Weird, that’s what it was.
“Are you all right?”
He glanced up at the sound of Melanie’s voice. She stood in the doorway, hands linked behind her.
“I thought I heard you bellow,” she said as her gaze took in the wrench in his hand.
“I’m fighting about thirty years of rust,” he said with a shrug.
“Looks like you lost.” She nodded toward his jaw.
“Just the battle, not the war.” Rubbing his chin, he rose, tossed the wrench back into his toolbox. “I’ll be back, packing a bigger wrench.”
Smiling softly, she glanced around the spacious bathroom, her gaze pausing at the porcelain claw foot bathtub that sat in the middle of the white tile floor, then moving on to linger and obviously admire an antique, cherry wood armoire with carved panels. A matching dressing table with a beveled mirror sat on the wall opposite the armoire. Gabe watched Melanie’s soft gray eyes widen at the assortment of crystal perfume bottles and elegant silver brushes and combs that lay on top of the dresser.
An image of Melanie sitting at the dressing table popped into Gabe’s head. She wore white silk and lace; her dark hair was swept up, exposing her long, slender neck. She touched the tip of perfumed crystal just below the delicate curve of her ear. Damn if he couldn’t even smell the sweet scent that drifted from her.
He blinked, then snapped his thoughts back to the present. Weird.
“Funny.” Gabe stared at the dressing table. “I wouldn’t have thought old lady Witherspoon was a silver brush, crystal perfume bottle kind of woman.”
“She was a nice lady,” Melanie said thoughtfully.
Nice lady? Gabe had heard Miss Witherspoon called a lot of things, but never nice. Then it dawned on him exactly what Melanie had just said. “You did know her?”
“I knew her,” she said quietly, then pulled her gaze from the dresser. “Breakfast is ready.”
He watched her turn and go back downstairs. He’d assumed that she’d been lying when she’d said that she knew the elderly woman. But how did Melanie know Mildred Witherspoon? he wondered. As far as he knew, Mildred had never left Bloomfield County. Other than church, town meetings and an occasional doctor appointment, it was a well-known fact that the woman rarely went out. For the past few years, she’d even had her groceries delivered directly to her house.
Gabe stared at the empty doorway where Melanie had been standing. And if he was certain of anything, it was that Melanie Hart had never been to Bloomfield County before.
Don’t ask, Sinclair. If she wants you to know, she’ll tell you.
With a sigh, Gabe made his way downstairs and found her in the kitchen, by the sink, her arms folded as she stared down at her son. Kevin had changed into a white T-shirt with a picture of Batman on the front, blue jeans and tennis shoes. His little hands were shoved deeply into the front pockets of his jeans.
“I just washed my hands,” Kevin said firmly.
Melanie frowned. “You washed them last night. You have to wash them again, before you eat.”
Ah, the age-old argument. Gabe suppressed a smile as he watched mother and son. Stubborn appeared to be a strong gene in Melanie and her son, he thought, recognizing the determined tilt of Kevin’s chin.
“Sure smells good.” Gabe strolled casually into the room, rolling up the sleeves of his blue denim shirt. Kevin and Melanie stepped out of his way when he moved to the sink. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a whole cow.”
Kevin stared up at him, eyes wide. “We’re not having cow. We’re having omelettes. Remember?”
“Well, I could eat a whole omelette then.” Gabe turned on the sink faucet, made a note that the washers needed replacing as he reached for a new bar of white soap on the ledge. “Soon as I wash my hands.”
Kevin pressed his lips tightly together. Even at four, he obviously recognized a con job. “My hands aren’t dirty. I already washed them.”
“Kevin—” Melanie warned.
“So did I.” Gabe worked up a foamy froth of suds. “But Batman says he always washes his hands right exactly the minute before he eats.”
Kevin stared at him with suspicion in his big blue eyes. “Batman says that?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
Gabe glanced at Melanie, who was watching the two of them with interest and amusement. “Well, it’s kind of a secret—” Gabe lowered his voice, leaned closer to Kevin “—but the reason is that when he eats with clean hands, it makes him strong, and that’s how he catches all the bad guys.”
The freckles on Kevin’s nose wrinkled as he scrunched up his face in deep thought. He looked at his mother, back at Gabe, then pulled his hands out of his pockets and stuck them under the running water. Gabe handed him the soap, and Kevin turned the big white bar over and over in his little hands, attempting to work up the same frothy lather that Gabe had.
Pleased with his success, Gabe looked over at Melanie, expecting her expression to be approval and admiration for his cunning. But her expression was closer to worry. An uneasiness that narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips into a thin line.
What the hell had he said?
“I’ll put the food on the table while you two finish up,” she said without meeting his curious gaze, then turned away and moved toward the stove, a white-enameled gas range that had to be at least fifty years old. The refrigerator also appeared to be as ancient, he noticed. Not a microwave or blender in sight. It appeared that Mildred Witherspoon did not subscribe to modern conveniences.
Kevin, meanwhile, had decided he didn’t just want his hands clean, he wanted them extra-extra squeaky clean. Delighted with the translucent bubbles billowing from his soapy hands, he continued to scrub and wash.
“I think we’ve got it now, partner.” Gabe rinsed the child’s hands, then dried them off. “We’ve still got to make those omelettes disappear, remember?”
Kevin ran to the table and climbed up on a ladder-back wooden chair. Gabe turned to help Melanie, who was busy at the stove, but she waved him to sit, so he did. Two seconds later, she set a heaping plate of sliced potatoes with onions and peppers and a big fluffy omelette in front of him and told him to eat. He took a bite of the eggs and closed his eyes on a sigh. Scooping up a biteful of potatoes, he actually moaned.
Lord, but he’d died and gone to heaven.
“Damn, woman,” he said around another bite, “if you cook this good, I’m going to have to marry you right now.”
Gabe watched as Kevin’s eyes opened wide, then noticed Melanie had sternly arched one eyebrow.
“Hey,” he said awkwardly, “I was just—”
“He said damn,” Kevin announced.
Had he? Oops.
“You’re not supposed to say damn,” Kevin admonished.
“Kevin,” Melanie said firmly as she sat at the table with a plate of food for Kevin and herself. “You don’t tell adults what they can or can’t say. And you most certainly don’t repeat bad words.”
“You mean like those other words Gabe said earlier when he was upstairs?” Kevin asked.
“Especially those,” Melanie said.
Remembering a few of those words, Gabe ducked his head sheepishly. He hadn’t considered that anyone else had heard, and hell—heck—he wasn’t used to being around kids.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“It’s okay.” Kevin took a bite of potatoes. “Sometimes my mommy says bad words, too. Especially when she got into that big fight with Grandma Louise before we had to move away. She said a bunch of bad words then, but she didn’t think I heard.”
“Kevin Andrew!” Melanie narrowed a sharp look at her son. “That’s enough.”
Her tone brooked no argument, and Kevin looked down at his plate. Color had risen on Melanie’s cheeks, but it was apparent to Gabe that her concern had much less to do with her use of bad words than it did with Kevin’s mention of her argument with his grandma. An argument that it seemed had precipitated Melanie and her son’s flig
ht.
But it was hardly logical that Melanie would pack her belongings in a car and take off with her son because she and her mother—or mother-in-law—disagreed about something, Gabe thought. Families fought all the time. Lord knew his certainly did. Well, except for Cara. Who could argue with Cara? She had a way of either smiling that cut straight into your heart, or giving you “the look” that cut straight across the knees. But he and his brothers preferred to settle their disputes with a lot of yelling and occasionally a fist flew. But they never held grudges. Well, maybe Lucian did, but only for a few days at the most.
Not that Gabe knew what Melanie and Kevin’s grandma had argued about, but running away never seemed to solve anything. And somehow, Melanie just didn’t strike Gabe as the type to run. She seemed much too strong, too stubborn to let anyone intimidate her.
He knew he hadn’t.
And he’d certainly tried.
He watched her now, saw her gaze settle intently on the cell phone he’d slipped into the pocket of his shirt. With no working phone here at the house, and stranded the way she was, it wasn’t difficult for him to figure out that she wanted to make a call but couldn’t bring herself to ask.
He sighed silently, pulled the phone out of his pocket and set it on the table between them. “Help yourself.”
Surprised, her eyes snapped up to meet his. She hesitated, then nodded stiffly. “Thank you.”
It was all he could do not to put his hands on her shoulders and try to shake a little sense into her, tell her that she could trust him, and that running wouldn’t solve anything.
But he also realized that he wanted to put his hands on her for other reasons. Reasons that had nothing to do with her secrets, and everything to do with that incredible mouth of hers and how much he wanted to taste those lips.
Gabe knew he was going to have more than one sleepless night thinking about those lips after she left, and the realization aggravated the hell out of him.
He decided he wanted her gone. The sooner the better. He didn’t need the distraction, and he sure as hell didn’t need the complication. He wanted his life to be simple and easy, and this woman was anything but.
“The parts store will be delivering a battery for your car here later on this morning,” he said firmly. “I’ll put it in for you when it gets here.”
She protested, of course, and he ignored her, felt a certain amount of smugness when she appeared as frustrated as he was. He finished his meal, then muttered a quick thanks and headed back to the upstairs bathroom.
He had the rusted pipe off in less than a minute, but he bloodied four of his knuckles in the process. And somehow managed to bite back every obscene word that danced on the tip of his tongue.
Her sweater sleeves pushed to her elbows, her hands plunged in hot, sudsy dishwater, Melanie scrubbed at the heavy cast-iron frying pan, thankful that she had a task to occupy not only her hands, but her mind, as well.
Anything to keep her thoughts off Gabe Sinclair.
The man simply filled a room. Not just because he was tall and broad, but because he had a presence, a larger-than-life demeanor that overwhelmed her. All he had to do was level that dark gaze of his at her and she felt…consumed.
She couldn’t find her balance when he was around, couldn’t think straight. And she needed to think straight. She couldn’t afford not to. For her own sake, and especially for Kevin’s.
Behind her, sitting on his knees in a chair at the kitchen table, her son hummed the Barney theme song while he colored a picture in his travel game book. Silly songs and that big game book had been two things that made the trip cross-country bearable. Though if she never heard that Barney song again in her life, that would be just fine with her.
She rinsed the pan and drained the sink, then wiped her hands on a dish towel. Gabe’s cell phone still lay on the table where he’d left it for her. She hadn’t asked, but he’d known that she’d wanted to use it. She hated that she’d been so visible, that he knew what she was thinking, what she needed. What else did he see? she wondered, and the thought frightened her.
Almost as much as his insistence at buying and installing a battery for her car frustrated her.
She’d never met a man like him in her entire life, she thought with a sigh.
“Mommy’s going to make a phone call,” she said to Kevin, and he merely bobbed his head in response. Melanie picked up the phone, heard the clink of pipes overhead and glanced up at the ceiling before she moved into the laundry room connected to the kitchen, left the door ajar so she could keep an eye on her son.
She dialed, waited three rings.
“Hello.”
Just the sound of her friend’s voice brought tears to her eyes. “Rae, it’s me.”
“Melissa! Thank God, I’ve been so worried about you. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said through the thickness in her throat. “But the battery in my car died, and it’s being replaced today. I may not get there until tomorrow.”
“Mel.” Raina lowered her voice. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry, but you can’t come here. I think someone’s watching my apartment.”
Melanie went still, then felt her heart slam against her ribs. “What?”
“Three days ago I noticed a gray sedan parked a block away with a man inside. I didn’t think too much about it at first, but I saw the car again yesterday, then again today, always parked in a different place, but close enough to see anyone coming and going from my complex. Always with someone sitting inside.”
Oh, God, no. Melanie squeezed her eyes shut. How could Louise have found Raina? She had a different last name since she’d married briefly while living in Greece that one summer. She was Raina Sarbanes now, not Raina Williams. She’d been out of the country for seven years.
How? How could they have found her?
Vincent, she thought with a shiver. Vincent was everywhere, knew everything.
“Mel…are you there? Mel! Talk to me!”
“What?” Melanie pressed a hand to her temple, sucked in a breath. “Oh, Rae, God, I’m so sorry. I never thought they’d find out about you. Especially since we’d lost touch after all those years.”
“Thanks to that jerk husband of yours,” Raina said bitterly, then sighed. “Sorry, Mel.”
Melanie thought of all the phone messages from Raina that Phillip had never given her, the letters he’d sent back. He’d wanted his wife all to himself, and she’d been too blind to see what he’d been doing. Until Kevin was born. Everything had changed after that. And then it was too late.
She glanced at her son, still working intently on his picture. He’d caught his lower lip between his teeth while he scribbled with a blue crayon. He looked just like Phillip, she thought. The sandy-blond hair, blue eyes, the angular shape of his jaw. One day her little boy would be a handsome, mature man who would have women falling at his feet, just like his daddy had.
No, not like his daddy, she thought resolutely. Kevin didn’t have the selfish, cruel streak in him that Phillip had. When it came to personality, father and son were as opposite as night and day. Kevin was genuinely loving and sweet. Phillip’s charm had been practiced and phony. Manipulative.
“Mel, for God’s sake, stay with me here!”
Melanie snapped her thoughts back to the moment. She couldn’t think about the past now. It would only weaken her, drag her down. She needed to be strong, to think.
“I’m here.” Melanie tightened her hand on the phone.
“All right, now listen to me,” Raina said firmly, and Melanie could almost see her friend pointing one long perfectly manicured fingernail at her. “I’ll take care of this bozo, but just to be safe, you better not come to my place right now. Call me in a few days, and I’ll have a new plan by then.”
“No,” Melanie said around the lump in her throat. “I can’t allow you to get involved anymore. I told you what happened to Paul when he tried to help me. I won’t take any more chances.”
“Don’t
you talk like that, do you hear me? I won’t just stand by and let these horrible—”
“I’ve got to go.” Melanie blinked back the threatening tears. “I’ll call you in a few days when I’ve figured something out.”
“Please, Mel, don’t hang up, please. Let me help.”
“You can’t,” Melanie said quietly. No one can. “Kevin and I will be fine. Don’t worry.”
“I’m going to go to California and wring Louise’s neck,” Raina said furiously. “Then I’m going to pluck the old hen naked, stuff her and throw her in…”
Raina went on in gruesome detail and in spite of the situation, Melanie couldn’t help but smile at Raina’s tirade. She’d always had a temper, and obviously, still did.
“I love you, too,” Melanie said, then flipped the phone off.
Closing her eyes, she slowly, carefully drew in a long breath, then released it. She would figure something out. In just a minute. Or two. As soon as her mind stopped spinning.
At the staccato sound of a car’s horn, her eyes flew open. She felt a moment of dread, but realized that Vincent certainly wouldn’t announce himself in such a conspicuous manner. Whoever it was, they belonged here. Unlike herself, she thought.
She drew in another breath, stepped out of the laundry room and closed the door behind her.
And never once realized that the laundry room vent over her head linked directly to the bathroom upstairs.
Chapter 4
When Gabe came down the stairs, Cara was standing in the entryway. She normally dressed casually, in jeans and sweaters or long skirts, but today she had on a teal business suit that made her green eyes sparkle, and he realized she’d come here straight from her board meeting with the foundation.
She had a coffeemaker in one hand and a box of doughnuts in the other.
“My kind of woman.” Gabe grinned and reached for the doughnut box. “Too bad you’re my sister.”
She tightened her hold on the box. “I’ve said that countless times myself. Keep out of this box until the coffee’s made.”
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