by Hadley Quinn
“Have a good nap?” Tyse asked as he came through the back door.
Too late.
Jay assessed the smug look on his brother’s face and honestly replied, “Pretty damn awesome nap, I’d say.”
Tyse paused as he entered the kitchen, but then headed for the fridge. “Hopefully for both of you,” he stated dryly.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Tyse pulled out a salad that was already made and set it on the counter. “I don’t really have to clarify on that, do I?”
“You opened your big stupid mouth to say it, so you might as well.”
“Really, Jay?” Tyse shook his head. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “You obviously have no qualms about what you’re doing, do you,” he stated.
“Stay out of my damn business,” Jay warned, getting in Tyse’s face.
“What makes you think it’s just your business?” Tyse countered back. “When she talks to me about stuff, I kind of think that makes it my business too.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“I’m talking about the way you’re starting to just use her for what you want—”
Jay shoved him hard in the chest and said, “You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about!”
“I do know what I’m talking about because she told me that!”
Jay pulled back just before he totally lost it on Tyse and studied him long and hard. “She told you that I’m using her? That doesn’t even sound like something she would say. Not when she’s the one that started things with me first, and not when she’s the one that seems to forget about me days at a time.”
“Forget about you?” Tyse laughed sarcastically. “Are you really that blind? She doesn’t forget about you, Jay,” he shook his head. “She chooses to give you space. She cares about you that much.”
Jay stared at him, unsure if any of this was making sense to him. “When chicks want space, the message is read loud and clear. Well, by most of us,” he added, thinking about Beck. Jess had wanted space but Beck couldn’t stand it. It seemed pretty cut and dry to Jay, but now Tyse was trying to tell him the opposite?
“You’ve actually been around a girl long enough for her to require time away from you?” Tyse retorted.
“Actually, no,” Jay narrowed his eyes. “But when I tell them to stay the fuck away from me, I mean it. When Melanie and I—”
He stopped abruptly. He was standing here talking about this shit with a brother he’d just met, whom he believed had a thing for the very girl they were discussing. He couldn’t really stand there and keep going, could he?
But he couldn’t talk to Teague about it, and Beck was out of the picture. This shit had been driving him nuts since the first time he and Mel fooled around in his bedroom two weeks ago.
“I understand you don’t feel comfortable talking to me,” Tyse said, breaking his thoughts. “We just met, you don’t trust me… I get it, okay? But I’m telling you… Melanie is absolutely amazing, and I know I haven’t known her long, but I do know that she is totally crazy for you. You gotta see that, right? Please tell me you at least know that. Because if you don’t, now you do. She is head over heels for you, bro. And to be honest, she would be really mad at me for telling you that because she feels like it will scare you away. She knows you don’t do long-term, but she loves being around you. If she pushes and clings, she’s afraid you’ll push her away just like all the others. Do you hear what I’m telling you, Jay? She doesn’t want to be one of the others.”
“I wouldn’t even put her in the same category,” Jay answered, feeling annoyed. “She is more important to me than any one of them.”
“Does she know that?” Tyse asked, looking him directly in the eye.
“Why wouldn’t she? She’s around me more than any other person in my life. I would do anything for her and she knows it.”
“Does she really?” Tyse stated rather than asked.
Jay was getting pissed with his annoying answers, but he shook his head with frustration and leaned against the counter. “All this time I’ve avoided getting into a physical relationship with her,” he admitted. “She had a lot of shit going on in her life, she’s Camryn’s sister, and Teague told me to stay away from her. Fine. I did. But living with her, hanging out with all of them, and building this sort of…”
“Uh, it’s called a relationship?” Tyse interjected sarcastically.
Jay narrowed his eyes. “Friendship, yes. She’s important to me and we got close in a way where we pretty much shared whatever we wanted with each other. Then she changed things. Okay, I can’t cast blame here, but she wanted more from me and hell I wanted to give it to her. We fooled around and then I just wanted to kick my own ass. I was so pissed with myself for changing things between us because I thought it was definitely going to.”
“It didn’t?”
Jay barely shrugged. “Well, it changed me apparently. She didn’t seem affected by it much and acted like nothing had happened. Then that night in the shop… She kissed me for the first time—we kissed—and it did a fucking number on me.”
“You mean you got a damn clue? No wait, you’re still trying to figure it out for some reason,” Tyse added dryly.
“You suck, you know that? So much for an older brother with compassion.”
“Older brothers are supposed to give their siblings shit,” Tyse smiled. “And what are you even talking about? You are far less sympathetic than anyone I know.”
Jay wasn’t sure how to take that. Tyse made it sound like he didn’t even have a heart. Of course he had one. He just didn’t like it to be accessible for trampling.
“Look,” Tyse sighed. “I am sympathetic to your situation, but I’m in the same boat as Melanie. Neither of us want to offend you or push you away. I don’t care if admitting that makes me a pussy, but I just don’t want to ruin the opportunity to get to know you better.”
“I thought you liked having a sister better,” Jay retorted.
With a laugh Tyse said, “Yeah, I get along great with Kellie. She’s amazing. But I do want a brother too. And if you’ll let me give you some advice, I would tell you to put aside some of your reservations with Melanie and move forward.”
“Reservations?”
“Yeah. I know it’s probably hard for you to be with someone that’s pregnant, especially when it’s not yours and the ex is a total asshole, but—”
“Wait a second, back the fuck up. Is that what you think of me? That I don’t want to be with her because she’s pregnant?”
Tyse studied him for several long seconds before he answered, “Well, yeah, I guess. I mean you’re pretty goal driven and having that in your life seems like the last thing you want.”
Jay wanted to argue that he was completely mistaken, but he wasn’t. “I’ll admit to being goal driven because I really need to be somewhere in my life. I want my own shop so fucking bad I can almost taste it. I know I can do it, but I get distracted easily by everything else in my life when I let it. And now I don’t even have a damn job, so I’m already at a setback. Can I literally afford to have a solid relationship with someone right now? No. And someone with a baby? Hell no.
“But let’s get something straight, here,” Jay continued. “I have no problem with a woman who is pregnant. That holds no bearing whatsoever. You may think I’m that superficial, but I’m not. And it’s Melanie. That makes it even easier. Does it bug me that she’s pregnant with some fucker’s kid? Yeah, it does. But that’s because he’s a fucking idiot and I worry about her and the baby. But I am not a vain bastard that thinks pregnancy is something that takes away from a woman’s looks. Absolutely not. Melanie is gorgeous and she always will be, no matter how big her stomach is. And I kind of like a bit of curves, you know? She’s got a nice ass and—”
“Okay, my God,” Tyse laughed a little. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying.”
Jay smiled but warned, “Well you better not be seeing too closely, if y
ou know what I mean.”
Tyse held his hands up and said, “Hey, from the first second you walked into this house and saw me in the kitchen with her, I knew she was yours. Whether you were willing to admit it or not, I at least could. I wouldn’t mess with that, okay? And as for rubbing her feet, she said you’ve done it for her tons of times when you lived at Teague’s. I didn’t think of it any way but—”
“I used to do it to torture the hell out of her,” Jay admitted. “She was so ticklish I swear to you she probably pissed her panties a couple of times.” Tyse laughed but Jay added, “Then the little twit got used to it and it wasn’t fun anymore.”
Tyse smiled and said, “Well I’ll let you in on a little secret… She’s still ticklish.”
“Oh?” Jay cocked an eyebrow.
“But you didn’t hear it from me.”
“Fine. And I didn’t just spill my guts to you like a teenaged girl,” Jay told him seriously. Tyse looked at him for a few seconds like he was trying to make sure he was for real. “I’m not kidding,” Jay added.
“Why can’t you just tell her everything you told me?”
“Because it’s not that simple. She hears all of that, then it’s pressure on me and I can’t handle that right now. I need a job first. Then maybe I can make other things in my life work.”
“Who says it has to be in that order? What if you make things work with Melanie, and everything else happens to fall it place?”
“Or falls apart. Fuck, you sound like Beck,” Jay shook his head. “It’s so easy for you guys to stand there and say ‘just go for it’ because you don’t have anything to lose. You are not in my damn shoes. You don’t have my past or my personality, or know anything about my vision or how I see my future. There’s time, man. And I need to use it right now. I can’t just jump into stuff without thinking anymore. I’ve done that too many times and it’s fucked up my life.”
The two were silent for quite a while, but Tyse finally nodded and said, “You know what, I totally get that. You’re right. It is easier for people to just spout off their opinions, or claim they can picture how something will turn out for you so easily. But they don’t have all of the aspects of your life to consider like you do. It really isn’t so cut and dry.”
Jay was surprised by the validation but it made him feel more confident with his decisions. No, life really wasn’t so simple. He needed to continue taking his time so he didn’t make any more huge mistakes he couldn’t fix.
One day at a time…
Chapter Twenty
Melanie woke to an interesting sound from the front room. She could hear both Tyse and Jay laughing their asses off. She glanced at the clock that read 6:34; she’d obviously fallen asleep in Jay’s bed.
She rolled onto her back and stretched, and that’s when she felt the little flutter-thump in her stomach. With a smile she rubbed her belly to feel for movement and wasn’t disappointed a few seconds later when her baby gave her a tiny tap against her hand.
“So did I wake you up or did the boys?” she asked as she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. When her stomach growled she realized she was starving. She hoped the guys got the meat cooked and didn’t leave it out on the counter.
The front room contained a surprise she was not expecting. There was an entertainment system set up against the once naked wall and the guys were watching a UFC fight. Since their backs were to her, she took a minute to just stand there and observe. She was even going to joke how cute it was that they were actually sitting on the same couch together, but decided against it.
She particularly watched Jay. When he reacted to the television, his profile turned her direction just enough to make her sigh. Good lord, she was so in love with this man. Was it worth risking a broken heart later on, just to be with him now?
Yes.
He turned just enough and saw her standing there. She expected a casual response from him, like a head nod or a ‘hey what’s up’ kind of greeting, but instead he stood and said, “Hey, sweetheart. Wanna watch TV with us?”
His smile was adorable. It was just so wrong to have that kind of effect on her all the time. She still hadn’t responded—or even moved, for that matter—and he came around the couch to where she stood.
“Tyse bought a TV,” he informed her. “We’re watching some old UFC fights, but we can watch a movie or something if you want.”
She glanced at Tyse, who only smiled at her and returned his eyes to the screen. “He just…ran out and bought a TV within the past few hours?” she chuckled.
“Yep,” Jay nodded. “Oh hey, you’re probably hungry, huh? Come on, we saved you some dinner. Well kind of. Um, we ate the potatoes so…”
“That’s okay,” she smiled. “If there’s chicken and salad, I’m totally fine with that.”
“Perfect.”
She followed him into the kitchen and watched him pull out a dish from the fridge and the bowl of salad. No surprise that there’s plenty of salad left, she mused. Jay heated up a piece of meat for her while he grabbed a plate and set it next to her on the counter, so she sat on a stool. When he asked how she slept, she almost didn’t hear him. She was way too occupied watching him serve her food.
“I slept fine,” she answered. “Did, um, did you leave with Tyse?” she asked for some reason.
“No, I stayed here with you. I wouldn’t have left you here alone.”
Okay, now this was getting really weird. Well, maybe not, since she actually believed that was true. But he just seemed so…happy. It’s not that he was always so somber all the time—no, she and Jay actually laughed quite a bit when they were together—but lately he seemed to have been in such a slump because of the situation with Beck.
“What’s up, buttercup?” he asked, tapping her chin with his finger. She realized she was just staring at his chest. Even when he had a shirt on.
“Nothing,” she blinked with a smile. “Just still a little groggy I guess.”
“So you won’t be too wide awake to hit the sack at bedtime?”
“Nah, I doubt it. By the time I drive home I’ll be ready for a full eight hours.”
Jay looked at her for several seconds but then turned for the fridge again. “Uh, what do you want for your salad? I think we’re out of that watery tasteless shit.” He glanced back and gave her a classic smartass Jay McCallan smile.
“Oh, I’m okay with nothing,” she waved it off.
“Come on, how ‘bout something white and creamy,” he told her with a playful smile. “I know you like it.” She laughed at his perverted sense of humor and watched him pull out the bottle of ranch dressing. “In case you want it,” he added, setting next to her plate.
Well now that it was right there in front of her, and Jay had made the effort to get it for her, it was really tempting. She opened the bottle and poured a tablespoon on her greens. “It actually does look good. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” He leaned onto the counter with his forearms across from her and basically just stared at her.
“What?” she smiled, putting the fork down without taking a bite. “Don’t watch me eat.”
“Why not?”
“Um…because it makes me self-conscious.”
“But you take tiny little bites, all prim and proper-like,” he laughed. “It’s cute. And I don’t watch you eat. I watch your mouth.”
She raised her eyebrows. “What is the difference?”
“I don’t give a shit about the food. I just like your lips.”
That made her smile, and then she considered the day at the pool when she thought she had something on her face. Is that what he’d been doing?
He pushed himself upright and came around the counter. His hand slid under her hair to caress her neck and it gave her goosebumps instantly. Kissing the top of her head he said, “I’ll let you eat then. Come join me on the couch when you’re done.”
Melanie didn’t respond and only watched him disappear for the front room. He seemed way more relaxed than
he had been for a long time and she wondered what the difference was. Well for one, he’d just gotten laid for the second time in twenty-four hours. According to Jay, that could chill a guy out in no time. But for all Melanie knew, he could be stoked he had a television in the house. Jay was easily amused and she wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all it took.
When she made it to the couch, he simply took her hand and pulled her next to him. With her back against his chest and his arms around her, there was no way in hell she was going to waste time trying to analyze his behavior. Tyse didn’t even bat an eye at Jay’s blatant affection for her, which meant that they must have discussed it at some point. It made her wonder what exactly they talked about, but again…she feared overanalyzing what she was most definitely going to enjoy while she could.
Tyse headed for bed around ten-thirty. Melanie thought that was kind of early, especially when the guys had a new TV to make use of, but the thought disappeared the second Jay stretched out on the couch and pulled her down with him. He tucked her back up against him and held her close, like she didn’t have a choice in the matter. The side of her face was resting on his bicep and it flexed involuntarily. She smiled and pushed against it as a reply. He flexed even harder, obviously this time on purpose, and popped her head upward. Then he did it again, and again, until her head was bouncing up and down.
Finally she gave in and laughed. “Stop,” she lightly swatted his arm.
“You’re head-bobbing to the music in the movie.”
She hadn’t even realized that, but answered, “I’m getting whiplash.”
“Then turn over this way and it will counter it.”
Melanie bit back a smile because she loved that sound in his voice—it was either a tease or a dare, but it was sexy and she couldn’t resist.
“If I face you my head will stop spinning?”
