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DANIEL
“Still nothing?”Saint asked, pulling into the drop-off lane at the Billings airport. Deek and Sea Bass were already on the driveway job at Melly’s place and Seth was manning the mechanic shop. I wasn’t sure if Saint volunteered for the airport run or if he got the short straw in taking me.
Staring at my phone screen, I shook my head. Danny hadn’t responded to my phone calls or texts.
“I hate leaving like this,” I said.
“He’ll come around,” he offered, putting his truck into park.
“I fucked his ex,” I said, using the words he said the other night when he caught me and Melly together.
He shook his head. “Nah. She was never his.”
The recorded message about leaving a car unattended came through hidden speakers reminding me what I was doing.
Leaving.
Twenty-one years after returning home because I’d knocked up Haven and made my own little family of me and Danny, I was moving away from home.
I’d been excited for months since I bought the one-way ticket. Eager.
Now? Did I feel like shit about leaving because of Danny or because of Melly? The time was up on the contract but why did it feel like things weren’t done? I didn’t expect her to drive me to the airport, wave to me as I got into the security line, wishing me a great trip and then heading back to Hunter Valley and the library. Returning to her quiet routine and remembering me as a fun few days of dick riding.
I climbed out, frowning.
We met at the back of his truck where he pulled down the tailgate so I could grab my bag. “Deek warned me off Melly because of Danny.”
He shrugged. “He did, but I saw the way you look at her. Danny never even mentioned Melly when they met for coffee. Not to any of us.”
That said a lot. He was close with all his uncles, especially Saint and Seth who were only eight years older.
“If he was into her,” he continued, “he’d have locked her down back in January. He would have acted like you have the past few days. Fucking crazy.”
I frowned at his accusation, but I had stormed into a vet’s exam room, stormed into a bar, stormed into Melly’s house, stormed… pretty much barreled my way into Melly’s life and her bed.
Danny would have been giddy and had little hearts for eyeballs if he’d seriously been into her. Hell, he’d have taken her out to dinner. A movie. Had sex. I knew for absolute fact he hadn’t done the last.
“He’s surprised, that’s all. Not often a girl you took for coffee ends up with your dad.”
“You’re surprised, too.”
He huffed and grinned. “Hell, yes. Not because of the age thing, or that you’re so different. It’s the way you look at her, dude. Who would have thought you and Melly would be so good together?”
Oh, we’d been amazing together. Insane chemistry. Off the charts sex. I’d never felt so connected to a woman. Hell, she’d gone from shy and prim as that nun Deek was obsessed with to uninhibited and wild. With me.
Only me.
I looked around the airport. The people waiting to be picked up standing at the curb, others hugging by cars before they caught their flight.
“It was only a few days and it’s over. This morning, I took her back to her house to get her car to go to work.” I tipped my head toward the airport. “We had a contract. Ends when I get on the plane.”
“A contract?” he asked, bug eyed.
“If you met her mother, you’d understand,” I said grimly. Melly had promised she wouldn’t stay at her house until her mom left. I offered my house since it would be vacant, but she declined. Said she’d stay with Mallory but didn’t think her mom would linger in Hunter Valley without any chance of the money she wanted.
“Then don’t get on the plane.”
I shook my head. “Deek’s right. She’s picket fences and babies. Her dreams are in Hunter Valley.” I hitched my thumb. “My dreams are out there.”
