Not happening.” Preston wasn’t bending.
“Come on, be reasonable,” Annie pleaded.
Keaton had to admire his friend. He didn’t know if he’d have the strength to refuse Annie. The woman wasn’t giving up easily.
Desperate now, seeing that Preston remained steadfastly stubborn, she looked to Keaton for help. He shook his head, refusing to get involved. He didn’t feel it was his place to champion Mellie. She was the one who’d broken Preston’s heart.
Preston removed his cap and slapped it against his thigh. Keaton had seen him do this before, whenever he grew frustrated or uncertain. He turned to face Annie. “Mellie know you’re here?” Preston asked.
Annie’s face turned pink. She didn’t need to answer for him to know the truth. Mellie had no idea what Annie was doing.
Preston huffed and shook his head. “That’s what I thought.”
Trying again, Annie turned to Keaton. “Say something,” she pleaded. “I could use some help here.”
Keaton shook his head.
Climbing into the cab of his truck, Preston was about to drive off when he rolled down his window. Annie stepped up to the truck.
“Tell you what,” Preston said. “I’ll give Mellie one last chance, but she has to come to me.”
“Come to you?” Annie repeated, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. She has to step out of that house and come to me.”
Annie leaned forward, not sure she had heard him correctly. “You do realize she hasn’t set foot outside that house in five years, don’t you?”
“Yup,” Preston confirmed. “If she loves me the way you say she does, then she can prove it.”
“But, Preston—”
Whatever it was Annie had to say, Preston wasn’t listening. He stepped on the gas and drove off, leaving Keaton standing alone with Annie in the parking lot of the animal shelter.
He was taken by surprise when Annie whirled around and confronted him. “You were no help whatsoever.”
The accusation in her voice caused him to raise both hands as if she’d pointed a gun in his direction.
“You saw Mellie, you know how unhappy she is, and still you refuse to help. What kind of friend are you?”
“One who minds his own business.”
“Fine. Whatever.” In a huff of righteous indignation, she stomped over to where she’d parked.
Keaton knew he shouldn’t try to stop her. Now that he’d seen her, though, it was way too hard to let her go.
“I heard you’ve stopped by the hospice center to check on Seth.” He wouldn’t call that man Father. He didn’t deserve the title.
Her steps slowed. “Just…I expected he would have died by now.”
The staff said much the same thing. The old man lingered, barely conscious of where he was or why.
“He’s too mean to die.”
“He’s certainly not the most popular patient.”
Knowing his father as well as Keaton did, that was understandable. “Don’t go visit him out of any sense of duty to me.”
Her eyes flared as she let out an angry retort. “Okay, fine. I won’t. Is there something else you want to tell me?” she asked, ar
ms akimbo, glaring at him.
“Not particularly. You’re leaving. I wish you well. Surprised you hung around as long as you did.”
Annie’s eyes spit fire, and she pounded her foot with enough outrage for the sound to echo around him like a sonic boom. “The thing is, Keaton, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“So I heard,” he said, unable to hide his sarcasm. “Congratulations. You must be happy to get away from this hole-in-the-wall town.”
“You know that’s not true.”
He heard the pain in her voice and chose to ignore it.
Annie started to walk away when she unexpectedly turned around and faced him. “Keaton, please, you need to help Mellie. I’ll never ask anything of you again, I promise.”
His chest ached, and he found it nearly impossible to refuse her. He thought he had become immune to her, and finding out that he wasn’t came as a blow to the weeks he’d spent forcing her out of his thoughts, convincing himself it was over. He was trying his best to let her go without regrets. It angered him that she continued to have this emotional impact on him. He thought he was stronger than this.
“I understand why Mellie is the way she is,” Annie continued. “She’s punishing herself for abandoning her grandparents. She was their only grandchild and they pampered her. She left them for a man unworthy of her love, choosing him over her family—”
“She told you all this?” he asked, interrupting her.
“Yes, and it involved Fireball whiskey.”
“That explains it,” he muttered.
“Mellie stayed with Cal for all those years because she was too proud to admit that her grandparents were right. When she was finally ready, it was too late. That’s why she’s refused to give up anything that belonged to them. All those boxes and containers were filled with their things.”
“That doesn’t explain why she won’t leave the house.”
“But it does,” she countered. “It’s a form of self-punishment. She refused to forgive herself, so she remained holed up in the one place where she once had comfort and love.”
“What do you want from me?” he demanded, frustrated because he felt himself giving in, when he was determined he wouldn’t.
“Talk to Preston, and I’ll deal with Mellie. I’ll explain to her what Preston said. If she’s willing to step outside the house, then that should tell him how much she loves him.”
“But does she?” Keaton had his doubts. Like his friend, he’d given love a try and walked away with a wounded heart. He was also holding on to what was left of his pride, refusing to show Annie that it was killing him inside to let her go.
Annie’s eyes went soft and glistened in the late-afternoon sun. “SHE. LOVES. HIM.” From the way she spoke, Keaton could almost believe she wasn’t talking about Mellie and Preston but her own feelings for him.
Keaton felt the pull toward her. It took all the reserve strength he could muster to ignore the powerful need to hold her. This was the longest conversation they’d had in nearly two months, and every moment that passed, he felt himself weakening. He needed to get away from her.
“What do you want me to say to Preston?” he snapped.
“I don’t know. Just get him to the house late Monday afternoon after I’m done at the clinic.”
Keaton shook his head. She was asking the impossible.
“Use any excuse you can. Make something up, I don’t care.”
“Do you honestly think you can convince Mellie to walk out that door?” He had serious doubts.
She nodded. “I’m going to give it my best shot. And if she can, that should tell Preston everything he needs to know.”
The woman was dreaming, but Keaton resolved to do his part because Annie had asked it of him. In his mind, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Mellie would leave that house for Preston, for love or for anything else.
CHAPTER 34
Men were difficult.
That was an understatement if Annie had ever heard one. She’d given up trying to figure out Keaton. She still couldn’t understand why he’d severed their relationship without giving her a chance to discuss their options. He’d completely shut her out of his life. Annie had been stunned and hurt, but as time wore on, she’d become annoyed. She wasn’t going to plead with him to hear her out. She could be just as proud as he was.
The only encouragement she’d received to this point was his willingness to arrange for Preston to come to Mellie’s house on Monday afternoon. She’d practically had to throw herself from a cliff to get him to agree to do that.
Preston seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Keaton. No wonder they had remained friends through the years. Preston was unwilling to bend when it came to Mellie. He’d said his piece, accepted her rejection, and refused to give her one more chance without her proving herself to him. And he wasn’t making it easy. Annie didn’t know how she was going to convince Mellie to let go of her fears to prove to Preston that she had feelings for him, too.
Part one of her plan had been a success, and that was to get Preston to see Mellie again. Now she had to convince Mellie to meet Preston halfway. Annie figured if she could stand up against Preston’s stubborn pride, then she could deal with Mellie. Or so she hoped.
Using a convenient excuse, Annie stopped off at her neighbor’s on Monday afternoon, once she was home from the clinic.
“Knock, knock,” she said, letting herself into the house. “I brought you some fresh basil and cucumbers.”
Mellie sat at the kitchen table, playing one of her video games. She looked up from the computer screen when Annie arrived. She seemed to be caught up in her own world.
“Would you like me to put them in the refrigerator for you?” she asked.
Mellie shrugged. Over the last week, she’d noticed that Mellie had grown more and more withdrawn. It was seeing these changes in her that had prompted Annie to reach out to Preston.
After setting the produce in the fridge, Annie pulled out the kitchen chair across from Mellie and planted her elbows on the table. “Guess who I saw?” she asked.
“Why should I care?”
“You might, knowing it was Preston.”
Again, she shrugged. “Big deal.”
“You’re in love with him. You can’t deny it.”
“Am not.”
Annie did her best not to roll her eyes. “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
Mellie’s lips quirked, trying hard not to smile. Her hand curled around the mouse. “All right, since you’re in such a happy mood, you might as well get it over with and tell me what Preston said. Not that I’m expecting it to be anything good.”
“What would you like to know?”
Mellie’s eyes went soft as she struggled to disguise her feelings. Annie recognized that façade on Mellie’s face, as she’d so often needed to hide her emotions from her aunt and cousin following the tragedy. She’d become good at pretending nothing was amiss.
“Is…he okay?”
“If what you’re really asking is if he misses you, then I can categorically tell you that he’s even more miserable than you are.”
Mellie’s throat cleared, struggling to hold back tears. “Does he really miss me?”
“Yes, but the difference is he’s hurt and angry.”
Hanging her head, Mellie shut down the computer and pushed it aside. “I said some ugly things to him.”
Annie hoped the damage was repairable. When confronted, Mellie could react like an angry rattlesnake. She would strike without much thought and leave a poisoned, festering wound for her victim to tend to. Early in her relationship with Mellie, Annie had been bitten a time or two herself.
“Are you sorry?” Annie asked.
Mellie nodded. “Don’t think that will do me much good now.”
“Did you let him
know?”
“I…tried, but he blocked my number. When he left here he said it was for good, and apparently he meant it. I…I haven’t seen or heard from him since, and I don’t expect that I will.” She raised her pain-filled eyes and looked directly at Annie. “Did…Did he mention me?”
“Not until I did.”
“What did he say?” she asked eagerly.
It was highly unusual for Mellie to react with anything other than anger or irritation. Annie almost didn’t know how to respond.
“He said a lot of things,” Annie answered, wondering how best to lead up to Preston’s stipulation. Annie could sense that she might be in over her head, and she was fearful that her interference could make matters even worse.
“I can take it,” Mellie said, stiffening and bracing herself. “You can tell me whatever it is.”
Annie didn’t realize she was this readable. “I’ll tell you what I told Preston,” she offered. “I explained that you reacted in fear, and that you loved him, too.”
Mellie cast her gaze downward. “I can imagine what he said to that. Didn’t believe a word of it, did he? Well, he’s the one to blame. He should never have sprung his feelings on me like that. I liked the way things were before he went and ruined it. Being with him was fun and easy, and then he had to go and talk about his feelings.”
She grew quiet for a moment, as though reliving the scene. “Took him several minutes to get it out. He started by telling me how he’d always admired me in our high school days, and said that it hit him hard when I left with Cal, but he never forgot me and was happy when I moved back. Happy enough to ask me to dinner, which I turned down back then. I wasn’t in a good place then, and not much better now, I suppose. He went on to say how much he enjoyed spending time with me, and figured I should know how much he loved me.”
“Maybe Preston should have waited a bit, given you time to take it all in,” Annie suggested.
Agreeing with her wasn’t what Mellie had expected from Annie. “I…I didn’t think I’d miss him as much as I do. Never needed anyone the way I need him. Don’t know that I can do anything now to mend the fences.”
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