Page 48 of Defended
Chapter 16
By the time Melody arrived at Kawan’s house, she was feeling a little calmer, and she knew it was because she washereinstead of the hotel she’d originally planned on finding. The whole sum of her plan, before calling Kawan, had been to drive to the closest, cheap place she could find, and then spend tonight looking for an even cheaper one that shemightbe able to afford for a week or two. She’d thought about calling her parents for help, but she already knew they didn’t have extra money to help her out either. They’d try though, if they thought she needed it, but Melody refused to be responsible for them emptying out their retirement funds. She’d figure something out even if she had to sleep in her car.
She was still a little worried that Kawan didn’t realize what he was offering. It was probably going to take her a while to find a new place. They’d have to talk about it. But for right now, all she really wanted was a hug.
Peggy had turned into a screaming mess when Melody had finally nodded and said she’d find another living situation. She’d demanded that Melody get outnow.She’d only taken long enough to dump her clothes back in her room, throw some of them in a bag, and then she’d practically run out of there. The whole time Peggy had been ranting about what a shitty friend she was, how she was throwing their friendship away over a man—a pervert—and how Melody would regret this.
Pointing out that Peggy was the one throwing away their friendship, because she was the one who had laid down the ultimatum, didn’t go over well. She’d gotten all red in the face, screamed at Melody that she was a pervert too, that she was sick in the head, and Peggy never wanted to see her again. Then she’d said if Melody wasn’t out of there within ten minutes, she was calling the police.
Before leaving, she’d knocked on Peggy’s door and said she’d be back for the rest of her stuff tomorrow. Melody had even managed to be a bit of a hard ass and tell Peggy that she’d better not touch any of her stuff since her perverted new man was a lawyer. She didn’t like to think that Peggy would do anything crazy to her things, but at the moment she had to admit that she didn’t really know.
She wouldn’t have expected Peggy to do any of this… and yet, she had to admit that she wasn’t shocked either. Somewhere in the back of her head, she thought maybe she’d always known that Peggy could be this controlling. The only reason they hadn’t had it out before was because Melody had allowed Peggy to control her pretty much from the moment they’d become roommates.
As soon as she pulled into Kawan’s driveway, she saw his front door open and he came hurrying outside. Just the sight of him, and the concerned expression on his face, made her tear up again.
She was so glad she was here and not at a motel.
Before she could open her car door, he was already there, opening it for her to scramble out and straight into his arms.
“Hey, baby girl, come here.”
The hug was a balm to her tattered emotions, and the tears she’d been holding off with varying degrees of success finally broke free. She clutched at the soft fabric of his shirt as a sob ripped through her chest. All the hurt, all the anxiety, all the negative emotions that she’d buried because she hadn’t wanted Peggy to see her cry, came bubbling to the surface now.
He held her firmly, stroking her hair and making a gentle shushing noise. Just like a Daddy. Caring. Comforting. Protecting. She could practically feel the tension melting away, knew that she could rely on his shoulders to carry some of the burden. It wasn’t that she wanted him to, it was that he was taking it upon himself.
Without a single word, he made her feel like everything was going to be okay.
* * *
After confirmingthat Melody hadn’t eaten, Kawan sat her down at the table and heated up a plate of food for her—reheating his own dinner as well. Thankfully he’d made a big batch of salad, spaghetti, and meatballs, figuring that he’d have leftovers for lunches this week, so there was plenty of food to go around. As she was still upset, he tried not to grin over the fact that she was still wearing his hoodie. He liked the way she looked in it though.
“You know,” he said conversationally, somehow managing to keep his temper even after she’d told him everything that had happened when she’d gone home to face Peggy. “She can’t actually force you to leave, even though you’re not on the lease. You still have rights because of the length of time you’ve lived there.”
“That sounds awful,” Melody said, frowning down at her plate. She stabbed a piece of lettuce. “I can’t imagine it would make for a pleasant living situation and… honestly, I’m not sure I trust her not to do something completely crazy. I’ve never seen her act like this before. But I’ve never really challenged her on anything before either.” She looked up and gave him a tight smile, but her eyes were sad. “Don’t worry, I won’t need to be here too long, I’m sure I can figure something out.”
“Melody.” He reached out, putting his hand over her free one as she shoved the forkful of salad into her mouth with the air of someone forcing themselves to eat. “That’s not what I’m saying. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need, in fact I’ll insist on it. I’d rather have you here than anywhere else while you’re looking. I just want to make sure you know your rights, in case you wanted to force the issue with her.”
She immediately shook her head, like he’d suspected she would. But he’d wanted to make sure. If she’d had an attachment to the place she’d been living in, he would have fought for her right to stay there. Or even if she’d wanted to make Peggy grant her the rights she was due.
“I don’t want to live with her anymore.” Tears sprang back into Melody’s already red, puffy eyes. Kawan’s heart ached for her. “I guess I would if I had no other option, but I think I’d rather live in my car right now.”
“That’s definitely not going to happen, so put that out of your mind right now,” he said firmly. Her car? Hell no. Even if she didn’t want to continue exploring a relationship with him, he’d insist she stay with him rather than live out of her car. “You’ll stay here and look for a new place. In the meantime, we need to figure out how you’re going to live here.”
She blinked, startled, and he was reminded of the wide doe eyes she had when he’d met her in court that fateful day.
“How… what do you mean?” she asked in confusion.
“Well, we have a few options,” he said, keeping his voice even. He didn’t want to influence her decision or pressure her into anything, especially not while she was living with him and might feel beholden to him. “We’ve started exploring a relationship, but this is obviously an unsettled time for you, so I don’t want to push you into anything you’re not ready for, especially since we’re going to be living together for a bit. So while you’re living here we can just be friends and housemates until you find a new place, or we can keep things casual here at the house and play together at Black Light, or we can keep seeing where the romantic side of the relationship leads us.”
Melody nibbled on her lower lip while he laid out the options and then smiled when he finished. “You’re such a lawyer.”
“Guilty as charged.” He winked at her and she giggled before ducking her head back down to look at her plate. Swirling the spaghetti around with her fork, she seemed deep in thought, so Kawan concentrated on finishing his own dinner, giving her the time to think.
“You don’t have to decide tonight,” he told her gently.
When she met his gaze, her face was somewhat somber. “No… I think… I know what I want to do. I just also have some questions. I mean, I’ve read books and we played in the club a little bit, but how does a relationship like this actually work?”
“However we want it to work.” He smiled. “We can figure it out together. What works for one relationship might not work for another.”
