Page 69 of Melody

As she shook her head, Kyle saw a tear fly off her cheek. But that didn’t make any fucking sense.Shewas the one cutting every tie between them. She was the one twisting the knife in his gut. It was her, the woman who’d given him so much joy in such a short amount of time, who was now not only ending it all but almost making a mockery of it by giving him back the one gift he’d really wanted her to have.

As she walked away again, he glanced at the print in his hand and then looked back to her once more. Part of him wanted her to turn back, but a large part of him felt like a flayed piece of meat losing all its blood. Her words had completely eviscerated him, and he wasn’t sure what to do. He’d never been here before. He and Hayley had been together since they’d been kids and their breakup had been inevitable—the actual severing of emotion had happened long before they’d made it official. And they still cared for each other, but in a much different waynowadays. Their split had been a mutual decision. Maybe it should have hurt, but it hadn’t.

This…what Melody had done felt calculated and cruel.

How the fuck was he supposed to go back in the bar now?

As if he’d sensed Kyle’s thoughts, Adrian popped his head out the door. “You ready?”

All Kyle could do was shake his head, looking at the ground.

Adrian stepped outside in only his t-shirt. “What’s wrong?”

“Only…everything.”

“You need to talk about it?”

Again, Kyle shook his head. “Maybe later.” But he wasn’t so sure about that. He would probably talk to his therapist about it but tonight, he planned to buy a six-pack and, while he drank it, he was going to burn that fucking print. After that?

He didn’t know. It was still too goddamned fresh.

CHAPTER 24

The next morning, Melody was taking a longer-than-usual walk. She’d thought breaking it off with Kyle would make her feel free, independent.

Relieved, even. After the whole family Christmas incident earlier in the week, she’d been sure much of her angst and unease had come from experiencing Kyle’s dysfunctional family dynamic. And so that meant that the way to feel clear and in control was to break it off with him.

That wasn’t the only reason, even though Christmas with his family had been the catalyst. Themainreason was that she realized she couldn’t trust her judgment. Something deep inside her told her Kyle would eventually become like Tommy. And it would have been stupid to go from one bad situation into yet another, not having learned anything.

Losing her parents had caused something in her brain to malfunction—and, until she figured out how to fix it, it would never be okay.Shewould never be okay.

As she began walking on a trail just outside of town, farther than she’d ever ventured before, she felt removed from civilization enough that she had no inhibitions about talking out loud. “Mom, dad, if you were here, what advice would you giveme? I was positive breaking it off with Kyle would make me feel better, but I feel way worse. What the hell should I do?”

She knew she wouldn’t hear their voices wafting down from the heavens, but she could sometimes feel them in her heart when she spoke to them—and sometimes that was how she figured out what she should do. She hadn’t listened to them in a long time…and maybe that was why she’d once again gotten herself into a situation she shouldn’t have been in to begin with.

While she waited for the silent answers that sometimes came to her when she took her walks, she couldn’t help but think back over the past few months. She’d actually grown fond of the way Kyle often called herTinkand his smile could make her entire body light up with joy.

No.She’d done the right thing. Kyle might have seemed like the right guy in the moment, but that whole scene with his family had left her feeling more than uneasy. Although she hadn’t imagined being with Kyle for the long-term—mainly because she felt like her entire made-up life was temporary—her subconscious brainhadentertained a together-for-a-while trajectory…but Melody couldn’t tolerate being in that environment.

It reminded her too much of Tommy. That man worshipped his mother, and she believed all the lies he told her about working a “respectable” job and being a good man—mainly because he went to Mass with her once a month. But even with the adoration he felt for his mother, they fought like cats and dogs, and they didn’t care who was around to hear it. And Melody was pretty sure they enjoyed it even more when they could see her all but cringing to be around it.

At least there hadn’t been any door-slamming at Kyle’s mother’s house, and the woman hadn’t wielded a skillet, threatening to hit him over the head. So maybe Kyle’s family wasn’t quite as bad.

Still…it was reminiscent, enough to give her a sour stomach.

She had to stop reliving that night over and over. She’d already broken it off with Kyle, so she expected that, if she could stop thinking about that night, she would start feeling better.

But when she forced herself to change her train of thought, she simply went backwards. At first, Kyle really had seemed like a breath of fresh air…after she’d stopped pushing him away, anyway. And he was such a good kisser—she’d enjoyed the way he kissed the very first time their lips had touched.

And then there was their first date. It was the kind of thing she never would have planned for a date and yet the whole evening had been magical—even the uncomfortable beginning. She remembered holding his hand on Razor Ridge Drive.

Oh. And the print he’d bought her.

Letting out a long sigh and shaking her head, she focused on the hills in the distance. The trees and scattered brush had a light dusting of snow, and she tried smiling through the tears that were beginning to blur her vision. She reminded herself that she’d given him the print back so she wouldn’t have any reminders of him.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to give back the memories.

And they kept flooding back in. The first time they’d made love—thatwasmagic. No man had ever made her feel that way.

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