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She met his eyes in the glow of the dome light. “Kay.”
“If you need anything—anything at all—call me.”
“Kay.”
“Think about what I said.”
Her face softened. “I will.”
TJ’s stomach turned over with a delicious flutter. He’d loved her for so long, but she’d never let him this close before.
She held his gaze with a long, searching glance. He winked. Her lips twitched, and she winked back, then climbed out of the car. A grin spread across his face as he watched her unlock her door and vanish inside with a wave.
He’d finally kissed Melody again. And it was awesome.
After all this time. After all the longing, hurting, and waiting…he’d won her over. He. Tyson Jeremiah Halverson. Not Jeremy.
Acid clawed up his throat until he felt sick.
Jeremy’s time was over. The question was, how to make him stop?
Chapter Twelve
With methodical movements, Melody washed the stage makeup off her face and applied her nightly skin-care regimen. She was dedicated to her moisturizing ritual, but it hadn’t happened last night. Tonight it was non-negotiable, no matter the turmoil within. Both physicalandemotional turmoil.
A fresh menstrual cramp rocketed through her middle as if to reassure her that yes, her physical ailment was still alive and well. Her body folded, her shoulders hunching in its automatic effort to ward off the pain. Unbidden, her mind rewound to TJ’s tender care earlier in the day. To all the things he’d done for her over the years. To the ways he’d shown up when she needed him most.
She likely wouldn’t have graduated high school without him. He had no idea. When she suggested they study together after school three times a week, he thought it was due to their friendship. Not her failing grades. It had been both. She loathed parting with him every day and returning to her drab apartment. To her mom’s incessant put-downs and insults.
Spending an hour at the library with TJ was infinitely better. She could nurse her secret crush with the added bonus of learning more from him than from her teachers. The only thing she had been unable to emulate was English. That was consistently her lowest grade. But she squeaked by on the others, and when her grades were high enough to join band in the middle of ninth grade, nothing could hold her back. TJ had been torn, ever encouraging her love of music but sad that it meant less time with him. She teased him, telling him it was his chance to get a girlfriend.
He’d never had one. Now she knew why. He’d always wanted her.
A shudder rocked her body, the source unrelated to her womanly issues.
Did TJ have any idea what he was asking?
Patting her face dry, she hit the bathroom light, changed into her softest PJs—the ones she kept for when she needed to feel extra comfort—and padded into the kitchen. It was late, but she hadn’t eaten dinner, and her periods made her ravenously hungry.
Besides, who could sleep after the rollercoaster she’d ridden in the last twenty-four hours? She had hit the lowest of lows, followed by the highest high. Now she was back in the middle.
The land of uncertainty.
She settled at the table with a bowl of cereal. It would have to do. She was too exhausted to prepare anything else.
Her foot tapped as she ate.
TJ wanted her heart.
The heart Drew was convinced didn’t exist. Or, at the very least, couldn’t be given.
TJ believed otherwise.
Who was right?
She groaned at another cramp and rose to get a glass of water, remembering TJ’s parting words. She needed more pain medication.
Downing the pill, she paced her apartment, too worked up to sit despite the roiling pain inside her. Drew hadhatedher periods. They were long, and he got impatient for renewed intimacy. Melody had begun to think that was all men cared about. But TJ was making her rethink everything. Absolutely everything.
