Against All Odds

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“You couldn’t be serious, darling. The town doesn’t even have a ballet company—you told me so yourself. Who could live in such a place?” Ilona would have been a wonderful actress, Melissa decided, grinning broadly, as she took in her friend’s mercurial facial expressions and impassioned gesticulations. And all because a town of forty thousand inhabitants didn’t have a resident ballet company.

“I’ve decided to try it for two years.” She had to keep the uncertainty out of her voice. Ilona would pick it up in seconds and start punching holes in the idea. “My mother isn’t well,” she went on, “and... Look, I’ve made the arrangements, and if you hadn’t called, I’d be packing right now.” Melissa watched Ilona’s eyes widen.

“Really? Well, darling, you know I don’t do anything laborious, but I’ll help you pack. This is terrible. I hate to see you go but...” She paused, and a brilliant smile lit her face. “Maybe you will find there the man for you.”

Melissa couldn’t restrain the laughter. Was there a scenario into which Ilona couldn’t inject romance? “Thanks for the offer, but my biggest problem is finding a tenant. I’ll pack my personal things, but the movers will pack everything else.”

“You’re not selling your apartment?”

Melissa wondered at her keen interest. “No. I’m going to rent it unfurnished for two years. If I find life in Frederick intolerable, I’ll move back here.”

Ilona beamed. “I have a friend who would take your apartment for two years. That would suit us both, darling. Your place would be in good hands, and I’d be assured of seeing him every night, even if New York got two feet of snow. Shall I tell him?”

Melissa couldn’t contain the peals of laughter that erupted from her throat at the gleam in Ilona’s green eyes. “Sure thing,” she told Ilona when she recovered. “Tell him to call my office tomorrow morning.”

* * *

Two weeks later Melissa sat on a bench facing Courthouse Square in Frederick, exhausted. It hadn’t occurred to her that finding an office in her hometown would be so difficult. In the short time since she’d made her decision, she’d arranged to share her secretary with the lawyers who had offices down the hall from her own in New York, made similar arrangements in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and shifted her business headquarters to Frederick. With fax, email, telephones, and the use of electronic bulletin boards, she had expanded her business while cutting her expenses in half. But coming back home also had its darker side. She hated that the bed she slept in was the one she’d used as a child, and her father, satisfied that he had her once more under control, ignored her most of the time.

Melissa’s mother had remembered her daughter’s love of pink roses and had placed a vase of them in her room. A bowl of lavender potpourri perfumed Melissa’s bathroom, and the scent teased her nostrils when she opened the doors of her closet. Emily Grant had greeted her daughter with a warm embrace.

“Welcome home, dear. I knew he’d keep after you till you gave in.” Melissa returned the fierce hug, though she thought it out of character for her usually undemonstrative mother.

“I’m not sure you’ve done the right thing, coming back,” Emily continued, “but I’m glad to see you. I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you, too, Mother, and I hope we’ll get to know each other again. It’s been a long time since I lived at home.”

“Over ten years. I know you’ll be busy, but you come see me whenever you have time.” Thereafter Melissa saw little of her mother, who, she recalled, preferred the solitude of her room and who, she’d decided, looked the picture of health.

She unfolded The Maryland Journal, checked the real estate ads, and walked four blocks to investigate the one office that might suit her needs. With its attractive lobby and wide hallway, the redbrick, five-story building enticed her as she entered it. The office suite that she liked had high ceilings, large windows, parquet floors, and a comfortable adjoining office for her secretary. Her excitement at finding exactly what she needed ebbed when she learned that the building was owned by the Hayes-Roundtree family. Unfortunately, if she wanted prime space, she’d have to take it.

She didn’t mind renting from Adam’s family, although she knew her father would explode. How could he harbor such intense hatred? It wasn’t even his war. He hadn’t known about the feud until he met her mother, but he’d since used it to justify every disappointment, every failure he’d had. She had to shake her guilt for having thought it, but she rented the office nevertheless. For the sake of peace, she had sacrificed her feeling for Adam and come home, but there were limits.

Raised eyebrows greeted her when she introduced herself to her office neighbors: a Grant renting from the Roundtrees. She’d almost forgotten about small town gossip. One friendly woman who introduced herself as Banks told her, “I see you’ve emancipated yourself. Good thing, too—when hell breaks loose, everybody will sympathize with the good guys.” Melissa grimaced. She didn’t need an explanation as to who the good guys were.

* * *

Melissa didn’t have long to wait for an indication of the problems that her move into that building would cause. Her cousin Timothy stood at the corner light as she left the building, and she smiled as she walked toward him.

“Hi,” he greeted her. “I heard you’d come back home, but what the hell were you doing in there? That’s the Hayes Building.” Cold tension gripped her as she noted his angry frown.

“Where else can you find decent office space in this town?” Her attempt to dismiss it as irrelevant didn’t please him.

“You’ve been gone a while, but the rest of us have been right here watching them flaunt their money. Find some other place. Why do you need an office anyway? Uncle Rafer said you were coming home to be with Aunt Emily.”

“Long story,” she said, unwilling to explain what she considered wasn’t his business and waved him goodbye.

He yelled back at her. “Get out of that place. You’re just going to start trouble.” I seem already to have done that, she thought, her steps slow and heavy.

* * *

Melissa worked late the next evening, arranging the furniture, books, and fixtures that had arrived that morning from New York. That done, she decided to acquaint herself with one of her new computer programs, but she had just begun when the screen went blank, the lights in her office flickered, and darkness engulfed her. She didn’t have a flashlight and hadn’t bothered to locate the stairs, and a glance at her fourth-floor window told her that the moon provided the only relief from darkness. She didn’t get a tone when she lifted the telephone receiver, so she prepared herself mentally to spend the night there and tried to remember where she’d put her bag of Snickers.

“If you don’t have a lantern or flashlight, go into the hallway and stand right in front of your door. I’ll be along shortly with light.”

She looked toward the loudspeaker as tremors shot through her, and she struggled to still the furious pounding of her heart at the sound of Adam’s voice. She hadn’t known that he had come home to Beaver Ridge, only that he’d left New York. It had to be Adam. She couldn’t mistake anyone’s voice for his—no other sounded like it. Did he know she was there? Would he be glad to see her? She opened the door and waited.

The air conditioning was off, but goose bumps covered her bare arms, and chills streaked through her as the lights approached. He stopped a few feet away.

“Melissa! What— What are you doing here?” Her eyes beheld his beloved face before taking in the length of him, as though assuring themselves that it was he. “Melissa— Am I hallucinating?” He took a step closer.

“Adam— Adam, I...I’m standing in front of my new office.”

“My God!”

He didn’t want her there. Why had she thought he cared for her even a little? She wanted to back up, but the eerie, unsettling atmosphere and the shock of seeing him kept her rooted there. Her gaze followed the two lanterns as they neared the floor, and then she looked up at him walking to her, a determined man whose motives she didn’t need to guess.

“My administrative assistant didn’t say she’d rented this suite. Tell me why you are here.” He stood inches away, so close that she breathed his breath and smelled his heat.

“I—” He stepped closer, and her hand went to his chest. “I— Adam!” Quivers began deep inside of her when his hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her closer, and then wrapping her to him. She couldn’t wait for his mouth, but stood on tiptoe and pulled his head down until his lips reached her moist kiss. She refused to let herself remember that he’d told her goodbye. She had him with her, and she had to have what he was offering her. Her parted lips took him in, and with unashamed ardor she sipped from his tongue’s sweet nectar and fitted herself against his hard body. He thrust deeply into her mouth as though rediscovering her seductive honey, and she arched her hips into him. Her shameless demand must have threatened his control, for he eased the kiss and lightened his caress.