“Courtney, you’re going to be late. Come on.”
Courtney ran down the stairs, tossing her backpack at the door. “I’ve got plenty of time. Aren’t you going to eat with me?”
They usually ate their meals together. Melanie wouldn’t let her melancholy carry over to Courtney. She sank into a chair and stuffed food into her mouth, but it tasted like sawdust. She pushed the plate aside.
“Do you need me to drill you on your math test?”
“I know it. Math is my favorite subject.”
“Okay. Good luck.”
Finished with her food, Courtney hopped up and ran to the bathroom. Coming back, she picked up her backpack.
Melanie went to the door and kissed her. She stood at the window and watched Courtney until the bus arrived, then she stacked dishes in the dishwasher and wiped down the countertop.
She was on her way to her room to dress when the doorbell rang. Frowning, she glanced through the window. Monroe’s truck was in the driveway. She opened the door.
And they were in each other’s arms.
“Umm, you smell good enough to eat,” he said, shutting the door behind him with his foot. He didn’t know what compelled him to seek out Melanie or why he’d had this sudden urgency to be with her.
“I can’t wait another moment to have you. I hope you feel the same way about me.”
“Yes, yes. You’re so…unexpected.”
“Like you’re not?” He sounded almost angry as he pressed his mouth to hers again. Turning with her in his arms, he pinned her against the door. She felt the length of his body against hers and every bit of his strength. His tight torso and long, strong thighs were pressed against hers. The bulge in his pants was a definite sign he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him.
He yanked her robe open and stood back to gaze at her.
“You always answer the door like this?” She didn’t wear a stitch of clothing beneath the robe.
“I only had time to shower.”
“So you wrapped up this little package just for me?”
“Yes.”
“Let me show you how much I appreciate this gift.”
“I can’t wait.”
He ducked low and took her nipple in his mouth. The pleasing sensation tore a moan from Melanie’s throat. He wrapped his arms around her beneath the robe.
Melanie tugged his T-shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. Then she felt skin hot enough to singe against her curves. And the sensations were so exquisite, another moan escaped from her.
“It’s been a long time.”
“Not that long.”
“Feels like forever.”
He tugged the robe off her shoulders, letting it pool at her feet.
She unbuttoned, unzipped his slacks.
He swung her into his arms and headed to the hallway. “Which way?”
“Straight back.”
When he stopped beside the bed, he stood her on her feet. She smoothed his pants and briefs over his hips. They dropped to the floor and he stepped out of them—and stood before her as naked as her, the evidence of his desire apparent. She stroked his magnificent length.
“We have to find a way to be together,” he moaned between gritted teeth.
“Let’s not talk about that.”
“I mean it,” he said, burying his fingers in her thick hair. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“If you keep talking, we’re going to lose the moment.” She was getting depressed again.
“We can’t have that, can we?” His hand feathered over her shoulders and dipped to her back.
Sinking into his cushioning embrace, she brushed tender kisses on his chest. With his hands on her hips, he dipped low to suckle on her brown nipples, bringing them to a pebbled peak. As she trailed a hand down his taut stomach to his hips, his muscles rippled under her touch.
His mouth found hers and his kiss was wild and hot. She moved her hips against his, bringing as much pleasure to herself as to him.
He swept her off her feet and placed her on the bed. Before she could grab a breath, he was kissing her calf, her thighs, tearing a moan from deep within.
Tugging on a condom, he nudged her legs apart and settled between them. Slowly, he entered her, his gaze locked with hers, and they were joined as one. Her legs wrapped around his hips, sinking him deeper inside. She kissed him long and fierce. She had waited a lifetime for this moment, her perfect match. She’d promised herself she’d never uproot her life again for a man, not ever. But at that moment, if Monroe asked her she’d leave with him, she’d shuck it all and follow him anywhere.
With her heart bursting with love and anguish, she whispered, “I…” and bit off the rest to finish with a deep moan.
Monroe’s gaze jerked to hers, his breathing labored.
She couldn’t let one weak moment hold him back. But her eyes must have told her story because his arms tightened around her until they were one. Closing his eyes, he buried his face into her neck and she turned her face enough to kiss his cheek. He sank deeper into her and she gasped in sweet agony.
Mounting waves of ecstasy throbbed through her until her body shook with uncontrollable spasms of pleasure. She cried out in release—and heard his harsh response before their world fell silent and still.
For long moments his weight settled on her. Then he slid to the side and gathered her into his arms. Unexpressed emotions roared between them.
A week had passed and their last coupling still left Melanie feeling out of control. She hated that.
Spring break was over and, except for locals and seniors traveling to their homes in the north for the summer, business slowed.
It was Friday and Jewel was going to pick Courtney up after school to take her to the farm to ride Rainshadow. As much as Melanie wanted to distance herself from Monroe’s magnetic power, she couldn’t punish Courtney. The child had aced the math test and a visit to the farm was her reward.
“I’m going to leave in five minutes if it’s okay with you,” Melanie’s assistant Carla said.
“It’s slow. I’ll close up. Go on home.” Melanie had started to dust when the phone rang. It was Jewel.
“Did Courtney come to the store?” she asked.
“No.”
“She didn’t get off the bus here. I waited near the road for her.”
“Let me call home and then try Mrs. Eudora. She was angry with me this morning because I wouldn’t let her wear some too-tight jeans to school.”
“Call me back and let me know.”
Melanie called her house. Although she didn’t let Courtney go home alone, the girl had a key. Courtney didn’t answer. Then Melanie called Mrs. Eudora. Courtney wasn’t there, either. Melanie called a couple of her friends but she wasn’t with them.
Fear sent a chill up Melanie’s back.
“Can you close up so I can look for Courtney?” she asked Carla.
“You go ahead. I’ll call around.”
Grabbing her purse, Melanie dashed to her car and drove home as if she were in a NASCAR race. When she flew through the door she saw Courtney’s backpack on the kitchen table. She called out, but Courtney didn’t respond. My God. Somebody could have kidnapped her child. Fear exploded through Melanie as she ran through the house checking every room.
Courtney’s school clothes where thrown on the bed and her drawers were pulled open as if she’d hurriedly searched for something else to wear, the way she usually did when she was in a hurry to get someplace. She was always in a hurry.
But had she gone out with someone? Melanie ran outside. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she called Courtney’s name. She called in every direction. She heard a car tearing up her drive and went to investigate. It was Monroe.
“I was just going to check the woods around the house,” Melanie told him as he alighted with the car still rocking. “She came home but I don’t know where she went.”
“Let’s split up.”
Monroe went one direction a
nd Melanie went in the opposite direction. She’d searched for what seemed forever when she saw Monroe trooping through the woods with Courtney and Connie. He was carrying their boom box.
“Where have you been?” Melanie yelled. She wanted to shake the daylights out of both girls. Her knees were so weak, she sat on a stump to keep from sinking in a puddle in the dirt.
“I was helping Connie with her math.”
“Didn’t we agree you would get off the bus at Monroe’s farm and your cousin would pick you up there?”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“You forgot!” Melanie counted to ten to keep from strangling her child. She was still weak-kneed with terrifying thoughts of kidnapping and a million other travesties.
“Don’t be mad at us. She was helping me with my homework, Mrs. Lambert. I don’t understand my teacher and I failed my math test. I have to do better.”
“I’m not angry that she helped you. Only that she didn’t tell me where she was going and I was frightened that something bad had happened.”
“You two go to the house and continue studying,” Monroe said.
“Do your parents know you’re here?” Melanie asked Connie.
The child shook her head.
“Call them as soon as you get to the house and let them know where you are.”
“But you’re Carsons. I can’t be caught with you.”
“Call your parents,” Monroe demanded.
The child jerked back. “Can I tell them you’re helping me with soccer?”
“Your parents aren’t going to mind that you’re getting help with your homework,” Melanie said.
“You don’t understand…”
Melanie waved her away. “Go ahead. Just as long as they know where you are.”
The girls rushed off and Melanie sat stiffly. Adrenaline born of fear still raced through her body. Unable to stop shaking like a leaf, she clasped her hands together and her temper flared.
“There’s something definitely wrong when a child has to say she’s playing soccer instead of working on her homework. I’m so fed up with this feud I could wring some necks. How can adults do this to children?”
“Come here.”
In D.C., Melanie had been away from her family. Their support came from a thousand miles away. She couldn’t go calling them every time she ran into trouble. And her husband was no support at all. She learned early on to depend on herself. She’d stood alone so long that it felt foreign to share her anguish. At first she stiffened in Monroe’s arms, then she slowly relaxed against his strong shoulders. Moments passed before she realized his arms were around her.
She couldn’t afford the luxury of relying on him. He was leaving her. With a deep sigh, she sank into his embrace. Who’s to say she couldn’t enjoy his comfort? He was here now and she felt the reassuring beating of his heart against her.
“I have to go,” she said.
“I’ll call Connie’s mother and take the girls with me.” Rising, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and together they walked back to the house.
Melanie’s purse was in the car, her keys in her hand. She drove directly to Uncle Milton’s farm.
Uncle Milton and Elmore were squaring off again, Uncle Milton pointing a hoe at Elmore and Elmore pointing a shovel at Uncle Milton while they shouted at each other from opposite sides of the road.
Aunt Thelma picked her salad greens as if the two men weren’t trying to kill each other right in front of her.
Melanie hopped out of her car and hurried toward them. “Just stop it you two. This feud has got to stop!”
“It’ll stop when the last Hicks is off of Carson land.”
“This Hicks is never going to leave.”
Like rams, they charged each other to the middle of the road, jabbing and ducking.
“Just stop it before someone gets hurt,” Melanie shouted. “You’ve got families. How can you do this? You’re crazy old fools.” Her words had no effect.
A car slammed on its brakes. The men broke apart, waited for the car to pass and got right back at it.
“You’re going to get killed.” Melanie ran to them, tried to tug them apart.
“Get back here, Melanie.” For the first time, Aunt Thelma intervened, but the men ignored her, until finally Melanie got between them, thinking she was the craziest fool of all.
“Get out of there, Melanie.” She caught a glimpse of Aunt Thelma running toward her.
“Each of you go on your own land.”
They glared at each other while they backed up to the shoulders of the road. Melanie leaned against her car.
Aunt Thelma looked at her husband. “You think you can get back to hoeing the crabgrass before it overtakes my vegetables?”
Winded, he gave her a disgruntled look and marched off toward his field, only to turn back to face the two women.
She ripped into Melanie. “Don’t you ever put yourself in danger getting between those two again. If they want to kill themselves, let ’em. There’s no one more stubborn than an old fool.”
“What brings you out here?” Leaning on his hoe, Uncle Milton threw a disgruntled glance at his wife.
“I came to talk to you.”
“What about?”
Melanie marched over to him with her hands on her hips. “This feud has to stop, Uncle Milton. It’s gone on long enough.”
“There’re things you don’t understand since you didn’t grow up ’round here. Family is everything. Rebecca was my aunt. One of the kindest persons I’ve ever known.”
He started chopping wild grass and Melanie followed him down the row. “So many people walk around all important. They have high-paying jobs. Huge houses. Drive expensive cars. But what do they have inside?” He pounded a fist against his chest. “The woman sleeping next to him? What does she think of him? What about his children? Do they know he loves them more ’em he loves himself? Do they know he’d die for ’em?”
He spread his arms wide. “I’m just a plain farmer. But my family is everything to me. I can give up the farm. I can give up the house. But my wife, my children, my grandchildren—I can’t give them up. That’s what I learned from my father. What he learned from his father. Because when your family’s gone, there’s nothing left.
“It wasn’t that Mark Hicks stole the land so much as how he did it. It’s that he thought so little of Rebecca, he flushed away her life before she really had a chance to live it. Took up with a woman right here in town and moved her onto Rebecca’s land.” He pointed a finger toward Elmore’s farm. “That woman’s children live off Rebecca’s land. So don’t tell me that her death meant nothing. A Hicks got no business living off her land when one of them took what was most precious away from her.”
Melanie’s heart sank. Uncle Milton was going to let that sore fester in his heart until the day he died. And the legacy he left behind, his children, were going to carry it with them. There was no end in sight.
Defeat clogged Melanie’s throat. “I only know that spreading hatred isn’t healthy.”
“I don’t hate them.”
“I want my daughter happy, Uncle Milton.”
“She is happy. She’s got a whole bunch of family round her who loves her. She’s like a ball of sunshine running round. You can’t protect her from everything.”
He was so stubborn in being right, he didn’t see the harm the feud caused.
“But the girls play so well together on the soccer team.”
“They’re playing a game. You can’t do nothing about this feud, girl. You didn’t start it. You can’t end it.”
In that moment Melanie wanted to tuck Courtney under her heart and move as far away from this rancor as she could get.
With his calloused hand, her uncle patted hers. “Go on now and let this old man get to work.” His gaze was so tender, love just poured out of him and wrapped her in, cuddling her up like a blanket. How could she make him see that the feud was taking away from that? How could he not find room in his life bey
ond family?
Courtney had love here. Among her cousins, uncles and aunts, she’d found love she’d never find in another setting. But that love came with an enormous price.
Melanie started back to her car. Aunt Thelma hugged her. She understood what Melanie was suffering, but she’d given up on a solution a long time ago.
Melanie doesn’t need him, Monroe thought. What could he offer the woman who already had everything that counted?
Before he started his day’s chores, he visited his grandmother. She was eating breakfast on the morning porch and catching a warm breeze. The morning sun glowed on huge pots of flowers. Dressed in slacks and a short-sleeved top, his grandmother was livelier from her daily walks through her blooming garden.
“Join us for breakfast,” she said.
Mrs. Pearl stood. “There’s plenty. I can cook you an egg if you want it.”
“I’ve already had breakfast, thank you.” A china teapot was placed next to a coffeepot. Mrs. Pearl wasn’t a tea drinker the way his grandmother was. Monroe got himself a cup and poured coffee into it.
“Well, I’ll get these dishes done while you all have a nice visit.”
Monroe sat in the chair Mrs. Pearl had vacated.
“I talked to Melanie the other day and mentioned that Courtney was welcome to get off the bus at my house and stay here until she got off work, but she wanted to wait a few weeks. Can’t you talk to her Monroe? I miss having Courtney around. And I can help her with homework.”
“She probably thinks you need time for your therapy and other things.”
“I know what I’m capable of doing. I miss the girl. And have you done anything about that riding rink?”
“Melanie said Courtney was too busy to ride.”
“She’d stop the excuses if you married her.”
“Woman, you’re out of your mind.”
“Just forget I said anything.”
“Don’t even try using your psychology on me.” He stood. “Do you need anything?”
“Not a thing.”
“I’ll be back at nine tomorrow for your doctor’s appointment.”
“I’ll be ready, although Pearl can take me.”
“I’ve got it covered.”
When Monroe made it home, he was still reeling from his grandmother’s statement. Marry Melanie. As if he’d do that again. As if she’d have him.
Sweet Southern Comfort Page 13
