other night, she would have drifted off to sleep too, glad to have him with her. Tonight, the doubts and worries she'd had before they started dating came back. She'd emerged from her last relationship with scars, sure. Scars that reminded her she needed to be strong and independent. Depending on a man, especially Caine, was dangerous.
She’d been burned by Caine’s lifestyle before. As an adult, he wasn’t involved in drinking and carousing with over-privileged trust fund babies. No, he was involved with something worse. Secrets. He’d given her the full court press for weeks, but never mentioned that he’d been engaged to a woman who was exactly like his mother. On some level, she’d always pictured him with a cool, sophisticated society wife, especially in the first few years after their break up. Still, finding out that he’d gotten as far as ring shopping with a woman like Portia was a big hit to the ego. It was entirely possible that he could wake up in a few months or even years and realize that he needed a wife like Portia, instead of one like her.
The years she’d spent building up a defense against Caine were all shot to hell. Whether she liked it or not, Mel was starting to develop deeper feelings for the man holding her in his arms. Feelings she couldn't fight. She just had to decide if she even wanted to fight them.
Chapter 15
Caine walked into the Fortune Saloon with a definite bounce in his step. Olivia and Joe had swooped out of town on their private jet, taking Portia with them. Two nights with Mel in his arms and he was having problems keeping his feet on the ground. He’d almost cancelled on Gage and Micah tonight. They'd made these plans last week, before Caine's attention had become totally wrapped up in his girlfriend. His girlfriend. God, that still grabbed him by the balls. After years apart and three months trying to woo her, Mel was finally his girlfriend.
The local saloon had stood in this exact spot for over a hundred years. The original building had burned down in the sixties, but the rebuilt structure was an exact replica of its predecessor. Rough wood walls and floors and a bar to match. Pictures of all of the town's sports teams lined the walls, interspersed with antique advertisements for alcohol. The bar dominated the center of the large main room, a square island in the dimly lit expanse. Highboy tables flanked two pool tables on either side of the room, and booths lined the walls.
Gage and Micah were already waiting for him at their usual spot by the pool table. Since Micah had moved back, they’d tried to make it a weekly event to meet up here. It didn't always work out with their schedules, but Caine enjoyed it. He nodded to Lou Carroll, the bartender and owner, to bring him his usual. He could stay for a drink or two, then head over to Mel's apartment before it got too late.
“Evenin', fellas." Caine slapped his brother on the back as he took the empty chair.
Micah saluted him with his beer. "Took ya long enough. We thought you might bail on us."
“I fully expected you to still be groveling to Mel after that dinner with Olivia and the Barbie," Gage added. Caine winced. He’d known that bringing Mel to "meet" his parents would be painful, but he’d thought his mother would have at least attempted to be civil.
“Never in a million years did I think Mother would bring Portia." Caine accepted his beer from the waitress and took a long draw on it.
Micah's brow furrowed. "Who's Portia?
Shit. The double-edged sword of dating your best friend's little sister. Some things you could talk about and some things might end up getting you punched.
Gage piped up before he could respond. "Caine's bitchy ex-fiancée. An Olivia protégé."
“You were engaged?" Micah sounded guarded. Caine hated talking about Portia. He'd told Mel about her because she deserved to know, but he really didn't want to get into it with her brother right now.
“Briefly. One of those really stupid things you do when you're lonely." He still didn't know how he'd ended up with Portia. Sure, she'd been hot. Okay, so he’d liked being the center of her attention, but he'd never felt anything for her, at least not what he should have felt for the woman he was engaged to. The years after he graduated from law school had passed