21 Marine Salute: 21 Always a Marine Tales (69 page)

“Yep. If I win, you go out to eat with me.”

“And if I win?”

His teasing took on an almost devilish glint. “I’ll go out to eat with you.”

She ended up owing him a week’s worth of meals, but even when Joe finally said good night and headed back to his apartment, her smile didn’t fade.

***

She hummed her way through the laundry at lunchtime. Libby sprawled in her playpen, sound asleep. After Joe left the night before, she’d relocated the baby to the crib in the bedroom and crawled into bed, settling her hand on the little one’s chest before promptly drifting off into the best sleep she’d had in…well, in forever. Both the drag on her muscles and the unbearable weight always riding her shoulders relaxed.

The gentle knock on the door made her jump but not as bad as the night before. Joe said he would be by after his therapy session, and it was almost two in the afternoon. Running a hand over her hair, she checked her ponytail. She could probably have put on some makeup, but it seemed ridiculous to dress up to do laundry.

At the door, she hesitated and glanced through the peephole. Joe sat in his chair, a warm smile on his face and his head tipped up as though waiting for her to see him. She released the locks and opened it wide, but the greeting died on her lips when she saw an older woman with him. She reminded her of Angela Bassett, only a little heavier and a lot scarier.

“Melody, I’m sorry to spring this on you.” He gave the woman next to him a mild look. “But this is my mother. Meredith Anderson—this is my lovely neighbor, Melody Carter.” A subtext flowed beneath the words, but she couldn’t quite discern whether his disapproval was for his mother or for her.

“Hello.” She held out her hand and Mrs. Anderson took it in her own, giving it a firm, warm squeeze before tugging Melody forward for a quick hug. The easy affection startled her even more than the handshake or his mother’s presence in the first place. She stared at him over his mother’s shoulder and he mouthed ‘sorry.’

“You’re right, Joe, she needs feeding up.” The critical statement carried no censure at all, and if anything, sounded indulgent. “My son says the two of you would like to go out to dinner—”

“Momma.” Joe’s voice was low, but hard. “I asked you not to….”

“I know exactly what you asked me.” She held onto Melody’s hands. “And I know you haven’t cleaned up since the workout and the removal of your brace. Why don’t you go on back with your father and shower? Melody and I are completely capable of getting to know each other.”

“You got the back brace off?” Melody stirred enough to walk around Meredith and get a look at Joe. Sure enough, the stiff, white plastic around his middle was gone.

“Yes, ma’am.” Joe brushed the side of her hand with his finger. A shiver of electricity skated up her arm. “The bones are knitted. I’ll be in the chair a while longer thanks to the leg, but they said in about two weeks I can shift to crutches.”

“That’s fantastic.” Her heart squeezed a little. She didn’t wish him a longer spell in the chair, but…no. No buts. A kind man, he deserved to get well and make a full recovery. “Really, it’s wonderful.”

“Thank you. How’s Libby?”

“She’s good. She’s been really sleepy today, but she had a lot of excitement yesterday and I think you spoiled her a little last night.” Which had nothing to do with anything, but she appreciated the time and the patience he showed to both of them. “And I really don’t want to intrude on your family time.”

“Oh honey, you’re not intruding.” Meredith threaded her arm through Melody’s and turned her back to the apartment, the move so smooth she was halfway inside before she realized what had happened. “In fact, I’m the one intruding. My son is going to shower and change, and then he’ll be over to take you out on a proper date.”

“Momma.” Joe sighed. “She doesn’t want to go out tonight. The baby has surgery on Monday.”

“And that’s exactly why the two of you can take an hour and go have a meal by yourselves and I’ll watch the baby. Now. Go.”

She closed the door and Melody was left alone with the force of nature.

“Um…Mrs. Anderson….”

“Meredith. My children call me Momma, and you can when you’re comfortable, but for now let’s settle with Meredith. Joe will be a bit. His father has orders to keep him occupied.” The woman’s stern features relaxed, echoing the gentleness Melody already adored in Joe’s demeanor. “I wanted a chance to talk to you. Joe says you have no family here and you’ve got a little one. And before you get too worried, I know I’m a bit overbearing. It’s a part of my charm. You’ll learn to love that about me. Do you have time to sit down for some tea or coffee so we can chat?”

So far beyond the wheelhouse of her own experience, Melody nodded. “I was folding clothes, but Libby’s napping.” She glanced at the playpen. Despite the chatter and the new voice, Libby hadn’t moved. Frowning, Melody stared until she caught the barely perceptible rise and fall of the tiny chest. The deep sleep was another symptom, but it could also be a result of the overstimulation from the day before. She could never be too careful.

Meredith watched her quietly, her kind expression sober and intent. “Yeah, you been alone too long, baby. Come sit down and let Momma make you some tea and we’ll talk.”

“I don’t have any tea.” She didn’t have much of anything.

“I brought my own. Never travel without it.” She bustled Melody over to the table, sat her down, then busied herself in the kitchen.

Embarrassment crept through her. The kitchen was clean, as were the dishes, but the barren cupboards and the desolate refrigerator didn’t offer many prospects. Meredith didn’t slow down. Putting her purse on the counter and coat on the chair, she set up two mugs with tea bags and filled the kettle.

After setting the pot on the stove, she pointed a finger at Melody. “You stay right there. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Without waiting for a protest, she slipped out and Melody could almost imagine her marching next door. His mother would likely give him an earful about strays and pathetic homemakers who couldn’t even keep fresh milk in the house. She tried to formulate an apology, but Meredith blew back inside with a small box of sugar, a carton of milk, some bread and lunch meat. She started to stand up, but the woman gave her a firm look.

“Sit.”

She sat.

“Mrs. Anderson….”

“Honey, we’ll be much better friends if you just call me Meredith, and I told you, I know I’m overbearing and pushy. But you look hungry and I don’t believe anyone should go hungry.”

She wanted to protest, but the meat turned out to be honey-baked ham and at the first whiff, her stomach gurgled. Joe’s mother grinned and prepared sandwiches. Apparently she’d stolen Joe’s mayonnaise, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce, too. The generous sandwiches smelled delicious. In a few minutes she had a plate in front of her along with a steaming cup of tea, and the milk and sugar at the ready. Taking the chair opposite Melody’s, she nodded toward the food.

“I really don’t know what to say, Mrs…Meredith.” All good manners seemed to have failed her.

“Then eat and let me talk. I’ll say my piece and when I’m done you can say, ‘thank you, Meredith, but I’m okay,’ and I’ll leave you be.”

The words filled Melody with trepidation and her stomach cramped.

“Honey, you don’t need to be afraid of me. I promise. I don’t bite. I just want to tell you a story, okay?”

Nodding, Melody reached for the sugar and added a single teaspoon of it along with a splash of milk to the tea and stirred it slowly. Meredith nodded with approval and doctored hers.

“My sister, God rest her soul, was a good woman. She was loyal to a fault. The kind of woman you could rely on to take anything life threw at her—even when the one doing the throwing was her husband and what he used were his fists.”

Ice latched onto Melody’s spine. Everything inside her went still.

Meredith took time to cut her sandwich in half and when Melody still hadn’t touched her own, she reached over and cut hers in half before nudging the plate back toward her.

“She believed in her marriage, she believed in her vows, and she believed in her loyalty. So it didn’t matter what her husband did or how afraid it made her, she protected him even from her own family. From me. I’d like to say I knew what was going on, but I didn’t catch on for a while. She was very good at covering for him. But loud noises, they bothered her. Knocks on the door would make her jump, and God forbid she broke anything—even by accident.” Meredith sighed and took a sip of her tea.

Melody knew how the woman’s sister felt. The description echoed her life too closely. The fear in her gut gnawed at her spine. She dropped her gaze to the sandwich. She wanted to eat it.

But she feared throwing up.

“The problem with abuse, you see, is that it isolates the victim. It makes them think they have no one they can go to, especially when they’re embarrassed by what happened and they still love their abuser. Took me a long time to reconcile with that idea, particularly when he got into a rage one night and drove my sister off the road in his car and killed both of them. The police say it was an accident, but I’ve never been convinced.

I took their babies in and I raised them like my own and I learned about abuse—so I could help others the way I couldn’t help my sister.” Meredith cleared her throat. “And when Joe called me yesterday, I knew I needed to come here to meet you. And you don’t have to say anything or tell me about it. Joe says your man died, and I’m sorry for you and your little one.”

Why was his mother telling her all this? The fear turned to guilt and soured in her belly. Melody’s hands shook and she put the tea cup down. She pressed her lips together tightly. She wouldn’t cry or scream.

“My son has a heart as big as a house, and he wants to help you. So do I.”

“You don’t know me.” Melody finally got the words out. “He barely knows me. We met less than two days ago….”

“Don’t matter, honey. Some people, they meet and know right away what they want. My Joe, he’s never called me about a woman. Not ever. But he called me about you.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that. Frustration welled up. “I—he is wonderful and very sweet. But my focus is my little girl. She’s everything and….”

“Exactly how it should be.” Meredith nodded. “Which is why I think you and Joe need to go have that dinner. Joe’s daddy can drive you and sit somewhere else, and I can keep the baby for a bit….”

She didn’t want to go out to dinner. She didn’t want to be away from Libby. “Libby has a heart condition.”

“Joe said as much. So you’ll pick a place to eat close by, I saw a lot of restaurants out there on the way here from the airport. I have raised my fair share of babies, so you can tell me anything special I need to watch for and I’ll be vigilant as a hawk.”

“I can’t.” Melody pushed away from the table and stood up. “Mrs. Anderson, I appreciate the offer…really I do. But I don’t know you. I barely know Joe. I can’t do this right now. I need to be here for Libby.”

“Would you consider a compromise then?” If Melody’s rejection bothered her at all, Meredith didn’t show it.

The exhaustion returned all at once. She looked at his mother patiently.

“Have dinner with him next door, and I’ll keep Libby here. You won’t be more than a dozen steps away.”

Sinking back down, she propped her chin in her hand and stared at the woman. She couldn’t detect any deception or malice in her manner. She genuinely seemed to want to help.

“I’m sorry. You told me about your sister and now you want me to go eat with Joe and it all seems very rushed…I’m confused.”

“Mommas need time, too. You’ve been alone so long, you’re used to being alone. You’ve learned to fend for yourself—protecting the world from your fear and your pain. You bottle it and hold it close and it eats at you, like a cancer. You’re not broken, you’ve got spine and you just stood up to me and told me what you weren’t going to do. I’m glad, but I’m worried, too. I want to help, and if all I can do is sit and make a fuss of a beautiful baby so you can have a meal with my son, then I’d like to do that.”

It all sounded so utterly reasonable. “You can’t possibly want someone as damaged as I am for your son.”

“It’s not about what I want. It’s what Joe wants. He likes you. See, I know my son. He sets his sights on something, he’s not going to go anywhere. But he’ll treat you with kid gloves, gentle as a lamb, because he wants to protect you.”

“And you want to protect him?” Wariness surfaced through the tangle of guilt, fear, and frustration.

“Now don’t go putting words in my mouth. If you’d been some meek little mouse, I’d tell my son he could help you better by letting you get help elsewhere. But you’re not. You’re tough. I can see why he likes you. ’Course, if you don’t eat that sandwich, all that chewing you up inside is going to make you sick.”

Meredith sat relaxed as a queen in her chair, sipping her tea and nibbling on her own sandwich as if to show her how it was done.

“I’m a wreck.” If his mother wanted bold honesty, then so be it. “I’m a fraud. I’m taking charity from people who want to help a fellow Marine’s child when I’m not sorry he’s dead….” She sighed. “That isn’t true either because I am sorry he died. I didn’t wish Tuck dead…. It’s a mess. Joe and you are very kind, but I think it would be better if I finished folding my laundry, took care of my daughter, and got ready for her surgery in a couple of days.”

“Like I said, you have spine and now you have people, too. So eat your sandwich and I’ll help you with the laundry and I’ll even make supper this evening.”

“You don’t have to do that—” Why was the woman offering to do that? Hadn’t she said no? Melody frowned and took a bite of her sandwich.

“Of course, I do. My son is a Marine, tough and resourceful just like you. He sits in that wheelchair and doesn’t complain, doesn’t let on how much it bothers him, and he focuses on the task at hand. But he needs his momma and so here I am. If I’m not mistaken, he needs you, too.”

He’d said something about that the night before—needing to be needed. But wasn’t going out for food and letting his mother bully her into a dinner because he needed to be needed wrong?