Free Melody Unchained by Christa Maurice Page B

too vulnerable to handle modern life on her own. He’d been so selfish, wanting to make her stand on her own so she wouldn’t lean on him.
    Jerry slouched in the driver’s seat and wished he’d at least bought a cup of coffee to keep him company on this stakeout. All he could do now was sit here and analyze every word they’d said since he opened that interview room door. Maybe he should throw in the towel on this independence experiment. If she stood up to a thief, she wasn’t a shrinking violet. Amanda would have thrown her purse at the man and run in the other direction. No, Amanda hadn’t liked to go out after dark. When she had to stay home alone at night, she’d insisted that a patrol car stop at the house to make sure she was okay and she’d walked around with the cordless phone in her pocket. Melody hadn’t blinked at the thought of walking home alone after dark.
    Tonight, when she got home from where ever she was, he was going to tell her he’d changed his mind. He wanted her with him. Where he could protect her.
    Long after he’d run out of all his favorite stakeout games and started inventing new ones, a car parked half a block away. A guy got out. Young, athletic. Bringing his girl home from a date. Hoping to get inside her apartment tonight, or at least to get the promise of another date. Jerry couldn’t even remember being that young. Right now he felt older than God. The young stud bounded to the other side and opened the passenger door.
    Melody climbed out.
    The guy put his arm over her shoulders as he guided her up the stairs to the outside door of her place. They were talking and laughing. Melody wore one of her old dresses that covered her elbows and knees. It looked like something Jackie Kennedy would have worn. Melody didn’t have on a pillbox hat though. Instead she had her hair pulled up in a clip. It spilled down her back, as shiny and black as oil. She looked elegant and confident and happy. So incredibly beautiful it made his heart hurt. Even the careful way she walked didn’t mar the picture.
    This was his own fault. He’d let her go.
    The guy walked her up to her door, and Melody allowed the young man a sweet kiss. Jerry’s mouth watered, remembering what her lips felt like on his, the way her body had curled to his. The guy watched her go inside and then bounded down the stairs, grinning like he’d scored something. He hadn’t been allowed in the apartment so he must have gotten another date. Bastard.
    * * * *
    Melody tiptoed through the bedroom to peek out the bedroom window. It had to be Jerry’s car. He was watching her. Still. Did he plan to sit out there all night? Why was he here at all? Should she go out and talk to him?
    Her date with Dan had been nice. He was a good enough person. Funny and charming, but he wasn’t Jerry. He didn’t have Jerry’s solid strength or calm. When Dan touched her, she didn’t feel the same spark. He was pleasant and she was sure they could be great friends, but she couldn’t imagine choosing to make love to him.
    She sat down on her bed. She liked her little apartment. It was the first place that was really her own. As a young wife, she had lived in the tents of her husband’s family. Since then she had been in whatever living arrangements her masters had. Many times she had changed those arrangements for them. When Jerry first brought her here, he had apologized because it was so small, but she had thought it the perfect size for a woman alone.
    But she wouldn’t miss it. Not as much as she missed Jerry.
    She put her keys in her pocket on her way out the door. Jerry’s car was still parked where she had seen it earlier and she watched him slouch down further in the driver’s seat as she approached. Did he think he could hide? Why would he want to? She knocked on the window. “You can wish to be invisible all you want. I can’t grant wishes any more. What are you doing here?”
    Jerry climbed out of the car. “I heard you had a