Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise) (5 page)

Cal chuckled softly at
her little dance.  “Sounds like this Bradley fella was kinda a douche,” he
surmised, carefully watching Melody’s face.

“That is the
understatement of the frickin’ year.  Heck, maybe the decade, too,” Melody
muttered, lifting one hand to take a swipe at her sweaty forehead. 

Edging toward her, Cal
tried to make a grab for the tool in her hand.  “Seriously, babe.  Let me do
that for you,” he demanded gruffly, afraid she was going to either damage the
wheel well or herself with her rough use of the tool.

“I’m about done warnin’
you, Stranger, so I’ll try and be real clear one last time.  You try to touch
my tire iron again and I’m gonna introduce it to the side of that hard head of
yours.  Repeatedly,” she informed him grimly while she desperately tried to
loosen the second lug nut.  “And, for the record, let me just state that I am
most
certainly
NOT your babe,” she huffed, panting with exertion.

He could see her energy
waning and shook his head.  “You’re completely right, you aren’t my babe,” he
agreed, covering Melody’s icy hands with his as she growled fiercely at the
tire.  “Right now, you’re more of my pain in the ass, woman,” he continued, his
hands tightening on hers as he helped her turn the lug nut.  “This’d be so much
easier if you’d just let me do it,” he stated again, afraid he was going to
hurt her hand by squeezing it too hard.  “Honest to God, sassy, sweet and
stubborn is not the sexy combination I thought it would be on you.”

“So. Freaking. Sorry,”
Melody ground out, nearly squealing with glee as the lug nut began to loosen
smoothly.  “It’s moving!  See, I knew I could do it,” she announced with a wide,
victorious smile.

Cal snorted.  “Uh huh. 
I think you mean,
we
did it, don’t you, Lone Ranger?” he asked with a
faint grin as he took advantage of her distraction and scooted her out of the
way so that he could finish removing the lug nuts for her.

“Whatever,” Melody
muttered, her tone implying she was too tired to object when he took over the
job of changing the tire for her.  “I could totally do this,” she felt
obligated to point out as she watched his easy, efficient movements with a
slight amount of bitterness.

“Maybe you could,
Princess, but I can do it faster,” he said, continuing on with his task. 
“Besides, even in Philly, an able-bodied man doesn’t just sit on his ass while
a woman does all the hard work.  That shit is whacked, and the nuns trained us
kids better than that.”  Cal heard Melody groan softly beside her.  “What? 
You’re not gonna start spouting some women’s lib crap in my ear, are you? 
Because, honestly, I accept that you can do this job just as well as I could,
but that doesn’t mean I believe that you should
have
to do it.  Not when
I’m right here beside you.”

Melody sighed, turning
her head to offer him a long look.  “No, it’s not that.  It’s just that I have
to admit I was wrong.  Apparently you do have some manners after all.”

Callum’s lips tilted up
in a half-grin.  “I spent half my childhood in and out of Catholic orphanages,
Princess.  Believe me, the one thing the Sisters insist on is manners, unless
you wanted to feel the wooden ruler against your knuckles.  I learned fast to
keep my head down and mind my p’s and q’s.”

“I’m sorry,” Melody
apologized huskily, her eyes soft as she looked up into his face.

“I’m not,” he returned,
matching her hushed tone.  “Those nuns helped mold me into the kind of man I am
today.  I’m not ashamed of who I am or where I came from, darlin’,” he
explained as he pulled off the ruined tire and replaced it with the spare,
tightening the lug nuts back up with quick turns of the tire iron.  “Parts of
my childhood were shitty; that’s true.  But, the majority of it… it wasn’t half
bad.  I had some good foster homes, and I had the Sisters when I went to the
Boy’s Home.  They were tough, but they also taught me to be a man, not a
pansy.”

“I can attest that I’ve
definitely seen no pansy-like behavior from you, and trust me…. I’ve got some
experience with a world-class pansy of the first degree,” Melody assured him as
he finished tightening the bolts on her tire.   

Picking up the tire
with one hand, he collected the loose tools with the other and carried it all
back to her trunk.  “That spare will be okay for you in the short term, but
look into getting a new tire soon, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Melody affirmed
as she watched him move back to the side of the car and collect the jack.  “I’ll
get it done this afternoon,” she said as he put the car jack in her trunk and
slammed down the lid.

“Good,” he declared
with a satisfied nod.

“Well, thank you for
helping me,” she said softly.

“You mean forcing my
help on you, don’t you?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he eyed
her.

Dusting off her pants,
Melody offered a small chuckle of her own.  “Well, yes.  I do appreciate it. 
And I hate to rush off now that we’re actually speaking civilly, but I have an
appointment regarding my new store.  I hope you understand.”

“I do.”  He knew she
was struggling to get her book store up and running.  Her brother had told him
all about it.  “Just take care of that tire,” he reminded her, nodding toward
the spare as she circled her vehicle to reach the driver’s side.

“I will.  See you
around….I never got your name,” she gasped, her eyes widening slightly as she
stared across the top of her car at him.

“Nope, you didn’t,” he
affirmed with a sly grin.  “That’s okay, though.  There’ll be time to get my
name later, Miss Melody,” he added as he climbed behind the wheel of his own
truck and started the engine and rolled down his windows.  “I’ll see you soon,
Princess,” he called to the gaping woman as he backed out of his parking space.

“Wait!” she called, her
body half in-half out of her car.  “How do you know
my
name?”

Shooting her a dazzling
smile, he shook his head.  “That’s for you to figure out, Princess.  I’ll see
you soon,” he replied before hitting the accelerator and pulling out of the
parking lot.  Looking in his rearview mirror, he couldn’t help his laugh as he
met her confused gaze.

Oh yeah, Melody had met
her match… and she didn’t even know it yet.

But in just a few
hours’ time, he knew she would.

“So, it’s official. 
We’ve decided to shoot for a grand opening date of February 14.  You’re good
with that being about eight weeks from now?” Harmony McKinnon asked Melody as
she looked up from her notes and stared across the desk at her friend and
newest client.  Tucking her blonde chin length hair behind her small ears, she
met the brunette’s anxious gaze.  “You’re positive?”

“I think ‘good’ might
be a little too strong a word,” Melody hedged with a nervous laugh, “But, yeah,
Valentine’s Day sounds good.  Maybe I can capitalize on the last-minute-gift-buying
crowd.” 

Absently listening as
Harmony described the cake she’d have her sister, Honor, prepare and the
appetizers the local café would supply, Melody was grateful the other woman had
things well in hand because she couldn’t seem to stop her thoughts from
meandering all over the place.

Reminding herself that
she was here to talk about her business, Melody mentally castigated herself for
the third time.  Allowing her thoughts to drift toward a certain lumbering
gorilla that apparently knew her name was a bad plan.  This was only a big deal
if she let it be one, and she simply didn’t have time for another drama in her
life.  Between the store, her break-up, the weird hang-ups she started getting
a few days ago, and the mysterious home improvements  that kept happening
around her new-to-her home, she had enough on her plate.

Today had been crazy –
even by her standards.  After she’d finally gotten moving after changing her
tire, she’d run home to change her soiled white shirt.  Grease had rubbed off
on the expensive fabric, and she’d wanted to drop it off at the dry cleaners
this afternoon.  Immediately upon pulling into her driveway, those stupid phone
calls had started again for the third day in a row.  Three times a caller had
dialed her number and simply breathed on the other end of the line as she
collected her things and climbed the porch steps to her door.  The stupid jerk
never said a word, but she knew he (or maybe she) was there.  She’d finally
hung up after the third call and refused to answer when the phone rang and the
blocked call showed up on her phone’s screen again.   Instead, her eyes had
been drawn toward the sliding garage door.  Her
closed
garage door.

This wouldn’t have been
a big deal, but she hadn’t been able to close that door since she’d moved into
her granny’s house.  It wouldn’t have been a big deal except when she’d left
that morning, the door had been still stuck open.  It was now closed.  And she
knew with every fiber of her being that her ‘house fairy’ had been back to
visit her.  Oh, she knew it wasn’t
actually
a fairy that had been
helping her out lately.  In all likelihood, it was probably one of her
grandmother’s neighborhood friends (of which she had
many
) doing what he
(or she) felt was their Christian duty.  Her house fairy had been busy the last
two weeks.  From mowing her lawn to repairing the broken screen door on her
back porch, somebody was going out of their way to make her feel at home in her
late Granny’s neighborhood of old, but well-loved two-story houses.  She
appreciated it, but she couldn’t deny it was getting creepy.  Mostly because no
matter which nearby neighbor she asked, nobody claimed to have seen anything. 
It was strange since she knew the elderly women that lived on the street were
as nosy as the day was long.  Sweet, but nosy.  Honestly, this unidentifiable
person was driving her crazy.  At the very least, she owed him, her, them, or
it a nice home-cooked meal.

“Earth to Mel,”
Harmony’s musical voice called, pulling Melody’s eyes back to the pretty blonde
woman’s unblemished face.  “You okay? You tuned out on me there for a few
minutes,” she heard the event planner ask with a friendly smile.

“I’m so sorry, Harm.  I
guess I’ve got a lot on my mind.  Starting over in a new place, alone, and
opening a new business has got me rattled, I guess.  My nerves are starting to
get the better of me.  Things will get better when RJ gets home from
Afghanistan.  At least, I hope they will,” she amended, mentioning her older
brother.  RJ had another six months overseas, but he’d get a couple of months
off when he got back to the States.  Fortunately, she knew he planned to spend
that time here with her.

“How is that handsome
brother of yours, girl?  Still a hunk?  As I recall, Rhythm Blue Reardon was
quite the lady magnet back in his younger days,” Harmony recalled, wriggling
her eyebrows as put her elbow on her desk and propped her chin against her
hand.  “Gosh, I don’t think I’ve seen him in the better part of ten years.  I
guess the last time was when y’all came to visit your granny and came to church
with her.”

“That sounds about
right,” Melody murmured with a nod as her heart clenched.  Memories of her
sweet grandmother could still steal her breath.  She still missed the irascible
old woman like crazy.  Forcing herself to focus on the question she’d been
asked instead of her pain, Melody smiled.  “RJ is doing great…or as great as he
can be while he’s working in a war zone.  He was promoted to Sergeant 1
^st
Class last year and he got his degree in criminal justice.  If he ever decides
to retire, he could easily get a job as a police officer.  We usually talk once
a week.  It’s better now that the guys are allowed to have cell phones over
there.  I can call him.  Usually I have to leave a message, but he usually
calls back in a couple of days.”

“Is he married?”
Harmony asked curiously, her blue eyes interested as she stared at Melody.

“Lord, no!” Melody
laughed, trying to imagine her handful of a brother tying himself to just one
woman.  His head would probably explode if he tried monogamy.  “He’s still
playing the field.  The man enjoys variety too much to settle on just one
flavor, you know?   I don’t think he’ll ever settle down.  Granny used to say
he had a wanderer’s heart.”

“Oh, I know something
about those type of men.  My husband used to be one.”  Harmony jerked her thumb
toward the wedding portrait of her and her husband Jacob Stone that hung above
her desk in their den where Harmony had set up her office.  “I think it just
takes the right woman to make a man like that plant his feet.”

For some odd reason,
thoughts of her friendly giant skittered through Melody’s mind upon hearing
those words.  She wondered if her towering hero from this morning was going to
plant his feet here in Paradise.  Remembering the way his blue eyes had
twinkled when he looked at her, she kind of hoped he did.  Blinking as she
realized that she’d just thought of that mostly rude Neanderthal in a
possessive sense, Melody stiffened.  These were definitely not ideas she should
be entertaining.

Licking her lips,
Melody quickly turned the conversation back toward Harmony.  “That’s a
beautiful picture,” she remarked, gesturing toward the huge portrait of Jake,
Harmony, and her adorable daughter, Heaven.  “Your little girl…. she’s what? 
Four?”

“She’s five now, but
she thinks she’s going on twenty-five.  She and her daddy are thick as
thieves,” Harmony said, looking over her shoulder at the picture with a grin.  Turning
her attention back to Melody, Harmony cocked her head to the side.  “I heard
about what happened with Bradley, Mel.  I’m so sorry you had to go through
that.  You know I went through the whole cheating thing with my first husband,
Tanner.”

Melody paled.  She’d
been unaware that the details of her personal life were making the rounds in
Paradise.  “Wow,” she murmured thickly, “I forgot how quickly news travels in a
small town.”

“True, but most people
mean well, honey,” Melody offered sympathetically as she reached across the
desk to pat Melody’s hand.  “Girl, we were friends before all this happened to
you.  So. If you need me…I’m here.  I understand that you’re a private person,
but I don’t want you feelin’ like you’ve got nobody to unload on.  I’m always
here if you need me.  So are all my sisters.  God knows we’ve each had our own
set of troubles.”

Sniffling as tears
burned in her eyes, Melody squeezed Harm’s hand.  “Thank you.  Stuff with
Bradley, my ex, well, it’s been difficult.  It’s kinda sad though.  It’s not
really
Brad
that I miss; it’s being part of a couple, you know.  I liked
being part of a team of two with somebody.  Then, I found out that Brad was
adding players to our team without my knowledge,” she admitted with a shudder
of distaste.  “First, I caught him sleeping with the woman that I thought was
my best friend, and then, the more I looked around, the more women I learned he
was screwing.  Meanwhile, he barely touched me,” she whispered painfully. 
“Honestly, I thought he just didn’t like sex.  Turns out, he just didn’t like
sex with
me
.”

“Nuh uh.  Don’t do
that,” Harmony ordered sharply.  “Do not take his crap on
your
shoulders. 
The problem was him and his wandering penis, Mel.   It wasn’t anything you were
responsible for, honey.”

Melody tried to smile
bravely.  “Sometimes, that’s hard to remember.  I think I’m off love for life.”

“Yeah, I know that
feeling from experience.  So did my sisters,” Harmony commiserated.  “But,
listen here, babe.  I found a good man when I was least expecting it.  I’m
betting you will, too.”

Melody’s thoughts
automatically went back to the parking lot outside the coffee shop and her unwanted
savior.  “Maybe,” she mumbled, biting her lip.

“No maybe about it. 
Look at me.  I found Jake in the middle of my own personal hell.  That man
almost had to walk through fire to convince me that we were meant to be
together.  Then, my brother-in-law, Cain Turner nearly broke my sister Faith’s
heart before he found his way back to her after he was deployed overseas.  But
they finally did.  They’re married now and have a baby girl.  And remember
Patience?”

“Oh, yeah.  Patience
was the McKinnon handful as I remember it,” Melody reminisced, recalling the
beautiful blonde.  “She had indigo streaks in her hair the last time I saw
her.”

“Well, she’s still a
handful, but the streaks in that crazy woman’s hair are red this week,” Harmony
returned dryly, rolling her eyes.  “She’s also married to Cain’s brother, Abel,
and they have a household of triplets.   Those two danced through the flames of
hell before they finally found a home in each other’s arms.  I guess my point
is that sometimes love is a hard earned commodity, but when you find the right
one, Melody, it’s so totally worth it,” Harmony shared quietly.

“We’ll see,” Melody
offered with a sigh.  Frowning, she turned her brown eyes back to Harmony. 
“You didn’t mention Honor. How is that sweet young lady doin’?” she asked
gently.  Everyone in town knew the horror that Honor had faced a few years’
back.  Kidnapped after a high school football game and gang-raped in the woods,
news of Honor’s horrifying ordeal had even reached the papers in Knoxville. 
Her grandmother had been good friends with Orla McKinnon, Harmony’s aunt.  And
Melody knew from what her grandmother had shared that Honor had physically
recovered, but still remained slightly withdrawn to this day.  Still sweet as
the day is long despite her trauma, yes.  But the open, extroverted girl she’d
been before that long ago day had died in the woods.  Meeting Harmony’s eyes
now, Melody could tell something was wrong, but she didn’t want to pry.

“She’s…. had a really
rough year.  I’m sure you heard about Tanner’s part in what happened to her all
those years ago,” Harmony noted with a shaking voice, averting her eyes from
Melody’s.

“Hey,” Melody said
firmly, squeezing Harmony’s hand now.  “Like you just told me, that is
not
your
fault.  But, yeah, Granny mentioned that to me before she passed away.”

“I’m still having some
trouble believing that I’m not responsible for what happened to her, but Jake
reminds me every night that we need to leave the past where it is and
concentrate on helping Honor now,” Harmony admitted with a faraway look in her
eyes.  “At any rate, I’m not sure you know it or not, but Patience and Honor
got in a car wreck month before last.  It was pretty bad.  Touch and go for
both of them for a while.  Patience had the triplets early, and Honor was
impaled in the wreck.  There were some internal injuries.”

“I knew there was a
wreck,” Melody whispered.  “I had no idea how bad it was.”

“It gets worse,”
Harmony sighed.  “The brake line on Honor’s car had been intentionally cut, and
someone helped nearly get them killed by running them off the road that night,
too.”

“Oh, my God!  That must
have been terrifying for all of you.”

“It was,” Harmony
affirmed with a jerky nod.

“So…wait.  That means
somebody tried to
kill
Honor?” Melody asked as the big picture began to
form in her mind.  “Intentionally?”

“Yeah.  Patience was
collateral damage, but Jake and Zeke believe that Honor was the primary
target.  They think it’s tied back into Honor’s rape and the men they never
caught.”

“Good God!  Harmony, I
can’t even imagine what y’all are going through right now.  My problems don’t
even seem like problems anymore.  Are Honor and Zeke…. Did they ever…” she
trailed off.  Ninety-nine percent of Paradise County knew that Sheriff Ezekiel Monroe
was in love with Honor McKinnon.  The man had never bothered hiding it, and he
never denied it when asked.  Honor, understandably, had issues after everything
that happened to her.  Melody had hoped that maybe the couple had overcome
their obstacles.