Need You Now (Love in Unknown) - By Taylor M. Lunsford Page 0,92

hand with her own. "It's time to stop hiding. Unless I'm losing my touch, I'd say you're working so hard so you don't have to think about how much you miss a certain mayor. Am I right?"

Mel shrugged, fighting the urge to jerk away from the comfort of her mother’s touch. She didn’t deserve comfort. All comfort would do was break her down. "Everyone deals with break-ups in different ways. My way is just more productive than others."

“But why did you break up with him? You both seemed so in love." Emma's hand tightened around Mel’s.

Mel fought back the lump of emotions that clogged her throat. She had to keep things basic and brief. Caine was like a son to her mother and she didn’t want to ruin that. “There's just a lot of history between us, Mama. Not all of it good. We’ve hurt each other a lot. Besides, Caine's a Maddox. He needs one of those perfect Stepford wives who will host parties and run charities in her spare time. That's not me. Never has been, never will be."

“I never thought you had such a low opinion of Caine, sweetheart.” Emma’s quiet admonishment surprised Mel more than if she’d yelled at her.

“What do you mean ‘low’?” Mel asked. It was time for her to gloss over the truth a bit. “He’s too good for me, Mama. He’s a Maddox, for Christ’s sake. I’m the daughter of a baker. Our lives are just too different. He needs a wife who won’t have to sacrifice her career to be a politician’s wife.”

Micah brought his fist down on the table hard enough to rattle the fork on Mel's plate. "That's the biggest load of crap, Mel, and you damn well know it. Caine and Gage have never, ever, given a shit about stuff like that. They chose us. Caine doesn't care about the society stuff his parents do. He and Gage escaped here because they hated playing those parts. He might be mayor of Unknown, but Caine isn't the kind of Maddox man his parents wanted. He's a good guy who loves you."

“And he is not too good for you, young lady." Emma looked back and forth between both of her children. "This goes for both of you. Never think anyone is too good for you. If they love and respect you and you love and respect them, that's the only thing that should matter. Family, background, jobs. Those are all outside factors. They should work around your love, not the other way around."

Mel pursed her lips, chewing the inside of her mouth. She tried to pull back from her mother, but Emma’s grip remained firm. Mel knew she was caving. She wanted everything back to the way it was just as much as her family did. “Even if you were right, I screwed things up already. I've been a bitch to him. I doubt Caine would ever want to speak to me again."

Micah winked at her, brotherly teasing in his eyes. "Give him a chance. Bet if you went over to Town Hall tomorrow once you're done working yourself to death, you'd find him in his office doing the exact same thing."

Standing up, Emma kissed Mel’s hair, then Micah’s. “I love you both. And I’m sorry that I haven’t been here for you like I should have been. Starting now, I will be.”

Mel sat in silence with her brother, thoughts and doubts spinning around in her head. She’d ended things to protect Caine and it seemed to have worked. There hadn’t been a phone call or anything else since she moved home and Merna’s Matches officially confirmed she and Caine were over. Maybe it was time for her to start considering how she could get her guy back.

Chapter 18

Caine’s eyes burned from staring at the numbers in the spreadsheet on his computer, but he couldn’t get them to make sense. Probably didn’t help that he hadn’t slept through the night since Mel broke up with him. His brain was jumble of emotion and sleep deprivation. He really shouldn’t be focusing on the town’s finances in this state, but it was this or drive himself crazy trying to figure out how to win Mel back.

His phone rang, a welcome interruption. “What’s up, Gage?”

“I’ve got some news. Hell, I don’t even know if I should be telling you this.” His brother sounded agitated. He could almost see Gage pacing wherever he was.

Caine leaned back, propping his feet up on his desk. “Spit