by Skye Turner
“Cruz:
You alone? Want to grab a pizza?”
I look around at my empty house and sigh as I text him back.
“Dade:
Yeah, sounds good. Want to meet at Rotolo’s?”
He texts back that it sounds great and he’ll meet me there in twenty minutes. I head to my room to change and throw on a cap and some shoes. I don’t feel like being recognized tonight.
Twenty-five minutes later, I’m parking my truck in the back corner of the lot. It’s a busy Thursday night.
As I’m adjusting my cap and putting up my hair, I see Cruz’s red sports car whip into the lot. I always laugh at him for having such a flashy car when he’s a very quiet and reserved guy.
He parks next to me and gets out, adjusting the bill of his own baseball cap. We’re both tall and with our tattoos and build, neither of us will blend in easily, but I’m hoping the hats and the family friendly setting will deflect some of the attention from us.
We’re quiet as we walk into the restaurant. As we wait for a table, we look around.
Cruz stares at his shoes and only looks up when the hostess is ready to seat us.
We sit and the waitress is over immediately, flashing teeth and cleavage, and taking our orders. We always order the same thing, so within minutes, she’s sashaying away, glancing over her shoulder. Cruz mumbles under his breath.
“What, man?”
He glances at me and shrugs. “I said, could she make it any more obvious?!”
I chuckle and look at her. She’s entering something into the computer and looks up at us every couple of minutes while she talks to her friend. Both grin at me as they see me looking. I grin back.
“Yeah, they’re interested.”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m not.”
I look at him closely. He’s been even quieter than normal lately and he seems really agitated tonight.
“Hey, man. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
He looks at me and I can see something in his light eyes that’s rarely there. He’s pissed. “Nothing. Just a lot going on.”
Drumming my fingers on the table, I watch him. “Like what?”
He cusses under his breath and my brows raise. Cruz is not one for cussing and he rarely gets unnerved.
He looks at me. “You know my sperm donor is being released, right? I told you that.”
I nod and wait for him to continue.
He grinds his teeth together. “Yeah, well… he wrote me a letter that he’d like to meet me.”
My mouth pops open, but I gather my thoughts quickly. “Are you really surprised? I mean you’re famous, Cruz. He’s getting out after a pretty long time. Do you think that’s why he wants to meet you?”
He’s holding his butter knife so tightly, his hands are white. “Fuck, I just don’t know. Maybe. Maybe he wants money. I don’t know. He said he just wants to meet me. He wrote my momma too.”
There it is. The reason for his rage. The asshole that beat and raped his mother and has been in jail for twenty-five years is getting out and he wrote to his victim about meeting the son he impregnated her with?! Holy shit.
“She told me she read the letter and I need to consider meeting with him. Even if it’s only one time. Can you believe that shit? He raped and beat her and she got pregnant with me and now he writes her a fucking letter when I ignored him and he has her asking me to meet with him. Who the fuck does that, Dade?!”
Cruz might be a twenty-five year old man, but right now, he’s a lost and confused little boy. I wish I knew what to do for him.
“I don’t know, man. But I know one thing, you’re a good man. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do. Even if your momma says you should. And you know I love Corrin.”
He sighs and looks away. “I know. I don’t want to meet with him. The thought of it fills me with rage.” He looks at me with fear filled eyes. “I’m scared I’ll kill him.”
Clapping him on the shoulder I startle him before he relaxes some. “Don’t. You aren’t him. You have all of your momma’s qualities and none of his. Don’t do that to yourself.”
He nods and looks around the restaurant again. His eyes widen as he looks behind me, but he quickly masks it and meets my gaze. “Thanks, man. I mean that.”
I nod. Our pizza is delivered to the table and as she sets it down, she brushes her breasts against my back and leans over me to smile.
I smirk at her. Reaching out, she takes my hand and places something in it, then winks and walks away making sure to exaggerate her swaying ass in her short shorts.
Looking down, I see the slip of paper. I unfold it and roll my eyes.
My girl and I get off at 11. Love to party with you boys. Guarantee you a good time. You boys like good times, right? Call me and we’ll meet you wherever. 555-5555. Joan.
Folding it back, I slip it into my shirt pocket.
Yeah, that’s not happening.
Cruz raises his brows in a silent question. I mutter, “You want to fuck them?”
He coughs and shakes his head no emphatically. I laugh, “Yeah, me either!”
He chuckles and mouths, “WOW!”
We laugh and eat our pizza for a few minutes.
A presence at the side of the table interrupts my chewing. Looking up, I see a beautiful girl who looks familiar smiling at Cruz.
He looks up and chokes on his bite. She grabs his drink and holds it out to him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
He nods and asks, “Can I help you?”
His voice sounds strained and I look at him sharply. Is he blushing!? The fuck?! Who is this girl?
She chuckles. “Hi. I’m Tifanie. Do you remember me?”
I know him and while he looks like he does, he shakes his head no.
She laughs again. “Wow, blow to my ego. We met a few months back. Well, sort of. I was the paramedic who took care of your pregnant friend.”
His eyes widen and he looks at me in panic. I realize she’s talking about Clove. “Clove? You must be one of the paramedics who came to my house when my sister had kidney stones.”
Her gaze swings towards me and she smiles. Her smile is gorgeous. Taking her in, I appreciate her looks before grinning at her. She grins back and answers me before looking aback at Cruz.
“Yes. I was. My partner and I got her stable on the way to the hospital. How is she?”
I chuckle. Cruz is sitting there dumbfounded like he’s forgotten how to talk.
I kick him under the table. He jumps. “What? Oh shit. I’m sorry. Um, she’s good. She’s doing great. Both she and the baby. Thank you for asking.”
I laugh outright and both look at me. I put my hands up and Cruz glares.
She’s standing there with a question on her face. I stare at Cruz and try to tell him to stop being an idiot.
Finally, she laughs uncomfortably. “Ok, well I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. By the way, what’s your name?”
It’s like I’m not even sitting here. I grin and take in the scene. This is better than TV.
Cruz finally snaps out of his stupor. “I’m sorry. I’m Cruz.” He points at me. “That’s Dade.”
She laughs again and I see several girls standing near the door watching our exchange. They smile and look at her. I glance at Cruz and smile back at them. I wink.
Tifanie says, “Well, I need to get going. My friends are waiting. It was nice to finally get a name to go with the nice face, Cruz. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
He nods. “Yeah it was nice to meet you. Maybe so.” He smiles, though it’s not a confident smile.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulls a pen out. Then leaning over she grabs his napkin. She writes something and then straightens and smiles. She points to the napkin. “In case you want to ‘see me around’, I’ve made it easy for you.”
Smiling, she walks away calling over her shoulder. “It was really nice to meet you, Dade. I’ll be waiting, Cruz.”
He sits there
stupefied while I take a bite of pizza. When I stop chewing, he looks at me. “What the fuck was that?”
Throwing a napkin at him I chuckle. “That was a fine, confident woman, who is clearly interested, letting you know. Since you were too chicken shit to ask for her number!”
He looks down at the napkin with her name and number on it. He smirks. “Shut up.”
I laugh again. “You going to call her?”
He grimaces. “Probably not.”
“Why not?”
He glares at me. “You know why.”
I glare back and point at him. “Don’t be an idiot.”
He chuckles. “Whatever. So, where’s Melonie tonight?”
My mouth flattens as I check my phone. Nothing from her still. “She had a hospital thing.”
He looks at me curiously. “Why didn’t you go with her?”
I shrug. “I was with y’all all day at the studio laying tracks.”
Looking at me in disbelief, he says, “And? You could have left early. Had we known, all of us would have agreed to let you leave so you could go with her.”
I mumble, “We’re not there. I mean we aren’t dating.”
He glances at me. “Why not?”
Scratching my cheek and angling my head, I say, “I don’t know.”
“Do you want to date her?”
I blow out the breath I was holding and look away. “I don’t know.”
He glances at me and his eyes widen as they hit the door. “You might want to figure that out.”
Following his gaze, I glare. “Yeah. I guess it’s not really up to just me, now is it?!”
Melonie is here… with her ex-fiancé. What. The. Fuck?!
She doesn’t see me and they head into the bar. He’s got his hand on the small of her back, which is bare in the dress she’s wearing. She’s laughing at something he’s saying as he bends down to talk to her.
Cruz looks at me with compassion. “Sorry, dude.”
I glance at him. “For what? We’re not together. She can do whatever she wants to do, as can I.” I look at the waitress who’s fucking me with her eyes and shudder. Nope, not interested.
Cruz waves her over. “Can we get the check?”
She pouts. “The check is all you want?”
I’m staring at the wall and grinding my teeth. I look up. “Yeah, ma’am. It is.”
She reaches into her apron and slaps it on the table as she glares at me and stomps away. Cruz glances at it and throws some bills down before standing up. “I got it. You ready?”
Nodding, I grab my keys and head out of the restaurant.
As we get to my truck, I kick my tire as hard as I can. It feels like something snaps in my foot. “Son of a bitch! Motherfucker!”
Cruz runs behind me. “Ok, that was dumb.” I glare at him. He glares back. “Seriously. That was fucking stupid, dude.”
I can’t help it. I laugh at the absurdity. The object of my infatuation is not returning my texts and is in the restaurant I just walked out of with her ex-fiancé and I’m acting like a jealous teenager in the parking lot.
Wow, Dade. Why are you so jealous?
Shut the hell up. I’m not jealous.
You’re not jealous?! Ok, I might be a little jealous. I mean I’m the one that makes her scream and black out regularly, yet here she is, ignoring me, and out with her ex.
What the fuck is that about? I didn’t even know they were talking again.
Wait, yes I did, she said they were friends.
Fuck! What am I doing? I am not dating her! She is not mine. Though, she’s mine in bed!
Stop this bullshit!
Cruz is watching me. I think some of that might have been out loud.
Fuck, she makes me crazy.
He looks at me and lightly punches my arm. “You ok?”
I laugh. Am I ok?!
“Yeah, dude. I’m good. I’m going to head home. I’m beat and we have an early day tomorrow.”
He laughs. “You sure? At least she’s coming with you to the concert in two weeks, right?”
I forgot all about the concert. Yeah, she’s supposed to come to Bayou Country Superfest with us Memorial Day weekend. We’re hoping to have all of the tracks for the album laid by then. Hence why we’re in the studio from 7AM to 9PM most nights lately.
We part ways and I head to my large, empty house.
I watch some Top Gun in the media room as I sip on my beer and wait to pass out from exhaustion. I force myself not to think about what could be going on with Melonie and the preppy doctor.
She never returns my text.
Chapter Eighteen
Melonie
Three deliveries today, with the first one at 2:30AM, on top of staying out late last night with the hospital shindig, and then a drink with Jake has me exhausted already.
I’ve missed talking to him. He really is a good man and a dear friend. I’m so happy for all the new opportunities in his life.
I miss Dade. I haven’t seen him much since he’s been at the studio so much and the time we do spend together is usually in bed. The sex with us is amazing. It’s the best sex I’ve ever had, yet I’m starting to feel like sex is all he wants from me and I don’t think I’m ok with that scenario.
We haven’t talked about it. We talk a lot, about a lot of things, but we never talk about what we’re doing or what either of us wants out of this “relationship”. But let’s face it, I don’t think we have a relationship outside of amazing sex.
I thought I was ok with it, but I’m not. I have feelings for him. I fell for him on St. John and I never got over it. Now that I see him regularly and he rocks my world in the bedroom, I feel more for him and I’m so scared.
He can break my heart. Again. The only question is am I going to walk away now or wait until I’m completely in love with him and let him completely shatter me?! I’m a doctor. He’s a rock star and the sad reality is that we don’t live in the same world.
What exactly am I going to do about that?!
Shaking out of my musings, I check my charts to see who I have left to come in this morning. Ah, Clove is my last appointment before the weekend. She’s a sweet girl and I enjoy our conversations. It’s weird for me though since I have a sexual relationship with her brother and she looks just like him.
Oh, well. You’re her doctor and you’re a damn good one. Whatever is going to happen with you and Dade, it has nothing to do with Clove.
Right, Melonie. Nothing at all… Only you’re just about in love with a man, who as far as you know, wants nothing more than a wild romp with you.
Sighing and telling myself this is not the time, I fill in charts as I wait for my last two patients to show up so I can take off for the weekend. Once noon hits, Monica is on call and I’m free to do whatever I want for two and a half days.
Sadly, I have no plans.
My phone intercom buzzes and my nurse says both of my patients are here.
Everything is great with patient number one and baby and after wiping her stomach off and telling her I’ll see her in four weeks, I wash my hands and head into Clove’s room.
She’s on the table in a paper gown, swinging her legs and talking animatedly to two gorgeous women. One is blonde and looks like she could be a model and the other has short, dark hair with really funky blue highlights and extremely blue eyes. They all look at me as I enter the room. Both of the women with Clove stare at me. It’s very unnerving.
Pasting a smile on my face, I greet Clove. “Hello, Clove. How are you feeling? Any issues you’d like to discuss?”
She chuckles. “Hey, Dr. Bird. No, I’m great. Just getting really tired again and I feel like a whale.” She gestures to her friends. “These rude women who are staring at you are my friends. The blonde is Bradi and the other is Blue. They are also the women behind Rock With Me.”
The blonde holds out her hand. “Hey. Melonie, right? I’m Bradi. Sorry for staring, but we’re just curious about the woman that has Dade so tied up
in knots.”
The other woman also exclaims, “Yeah, sorry. We aren’t trying to be rude, we’ve just never met you, and so, we’re curious. I’m Blue.”
I shake both of their hands and smile. Their names are somewhat familiar. Ah, friends of Dade and Clove. Nope, not at all awkward.
“Nice to meet you both. Ok, Clove, let’s check on the little man, shall we?”
She nods. I look at her friends. “If you could both move to her head if you want to see, that’d be awesome. It’s going to get really crowded in here, really fast once that machine rolls in.”
Bradi laughs and hops onto the table with Clove. “Is it ok if I stay up here?”
What the hell?
Clove and Blue laugh.
I chuckle. “Um, sure. As long as Clove is ok with it and can be still.”
Bradi laughs again. “I want to see my baby.”
Her baby? What the hell is she talking about?!
Clove sees my expression. “Don’t worry about her. She’s a nut. She calls him ‘her baby’. She’s crazy, but harmless.”
Blue laughs out loud. “Harmless? Bradi?”
Bradi glares and says, “I resent that! I am a card carrying member of the psycho squad.” But her eyes are twinkling.
Clove swats at her. “Stop, you’re scaring Dr. Bird.”
I chuckle. These girls are insane, but it’s easy to see how close they all are. I envy them that. “Clove, I’ve told you. Please call me Melonie. It seems weird when you call me, Dr. Bird.”
Bradi chuckles. “You get naked with Dade. I can see how that would be weird.”
My face turns bright red and I choke.
Clove sputters, “Oh my God, Bradi. Shut up!”
Bradi looks right at me. “What?! She does.”
I don’t even know what to say to that. I do actually, but still… I’m Clove’s doctor and my staff could walk in at any minute. No one but Monica knows that I’m involved with Dade.
Somehow, we get through the remainder of the appointment and Clove and the baby both look great. He’s growing perfectly. As I’m finishing up, Clove starts picking at her nails. It seems like something is on her mind.
“Is everything alright, Clove?”
