by Nicole Green
He put his hand over her and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “Thanks,” he mumbled. He thought that night in the kitchen as he often did. The cool sweetness of her mouth. Her soft, warm body under his hands. That flimsy nightgown. And then earlier that day in his office. He couldn’t get the things he’d wanted to do to her out of his mind. Probably because he still wanted to do them.
“Sure,” she said, pulling her hand from beneath his. “Austin, I—I want to ask you about that notebook I found. It doesn’t belong to Avery or Donnie. And there’s a—”
“No.” He walked to the door of the small room. “Would you drop it already? Throw that thing away and forget you ever saw it. I don’t know whose it is, and you need to quit bugging me about it. Dammit.”
She looked stunned, but all she said was, “Okay.” Her eyes hardened. “No need to yell at me. I was just asking a question.”
“About something that I already told you I don’t want to talk about.”
“Well, I guess I’ll get back outside then.” She pushed past him.
He sighed and let his head rest on the doorframe with a dull thud. He had some apologies to make when he got the energy up to go outside and make them. He hadn’t meant to snap at her, and of course she would be curious, but she kept trying to dredge up a past better left forgotten. He wasn’t going to let that happen.
Chapter Nineteen
When Melody got back outside, Jen grabbed her, ready for a full report.
“Well?” Jen’s eyes were wide and she made a flurry of gestures indicating that she should spill. Melody guessed she would be curious, too, if she hadn’t spent the past couple of weeks with the Holt brothers.
Vernon chose that moment to turn the volume up on a Mariah Carey song, so Melody was pretty sure they could talk without being overheard, especially since they were sitting in a couple of chairs off to the side, away from the picnic table where most everyone else was.
“Well, Austin and Donnie basically hate each other,” Melody said.
Jen snorted. “No kidding.”
“No one will give me the whole story on it, but I think it has a lot to do with Austin going away to New York and even more with him coming back here,” Melody said. She filled Jen in on what little she knew about Austin.
Jen pulled her long, dark hair away from her face and settled it behind her shoulders. “So Donnie’s not happy about the shop being left to Austin.”
“Yeah and I get the feeling that’s not the half of it. Especially after what we saw just now.”
“I’d say you’re right about that my little amateur detective friend.”
Melody raised an eyebrow. “I’m the little one, eh? You’re what…five feet with those platforms you have on?”
“Ha ha.” Jen grinned, bumping Melody’s shoulder with small, pale one. “Funny girl.”
Melody slumped in her chair.
“What’s wrong?”
“I dunno. I just wish they got along better. They’re family.”
“Aw. I know how important family is to you.” Jen rubbed her shoulder.
Melody had never had a big family. It was just her and her mother after the divorce. Her dad hadn’t had the will to live after his family and his music career were taken from him. He’d pickled his liver with cheap whiskey a few years after the divorce. He never even got to see Melody graduate high school. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Her parents had been only children, so no aunts and uncles. Her paternal grandparents lived in California, so she didn’t see them much, and her maternal grandparents lived in Jamaica, so she saw them even less often. “There has to be something I can do,” she said, thinking of Blanche.
“If anybody can figure it out, it’s you,” Jen said. “I’m pretty much convinced there’s nothing you can’t do.”
She laughed humorlessly. “Except keep my job.”
“Hey.” Jen playfully swatted her shoulder. “Stop that. You know that man’s an unreasonable jerk. Besides, you know what I’m going to say.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “Oh yes I do.”
“And I’m still going to say it. It’s way past time for you to strike out on your own.”
“Maybe.”
“You know the money thing is just an excuse. A weak one.”
Melody didn’t respond to this one. She picked at the chipped polish on one of her pinkie nails instead. She needed to fix that. Maybe she should escape upstairs right now and fix it.
“Look,” Jen said. “Let’s go have a good time, you’re not allowed to sulk. You’re over here in the corner and Grayson—”
“Oh yeah. I’m not talking to him.”
“What happened?”
“He was an ass. Again.”
“Nope. Unacceptable. C’mon. We’re dancing.” Jen stood and reached for Melody’s hands.
“Stop, Jen.” She made no moves toward Jen.
Jen didn’t listen, not relenting until she got Melody on her feet. “I know one you can’t resist,” Jen said in a devious tone. She called over to Vernon. She could really project her voice for such a little person. “Vernon. You have some Al Green for me? Love and Happiness.”
“Sure do.”
“Throw it on and turn it up loud.” Jen turned to Austin who was nursing his pride and a beer at the same time it seemed. She beckoned to him. He just looked at her. He was soon to learn Jen didn’t take “no” for an answer. From anybody.
Jen went over, grabbed him, and wouldn’t relent until he was out there with them, dancing with his beer still in his hand. Before the first refrain, she had everybody up and dancing.
#
That night, Jen insisted they go out to karaoke once she found out the bar—the one and only in town—had karaoke on Saturday nights. She was able to talk everyone into it except Vernon and Leigh Anne. They needed some quality time because Vernon had been on the road for so long and would soon be leaving again. Avery, Donnie, Nina, and their friends had come along and were behaving themselves for the most part. Donnie even got up and sang a Toby Keith song. Jen had a magic touch.
Jen was addicted to karaoke. She had a great voice, and she enjoyed the attention. The problem was Jen almost always conned Melody into singing, and Melody was less than confident in her own voice even though Jen tried to convince her she could sing. Yeah right. Jen just wanted someone to karaoke with.
Melody watched Austin whenever she thought he wasn’t looking while Jen sang Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Nina sang Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About.” Melody thought about how nice it’d be to give people something to talk about, all right, when it came to Austin. Then again, he was secretive and guarded those secrets furiously. What was so great about getting involved with someone like that? Not that getting involved was really an option. She was leaving town soon. Possibly as soon as less than twenty-four hours from that moment.
Still, he wasn’t easy to ignore and probably wouldn’t be easy to forget. She’d known that from the moment he’d come out of his shop, wiping his hands on that filthy rag of his. And part of her wanted to force her way through that tough shell of his and take away whatever it was that was hurting him. Show him that some people could be trusted and that opening up could be a good thing. A healing thing.
“Feel at home back in the spotlight?” Donnie snickered and looked around Nina and the others.
“Sure,” Austin said. The way he said it was pretty neutral, but his green eyes hardened, and his angular jaw locked.
Melody glanced at the bruise on his cheek and was glad he didn’t take the bait again.
“What, you ain’t gonna throw another hissy fit?” Donnie feigned shock. “Oh, I guess you still want to pretend you can fool Melody. That she hasn’t figured you out yet.”
Jen jumped up. “I think it’s time for another song.”
Melody groaned when she heard the opening bars of “Try a Little Tenderness.” That was Jen’s favorite song. Jen always got into that song like no other; for the
length of that song, she thought she was Otis Redding. Jen gestured wildly for her to come up. Melody shook her head, but she knew it wouldn’t do her much good to protest.
After dragging Melody to the front of the bar, she said, “You know I was never going to let you out of this.”
Melody laughed. “Wishful thinking.” She took the mic and Jen told the guy manning the karaoke machine to start the song over again. He did.
Nodding and moving her hips in time with the slow rhythm of the song’s beginning, she tested the opening words to the song. She was tentative and shaky as usual at the beginning, but as people started to clap along at the chorus, she gained more confidence. Then her eyes found Austin’s, and her voice became stronger. She realized she was singing to him from that moment on.
At the end of the song, she barely heard the applause erupting around her. Her heart raced when Austin stood, starting a standing ovation. She dropped her eyes away. Handing the microphone off to the host of the karaoke night, she hurried back to her seat.
“I guess it’s my turn.” Austin stood and stretched.
She watched the muscles flex in his arms as he stretched. She just couldn’t help herself. “I didn’t know you karaoke,” Melody said.
He chuckled. “I’ll bet there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Not from lack of trying, she thought.
As Austin was walking to the stage, Melody caught a wink and a nod between Donnie and the guy manning the karaoke machine.
For a moment, Austin stood motionless as “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang came on. Then he frowned at the screen in confusion before looking at the karaoke guy who only shrugged. The beginning of the first verse rolled by before a glint of understanding lit up his eyes. He glared in his brother’s direction. Donnie grinned, stood up, and took a bow. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called, “M.C. in the house!” Then he guffawed at the top of his lungs.
In answer, Austin smoothly picked up in the middle the second verse of “Rapper’s Delight” as if he’d written the song himself and knew every word inside out.
At the end of the song, Melody was stunned and convinced. If Donnie’s comment hadn’t done it, Austin’s performance would have. She felt the CD through the skin of her leather clutch, still staring at Austin. He pulled his chair up next to hers and sat down. Looking straight ahead, he said, “So now you know.”
She turned to stare at his profile and nodded. “I guess I do.” Pulling the CD from her purse, she handed it to him.
He laughed tonelessly. “Where in the world did you find that?” He flipped it over in his hands a couple of times.
“Found it while I was cleaning your office. It’s you?” She was unsure of whether he would tell her what she wanted to know, but she was completely certain if she listened to that C.D., she would hear Austin’s voice.
“It’s a demo C.D. my agent had me make. She wanted to branch out into music in addition to modeling. She found out I was into music and…” he trailed off and gestured toward the karaoke stage which one of Nina’s friends had just taken.
“The notebook really is yours,” she said. “The one I’ve been asking you about.”
He scratched his jaw, still looking straight ahead. “It’s mine.”
“You’re good.”
He shrugged and moved his head, but not to look at her. He looked down at his hands. “I’m done with all that. My music is just for me these days.”
“That’s selfish of you.” She tapped the C.D. “This needs to be shared with the world.”
“What? You heard me do a karaoke cover of ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ You saw a few of my stupid rhymes in a notebook. What does that mean?”
“From one musician to another? Everything.” She touched the back of his hand and used her other hand to turn his head toward her. “Doesn’t it?”
He took her hands in his, pressed hers between his and gave her a look that was sex and sadness all at once. “Whatever else it could have been? Is over. This is me now, Austin the mechanic. I have everything I want.” He pressed her hands to his cheeks. “Almost everything.”
She had a very difficult time swallowing since her mouth felt like it was full of cotton.
“Melody, I’m not Grayson anymore for a reason.” His voice was soft, and she barely caught his words in the noisy, crowded bar.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way this time, Austin. I work for a small label.” At least she would be working there again if she could convince Austin to come back with her. She was almost sure of that. “You’d have a lot of creative control and—”
“I know you mean well, but once you put yourself out there in the public eye? You never have control. Besides, I couldn’t do it to—I owe…a lot of people,” he said.
“What about what you owe yourself? What about your own happiness?”
“Some day, I’m gonna get the nerve up to tell you everything.” He kissed the backs of her hands before putting them on her lap. “And you’ll understand.”
She wanted so badly to reach for him, to kiss him right there in that crowded bar, which was sure to cause a scene. Austin the notorious town celebrity and the out-of-towner getting promiscuous at karaoke. But she wouldn’t. What was she doing anyway? And she always accused Jen of getting carried away when it came to guys and falling too hard too quickly.
“I’ll be right back.” He stood.
“Where you going?”
He ran a hand over his head and the bristles of blond hair on top of it. “Outside. I need some air.” And he was gone.
Jen dropped into his chair and handed her smart phone to Melody. “Look what I found. Googled him.”
Jen had pulled up a website that hadn’t been updated in ages that had photos of dark-haired Grayson, all danger and sex appeal. She clicked on a tab at the top of the page and saw a tall man in a hooded sweatshirt. “Rhyme Doctor” was scrawled across the top of the page in a graffiti-type font.
“So you two were steaming over here,” Jen said. “What were you talking about?”
“This.” Melody handed the phone back to her. “He has to listen to me.” She truly did want to help him pursue his dreams. She could tell music was important to him, no matter what he said. She’d heard it—seen it—when he’d been on-stage earlier. But she also couldn’t help but thinking that if she brought him back to Atlanta with her, Saeed would let her back in the door of New Face Records.
“About?”
“Didn’t you hear him up there? New Face Records needs him, and he needs New Face. You know we’ve been looking for a new artist who can take us places. Austin could save New Face.” The company had been on the verge of going under for the past few years. That was one of the reasons they were being so militant about expenses.
“‘We’?” Jen frowned. “Weren’t you fired?”
“Maybe not anymore.”
Jen pushed her dark hair away from her face. “Don’t push him, Mel. I don’t know what all happened, but it has to take something big to make a person leave New York for a place like Sweet Neck, Georgia. And whatever he has going on with his brother… I mean, going back to the spotlight might be the last thing he wants or needs.”
They looked across the table to where Donnie, Nina, and the others sat. Donnie wore the smug smile of someone who’d won a battle. There was a glint of hurt in his eyes, though, that made her think being estranged from his brother bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Melody shrugged. “Might be.” But she was already thinking of how to bring her idea up to Austin.
Chapter Twenty
That night, Melody dreamed of Austin, which wasn’t new. Bare-chested and doing some raunchy things to her with chocolate sauce. But then, to her disappointment, the image of Austin faded away and to her shock, it was replaced with Blanche Leroux.
Suddenly, she was in a darkened room that reminded her of a cave, and Cajun music blared from a phonograph. Psychedelic colors splashed on the walls in patter
ns that indicated they were coming from a strobe light.
“You can fix the Holt brothers. You know what you need to do. Austin is your destiny, and he is yours, chère.”
“What’s going on?” Melody looked all around, but she couldn’t find the source of the voice.
“Up here.”
Melody looked up and saw Blanche suspended from the ceiling of the cave like a bat.
Blanche broke out into a maniacal cackle and Melody gasped. Her eyes flew open, and she sat up ramrod straight in the bed.
“But Mom, I want to feed the ponies,” Jen murmured, stirring next to her. Melody dropped her feet to the side of the bed and hugged herself. “Wait, whoa, what’s happening? What are you doing up? It’s…” she heard Jen picking up her phone from the night stand. A moment later, a soft electronic glow partially lit the room. “Four in the morning? Ugh, Mel, no good.”
“Just a dream,” Melody said. “Go back to sleep.”
She heard Jen sit up, and a moment later, she felt a hand on her back. “Must have been a bad one.”
She shrugged. “Not the most pleasant one I’ve had.”
“Mean to tell me you’re not dreaming about Mister Sex on a Stick? What’s wrong with you?”
Melody laughed. “Must have been that glass of wine I had at karaoke.” She didn’t want to say anything at all about the dream. Jen already thought the Blanche thing was crazy. She’d told her as much when Melody told her about it while they were getting ready for bed. “Let’s get some sleep,” Melody said. She lay down and patted the bed next to her. “You have a long drive back soon.”
“We have a long drive back.” Jen lay next to her.
“We’ll see,” Melody said. She pretended to fall back asleep, but she was wide awake. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore and she’d just lay there until it was time for breakfast since she and Austin didn’t run on Sundays. She kept thinking about the dream and Austin’s performance at karaoke. Which led to more thinking about Blanche and what she’d said in the dream.
