“Well, if you can’t talk to him, you can surely talk to me.” Melody was surprisingly understanding. “Hal called someone in to cover my shift. Clay ain’t expecting me home until nine. If Terry don’t mind, we can just sit here and talk until you’re feeling up to going back to Wyatt.”

“I can make dinner,” Terry offered from his spot leaning against the archway into the kitchen. “If y’all want?”

“Sounds nice.” Melody nodded and then reached over and squeezed Tabitha’s hand again. “We’ll figure out a plan. You ain’t alone. I promise.”

Tabitha nodded as she whispered, “Thank you.”

* * *

Melody pulled the keys out of the ignition of her new SUV. Clay had bought it for her birthday. It cost way too much money, but she would never hurt his feelings by complaining, and it was a fine vehicle. Certainly much nicer than the truck they’d traded in that was probably buried in a junkyard somewhere.

They’d put up Christmas lights last week, and Melody smiled as she looked at them twinkling in the night. Something about holidays left her cheery. Things were always a little happier once the air got crisp and the decorations went up. She’d met Clay last Thanksgiving, which just solidified her belief that November was her friend.

Which was why she hated being as brokenhearted as she was.

She walked up to the driveway, feeling her heart hurt for both Wyatt and Tabitha. She was supposed to leave other people’s problems behind at the end of the day, but she just couldn’t find a way to recover from the wrongness of what happened to them. It hit way too close to home, and it was made so much worse because no one save a handful of people know why Tabitha left. To think of everyone villainizing her was so incredibly unfair Melody could hardly breathe past the injustice of it.

She took a deep breath before she walked into the house and tried to remind herself it wasn’t Clay’s fault. He didn’t know what happened. If he did, his feelings about Tabitha would be much different. Melody was certain of it.

“Hey.” Clay met her at the door and leaned down to give her a kiss. “How was work?”

“I left early.” Melody put her keys on the table by the door. “I had a crisis call. Hal let me off.”

“That’s nice of him.” Clay frowned. “What was the crisis?”

“It was, uh”—Melody pulled off her coat and walked to the bedroom—“it was a rape.”

“Hell.” Clay sounded concerned. “Did y’all call Wyatt?”

“No, it happened a long time ago. She was just dealing with some post-traumatic stress. Sorta like me at Justin’s trial.”

“Is she okay now?”

“I think so.” Melody tossed her jacket on the made bed. “She went home to her husband. She just needed help moving past the nerves. He doesn’t know.” She choked up at the last part and turned away from Clay to hide the tears that were threatening. “I’m gonna take a shower.”

“I’ll get in with ya.”

Melody shook her head. “No, I need to be alone for a few minutes.”

“Mel”—Clay grabbed her arm and pulled her to him—“are you okay?”

“It was just a really sad story.” Melody hugged Clay despite her turbulent emotions about what he’d done. “It’s so unfair.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be going on these calls if they’re gonna upset you like this.” Clay rubbed her back. “You got your own set of issues to deal.”

“I’m fine.” She patted his bare chest and then pulled away. “I’m gonna take a shower and pull myself together. Didja eat?”

“I threw some leftovers in the microwave. Did you?”

“Yeah.” Melody started working on the buttons to her top as she walked to the bathroom. “I’m good.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get in?”

Melody shook her head. “Let me gather my thoughts.”

Clay studied her with a scowl. It wasn’t like her to push him away like that, but she needed a little more time. A part of her was angry at Clay for hurting Tabitha worse by ignoring her since she had gotten back. Before tonight, Melody hadn’t pushed the issue with him, because like everyone else, she’d assumed Tabitha was just a rich, successful author who had left Wyatt in the dust.

Now it was something much different. Melody hadn’t had a chance to see what sort of woman Tabitha was, but Clay knew her. He should’ve known she wouldn’t just leave Wyatt without a really good reason.

Damn the men’s club.

And double damn Jules for being a part of it and fueling the fire of Clay’s bitterness even more. Melody considered Jules one of her closest friends, but she was one of those rare women who had somehow managed to become a part of the men’s club too.

But Melody most certainly wasn’t.

She closed the bathroom door and locked it for good measure.

“Okay, now I know something’s wrong,” Clay called from the other side.

“I’m taking a shower by myself,” Melody snapped when she finally acknowledged to herself how unfair his actions were to Tabitha.

“Mel—”

“Go do man things.” Melody turned away from the door and folded her arms over her chest as she reeled over the feelings washing over. “Go beat each other up and do the rest of us a favor.”

For the first time since she met him almost a year ago…Melody was mad at Clay.

* * *

She was still mad at him two hours later when the two of them were lying in bed, because they only had one bedroom, and Clay was too damned big for the couch. Melody surely wasn’t going to sleep there. So she just lay on her side with her back to him.

“It ain’t fair for you to be mad at me and not even tell me what it is.”

“Not, it ain’t fair, is it?” Melody countered. “Being mad at someone for something they did out of loyalty and nobility. That’s just plain wrong.”

“Mel.” Clay let out a pained laugh. “I honestly have no idea what you are talking ’bout. Can you at least give me a hint? Whatever it is, I promise I’ll apologize.”

“You’d be apologizing to the wrong woman,” Melody said bitterly.

Clay rolled over to drape a muscular arm over her. “Please tell me what I did.”

Melody tried to shove him off, but Clay was two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle, and he decided he wasn’t moving. He held her tighter instead. Melody finally had to give in and stay where she was, smothered and angry.

“I love you,” he whispered in to her ear. “And I know I ain’t perfect. Whatever I did, tell me so I can make it better. I hate fighting with you.”

Melody lay there, silently debating with herself, before she finally asked, “Why don’t you talk to Tabitha?”

“What?” Clay rasped, making it obvious that was the last thing he expected.

“I just wanna know,” she went on. “Gimme a good reason, because from where I’m standing, that was mean. Both you and Jules have been giving Wyatt nothing but grief for months now for loving that woman. Tell me why.”

“I ain’t been giving him grief. I just sorta been trying to pretend it ain’t happening.”

Melody threw her elbow back into his chest and then turned around in his arms to glare at him. “Why?”

“’Cause she took off and left my best friend four days after they got married, and the way she did it wasn’t right. Tabitha was better than that. She didn’t need to turn to drugs,” Clay growled in a furious voice, making it obvious this was something that had been eating at him for years. “She went and turned out like the rest of ’em. Like my mother.”

“Are you crazy?” Melody let out a bitter laugh. “She’s written books that make millions of children happy. How do you reckon that makes her anything at all like your mother?”

“One fight with Wyatt, and she’s in the hospital with an overdose. He thinks it was something over the counter. That was fucking bullshit. I know her family. It was drugs,” Clay countered. “Wyatt worshipped her. He still does, and what did she do to repay him—”

Melody hit his shoulder hard enough to make Clay’s eyes grow wide in surprise, but she didn’t care as she got out of bed. She grabbed her pillow, deciding she could deal with the couch.

“This is all over Tabitha?” Clay barked at her. “What the hell? Why do you care? You don’t even know her.”

“You should have known she wouldn’t leave him without a good reason.” Melody lost the battle with tears as they welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “You were her friend. Her first friend.”

Clay paled. “Who told you that?”

“You did!”

“No, I didn’t.” Clay shook his head. “Who was the crisis call for?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Melody jerked the blanket off the bed, and Clay didn’t stop her. He was just sitting in there staring at her, his eyes wide in horror. She left him like that and stomped out of the bedroom, with the blanket dragging behind her.

She was busy situating herself on the couch and wiping at her cheeks when Clay came into the living room in nothing but his boxer shorts, making him look dark and intimidating with those powerful arms folded over his chest.

“Who was the call for, Melody?” He sounded dangerous in a way she had never heard before.

Melody rolled over, showing Clay her back rather than answer.

“You said it was a rape call.” Clay’s voice cracked, the emotion breaking through his steely control. “Was Tabitha raped? Did something besides that fight with Wyatt make her leave?”

Melody looked over her shoulder, seeing that Clay’s dark eyes were glassy. She knew she wasn’t supposed to say anything, but she just couldn’t let the injustice go this time. “You shouldn’t be mad at her.”

Clay bowed his head. For one long moment Melody watched him stand there shaking as if everything he had ever believed about life had been ripped apart and thrown at his feet.

Then he lifted his head, his eyes narrowed, making tears roll down his face. “Did she say who it was?”

Melody shook her head. “I really can’t tell you that.”

“Was it Vaughn Davis?” Clay whispered.

Melody tried to make her features impassive, but she was genuinely surprised the first name Clay pulled out of the hat was the right one. It must have shown on her face, because he turned around with a growl and hit the wall, tearing through plaster easily and leaving a large hole. Melody gaped, because she couldn’t remember the last time Clay lost his temper.

“You can’t tell her I told you,” Melody whispered fearfully. “It was supposed to be a secret. I should have never—”

“I won’t tell her.” Clay still stood facing the wall, his shoulders heaving as if he was battling a terrible war with himself. “I couldn’t betray you like that. Even for something like this.”

“Do you promise?”

Clay nodded. “Yeah, I promise.”

“Why didn’t she come to you instead of Terry?” Melody asked as more tears rolled down her face. “Maybe you would’ve talked her into staying here. Y’all could’ve found a way to tell Wyatt together and—”

“She probably knew I’d hunt Vaughn down and bury him before Wyatt got a chance.”

“But you wouldn’t—”

Clay turned around, giving her a look that forced the denial to die in the back of her throat. He was serious.

“She was like a sister to me, Mel,” Clay whispered, the words still heavy with emotion. “She was the only one who understood my life growing up. She wasn’t just my first friend when I was a kid. She was my only friend. When she left, it killed me too. I know I never told you any of that, because talking ’bout it hurts too damn much.”

“This is the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever heard in my whole dang life, and I’ve heard a lot of terrible things.” Melody wiped at her eyes when she realized she was crying. “I’m so sorry, Clay. I’m sorry for all of you. I want to fix it, but I dunno how. I told her to tell Wyatt. Maybe—”

Clay made a choking sound of horror. “She can’t tell Wyatt!”

“She has to!” Melody countered. “It’s the only way. Otherwise he will never know why she left him, and Jules will go on hating her and—”

“Wyatt will come unglued if he finds this out.” Clay’s voice was suddenly wild and frantic. “He will kill Vaughn Davis, and that ain’t even a lie. He will kill that motherfucker dead, and then he’ll do something stupid like turn himself in after the deed is done. You think shit is bad now, wait and see what happens if Wyatt finds out. Tabitha was right to leave, and I owe her a huge apology for being mad at her for it.”

“This is unfair to her!” Melody shouted. “It’s horribly unfair, and y’all need to get over your stupid man crap and recognize that! She’s done sacrificing herself for everyone, and if you can’t pull yourself together enough to make Wyatt understand that, then I will!”