His Melody

by Nicole Green

  Later that morning, when she told Jen she was staying, Jen pouted. Melody laughed. They stood next to Jen’s car. Jen had on her favorite get-comfy-for-the-long-drive traveling outfit—Juicy Couture sweats—and she’d pulled her dark brown hair back into a ponytail.

  “You knew there was a possibility I’d stay,” Melody said.

  “Yeah, I guess I can’t blame you considering you haven’t gotten your, uh, tune up from your sexy mechanic yet.” Jen cast a knowing glance in the direction of the house.

  “Hey. He’s not the reason I’m staying. Or at least that’s not the reason I’m staying.” Melody felt her cheeks burning. “I mean, I want him to come back to Atlanta with me, but for business reasons only. Until I can convince him to do that, I’m staying.”

  Jen narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t even mentioned it to him yet, have you?”

  “I have to find the right way to bring it up.”

  “See? That means you know it’s a bad idea.”

  “No, I don’t because it’s not. You know how much that job means to me, and once Saeed hears Austin, he’ll be glad to take me back. Plus, Austin deserves this chance even if he doesn’t know it yet. You heard him last night. Tell me with a straight face that you don’t think he’s good, and I’ll get in that car and go back to Atlanta with you.” Melody just knew that if she could get everything and everyone in the right place at the right time, it’d all work out.

  “I can tell you I don’t think he wants this, and it’s a bad idea. But you tend to be stubborn, so…” Jen said as Melody slid her bag into the back seat of her car for her.

  “Would you love me if I was any way but how I am?” She shut the car door and leaned on it.

  Jen leaned her head to the side and tapped a finger against her cheek. “Hm…let me think about it…”

  “Hey!”

  They laughed, and Melody pulled Jen in for a hug. “It was so good seeing you. I’m gonna miss you.”

  “Not for long you won’t. Or else…you’ll make me come down here on another rescue mission. I plan to make the next one successful even if I have to drag you back kicking and screaming.”

  Melody grinned. “Okay.”

  Jen got into the car, and Melody waved to her until she was out of sight. She missed Jen already.

  She jumped at the sound of Austin’s voice. “You staying then?” he asked.

  She turned to look at him. “I didn’t hear you come out here. Yeah, until my car’s ready.”

  He stared down the lane at Jen’s disappearing car. “Shouldn’t be too much longer. We can probably have you out of here by Wednesday.”

  “Sounds like you’re in a hurry to get rid of me,” Melody said, half-joking, half testing the waters.

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and still looking down the empty lane, which now contained only a cloud of dust, he said, “Gonna storm tonight. Might be bad enough to flood the creek. I’m gonna go see if Regan needs any help before it hits. So I won’t be here for dinner.”

  “I could come with you,” Melody offered.

  “No offense, Mel, but a city girl like you? Wouldn’t be much help,” he said with a forced smile. He then walked away without giving her a chance to respond. He was avoiding her, and she had a pretty good idea of why, but what he didn’t know was that she didn’t scare off easily. Especially when she knew she was right.

  One day, he would thank her for what she was about to do. She walked back into the house and saw Donnie in the kitchen talking to Leigh Anne. She shook off an uneasy feeling as she recalled the dream she’d had as well as Blanche’s earlier words about the Holt brothers.

  #

  That night, after dinner, Melody called Saeed on his private number, knowing she was taking a big gamble by calling him on his personal cell on a Sunday night, but she had a trump card. And she let him know as much as soon as he started in on her.

  He stopped mid-tirade and there was a pause after which he said, “What are you talking about, hip-hop artist?”

  “It’s more of a jazz-hip-hop fusion, but he’s really good.” Melody repeated the story of going to the karaoke bar the night before. She then told him about the notebook she’d found and the demo CD. She’d listened to the demo the night before, and she told him how she’d never heard anything quite like it and how it was better than any of the demos she’d heard since they signed Aphrodisia, a German hip-hop artist they’d picked up a couple of years ago. Good thing they had because Aphrodisia was the only thing keeping the company afloat at the moment.

  “Bring him to Atlanta then,” Saeed said as if this was the obvious next step. Natural for him to assume so.

  “Um…it’s not going to be that easy.” She shifted her phone to her other hand. “You see, he doesn’t know he wants this yet.” He would figure it out. He just needed some time to realize how incredible the opportunity she offered him was.

  “What?” He scoffed. “You’re wasting my time with crazy talk again. This is another one of your half-baked schemes that has us halfway into bankruptcy court, isn’t it?”

  Sure. Blame her for all of upper management’s mistakes that had led the company down that road. She had to keep her temper in check this time, though. She was already in enough trouble with Saeed. “It’s not like that,” she said. “Just listen—”

  “There’s a showcase at The Spot, Saeed said. “Three weeks from now. That’s your last chance. You get him to show up there? You might save your job.”

  “Okay.” Melody knew of the club. She would go to their website or call the club’s manager and get the details. Saeed wasn’t in the mood for details.

  “And send me that demo you have.”

  “But it’s—” she started and then realized she was talking to a dead line. “At least five years old,” she muttered to her phone after removing it from her ear. Ah well, at least she had a chance. She had one more shot at her dream, and she wasn’t going to waste it.

  Music was in her veins. Ever since she was little, every good memory involved music. She remembered watching her father play saxophone with a local jazz band. He’d always let her sit in on the practices even though they usually ran way past her bedtime. In school, the easiest way for her to study for tests was to make songs out of the material. It worked for every subject, from English to history to physics. Her mother hadn’t wanted her to get too carried away. She was to be practical unlike her father who’d landed them in bankruptcy court twice before the divorce. Still, Melody had found a way to make a career out of music. She wasn’t about to let all that go now.

  She also wasn’t going to let Austin ruin his chance at having his dreams come true. He didn’t know how he’d regret this if she let him, but he wasn’t going to have to worry about that. He’d never have a chance to regret it because she wasn’t giving up on him the way she’d given up on herself and her own dreams of being first a songwriter and now a music manager.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Austin walked into his office late Monday morning and found Melody at his file cabinet, a stack of papers in a box next to her feet.

  “I’m gonna start on your car this afternoon if we don’t have any priority jobs come in today. We should be able to get you out of here by the end of the week,” he said. “I’m shooting for Wednesday.”

  She turned to him, placing a hand over her chest. “You startled me.”

  His eyes lingered on the hand and her low-cut tank top for a minute before he forced them away. “Sorry.”

  “You have a few minutes?”

  “Anything older than five years can be shredded,” he said, repeating what he’d told her earlier that morning.

  “It’s not about this.” She gestured to the box at her feet.

  He’d been afraid it wasn’t. He sat on the corner of his desk and looked in her direction, waiting for her to say something.

  “You’ve been ignoring me again,” she said, coming closer. Too close. But he couldn’t move away without being obvious about it. “Ev
er since we kissed Saturday,” she added.

  “You had your friend here. I assumed you wanted to spend time with her.”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t think that’s it. You were tense all day Saturday. I guess Donnie was part of it. I think there’s more, though. Especially after what I found out—what I heard—at karaoke.”

  “I didn’t mean to be rude. I just don’t see the point in us getting…” he searched for the right word, but nothing came to him. “I’m not looking to get involved with anyone, and it wouldn’t make sense for us to even if I were. You’re leaving soon.” The sooner the better because he was having trouble convincing himself of the veracity of the part about him not wanting to get involved. If she wasn’t there, he couldn’t get himself into trouble. “And we’re not even going to talk about music.”

  “I just want you to talk to me.” She put a hand over one of his, and he shifted but didn’t pull away from her.

  “About?” He rubbed his free hand over the back of his head.

  “Everything. Why you’re afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “Tell me about Donnie and the rest of your family. New York. Just…everything.”

  She kept pushing like she was personally invested. “Why does it matter so much to you?” he asked.

  “Because you matter to me.” Her face was so open and honest. And dangerous. Like a bear trap lined with honey.

  “You’ve only known me a couple weeks.” He pulled away from her and stood, walking across the office. Maybe his music mattered to her the way it had mattered to his agent. But he wasn’t going to get fooled into thinking he mattered to her. He wasn’t stupid. The only thing more dangerous than an A&R exec was an A&R exec looking for a job.

  Maybe she was curious about Grayson like all the reporters who’d tried to hunt him down after he left New York. But he couldn’t imagine anyone outside of his mom, Vernon, and Regan—and maybe Avery—caring about him. Much less someone who barely knew him. Besides if she knew him, if she really knew him and what he’d done, she wouldn’t be throwing words around about him mattering to her so eagerly.

  “And I’ve been trying to get you to tell me what happened to you that whole time,” she said. “I want to know more about you. You’re the one holding out on me.”

  He looked up at her briefly before returning his attention to the floor. He said the words slowly, thinking about each one before saying it, “Because there’s no point. You belong in Atlanta, and I belong here. There’s no point in going into a whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t concern you.”

  “So our kiss meant nothing to you? You didn’t feel anything at all?” She moved in front of him as if she were trying to force him to look at her. He turned away.

  He had to lie. If he didn’t, he was opening himself up to a whole world of trouble and hurt. He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “I see.” Her voice changed.

  “I mean it was nice, but it’s not gonna lead anywhere or change anything.” He stared at a poster advertising synthetic motor oil without really seeing it. “Sorry.”

  “I’m tired of hearing you say that, sorry.”

  “S—I’ll be in the garage if you need me.”

  She didn’t answer him. Instead, she went back to the file cabinet and grabbed an empty banker’s box sitting next to it. She carried the box over to his desk and plunked it down.

  “You need help with those before I go?” Austin asked as she moved across the room to retrieve another box from the stack.

  “Nope.” She lifted a second box.

  He started toward the boxes.

  “I said I don’t need any help,” she snapped. “Besides, you’re wasting time. The quicker you get to the garage, the quicker you can get me out of your hair forever, right?” Her tone was bitter. She’d gone from pleading with him to sounding like talking to him was the last thing in the world she wanted to do.

  “I didn’t mean any harm. And you’re better off, believe me.”

  “That seems to be the case.” She slammed a third box down on the desk and ripped off the lid.

  “Yeah, so…I’ll be in the garage. Like I said.” He walked out, not expecting an answer and not getting one. Why was he feeling guilty? She’d provoked him into it. She kept picking when he’d made his feelings clear about his past and about romantic relationships from the beginning. And his music career was out of the question. It was like the rest of his past—dead and gone.

  Besides, all she wanted was what she could get out of him. She wasn’t the first one. Ignoring the fact that she’d done nothing to provoke that thought really, and throwing out all rational thinking and all thinking about her at all, he went into the garage to throw himself back into his work. He had an alternator to replace. That’s what he needed to focus on.

  He was poking around in his tool chest, trying to remember where he’d last left his socket wrench when Donnie started cackling.

  Austin glanced up at him. “What?”

  “It’s the music man,” Donnie said, wheeling himself from under a Dodge Dakota. He lay back on the long wooden board of his creeper and looked up at Austin, a satisfied grin on his face.

  “The stunt you pulled at that bar wasn’t funny at all,” Austin said. Nothing he did was ever as funny as he thought it was.

  “What?” Donnie feigned innocence.

  “I know it was you who changed my song at karaoke.”

  “What? You didn’t want your new friend to know about your musical side, Rhyme Doctor?” Donnie asked. He arranged his face into a mask of confusion.

  “It should’ve been up to me to decide when, how, or even if I ever wanted to tell her. That had nothing to do with you, but yet again, you came butting in where you weren’t needed or wanted.” Austin banged his fist against the side of his tool chest.

  “What you want don’t amount to a hill of beans to me.” Donnie snickered. “I just thought Melody should know what she’s dealing with is all. You’re a liar and a washed-up loser, and I wanted her to know about the mess she’s getting herself into.”

  “Nobody’s ‘getting into’ anything or anyone,” Austin said.

  “Hey, whoa, whoa. Calm down now.”

  “You know what? Fuck you, Donnie. You don’t know what you’re talking about, and you don’t know who you’re messing with. You have no idea what you’ve done,” Austin said. “Because you’re just that stupid.”

  Donnie’s goofy smile finally faded. “I guess that’s why Dad left you the shop, huh? I was too stupid to run it.”

  Austin glared at him. “I don’t know why he left it to me any more than you do, but you need to let go of things that aren’t going to change.” He balled his hands into fists at his sides.

  “You won’t even let me read that damned letter he wrote you.” Donnie sounded like a sniveling child.

  “It’s none of your business what’s in it.”

  Donnie stood and leaned against the truck he’d been working on earlier. “None of my business? You have no business even being here. Nobody wants you here. You ruin everything you touch. Gonna add Melody to that list now?”

  “You know what? I’m not going to put up with this shit today. Not today,” he said. He needed to get out of there before he did or said something he would regret. He needed to be away from all of them, even Melody and especially Donnie. He headed toward the washroom at the other end of the garage so he could clean up and get out.

  “Where you going?” Donnie asked.

  “I don’t know. Away from here,” Austin called over his shoulder. “You and Avery are on your own for the rest of the day. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “What about Melody’s car?” Donnie asked.

  “I said I’ll be back tomorrow. I reckon it’ll still be here then!” Austin snapped. He then turned his back on his brother, ignoring anything else he had to say.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Melody had Vernon drop her off at the bar where she’d gone
to karaoke over the weekend. She walked in and spotted Austin right away at a small table near the back. The table was littered with empty glasses. He was nursing an obviously warm beer as there was no longer frost or even condensation on the glass and glaring at no one and nothing in particular. She took a seat at the table.

  “Leigh Anne said you’d probably be here,” Melody said.

  His green eyes glittered with smoldering anger when he turned them on her. He answered her by drinking from the half-empty glass of beer. She glanced to the left where a considerable number of empties sat.

  “Drinking your dinner?” She raised her eyebrows.

  He slowly pushed the glass of beer back and forth between his hands. “What are you doing here?” He slurred his words, but he didn’t sound as incoherent as that number of beers would have made Melody. He could have had more than there was evidence of; she didn’t know whether the server had taken any empty glasses away yet or not. Then again, he was a lot bigger than her so he could probably handle a lot more alcohol than she could.

  A dark-skinned woman with her hair pulled back from a pretty oval-shaped face walked up to them. “Anything for you, hon?”

  “I’ll take a glass of water for now,” she said.

  She nodded and moved her eyes across the table. “Another beer for you, Austin?”

  “You know it.” He winked at her.

  She smiled and then murmured to Melody, “You’re not letting him drive, right?”

  “Definitely not,” Melody murmured back.

  After she left, Austin said, “You’re here to harass me or lecture me about Donnie again.”

  “I’m just here to have a drink,” Melody said.

  “Of water?” He shook his head slowly. “No you’re not. You’re here for information. You know what? I don’t even care anymore. I’ll give you what you want. I’ll give you everything,” he gave her a lecherous scan, and she knew he was drunk and hurting but she couldn’t deny she was hot for him, “you want.”