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“What would change?” Mel asked. “If you stopped being the star of the Nick Freeman show, what would change? Are you going to start throwing everybody into vans now?” She saw his embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” He chuckled. “That’s fair.”
“I don’t know where you got this idea that some horrible person is going to come out if you stop pretending,” she said. “I’ve never met that guy.”
“He was here last night.”
“Oh, please.” Mel waved a hand. “You were pissed last night exactlybecauseno one was letting you be yourself. It’s ridiculous, by the way, that it took a fight for us to be honest with each other. I’m not letting that happen again.”
This was why he loved her so much. Melanie Beckett, protecting her friendships through sheer force of will.
“Why do you like me?” he asked her.
Mel narrowed her eyes. “That is just about the dumbest question ever.”
“Seriously,” he persisted. “Why do you like me? I screw up my chance with someone who actually matters. I come in here like you’re the reason my life is so hard. I act like I know better than you when it comes to raising your own child. And now you’re telling me you like me better than the kid you grew up with in high school. That kid was happy, Mel. That kid liked people.”
Mel plucked four napkins from a nearby holder. “Ilovedhigh school,” she said. “I needed someone to make me smile, and I ended up with one guy who loved me and another who was better than anyone I’d ever seen at making people happy. But you didn’t have to make a choice then, Nicky. You loved your life, so why not make someone’s day? It’s different when you decide to be here for us even when you don’t have the energy. It’s different when you’re there for Hayley even when it hurts you. The Nick Freeman I know now does the right thing when he doesn’t have to, or even want to. That’s why I like you better. And you absolutely like people, Nicky. You just don’t want to admit you’re human enough to not like all of them.”
Nick watched Mel position the napkins in front of four seats. “So maybe we can start hoping for better things.”
“I will if you will,” she said.
He exhaled. “So how do I get her back?”
“You don’t need my help with that.”
“You’re actually passing on an opportunity to advise me on my love life?”
Mel sat down. “If you get her back, it’s going to be because you listened to nobody but yourself.”
“Because that’s worked beautifully so far.”
“Look at the stuff that really matters to you,” she said. “Rose. Your students. Those kids at Vivez. You’re not putting on a show for them.”
He hadn’t put on a show for Hayley either.
“Here’s the thing, Nicky,” Mel said. “No one’s really that good at hiding. People can already see you. We love the real you, I promise. You just have to trust that you’re worth it.”
After a moment, Nick said, “You got it wrong back there.”
“What?”
“You ended up with two guys who love you.”
Nick thought he saw tears in her eyes, but Mel snatched up a tissue and turned away quickly. “Don’t think this gets you early cookies,” she said.
“What?” Nick looked incredulously around the table. “Then what’s all this stuff for?”
“This is me getting ready,” she said. “Once Gavin and Rose are home with the pizza, then we can all have the cookies my daughter baked for her Uncle Nick.”
46
Hayley called Kevin at two o’clock Thursday morning.
He picked up on the second ring. “Shouldn’t you be with Nick?”
“I never asked if you cheated on me,” she said.
