Page 42 of Stay Away from Him

“Why don’t we head to the waiting room,” Thomas said quietly. “There’s a little toy area there. He can play while we talk.”

They headed back out to the empty waiting room, where Bradley went to a corner to play with some toy cars on a low table. Thomas and Melissa lingered by the reception desk.

“I don’t really have anything else I need to tell you,” Thomas admitted as they watched Bradley play. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Melissa looked up at him. His eyes were kind, wrinkled at the corners with worry, and this time there was no stopping it—she burst into tears. Then his arms were around her, and it felt so good to be held that the tears came harder. Melissa let them come, knowing he wouldn’t let her go.

“I’m sorry,” Melissa said through her sobs. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

He was right about that, and maybe she didn’t have to explain—but she wanted to, just to say it. To get it all out.

“It’s everything, I think. Losing sight of Bradley for a second, how scary that can be, and then finding him being grabbed by that woman. It’s a mom’s worst nightmare. Then him getting hurt, and coming here, and—and how sweet you are with him. Withme. I don’t deserve it.”

“You do, though,” Thomas said gently. He tilted his face down and pressed his lips against the top of her head, spoke into her hair. “You deserve good things. Both of you. Every good thing.”

Melissa closed her eyes, overwhelmed with gratitude at this man who’d walked so unexpectedly into her life. Squeezed him tighter, enjoyed the feel of his body against hers. The warmth of it. The comfort.

“He called youDad,” she whispered, so Bradley wouldn’t hear across the room.

“He did,” Thomas said softly. Melissa felt the warmth of his breath on her scalp. “It’s okay. Really.”

She pulled away without breaking free from his arms, looked up directly into his eyes. “Is it, though?”

Thomas’s eyes were sparkling. Could he have been crying too?

“You know, I always wanted a son. A little boy, like Bradley. I love my girls—of course I do. But I always wanted a third. But we decided…well, you know. And I always wondered. What it would be like.”

“What are you saying?”

Thomas shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I know I’m not his dad. Not yet. We only just met. I just—I want to be part of your life. Yours and his. I’ve been clear on that.”

Melissa laughed. “You have.”Clearwas one way of putting it. Since she’d met him, Thomas had beenrelentlessin making his interest in her known—and she supposed she hadn’t exactly been reluctant. She was the first to kiss him. The first to invite him backto her place. She’d wanted him; she couldn’t pretend otherwise. And she wanted him now. More than ever.

“Look, I know I’m not the easiest person in the world,” Thomas said. “My past is—none of it’s my fault, but still. It’s a lot to take. A dead wife, two girls. The accusations. The crazy people who are still obsessed with me. Who think I’m guilty. I’m so sorry it’s affecting you. But I’m falling in love with you, Melissa. Okay? I’m falling in love with you, and I can’t make that feeling go away. This could reallybesomething, you know?”

“I know,” she said. “I feel that way too.”

“And this doesn’t happen that often, that two people will feel this way about each other. That something can be thisright. All the other shit—we can’t let it get in the way. Can we?”

She pressed her lips together and shook her head, blinking tears onto her cheeks. “No,” she said. “No, I don’t think we can.”

“So can we try this? Really try it? To hell with Kelli Walker, to hell with the bullshit evidence she thinks she has. To hell with the suspicions, the interrogations, the second thoughts. To hell with all of it. Can I be a part of your life or not?”

Melissa turned to Bradley, who was playing placidly in the corner, pushing a toy car along the arm of one of the waiting room chairs and making engine sounds with his mouth. The bandage on his forehead was a visible reminder of the thing that happened to him—and maybe it was a stand-in for all the terrible things they’dbothbeen through, Bradley and Melissa, on the way to righthere, rightnow. The pain. The hurt. But it was also a reminder of the man standing next to her, still holding her in his arms. The man who’d begun to make it better. The man who bandaged a wound. Who brought healing.

In that moment, there was nowhere she would rather be. No one she’d rather be with.

And nothing else to say.

“Yes.”

Transcript of Recording

Thomas:Stop looking at me like that.

Amelia:Like what?

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