Unexpected Admirer (11 page)

As they drove into the driveway, Patsy turned in her seat to look at him. “You’re staying for lunch, right?”

He glanced at Melissa, who nodded in the mirror.

“I would love to.”

“Great.” Patsy turned to Jonah. “Come inside with me and help me get lunch started.” She turned to Melissa. “Maybe you two should take a drive and have some time. You should go show Jesse Grandpa’s land. You can unlock the gate while you’re there. Elsie is going to show it tomorrow.”

Melissa opened her mouth to speak, but Patsy hurried out of the car and Jonah retreated quickly, too. Jesse opened the door, climbed out of the car, and then got back into the front seat.

“Melissa, if you don’t want to…”

She shook her head. “I do want to.” She lifted her head and her eyes were filled with tears. “Jesse, this isn’t going to work. How can we possibly make this work?”

He touched her cheek. He was good with words to soothe her, but he knew this was nearly the end of them and they hadn’t even begun. She’d been right. They just came from two different worlds.

“We have today. Be mine for today. We can figure out everything later.”

She nodded, put the car in reverse, and headed up the mountain as the snow began to come down heavier.

“Where did you learn to sign like that?” Jesse asked as Melissa maneuvered the narrowing road.

“My grandfather is deaf.”

“The grandfather whose house we’re going to now?” Panic took over.

“He’s not there.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

She smiled. “He liked his house, buried in the mountains. The community accepted him, but in general, the deaf were not commonly accepted by the masses. But up here, it didn’t matter.”

Jesse looked between the trees and down the mountain. The small, quaint town began to grow smaller as they climbed the narrow, steep road.

“So this was his hideaway?”

“You could say that. He and Grandma lived here for fifty years together. When he lost her, we lost a little of him. We had to put him in a home in Aspen Hills. But he’s doing well there. I just wish we could put him somewhere even better.”

“What’s stopping you?”

She quickly glanced at him and then back to the road, which was quickly filling with snow.

“We live on my teaching income and my mother’s Social Security. There is no money to put him somewhere nicer. The only option for us is to sell his property.”

Just as she said so, they reached the property line with its grand ornate gate at the entrance.

Melissa stopped the car, took out the keys, and opened the car door. “I have to unlock the gate. I’ll be right back.”

He watched as she shielded her eyes from the blowing snow and unlocked the gate. The snow had accumulated quickly, and she had to force the gate open enough for her car to pass through.

Snow storms, narrow mountain roads, manual entry gates—what a different world. How wondrous, he thought.

When she opened the car door, the gust of cold air chilled him to the bone. As she situated in her seat, engulfed in her heavier coat, he couldn’t help but smile at the bright red of her cheeks.

Melissa pulled through the gate and toward the house.

“You should keep my truck and use it. How do you drive in the snow in this car?”

She chuckled. “Skill and finance. I own this outright and that makes a big difference.”

God, how spoiled was he? Within ten minutes, he’d heard twice how hard things were for her, and here he was in a stolen coat, bragging about a truck he bought on a whim after flying into town on a private plane. When did he become what he loathed?

Melissa parked the car in front of the house. Jesse cranked his neck to see it through the window.

“This is awesome.”

She laughed. “It is, isn’t it? My great grandfather started the house, and my grandfather added a room in the back to it. A laundry room of all things.” She turned her head. “The barn was my playhouse. Grandpa even made me a little escape up on the second level.” She sighed. “I miss that simplicity.”

She adjusted the zipper on her coat. “Out back there is a tiny little retention pond with a rope swing. You can swing and dive in. Jonah likes that the best.”

“You glow when you talk about this place.”

“I glow?” She touched her cheeks. “Well, it holds many good memories. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.”

Obviously she was done talking about it because she opened her door, climbed out of the car, and shut the door behind her.

Jesse climbed out of the car into the cold wind and followed her up the steps to the large front porch.

“Watch this board by the door. It’s rotted through.”

He stepped to the side. Getting hurt the night before a concert was not a good idea.

When she pushed open the door, he was transported to another time. The wood floors were raw, unfinished, unmatched pieces of wood. The furniture was old and most of it was covered.

The air was thick with dust, but it didn’t bother him at all.

“This place is amazing.”

“It’s not as big as it looks from outside. This is the living room.” She turned to the small space behind them. “That’s the dining room, and the kitchen is through there. The laundry room is just off the back. It doubles as a closed porch and a mud room.”

“There are bedrooms upstairs?”

“Three.”

He felt the smile form on his face. “Can I see them?”

“Of course.”

She led him through the old, in-need-of-updating kitchen to a small staircase at the back of the house. As she started up the stairs, the urge to grab her was almost uncontrollable.

“I like the view.”

“What?” She spun around and was eye to eye with him, standing the step above him.

He grinned. “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” He lifted his hand to her cheek.

“Jesse…”

“One more kiss.”

He moved in, and his mouth found hers. He wrapped his fingers in her hair and pressed closer to her.

There was as much urgency in her return. Her tongue found his, her hands came to his chest, and she fell against him as he moved her against the wall and stepped up to the same step with her.

She was breathless beneath him. What would stop him from taking her right in this secluded house?

Pride. Honor. Love.

He pressed his head to hers. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“I can’t make myself let you tell me goodbye forever,” he said, gasping for breath.

“I don’t want to. I’ve grown to have feelings for you, and I don’t know what to do with that.”

“Come to L.A.”

She adjusted to look at him. “What? I can’t leave here.”

“No.” He stepped back and placed his hands on her hips. “Come see me on my turf. After Thanksgiving is my last show on this tour. In L.A. Come be there.”

“Jonah.”

“He’ll be fine with your mom.” He kissed her once more. “Please.”

She watched him as he stood there. How could he convince her more?

“This still isn’t a good idea. We can’t make it—you and me.”

“Just come see me. Don’t say goodbye yet if it’s not what either of us want.”

She let out a long breath, turned from him, and walked up the stairs.

He gathered his thoughts and followed.

She pushed open the first bedroom door and stepped in.

“My grandfather made all this.”

Jesse walked over to the bed and ran his hand down the poster of the bed. “This is amazing workmanship.”

“His heart was in it.”

“What happens to all of this?”

“It’ll have to go with the house.”

A tear fell from her eye, and he moved quickly to wipe it away.

“It’s all going to be okay.”

“You can’t say that. You don’t live in my life.”

He felt that more, standing in this house, than ever before.

He wished he had more words that would soothe her, but he didn’t. They had one shot at this relationship, and their differences were going to tear them apart.

Just as he took a breath to speak, his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket.

“Hey, Bryce.”

Melissa turned to give him privacy, but the phone call seemed one-sided. Whoever was talking was talking fast and loud.

She walked to the door to leave just as he turned off his phone.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“You’re a busy man.”

“Yeah, and my manager just caught wind that I’d come here.”

He moved to her and gathered her in his arms.

“I have to get back. The storm is growing he says, and if I don’t get my flight out as soon as I can, I’ll breach the contract for my show in Saint Louis.”

She nodded her head. “I’ll get you back.”

As she turned, he reached for her arm and spun her back to him.

“I love you.”

Melissa sucked in any words that she could retort.

“Don’t say anything. Words come over me when I feel them,” he apologized. “You need to know how deep this goes in my heart.”

“Don’t sing some song to me. Those are serious words.”

“I don’t take them lightly.”

She didn’t know what do with that. She broke from his grip and hurried down the stairs. He followed, but she was in a hurry to get away from him now—to get him out of her life was more like it.

Melissa was in the car before he even reached her. She put the key in the ignition and cranked, but nothing happened.

“No!”

She did it again and again. The car was dead, but her emotions had kicked into overdrive.

Jesse was standing just beyond her car door, in the snow, in a pair of very expensive and now wet shoes and a stolen coat.

Why did he have to say that? Why did he go over that line?

She opened the door and climbed out.

“I have to call to have William come jump the car.”

He let out a breath on the frozen air. “Okay. They’ll have to deal with that.”

“Deal with it? We have no choice.” She slammed the car door. “I’d flap my arms if it would get you back to your life faster.”

“Is that because you don’t want me?”

“It’s because you’re wrong to want me.”

The tears that stung her eyes were frozen there as he moved in to reach for her. She couldn’t have it. She couldn’t have him now that he said he loved her, and he had no basis for it.

She hurried past him to get in the house.

Up the front steps she flew with him right behind her, and as she reached for the door, the board beneath her gave way and her leg went through the porch.

She let out a scream, and Jesse was right there.

“Are you okay?”

“No, you idiot, I’m not.” She screamed again as she tried to pull her leg from the hole.

“Let me help you.” He crouched down next to her and gently eased her foot through the board. “You tore it up pretty bad.”

She looked down. Her pant leg was ripped, and her sock was bloody. “This isn’t happening.”

“Yes it is, and we’re going to deal with it, even if you think I’m an idiot.” He wrapped his arm around her. “Can you stand?”

She put her arm around his shoulder and let him pull her to her feet, but the moment she put weight on her foot, she fell against him.

“I did something to it. It might be broken.”

Without another word, Jesse scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the house.

The couch was covered, but she pointed to it and he gently set her down. He knelt on the floor next to her and examined her leg.

“I’m going to take off your shoe. Your ankle is swelling.”

She nodded and winced as he moved her even slightly. The moment he brushed against her ankle, her stomach rolled.

“Oh, sweetheart, you might have broken it.”

She inched up to look at the already swollen ankle that was turning shades of purple.

She leaned back on the couch, kicking up dust as she did so. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone.

Jesse stood. “Do you have some bags? I could put some snow in them and put them on your ankle.”

Melissa took a deep breath through the pain. “Trunk of my car. I have a survival kit. There are some bottles of water, bags, and some blankets.” She fished the keys from her pocket and handed them to him.

He nodded and headed outside as she dialed William’s number.

By the time Jesse walked back through the door, his hair and coat were covered in snow.

“It’s really coming down now,” he said as he shut the front door with his hip.

“We shouldn’t have come up here.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He set the box he’d carried in on the coffee table. “I can’t think of anything better than a Colorado mountain snowstorm and the most beautiful woman in the world, alone with me, in an amazing house.”

She smiled, but the throbbing in her ankle made her wince.

“I’ll get you something cold for that.”

Jesse found a Ziploc bag that had some dry socks in it. He looked up at her and smiled. Melissa shrugged. She’d lived in these conditions her whole life. You prepared.

He dumped out the socks and headed for the front door. “By the way,” he said as he turned the knob, “I thought you were adorable before, but after seeing this preparedness kit, you’ve totally won my heart. No one in L.A. is ever prepared for anything except to freshen their lipstick.”

He stepped outside and shut the door behind him.

L.A. She gave it some thought. Everything there would be different. Warm weather. Beaches. Movie stars. Then she laughed. Jesse Charles was one of them—she’d nearly forgotten.

He’d become more than the poster on her son’s wall. He’d become the man who filled her dreams. Not a moment in the past few weeks had gone by when she hadn’t had her mind wander to him.

She found herself glancing at the folders the girls carried and the posters they had in their lockers. It made her feel closer to him. She listened to Jonah’s CD in the car. And to think, after he’d played that annoying
Admirer
song so many times, she’d nearly taken her keys to the back of it so she wouldn’t have to hear it.

She’d gotten upset when he said he loved her. She still didn’t agree with the fact that he’d said it at all, but she felt it. She consumed him, just as he consumed her.