“Bill,” Josh said softly. “I think you need to talk to your wife. Maybe out on the deck.”
Perrin’s fair skin, even lighter than Melanie’s, blushed bright red at his words. “No. No, I think it should be here. In front of the children, in front of our friends.”
“You okay, honey?” Bill moved up close suddenly solicitous and filled with worry.
Josh was going to retreat to give them space, but figured maybe he’d better stay close in case someone had to catch the man as he fell.
Perrin’s laugh was bright and sharp. She was crying, but her smile was huge. “Am I okay? No, in so many ways.” Again the over-bright laugh. “But in one way, really, really good. You know how we decided to try for one more kid right away?” Perrin shrugged. “It worked. The test this morning was positive.”
“But we only just started last…” Bill trailed off.
Josh counted three seconds of dead silence before the man swept his wife off her chair and into his arms.
The room exploded with applause. Apparently the kids were fully on board with the plan of getting a younger brother or sister; they leapt into their parents’ arms. Somewhere around their feet, a small dog who had been sleeping quietly in her dog bed began to yap until it too was scooped up to where it could lick someone’s face.
Josh looked at Melanie. She was in profile to him. Somehow he and Constance had never reproduced. “Someday soon, first our careers.” But someday had always been soon, never now. Looking at Melanie, Josh could easily imagine her with children. The lords above and below help him, but he could picture her with their children.
But there was no magic moment. No turn and locking of eyes. No instant silent awareness, as he would have written this scene. Instead Melanie was looking intently across the table.
Josh followed her gaze to Cassidy, who had gone sheet white. He couldn’t make sense of why she was upset by what was clearly a very happy and welcome event.
Melanie was up and moving and Josh circled the other way to back her up for whatever explosion was coming.
It wasn’t an explosion. He arrived just in time to hear a desperate whisper.
“The date? What’s the damned date?”
Melanie placed a hand on her shoulder and told her.
Cassidy began swearing softly, at least at first. It built rapidly into, “Goddamn you, Russell. I’m not ready for this. I’m so not ready.”
Melanie tapped Russell on the shoulder to get his attention.
“What? Hey, you okay, babe? You need some wine?”
“No.” Cassidy’s voice was suddenly very clear and silenced the room. “No. I don’t want any god damn wine.”
“What, honey?” Russell brushed Melanie aside as he gathered his wife to her feet and tried to hug her. She shoved him back until they stood a half foot apart, she glaring up at her much taller husband. Now everyone was on their feet around the table watching.
Josh still didn’t have any idea what was going on.
“That night,” she snarled up at Russell.
“Could you be more specific?”
“Just how much did we have to drink that night?”
“What night? Oh. I had a fair bit and I think you had… Wait… Just hold on.” Now it was Russell’s turn to go sheet white.
Josh didn’t have it yet, but he was close. Melanie rolled her eyes at him, then momentarily rested her head on her own shoulder as if sleeping. As if sleeping on her own…no, on his shoulder.
He and Melanie had too much to drink and slept together without sex. Russell and Cassidy had the sex that night, but hadn’t used any— Oh.
Cassidy gave a long-suffering sigh and leaned her forehead against her husband’s chest. Russell automatically wrapped his arms around her. A moment later he stepped her back and looked down into her face.
“Really?”
“I’m late. You know I’m never late.”
“Really?”
“Russell!” she ground out his name between clenched teeth. “Could you say something more useful than: really?”
“Holy shit! Really?”
She laughed and leaned back in against his chest. He scooped her up and sank back into his chair with her now cradled in his lap.
Josh pulled Melanie close so that he could slip a hand around her waist.
“Anyone else?” Cassidy’s comment had just a touch of snide irritation, but Josh wasn’t buying it as she delivered it from where she sat in Russell’s lap.
Melanie held up her hands palm out.
Jo shook her head, but the look she sent Angelo told Josh that they might start trying very soon.
He and Melanie returned to the kitchen to take over the last of the unloading.
“Is that one of your future scenes in our story, Joshua?”
He took the time to kiss her slowly and thoroughly, the food could wait a minute. “Yes. A child with you? Very much yes. Not a deal breaker, but—”
Her smile answered him, “Too many words, Joshua. But I agree. If we can figure this out, that is definitely part of our story.”
There simply had to be a way to make this work.
“Maria should be here, and Hogan.”
She was right. At his nod of agreement, Melanie pulled out her phone and called them. Asked if they could come right away, they needed more advice about how to handle the business success.
“You are so cruel,” he teased her. “You didn’t tell them.”
“And have them race needlessly? And ruin the surprise? Non! That is not for me to do.”
Josh knew only one way to answer that, “You better-than-perfect woman you.” He kissed her quickly and carried the last of the food to the table.
Dinner was about half eaten when Maria and Hogan arrived. Once again, the mayhem was complete.
Melanie knew they had to return to the problem of Perrin’s looming success or Perrin would be awake half the night and be overwhelmed by what was sure to begin happening tomorrow, no matter how they tried to ignore it.
When the dinner was done, she got the kids organized to clear everything off the table and into the kitchen. The table was far smaller than the monster in Maria’s condo, but they all managed to crowd together as they once again faced the problem that had brought them there in the first place.
“There are things we can accelerate. The expansion of your sewing space and staff is the most critical. I can help you do that this week. And Russell knows contractors better than most. You may not want his money, but you should accept his advice and help.”
Perrin nodded stiffly. It was passive, the shock of the news and the child enough to overload anyone’s brain. At least tonight she’d understand that there were possible solutions, even if she couldn’t remember them in the morning.
“The biggest problem is how to protect you. You are a business owner and a designer. Never, ever make the mistake Donna did. You are not to be the CEO. You need someone to run the business for you.”
“Raquel?” So, Perrin was still listening and thinking.
“No. She runs your storefront. She’d be overwhelmed. You need a high-level manager as soon as you can afford one. Before then. Maybe you could get someone by offering them a share of the business instead of a salary at first.”
Russell tossed out a couple names from the New York fashion industry.
“Georg retired since you came west,” Melanie began ticking them off on her fingers. “He owns a fishing boat down in Florida. Kenalla and Perrin would kill each other in a week. It turns out that the reason Perrin got the ad placement she did was because your third suggestion is now in jail for embezzlement. He was caught trying to board a plane for Argentina. The company isn’t even bankrupt, it was a shell that he gutted and now it is simply gone.”
“And why do I want one of these people?” Perrin was back. Leaning forward, thinking. It was right. This was her business after all.
“You don’t,” Joshua cut off Melanie’s reply.
Melanie turned
to him. “Yes she does, Joshua. She can’t do this herself.”
“No. She doesn’t want one of those people.”
“I do know more about this than—”
He held up a hand to silence her. It was a commanding, peremptory gesture she’d never expect from him.
“Can we talk in private for a moment?”
Talk? He wanted to talk when he was obviously so wrong. When… No. Maybe he was trying to take their first fight out of the room.
She almost told him to go to hell.
“Please?” His whisper was a soft caress. She didn’t like that he had that much power over her, to change her mood with so simple an action. But she couldn’t deny the sincerity of his request.
“No!” Perrin called out as Melanie started to rise. “Look. This is family. Cassidy and I, we did our thing in front of everybody. So just do it here. We’re all family.”
Melanie would have flinched, but it used to give her mother too much satisfaction; Melanie had trained herself out of it. Family? Apparently not. She’d begun to think there was a way for her and Joshua to be family, but maybe she needed to step back and make sure she really understood his story first.
“Give us a break, Perrin. It’s personal,” Joshua kept his tone light, cajoling. Is that what he’d been doing to her? Manipulating her with kindness?
“Oh? And finding out you’re pregnant isn’t personal?” Cassidy shot out a second salvo. “Just try it, Josh. My whole world just changed.” Then her look went impossibly soft and she turned to plant a kiss on Russell’s cheek. “Oh man did it ever change.”
“She’s right, Josh. Melanie.” Russell pointed a finger at their chairs. “Sit your asses down and lay it out on the table. This is family. All of this.” He looked directly at Melanie on that last statement.
It was a look she recognized, one he’d been unable to give her years ago. Whatever else Russell might feel for his wife, he had enough love in his heart that he also loved Melanie. She couldn’t walk away from that.
She settled into her chair.
“Do it up, Josh,” Russell shifted his gaze. “Whatever it is, spit it out.”
Joshua looked at her uncertainly. Then turned to look around the table.
Melanie followed his gaze.
Bill with Perrin pulled so close they were practically in the same chair, their children leaning on their dad’s shoulders. Maria and Hogan holding hands as were Jo and Angelo. Cassidy still sitting in Russell’s lap with his big arms keeping her safe.
And Joshua.
Melanie folded her hands in her lap and stilled them. She was ready now. Her shields were back in place, at least mostly. No one here would see her reactions. No one except Joshua from whom she’d never been able to hide the slightest emotion.
He clearly read her irritation and her tightly held composure, offering a short apologetic nod that he’d made her feel that way.
Well, she wasn’t going to start. No way was she making it any easier for him. Again he acknowledged her choice and began speaking.
“The reason I wanted to talk in private,” he offered a scowl to the others around the table.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Perrin stick her tongue out at him. Melanie wanted to cheer.
“The reason was, I need to preface my question with the fact that I love you—”
“Duh!” “We knew that.” “That’s all?”
They both ignored the others’ comments. Joshua waited for them to die down. Melanie wondered if hope or horror was going to follow that statement. This was Joshua, she really, really wanted it to be hope.
She nodded for him to continue, offering him a slight smile of encouragement, as much as she dared.
His shoulders eased a tiny bit, but not much before he continued.
“And I wanted you to know that my idea, my question, if you are willing, is motivated only in thinking about what might be best for you and Perrin. It also could work in our, uh, novel project, but—”
“No codes!” “Cheater! Cheater! Pumpkin eater!”
“Okay!” Joshua turned on the table with a snarl that caused her to lean back as well.
She’d never seen or heard Joshua be openly angry. He’d clearly been furious when she’d revealed the story of her past, but this was completely different. She hadn’t known he was capable of showing fury. It was a dark, fierce sound.
“No codes? Fine. I’ll give you no codes. I’m trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my life with this woman without doing to her what her bitch mother did. I don’t want to force her to be even the least bit different than she truly is because she is so perfectly herself. I love her so much that I’ll just die if she walks away. I wouldn’t change her for all the world. Is that clear enough for you all?”
Melanie’s gasp was the only sound around the perfectly silent table. Thank god! She had misread Joshua. But she was getting better at trust, and he’d know that about her. How perfectly he understood her. Angry for her, not at her.
Apparently satisfied with the results of his tirade, he turned back to her. It was so quiet that her ears actually rang.
“I have an idea,” his voice was impossibly back to a caress that she could now appreciate. “It’s about your career. It would also be good for us, I really think it would. But I don’t want that to influence your decision at all. I’ll follow you, or be at home waiting for you when you get back. I don’t care, I just want to be with you.”
She nodded carefully for him to continue.
Then he began to lay out his plan.
Chapter 17
The Smashing Six had gathered at Perrin’s store to get dressed up before going out to dinner. Tamara was almost a-dither as much as Perrin over her inclusion in a girls’ night out.
They’d coaxed Cassidy into a flowing dress of tropical fabrics which clung and revealed with every move she made. Jo had struggled against her fashion fate, but a cocktail dress of sky-blue jersey had revealed quite how impressive her voluptuous figure really was. Tamara wore the first of her own designs which was both edgy and inventive.
“Your turn,” Perrin announced merrily.
Melanie had turned for the racks. There was a suit of dark blue she’d been itching to try, but Perrin simply shook her head and led her into the back, commanding the others to find something out front for Maria. Only Perrin and Tamara went into the back design studio with her.
The renovation had been completed in just two weeks. A door had been punched through into the larger space beyond. The area now smelled of fresh paint and new equipment. The first five stations were set up in the efficient sewing room that could hold at least five more. Karissa, Clem, and the newly hired Celine would be starting in there tomorrow.
Melanie could only marvel at the changes that had been wrought, both in Perrin’s shop and in herself. She remembered those first days, sitting here, knowing she didn’t belong but having nowhere else to go.
Just a month-and-a-half later and she felt completely at home amid the whirl of conversations. Now it was familiar and welcoming. She loved being here.
At Perrin’s command, Melanie’s closed her eyes.
“But Perrin—”
“But Melanie!” she responded. “No peeking!”
She huffed out her exasperation, but closed her eyes.
She could tell the instant the cloth touched her skin. This was her dress. Nothing felt like fifty-dollar a yard satin. It wrapped, caressed. Perrin had built in support, so only the scantiest of panties separated her from pure unadulterated heaven.
Even if she’d have less reason to wear such things in public now, maybe she would model it for Joshua. If he were a good boy. And he was; a very good boy.
His grand plan was so simple, she still marveled that she hadn’t seen it herself. She could still take the occasional modeling job, if she was in the mood. But she had something far more interesting to do now.
Perrin and Tamara fussed around her, reminding her every thirty secon
ds to keep her eyes closed until she’d almost wanted to snap at them. When Tamara tied a swatch of heavy corduroy over her eyes, it was a relief. Few designers minded her seeing the dress before the tweaks of a final fitting, but Perrin had been so insistent.
Her cell phone rang somewhere. The ring said it was her business line. A groping hand, someone placed it into her palm. She answered it blind.
“This is Melanie.”
“Oh, I’m so glad I caught you.”
“Hi, Sue. How is the shoot going?” It was easier to be civil now about missing the swimsuit issue. The passing month had helped as well.
“That’s why I called. I don’t know how to do this properly, so I’ll just blurt it out. I need you.”
Melanie remained stone silent. She didn’t know how to react, she honestly didn’t. Sue took that as an opening.
“That new girl we brought on, I can’t even say her name I’m so upset. She’s currently the cover shot—”
“Congratulate her for me.” It took everything in her power to not end the call, to not say something snide and burn the bridge once and for all. Sue continued as if Melanie hadn’t spoken.
“—in the London papers: News of the World and The Sun. It will be hitting the U.S. tabloids by the weekend. The little bitch was selling lap dances in one of those Russian discos. There were paparazzi shots; she was wearing nothing but one of our bathing suits that she kept when she stayed behind after the shoot. She wasn’t drunk or stoned—not a single decent excuse I could use in the press—just a wild little bitch. Took money, let them… Let’s just say I’ve seen streetwalkers with more class. I need you. I need the Melanie magic to offset this news. We go to press incredibly soon. We’re in final photo selection right now and just had to throw away half of our ‘Moscow in the Spring’ collection, damn that place is so cold. Please, please, please. I saw that hot-hot spread you had in Fashion Alive and was just kicking myself. And now this. You have to save me. I’ll grovel. Anything you want.”
Actually, she thought that Sue was doing a pretty impressive grovel already. Melanie’s brain kicked into high gear. She wanted this. Not like she had before, but she wanted this to prove that she still had it. Was still in the game.
Where Dreams Are Written Page 18
