Page 28 of Love is a Harmony
She swallowed, trying not to gag on the hot dog, as she stood frozen by his proximity. “Mmmhmm?”
“You’re supposed to wait for me to cook them.” His low chuckle vibrated against her ear before he stepped back. His lips curved up into a grin she wanted to wipe off his face.
Air rushed into her lungs, and she ran a hand through her hair, trying to get a grip. What was wrong with her? Noah Clarke shouldn’t be stepping into her space… and she shouldn’t react this way when he did.
Noah was still laughing, seemingly unaffected by her. “Have you ever even had a hot dog? How did you not realize it hadn’t been cooked yet?”
“I didn’t exactly grow up in a hot dog-eating family.” They were more salmon people than hot dog.
Noah’s face sobered at the mention of family, and Melanie wondered if he thought of Carson, of the brother who should be standing in this kitchen cooking his daughter dinner. “Yeah, well neither did I.” He slid the hot dogs from the plate into the beans and dumped the plate in the sink. “I’m going to go clean up a bit after our day at the beach.”
He didn’t look at her as he passed, and she reached out to grab his arm. “Noah.”
He stopped moving but didn’t turn.
“Are you okay?”
His shoulders lifted as he breathed deeply. “I have to be, Mel.” He shook off her hand and walked into his room, shutting the door.
* * *
Melanie had spent all day trying not to think of the problem Noah created for both of them, but she couldn’t hate him for it, not when she saw the way he looked at Stella. It was like he saw her as a second chance for the family he still wouldn’t talk about.
The ones who didn’t yet know her father was dead.
Melanie’s phone buzzed throughout dinner, but she didn’t need to pick it up to see who it was. Jo, Ben, Drew, and Dax wouldn’t leave them alone until they heard from either her or Noah.
The problem was, Melanie wasn’t quite sure what to tell them or how to explain that they were now in France playing house in a home that wasn’t theirs with a little girl they barely knew.
One who seemed like she’d made a decision. If she claimed she wanted to stay and join the Martin family, Melanie knew Noah would have walked away and let her have the life she wanted.
Instead, this child selected a different future for herself, one that wouldn’t be easy.
Fiancé. Fiancé. Fiancé. How did Melanie wrap her mind around the word? She’d been a fiancé once before, a wife, and eventually a widow. Now, even though none of it was real, the word sent spears of ice through her heart.
Noah and Stella alternated between talking and staring at their food when they ran out of things to say. Melanie was surprised how much she didn’t hate the beans and hot dogs, but she still hoped it was the one and only time she had to eat it.
During periods of silence, she caught Stella staring at her in fascination, and all Melanie could do was stare back, not knowing a single thing to say. The girl was a mystery to her.Kidswere a mystery.
And Noah, a guy who’d probably never been around kids in his life, was a complete natural.
It was a shocking revelation.
One that rocked the foundation of who Melanie thought he was.
She cleaned up dinner while he joined Stella in the living room to sit side by side in front of the television, mirrors to each other’s grief.
When she was done, she stood in the doorway watching them. The covert looks they shot one another. The way each started sentences without completing them. It was the beginnings of a relationship, one Melanie was sure would turn into something spectacular, because that was who Noah Clarke was. He didn’t do anything small. Big, explosive concerts. Giant scandals. A larger than imaginable life.
Except here, in the quiet French coastal town, he was still.
Noah dragged his brother’s guitar into his lap and plucked absently at the strings, the way a true musician did, one who couldn’t be away from the music. She’d seen it with Justin. They used the notes to make sense of both the world around them and the world inside them.
She could hear Justin’s voice in her mind.“It’s a harmony, the outer and inner music. Grief. Love. Joy. Rage. They harmonized to create a life worth living.”
Noah noticed her watching, and one corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. “Are you going to join us or just stand there?”
She enjoyed his Britishness, the way his accent washed over her, sinking into her bones. Stepping up to the back of the couch, she looked down at the two of them.
