19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter nineteen
M elody stirred the pot of pasta on the brand-new stove in Tanya’s amazingly updated kitchen. Fox hadn’t just sprung for a new freestanding stove-slash-oven combo. No, he’d replaced her refrigerator, toaster oven, and the washer and dryer. The salesperson at the local appliance center had to have been ecstatic to see Fox that day.
“The carpet will need to be replaced if you’re going to sell the house after I’m gone and you want to get anything out of it.” Tanya’s offhand remark in the other room came with a heavy sigh from Fox at the end.
“I’ll worry about the house later,” Fox said. “Right now, you’ve got everything you need and that’s all that’s important.” Fox meant those words. And he probably had no intention of keeping this place. It held too many bad memories for him.
“Hardwood floors would be nice.”
Of course she wanted new floors. Why not? She deserved better for her remaining few months, so long as Fox was paying for it.
He made a noncommittal noise, then changed the subject. “How are you feeling?”
“Same. I’ve lost a little weight. The doctor wants me to eat more. She said to eat smaller meals more often to keep my strength up. Protein and carbs.”
“Well, Melody’s got you covered. She made sure we stopped at the store on the way here to stock you up. Plus, she’s making a lasagna. That will last you a few days. If you can’t eat it all, or just want something different, put the rest in the freezer for down the road.”
“Not sure how much farther I’m going to get down the road. I’ve been stuck in this place a long time. Sad to think I’m just wasting days here now.”
Melody knew what was coming and wondered if she should step into the other room and help Fox out of this sticky situation.
“Tanya.” Fox sighed. “I know you want to travel.”
“A trip together is just the thing to make some memories. ’Course I know you’re busy running that company of yours. You’re needed there. I could go it alone. Spread my wings. See something new. That’s all I’m asking.”
“And what if you get sick? What if you need a hospital?”
“They got doctors on those cruise ships. They’d take care of me, get me what I need. You could get me one of those medical planes to bring me back to the states.”
“I don’t think it’s wise for you to travel alone.”
“I ain’t got no one but you to go with me. Unless…”
Oh, Melody couldn’t wait to hear this.
“You could hire a nurse to go with me. Someone who can be there in case I need help.”
Silence.
Melody imagined Fox tallying up what that would cost him, deciding if it was worth his mom’s happiness, or if it would risk her health, and how that guilt would eat him alive if something happened and he let it.
“I’m not comfortable sending you off with a stranger.”
“A professional. Someone who can make sure I take my meds, check my vitals, make sure I eat enough and am resting…while I see something of this world. You saw the brochures for the cruises I want to take. I don’t have time to fuss with whether I’ll still be healthy enough to go in a month or two when you can get some time free. If you can …”
“Is this how you really want to spend your last days? Cruising around the Mediterranean? The Bahamas? South America?”
“Anywhere. Everywhere.” Tanya’s excitement couldn’t be denied. “Fancy meals. New experiences. Meeting interesting people.” Since Tanya didn’t seem particularly human-friendly, given her lack of friends, Melody thought that last bit was pouring it on a bit thick.
“You’re exhausted all the time. You probably won’t be able to even leave the ship.”
“This will breathe new life into me. I just know it.”
Fox didn’t look convinced. “If I’m even going to consider this, I’ll want to talk to your doctor. If she says you’re not up to a trip like this, then the answer is no. If you are capable, then I’ll look into getting a nurse to go with you.”
“I’ll want to meet them, make sure they’re good company. I don’t want to be stuck on a boat with someone who doesn’t treat me like I know my own mind. I’m not an invalid. I can do what I want.”
Fox had to know that Tanya heard yes and nothing else in his response to her. “One step at a time.”
“You can call my doctor on Monday, get the all-clear, hire a nurse, and I can be on the ship in three weeks.”
“I’m busy Monday and Tuesday. I won’t be back until Wednesday.”
Tanya gasped in surprised. “What do you mean, back? Where are you going?”
“I’m taking Melody with me to Boston for a couple of days,” he announced.
Melody dumped the pasta into the colander in the sink and raised a brow. This was the first she was hearing about this Boston plan.
Fox popped into the kitchen. “You heard that, didn’t you?”
She left the steaming noodles draining in the sink and walked to him. “Yes. Why are we going to Boston?”
“So that’s a yes?”
“I haven’t been asked anything.” She gently punched her fist into his rock-hard abs.
“You’ve got a couple days off. We can leave early tomorrow morning. Then you can come with me to work. I’ll show you my company. We can do some sightseeing. I’ll take you out to dinner at my favorite place. You can get a feel for the city, our place, what I do.”
“ Our place?”
“It could be. I want it to be.”
Tanya strode in just as Fox was about to kiss her and tempt her to say yes. “You’re moving to Boston with him?”
“That’s the plan.” Fox brushed his thumb across her chin. “Right?”
“Maybe,” she hedged, then changed it to, “Probably,” when his smile fell.
Fox kissed her quick. “I know you’re going to love it. Please come. I already made the arrangements.”
“You did? When?”
“While you were shopping.”
“Is that what you were typing out on your phone?”
“My assistant is awesome. She can’t wait to meet you.”
Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God, Fox. You can’t just…”
“What? Take advantage of you having a couple days off from the bar? Want to show you my life and make you want to be there with me? Two days, sweet Dee. That’s all I’m asking for right now.”
Butterflies fluttered in her belly. This was really happening. The first step in them actually moving forward with their plan to go to Boston.
Fox gave her puppy dog eyes. “I know what I want. It’s you. Always you. Come with me.”
Tanya stared at them, dumbstruck. “You two are really together.”
Fox glanced at her. “You knew that.”
Tanya shook her head. “I thought maybe while you’re here you’d…hook up. I didn’t think… You’re going to take her back with you?”
“If she’ll have me.”
Tanya’s eyes went wide, and she sputtered for a second, then said, “If she’ll have you! Seriously! You’re—”
“Going to do anything to convince her to make a life with me.” Fox turned away from Tanya and stared at Melody, his eyes filled with a plea. “Say yes.”
She knew he meant to going to Boston, but she wondered if he was also asking her if she was ready to make a life with him, too. The answer was surprisingly easy and the same to both those questions. “Yes.”
Fox obviously heard it in her voice, because his eyes lit with sheer joy. “Okay. Well, that means I have a lot to do. Plans to make. Things I have to say to you.” He looked around at their surroundings. “Not here. Not now. But soon.”
Tanya fell into the seat at the table near them. “Oh my God. This is not what I expected.”
“You’re everything I ever wanted.” Fox cupped Melody’s face and kissed her right there in the kitchen with the meat sauce she’d made simmering on the stove.
“You didn’t come here to help me.” Tanya’s softly spoken words echoed in the room. “You came here for her.”
Fox shook his head. “Both are true. I am here for you. But I also wanted to apologize to Melody for what I said to her all those years ago. I wanted my best friend back. And now I have her. And you and I get a chance to make some better memories than the ones I’ve carried all these years.” Fox was really trying to connect with his mom.
Too bad she didn’t feel the same. “How are we making memories when you’re off to Boston and you won’t go on a trip like I asked?”
“Because I can’t right now.” He looked from Tanya to Melody, then back again. “I just bought another company and am going to be in the middle of merging the two together over the next several months. That’s partially why I want to go back to Boston for a couple of days, and why I can’t go on a forty-five-day cruise on the Mediterranean.”
Tanya looked thoughtful for a moment. “Then I’ll go without you and be happy that my son gave me such a gift while he’s conquering the tech world.” She scrunched her lips. “That’s the right saying, right? You’re in tech?”
Fox laughed under his breath. “Yes. Programming, to be specific.”
“Right. Computers. And congratulations. It must be really amazing to buy a whole company.”
“It’s a big deal.” Fox glanced at Melody, pride in his eyes and something else. Something that looked a little sheepish, mixed with regret.
The first, Melody understood. “I’m sure the boy who grew up in foster care never dreamed he’d one day own his own company, let alone buy another one.” But the regret upset her. He should be really happy and excited. What did he have to regret about expanding his business? “While we’re on the plane tomorrow, I’d love to hear all the details, so I can better understand what you do.”
Fox’s smile leveled up. “I can do that.”
“Okay, well, I better get the lasagna done. I have some work to do at the ranch before dinner. When we get home later tonight, I’ll have to stop by my place and pack.”
Fox closed the distance between them, took her hands, and squeezed them as he looked her in the eye. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Being you.”
“I only know how to be me.”
“That’s what I love about you.”
It wasn’t lost on her that he said love , not like .
Fox turned to his mom. “Come on. You said your doctor wants you to get more exercise. Let’s go for a walk.”
“It’s too cold out.” Tanya glanced at the trees blowing in the breeze outside the back windows.
“It’s not that bad. I’ll get your sweatshirt.”
Tanya rose, looking slow and a bit frail. “Fine.”
Fox walked out, leaving Melody alone with Tanya.
“I guess you get the trip and I don’t,” she grumbled.
Melody stirred the meat sauce, then pulled a long noodle from the colander and laid it out in the tin pan she’d bought at the store. “You could ask Fox about going to Boston with us.”
“He didn’t ask because he knows I have a treatment on Tuesday.”
“Do you have a ride?”
“Yes. He set it up.”
“Good. Then we’ll be sure to check in, make sure you’re doing well.”
Tanya sneered. “You think you’ve got him eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Melody finished the bottom layer of noodles and spooned on a layer of meat sauce. “It’s interesting that you see my relationship with Fox as me trying to get something from him by making him like me. Is that what you think?”
“Yes. Because he’s got a lot to give.”
“Yes, he does. Your kitchen is looking good because of it.” She sprinkled on a generous amount of mozzarella. Tanya had requested she leave off the ricotta earlier.
“You don’t think I see what you’re doing to him.”
She started on the next layer of noodles. “What am I doing to him, besides making him happy? Because that’s all I want to do. I want him to put the past behind him and look toward the future and what we can have together.”
“Yeah. You living the high life in Boston.”
“I’m giving up a lot to be with Fox.”
“And you want something in return for that sacrifice.”
“What I’ll get is something you can’t buy. I want what my sister has with her husband and what my brother found with his fiancée. I want someone who is mine as much as I’m theirs. I want to build a family and a life with him. The kind of family I had growing up and the kind he deserved but never got.”
“Because you took him from me.”
She stopped what she was doing. “I didn’t take him from you. You hurt him and lost him to the system because you refused to do what was necessary to get him back. And now, when you have a chance to make amends, you don’t seem to even want to try to be the kind of mother he deserves, because you’re too busy spending his money and planning trips.”
Tanya’s brow wrinkled with anger. “I asked him to come with me.”
“Knowing that he can’t just drop everything and sail around the world for months on end.”
“Yes. He can. Someone else can run the business while he does whatever he damn well pleases.”
“That’s not Fox. He doesn’t abandon what’s his to someone else. He takes care of it.”
“She’s right.” Fox walked in carrying a red sweatshirt and a black knit beanie. “I’m doing the best I can to be here for you and take care of my business. But I can’t leave for a month and a half and work from a ship that at best has spotty Wi-Fi and cell coverage and think that my company won’t suffer for it. While you’re one of my priorities, you’re not the only one.”
“No,” Tanya agreed. “I’m also not the top priority either. She is.”
“Yes,” Fox confirmed.
Melody sucked in a breath. “Fox. That’s—”
“The truth. It will always be the truth. You are my number one priority. You will never come second to anyone or anything. I promise you that.”
“I…I.” She didn’t know what to say. “I feel the same about you.” She meant it. Even as her heart jackhammered with what that meant. She’d thought she and Fox would slip into love eventually, but nope. She’d fallen, hard and fast and with the same kind of wild abandon she did everything. She put her whole heart into what mattered to her. It didn’t always work out for her. But a lot of the time it did. And in this case, with Fox, it was even better than she ever expected. Nothing and no one mattered more to her than him.
Fox’s gaze softened on her. “Not the time or place,” he said. “Soon. We’ll get to it all soon.” Fox looked at his mom. “What is it that you really want? Because it seems to me that before Melody and I got together, you were happy with me visiting and us just hanging out and getting to know each other.”
“I’m happy with all of that and that you’re here.”
“Do you want me to go to your doctor appointments? I can make time for that.”
Tanya shook her head. “That’s not necessary. They’re mostly just follow-ups and my treatment. Boring stuff that takes too much time, but I can do on my own.”
“Then what more do you want?”
“A chance to make things up to you, like I’ve been trying to do.”
Melody wanted to know how she’d been trying to do that, because it seemed to her that Tanya had simply asked Fox to let it lie in the past, dead and forgotten.
Fox looked even more frustrated. “You can’t undo the past. We agreed to start over. But let’s face it. We don’t have a lot in common besides blood.”
“Blood is everything.”
Fox shook his head. “No. It’s not. You taught me that the hard way. Blood doesn’t make us family, it makes us related. Family is something altogether different. Melody’s family taught me that.”
“You’re my son, Fox. That matters. That’s something that will never change, whether you like it or not. All I’m asking is that we take the time we have and do something with it. I’ve lived a hard life.”
Melody stepped back, giving Fox some room to finish his conversation.
Fox took a step closer to Tanya. “I know your life wasn’t easy. I know the choices you made were probably the ones you thought were your only option.”
“Sometimes there was no choice, just to hold on and hope it worked out.”
“That’s a hard way to live,” Fox acknowledged. “I had a lot of days like that growing up in foster care.” He said it matter-of-factly, without any accusation in his words or eyes, though it was implied in every word. “I don’t have to do that anymore. You don’t have to do that anymore, because I will make sure your last months are comfortable.”
“All I want is something special before I die.”
Fox’s shoulders went lax and he nodded. “We’ll talk about it, and the possibility of you moving into a nursing home facility in Boston, when I get back.” That would give him time to think it over and decide how far he was willing to go to make Tanya happy.
“You’d want me with you in Boston?”
“After your trip, we’ll evaluate your needs and go from there, because I’m hoping by then, Melody and I will be settled in Boston.” He held out the sweatshirt. “Put this on. Let’s go for that walk.” He turned to Melody and kissed her softly, then pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, “I know you have to get to the ranch. I’ll see you soon. Thank you for being here with me.”
She leaned back and gave him a smile, hoping it eased his heart. “Anytime.”
“I’m ready.” Tanya stood by the back door.
Fox kissed Melody one last time, this one sweet and soft as he looked into her eyes and she saw reflected back everything she felt for him in her heart.
“I’ll put the lasagna in the oven and set the time for twenty minutes, so don’t be too long.”
Tanya opened the back door, but said, “Thank you for cooking,” before she walked out.
Fox brushed his hand down her arm. “I’ll see you soon.”
She kept her gaze on him as he left with Tanya. They walked across the yard and away from the barn Fox couldn’t even look at, let alone go in, and into the trees.
She knew they’d never be mother and son. Not like her mom was with Jax and all of her girls. But maybe Tanya could find a way to soften enough to focus on Fox. To see the man he’d become and offer him some kind of recognition for his accomplishments instead of focusing on the wealth that came with his success.
That’s all Fox wanted: his mother to be proud of him.
And maybe to see in her eyes that she knew he’d done it despite her absence and the hurt she’d inflicted on him.
If she couldn’t give him that, then Melody would make sure he knew how much she appreciated him and how proud she was of him for all he’d overcome and accomplished. He truly was a good man.
And he was all hers.
She couldn’t wait to go to Boston and take this step toward their future together.
Now all she had to do was tell her family she was making plans that would take her away from them. They’d be sad to see her go, but they’d want only her happiness.
She was happiest when she was with Fox.
And no one, not Tanya nor Amy, was going to spoil it for them.
As she was slipping the lasagna into the oven, the house phone rang. She didn’t pay it any mind as she set the timer on the oven and washed the colander in the sink until the answering machine clicked on.
“Tanya, it’s Brian. What time do you want me to deliver your stuff? Things are moving forward on the other thing. We have someone who’s got an in we can use. It won’t be long now and you’ll get what you want. We all will.”
Melody stared into space, wondering what that all meant and what exactly Brian was handling for Tanya.
Drugs?
What was Tanya up to?
Why would she partner with Brian on anything when she only had months to live? She could barely leave the house without exhausting herself.
But something was obviously in the works. What exactly?
Whatever it was, Melody would make sure it didn’t touch Fox.
She’d keep an eye on Brian, and most especially on Tanya. That woman had proven to be bad to the bone in the past. She wouldn’t put it past Tanya to pull some stunt to get Fox’s attention and sympathy. Which would probably cost him a pretty penny, too.
Not going to happen.
I see you coming.