Unexpected Admirer

by Bernadette Marie

  The salesman showed her nearly every car on the lot, but Melissa’s head just wasn’t into it. She didn’t care about cars. She didn’t care about safety and mileage. What she cared about was that stupid song was playing in the background and that no one but her could hear it. Jesse’s voice was still in her head. It was still in her heart, and she hated that it affected her.

  “Melissa, what do you think?” William asked, snapping her out of her mindless wandering of the lot.

  “I think I want to go home.”

  The salesman was inching back, pretending as if he was checking on the car or a smudge on the paint.

  William stepped closer to her. “You need a car.”

  “I need everyone to stop tiptoeing around me.”

  “You made a mistake. We all make them.”

  “And were any of your mistakes on Entertainment Tonight?”

  He rubbed his hand over his forehead. “Let’s just get you a car. Let’s get home, and we can talk about what we’re going to do now.”

  “We’re? When did this become our issue?”

  “When you left to sleep with the man and I told you I was in love with you.”

  That had the salesman excusing himself and high-tailing it into the office.

  “So, this is what you’d expected?”

  “Of course it was.” He moved in closer. “C’mon, he’s a nice kid, but he’s a kid. What does he know about a family and a stepson?”

  “You don’t know him.”

  “And now you’re defending him?”

  She was, and she didn’t know why.

  Her ankle was aching in the cold. Her heart was breaking in her chest. And she just wanted to go home and lock herself in her bedroom again.

  William reached his hand to her cheek. “Don’t mourn this forever. This isn’t what you had with Martin.”

  But it was and only she knew it. Even if it might have only been a month in the works, she’d loved the man and she had wanted to marry him.

  William moved in closer. “Listen. This is really bad timing, but I think I should put it out there.” He took a deep breath, and it hung in the frozen air. “I know you could never love me as you did Martin, but I would like to be your husband and a father to Jonah. Would you consider that?”

  Melissa stood there, freezing, with her mouth hanging open. That had to have been the worst marriage proposal she’d ever heard. And worse yet, she was so depressed she was considering it.

  Well, not yet. She wanted to be pissed just a little longer, and she was very pissed with William Scott for even moving in like that.

  “Find me a damn car and tell me where to sign the papers. I don’t even care if I have to pedal it.”

  She moved around him and walked back to the car.

  Melissa ended up with the white Acadia William had seen when he’d gone to Grand Junction to pick her up from the airport.

  It was a good car. She was pleased he’d put up with her long enough to get the papers signed.

  As she parked the new car in her driveway the next day after school, she noticed the pickup truck was gone. A part of her was thrilled to not have the reminder sitting there taunting her. The other part ached—he was gone.

  Melissa walked through the front door just in time to see Jonah run down the hall and slam his door. Melissa’s mother followed until she saw her standing in the doorway.

  “What happened to Jonah?” she asked.

  “He got into a fight at school.”

  Melissa set her bag down on the floor. “He got into a fight? He’s never been in a fight before.”

  “He’s never had anything to fight over.”

  Melissa didn’t like where this was going. “Jesse?”

  “Yes.”

  She dropped her shoulders and went to his room. She knocked, but Jesse’s voice had been cranked up on the speakers so she entered.

  Seeing the face of the man she’d loved on her son’s walls hurt nearly as bad as seeing her son crying. Melissa shut the door and sat down on the bed next to him.

  “I hear you were fighting.”

  “Doug said Jesse is an idiot who got that model pregnant and was just using you to hide it.”

  She figured Doug had a good head on his shoulders, but she certainly couldn’t tell her son that. “Jesse made a mistake.”

  Jonah’s head popped up. “No. No he didn’t. He doesn’t know that woman.”

  “She was there, Jonah. The whole world heard him announce her as his fiancée.”

  “No, that was you. He was set up.”

  Melissa gritted her teeth. “How do you know that?”

  “He told me.”

  “I don’t want you talking to him.”

  “You can’t stop me.”

  “I most certainly can. I’m your mother.”

  Jonah folded his arms over his chest. “Why did you leave? Why didn’t you fight for him? He loves you, and you walked away from him.”

  “You can’t sit here and tell me I hurt his feelings. I made a mistake. I fell in love with someone I really didn’t know.”

  “But you did know him. You knew him better than anyone. No one wants him for who he is. They want the famous guy. Well, I want Jesse.”

  She took a breath to speak, but nothing came out.

  They’d both lost.

  She and Jonah had both loved him for different reasons. Time would heal everything. Everything would be okay.

  Her mother was standing in the hallway when she shut Jonah’s door behind her. Jesse’s voice still echoed down the hall.

  “Is he okay?”

  Melissa nodded. “His heart is broken.”

  “Why don’t you just call Jesse and sort this out.”

  She shook her head, surprised that her mother would even have suggested it. “No. I can’t go back to that.” Melissa started for her room. She turned back to her mother. “I see someone came for the truck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Bryce?” she asked, sorry she’d missed him.

  “No. A nice, young man.” Her mother rested her hands on her hips. “If you won’t talk to Jesse, what are you going to do now?”

  “William wants to marry me.”

  Her mother let her hands drop to her sides. “He waits until now to share this with you?”

  “He was letting me feel out this Jesse thing.”

  “This Jesse thing?” She walked to her and placed her hands on Melissa’s shoulders. “You love Jesse. You agreed to marry him. Was that all a joke to you?”

  “No. It was a joke to him.”

  “That’s not what I’m hearing.”

  Melissa took her mother’s hands. “Well, I’m not listening. I don’t want to see his face, hear his name, or his voice.” She nodded to Jonah’s room. “In time, no one will remember me and Jesse. And,” she said as she sucked in a painful breath that burned her lungs, “I’m going to marry William.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Melissa had left her mother standing stunned and silent in the hallway when she’d told her she’d planned to marry William. She figured, as they sat at the table for dinner, her mother was only getting even when she said she too had an announcement.

  “I took an offer on Grandpa’s land.”

  Melissa nearly dropped her fork on the floor. “You what? You didn’t even talk to me about it.”

  “You seem to have your issues lately.”

  Melissa could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. “Who did you sell it to?”

  “A man. What does it matter? We can’t afford to keep it.”

  “Did you get a decent price?”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Mom, you should have told me someone was interested.”

  “I did tell you. Before you left for California. Now I’m telling you I sold it.”

  Melissa’s head was certainly going to explode. How could people take this much stress? Everything that had been normal and calm in her life was now a mess.

  “Don’t you ha
ve something you’d like to tell your son?” her mother asked. Now Melissa was sure she was going to die in that chair.

  Jonah hadn’t looked at her in days. He hadn’t said much to her either. This was certainly wasn’t going to make things better between them.

  “William asked me to marry him,” she said as Jonah peered at her through his bangs, which had gotten much too long. She tried to smile. “I’ve decided to marry him.”

  “I hate you!” Jonah was up from the table and down the hall, again slamming his door.

  Melissa sat there, alone with her mother. She couldn’t go to him. He deserved to be mad. She was mad, too.

  She cleaned up the dinner table, and her mother headed out to her book club. Melissa decided on a nice, hot bath to ease the tension that had built up in her body.

  As she passed Jonah’s room, she could hear his voice. No doubt she was being ratted out to a friend. He deserved his allies. She wished, at that moment, that she had an ally of her own.

  Only a week to go until Christmas, Melissa’s students weren’t the only ones not able to focus. She could care less about teaching.

  It wasn’t until after school William walked into her classroom, when no one was around, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  “I’ve waited all day to get near you. This part just might kill me.”

  Melissa rested her hands on his shoulders. “This still probably isn’t a good idea. Not here.”

  He nodded and let his hands fall. As he tucked his fingers into the pockets of his suit coat, he rocked back on his heels.

  “So I assume a quiet wedding is in order? You and me and maybe our families?”

  “Yes,” she said as she filled her bag with papers to grade. “I think that would be best.”

  William nodded. “I was thinking maybe Christmas Eve?”

  Melissa swallowed hard. “That’s kinda soon, don’t you think?”

  “Not for me. I’ve been waiting since I was seventeen.”

  She smiled, and she truly hoped it didn’t look as forced as it felt. “I suppose that would be as good a time as any.”

  Snow had moved into Aspen Creek. Melissa hadn’t been in much of a mood to decorate Christmas trees or bake cookies, but Jonah was. She realized she was stealing his holiday by being such a Grinch.

  They’d gone up to her grandfather’s land, for the very last time, and found the perfect Christmas tree. As William secured it into the bed of his truck, and Jonah and her mother climbed inside, she stood there staring at the home she’d always loved.

  William walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’ll always be here. I’m sure you could come and visit.”

  She shook her head. “It won’t be the same.”

  He turned her toward him. “Maybe someday we can buy a home and some land. Just ours. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a house full of kids of our own.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

  “I think they’re ready to go,” Melissa said as she motioned to the truck.

  “You know, we haven’t even discussed a honeymoon.”

  Her chest hurt from the pain caused by thinking of what she was doing to her son, but it was the right choice. William was a good man. “Maybe we can think about that for the spring or summer.”

  “That would be a great idea.”

  The tree had finally been set up, and Jonah worked to sort the ornaments, as he did every year, while Melissa sat on the couch with a cup of coffee and William’s arm draped over her shoulder.

  Christmas music played on the radio as her mother sat in her chair knitting a new hat.

  “Mom, I think we need some new ornaments. I think some of these are broken.”

  She laughed. “No, you just didn’t like your glitter job in kindergarten.”

  Jonah growled and hung up the star made of Popsicle sticks.

  The music changed, and White Christmas filled her ears. But this time, the voice wasn’t that of Bing Crosby. It was a more familiar voice. One she’d heard sigh in her ear, call her name, and whisper I love you.

  Tears began to form, but she pushed them away. She was bigger than this. She could control it.

  Melissa lifted her coffee to her lips and sipped as all eyes were on her. William’s hand gave her shoulder a squeeze. In another week, she’d be William’s wife, and Jesse could go on with his life, his woman, his child.

  Four days before her wedding to William, Melissa decided she’d better find some kind of dress. Just a cocktail dress from her closet wasn’t going to do. He’d been patient and kind. He, at least, deserved for her to look her best.

  She hated going into the stores, especially in the small town, and having everyone whisper behind her back. She’d towed the line her whole life, and now she was fodder for gossip.

  Melissa knew, from living in the same small town her entire life, the gossip would die. Someday they’d all forget the handsome, young, sexy man who had come along and swept her off her feet. She and William would be just another couple, raising a son, living a quiet life in Aspen Creek.

  But it was hard to escape.

  As she checked out with a dress that would do, Jesse’s song serenaded her on the speakers in the store. A new dress also meant a stop at the drug store to pick up some new stockings and a necessary new tube of mascara. It was nearly impossible to leave the store without reading any of the magazines on the stand. But each of them had Jesse’s face so she just turned away.

  As she walked out of the drug store, she thought perhaps a nice cup of coffee would be in order.

  The store was full, more than usual, but she figured that was holiday traffic, even in a small town. As she placed her order and stepped to the side, the notifications on her cell phone rang. She looked down at her cell phone as a man passed by and opened the door.

  His cologne caught her attention. It was Jesse’s cologne.

  It was instinct to look up, but the man was walking out just as she did so. A black leather jacket. Designer jeans. Spiky, blond hair.

  Her heart began to beat so fast she thought it might escape her chest. She took a step toward the door to look at the man just at the moment Molly called her name for her coffee.

  Melissa grabbed her coffee and headed for the door. A group of teenagers walked through the door. Each of them said hello to her, but she couldn’t get past them fast enough.

  When she made it outside, the man was gone.

  The snow fell around her as the sun began to tuck itself behind the mountain. Obviously the holidays and her pending wedding were making her lose her mind.

  Dinner that night was quiet, though William tried his best to ease the tension between him and Jonah. They talked about scouting adventures they had enjoyed and planned a sledding weekend.

  Melissa’s mother passed the basket of bread around the table. “So, did you find a dress?”

  “Yes.”

  “It was busy in town.”

  Melissa looked at her mother. “You were in town?”

  “Yes, we closed on the sale today.”

  Melissa set her fork down and wiped her mouth with the napkin she’d had in her lap. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have gone with you? I don’t like that you’ve tended to this whole sale alone.”

  “I’m a grown woman. I can take care of business just as well as you can.”

  Melissa gripped the napkin in her hand. “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”

  “Then don’t be.”

  The tension, which William had worked so hard to erase, was growing thick again. That was when Melissa noticed the green on Jonah’s hand.

  “What did you get into?”

  Jonah’s eyes opened wide, and he exchanged glances with his grandmother. “I must have gotten into some paint.”

  Melissa’s mother handed him another napkin to wipe at it. “There must have been a wet wall downtown.”

  “Jonah, it’s in your hair.”

  He reached for it. “Oh, wow.”

  Me
lissa’s mother buttered the bread she had taken from the basket. “It’ll wash out.”

  William helped clean up dinner and sat with Melissa on the couch after everyone had gone to bed.

  He wrapped his arm around her, holding her close. In time, she knew his closeness would be a comfort. In time, she’d love him more than a friend. In time, she would forget the pain of losing another man she loved.

  “What do you think if I stay tonight?” William asked softly in her ear.

  She knew it was obvious that her body tensed. “I think we should wait.”

  He let out a breath. “I understand.”

  “Jonah…”

  “I know. I suppose it’s different because it’s me.”

  She knew he’d meant to stab her with his words just enough to make her wince. It had worked. But it wasn’t worth delving further into what he’d meant. Yes, she went to California for a weekend with a man she barely knew. They’d had sex. They’d made plans. They’d said I love you.

  She’d done none of that with William, and he’d been there for her since they were teenagers. She contemplated taking his face in her hands and kissing him, but she couldn’t do it.

  “Well, I suppose I should go. I told my mother I’d try to stop by.” He stood and pulled her to her feet. “She’s very excited to have you as a daughter-in-law. She always thought of you that way.”

  “That’s very sweet.”

  He walked to the door and pulled his coat off the coat rack. He slid it on and looked down at her.

  Cupping his hands around her face, he moved in closer. “You’ve made me so happy. I can’t wait until Christmas Eve.”

  He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

  It was now or never to seize the moment. Melissa lifted her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

  A moan escaped him as he stumbled closer, gripping her waist.

  When she finally pulled back and they rested their foreheads together, she wondered if he’d felt it too. She’d expected at least a spark—something that would ignite between them forever. But it wasn’t there. She did love this man, but as a brother, a dear friend.