“Yes,” Miles said.
Hamilton scowled, continuing to rub his shin. Corinne pursed her lips, as if she was trying desperately not to say anything.
“I love that the only person to agree to this is the only person I’m not worried about.”
“Fine, I won’t say anything to him,” Corinne said after a moment. “But you better keep us informed. No more of hiding what you’ve been doing.”
“I wasn’t hiding anything, Mom,” Mel said, resisting the urge to bang her own head against the table. “I don’t know what this is yet.”
And the more she thought about it, the more nervous she got. Yes, Bennett had said that they were seeing each other now. And yes, he’d also kissed the ever-living daylights out of her. But when it came to her, the man hadn’t been all that consistent. Who was to say he wouldn’t wake up tomorrow and change his mind again?
* * *
Bennett had finally freaking done it. He’d finally kissed Mel. Whatever slim chance there’d been of walking away from her was completely gone now. He’d wanted to talk to her yesterday, to tell her he liked her. Tell her that he wanted to start seeing her. When he’d followed her into that closet he’d had every intention of doing so.
And then he’d kissed her and the talking plan had gone out the window. But he was pretty sure she’d gotten the message.
Bennett had kissed a number of women in his life, and it was safe to say that none of them even came close to Mel.
Not a single one.
No woman had ever drawn him in like she had. No kiss had ever made him feel like he was going to go crazy, made him feel like he was losing every single ounce of sense that he possessed. Yeah, after he’d pressed his mouth to hers, he’d been a goner.
She’d been soft and sweet. He’d forever remember that kiss, everything from her body pressed to his, to the smell of her hair, the taste of her skin. She’d been the clearest breath of fresh air that Bennett had inhaled in over three years—since before that, actually. She’d probably been the clearest breath of fresh air he’d ever taken in his life.
No, there was no way he was walking away now.
Bennett managed to stay focused at practice that night, which was saying a lot, because he kept hearing Mel’s moans of satisfaction in his head. He wanted to get her to make those sounds again very, very soon. Preferably with both of them in bed and naked and her underneath him. But he tried to calm the hell down and pay attention.
Bennett had slipped only once, and he’d been lucky that Tripp was the one who caught him grinning.
“I’d be careful with that smile of yours if I were you. If the triplets catch you, they’re going to pounce, and you’re not going to know what hit you.”
“I know.” Bennett looked over his shoulder to make sure that Brendan, Jax, and Shep weren’t within earshot.
“I’m assuming you finally did something?” Tripp asked.
“Yeah.”
“Was it worth knowing?”
“It sure was,” Bennett said.
And it really, really had been.
Chapter Nine
The Many Talents of Bennett Hart
At eleven o’clock on Tuesday, Bennett stopped by Café Lula, Lula Mae and Grace’s café, to grab some lunch. He’d been relieved to find Lula Mae working the front and Grace baking in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure what she knew, but he was pretty sure he would’ve gotten the third degree no matter what.
He walked down the hallway to Mel’s class at eleven thirty-five. He’d just missed the last bell, and the halls were clear. He stepped into Mel’s classroom and found her in much the same position he’d found her yesterday. Except, unlike yesterday, she was in no way turned on.
She had leaned her head back and her eyes were closed, and she was rubbing her temples. Her face was washed out and she looked exhausted.
“You okay?” he asked, coming into the room.
She opened her eyes slowly and winced before she shut them again. “No.” She was on the verge of tears.
“Mel?” Bennett crossed the room and dropped the bags of food on her desk. “What’s wrong?”
“I have a migraine.”
“Bad?” he asked, crouching down next to her.
Bennett had never had a migraine, but his stepmother got them all the time. She’d be laid up in bed for hours in misery, lights and smells making her sick to her stomach.
“Yeah. The medicine hasn’t done anything. It’s just getting worse.” She dropped her hands from her temples, as if she just didn’t have the strength to hold them up anymore.
“Let me take you home,” he said, rubbing the back of her hand.
“No, I’ll be fine,” she said, opening her eyes. She moved slightly and her face paled even more, which was saying something.
She abruptly lunged out of her desk and grabbed for the trash can at her feet. Bennett moved fast, pulling her hair back as she emptied her stomach. He rubbed her back until she stopped.
“I’m taking you home,” he said.
“Okay,” she said miserably, slowly getting to her feet. “I have to call the office.”
“No, you have to sit down. I’ll call.” He reached over to flip the switch on the wall and made the overhead lights go off. Now the only light in the room was coming from the windows.
“Thank you,” she mumbled, putting her head down on the desk.
Bennett continued to rub Mel’s back as he called the secretary and told her they were going to have to find a sub for Mel for the rest of the day. Then he packed up Mel and her stuff, and walked her out of the school. She leaned into him and let him guide her. She had her sunglasses on, but he suspected her eyes were shut.
“What about my car?” she mumbled, as he helped her up into his truck.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.”
“Bennett, I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”
“Mel, you’re not an inconvenience,” he said, brushing her hair back from her face and kissing her lightly on the forehead. “I got it.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” He pulled back and closed the door gently.
And really she wasn’t an inconvenience. He knew she was in a lot of pain, and all he could think about was making her feel better. That was all that mattered.
* * *
When Bennett pulled into the driveway, Mel started to move to get out.
“Just sit a second,” he said, grabbing her purse and her bag.
“Okay.” She slumped back into the seat.
Bennett went up to the house. He hesitated for a second, staring at Mel’s purse. Her keys were in there somewhere, but a woman’s purse was uncharted territory for him.
“Stop being a coward,” he said, opening her purse and looking in.
He grabbed her keys that were lying on top of her wallet and unlocked the front door. He dropped her bags off on a chair in the hallway then went back out to get Mel. He opened the passenger door and reached across her to unbuckle the seat belt.
He slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. He pulled her into his chest and lifted her from the truck. She settled into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder.
He closed the door with his hip, taking care not to jostle her, and walked up to the house. He’d left the front door open, so he walked into the hallway and used his shoulder to shut the door. Mel burrowed into his neck, her hair tickling his skin. He liked having her in his arms, but the circumstances sucked.
He carried her to her bedroom and set her down on the bed.
“You want to change?” he asked as he went over to her window, closed the blinds, and drew the curtains.
“Yes, please,” she said, kicking off her flats. “T-shirts are in the top drawer, shorts in the second.”
Bennett went over to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer on the left. Mel must’ve meant the top drawer on the right; this one was filled with bras and panties, and man, did she ha
ve an assortment. She had every color of the rainbow and varying shades of every color. There were polka dots, stripes, and hearts. Lace, satin, cotton, and variations of those materials mixed. The most intriguing pair of panties was cream and tan leopard with cream lace all around the edges. He was also a pretty big fan of the red lace thong. Not to mention the number of bras made with more lace and satin.
“The other drawer,” Mel said, sounding pained. He wasn’t sure if it was because of her migraine or the fact that he’d just seen all of her unmentionables.
Bennett shut the drawer and moved to the other side. He pulled out a gray T-shirt and grabbed a pair of shorts. “Do you have more medicine you can take?” he asked, handing her the clothes.
“There’s some in my bathroom. It’s the only prescription in the cabinet. It usually knocks me out. Could you get me some Gatorade from the pantry, too?”
Bennett headed to the kitchen and got what she needed. When he walked into her room a couple of minutes later she was already changed. She was underneath the covers, her knees drawn up to her chest. He sat down next to her. She attempted to open her eyes again before she moaned and quickly closed them.
Yeah, Bennett had wanted to get her moaning in bed, but this wasn’t what he’d had in mind.
“Here,” he said, taking her hand and giving her the pill.
She sat up and put the pill in her mouth before she held out her hand for the glass. She took a couple slow sips before she gave the glass back to him and lay down.
“Come here.” He grabbed her shoulders and adjusted her so her head was in his lap. He gently touched her temples and began to move his fingers in slow circles.
“That feels good,” she said. A little bit of relief crossed her face. “You really are good with your hands.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.”
A small smile crossed her mouth. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“It’s no problem,” he said as he continued to massage her temples.
He looked around her room, and his eyes landed on the pictures on her dresser. There was one of her, Grace, and Harper at the beach. They were standing at the water’s edge, smiling as a wave crashed around their feet. Mel was wearing a red bathing suit top that stopped just above her belly button, and black bottoms that somehow made her legs look longer.
There was another of her and Hamilton. He was probably eight or nine at the time. They were sitting on a couch, Hamilton’s arm around Mel’s neck as he pulled her in and kissed her on the cheek. There were more frames in the room, but Bennett couldn’t really make out the pictures in the dim light.
Mel had a painting over her bed of a big, blooming flower that was the exact same shade as her bedspread. Bennett recognized the signature at the bottom as Paige’s. Brendan’s wife was an artist. Her work was on display at a couple places around town where people could buy it.
Her bed wasn’t covered in useless pillows. She had four regular pillows and a small one with a green-and-white zigzag pattern. But the bear that he’d given her was no longer on the bed. He hadn’t seen it when he’d come into the room. He’d have to ask what happened to it.
It didn’t take very long before Mel’s breathing changed, and he knew she’d fallen asleep. He gently moved her head to the pillow and left, shutting the door behind him.
He went into the kitchen and pulled out his phone, more than a little wary about what was about to happen as he dialed.
“Bennett Hart, don’t tell me you messed this up,” Grace said.
“Your confidence in me is overwhelming.”
“That’s because I don’t have confidence in you at the moment. I know you’re supposed to be eating lunch with Mel because she told me that was the plan. I also know that you picked up lunch from here because Grams told me, so there obviously was no problem with the food. So what did you do?”
Okay, so maybe he didn’t have the best track record when it came to Mel. But he wasn’t going to mess things up now.
“I didn’t do anything. Mel had a migraine, so I drove her home.”
“You’re still at her house?”
“Yes, she’s asleep. The reason I’m calling you is because I’m trying to find out how long these put her out for and how she normally feels afterward. She threw up at the school, so I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything in her stomach. Will she want to eat when she wakes up?”
“Wait, she got sick in front of you?”
“Yeah.”
“And what did you do?”
“Held her hair back.”
Grace was quite for a second before she cleared her throat. “Good job. You’ve passed the first round, but I’m still holding judgment for the second.”
Bennett couldn’t help himself from smiling as he leaned back against the counter. Grace might be a tiny little thing, but she was a real ball buster when she wanted to be.
Good luck, Jax.
“To answer your earlier question, she usually sleeps a migraine off in about four or five hours. And she likes mac and cheese after she’s been sick. But it isn’t any old mac and cheese. It’s my grandmother’s recipe.”
“Are you willing to share this recipe?”
“You going to make it from scratch?” she asked, sounding a tad bit skeptical.
“Are you doubting my cooking skills?”
“According to Mel, you’re pretty talented in the kitchen. So I’ll just have to ask her if you do the recipe justice.”
“You do that,” he told her.
“I’ll bring the recipe and ingredients by around three. I’m assuming you’re staying there and playing Nurse Nightingale.”
“Absolutely. And hey, if you have time do you think you could drop me off at the school so I can get her car?”
“Sure. See you later, Bennett.”
“Bye.”
Bennett called his boss next. He told Marlin he’d be taking the rest of the day off, which was fine with Marlin as they weren’t ready for Bennett to start the custom cabinetry portion of the current job.
When Bennett hung up, he leaned back against Mel’s counter and looked around her kitchen.
What was he going to do for the next couple of hours? He needed to be quiet, so watching TV was out of the question. But there was no way he’d be able to do that for seven hours anyway.
He pushed off the counter and went to get a class out of the cabinet. When he opened the door it made the same audible squeak it always did.
Well, he could fix the cabinets, because this definitely wasn’t the only one that was messed up. Some of them were hanging more than a little bit crooked. And then he could fix the drawers, because those weren’t in the best condition, either.
Bennett went out to his truck to get his tools, and when he came back inside he got to work, doing his best to stay as quiet as possible.
He made fast progress with the cabinets, and then he moved on to the drawers. It was when he opened the fourth one that he found something interesting. It must’ve been Mel’s catchall drawer, because it was full of pens, hair ties, rubber bands, notes, and coupons. Right on top was a yellow piece of paper.
“My I Didn’t Kick the Bucket List” was scrawled across the top in Mel’s handwriting, and both sides were covered in things to do. Most of them Mel had written down, but two other people had joined in with ideas. Most likely Grace and Harper.
1) No more dwelling on things I can’t change.
2) No more just thinking about the things I can change. If they can be done, do them.
3) Don’t give a flying fuck what anybody else thinks of me.
Bennett couldn’t help but smile. The thought of Mel saying fuck was more than slightly amusing to him.
4) Get a tattoo.
Where was she going to put it? The possibilities were endless, and so very intriguing. He moved on and froze when he read number six.
6) Spend the night with a man who knows exactly what he’s doing between the sheets.
That one wa
sn’t in Mel’s handwriting, but it was on the list nonetheless. Did that mean Mel hadn’t been with someone who knew what he was doing? Or that she hadn’t been with anybody at all?
Bennett looked up and over to the side of the house where Mel was currently sleeping.
No, she couldn’t be a virgin…could she?
He shook his head, trying to clear the images that were now flooding his brain. All he could think about was the fact that he’d be happy to participate in task number six.
More than happy. Ecstatic even.
Bennett continued reading, trying to figure out what else he could participate in when it came to this interesting and oh-so-very informative list.
* * *
When Mel woke up her head was only slightly tender from the beating it had taken. She was still out of it, but at least she could function.
She’d started getting migraines when she was in elementary school. They’d been quite frequent all the way until high school, when they started coming more sporadically. Sometimes the medicine worked, but more often than not her best bet was to take the antinausea medicine and sleep it out.
But she’d been pretty good lately. She hadn’t gotten one in a while. Certain things triggered her migraines. A big one was drinking too much caffeine when she hadn’t had enough sleep, and as Mel was a coffee addict, it tended to happen. It had been a real problem in college during finals week. Another trigger was the scent of some perfumes or cleaning products. Which was what had happened today.
She’d gone to the computer lab with her fourth-period class, and the carpets had just been sprayed with something. The second she’d walked in she’d known she was in for it.
Ugh, why did it have to happen today of all days? Not only had she had to cancel her lunch with Bennett, but she’d also thrown up in front of him. And if she remembered correctly, he’d seen her underwear drawer.
Awesome. Just awesome.
But he hadn’t run away. He’d actually taken care of her, and very effectively at that. His hands were magic. She’d known they would be. And now that she’d really experienced them, she wondered what other amazing things they were capable of.
Unstoppable (A Country Roads Novel) Page 12
