He lifts his upper body and holds her face in place. Melody’s eyes widen, He’s about to kiss me. The thought of a drunk man kissing her repulses her and she grabs his arm and scratches at it, but he does not move. “You know you want this just as much as I do.” Max grins again and leans in to kiss her. Melody’s face is halted. She cannot move, she cannot pry him off, she can only pray someone heard her scream. His nose is touching hers now.
Suddenly, a strong arm hurls Max off of Melody and thrusts him across the room. It’s Will Deacon. Melody is relieved to see him. He grunts as he pulls at his brother, then with a warm expression on his face, he extends his arm to Melody and picks her up.
Max yells out some inaudible slurred words and Will turns around like a charged bull and snatches his brother by his dress shirt collar. With a rage Melody has not seen in him before, Will doesn’t say a word to Max, but groans as he punches him in the face. The blow from the punch is so thunderous, Melody is sure Max will feel it when he wakes up in the morning.
Blood drips from Max’s lip onto his lavender shirt but he remains in a drunken stupor.
Will aggressively digs his hands into Max’s arms, locks his elbows and throws him out of the room. As he flies out of the room, Melody sees a glimmer of fear on Max’s face just before he disappears out of the room. When he falls, Melody now hears a loud thud followed by grunts from Max.
Will is not finished. It is as though he is only seeing red. It’s all happening so fast she has no time to react. He follows Max out of the room and when he is out of sight, Melody hears more punches.
“Please...please...” Melody hears Max begging his brother for mercy. She runs around the corner to see if Max is still alive and she sees Tam standing nearby.
“Stop! Mr. Will!” Tam interjects with a steadied voice and possibly saves Max’s life. Then he crouches down to assess the damage on Max’s face.
Will stands up, panting. He brushes himself off, composes himself then instructs Max to get out of his sight. Max scrams up the stairs to his room. Will instructs Tam to follow him and make sure he doesn’t do anything else he might regret.
With her mouth agape, Melody stands and watches the scene unfold, then she retreats back to her seat when she sees Will turn and come into the room. He follows her and sits next to her. Silent.
For a moment, they sit side by side without uttering a word. They recap the events in their minds. In the distance, they hear Max shout some empty threats of his own and Tam’s voice echoes on the walls as he calms him down.
Finally, Will breaks the silence, “I’m so sorry for my brother’s behaviour, Melody. He should never have assaulted you.” He is shaking his head in embarrassment.
Quietly, she answers, “No, he shouldn’t.” Melody is not sure what to say. She did not expect Max to act the way he did. She is still processing what just happened in her mind.
“He is not usually like this. I’ve told him to lay off the booze because when he drinks he is a different person. He doesn’t act like himself at all. I’m so very sorry, Melody. If I had known he was drinking, I would have made sure you were not alone with him.” Will says as he holds her hand to reassure her of his concern.
She feels safe with Will. He is genuinely concerned for her and he once again came to her rescue. “Thank you, Will.” She caresses her other hand on top of his. “I’m so glad you were there when you showed up.”
They stare into each other’s eyes for a time and the longing for Will to kiss her returns again.
“I hope you understand, Melody, that my family means so much to me, but it also tests me the most.” He lowers his head, “Since...my brother passed and my father...is now also gone, I have...”
“You’ve had to carry the burden of taking care of everyone.” Melody offers a gentle smile and rests her hand on his shoulder. “I see it Will: in your love for Rebecca, in how you try to keep Max in line and still carry the family business forward. But what about you?”
Will turns to look at her as though he has never considered himself before. “I… I guess I hadn’t given it much thought.” He chuckles shyly. Even his chuckle is charming.
“It’s okay to take care of yourself also. When Max moves away and Rebecca is all grown up, what will happen to you?”
“I guess I have based my life around everyone else. I...didn’t realize I was doing that.” Will is in deep thought and pondering Melody’s words. Then he asks, “What about you, Melody? What will you do next?”
Melody looks up in wonder. And Will gazes all the more at her beauty. “I...I plan to discover every corner, every deep hole and every treasure I can travel to.” She doesn’t necessarily tell him she wants to be an archeologist, but she basically describes it.
When Melody looks down again, she catches Will still staring at her. He quickly looks away, blushing and says, “That is lovely. Where would you begin?”
“How about Scotland?” Melody watches as Will’s expression changes from being shy to more hopeful.
“There’s... I need to explain something to you.” His tone is more serious now. “I feel I have become more fond of you, Melody. I meant to keep our relationship strictly professional, but it is becoming harder and harder for me to
