by Nicole Green
“You should try the lunch special,” Donnie said, rubbing his nearly concave stomach. “Rose’s meatloaf. Lord have mercy.” He had a look of complete rapture on his face as he spoke.
“Okay, I’ll give it a try. So she’s owner, cook, and server? Rose?”
“Rose does a little bit of everything. Two things I know for sure. She always makes the meatloaf, and she always makes the tea.”
After Rose brought them tea and took their orders, Donnie turned a serious look on Melody. She was surprised by the abrupt change in his face.
“I want to talk to you. About my brother,” he said while toying with the salt shaker. He rotated it through his long fingers.
“What about him?”
“Don’t let him fool you.” Donnie sat back in the booth, keeping his brown eyes on her. That was the same thing he’d said Saturday evening before dinner.
“Fool me?” She thought back to the conversation she’d had with Blanche and wondered if she was about to learn more.
“He’s not that nice of a guy. He takes what he wants from people and leaves the rest to blow around like corn husks in the wind.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
She felt blood rush to her face, and the tips of her ears were on fire. Is it that obvious?
“Just be aware of the fact that he’s like poison. A pretty poison.”
He sat back in the booth without saying anything else as if he wanted to let that sink in. She turned her glass of tea around in circles on the table. Dishes clanged and people shouted orders back in the kitchen. There was the buzz of conversation at the tables surrounding them, but their table was silent.
“I’m only going to be here a few days,” she said. “I’m not getting attached or anything. But he doesn’t seem so bad to me.” She toyed with her fork “I mean, after all, he doesn’t have to fix my car labor cost-free or let me get away with only paying half price for that engine.” He probably didn’t think she knew about the steep discount on the engine, but she did. She’d figured it out while trying to get his books in order earlier that day.
Donnie shook his head. “You have no idea how good he is at fooling people.”
“Oh?”
“Do you know he stole the shop from me? When he came back from the ‘big city?’” Donnie said.
She looked up at him, shocked. He nodded. Just then, Rose brought their food, and they chatted with her for a moment. When she went away, Melody still hadn’t composed herself enough to have a reply to what Donnie had said.
“I was running the shop before he came home. Dad had put me in charge of everything after his first stroke. Then he comes home like a ghost come back to life. We hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since he left home at eighteen. Six years and not a day of it did he spend in Sweet Neck. He came back soon as Dad kicked the bucket and pushed Avery and me aside.” A sour look clouded Donnie’s face. “Took charge of everything. Told us we could learn to like it or get out. Everything we built up and had tried to do? Gone.” He slapped the table. “Like a fart in the wind.”
Melody put her napkin in her lap and smoothed it over her thighs several times. “He must have had a good reason.” The words sounded hollow to Melody even as she spoke them.
Donnie snorted. “Yeah? Well, maybe he’ll share it with us one day.”
Melody pictured Austin as she looked down at her plate. He seemed so easygoing and generous. Could he be the person Donnie said he was also? He and Donnie didn’t get along too well from what she’d seen. What incentive would Donnie have to lie to her, though? And there were a lot of things Austin wouldn’t even mention.
“I don’t want you to think I’m telling you all this because I want to make a move on you or something,” Donnie said. “I have a girl. She’s coming over for dinner tonight. I don’t prey on out-of-towners anyway. Unlike my brother, I’m not always looking around for a quick fling.”
When he said the words “quick fling,” Melody thought of Regan and the admittedly little she knew about Austin’s relationship with the woman. Was Austin that type? A user? Someone who’d betray his family, cast his brother aside, use people and then throw them away? Could he be someone like her ex? Austin didn’t seem like her lying, cheating ex-husband at all, but she had no way to know for sure. She’d only known him a few days. Donnie had known him for years.
“Look, Melody. You seem like a really good person. I don’t want you getting mixed up in a bad situation. There’s a reason he doesn’t have any friends around here except Regan.” He shook his head. “Who knows what her problem is? Guess maybe she’s still in love with him, poor thing. She can do much better.”
“People seem to like him okay.” She thought of Austin saying hi to everybody they met on the street or in a store, seeming to know them all.
“Sweet Neck folks are like that. They don’t act mulish or ornery outright. But you watch and see how many people he really spends time with. If you’ll notice, it’ll only be Mom, Vernon, and Regan. He’s burned a lot of people in this town, Melody. I don’t wanna see him burn you, too.” Donnie fiddled with his knife and fork.
“Well, like I said, I won’t be around long. Just until my car is up and running again. While I’m here, I just want to show my thanks and work off my debt for the car,” she said.
“I hope that’s true.” Donnie took a large bite of meatloaf.
She did, too.
#
That afternoon, Melody was sweating with the effort she was putting into her cleaning despite the window air conditioning unit in Austin’s office blowing out cool air on full blast. She’d pulled her hair away from her face and put it up in as much of a ponytail as the short length of her bob would allow with a rubber band she’d found on Austin’s desk. The fabric of her gauzy sundress stuck to her in places she didn’t want it to. It was made of thin material, but at the moment she felt like she was wearing a canvas tarp.
After carrying several bags of trash to the dump and shredding some extremely old records she’d made sure weren’t needed anymore, she flopped down in Austin’s desk chair and looked down at a box of papers she’d brought over to the chair with her so she could sit while she sorted them.
With a groan, she swiveled the chair away from them. She was tired of looking through papers for the moment. Turning to the bookshelf behind the desk, she looked at the spines of the books hiding behind the clutter. On the few inches of shelf space in front of the books, and stacked on top of some of the shorter books, sat various knick knacks and even a few car parts. Most of the spines indicated that the books were about cars. She was about to reach for one that didn’t seem to belong—a biography of some sort—when she noticed a spiral notebook tucked into the end of one of the rows, barely visible. The haphazard way it was stuck in there made it seem as if someone had tucked it in there a while ago and forgotten about it.
With a curious frown, she pulled out the notebook and looked at the cover. Doodles covered the black cover. They seemed to have been drawn with a White-Out pen. She opened the notebook and was surprised to see what looked like poetry. Upon closer inspection, after flipping a few pages, she noticed that it was poetry mixed in with lyrics, thoughts about various political topics, and sometimes drawings lined the tops and the margins of the pages.
Some of it was angry, some sad, a lot of it introspective. Mouthing the words to herself as she read them, she realized just how talented the writer was. In all her days at the record company, she’d never come across such talent. Normally, their label went for gimmick over talent thanks to the “vision” of people like Saeed and those higher up than him. That was part of the reason they could barely keep afloat in her opinion. They were always looking for the next flash in the pan as opposed to sustainable artists who could produce quality music long-term. Of course, there was no explaining this to the big guys at the top. After all, she was only a woman—what did she know?
She was so engrossed in the notebook,
she hadn’t even heard Austin come into the office, so when she heard his voice, she jumped.
“Hey,” he said. “It already looks better in here.”
She held up the notebook. “Is this yours? Did you write these words?”
He gave her a blank look, impossible to read. Walking over, he took the notebook from her and shrugged. “I’ve never seen this before. Where’d you find it?” He flipped through it.
“Tucked into the bookshelf,” she said, staring up at him. He wouldn’t have a reason to lie about something like that, would he?
“Oh. I don’t know whose it is. Donnie or Avery must like writing poetry or something. I guess one of them stuck it in there.” He tossed the notebook in a drawer and closed it. “You about ready to knock off? Gotta get home to help with dinner, right?”
“Uh yeah. I do,” she said as if in a daze.
“I have a few things to finish up here, but I’ll run you home first if you want. Mom usually starts dinner around now.” He studied her with eyes that remained unreadable.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a little after five.
“Sure,” she said.
“All right. Let me go wash my hands. I’ll meet you by the truck,” he said.
She nodded, grabbing her purse and her shopping bag from Radio Shack. She was anxious to talk to Jen tonight. She felt like she hadn’t talked to her friend in forever. Usually, they talked every day, but Melody had been distracted by several surprises—some pleasant and some not—since arriving in Sweet Neck.
Not only did she miss Jen, but she wanted to find out what Jen thought about the notebook. What if there was a musician in the family? Her mind was working overtime, and she didn’t pay any real attention to Austin’s almost complete silence on the ride home.
A musician in the family could mean a saved job for Melody. Or maybe something more. Something she was afraid to dream could be hers. A musician as talented as the one who’d written the words in that notebook could mean a whole new career for her as a music manager.
Chapter Fifteen
When Austin returned home for the second time that evening, it was to the irresistible smell of chicken smothered in gravy. He could almost taste the mushrooms.
“Great gawd, something smells too good!” Donnie shouted. Between that booming voice and the fact that he was over six and a half feet tall, Donnie always seemed to take up too much space. That and he was an irksome creature in general.
“Thank Melody. She barely let me do a thing.” Their mother’s voice breezed to them from the kitchen.
“Not true. I could never be half the cook you are.” That was Melody’s voice.
Austin ran a hand over his face in an attempt to wipe the stupid grin from it. He definitely didn’t want Donnie seeing that. Lord only knew what kind of a big deal he’d try to make out of it.
“Well, I’m going to get cleaned up. I’m starving,” Austin said to no one in particular.
“I’ll bet you are,” Donnie said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Austin didn’t like his tone.
“Nothing. I have to call my girl,” Donnie said. “Move.” He pushed past Austin. Donnie, the overgrown child.
Austin took a deep breath and walked toward the downstairs half bath. He knew when Donnie was trying to provoke him. It wasn’t going to work this time. Knowing Donnie, for whatever reason, he wanted Austin to make an ass out of himself in front of Melody.
Once Nina, Donnie’s girlfriend, arrived, they all sat down to dinner. Austin sat across from Melody. He wanted to sit next to her, be closer to her, but he didn’t trust himself to do that. Remembering how close he’d come to grabbing her in his office earlier that day, he took the seat across from her, as close as he dared get, and piled his plate full of smothered chicken, greens, and potatoes. He then asked Avery to pass the cornbread. It would have been simpler to ask Donnie because his brother was closer to it, but knowing his childish ass, the cornbread would have “accidentally” ended up in Austin’s lap. When Donnie got it in his head to be a pain, he went all out with it.
“So, Melody. How was your first day at the shop?” Vernon asked.
Before Melody could respond, Donnie said, “Probably would have been better if she didn’t work for such a tyrant. Had that poor thing doing back breaking labor.”
Austin glared across the table. “I believe it might cause you physical pain to keep your mouth shut for five whole seconds in a row.”
“Aw, don’t be so tetchy.” Donnie rubbed Nina’s shoulder. “You see how he is? How he treats his only brother in the world?”
He’d be better off not having any brothers at all then.
Melody smiled and said, “It was good exercise. And with all this good eating I’m doing here, I need all the exercise I can get. I need to get back to running.”
Before he realized he was saying it, the words came out of Austin’s mouth. “I go running every morning at six. If you want to get up that early, you’re welcome to come along.”
“I don’t know if I could keep up with you.”
“Only one way to find out,” Austin said. He hadn’t realized how brazenly flirtatious their tones were until he realized that all conversation at the table—and even all eating—had stopped. Both were nearly unheard of at the Holt dinner table.
Melody’s cheeks reddened and he wanted to kiss them right where they did. “Okay,” she said. “Tomorrow. Six o’clock.”
Mom held up the breadbasket. “More cornbread, anyone?”
“Over here,” Donnie said, waving toward himself. Of course.
Vernon said, “I would help y’all put in Melody’s engine, Austin, but I’ll be gone before it even gets here. I head out for California early tomorrow morning as soon as I load my truck.”
“I know you would, but not to worry. The three of us can handle it,” Austin said even though he would have preferred to leave Donnie out altogether. Of everything. If it weren’t for their mother and the way the shop had been willed to Austin, Donnie would have been fired long ago. And Donnie knew it. That was why he did everything he possibly could to tick off Austin. He liked pushing buttons, knowing Austin couldn’t do anything but get riled up.
Austin tried to remind himself that the only reason Donnie did it was that he was hurt their father had left Austin the shop. It had to be hard on Donnie to see the bad son—the son who’d always messed up everything—end up with the place he’d put his heart into and dreamed of owning one day. Still, Donnie sometimes pushed far past the limits of anyone’s patience with the exception of maybe Job. Those were the times they had it out and those times usually ended in a punch or two being thrown. Austin hated it because he knew how it upset his mom. But sometimes, he just couldn’t take Donnie’s ribbing any longer.
Donnie was obviously pushing for a punching. He wanted Austin to take a swing at him in front of Melody so she would think of Austin as a Neanderthal jerk. Not that Austin knew why Donnie wanted Melody to dislike him so much. Except for maybe the fact that Donnie didn’t want anybody at all to like Austin. Donnie would have probably danced with joy if Mom kicked Austin out of the house. As it was, Donnie had moved to the third floor when Austin came home. However, both of them knew Mom would never make either of them go anywhere.
After dinner, everybody headed out to the porch to wait for Regan. She was bringing over some watermelon for them. Austin touched Melody’s arm, and she stiffened. He moved closer to her. “Thanks for dinner. It was really good.”
“You’re welcome,” she said in a shaky tone. He wondered if he had an effect on her similar to the one she had on him. “I want to ask you something,” she said, “but I don’t want to seem like I’m prying.”
“Ask away,” Austin said, leaving his hand at her elbow. He hoped she would let New York and the notebook she’d found go. If not, he’d just have to find a way to distract her. He caressed her neck with his eyes and wondered how it would feel under his lips.
“Di
d you really steal the shop from Donnie?” Her brown eyes were soft and sweet, as if she didn’t want to believe such a thing.
He chuckled. “Is that what he told you?” He pushed a wisp of black hair out of her eyes.
“Did you?” She leaned closer to him.
“I guess it depends on how you want to look at it. Dad left it to me. In the will.” The heaviness of those words wiped all traces of mirth from him.
“Why would he make it sound like you stole it then?”
“Here’s a little secret that might not be so secret. Donnie pretty much hates me for everything I’ve ever done. Leaving town. Coming home. The shop. He blames me daily for ruining his life.” He left out the part about Donnie blaming him for Dad’s death because he blamed himself for it, too. He didn’t want to get into all of that with her. “Avery can stand me a little better, but we’re not close. Not anymore.” His sister had definitely taken Donnie’s side.
“Oh. Austin. I wish I had siblings, and you and yours barely talk. That must hurt. Especially with Avery being your twin.”
“Fraternal.”
“Still.”
He shrugged. “Hey, Regan’s here. That can only be her truck rumbling up the driveway. Let’s go meet her.”
They stepped off the porch and sure enough, Regan’s truck rolled up and came to a stop near the cars parked at the end of the driveway. There was more than enough watermelon for all in the back of her truck. Austin and Vernon helped Regan unload and cut it while Mom and Nina collected plates from the kitchen and then distributed them. After they were all happily eating, talking, and laughing, Regan pulled Austin to the side.
“You like her,” Regan said with a knowing smile before taking a bite of watermelon.
“She seems like an okay person.” It would have been uncomfortable to talk about his developing feelings for Melody with anyone, but it was especially uncomfortable to discuss them with Regan, his former somewhat lover. So instead of adding anything else about Melody, he took a deep bite of watermelon from the slice of it he held. Juice dribbled down his chin.
