She was also incredibly grateful to everyone seated around the table. Each had contributed in some way to her being able to juggle her classes and Jace successfully. Sarah and Tony kept him occupied for an hour each evening with “chores” around the ranch, which Jace exchanged for riding lessons. David was working with him to write his name in a legible way. During the week, the evenings had flown by with Jace’s reading log, the occasional ride, and bath time. The full days didn’t end for Melanie when Jace went to bed. Those quiet hours at night were when she studied. She had completed just one semester, but added to the credits she already had, she only needed one more.
Melanie’s father said, “Don’t see what all the fuss is about. We always knew you could do whatever you set your mind to. Now, just get your sisters in college and I’ll be happy.”
Her sister Bunny shrugged off their father’s comment. “Dad, as soon as I’m eighteen, I’m moving to LA. I want to model. You don’t need college for that.”
“Even a model needs to know enough about money to hold on to it,” Melanie’s father had argued. “You’ll be enrolling in a college or you won’t be going anywhere.”
“Don’t waste your breath,” Melanie’s sister Natalie, said. “She’s as hardheaded as Melanie.”
Melanie’s eyebrows rose in surprise.
“Something I take as a compliment,” Bunny said to Melanie. “You’ve always done what you wanted to do and no one could tell you any different.”
Humility followed shock at her sister’s praise. She looked around the room at those who had gathered in her honor that night. None of them were new to her life. She thought about how desperately alone she’d felt when she really never had been. Her mother had tried countless times to tell her that over the years, but she’d never heard her. Hardheaded? Yeah, I guess you could call me that.
Too hardheaded to return any of Charles’s phone calls. I should have. He deserved better than how I left. Even though he didn’t make the offer I needed to hear, he offered what he could. And he was honest. More than I was with him.
She wished she hadn’t left without telling Charles about Todd. She wanted to believe that, given the same circumstances now, she would have woken him up that last morning in New York and not run away like a coward.
I’d like to think that.
Just like I tell myself that if he calls me again, I’ll answer and apologize. It’s not his fault I’m an emotional train wreck.
Melanie looked across the table at her mother and said, “If I could go back in time, there are a great many things I’d do differently. And I’d definitely tell myself to listen to Mom and Dad more. The older I get, the wiser I realize they are.”
Her mother smiled. “Can I get a hallelujah?”
Chuckles broke out around the table. Even her father smiled, then in a serious tone he said, “We’re proud of you, Melanie. Now all you need to do is find yourself a good man.”
The table went suddenly silent.
Melanie’s face heated while some looked on with sympathy and others with amusement. “Dad—” she started to protest.
Her mother said, “Steve, do we have to talk about this tonight? We’re here to celebrate. Melanie will find someone when she’s ready to.”
“I’m sorry,” he said without sounding sorry. “There are plenty of men around here interested, but I can’t recall the last date she had.”
Melanie’s sister Katie asked, “What happened to not wanting any of us to date until we’re thirty?”
The father looked at his youngest sternly. “It’s still true for the rest of you, but Jace needs a daddy. Melanie’s not getting any younger. What’s she waiting for?”
The front door of Tony’s house opened and closed with a bang. One of the newer ranch hands came in and said, “One of those long, fancy limousines just pulled into the driveway. I thought you should know.”
David asked, “Is it Jace’s grandparents again?”
Melanie shook her head. “No, they said they’d come back around Christmas.”
Sarah stood and clapped in excitement. “It must be Charlie.”
Melanie went pale. “Charles?” she asked weakly.
Jace went to stand protectively beside his mother. “Is that the man who punched Tony?”
Katie ran to the window and said, “He looks even better in person than he does in the video.”
“Who is Charles?” Melanie’s father asked gruffly.
Her mother laid her hand on his and said softly, “I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”
Melanie took her son’s hand. “He’s not usually like that, Jace. He was very angry that day because he was worried about his sister. He’s Sarah’s brother.”
“That’s the only reason he survived hitting me,” Tony said, pushing back from the table and standing up. “What’s he doing here?”
David stood, too. “I thought you got along with him now, Tony.”
“I did, until Melanie went to New York.”
Melanie stood angrily and glared at Sarah. “What did you tell Tony about me and Charles?”
Sarah blushed and sank into her chair. “Not everything,” she said defensively.
Melanie’s father rose from his chair. “What the hell happened in New York?”
Her mother put a hand on his arm to caution him. “Why don’t we let the kids sort this out?” When he didn’t budge, she turned to her daughters. “Could you girls take Jace in the kitchen for some ice cream?”
Bunny and Natalie agreed to do so, but Jace refused to release his mother’s hand. “Mama?” he said, trying to figure out what was going on.
Despite the wildly churning emotions within her, Melanie forced herself to smile down at her son. “Go, Jace. Be good and listen to your aunts and have that ice cream.”
“In my day, we didn’t bribe children . . .” Melanie’s father said, though he stopped when his wife elbowed him. Melanie sent him a silent plea and was surprised when he added, “. . . with ice cream alone. I hope you’ve got some cake back there as well.”
“Do you? Do you have cake?” Jace asked, shrugging off his mother’s hand and joining his aunts. “Mom doesn’t let me eat dessert except for on Sunday. Is today Sunday?”
“Today is an exception,” Melanie assured her son.
“I love ecleptons!” Jace exclaimed happily and trotted off to the kitchen.
Looking up to see Charles in the doorway of the dining room, Melanie didn’t have time to do more than smooth a hand over her loose hair and lament her choice of jeans and a T-shirt that evening.
“Sorry to interrupt your dinner,” Charles said. Nothing in his expression hinted that he was sorry. His face was carefully devoid of expression. “Melanie, we need to talk.”
“Now?” Melanie squeaked, then closed her eyes at her inane question.
“Now,” Charles said, softening his command with, “if you’ll all excuse us.”
Melanie froze, wanting to go with him, but she held back because of all she was afraid he would say. Was it his pride that had brought him there—to demand an explanation and that apology she knew she owed him? Or was it something more?
Sarah crossed the room and hugged her brother. After a brief exchange, Charles turned his focus back to Melanie and waited.
In the silence, Melanie’s father’s voice rang out clear. “If he’s here to court my daughter, why the hell did he come dressed like he’s going to a funeral?”
Chapter Seventeen
Frustration replaced whatever anticipation Charles had felt about seeing Melanie again. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. She wore her long hair loose down her back and was dressed in casual jeans and a T-shirt, just as she had been the first time they’d met. But today she looked entirely different. There was a confidence in her that hadn’t been there before.
It made him want her more, and he hadn’t thought that was possible.
So far, their reunion wasn’t living up to how he’d imagined it. Foolish
ly, he’d imagined her running to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him with as much need as had been building within him the past few months. He had fantasized about how he would carry her off to the nearest bed and enjoy her physical demonstration of how sorry she was before claiming her, again and again, as his.
Clearly, his prediction of how this day would go needed to be adjusted.
Tony Carlton, his sister’s fiancé, stepped between him and Melanie and drawled slowly, “We didn’t expect you today.” His tone implied, “or want you.”
Sarah gave Tony a look of reprimand over her shoulder and hugged him. “But you’re always welcome.”
Tony made a noncommittal grunt behind her. “Depends on why he’s here.”
Charles stepped back from his sister, removed his sunglasses, and put them in the breast pocket of his suit jacket, meeting Tony’s glare with one of his own. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
Melanie’s father went to stand beside Tony. “Just who the hell does this city slicker think he is?”
Charles looked past her father to the other young men in the room. He addressed his question to Melanie. “Are any of them the Todd you told me about?”
Melanie shook her head but with an expression of sadness that confused him. Was Todd still part of her life? Had she found him, been with him again? A dark jealousy gripped his heart and squeezed even as he hated seeing her unhappy.
He had a hundred questions he wanted to ask Melanie, but none of them in front of the present audience.
A small male voice rang out, “Are you going to fight again? Mama tells me to use my words and not my hands when I get angry.”
Charles looked down into the serious and critical eyes of Melanie’s young son, Jace. He forced himself to relax. “Your mother is a very smart woman.”
Jace studied the expressions of the three men as he shoveled a piece of cake into his mouth. “What does court mean?”
Charles shook his head in confusion. “Court?”
Jace patiently explained, “Grandpa said you were here to court my mom. What does that mean?”
Charles looked across the room at Melanie. She had covered her face with both hands in mortification, but as her son spoke she parted her hands enough to watch the exchange. “It means I want to marry your mother.”
Melanie gasped and sat down in a chair. Her three sisters chattered in the background.
Sarah joined Tony and slid beneath his arm, hugging him tightly. “Don’t laugh at him—you were just as bad.”
Tony shrugged unapologetically and returned her hug.
“Is anyone going to tell me who this guy is?” Melanie’s father’s growled.
Melanie stood and walked across the room toward Charles. “Charles, these are my parents and sisters—Bunny, Natalie, and Katie. You’ve met David. Lucas, Sawyer, Austin, Gunner, and Travis are ranch hands. They’ve been here as long as I have.” She turned to her father. “Dad, this is Charles. He’s Sarah’s brother.”
“How do you know him,” her father asked.
Jace pulled on the sleeve of Charles’s suit until he looked down. “Do you ride horses?”
“No,” Charles said absently. Every inch of him was humming with anticipation again now that Melanie was headed his way. He didn’t care that the general welcome had been less than warm. All he cared about was seeing Melanie again and convincing her to leave with him.
“Do you fish?”
Charles thought about his brother and the lake he’d drowned in and shook his head. “No.”
“Why are you all dressed up for church if it’s not Sunday?”
Melanie stood just behind her son, and Charles lost the ability to concentrate on anything but her. “It’s just a suit. I live in suits.”
Jace glanced over his shoulder at his mother and said, “I don’t like him. Let’s go home.” He took Melanie by the hand.
Melanie gazed down at her son for a moment, and a knife of uncertainty twisted in Charles’s gut. When she looked up there was yearning and a good-bye in her eyes. Todd or no Todd, it didn’t matter. She’s walking away from me. Again.
If Jace weren’t holding her hand, she’d never get out the door, but what can I do?
“Melanie . . .” Charles said gruffly.
“I’m sorry you came all this way. I should have called you back.” She stepped away from everyone, still holding her son’s hand. “I can’t talk right now, and there is really nothing left to say except that I’m sorry about how I left everything. That was wrong. I’m taking Jace home now. Sarah, thank you for tonight. I wish . . .” She let her words trail away and walked to the door. She paused before shaking her head and leaving with Jace.
Charles stood where she’d left him and cursed himself for being so wrapped up in Melanie that he’d failed to connect with her son. What the hell do I know about talking to a kid? What did I think, just because I’ve spent time with Tanner that I can do this?
Jace saw me for what I am—a poor choice for a father for him. I tell myself I’ve changed, put the past behind me, but even a five-year-old knows how full of shit I am.
Fuck.
The ranch manager, David, came to stand beside him. “The character of a man is seldom revealed when things go well.”
Charles didn’t look away from the door Melanie had left through. That’s all I need right now, the Texan version of a fortune cookie.
Behind him, Melanie’s father said, “Looks like you have your answer, son.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Charles said with finality. “Not without Melanie.”
“I’m definitely moving to the city,” one of Melanie’s sisters said from across the room, fanning her face.
Sarah nudged Tony. “Do something.”
Tony asked, “What the hell am I supposed to . . .” He looked down into Sarah’s eyes and then addressed Charles again. “Do you want to learn how to ride, Charlie?”
Charles knew Tony was being sarcastic, but he also knew that he’d never been as sure of anything as he was about being with Melanie. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t have to.
It simply was.
“If that’s what it takes,” he said, challenging Tony to withdraw the offer.
Melanie’s mother walked over and stood directly in front of Charles. She raised her chin as she studied him critically. He held her gaze, unblinking. “Why do you want my daughter?”
Charles answered honestly. “Because she’s all I can think about.”
The older woman nodded her approval. “Then you take those riding lessons, Charles, and don’t let Tony give you any grief about them. But know that you can’t win my daughter’s heart unless you win her son’s first.
Her husband said, “I can’t believe you’re encouraging him.”
She smiled softly up at her disapproving husband. “My father tried to run you off with an old shotgun, but you kept coming back and you became as close as two coats of paint. Charles, you just worry about making our daughter and our grandson happy. That’s all we care about.”
“So you don’t care that he might steal them both away to God knows where he came from?”
“New York,” Charles said calmly. “I live in New York.”
Melanie’s mother asked, “Are you planning to ask her to move to the city with you after you marry her? Is that where you want to raise your children?”
“I . . . I . . .” Charles wasn’t a man who normally struggled for words, but her questions rocked him. “I hadn’t thought much past . . .” He blushed and continued, “. . . seeing her again.”
She reached up and gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm as if he were Jace’s age. Then she walked over to her husband and wrapped her arms around him, ignoring the sour expression on his face. She went up on her tiptoes and kissed her husband’s cheek. “I would have followed you to the ends of the earth if you’d asked me—and I wouldn’t have regretted one moment of that journey . . . no matter what my father said.”
> A blush spread up the older man’s face. “Why is it that after forty years, I still can’t say no when you give me that look?”
“Oh, gross,” one of Melanie’s sisters said from across the room.
Charles choked on an unexpected chuckle.
David made a similar sound and said, “Why don’t we have some coffee and dessert?” Everyone began to return to the table. “Do you have a place to stay, Charles?”
“I’m sure I can find a place in town,” Charles said smoothly.
Sarah left Tony’s side to hug her brother again. “I’m so proud of you, Charlie.”
“Because I’ve lost my mind?”
She whispered up to him, “No, because you found your heart.”
Melanie fought to calm down as she gave Jace a bath, read him his nightly stack of books, then tucked him into his bed with a kiss. She’d have the rest of the night to overthink what Charles had said about wanting to marry her.
She was walking out of her son’s room when he said, “Mama?”
She turned back to look at him but couldn’t see his expression in the dim glow of his nightlight. “Yes, baby?”
“Are you mad at me because I didn’t like that man?”
Melanie let out a shaky breath. “No, honey. It’s good to be honest about how you feel.”
“Do you like him?”
“I do,” Melanie said softly. “I really do.”
Jace picked up a teddy bear and hugged it to his little chest. “Are you going to marry him?”
Melanie walked back over and sat beside her son on his bed, pushing a wayward lock out of his eyes. “I don’t think so, Jace.”
“Because he’s always so angry?”
Melanie smiled down at her son. “He’s not always like that. He’s actually a really nice man once you get to know him.”
“Lyle’s mom deported his father and married a new man. Now Lyle has two dads.”