Finally Home

by Taylor, Helen Scott

  “No, Jack. I’m not ready for this. I warned you right at the start not to expect any romance.” She snatched up her bag from the bed and dashed out of the room.

  Chapter Seven

  As soon as Jack’s Mercedes stopped outside the bungalow in Brighton that evening, Melanie jumped out and ran up the narrow heather-trimmed path to her grandmother’s front door.

  The flight back from Naples had been a nightmare. Jack seemed to have lost patience with her when she wouldn’t confide in him. He’d been stony-faced the whole way home and had barely spoken to her. At least he’d finally got the message she didn’t want a romantic relationship with him. But at what cost to his friendship with Ryan?

  When the front door opened, Melanie hugged her grandmother and shut her eyes, breathing in the reassuringly familiar scent of lavender. After hours of holding tight to her self-control, the comfort of the one person in the world she could trust nearly tipped her over into tears.

  She finally forced herself to let go and stand back. Her grandma took her hands and frowned. “What is it, dear?”

  “Nothing.” The older woman already had to field her parents’ repeated demands to know where Melanie was. She didn’t want to worry her any more. “I’m just pleased to be back.”

  As she walked into the tiny hall, the bathroom door burst open and her son came tearing out. “Mummy, Mummy.” She bent and he leaped into her arms.

  “Oh my goodness. You’re getting to be such a big boy.” She lifted him up and cuddled him. “You’ll be picking me up soon.”

  Melanie closed her eyes and breathed the baby-shampoo scent of her son’s hair. Then he wriggled to get down. “Where’s Jack?”

  A shaft of ice went through Melanie. During the flight, she’d worried nonstop about how Ryan would react to the coolness between her and Jack. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Jack lifting her bag from the trunk of his car.

  Ryan pushed past her and pelted down the path. “Careful of the road, Ryan,” she shouted after him. She needn’t have worried. He headed straight for Jack, making a noise like an airplane. Jack dipped athletically, swept Ryan up in his arms, spun him around and tipped him upside down. Her son screamed with delight.

  “Ryan adores Jack, you know,” her grandmother said thoughtfully. “He talked about him nonstop, Jack this and Jack that. He seems like a nice man.” Her grandmother winked at her. “Handsome as the devil as well.”

  “Grandma!” Melanie whispered and glanced at Jack, hoping he hadn’t heard.

  “Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I haven’t got eyes in my head. Maybe you’ve fallen on your feet this time.”

  “Jack and I don’t have that sort of relationship.”

  When her grandmother gave her a disbelieving glance, Melanie turned away, too tired for explanations.

  A terrible mix of sorrow and fear twisted through her. Even if Jack got over his annoyance with her, their relationship could never return to the easy friendship they’d shared before Italy. Nothing physical had happened between them, apart from the kiss and her brief straying fingers, but they’d crossed an invisible line. They couldn’t go back, and she was dragging so much baggage from the past she couldn’t cope with any more emotional stress. Once again, Ryan would be the one to suffer. Why ever had she allowed him to become so attached to Jack? She rubbed her temples, angry with herself. She’d foreseen this problem and still let it happen.

  Jack seemed to have regained his normal good humor now he was with Ryan. Holding her son’s hand, Jack brought him and her bag to the door. “Both of these belong to you, I think.” He greeted her grandmother with a charming smile and they exchanged a few pleasantries.

  “Come in, Jack.” Her grandmother stood aside to let him pass. They were all supposed to be staying at her grandmother’s for the night and driving home the following day.

  Jack glanced at his car and ran a hand through his hair. “Thank you for the invitation, Mrs. Marshall, but I think it’s best if I find a hotel for the night and give you three some time to yourselves.” At his words a strange cocktail of relief and disappointment raced through Melanie.

  “No! No!” Ryan hung on Jack’s hand and tried to pull him inside. “Mummy, tell Jack to stay. Tell him. Tell him.”

  Ryan’s distress made Melanie’s chest tighten. Her grandmother came to her rescue. “Come on now, young man.” She took Ryan’s arm and made him look at her. “Mr. Summers has just flown back from Italy. He’s tired and he won’t get a good night’s sleep on Great Nana’s floor now, will he. You’ll see him tomorrow when you drive home.”

  Ryan’s bottom lip jutted out, but he released Jack’s hand and stomped into the bungalow.

  “I’ll collect you about nine tomorrow morning,” Jack said, his tone suddenly weary.

  Melanie bit her lip, hating that Jack was still angry with her, wishing she could put things back to how they used to be. “We’ll be ready. Thank you.”

  With that, he strode away, climbed in his car and drove off without a backward glance.

  Melanie followed her grandmother inside. Ryan hung on Melanie’s leg and sulked. “I wanted to play with Jack. Why didn’t you make him stay, Mummy?”

  Melanie’s grandmother turned to face her and her fine gray eyebrows rose above the frame of her glasses. “That’s exactly what I’d like to know.” She patted Ryan’s head. “You go and finish the picture you were drawing for Jack, pet. You can give it to him in the morning. Mummy and I need to have a talk.”

  * * *

  Jack stared morosely out over the Brighton seafront from his hotel window. The room service meal he’d ordered grew cold on the table behind him as he watched the passing traffic, a gin and tonic clutched in his hand. Despite the fact he hadn’t eaten all day, the thought of food made him nauseated. Even the comfort of the alcohol had lost its appeal since he’d ordered it in a moment of desperation when he first arrived.

  He set down the glass and in the space of five minutes unpacked, stripped off his clothes, washed and dropped into the bed.

  Under the Mediterranean sun, he’d thought Melanie would let her guard down and finally let him get close. The trip to Italy should have been a turning point in their relationship. He grimaced at the ceiling. It had been a turning point all right. A U-turn. Everything possible had gone wrong.

  He still couldn’t fathom why his question had made her clam up and run away from him. What the hell did she have to hide that was so terrible? And how could he help her if he didn’t know what was wrong?

  He’d thought their friendship would develop into romance, that the way she’d kissed him and comforted him showed she reciprocated his feelings. The possibility he’d been trying to deny settled like a weight on his chest. Maybe she didn’t want him and never would.

  Jack threw a forearm over his eyes and tried to sleep. The aching void inside reminded him of the time, years ago, when his life had imploded, losing his football career and his fiancée within a week of each other. He’d fallen apart back then, but he’d learned from the experience. He was stronger now and would never fall apart again. Not when so many people depended on him. But it still hurt like hell to be rejected.

  * * *

  Melanie managed to avoid a cross-examination by her grandmother until after Ryan went to bed. The two women finished drying the dishes while the kettle boiled for tea, then her grandma pointed to one of the ladder-back chairs at the small pine kitchen table. “Sit there, my girl. It’s time for a
heart-to-heart, and I don’t want you getting too comfortable in an armchair and making the excuse you’re tired.”

  They settled in the chairs and sipped their tea.

  “Ryan thinks Jack is the bees’ knees.” Grandma peered over the top of her reading spectacles.

  “Yes, and don’t I know it,” Melanie returned sourly.

  “When you two dropped Ryan off, I’d have sworn the man was smitten with you. I expected you to return from Italy with a ring on your finger and a smile on your face. Instead, you look like a wet weekend. What went wrong?”

  Melanie pushed a weary hand through her hair. “Nothing went wrong. I’m just not ready to offer the sort of relationship Jack wants and deserves.”

  “Why?”

  The single briskly spoken word made Melanie look up with a frown. “You know what Ryan and I have been through.”

  “Yes. My question still stands. Why won’t you give Jack a chance?”

  Melanie drummed her fingers on the table. She didn’t want this conversation now. She wanted to curl up in bed and forget today had ever happened. “I’m not ready.”

  “Darling.” Her grandma laid her hand over Melanie’s. “It’s been five years, more than enough time to put what happened behind you and move on. Jack is not Marcus.”

  “I know,” Melanie said with a frustrated sigh. “But how can I tell him what happened? Even Mum and Dad didn’t believe my innocence. I couldn’t bear it if Jack blamed me for not spotting what Marcus was doing the way everyone else does.”

  “Not everyone.” Grandma tilted her head to the side and gave the encouraging little smile that made Melanie feel as though she were six again.

  “Jack keeps interrogating me about my past. I’m just not ready to tell him.”

  “Look at the situation from Jack’s point of view. He obviously cares for you, so he’s trying to understand why you’re cautious about love. No doubt, so he can find a way to help you. That’s how men’s minds work. You give them a problem, they find a solution.”

  Melanie pressed a hand over her eyes. She remembered the protective way Jack had started to wrap his arms around her in the hotel. The strength of his warm body against her back. How patient he’d been before she ran out on him. “I know he’s trying to help me, but I just can’t bring myself to tell him.”

  “You don’t trust him?”

  The gentle inquiry made Melanie shrug. She trusted Jack with Ryan and knew he had feelings for her, but… “I don’t know, Grandma. I just can’t take the risk.”

  Quietly, her grandmother went into the hall, then returned and placed a lined pad and pen on the table before Melanie. “If you want to decide if Jack is a good, sound man worth your time, do yourself a pros and cons list, darling. I always find it helps me make decisions. Write one list of all Jack’s good points and another of his bad points. Then you’ll be able to weigh them up and make an informed decision on whether he’s a man you can trust to stand by you or not.”

  Grateful for a way to clarify the muddled thoughts charging around her mind, Melanie dashed off her pros list.

  Wonderful with children, especially Ryan

  Ryan loves him

  Ryan wants him for his daddy

  Patient

  Generous

  Fun to be with

  Good dancer

  Romantic

  Wealthy

  Good businessman

  Good-looking

  Slightly strange but okay family

  Loves his mother

  Attracted to me

  She paused and looked up to discover her grandmother had left the room, so she added to her pros column.

  Handsome

  Gorgeous body

  Good kisser

  Warming to her task, she started the cons list.

  Jilted fiancée a few days before wedding

  Then she sat back and wondered if, irrational as it sounded, that should actually be in the pros column instead. He had only split with Stephanie because he thought it was the best thing for them both. Breaking off the relationship just before the wedding must have taken a lot of courage. In a way, she admired him for it. She decided to leave the entry where it was for the moment and moved her pen down to the next line.

  She bit her lip in concentration as she tried to think of more bad points. His mother had a reptilian toy boy? She couldn’t put that down. Imelda’s doubtful choice of boyfriend was hardly Jack’s fault. He never shut down the office computer after he used it? That hardly qualified. He made her hot and bothered when he stood too close? He insisted on trying to dig into her past? He was too gorgeous for his own good?

  Gradually the realization hit her. She couldn’t think of any faults worth listing.

  The pen dropped from her fingers as a strange rush of heat raced from her toes to the top of her head. She put her hand to her throat, felt the initial flush of discovery fade as fear chilled her skin. What if Jack had finally given up on her after she shut him out in Naples?

  Clutching the doorjamb to support her unsteady legs, she found her grandmother in the sitting room. The older woman looked up from her magazine and pushed her reading glasses down her nose to peer over the top. “Any luck, dear?”

  “Oh, Grandma, I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

  * * *

  Melanie stationed herself at the living room window, staring at the road, anxiously waiting for Jack. She had tried to contact him the previous night on his mobile phone but it must have been switched off. After a sleepless night spent tossing and turning, impatient for morning to arrive, she couldn’t wait to apologize and find out if he were willing to give her another chance.

  She was so keyed up that the sudden ring of the phone in the hall made her jump. Its insistent demand to be answered continued, so she relinquished her place by the window and hurried to the hall door. “Grandma,” she shouted, “phone for you.”

  When her shout got no response, she stepped closer to the phone, a chill of foreboding passing through her. There was no answerphone to screen the call but she couldn’t just ignore it in case it was something important.

  Frustrated with herself for being so tentative, she snatched up the handset and answered briskly.

  “Melanie, is that you?” The sound of her mother’s voice closed her throat with a crush of mixed emotions. For long moments, she could barely breathe. She closed her eyes, fighting a mental battle over whether to slam the phone down or reply.

  “Answer me, Melanie. After all this time the least you can do is speak to me on the phone.” Her mother’s initial hesitancy had vanished by her second sentence to be replaced by the firm, slightly critical tone that snatched Melanie back to her youth.

  “It’s me, Mum,” she whispered, feeling like a naughty child who’d been caught out.

  “I’ve been trying to contact you for three years. Your father and I want to know where you are. We want to see our grandson.”

  “You didn’t want anything to do with us five years ago when you turned on me in the pub in front of half the village.” Melanie had rehearsed this conversation in her head many times, but now it was happening, the anger she’d expected didn’t come. She simply felt tired, bone weary from the stress, the uncertainty, the loneliness, the constant moving.

  The static on the line buzzed in her ear. “You can’t blame us for being shocked by what happened,” her mother offered defensively. “Everyone in the village thoug
ht you and Marcus had planned the crimes together. It was only when the police cleared you we realized we’d been too quick to judge.”

  And there lay the rotten heart of the problem. Melanie kneeled down beside the telephone table and cradled her head in her hand. “I’m your daughter, for heaven’s sake. You should have known I’d never get involved in hurting anyone, especially not vulnerable elderly people.”

  “I’m sorry, Melanie. Dad and I were under a lot of pressure, and you didn’t confide in us. We’re not mind readers. What did you expect—” The rest of her mother’s excuse was cut off as Melanie softly replaced the receiver. She stayed on her knees until the phone resumed its shrill ring. Then she stood and walked away.

  “Why does that blasted phone keep ringing so early?” her grandmother said, hurrying through from the bedroom. The moment she saw Melanie, she stopped in her tracks. “Your mum?”

  At Melanie’s nod, her grandmother hugged her and stroked her hair. “Your mum and dad want to mend fences, pet.”

  “I can’t do that. I can’t forgive them.” She’d expected the family she loved to believe her innocence and support her without question, as she would support Ryan and Imelda had supported Jack. How could her mum and dad have thought she would stand by and let her husband overdose his elderly patients and steal their savings? It just proved they didn’t know her at all and they certainly didn’t love her. Melanie wiped her nose as the doorbell rang.

  Ryan belted in from the back garden and hauled open the front door. “Jack, Jack, where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you forever.”

  Jack swept her son into his arms and swung him around while Ryan squealed with delight. Emotion pinched her heart as Jack hugged Ryan and her darling little boy hugged him back, his eyes tightly closed as if he were concentrating every scrap of energy on the hug.