AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her head low, she walked doggedly into the frigid winter air, not slowing when her friend Jasmine, the voice instructor at Artisan’s Hope, called after her. If she tried to socialize now, she would be unable to hide her despair. Her friends would want to know why she was upset, and she couldn’t admit what was really wrong.
Her. She was wrong. She always was.
The drive to her place took two minutes, and she had come to a stop in the garage-less driveway when her phone dinged with an incoming text message. A smile curved her lips as she fished the device from her purse, but her face froze when she saw the sender.
Not TJ as expected. It was her mother.
Dread settled at the bottom of her stomach like a rock. She hadn’t heard from her mom in nineteen months and five days.
Yes, she was counting.
What did her mom want from her now?
Hi, Baby. I’ve been missing you. So much that I decided to come spend Valentine’s weekend with you. See you soon. Xoxo.
Melody’s head fell back against the headrest. She remembered her mother’s last visit. And the one before that. And the one before…
Tears pushed around her eyeballs, but she refused to let them out.
“Knock knock.”
Melody slammed upright and let out a yelp at the hooded figure at her driver’s side window.
“Are you getting out?”
With relief, she recognized the voice and opened the door. “For crying out loud, Lucy, you nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you doing lurking around my place in the dark?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to get home. Can we go inside? I’m freezing.”
Melody led the way on the sidewalk, freshly cleared of snow. TJ always sent someone to clear her driveway and sidewalks on snowy days. She told him more times than she could count that she could take care of it herself. Last year she gave up and embraced the pampering.
Heaven knew she didn’t get it anywhere else. Never had.
“Let me turn the heat up.” She bumped the thermostat low when she left each morning. Her music scholarship had softened the blow of college tuition a lot, but she had still been forced to take student loans, especially for her master’s. Monthly payments, rent, gas, and utilities ate up her modest paychecks with surprising speed. After the conditions she lived in as a child, she had no room to complain. Or to splurge.
“You looked upset in your car.” Lucy accepted the mug of lavender tea Melody set about preparing before taking off her coat. It was her nightly ritual, and she didn’t mind sharing it with someone as close as Lucy.
Melody Reed didn’t get close to people. She had friends. Lots of them. She’d had boyfriends. Lots of them. But she held them all at arm’s length and cut them off once they got too close.
TJ was the only exception, but there was still a lot she kept from him. She didn’t know how much he knew about her background. Her childhood poverty. Her mom. But she was too afraid to ask.
Lucy was in the odd area in between. Melody got closer to her toward the end of high school, but then they went separate ways for college. TJ put in the effort to stay in touch. Lucy didn’t. It was only in the last year after Lucy returned to Silver Lake City that they had begun to mend their friendship.
It was hard for Melody. It would be easier to close herself off like she did with others. But the Halversons meant too much to her. TJ meant too much to her. She wouldn’t risk offending them.
Besides, a girl needed a close gal pal once in a while. And she trusted Lucy—as much as she was capable of trusting anyone.
“My mom just texted me.” She rolled her lips in, then back out to purse them, choosing careful words that wouldn’t reveal the truth. The full truth. “We’re not close.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucy said softly. “That must be hard.” Melody held her breath. If Lucy asked anything personal, she didn’t know what to do. “Are you busy tonight? If not, I had an idea.”
Good. She’d dropped it.
Some evenings Melody met up with TJ. He was a regular member of the indoor climbing gym in town and climbed there at least three times a week. Sometimes she joined him, even though she much preferred long-distance running. When it was above freezing, she ran outside, miles at a time. TJ hated it, but he often accompanied her anyway, running beside her until his legs gave out. In the middle of winter, Melody hit up the treadmill at the employee gym at the community college every morning. Free membership.
“I don’t have plans tonight. I was going to binge on cooking shows and eat noodle soup.”
TJ’s Christmas present four years ago was a Netflix membership so she could watch her favorites anytime she wanted. He renewed it every year.
