Their Mountain Reunion
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Patricia Johns
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19.5K
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HarlequinCHAPTER ONE
“COME FOR DINNER,” Angelina had said. “We do this once a month, and it’s a select group. So...invitation only, if you understand. You’ll love these women. They’re interesting and strong and resilient. Come once, and see what you think—and dress for it.”
Dress for it. Melanie Isaacs had been tempted to feel offended at those words, but she was too tired these days to bother. She’d attended countless events and charity dinners during her marriage, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have the wardrobe to cover a simple dinner.
Angelina Cunningham was an old friend. They’d gone in different directions after high school and lost touch until Melanie got a friend request on Facebook and they politely started updating each other on their lives. Melanie’s divorce was much fresher than Angelina’s. Melanie and Angelina had both gotten Mountain Springs property out of their divorces, but Angelina’s was far more spectacular. Angelina was the sole proprietor of Mountain Springs Lodge, which dominated one side of the glacier-fed Blue Lake up in the Colorado Rockies. On the other side of the turquoise lake, hunched next to a rickety wharf, was the lake house Adam had magnanimously given Melanie in the divorce because he felt she “deserved it.” It was meant to assuage his guilt.
Now, Melanie smoothed on some plum lipstick and dropped the tube into her purse. Her little black dress—a satin knee-length number—still fit like a glove, scooping down to reveal just a hint of cleavage. This was dressier than she wanted to feel tonight. She didn’t want to stand out. It still felt weird not to be Adam’s wife and the busy stepmom to his kids. She’d grown used to sensible clothing that said married instead of available. This postdivorce transition was exhausting, and all she wanted was to curl up in the overstuffed chair by the window overlooking the lake with a glass of wine and her journal. But she’d already agreed to this dinner, and Angelina had seemed so excited about it. Melanie would go, make nice and leave early. A cozy evening could still be hers.
Besides, she’d gotten an email from an old boyfriend recently, wanting to come see the lake house—something about tracking down his father, who used to own it. She should have known that would come back to complicate her life sooner or later... Maybe she was naive to assume that Logan McTavish would melt into the background of her life and stay there. So getting out for at least part of the evening couldn’t hurt.
Mountain Springs Lodge was nestled behind a rocky outcropping for privacy. The large log cabin–styled lodge sported wide windows that sparkled with the light of the sinking sun as Melanie drove up. Gable windows peered from the tall peaked roof, and she paused to admire the building before she parked.
Angelina had spruced the place up since Melanie had been here last. Inside, sparkling bevel-edged mirrors were hung on the glossy wooden walls, catching the warm light and scattering it in every direction. Angelina had decorated with higher-end furniture, defying the rustic surroundings with elegant hall tables and crystal vases overflowing with fresh lilac bouquets.
There was a broad staircase leading up to what Melanie assumed were the suites. Melanie ambled past the reception desk and peeked into a sitting room with leather couches and a wide stone fireplace that had no fire in it on this hot night. The view of the lake out the floor-to-ceiling windows was stunning.
“You landed on your feet, Ange,” she muttered to herself. As a decorator, herself, she had to admire what Angelina had done to the place. The last time Melanie was here for a graduation dinner, it was a seventies-themed hunting lodge.
To the right, dark wood French doors opened as Angelina strode through, smiling. Angelina was dressed in a chic wine-colored dress that clung to her to curvy figure. Her blond hair fell in glossy waves over her shoulders. Her makeup was impeccable, and the minute Angelina entered the room, the girl at the desk dropped her book and looked alert. It was clear that Angelina was the boss around here.
“Melanie!”
Melanie couldn’t help but laugh as Angelina wrapped her in a perfume-scented hug, then released her. Angelina nodded toward the French doors. “The ladies are waiting.”
Melanie put a hand on Angelina’s arm. “Which ladies, exactly?”
“The Second Chance Dining Club.”
Melanie blinked. “The what now?”
“We keep our little group quiet, but when we find someone who we think will benefit from what we offer, we invite her to dinner.”
“What do you offer?” Melanie asked, hesitating. If this was going to be some sort of sales pitch, she was leaving now.
“A shoulder to cry on. Some sympathy. Some hard-won wisdom. We’re a group of women who understand,” Angelina said. “We’ve all been married before and we know how hard it is to put your life back together after a divorce.”
“Oh...” Melanie breathed. So much for distraction from her own heartbreak. “Look, if this is a multilevel marketing thing—”
“Hardly!” Angelina laughed. “This isn’t business, Melanie. This is personal. No one is selling anything. And I invited you because... I care.”
Melanie looked past Angelina’s shoulder, but couldn’t make out much.
“You look amazing, by the way,” Angelina said. “It’s just dinner. On me. Be my guest.”
“Thank you.” Did Melanie want to do this? A bit of moral support might be nice, but she probably didn’t know these women, and while a divorce was soul-crushing, it was also incredibly private. Or at least a woman tried to keep it that way with all the nosiness. But she was here, dressed to impress and already at the resort, so she might as well follow.
Angelina led the way into the dining room. There were guests at tables throughout the room. The murmur of conversation, the tinkle of cutlery and the laughter of a family group mingled together in a pleasant ambience. Over by a window overlooking the water was a table of women, all of whom had looked up when Angelina and Melanie walked in.
Angelina beelined over to that table, and she gestured to a free chair right beside the window. It was the best view—and also the hardest escape. Was that the plan?
Melanie took her seat and looked around the table, feeling suddenly shy.
“Hello,” she said.
“This is Melanie Banks,” Angelina said, taking the seat next to Melanie. “At this table, we go by our maiden names. It’s just our thing. It reminds us of who we were before the wedding. It helps.”
Yes...before the wedding. Except Melanie didn’t want to go back to those inexperienced days. Was she the only one?
“Let’s do a few introductions,” Angelina said. “This is Gayle Steel—” She gestured to the older woman with her hair twisted up in a smooth silvery updo. Melanie thought it was prematurely white. “She’s retired, but she used to run the Mountain Springs Bank. She has five grown children and...how many grandkids now, Gayle?”
“Eleven,” Gayle said.
“Her husband left her after thirty-five years of marriage,” Angelina added.
“For his golfing buddy,” Gayle said with a small smile.
“Oh, wow...” Melanie murmured, trying to cover her surprise.
“It was ten years ago. Yes, I should have noticed he was gay, but somehow didn’t. I’m over it. Mostly,” Gayle said with low laugh. “This group of ladies is a great help.”
Yes, well, Melanie had a few things she should have noticed, too—namely a rather serious affair that had been going on for about two years before she found the incriminating text messages. So, who was she to judge?
“And this is Renata Spivovitch, and she’s an activities director and nurse for the Spruce Ridge Retirement Home, and she has three kids, all in school now,” Angelina went on, gesturing to the woman with short cropped brown hair, a round figure and an interesting face. She looked to be about Melanie’s age and met her inquiring gaze with an easy smile.
“I was the one who left my husband,” Renata said. “He wanted to move his mistress into our family home with me and the kids, and figured we should all live together quite comfortably.”
Melanie stared at her in shock. “He...he actually tried to do that?”
Renata shrugged in reply.
“That was...a year ago now?” Angelina asked.
“About that,” Renata confirmed. “I’m less over it than Gayle is.”
Gayle chuckled, and the women exchanged a smile.
Angelina gestured to the stunningly beautiful woman with rare looks and a frank expression on her face. She couldn’t be more than thirty. “And this here is Belle Villeneuve. She’s was a model for about ten years, and married her talent agent.”
A model. Yes, that explained those perfectly aligned looks, but there was something open and friendly about her, too. Melanie couldn’t help but like her.
“He dumped me when I quit modeling and put on some healthy weight,” Belle said. “He called me obese and replaced me with an eighteen-year-old.”
“I’m so sorry—” Melanie said.
“Oh, it was good riddance. I was a wreck when I was with him, and as it turned out, I had the better lawyer.”
“A much better lawyer,” Angelina said with a small smile. “Their divorce was finalized last year, and she made out with a full half of his business.”
The women around the table chuckled. It seemed that Belle had bounced back rather well, and the women here enjoyed little details like that.
“And that brings us to you,” Angelina said. “Did you want to introduce yourself?”
“I’m Melanie,” she said. “I’m newly divorced, and I’m in town for a few weeks. Angelina asked me to come to dinner tonight, so... Hi, everyone.”
“Do you mind if I fill them in on a few details?” Angelina asked.
“Uh...sure.” She’d told Angelina the broad strokes when they chatted earlier. Though she hadn’t really wanted to blab to everyone at large, there was something about the energy around this table that made sharing seem natural.
“I know a little bit about her situation,” Angelina said. “Correct me if I get it wrong, Melanie. But she married her husband quite young—midtwenties?”
“I was twenty-four,” Melanie confirmed. “We were married for fifteen years.”
“He had children from his first marriage whom Melanie selflessly raised, until one day he traded her in for a younger model.”
That summed it up rather succinctly. Except, Melanie had been the one to ask for the divorce. There was no trusting him again after that—the betrayal was too deep.
“Is the divorce final?” Renata asked.
“Yes. As of two months ago,” Melanie confirmed.
“And did you...do all right?” Belle asked hesitantly.
“I got the lake house and some cash,” Melanie replied. “There will be spousal support for three years. I wanted to start an interior design company, but I’ll need to take a few classes online to get myself current again. So the money will help in the transition.”
“Good, good.” This from Gayle. “So, you don’t have to panic about making enough to pay your bills.”
“Not immediately,” Melanie said with a wan smile. That was something. Maybe she should be grateful that she hadn’t been left in a worse position.
“Property on Blue Lake is worth a small fortune. That was smart to ask for it,” Renata said.
“I didn’t ask,” Melanie said. “I haven’t decided how nice he was being to hand it over, actually. We bought it when the kids were school-aged. I told him about my hometown and how gorgeous our lake was, and he found it all very quaint and inspiring. So, he surprised me with the deed one summer, and he sent me and the kids off to the lake.”
“While he...worked?” Belle asked, raising a delicate eyebrow.
“Presumably,” Melanie replied with a faint shrug. “I found out later that he was cheating on me for much of our marriage. The irony is, his kids hated coming here. They didn’t want to be cooped up in some lake house or wandering around a little town where they didn’t know anyone. Besides, they didn’t like me. I wasn’t their mother. I was just some substitute their father foisted upon them.”
“So you don’t have fond memories there,” Angelina said softly.
“Not exactly.” Melanie shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s a beautiful property and I’ll make it my own. Or sell it. I haven’t decided which yet.”
“What happened to their mother?” Renata asked.
“She died rather tragically from cancer. When I married Adam, he had three grieving kids, the youngest of which was a toddler, and I decided to devote myself to them. They needed love, and I thought I could make a difference with them.”
“So you didn’t have any kids of your own?” Belle asked.
“No. Three were enough to keep me busy.” Melanie wasn’t sure if she regretted that now. A baby wouldn’t have saved their marriage, but it might have been nice to have one child who didn’t resent her for not being mom enough.
A waiter came by with a bottle of wine for the table. The other women seemed to know the menu by heart and gave their orders immediately. Melanie took a moment, then ordered the mountain trout with herbed potatoes. When the waiter left again, Melanie looked at the women around the table.
“What about you, Angelina?” Melanie asked. “What happened to your marriage? You never did tell me.”
The table fell silent, and Angelina’s expression saddened. “We met and married on a cruise. I had no idea who his family was, and I thought that the man he was on vacation was the same man he’d be in the rest of his life. I was wrong about that. His family was incredibly wealthy, and I wasn’t good enough for them, it turned out. They tore us apart. We only lasted a year.”
“And you got the resort in the divorce,” Melanie said.
“I did,” Angelina agreed. “I poured my heartbreak into fixing it up. I’ve done rather well for myself in the last ten years. He might have given me the resort, but I made it what it is today.”
“Was there another woman?” Melanie asked.
“No, he didn’t leave me for anyone else. I know you’ll think I’m crazy for saying this, but you’re actually lucky that there was another woman,” Angelina said. “Your husband might have preferred another woman to you, but mine just preferred being without me. Period.”
Melanie felt her eyes mist. “Oh, Ange...”
“It’s okay.” Angelina reached for the bottle of wine. “Life marches on. And when you have a circle of loyal girlfriends, it’s a whole lot easier.”
Angelina poured a glass, and as Melanie accepted the glass from her, a figure standing in the open doorway of the dining room caught her eye—and her heart hammered to a stop. Logan. She’d known she’d see him one of these days, but she hadn’t expected the last twenty-three years to just drop out beneath her like that. Logan stood there, and when their eyes met, his dark gaze blazed into hers, a breathless moment, and then he moved away from the door and disappeared out in the foyer.
“Logan McTavish,” Angelina said softly. “He’s a guest at the resort for a couple of weeks. Sorry, maybe I should have warned you about that.”
Melanie pulled her attention back to the table and took a sip of wine, putting the glass down in front of her. “I didn’t know he’d arrived yet. He’s here looking for me.”
“Oh?” Angelina raised her eyebrows, a smile tickling her lips. “Did you want to go talk to him?”
“No, no. We’re here for dinner. I’m sure I’ll see Logan soon,” she replied, trying to sound more casual than she felt.
“So...he’s heard you’re divorced, then?” Angelina asked.
“No!” Melanie shook her head. “I mean, I mentioned it. But it isn’t like that. He needs access to my lake house. He’s got his own stuff he’s dealing with. Besides, I’m already reeling from my divorce. The last thing I need is—” She didn’t finish the statement. She wasn’t sure what she was running from. The last thing she needed were the memories. To be reminded what that kind of love had felt like back when she was artless and young and thought that her youthful beauty would be enough to secure lifelong happiness.
“Although, for the record, there’s no harm in moving on,” Angelina said.
“I’ve been married once,” Melanie replied. “I’m in no rush to jump back into it. It was harder than I thought. Besides, two months postdivorce is rebound time. I’m not interested in mangling my heart for kicks.”
“That’s where I’m at,” Belle said, holding out her glass for Angelina to fill. “Here’s to being single. I only want to worry about myself right now.”
“I think I’d like to meet someone else,” Gayle said quietly, and they all turned to look at her. “I would. A nice man...but a man who was actually attracted to me. I’ve never had that. I thought it was normal that he spent more time with his golfing buddy than he did with me. I’d like a chance to be with a man who’d rather cuddle up with me than golf. It might be nice to be thought of as more than Mother.”
That was something Melanie could sympathize with. Maybe she wanted to be more than Stepmom, too. When color tinted Gayle’s cheeks, Melanie leaned forward.
“You can have that,” Melanie said earnestly.
“I think so. I’m not exactly dead yet,” Gayle agreed.
“Yeah, me neither,” Melanie said, meeting Gayle’s eye with a smile.
“Here’s to being more than Mother,” Renata said, raising her glass. “And I think we should order another bottle. What do you say?”
Melanie chuckled. Forty was a far cry from dead, too, but that didn’t mean she wanted another romance. Right now, all she wanted was some semblance of control. Leaving her cheating ex had given her some of that, but she had less control than she liked over the healing process after a divorce, and a few girlfriends in the mix might be just what she needed to get back on her feet.
LOGAN MCTAVISH SANK into a chair on the balcony of his room. His room didn’t have a lake view—those had all been filled, so his room overlooked the parking lot and the mountains, a full moon hanging low over the peaks. The cool evening breeze felt good after the heat of the day. He leaned back and took a sip of ice tea.
He’d arrived in Mountain Springs that evening. He’d tried finding his father, Harry Wilde, from Denver, but the man’s phone numbers had changed, and so had his address, apparently. So he had moved on to the next option—tracking him down through mutual acquaintances. That was where Melanie had come into the picture. He knew she owned the old lake house now, and he figured she might have heard some gossip, at the very least. And he wanted to see her—was that stupid of him? Probably.
The thing was, he’d been hanging on to this box his late mother had left his biological father for the better part of a year. Logan had been struggling with some personal issues since his mother passed away, and he was finally willing to face a few of them. To try to do the right thing by some of the women in his life. Mom had wanted his father to have this box—and it was his duty to deliver it.
Logan’s phone blipped, and he picked it up. He had a new text from his son, Graham, who was traveling with some friends in England for the next two weeks. It was another photo of food. It looked like a melted cheese sandwich to him. Another text came. Welsh Rarebit.
Rabbit? he texted back.
Rarebit. It’s like grilled cheese—but with beer.
Beer? Logan shook his head. He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Graham was obviously alive and well if he was texting pictures of food, and as a dad, he liked the reassurance. His son might be old enough to vote and drink, but Logan worried all the same. He should probably be worrying about locating his own father so he could deliver that albatross of a box.
Instead, he was sitting up here in the relative darkness, thinking about Melanie Banks...right downstairs.
He’d seen Melanie in the dining room. It might have been twenty-odd years, but there was no doubt about her identity. She had the same bright eyes, the same playful lift to her lips. She sparkled. How did she do that? Whatever youthful sex appeal he used to ooze had dried up, he was pretty sure, but she still had it... He hadn’t been able to hear her voice from where he’d stood just outside the dining room, and he’d been transfixed until she spotted him. But she obviously wasn’t there to see him, so he hadn’t interrupted her evening.
How does it taste? he texted his son. There was a lengthy pause, and he almost put his phone down and gave up on an immediate reply when his phone blipped again.
Amazing. Who do I have to fight around here for the recipe?
Logan grunted an amused laugh. Graham had hopes of opening his own restaurant one day. Logan had taken his own risks in starting up his construction business, but he knew the odds for restaurants, and they weren’t good. But he wouldn’t kick Graham’s dream out from under him.
He found his mind turning back to Melanie with her dark brown hair that fell just past her slim shoulders. And he hated that thinking of Melanie still felt like a betrayal to his late wife, Caroline—to be noticing another woman’s allure. And yet he was angry with Caroline, too. Was that allowed—to be generally pissed off with the dead? Because he had grievances with both his late mother and his late wife. And apparently, they had a few grievances with him.
He heard the click of a woman’s heels on asphalt, and he glanced up from his phone to see Melanie. He froze. She wasn’t far from him, and she stopped at a car. She’d parked right under his balcony! There was a soft glow coming from the vehicle.
Melanie went around to the driver’s side, looked inside and heaved a sigh.
“Did I really do that?” Her voice carried up to him, as she unlocked her car. It chirped, and she opened the door and got inside. He leaned forward, taking a better look at her car. It was expensive—a Mercedes. The engine growled a couple of times, but it didn’t turn over.
Melanie got back out. He heard her say something that sounded unladylike, and he couldn’t help but grin at that.
“What’s wrong?” he called down to her, and Melanie startled, then looked up. She smiled hesitantly.
“I thought I saw you earlier tonight.”
“That was me,” he said. “It’s been a few years.”
“A few,” she said wryly. “I wasn’t sure when you’d arrive in town. How are you doing?”
And it was like those twenty-three years just slid away again...and she was the beautiful girl he couldn’t get enough of. His gaze dropped down to her left hand, bare of rings.
He cleared his throat. “I’m...good.”
A lie. He was grappling with flawed relationships with the women he’d loved who were already gone, and he was tasked with finding the last man he wanted to see on this planet. But that wasn’t the kind of thing a guy started with.
“I’m not. My car won’t start,” she said. “I left a light on inside.”
“You need a boost?” he asked.
She paused, looked back toward her vehicle, then said, “Yeah, I do. Is it a wild inconvenience?”
“Nah.” He pushed himself to his feet and pocketed his phone. “I’ll come down.”
Logan slipped on his shoes and headed downstairs. The sitting room with the view of the lake was occupied by several couples having drinks, standing in front of the wide windows.
Logan headed out the front doors and angled his steps around to where Melanie was parked. She stood by her car waiting, the warm wind ruffling her dress around her knees.
“My truck is parked over there.” He nodded across the lot. “I’ll bring it over.”
“Thank you.” Her voice was soft, and instead of walking away, he met her clear gaze.
“You haven’t changed a bit,” he said.
She barked out a laugh. “I’m forty.”
“So?” He shot her a grin. “I’m telling you. You look great.”
“Thanks.” Her gaze moved over him in a quick up and down. “You, too.”
She was being nice. Life had beaten him up and he knew it. But whatever—let her be the nice one tonight.
“Look, I’ve always felt bad about—” He cleared his throat. “Uh—you know, how we parted ways.”
“You mean how you completely ghosted me?” she asked dryly.
“Yeah... I’m sorry. I was immature. I have no excuse.”
She didn’t answer that. She’d been young, too, and she’d been a whole lot more mature than him. But she wasn’t the only one he’d treated badly through the years, and he was only now facing up to that.
“We’re both grown up now,” she said with a faint shrug. “You mentioned having a son when we talked—how old is he?”
“Graham is twenty-one now—he’s taking a degree in art history,” he said, and wasn’t sure why he was suddenly so talkative with her. “He wanted to be a chef. I told him to be more practical. So he chose art history.”
A smile crinkled the fine lines around Melanie’s eyes and she chuckled. Having her relax a bit felt better.
“He took after his mom, then?” she asked. “That’s a wild guess, because you were no artist.”
“Yeah, it would seem,” he said with a rueful smile. Graham looked like his mom, too—the same fair hair, the same blue eyes. “I’m happy with some power tools, and he’s lecturing me on food and art. What can you do?”
She nodded, then dropped her gaze. Right. He was supposed to be helping her out with her car.
“I’ll just go get the truck,” he said, and without waiting for a response, he headed across the parking lot and retrieved his truck. Once he’d parked next to her and fetched the cables from the back, he found Melanie watching him.
“So how was dinner?” he asked.
“Better than I anticipated,” she said.
“Yeah?” What had she been anticipating? He nodded toward her car. “Pop your hood.”
Melanie reached down and undid the clasp, then pushed her hood up.
“Is Angelina more fun than you remembered or something?” he asked. She had a mysterious look about her, too, these days. Everyone had grown up, moved on. Become more.
“Logan, we’re all more fun than I remembered. We’re old enough to be interesting at long last.”
Logan chuckled as he attached the cables to her battery. Melanie hadn’t fully forgiven him, he could tell. Not that he blamed her. He’d been a jerk. He’d left for college, had a whole new life, realized that a long-distance relationship with his high school girlfriend was going to be harder to maintain than he’d realized, and instead of talking to her about it, confessing his own feelings of inadequacy and heartbreak, he’d just cut her off. The few times she’d called him, he’d told her that talking on his cell phone was too expensive. It had been mean, and he’d thought about it numerous times over the years and felt like a complete jerk.
“You don’t know if I’m improved at all,” he said, shooting her a teasing look as he connected the cables to his own battery.
She shrugged. “I don’t know, you’re reconnecting with your dad.”
“Well...” He sucked in a breath. “I’m trying to find him, at least.”
“Why now?” she asked.
Why indeed. Because he felt like a failure in all the ways that mattered most and he needed to change something.
“My mom passed away a year ago, and she made me executor of her will. She left this locked wooden box to my father, and requested that I hand deliver it.”
“So one year later, here you are,” she observed.
He’d recently come across some old diaries his late wife had written, and that explained his added sense of urgency here. His wife hadn’t remembered the same cozy marriage that he did. Apparently, he’d been pretty selfish over the years.
“Better late than never,” he said. “I was hoping you might know where he’s at.”
“Me?”
“You live here now,” he said.
“For a few weeks. I’m not up on local gossip yet. When did you last talk to him?”
“About twenty years ago.”
“Wow.”
He nodded toward the car. “Turn the key.”
Melanie got into her car and this time the engine turned over. She hit the gas a couple of times, revving the engine, then got out again.
“Thank you, Logan. I didn’t want to be stuck here tonight.”
“Not a problem.” He unclipped the cables from his vehicle, and when he came over to her car, he paused. She stood next to the car, her arms crossed as if she were cold.
“So how are you going to find your father?” she asked.
“I’ll start by nosing around a bit, I guess,” he replied. He didn’t actually want to be here—back in the town where he’d been raised and where he was always on the outside of his father’s family. The memories here were too bitter...all but the memories with Melanie, at least.
“Logan, I’m going to level with you,” Melanie said. “This divorce has put me through the wringer, and that lake house isn’t exactly the gift my ex seems to think. I don’t want to just sit by the lake and rehash painful memories. I’d like have some kind of control over my situation.”
“I know the feeling,” he said. “You have a better idea?”
“You want help tracking down Harry?” she asked.
He was surprised she’d even offer. She must really want to avoid those memories.
“I wouldn’t turn it down,” he replied. “You sure that’s a good idea? I mean, I might not be a great source of happy memories, either.”
“You aren’t, but you were a lifetime ago,” she replied. “Adam is more recent. Besides, it might give me something more immediate to focus on... I mean, if you want the help.”
He smiled ruefully. “All right. Fair enough.”
“I don’t know how to start over, Logan.” The joking had evaporated from her tone. “Obviously, I have to, but... How did you do it after your wife died?”
“I’m not sure I have,” he admitted. “I guess we just keep moving forward. See what happens.”
She nodded. “Well, it’s different for you. Your wife didn’t cheat on you for years because you weren’t enough. I’m not trying to belittle your grief, I just mean that maybe you don’t need the fresh start that I do.”
Maybe his wife hadn’t cheated, but there had been a different kind of betrayal that had lasted for years. He needed that fresh start as much as she did, but he wasn’t sure he deserved it. Things with Caroline hadn’t been so simple...
“You’ll figure this out,” he said. Look at her. She was gorgeous. If she wanted a new husband, a new start, she’d have no trouble doing that. “Seeing you in the dining room—” He cleared his throat. “I mean, you look good. You look comfortable. I think you’ll land on your feet, is what I’m trying to say.”
“I hope so.” Melanie paused. “Because right now, I really miss the kids. Adam’s kids, I mean. I feel like I’ve got an empty nest. For the last fifteen years, I was their stepmom. It was my full-time job. Not that they miss me, I’m sure. I was just a stand-in. Tilly made sure I knew that.”
“Tilly?”
“She’s the youngest. She was about two when I married Adam.”
“Maybe you don’t have to start over, exactly,” Logan said quietly. “Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t erase your history. You couldn’t erase them.”
Any more than he could erase Graham, or Caroline, or the truth of their marriage.
“I’m not a part of their family anymore, though,” Melanie said with a shake of her head.
“You aren’t married to their father anymore, but you might still be part of the family for the kids. It’s too soon to tell,” he replied. “How long have you been divorced?”
“Two months.”
“That’s fresh.”
She was silent for a moment. “It’s late. I need to get home.”
“Right.” He nodded. There was a lot there she wasn’t saying, but he wasn’t the one she’d open up to, anyway.
“So you want some help tracking down Harry, then?” she asked. “Give me something to do besides think?”
He glanced up at her and smiled. “Yeah. I’d take the help.”
“I’m my own worst enemy if I just sit and brood,” she said.
“Aren’t we all?” he said.
Logan backed his vehicle up to give her space to drive out of her spot. Melanie slid into the driver’s seat and undid the window. “Come by the lake house tomorrow, then.” She raised her voice over the engines. “He’s got to be somewhere, right?”
He shrugged. “I could always look up his kids. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to know my mom remembered him in her will.”
Melanie grimaced. She knew enough of his family history to appreciate the awkwardness there.
“I’ll come by in the morning,” he said. “Late morning. I’m not a monster.”
“Much appreciated. Thanks for the boost,” Melanie said, and with a flutter of her fingers in farewell, she pulled out.
Melanie had said they were all old enough to be interesting now, and maybe he was, but that came with a price. He was also more jaded, a little broken. He wasn’t a guy who could hand his heart over anymore, either.
Maybe it was good that he was self-aware enough to know that about himself. Because Melanie still had a way of tugging at him without even trying. And he couldn’t let himself be tempted to take those risks he used to launch himself into without a second thought.
He now knew what it felt like to fail.
