Page 29 of Stay Away from Him

“What did I tell you?” Thomas asked. “There’s been no one. Until you. This is the first time I’ve ever told them I met someone I liked.”

Melissa thought about that, felt the weight of it. No wonder Rhiannon was so quiet, so sullen, when Melissa dropped off Bradley. The girl probably hated her, thought she was trying to replace her dead mother. She might still have been grieving Rose, might not have been ready for a new woman in her dad’s life—or in hers.

“But how do youknow?” Melissa asked, flustered. “Isn’t there some part of you that wants to be careful? That wants to hold back?”

Thomas tugged on her hand, pulled her toward him, and suddenly she was in his arms on the front porch, his hands gripping her at the curve of her waist, pulling her close until their hip bones touched.

“People will see,” Melissa breathed, but her hands had risen to his neck, the back of his head—she was holding him too. Grabbing him, as though he’d slip away from her if she let go.

“I don’t think either of us is holding back,” Thomas said. “Do you?”

Melissa pressed her lips together, shook her head.

“And when you know, you know,” Thomas continued. “You know?”

“And youknow, huh?”

He nodded. “I do. I knew as soon as I saw you.”

It was such aline, the kind of thing that got said in rom-coms and romance novels, but coming from Thomas’s lips, it felt to Melissa like the first time in the history of the world that anyone had expressed the idea, the first time two people had ever fallen so hard and so quickly for each other. Then Thomas leaned in, and Melissa gave in to his kiss, pulling at the back of his neck, keeping him from breaking away too soon. She felt lightheaded again, woozy. Thomas said he’d been waiting a long time forthis, waiting a long time forher—and maybe she’d been waiting too. Waiting for a man who’d take care of her the way she deserved. Now she hadit, hadhim, and she let the feeling take over, let the thoughts fall away: the neighbors seeing, the kids and what they might think, even Rose and what might have happened to her. It all dissolved in her head until the only thing left washim, the taste of his mouth and the feel of her body pressed close to him.

Then the door clicked open, light from the inside of the house falling across their faces.

“Dad?”

Melissa pulled away from Thomas, straightened out her clothes. She ran her hands through her hair.

“Rhiannon!” Thomas said enthusiastically, like there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

He stepped inside and Melissa followed, ears burning at the withering glare Rhiannon was shooting at her.

“How was the evening?” Thomas asked.

“Fine,” Rhiannon said.

A sound of pounding footsteps grew louder, and then Bradley came around the corner and threw himself at Melissa’s knees.

“Mom!” he shouted. “Can we go home? You were gone a long time.”

Guilt pinged in Melissa’s stomach. “Didn’t you have fun?”

“I did,” Bradley answered, but his voice as he said it was dull, exhausted. He’d spent so much of the day in new places, with new people. Melissa shouldn’t have left him so long.

“What did you do?”

“Kendall showed me the woods,” Bradley said.

Melissa blinked. “The woods?”

Thomas rushed to answer. “The trees behind our house, next to the lake. It’s maybe a hundred acres—hardly a forest, but when they were little, the girls liked to traipse through there and pretend they were explorers.”

“Kendall said there’s a coyote living back there,” Bradley said,and then Melissa understood. An older child had played pretend with him, thinking he’d find it fun, but he’d gotten scared.

“Just a bit of adventure,” Thomas said as Bradley buried his face against Melissa’s leg. “Where is Kendall, anyway?”

“She had homework,” Rhiannon said, nodding upstairs. “I sat with him after we came back to the house.”

“You walked with them?” Thomas asked, with a surprised smile.

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