by Hadley Quinn
Melanie spun on her stool to face him and asked, “Is that when you broke your leg?”
“Well, I did break my leg my senior year, but that’s not why I lost out on a scholarship offer. That’s where the ‘stupid shit’ comes into play. You know, the gambling and stuff.”
She nodded her head because she already knew about it. Jay hadn’t kept much from Melanie. They both came with pasts that could have easily been kept a secret, but neither of them had really felt the need to. It’s why Jay never kept anything from her. She had always been upfront about herself, so he’d automatically offered her the same. No matter how much shit they threw at each other, the baggage always came with mutual acceptance.
It’s why she was easily one of his best friends.
“Well your life wasn’t meant to go that way,” Melanie told him matter-of-factly. “Now you’re meant for something else.”
She gave him another smile before she went back to eating, and being here in Teague’s house again brought back a lot of memories that involved Melanie. In a way he wished he’d never moved out, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Life seemed to be changing quickly, and Jay was learning to adjust on the fly.
But there were some things that would never change with Melanie, and he would stick to his guns if it fucking killed him…
Chapter Six
The next weekend, Jay pulled his car behind Teague’s house and parked in front of the detached garage. It was four in the morning on Saturday and he’d come to borrow his cousin’s truck so he could make the trip to Oregon and pick up the Fastback. He’d have one more stop at Beck’s to snag a car trailer, and then he’d hit the road.
He used his key to open the garage out back where the Boss was parked. It was automatic to check in on his former project-turned-perfection any time he was back here by Teague’s shop. He flipped on the lights and gently removed the car’s cover. It never failed to impress him each time he saw this car. It was a beautiful machine; moss green with black racing stripes, and an interior that had been modernized pretty nicely. He and Teague had spent so many late nights restoring this car. The memories were endless.
And then Jay decided to be a dipshit and fuck over his own life. Jay’s father had never put his family first, but despite his dad’s idiotic choices in life, Grandpa McCallan had still taken care of Jay and his sister Kellie. He’d even given them both money to go to college, and whereas Kellie used it to go to cosmetology school, Jay made the mistake of investing in something else.
Underground fighting.
Like all addictions, it started out small. But the bigger the fights the bigger the bets, and it snowballed from there. Soon he was in so deep that he’d lost everything, including his chance at the future he didn’t know he wanted. He’d not only destroyed his means for getting ahead in life, but he also ruined his relationship with his grandfather when he finally discovered the truth. College hadn’t been for Jay, but there were other ventures he would have rather gotten into instead of gambling.
In hindsight it was a pretty obvious path of destruction, but it was too late to dwell on it now.
He sighed as he leaned his hands against the driver’s side and peered into the car. Well, however things ended up for him, he was glad Teague got the car. He deserved it anyway.
“Whatcha doin’?” a familiar voice asked.
He startled with surprise and bolted upright. He could only imagine how pathetic he looked hanging his head and moping over a damn car.
Melanie entered the garage and he wondered if he’d woken her up when he drove by. Her room was right on the back corner of the house. But instead of being clad in sleepwear, she was fully dressed in jeans and a hoodie. Her hair was in a ponytail and she had a little bit of makeup on.
“What are you doing?” he countered instead of answering her question.
She folded her arms across her chest and blew a stay strand of hair from her face. “I decided to come with you,” she said, glancing away from him toward the window. “I know I said seeing my mom was the last thing I wanted to do, but I think that I should. Part of moving forward, I guess.” She looked at him again and shrugged. “Is it okay if I ride with you?”
Jay grabbed the car cover and proceeded to put in back over the Mustang. He was stalling for sure, but eventually answered, “I’m driving straight there, Mel. It’s a fifteen-hour drive. One way.”
“I know.”
“And I’m throwing the car on the trailer and heading straight back. Another fifteen hours.”
“I know.”
“It’s gonna be boring as hell.”
“I love road trips.”
“I’m not making tourist stops. No Golden Gate Bridge, no damn wild animal park.”
“I get it, Jay.”
“And only two bathroom stops each way. More than that, you gotta piss in a cup.”
“And what about food? Do I need to pack my little lunch pail?”
He barely smiled as he held the door open for her and shut the lights off. He locked up and headed for the main garage to swap car keys.
Melanie followed him there. “Well? Should I go pack some food?”
“No,” he sighed, grabbing Teague’s truck keys. He replaced them with his own and paused, facing Melanie. “Are you sure you wanna come? I’m lame as fuck. We’re not gonna be chatting like girlfriends, either.”
“Well now that would shock the hell out of me,” she replied easily. “So no, I don’t expect to be humored for thirty hours. I’ll bring stuff to do like a good little child. I’ll pack my activity books and crayons and stay silent with my lollipops and fruit snacks.”
She was obviously irritated by the way her green eyes were narrowed, but it was cute as hell. She looked like she was ready to slap him if he told her no, but he bit back a smile and said, “Fine, go pack your diapers and meet me outside in five minutes.”
He expected a retort but didn’t get one when she turned to head into the house.
With another sigh he shook his head. He wasn’t sure why she decided to come, but he hoped he didn’t regret allowing her to. He’d already talked to her mom over the phone and she knew he was coming. All he wanted to do was load the car and head straight back.
Melanie was at Teague’s truck before Jay even got there. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and a bottle of water in her hand, so he met her at the passenger’s door and opened it for her.
“You packed diapers, right?” he asked as she climbed in. “You drink all that water you’re gonna have to piss in a couple of hours. Might want to pace yourself, trooper.”
“You just focus on being lame, sweetheart.” She gave him a sassy smile and almost shut him in the door when she pulled it closed.
With an amused chuckle, he eyed her through the windshield as he walked around the front of the truck. She was watching him too, almost like a challenge. But as much as he cared about Melanie, this road trip was going to fucking suck. He didn’t like spending more than a couple hours with any female, and now he was going to be caged with one for an entire day.
***
Jay was in auto mode two hours later, traveling up Interstate 5, when something pulled him out of his daze. It took him a few seconds to understand what it was, and after one look at Melanie tapping a foot as she wrote in some notebook she always wrote in, he instantly figured it out.
“What the fuck is that sound,” he stated. “Hell no, change it,” he pointed to the stereo.
“Why? You’re just stuck in your own little world and I’m tired of listening to classic rock.”
He didn’t even respond and scanned for another station.
“Fine,” Melanie sighed. She reached into her backpack and pulled out an iPod and a pair of headphones. “You know, maybe you could learn a few things from country music,” she muttered just loud enough for him to hear.
He couldn’t help but snort, and then he laughed out loud. “I already know how to drink beer and I’m pretty damn sure I could driv
e a tractor.”
“Pssh,” she scoffed with a laugh. “That was a beautiful song. He wrote it about his wife before they were married. Drinking, trucks, tractors, girls, hot guys… Those are just the playful parts of country music. There are so many lyrics that go beyond that.”
“Well then they can just remain a secret to me ‘cause I’m not interested.”
She didn’t respond as she slipped her headphones over her neck, but as she shuffled through her iPod to find a song, she smiled and asked, “But someday will you drive a tractor shirtless with a cowboy hat on?”
He glanced at her and saw that she was serious. “Why the fuck would I want to?”
She put the headphones over her ears and smiled. “Because you’d look pretty damn sexy.” She winked and went back to writing in her notebook.
Jay looked straight ahead at the road as he mulled over the compliment. Well, maybe it was a compliment. Maybe it was laced with some other meaning, like he’d only be sexy if he were a country hick and not the untamed city boy she always dubbed him to be. It was most likely a crack at his rude and abrasive personality.
He subtly glimpsed her way again. She was biting her lower lip as she furiously scribbled in that damn notebook. Was it her fucking diary? Jesus, if it was, he could only imagine the shit that she wrote about him. The thought made him smile to himself—not because it was funny, but because he was seriously a complete prick sometimes. She probably had a truckload of information on him.
Which made him slightly uncomfortable…
He reached over and tapped her leg to get her attention. When she slid off the headphones and pressed pause he asked, “What are you writing?”
She was obviously confused as to why he’d care. It was sort of outside his nature to even inquire. But he did find himself butting into her life more often these days, but that was just to keep an eye on her for Camryn’s peace of mind.
“It’s just…” She shrugged, like she didn’t want to tell him. And then she closed the book and held it to her chest like she was afraid he could read it.
“It’s just what?” he asked, and he could even hear the impatience in his own voice.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s it to you, nosy? It’s just something I write in sometimes.”
“Sometimes? You’re always writing in it. I’ve even seen you whip it out when we’re all out to dinner or somewhere public. You’ll turn away and do it secretly, but I’ve seen you do it.”
“So?”
“So? So what do you write in it?”
She laughed, but was obviously borderline appalled. “Seriously, what’s with the inquisition?”
“What’s with you being so cagey about it? Since when do you hide things from people? It’s not like you at all.”
“Oh, so just because I usually wear my whole life on my sleeve, I’m required to share this one thing with you?”
“Share what? What the fuck is in the notebook that you can’t tell me? Is it about me? My family? You writing some fucking memoirs or something about us?”
Her mouth dropped open with shock, and even after he turned his attention to the road, he could feel her gaping stare searing into him. It actually made him feel like shit, but he was too stubborn to assess the damage objectively.
Finally Melanie shoved the notebook into her bag, but the headphones went back on and she turned her music up.
Since she couldn’t hear him, Jay didn’t hold back on his frustrated sigh. It was that damn McCallan arrogance that fueled his inquiry, but it was history that assured him he was in the right. Too many people had worked their wiles for a story or some other major form of deception because of his last name.
It was hard to trust people.
But he knew Melanie and that’s why he wanted to kick his own ass. She wasn’t out to hurt anyone, and she definitely seemed to have other things on her plate these days instead of being concerned over his family’s shallow lifestyle. What the hell did he think she was doing? Jotting down notes to sell to a damn tabloid?
Melanie was a smart and witty girl. He’d never actually had a female friend that put up with his shit and put him in his place at the same time. Any other chick would have cried after so many of his blatant comments, but not Mel. She battled him easily, forgave quickly, and still stuck around. She was like the gorgeous best friend in high school that you were too afraid to date because just being friends with her was already too good to be true. It’s not that you never thought about what it’d be like to have her in your bed…
You just didn’t fucking go there.
***
“Can I use my first bathroom break?” Melanie asked thirty minutes later.
Jay had been in his own head since she cleverly pulled the mature card and decided to ignore his behavior. Then she’d whipped out a bag of Cheetos for breakfast and silently offered them to him as he drove. She had even played her ace fifteen minutes ago and opened a bottle of Mountain Dew and set it in his cup holder. He knew damn well she didn’t drink that stuff and she’d brought it specifically for him. It was even cold.
Her peace offering had been adequate. He decided he could accept it.
“Sure,” he answered.
But after drinking the entire twenty ounces within ten minutes, he felt like he needed to take a piss, too, and then understanding began to dawn on him. What a crafty woman. That was an impressive but wicked move and he had to hold back the smile that was trying to spread on his face.
He must’ve let something slip though, because Melanie glanced at him and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” he shook his head with a straight face. “Just surprised you lasted this long without pissing your panties. Where’d you want to stop?”
She eyed him for a second and then answered, “Just the next rest stop is fine.” She put her headphones on again and closed her eyes as she laid her head back.
Just the next rest stop… The last sign said it was thirty miles away. Now that he knew he needed to take a leak, it was going to drive him crazy.
He glanced at Melanie again, looking sweet and peaceful with her lashes fanned against her skin and her lips slightly parted. It was a good thing she was such low maintenance or he would have strangled her months ago. Yeah, they battled back and forth ninety percent of the time, but it was a form of entertainment for him, and in the end, Mel was still her same smiling, cheerful self.
She’d basically taken the place of his sister lately, whom had moved in with a friend in Burbank. He hardly saw Kellie these days, and time with Melanie had easily filled the void. The only difference was that he didn’t think of Melanie as a sister. There was no fucking way he’d be attracted to someone that was related to him. He surely thought of her as family, but that wasn’t the same category as being related.
He glanced at her again, just as her tongue slid out and grazed her lips—
A horn honked right as he felt the truck bump over the lane dividers. In a quick second he was back in his lane, but Melanie had jolted alert with one hand against the door and the other on her stomach.
“Sorry,” Jay mumbled. He waited for the car to get out of his damn way and then worked his way to the exit.
“We’re stopping already?” Melanie asked, taking her headphones off.
“Yeah.”
He could feel her questioning gaze but she didn’t acknowledge his abrupt tone. Jay pulled into the first restaurant he saw, which was a Burger King, and parked the truck and car trailer at the edge of the parking lot. Melanie headed inside as he locked up, and as soon as she disappeared through the doors, he trailed behind right after.
When Jay came out of the bathroom, Melanie was already heading out the door for the truck, so while he was already there, he decided to grab some food. He texted her for an order but she answered that she didn’t want anything, and when he pushed his way out the door with his breakfast, the sight in front of him made him slow.
Some dude had parked his Silverado and a
boat he was towing right next to Teague’s truck. The guy was obviously having an engaging conversation with Melanie because they were both smiling at each other as they spoke.
Like the asshole that he was, Jay’s eyes never left sight of the guy invading his space, and he stepped right between the two since they were standing in front of the driver’s door. He wasn’t going to say anything until the guy didn’t even take a step back.
That, in Jay’s book, was a blatant challenge.
“You see something you like?” Jay faced him. Melanie said something from behind him, but Jay didn’t budge.
The guy was big, with huge arms that hung from a sleeveless tee, and height that matched Jay at six-two. But he only glared at Jay before he left them to walk toward the restaurant.
“Wow, was that really necessary?” Melanie asked.
Jay chuckled as he opened the driver’s door. “No, but it was fun.”
“You see this?” Melanie motioned to her stomach.
He looked her over and cocked an eyebrow. “See what? With a sweatshirt on, I can’t even tell.”
“Exactly,” she scowled at him. “In another month that will change, and I’ll be passed over by every single guy I come across. I’m not dying to be picked up on by strangers, but it’s at least nice to still feel normal and have a decent conversation with someone. It’s nice to forget for a few seconds that I was a naïve, careless idiot that got knocked up by the world’s biggest prick. The guy only said that he liked Teague’s truck, and then I asked about his boat. Like I’m really going to pull my panties down for him just from that.”
“Do you forget who you’re talking to here?” Jay smirked. “I don’t care who you waste your time with, he was just in my damn way. Now let’s go because we’ve already lost an hour on this little side adventure.”
Melanie shook her head at him and traveled around to the passenger’s side. When they both climbed in and buckled, she murmured, “It was barely twenty minutes, drama queen.”
