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“It’s going to be great.”
A small frown marred her forehead. Her hair was parted on the side, pulled back low at the base of her neck. “You think so?”
“I do. But you need to get your mind off of it for the rest of the night.”
“How?” She offered a despondent face.
“You can come to dinner with me. I’m buying.” She could read into that whatever she wanted. He was tired of always tiptoeing around his feelings.
Uncertainty flitted across her face, but she put on a smile. “The royal treatment. All right. Let’s do it. Where to?”
He chose her favorite, House of Hometown, a steakhouse near the coastline, and insisted on driving together after she left her car at her house. She seemed relaxed in his presence, which was enough to make TJ enjoy the food and the company. They didn’t talk about anything deep or meaningful, but he always enjoyed casual banter with her. He enjoyed everything about her.
“That was delicious.” She eyed her empty plate with longing. “I’ll need to hit up the gym in the morning for sure.”
He cocked his head to look at her trim waist. She had a great figure. “I doubt that.”
Her eyes softened, something like shyness creeping into them. “Thank you. For everything.”
“You’re welcome.” He ushered her out, a hand to her lower back, and they stepped onto the sidewalk when her breath hitched and she stopped short, making him bump into her from behind.
“Oh, no,” he heard her muttered words, and before he could ask what was wrong, a man, tall and well-built, stopped in front of them, a knowing grin on his face. He assessed them both, his head rocking with a cocky swagger.
“This your new man, Melody? Let me warn you, buddy.” He turned to TJ. “She might be good between the sheets, but the only place she’ll ever let you in is her bed. Don’t even try to get in her head or her heart. Lost cause. Run while you can.”
TJ’s body went stiff as wood at the words and their meaning. Melody’s eyes were wide with horror which she quickly schooled into a strained smile.
“Drew, this is TJ. Remember? My best friend?”
“Oh, right.” He threw TJ another inquiring glance. “I always kinda figured you two were friends with benefits when Melody was in between men. If you know what I mean.”
TJ put his shoulders back. “I don’t roll that way.”
Drew sniffed like he was an odd specimen. “Whatever, dude. If you change your mind, she’s not bad in bed. But the fun ends there. Remember that.”
The man turned and seemed to disappear into thin air. Melody stood rigid, unmoving, unblinking, staring after him. TJ let out a slow breath of air, an ache building within that hadn’t been there minutes before.
He had no reason to assume Melody didn’t engage in intimacies with her boyfriends. It was, after all, the way of the world. Even the way of the professing Christian world all too often. Melody didn’t adhere to the same standards he did, whether she had explicitly rejected them or not. But he’d neverwantedto consider that she might be sleeping with the men she dated. Therefore, he hadn’t wondered.
Now he knew better.
Pictures of her with Drew and who-knew-who-else rose before his eyes, taunting him, and he shut his lids and prayed the images away. His jaw trembled, and he chomped down until his teeth ached.
“Come on,” he ground out of his mouth, turning sharply to head toward his car. Melody walked beside him. Silent. Head down.
The pain of betrayal battled with TJ’s long-suffering love the whole way to the car. When they had climbed in and shut out the cold, he turned the engine on and sat there. Melody didn’t say a word.
He didn’t want to know this. He didn’t want it to be true.
Agony spread through his body like poison.
He wanted to rewind time and leave the restaurant one minute sooner so they wouldn’t have seen Drew. But it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t change who Melody was.
He had never stopped loving her before, no matter how deeply she hurt him. He wouldn’t stop loving her now, either.
Chapter Nine
Melody wanted to die. Jump off the pier, fall through the ice, and let the sub-zero temperature of Lake Michigan swallow her alive and end it all.
