Chapter 9

Melody

 

Stryder didn’t comment when Melody confessed. His silence confirmed her guilt but at least he didn’t rub it in. She took the lack of reply when she asked about the pact that he remembered and had stuck with it.

She wrinkled her nose again and nodded as she turned to leave. Before she could get far, she paused and looked back at him over her shoulder. “I hope you’re back because you want to be back. When you left…” She shrugged. No matter what, she’d carry with her to the grave that she’d waited around for him to come back. She’d never dated – even though Brock’s persistence had been legendary.

Stryder lifted his hand and then seemed to change his mind. He nodded, the brim of his cowboy hat hiding secrets he didn’t express. “I need to go. I have a meeting to get to. See you around, Melody.” His long legs carried him across the makeshift bridge. He glanced back at her once, lifting his hand as if he’d been caught peeking and had to acknowledge her somehow.

His abrupt departure left a pit in Melody’s stomach. What else was new?

Even though she’d been dying to see him all those years, the pain of being with him and not having him left a bitter ache in her chest and a flu-like flush covered her skin. If she couldn’t have him, she didn’t want him back in Two Rides. Was that so wrong?

 

***

 

Tossing and turning all night left Melody cranky and sore. Knowing Stryder was less than a half-mile away hadn’t helped her loneliness. Or her regret.

She ignored her empty stomach and stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the sparse living room. Jutting her jaw to the side, she arched an eyebrow. “Okay, so now what?” Ignoring the pictures of her mother that still hung on the walls, Melody surveyed everything. Did she need to make lists? The temptation to just load everything to the dump was strong.

Even if she were to pack a moving truck, she didn’t have a lot to take. Not that she knew where she was going or where to stay. She couldn’t afford a storage unit and she didn’t have money for an apartment.

She was stuck.

Her life was frozen and being in limbo was the hardest part of all. She didn’t want to leave the house, but she didn’t have a lot of options when it was being sold out from under her.

Sighing, Melody leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. That wasn’t fair either. The house wasn’t being sold out from under her. She could just as easily have figured out something else to do. She still had two weeks before the bank foreclosed. She only had to come up with a hundred-thousand dollars. That was nothing, right? She giggled into the empty living room. At that point, a thousand dollars versus two-million dollars didn’t have a lot of difference to her. They all felt the same – unattainable.

She knelt beside the coffee table and pulled out the picture albums stored there. She’d start with the priority items and see how far she could get. If she didn’t occupy her time and her thoughts, she’d be out by the creek hoping and wishing for a glimpse of Stryder. She couldn’t go back to that. She couldn’t.

Once the entire day had passed and the sun set over the Montana mountain range, Melody finally gave into the growling demands of her stomach. She’d pushed off eating all day because she didn’t have much food left and what she had could be summed up as ramen and saltine crackers. Even starving she wasn’t sure she could stomach that again.

She still hadn’t taken the tip money from the café to go down and buy food. She was hoarding the cash because she didn’t know what was going to happen next. People in town knew she was close to being evicted. How much scorn would she get? How much sympathy? Or worse… how much pity?

Making due with her modest stores was the only option she had at that point. If the townsfolk weren’t talking about her foreclosing and quitting, they’d be talking about Stryder’s return. Since talk about Flint turned to talk about Steel, no matter what the people were talking about, it all came back to Melody.

No, thank you.

Making her way into the kitchen for yet another glass of water, she washed the dust and dirt from her hands before reaching for a chipped plastic glass in the cupboard. At least she still had her water on. She didn’t need power to see during the day and with no food in the fridge, she didn’t need the power for much of anything. She stared off toward the east, opposite the direction Stryder’s home was in, and wished things were as simple as the purple mountains and golden fields made everything look.

A knock on the front door pulled her attention. Lowering the water to the counter, she set her jaw. So help Brock, if he was back again when she hadn’t called him. The Stidwells had gall and she wasn’t about to encourage it.

Each step toward the living room anchored her frustration. She moved to the door, opening the heavy panel, ready to lit into Brock for showing up at her place. She fell into shocked silence to find Stryder standing there with a sheepish expression and his hat in his hands. “I didn’t see the lights the last couple nights, so I wasn’t sure if you’d be home or not. Have you had a chance to eat yet? I mean, tonight?” He cleared his throat and offered her a cautious smile.

Tonight? No, she hadn’t. Not all day, but she kept that to herself. She shook her head. Did she want to eat with him? Was she hungry enough to open that can of worms? All she had to look forward to filling the black hole of her stomach was the ramen. Maybe Stryder would offer her something a little more filling.

At the expense of her pride, she opened the door a little further and smiled to be more encouraging. At that point, if Brock showed up offering food, she just might consider it.

“Come on.” Stryder waited for Melody to follow him onto the porch where he led the way down the front lawn and toward the creek. As the last of the sun faded over the mountain range, Melody blinked as she fell into step beside Stryder.

Why did it look like there was a sun coming up from her creek? Where it should have been darker along the silhouette of the range, it was actually lighter, casting shadows beyond the blades of the grass and trees.

As they got closer, cresting the hill before the slope downward, Melody suppressed a gasp and cast a sharp glance at Stryder who studied her as they walked. She swallowed and looked away quickly, careful to keep the surprise from her face.

A gazebo had been erected on the slight plateau to the side of the tree opposite the swing. Soft flowing white material floated like curtains around the tent-like structure. Twinkling lights had been strung up in the tree, all the way to the top and soft candlelight glowed on a round small table under the gazebo in glass mason jars.

Melody hesitated. The situation was more complicated than just eating at his house or even going into town to eat with all the gossip that would stir up. There were expectations in the candlelight and silky tent. They’d always talked about setting something like that up and having a wedding out there. The thought of a wedding and the implications of the location and everything he’d done struck her dumb and she blinked back suddenly present tears at all they’d lost.

Melody stopped, pulling back. “I… I can’t…. Stryder, this is… I don’t think it’d be fair.” She couldn’t breathe as she took in his strong features, shadowed by his hat and the warm light. Why? Why couldn’t she have everything she wanted?

Stryder turned back, his eyes pleading as he reached for her hand. “No, it’s not a date. It’s just…” He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, making butterflies destroy her tummy. He pulled her close, his voice low as he begged her with his tone. “Let’s take a break. Take a break from hating me. Just… let’s take a break, okay? We can go back to all that tomorrow. We deserve this, Melody. Please.”

The please did her in. Melody studied him, surrounded in the halo of the lights in the ambience he’d created that promised romance and forever while he said to just forget what had happened. Forget her anger. Why couldn’t she have everything she ever wanted? Even if it was only for an hour or two? He was offering it and there was nothing wrong with pretending.

It wasn’t a date.

But she didn’t buy it. She didn’t believe it. And yet… she was hungry and just desperate enough that she would go along with it. She could pretend. They used to play house all the time growing up. She could pretend this was the same thing. She’d have to talk to her heart later, but for right now, her stomach won the argument.

She nodded slowly, relenting to his pull. “Okay.” That single word had better not be her undoing. She had to keep her walls up. She could do that. She could protect herself.

If Stryder turned on his charm and smiled at her like he used to, the lights and the creek would just be the beginning to her losing her heart all over again.