Read Need You Now (Love in Unknown) for Free Online

overdue.
    Determined, he started to slide his chair back. Then Caine saw him. A guy who looked to be a few years younger than him shook hands with her and sat down. He wore a suit, but he looked a little like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes. His longish hair didn’t help him any. Suit, nice dress, fancy restaurant. Shit. Mel was on a date.
    Narrowing his eyes, Caine searched his brain, trying to place the guy. He thought he might be the new firefighter who had moved to town not too long ago. Ian something. Nice enough guy, if he accurately recalled their one meeting. Still, he didn’t see the attraction between him and Mel. He always saw her with a well-educated man who could stand up to her and not be afraid of her intelligence. Mel couldn’t settle for a “nice guy;” that would never make her really happy.
    It would be so easy for him to go over there and show her how wrong that Ian guy was for her. Jealousy was a new thing for him. He’d only really had two monogamous relationships in his life. The first had been with Mel and she’d been too young and shy to show interest in anyone else. Would he have felt like this if she looked at someone else back in college? He vaguely remembered seeing her at that Valentine’s Day party his fraternity hosted, talking with some other guy. He’d immediately gone over and turned on the charm. It’d be so easy to do it again. The adult inside him told him to be mature, to be happy she’d found someone who seemed to make her happy. But the college boy in him still bellowed that she was his girl, his and no one else’s.
    The day her dad told him she never wanted to see him again still counted as the worst day of his life. Worse even than his almost-wedding day.
    Seeing her again had thrown him off his game. If she’d been any other woman, he’d be over there starting up a conversation, convincing her to come home with him, but this was Mel. She always sent him a little off kilter. Back in college, he’d stolen a few of the romance novels she kept by her bed, just to get a better idea of what she might like. Maybe that’s what he needed to do now. Step back, look for the signs of what might fix things for them. They didn’t know each other anymore. Ten years was a long time. She needed to see that he wasn’t the idiot he’d been ten years ago.
    He was beginning to see that she wasn’t the quiet, nerdy young girl she’d been back then either. It was there, in the confident set of her smooth shoulders, the ease of her smile. Men didn’t scare her anymore. He remembered how small and lost she’d seemed the day he helped Ethan and Micah move her into her dorm at Brown. He’d promised to look out for her that day, to protect her from guys who would hurt her. At that Valentine’s party, she’d been so shy. It took him half an hour and a beer to coax her into conversation with him.
    It would take a hell of a lot more than a beer and a smile to get her to talk to him now. He didn’t know what exactly went wrong with them ten years ago, but he knew that it was bad enough to cost him the only family he really cared about. He had a lot to make up to her, but he didn’t intend to give up.

Chapter 4
     
     
    One morning, a few days after her date with Ian, Mel woke at six. She couldn’t sleep. Not an unusual occurrence for her. Medical school had pretty much ended any normal sleeping patterns she might have had. Downstairs, she heard her brother moving around in the bakery, getting ready to open for the day. Groaning, she got up and went through the motions of getting ready for the day.
    Rather than heading straight to the office, as no sane person would show up there for at least another three hours, she let herself through the back door of the bakery. Her brother stood at one of the counters, kneading a big batch of bread dough. Comforting smells of yeast and sugar and flour, with an underlying aroma of chocolate, filled her senses, taking her back to