Page 57 of Melody

“I don’t think anyone is out there watching your apartment. At least, not right now. There weren’t many cars parked along this part of Main and the ones that are have a thick layer of frost on ‘em.”

She nodded. “Then I guess I could turn this on,” she said, pushing a tiny button on the hood of the stove, suddenly illuminating the kitchen area.

As he handed her the mocha latte, he said, “I also got us breakfast. Not the healthiest, but they looked damned good. Scones—would you rather have blueberry or almond?”

“Oh. I want both.”

Kyle grinned—but it was immediately followed by a pang of sadness. That had been his exact thought at the coffee shop, which was why he’d bought two of each—and when she’d said what he’d thought, his brain had noted yet another way they were compatible, even if it was something small.

And she was ready to flee from it all.

But he kept his exterior calm. “Good, ‘cause I got two of each.”

“I guess I could sit down a minute.”

Kyle liked that idea. They could talk for a bit before she ran away.

After taking a sip of the latte, she said, “This is so good. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Just…enjoy.”

“Okay. After I dry my hair, I’ll pack the last of my stuff in the bathroom, and then I just need to take the luggage to my car.”

Kyle found he wasn’t really hungry anymore. “Have you thought about takingmycar?”

“I hate to do that to you.”

“If you have to leave, what good will it do you to be in a car he can find again?”

“Yeah, I know.” She pinched off a corner of the scone and chewed on it quietly.

And Kyle was hit with inspiration. “How much have I told you about my brother Liam?”

“He was in your band—kind of the leader, I think—and he died last year of a drug overdose. It really messed you up.”

“Yeah. Well…I haven’t even told you the half of it. His death really fucked me up…because I felt responsible.”

She placed a hand on his, and he relished the tenderness. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“No, if there’s anyone I want to tell this to, it’s you.” The truth was that the more he could open up, the more he would be able to forgive himself, to let it go. Although he still had a long road ahead of him to do it, he’d already felt better talking about it with his therapist. There was probably only one person he didn’t think he’d ever be able to talk to about it, and that was his mother. Since Liam’s death, the chasm between them had grown too wide, too deep, and he could feel her accusations and all the blame every time he was around her. If he were to heal, he’d have to do it without his blood family’s involvement.

Melody, though…he’d never felt judged by her—and if anyone needed to hear his story, it was her right now.

“I’d always looked up to Liam, but I guess I never really fully understood him. That was something else I had to grapple with—knowing that we can never completely know someone. Or, I guess, we can only know them as much as they’re willing to let us in. It wasn’t until after he died that I realized he’d been in a lot more pain than I’d known. It wasn’t something he talked about.

“When he started using heroin, I just thought it was like everything else we’d tried. You know, playing around with different drugs to see how they made us feel. Only Liam never moved on after that. Heroin became his drug of choice, and he started using it more and more. And the more he used, the less connected I felt with him. And, for some stupid reason, I thought getting stoned with him would bring us closer.”

Kyle was quiet for a little bit, trying to think what he wanted to tell her. After all, the only other person who’d heard this story was his therapist, and she was bound by confidentiality. Telling someone outside her office seemed scary—and yet, with Melody, it felt right.

Melody.

As if she could sense his thoughts, she said, “I think that’s human nature. You know…our commonalities bind us.”

“Goddamn. That’s profound—and you’re right. I mean, everything I did as a kid was a tribute to Liam. When we were younger, he’d get pissed at me for copying him but he didn’t care so much when he got older. I even started smoking because of him.”

“You smoked?”

“Yeah—up until, like, right before our first date. I’m trying to get rid of all the negative shit in my life. Anyway…Liam was an addict, and I was right there behind him. He’d started by smoking it, but then we started injecting it, because the high came faster—and, at first, it was more intense. But it got towhere that’s all we wanted to do. We’d get through the day just so we could get high at night.

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