Page 56 of Fresh Start
I put her hand down and wiped the tears away with my thumb.
“You’re not. You were just a girl in love. We all do silly things when we’re in love,” I said.
Melody snorted and wiped the rest of her face. Her eyes were red, and the bags under her eyes were heavy.
“Is that why you’ve been working yourself to the ground? I haven’t seen you go home at all.”
“Well,” she said. “When that asshole walked away with my money, he took away all my salaries too. I can only afford help during breakfast and this part-time student who cleans the rooms some days. I’ve gone into so much debt I can’t pay anyone, so how can I take any time off?”
It hurt my sister wouldn’t tell me any of this. That none of my family thought to tell me. Not just about Mel, but about the rest of them too. How couldn’t anyone tell me about Charlie’s accident and Andy’s mental state? Why hadn’t anyone told me about dad losing all his shares?
Maybe I considered myself unlucky, but it seemed that my family had also suffered from the same dumb jinx I did.
“Mel, sweetheart, how much money do you need?” I asked, but Mel shook her head.
“No, I can’t take your money,” she said.
“Yes, you can, and you will,” I said.
She shook her head again, and I took a deep breath not to shout at her.
“Mel, I’ve got more money than I need, so tell me, how much fucking money will it take to get my sister back?” I said.
My sister was nothing if not stubborn. It was the Greek blood in her, in us all to be honest, that made us hot-headed. I knew why no one told me anything. They didn’t want to ask for money from the estranged brother. But I wouldn’t have minded. I’d stayed away for my own reasons, but I still loved them. I loved all of them. They were my family.
I got her to tell me the magic number in the end. She still didn’t want it. But I wrote her a check anyway.
“Go and get some rest, woman. I expect to have a fully functioning sister when I’m back from my audition,” I said.
Mel smiled at me and threw her arms around me once more and then fled back to reception. When I looked outside, it was nighttime, and when I checked the clock, it was almost ten.
Dawson would be back soon, and we could be together again. And have all the sex. God, when did I turn into a horny teenager?
I waited for him, impatiently checking my phone every two seconds until it flashed with a message.
“Stuck at my parents. My aunt is telling us another one of her stories. Missin u,” it read, and if I didn’t feel like a schoolboy before, I did now.
“Missin u too. Hurry back. Tell em ur man is waiting for u,” I texted back.
His response was a heart emoji.
Then another one that read: “Oops, mistype. I meant :) lol.”
“Don’t mess with me, Mr. Eldred. That heart is mine, and I ain’t givin it back.”
“If u want it, it’s all urs,” he said.
Was he saying what I thought he was?
“I want it,” I replied.
“Love you too,” he messaged, and I had to get out of bed because I had ants in my pants. The night was going to be long.
* * *
Dawson was stuckat his parents the whole night, or so it seemed. When I woke up the next morning, I saw the myriad of messages from Dawson asking me if I was still awake and his last one that read, “Good night, my beautiful Knight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
His words made me smile even though I was annoyed I’d not heard his messages and fallen asleep instead. To be honest, he’d exhausted me, so I needed the uninterrupted sleep.
