Page 43 of Whiskey Reveals

Chapter 22

Melody was actually smiling.Not just smiling, practically skipping. She’d finished her morning barre class with some amazing women who wanted a different way to work out than the gym next door, and now her belly was full of some amazing food thanks to Dare’s bar. Kenzie had taken the afternoon off, and it was a teacher workday, so Ainsley was off, too, and the three them had eaten to their hearts’ content. Or rather, her belly’s content.

She’d gorged herself on a double cheeseburger with mushrooms and onion rings on the side. The girls and she had even shared some artichoke and spinach dip with some of the best homemade chips she’d ever had her life. She knew she’d work off the really bad food later on that day, or she probably wouldn’t have indulged as much as she did. But what she really wanted to do was go to the back of the bar and meet Dare’s chef and thank him for the amazing food.

Apparently, being pregnant had suddenly catapulted her into someone who couldn’t help but try every single thing on the menu. Fox had even cooked for her the night before, and he hadn’t burned a thing. Yes, it had been grilled cheese and tomato soup, but the soup hadn’t been from a can. And for some reason, she had never been able to make grilled cheese herself. No matter what she did, she either added too much butter or ended up burning it. Or worse, she flipped it too fast, and the bread got all mushy, and there was cheese everywhere. So, in her mind, Fox was a very talented chef, but she planned to beg him to take her out for onion rings more often.

If she weren’t careful, her baby would have the middle name “onion rings” considering how many she’d eaten in the past month she lived in Whiskey.

Things had quieted down around them, and she and Fox were actually starting to form a relationship beyond what they should have been, or rather what they thought they should’ve been. She’d fallen in love with him, and she knew she needed to find the guts to actually tell him that. It shouldn’t have been scary, not with how many other scary things she had gone through in her life. How many other things she was still going through.

Her dance studio was thriving, and her students were adorable and hard-working even if sometimes they didn’t want to stretch or plié. She didn’t mind though, because she was learning along with them. Some of her older students were far more talented than they gave themselves credit for, and she was excited to start working with them one-on-one. And she’d already started putting feelers out for someone to take over the studio when she needed time to recover from having the baby.

Because though she’d been hiding from her past for far too long, she really did know a lot of people in the dancing world. And not everybody hated her as much as she hated herself.

And because that thought had entered her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder where the stalker had gone. It’d been two weeks since the music box showed up. Two weeks, and she hadn’t heard anything from the person who was trying to make her worst fears come true. The police felt helpless, trying to figure out how any of it had happened, but there just wasn’t evidence. Melody was never alone now, one of the Collins brothers or her friends were constantly around her.

It should have annoyed her, should have been claustrophobic, but she let them take care of her, and it made Fox happy. And making him happy was something Melody wanted to do.

She’d never been good at relationships. But now, Fox was part of her life, and maybe tonight over another plate of onion rings, she would finally tell him exactly what was in her heart.

Because she loved him, and it was past time she told him. And the thing was, she wasn’t scared that he didn’t love her, too. Because it was in each and every one of his actions. But she knew he was waiting for her to say the words because she needed to be the one to say them first. It was how they were and she appreciated that.

And, oddly enough, she didn’t mind.

“You have a dreamy look on your face, and you totally just missed Kenzie saying goodbye because she had an emergency upstairs. Probably just a towel issue, but those are big things when it comes to innkeeping.”

Melody winced at Ainsley’s words and offered the last onion ring as an apology. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I know you’re thinking about your dreamy Fox and how handsome and manly and growly he is. But you’re going to see him later, so you can keep your sad little onion ring while I walk you back to your studio. I figured I’d hang out with you if that’s okay. I really don’t want to go home and grade. So I figured I’d smile and be happy watching little girls in tiny tutus prance around while you do your best to be stern.”

“That sounds like a plan because, honestly, I wouldn’t want to grade either. It’s too nice of a day.”

The two of them made sure that they tidied up their mess and left a big tip since this was turning out to be their second home. Or maybe it was a third home at that point. They waved at Dare, and he waved back from where he stood behind the bar, and then she and Ainsley made their way outside and into the street where they could walk to the studio. She’d truly fallen in love with the town. Every single person had opened his or her arms to her, and she never once felt like a tourist. They’d helped her build her dreams, and had helped her feel safe when she didn’t think she could. No, they didn’t know her past, but they didn’t ask either. For such a curious and gossip-filled town, they truly held back when it came to the important things.

She was just waving to the barbershop owner, a very hunky guy with a nice beard that happened to rival any of the Collins brothers’ when the sight of the car coming up pretty fast on the road stopped her.

Ainsley was closest to the curb, but Melody was right there beside her. The car sped up, and somebody screamed. Ainsley held onto Melody’s arm, but Melody pushed the other woman out of the way. The car jumped the curb and slammed into the pole right where Ainsley had been standing, and right in front of Melody. Another scream pierced the air, and Melody fell back, her head slamming into the pavement. She rolled to her side, protecting and cradling her belly. Ainsley was on her knees in a second, and others crowded around her. But she didn’t really hear any of it, she could only think about the baby in her belly beneath her hands. And the fact that Fox wasn’t beside her, watching her every move. He would blame himself for this.

But it wasn’t his fault.

It was the fault of the woman behind the wheel.

The woman that Melody should’ve known was part of this all along.

The woman that Melody had helped to ruin. Because she would know Sarah’s face anywhere.

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