4. Chapter 4
They pulled up and parked in a spot at the motel. Levi raised the console of his truck up, patting the seat beside him. “It will look better if you sit here. People will be less suspicious,” he said with a smile.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason.” Melanie laughed and scooted closer. She adjusted her dress then the cupcakes in her lap while she looked around. “Who are we looking for?”
“His name is James. He’s cheating on his wife with hookers that work for the Red Stars.” Levi adjusted his arm over the back of the seat to look behind them. He felt like he was in high school again, trying to make a move on the hot cheerleader in his truck. It was pathetic. Melanie made him nervous though. Something about her told him she wasn’t like the chicks he’d been picking up recently. A lame line wouldn’t make her beg him to take her home and fuck her. Melanie was more sophisticated than that. “He drives a blue four door car that has a red driver’s door. You can’t miss it.”
She hummed and looked around again. “And you just need pictures?”
“Yeah. The wife wants them for her attorney.”
Melanie opened the container with the cupcakes in it. “These look delicious. You want one now?”
“Nah babe, you go ahead.” As soon as he said it, he rolled his eyes. Fucking hell.
“Babe?”
“Sorry. It just slipped—”
She cut him off with a quick kiss. “It’s ok. I imagine you don’t learn the names of all the girls you take home. Babe is easier, right?”
“You’re not wrong, but in your case…I wasn’t…Your name is Melanie Davis.” God he felt like a fumbling idiot. He laughed and shook his head. Looking out the window was a much safer bet. “Geez it’s like when you look at me like that my brain shuts off.”
She giggled and leaned more into his side to elbow his ribs softly. “Relax, Levi. I’m just giving you a hard time.” He watched her pull the bottom off the cupcake and squish it on top of the frosting to make a cake sandwich. It was impressive. And a much less messy way to eat them than how he normally did. “Mmmm, that’s good.”
He was so busy thinking about licking the icing off her lips that he almost missed the car they were waiting for turn into the parking lot. Raising the camera, he snapped a few pics of James and the hooker meeting at the door to the motel room. It would’ve been nice to get a couple of others of them leaving, but there were other things he wanted to do. These would suffice.
“So this is your job? Lurking around shady motels?”
Just before he was about to answer, his phone started ringing in his lap. They both looked at it and he swallowed harshly. Mama A was flashing at the top. He prayed Melanie wasn’t about to figure out who that was. He slid his finger across the screen and raised it to the ear away from her, turning the volume down at the same time.
“Hey Mom,” he said, internally screaming.
“Mom?” He could practically feel her eye roll through the phone.
“What’s up?” he said, trying to play it cool.
“Her fever broke, and she’s awake. I wanted you to know.” The relief was clear in her voice. It made his heart feel lighter too. Avrie was going to be ok.
“That’s awesome. Did they ever figure it out or did she just get better?” He knew Melanie knew Avrie was in the hospital so he prayed she wouldn’t put the pieces together.
“Who knows? With all the medicine they tried we’ll probably never know.” She sighed, and he glanced at Melanie who was scooting further away and back to her own seat. That was the opposite of what he wanted.
“I’m really glad. Give her a hug for me.”
“If Val doesn’t go into labor, then come by the house this weekend. We’ll discuss the plan for your new job too.”
“Ok.”
“Levi.”
“Yeah?”
“Treat that girl right,” Andrea said before hanging up the phone.
Did she know who he was with? There was no way. Before he looked over at her, he cleared his throat and tried to fix his face.
“Your mom is Andrea de Laney?”
Fuck.
“She’s your mom?”
“No.”
“That was her voice, Levi. And you called her mom.” She looked pissed and he couldn’t really blame her. He should’ve let the call go to voicemail. When he failed to find his words, she pulled on the door handle. Luckily, he was fast enough to lock it before she succeeded.
“Wait. Just let me explain.”
“Let me out.” She grabbed her bag causing the cupcake box to slide into the floor. “Now!”
“Melanie, wait,” he begged. “This isn’t a good area. At least let me take you home.”
She looked around the parking lot at the people hidden in corners and slouched down in their cars. He knew she was too reasonable to deny his request on principle. “Let’s go but don’t take the long way,” she finally said.
He started the truck and put on his seat belt. There had to be a way to fix this. “She’s not my mom,” he said as they pulled out on the road.
No response came. She didn’t even look at him.
With the rate his heart was beating, he was going to have a heart attack. But he only had one shot at this. “Andrea saved me from a burning building when I was a kid. My family died in that fire. She was barely nineteen, and she ran in a burning building and saved me.” When she at least glanced at him, he knew there was a glimmer of hope. “She helped a couple who struggled with infertility adopt me. Andrea stayed in touch and gave them money to help raise me. Especially when my dad lost his job.”
It wasn’t the full story, but all he needed were the bullet points for now. He only wanted her to give him a chance to explain. They stopped at a red light and he gripped the steering wheel tight. The story wasn’t rainbows and unicorns though. If she was just going to jump out when he pulled up to her place on the next block there wasn’t really a point to telling her. But maybe it was time he tried to let someone see all of him?
“The day before my eighteenth birthday, a drunk driver killed my adoptive parents.”
Melanie turned to look at him again. He parked outside her place. Thankfully, she didn’t just run out of the truck as fast as she could.
“Andrea has been my guardian angel, my friend, and my stand in mom when I needed her to be. Sometimes I call her Mama A because it annoys her, but our relationship isn’t like a mother-son relationship. I work for her. I’ve done things for her I can never talk about. She’s done things for me that would make your head spin. Tonight I called her mom because I didn’t want you to know it was her calling.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat. This was fucking stupid. “You have every right to be pissed that I didn’t tell you, but you should also understand that discretion is necessary. I just needed to see if this was going somewhere before I revealed any secrets.”
There was a long silence that felt like ten years before she took a deep breath and put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry you lost two sets of parents.” When she pulled her hand back all he felt was cold. “But I can’t get involved with my boss’ kid—or whatever you two call each other. I just can’t. I’m sorry.” Then she pulled the handle and hopped out before he could stop her.
It felt like a sledgehammer hit his chest as she disappeared into the building. The woman who he found attractive, smart, funny, and genuine was gone because he was a fucking idiot. Secrets weren’t a foundation for a relationship. But fuck. What else was he supposed to have done? He should’ve just ignored the call. “Fuck!” he yelled and hit his steering wheel. The smashed cupcake in his floor was exactly how he felt.