His Melody (2 page)

Distracted by her search, she’d forgotten about her wallet and walked away from the booth without it, still looking through her purse. Out in the parking lot, she’d suddenly remembered where her phone was, and feeling stupid for forgetting she’d left it there, she’d laughed at herself and gotten in the car. After checking the compartment in the center console to make sure it was still there, she’d driven away. This day was possibly the worst of her life.

“You remember the name of the diner where you left it?” Regan asked, pulling Melody out of the memory of what she’d done.

“Yeah. Mindy’s.” She remembered it because it made her think of that old television show, Mork and Mindy. She sometimes ordered the old episodes on Netflix.

They rolled past a church. They then started passing the occasional house. But mostly, everything was still trees and fields.

“We’ll get the number for you when we get back to town and you can call up there to see if anybody’s found your wallet. In the meantime, don’t worry about it. We’re not going to leave your car out there just because you don’t have any money. Around here, we help each other out,” Regan said. As if to help Regan prove her point, at that moment Melody saw a green welcome sign ahead. The sign was green and blue with white lettering. The state flower, a Cherokee rose, was sketched at the top of it.

She mouthed the words to herself as she read the sign. “Welcome to Sweet Neck, Georgia. We’re Happy To Have Ya.” How could the residents of a place called Sweet Neck be anything but downright pleasant?

“Okay,” Melody said, settling back in the seat. She finally began to feel a little bit relieved. For the first time in hours, she allowed herself to relax a little. They passed a couple more churches. “So what do you do?” Melody asked to make conversation and keep her mind off unpleasant thoughts.

“Own a horse farm a few miles outside of town. And some of the best horses this side of the Mississippi if I say so myself. My goodness. Talk about a girl and her horse. Don’t get me started on those magnificent creatures. I’ll be talking all day,” Regan said.

“I always wanted to learn how to ride,” Melody said. One of those “some day” things she’d probably never get around to.

“Well, if you end up sticking around here for a few days, you should come out to the farm,” Regan said.

Melody saw some signs of civilization—or something close to it—and guessed they had reached the heart of “town”.
The buzzing metropolis of Sweet Neck.

Regan guided her truck down what was probably Main Street and turned onto a side road. Pulling up in front of a large square building, she killed the engine.

“Here we are. Holt’s Garage.”

Melody looked at the dusty building with its faded paint. Both of the tan garage bay doors were closed. There were smatterings of cars parked all around. Some looked like junk cars that would never move again. Those were interspersed with weeds and mostly behind a chain-link fence that ran out from the sides of the building and to the back, probably fencing in the back end of the property. A few cars resembling Regan’s in condition—looking worn yet resourceful—were parked near the garage bay doors. There were a couple shiny, newer cars out there as well.

Melody was about to thank Regan for the ride and climb out of the truck when she was distracted by a man coming out of the building, wiping his hands on a rag. His blond hair was cut close, and he filled out his brown coveralls with a broad chest and hulkish shoulders. Even with the brown coveralls doing nothing for him, she could tell there was quite a body underneath.

She tried to push the thought that she hadn’t had sex since the divorce to the back of her mind. It wouldn’t stay back there, though. She’d been on a few dates, but she hadn’t had the energy or desire to take things to the next level. Watching this man take long, confident strides in her direction, she realized that desire was coming back.

He stepped up to the truck and nodded a greeting to Regan. “Hey, Regan,” he said in a deep, husky Georgia drawl. His green eyes flitted to Melody, and he smiled. “Who’s your friend?”

“Hey, Austin,” Regan said, hopping out of the truck. “This here’s Melody. She had some car trouble back up the road.”

“Did she now?” Austin’s eyes raked over her body, staying on her cleavage longer than she should have liked, and she liked it more than she wanted to. She should have been mad at his objectifying move. The fact that she was a little thrilled by it pissed her off.

She looked at his hands. Now that he was closer, she could see that they were blackened, and the rag he’d been wiping them with was even filthier. She moved her eyes to a spot just beyond his head before she responded, not risking a look at that heart-startling face again just yet. “Yeah. She did,” Melody said, putting emphasis on “she,” making it clear she didn’t appreciate being referred to in the third person.

“Hm. Now that’s a shame. Where’s the car?”

Regan told him.

“Look, I was telling Regan,” Melody said. “I don’t have any money, I lost my wallet at a diner a few hours’ drive away from here. But I’ll pay you back, really.” Hopefully he’d believe she was a trustworthy person. She really was—she was just also a penniless one at the moment.

“I’m sure you will, Melody,” he said, giving her a look that made her want to slap him and jump his bones all at once.

Regan said, “Well, it was nice meeting you, Melody. I have to get to the hardware store and then back to the farm, but I leave you in good hands.”

Melody wasn’t so sure about that, but she smiled anyway. “Nice meeting you, too. Thanks so much for the ride.”

“Don’t mention it.” Regan straightened her hat and climbed back in the truck. “I’ll see y’all.”

“Bye, Regan,” Austin said and then turned his attention back to Melody. “What, no AAA? I thought you city types covered all your bases at all times.” He was mocking her. He wasn’t allowed to piss her off and turn her on at the same time, dammit.

“No. AAA. My phone’s dead, so I can’t call them or anybody else. Now, speaking of phones, can I use yours?”

Austin scratched at the corner of a square jaw, a smile hovering around the edges of his perfectly sculpted lips. Looking like
they’d been chiseled there by a Renaissance master of the art
. “I dunno, can you?”

“Are you going to help me or what?” Melody snapped. He was starting to get to her. It’d been a long, hot day and all she wanted was to do a little damage control and to have a cold shower and not be sweaty. He made it all the worse by seeming so amused with her. As if she were some wind-up toy, sent there to entertain him instead of a stranded, desperate woman.

“C’mon.” He nodded toward the building. “I’ll have Donnie tow the car in, and we’ll see if we can’t find you the number for that diner.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

“Of course,” he said the words slow and Southern and sexy. Now that she could concentrate on something besides wanting to scream at him, he seemed familiar. She couldn’t imagine how in the world she would have ever run into this man from Podunk, USA, but nevertheless she had the feeling she’d seen him before.

Chapter Two

Austin led Melody into the cool interior of his garage. He almost put his hand on her lower back to guide her inside, but he caught himself at the last moment.

“Stay here for a minute,” he said to her just outside of the door to his office. She nodded, and he went out to the garage bays where his brother and sister were hard at work.

“Donnie,” he said to his brother.

His brother looked up and wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm, which was covered by the sleeve of his dark blue coveralls. “What?” Donnie was about as big around as a piece of barbed wire. His mouth had always been bigger than he was.

“I need you to do something for me,” Austin said.

“I’m kind of busy in case you hadn’t noticed.” Donnie gestured to a car that was suspended in the air by a hydraulic lift. “Get Avery to do it, whatever it is.”

Austin’s fraternal twin, Avery, slid from beneath a second car.
“What did you say about me just now?” Avery had dark hair and blue eyes and was much shorter than her twin brother, but what they lacked in physical similarities, they made up for in personality. Their mother said that was why it was impossible for them to get along. Mom swore she’d never laid eyes on a more stubborn pair of people.

“Austin wants you to do his job for him,” Donnie said even though Austin hadn’t told him what he wanted yet. He leaned back to look at their sister and pressed the heel of a work boot into the cement floor while lifting the front part from the ground.

“Austin, now you know how Jimbo gets,” Avery said. “If this car isn’t ready by the time he gets off work this evening—”

“Yes, Avery, I’m well aware of how Jimbo gets,” Austin said. “That’s why I asked Donnie,” he couldn’t keep the frustration out of his voice when he said his brother’s name, “to do it.”

“And what makes you so special you can’t go do it?” Donnie smirked.

“The fact that I don’t want to,” Austin said, leaving out the fact that he’d much rather be in his office with this Melody—who’d caught his eye as soon as she’d pulled those long legs out of Regan’s truck—than out bumbling around in the sweltering heat in a tow truck with a chronically broken air conditioner. It quit working so often they’d all but given up on repairing it whenever it conked out. Besides, Donnie deserved to be riled up as often as possible. Maybe he wouldn’t deserve it if he didn’t look for ways to point out Austin’s failures on a daily basis.

“And who’s gonna finish this oil change then?” Donnie asked.

“I’ll do it. Just go, would ya?” Austin said.

“You haven’t even told me where I’m going.”

It wasn’t like he’d gotten the chance. Pausing for patience, Austin closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them again, he said, “There’s a car out on the side of the road near Regan’s place. I need you to go get it. Tow it in.” He gave Donnie the precise location of the car before heading back over to Melody.

“What’s the hold up?” she asked, perfectly arched eyebrows raised. Her flawless skin was the color of chocolate mousse, and he wanted a taste.

He grinned. “I’m sorry. You miss me?”

“About that phone
?...
”

“Right this way, Miz
?...
”

“Melody is fine.”

He held the door to his office open for her. “Right in here, Miz Melody Is Fine.” And she sure was.

“Ha ha,” she muttered, stepping past him into the cramped and cluttered space. The office would have been somewhat spacious if it wasn’t stacked up with boxes of papers Austin had yet to organize even though he’d taken over the shop four years ago. Also scattered around were old car parts, cases of oil, and other various and sundry items.

“What—you don’t find my witty sense of humor charming?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Witty, huh?” She stepped over a red crate that held a couple of old car batteries. “You have a phone book somewhere around here?” she asked. “You think there might be one buried under the rubble in this disaster area you call an office?”

He wondered how long he should let her search around before telling her she wasn’t even close to finding the phonebooks. For the moment, he was happy admiring the view.

He watched her calf muscles flex as she reached up to search on top of a file cabinet.
Poetry in motion.

“Little help here?” she asked, tottering as she attempted to hold up a stack of papers threatening to fall from its perch on top of the cabinet.

He shook his head to clear it and bring himself back to the moment. “Oh, uh, sorry about that.” He rushed over and lifted the papers back onto the top of the cabinet. His arm brushed hers, and he thought he heard her gasp—one sharp little intake of breath. Their eyes met. He wanted so badly to put his arm around her waist and draw her closer. Instead, he backed away and gestured toward the chair behind his desk. “Here, have a seat. I’ll get the book.”

She sat in his desk chair, and he stood next to her, well aware of how close her shapely body was to his. She crossed those incredible legs, and her arms folded across her breasts. He’d better get to looking for that back before he got himself in trouble.

Opening the left-hand bottom drawer, he dug through his phone books until he found one that included the Covington area. He kept phone books for all the areas within a four-hour radius because of stranded motorists and the need for communicating with other mechanics.

His brother and sister laughed at him and told him to get out of the Stone Age. He didn’t like computers, though. Never had, never would. He used them as little as possible. He preferred working with his hands to typing with his fingers. Besides, the
internet
had helped to destroy his life once, so he didn’t see much good in it.

Tossing the phone book onto the desk and pushing the phone toward her, he said, “There ya go.” He pushed a few auto part catalogs to the side of the desk and out of her way.

“Okay. Thanks.” She sounded wary as if he’d just offered her a piece of candy that might or might not have been poisoned. She said, “You uh, I mean
it’s
long distance. D’ya mind?”