Doing It Over (Most Likely To #1)(77)

“I could go for boring right about now.” Sleep still wasn’t happening without hours of tossing and turning. It only took a couple of days for Hope to kick her out of her room. And since Miss Gina all but refused anyone at the inn until they could figure out a way to stop what happened to Hope from ever happening again, with the exception of Mr. Crane and his assistant, the place was empty. Even William stayed with Wyatt at his house.

“Are you ready, Miss Bartlett?”

It was her turn for the minute or two clip that would go on the actual footage of the show. She didn’t think about the audience that would watch . . . she thought about the man needing to be caught.

“You look beautiful,” Wyatt said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She smiled and he brushed a strand of hair off her cheek.

The man had hardly left her side. Somehow she and Hope had become a priority for him, and they’d known each other for such a short time. She cautioned herself, worried that maybe he was acting out of obligation since they’d hooked up while all the crazy unfolded around them. Then a voice inside her head slapped her around. Nathan, even on his best day, never acted the way Wyatt did around her. He never put her above himself.

More, she’d never felt about Nathan the way she did about Wyatt.

She shook the comparison from her head and leaned into Wyatt’s hand before he released her.

Wyatt winked and gave a gentle push toward the waiting chair and crew.

Sitting under the lights was a little intimidating at first.

A makeup woman stepped in and took ownership of Melanie’s face. All the while she chatted about absolutely nothing. The weather, the state of Oregon. The color of the walls.

At one point Mr. Crane sat opposite Melanie while the crew scampered around them, adjusting the light and attaching a small microphone to her shirt. At some point one of the crew started lifting said shirt to tuck the wires out of the way. Melanie ignored the uncomfortable moment and tried to smile when he was finished.

Mr. Crane waved off the makeup lady after a few seconds and started to talk. “Like I told you earlier, Melanie, I just want you to answer everything as naturally as possible. Pretend the cameras aren’t here.”

There were three of them pointed at her, and one at him. “That’s a little hard to do.”

“I know . . . but try. Just look at me. Ignore the camera behind my head.”

“I’ll try.”

Someone fiddled with his hair. “You grew up here.”

It wasn’t really a question. And she knew he already knew she had. But she started talking her nerves off anyway.

“I did. Just a few miles from here.”

“Did you spend a lot of time with Miss Gina?”

Melanie smiled. “She was like the aunt none of us girls had. The cool aunt. The kind you could really talk to and not get into trouble with.”

Someone pushed a glass of water in front of her and moved away as Mr. Crane made conversation.

“An adult you could turn to . . .” Again, it wasn’t a question, and Melanie just kept going.

“She was. I didn’t have any real issues growing up. But if we had a boyfriend problem, or a teenage ‘everyone hates me’ problem, this was where we could come to find some advice.”

Mr. Crane accepted his glass of water and set it aside. “Safe to say you always felt safe here.”

“Oh, God yes. It was the first place I thought of when I decided to return.”

“Why did you leave in the first place?”

“Typical reason. College.”

“Why did you come back to River Bend?”

The cameras started to fade as Mr. Crane asked his questions. “It started out as a promise. One I made to my best friends our senior year. We’d all return to our class reunion regardless of what was happening in our lives. I wasn’t sure I wanted to at first. My life hadn’t really turned out the way I thought it would.”

“How so?”

The room had gone silent as people started listening to their conversation.

“College ended up being a bust. Funds dried up. I met a guy.” The thought of Nathan put a frown on her face.

“And had your daughter.”

She smiled. “Hope was my blessing. Things with the guy didn’t work out, but Hope was there.”

“It must have been hard. Single mom. No college degree.”

“And a crappy car,” she added. “We can’t forget that.”

Mr. Crane smiled.

“So you return to River Bend in a crappy car with your daughter.”

“With Hope. The crappy car died en route.”

His smile turned into a slight laugh. “So no car, your lovely child . . . and Miss Gina’s beautiful inn.”

“And my friends. Friends I knew were there, but I had forgotten meant so much. True friends, the kind that will drop everything to help when you need them. You know what I mean?”

Mr. Crane had a quick moment of sorrow . . . or maybe it was memory that flashed over his face. “You returned home.”

Melanie glanced around the dining room. “Yeah.”

“A better life for your daughter.”

She nodded. “I couldn’t let Hope walk to school where I was living before. The crime rate in River Bend is nothing compared to the big city. Every town has issues, but this small town’s big news is when a house is littered with toilet paper.”