Page 56 of Love is a Harmony
“Oh.” Melanie scanned the menu overhead. “Okay, then I’ll have an egg white omelet wrap with spinach and mushrooms.” It was about time she got back to her healthy ways. Health wouldn’t wait for her.
The woman laughed, her eyes crinkling. “Well, I lied. I don’t think a kid will eat that. Tell you what, my grandkids are partial to the blueberry scones.”
“Okay, I’ll take that.”
“Just one?”
Melanie contemplated whether she should get Noah a wrap or not, but she’d seen his diet. He ate like he did everything else. Recklessly. “Two please.”
And she was apparently his accomplice.
Melanie turned away from the counter as she waited, taking in the customers sitting around tables, enjoying their mornings before going to work. Was this what people did instead of going into the office first thing?
They actually… relaxed? Ate good food?
It shouldn’t have been a surprise to her. With Justin, mornings meant staying in bed until the last possible moment, kissing in the kitchen, and then hurrying to get out the door.
But she’d been a kid, barely an adult.
The woman returned to take Melanie’s credit card. She handed it back with a smile and slid a bag and two cups across the counter.
“Thank you.” Melanie carried her loot back outside, suddenly wanting to get home as quickly as possible. She’d never felt any connection to her apartment, any desire to be within those walls.
But now… two people waited there for her.
She heard the music as soon as she opened the door and froze. Noah sat on the couch with Stella beside him and a guitar perched in his lap, a familiar guitar. One Melanie kept in her spare closet. It was one of the few things of Justin’s she hadn’t been able to get rid of.
Even after ten years of disuse, it looked no different than she remembered it. And the sound… Noah’s voice drifted toward her, speeding up her heart with its melody.
“You can’t play that,” she whispered.
He didn’t hear her, his song never stopping.
“Noah.” She set the coffees and bag of food on the table by the door before her shaking hands dropped them. “Noah, stop.” Louder, she needed to be louder.
But she couldn’t find her voice.
A tear trailed down her cheek.
“Stop.” The word burst out of her, stealing all the emotion inside her.
Noah clapped a hand over the strings to cease all sound and turned to her, a question in his eyes. “Hey, Mel. Stella was looking for a bath towel and found a guitar instead. I didn’t know you played.”
Almost as if she had no control over her body, Melanie marched forward and ripped the guitar from him, yanking the strap off over his head. “How dare you? You come into my home and touch my things. This guitar doesn’t belong to you.Idon’t belong to you.”
She’d always be Justin’s no matter what she’d started feeling for this man and his niece.
“Mel.” Noah stood and took a step toward her.
She stepped back. “Don’t.” Fresh tears hung in her lashes.
Ten years, Justin, and you can still make me cry.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“That’s the problem, Noah. You don’t think. About anything. You never have. You just act, no matter the consequences or who gets hurt in the process.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking so lost Melanie would have felt sorry for him under different circumstances. “I don’t know what’s going on here. It’s just a guitar.”
