Chapter 12
Noah was frustrated. Like a total idiot, he had foolishly believed that having sex with Melanie would mean the start of them being together—for real. Instead, she was still claiming it would be ‘just physical.’ What the hell did that mean, anyway? Could he take her on dates? Treat her like a girlfriend? Hold her hand in public? Or was sex going to be their dirty little secret and nothing more. She didn’t seem inclined to discuss those things, and he didn’t want to be the guy who pushed for more if she wasn’t ready. But he had to question if this was enough for him. Having her, but not really.
They had showered again, separately this time, and dressed quickly to go and pick up Connor from Ryan and Anna’s house. He was somewhat mollified when she reached for his hand on the walk down to her car. That was new, and had to mean something, right? He hated how much he was questioning everything. It was so unlike him. Noah knew what he wanted in life, and normally had no problem just going for it. This was different; he had to tread carefully, or risk her backing away again. She reminded him of a wild animal, and he was trying to tame her. But first, she needed to trust that he wouldn’t hurt her.
Once they had Connor, and it was time to head home, Noah decided to see how Mel would handle their new status in public.
“Hey, let’s stop and grab dinner at Yianni’s,” he said casually, naming a popular Greek restaurant they both enjoyed.
“Sure, I’m starved,” Mel replied easily as she stared out the window.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Noah unclipped Connor’s car seat, and grabbed the diaper bag before walking around to Melanie’s side of the car. She took the diaper bag from him, then reached for his empty hand with hers.Thank god. So far, so good. She wasn’t hiding from anything, yet.
When Connor decided to get fussy moments after they sat down, Mel didn’t hesitate to lift him into her arms and rock him side to side. She looked so natural with his son in her arms, Noah felt like his heart may burst from the sight. She bent down to press a kiss to Connor’s head, stroking his cheek with the hand that wasn’t cuddling him close. To anyone watching, it would simply look like a loving mother comforting her child. Only Noah knew the truth; Melanie had let Connor into her heart, perhaps without even realizing it. Now he had to get her to let him in as well.
“Melanie? Is that you, with a baby?” a man’s haughty voice carried across the restaurant. Melanie froze, and Noah watched as a look of horror came across her face. He turned to find the source of her discomfort: a man wearing a shirt that was an obnoxious salmon color, tucked into pleated khakis, walking toward them. He had a receding hairline, an arrogant look in his eyes, and just generally looked like the kind of douche that Noah would expect to come to the pub and order an extra dry martini, with exactly three olives, craft beer selection be damned.
He turned back to Mel, who seemed to have steeled herself against this unwelcome intrusion.
“Darren. Hi,” she said coldly.
So, this is the ex-husband, Noah realized. What had she ever seen in a guy like him? No wonder their marriage hadn’t lasted. This guy didn’t have anything going for him, from what Noah could see. And judging from Mel’s reaction to seeing him, she didn’t think very highly of him anymore either.
Noah pushed back from his chair and stood up beside Mel, who was still clutching a now sleeping Connor to her chest.
“Well isn’t this a surprise. My ex-wife with another man and a baby. Care to explain how you managed that?” Darren asked. The arrogant and demeaning tone to his words made Noah want to knock him out right then and there, and only the fact that they were in public and his son was right there stopped him.
Thankfully, Mel cut right through Darren’s words with her comeback. “I’m not sure how this is any of your business, Darren. As you just said, I’m your ex-wife. Which means who I’m with does not matter to you in the slightest.” She narrowed her eyes. “Although maybe the ex part doesn’t matter to a man who gets another woman pregnant while he’s still married.”
Noah was stunned. She hadn’t told him this about her ex, in all the time they had spent together. Suddenly her hesitancy about relationships made so much more sense. Not only had this asshat walked away from her for reasons beyond her control, he’d gone and cheated on her AND rubbed her infertility in her face in the worst possible way. Now he really wanted to punch the guy.
Darren scoffed. “Well it seems you’ve created your ready-made family just fine. Does your new boyfriend know your career is more important to you than your kid? Or is he going to be surprised when you put your job first, just like I was.”
“That’s enough,” Noah growled under his breath. “Look, asshole, you have no right, none at all, to talk to Melanie that way. This is a fucking restaurant and you’re causing a fucking scene. Walk away. Just walk away. You had your chance with this perfect woman, and you threw it away. Your loss, my—and my son’s—gain.”
Mel’s hand on his arm tightened, and he realized he was leaning forward without even thinking. He was gratified to see Darren had backed away and had the smarts to look intimidated. Noah was a tall guy, and easily topped him by several inches.
“It’s okay, Noah. Nothing he says bothers me anymore. He can’t hurt me anymore than he did years ago. Let’s just get our dinner and go,” she said to him quietly, not making eye contact with Darren anymore.
Noah nodded brusquely. “Yeah. Sure.” He turned back to Darren. “It’s your lucky day. I’m going to take my woman and my son home, and I’ll make sure to erase every memory Mel has of the shitty years she wasted stuck married to you.”
He grabbed their bags and the car seat, placed a hand on Mel’s back and together they walked up to the hostess station. There, he quickly explained that they would take their food to go, paid the bill, and walked Mel and Connor out to the car. Once Connor was strapped in, he pressed a kiss to Mel’s forehead.
“I’m going to grab the food. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, seeming lost in thought. Noah vowed to himself that when they got home, he would live up to what he had said to Darren and erase every pathetic memory from her time with that jackass. At the same time, he wanted to talk to her about it, because everything was starting to become clear about why she was holding back so strongly from a relationship with him. If what he understood to be true was her experience with a man who had supposedly committed to her forever, then no wonder she was overly cautious about entering another relationship. Right then and there, Noah realized his mission would be to show her with his words, and more importantly his actions, that he was falling for her—the woman who was passionate about her career and cuddled his son like he was the most precious thing in her world—and that nothing would change that. Not her ability to bear children or her commitment to her job, or whatever other ridiculous idea Darren had poisoned her with to make her think she wasn’t worthy of a love that would last a lifetime.
Noah walked back inside and picked up the food with a nod of thanks to the restaurant staff and not a second glance toward Darren. That man wasn’t worth another second of his time or energy. When he got back to the car, Mel was already buckled into the back seat beside Connor, making silly faces at him.
“Let’s hope he stays awake until we get home, then maybe we can get him into a bit of a nighttime routine,” Noah said, trying to act casually and move on from the disappointing evening.
Melanie looked up at him and smiled briefly. “Yeah, he’s got to start sleeping longer chunks at night soon, I hope.”
Noah buckled himself into the driver’s seat, then grinned at her in the rear-view mirror. “Hey, I haven’t made you get up with me the last few nights, so what are you complaining about?”
When she rolled her eyes at him, he knew she was okay despite the run in with Darren. “Oh please, I heard you cursing out loud about that diaper blowout the other night.”
“Okay, but that was a five-alarm, DEFCON 1 disaster. I was trying not to retch all over my son and clean him up as quietly as possible.”
