“I may only be twenty-three, but I grew up fast. I have no doubts about what I’ve done. I’m married to one of my best friends. I have Tate in my life at home and at work, my in-laws are amazing people, and I know one of the world’s best pool players. He’s been my surrogate father my entire life. My life’s great even if I don’t have a minute to spare to sleep.”
“You’re finishing up your MBA, your master’s in architecture, and you work for the company that’s completing the campus project, and on top of all of that you’re married? There’s no way you’re as happy as you claim,” Nick stated with a pointed look.
“I’m finishing the last three classes for my MBA. I’m enrolled in three others to finish my architectural studies. I don’t deal with all of the day to day things at the office anymore but handle the larger things. We drop everything when Jordan comes home after being away for too long, ignore the phone, and only answer the door if it’s the police or one of our family members bleeding all over the front stoop. So yeah, I can be that happy,” Mel told them as their professor came in and began the day’s lecture. After that discussion, people seemed to either give her a wider berth or else they asked way too many personal questions.
For Valentine’s Day, Jordan surprised her with a scavenger hunt that led her to an empty field where he had a table set up and she shook her head laughing as she made her way over to him.
“What on earth?” she asked looking around them.
“Welcome home Mrs. Turner,” he said pulling her into a kiss. He grinned down at her once he pulled back. “I do believe we’re standing in our future kitchen, don’t you?”
Mel sent a curious look at him before glancing around the field again, taking in the ‘for sale’ sign and the expanse that lay between it and the next nearest home, nearly a mile down the road. “Here?”
“You don’t like it?” he asked worry seeping through his tone.
“Jordan, I love it,” she said with a gentle smile as she pictured the house and what the view would look like from the kitchen window.
“Good, I wouldn’t want to be forced to kick Tate’s ass for giving me the wrong advice,” he teased kissing her temple. “Now, what do you say we enjoy this wonderful meal before I take you to our current home and remind you how much I’ve missed you this last week?”
“Mmm…I say yes,” she said against his lips.
By the end of the next week the spot was theirs and they were arguing over the materials to use for the outside of the house. It was an argument that their crew was more than happy to draw out when she stopped by the worksite and he was there. It became the running joke as the weeks sped by and the crew began to work on the preparing the plot.
Nicole had the baby, a boy they named Cord, in the middle of March and he joined Alana’s two boys Trent and Sam. The same day Nicole had her baby Jake and Susan announced they were going to have the next one, a call she’d made back at Christmas and won her three weeks of Jordan taking care of the dishes.
As April rolled around, she was insanely busy between finishing her courses, work and checking on the progress of their house—a house which Dwight had deemed perfection when she’d finally showed him the plans for it. Everything seemed to be going great…and that’s when it all came crashing down on her.
Chapter 12
Mel hurried through the campus towards the Jeep, unlocking the door and tossing her bags into the back. She was seriously wishing she’d never started the MBA program. She’d just spent the last four hours in the library researching information for her final synopsis paper that was due in a little over a week. The only good thing was Jordan was still out of town and couldn’t see how much time she was spending on schoolwork and not on the company, not that he’d complain about it, most likely he’d do the opposite and tell her to not worry about the office at all and send her home to sleep.
She was halfway home when the car began to sputter and then the entire thing just died. The dash went dark, the headlights clicked off, and she slowly eased it to the side of the road attempting to turn on the hazard lights but even they wouldn’t work. She climbed out and opened the hood, stepping back when a huge puff of smoke attacked the air.
Mel might have grown up with a male as a best friend and as a pool shark, but she didn’t know the first thing about cars, and certainly not when they puffed smoke. She didn’t see anything on fire which she was thankful for and got back in to find her phone. This wasn’t that bad of a situation, she’d call roadside service and then Tate to come pick her up, easy, no fuss. Shelooked up the number on the insurance card and dialed but nothing happened.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She groaned as the signal bars flashed on and off and she heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. It sent her walking towards the front of the car then to the back and tried up and down both sides of the road before she got a tiny signal and tried the number again.
“We’re sorry all circuits are busy at this time…please try your call again,” a voice said before cutting off and she cursed. She tried again and again before the entire signal went down and no matter where she walked she couldn’t get it back. Splatters of rain hit the ground, and she ran back to the Jeep to keep from getting soaked.
She grabbed Jordan’s sweatshirt from the backseat and pulled it on as she shivered after the icy cold drops that’d struck her.
“Okay so I should have listened to Jordan and let him buy me a new car,” she told the rain as it began to pelt down onto the windshield even harder.
It was almost an hour before she saw a pair of lights coming down the road. A part of her wanted to flag them down but the sane part of her told her to stay firmly inside the vehicle with the doors locked. The last thing she needed was for some psycho to try and grab her.
The car drove past, and she saw the tail lights come on as it stopped, pulling over to the side of the road and reversing until it was just in front of her.
“Please don’t be some crazy man who kills women during storms,” she whispered as the driver’s door opened.
Mel couldn’t tell much from the form as the person got out and hurried back to her door. They lifted a flashlight allowing her to catch a glimpse of their face and she relaxed a bit as theyknocked on the window. She opened the door a crack since the windows were operated by power and she had none.
“Melinda?” Devon stated glancing at the raised hood. “Couldn’t pick a better night to break down could you?”
“Or a worse spot, no cell service.”
“It’s down all over town too, lighting hit a tower and took out the power grid for them from what I heard. Can I give you a ride?”
“That’d be great,” she said pushing aside her caution that she barely knew the guy and grabbed her bags from the backseat.
