Unstoppable

Book 3: A Country Roads Novel

by Shannon Richard

Genres: Coming of Age; Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance; New Adult Romance

Synopsis

Some things you don't dare let go . . . Melanie O'Bryan knows life is too short to be afraid of taking chances. And former Air Force sergeant Bennett Hart is certainly worth taking a chance on. He's agreed to help her students with a school project, but she's hoping the handsome handyman will offer her a whole lot more. Yet despite his heated glances and teasing touches, Mel senses there's something holding him back . . . Bennett Hart is grateful to be alive and back home in Mirabelle, Florida. Peaceful and uncomplicated-that's all he's looking for. Until a spunky, sexy-as-hell teacher turns his life upside down. After one smoldering kiss, Bennett feels like he's falling without a parachute. But with memories of his past threatening to resurface, he'll have to decide whether to keep playing it safe, or take the biggest risk of all.

Release date: December 3, 2013

Publisher: Forever

Print pages: 393

Sample

It had been eight weeks since Melanie O’Bryan had been shot, eight weeks since she’d gone to a spa after hours and walked in on a burglary in progress. She’d been with her two best friends, Harper Laurence and Grace King. It wasn’t like the three girls had done anything wrong; Harper was a massage therapist who worked at Rejuvenate and was able to go in and out of the spa as she pleased. They’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mirabelle, Florida, was a small beach town. Its six hundred square miles boasted a population of about five thousand. Even though there were very few saints in that five thousand, the burglary spree that had hit the town had been out of the norm. Chad Sharp and Hoyt Reynolds had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from over a dozen businesses and houses.

No one had known who was behind the burglaries until Mel, Harper, and Grace had walked in on the one at Rejuvenate. Chad and Hoyt had gotten away that night, but their greed caught up with them, and so had the law. Now the two thieves were sitting behind bars, awaiting trial. With any luck they would be in there for a very long time.

Chad had been the one who shot Mel in the shoulder. The bullet hadn’t hit anything vital, but she had required physical therapy for the past six weeks. She’d actually just finished her last session the day before. Her shoulder was still sore for the most part, but little by little she was getting back to a full range of motion.

Things were slowly getting back to normal for Mel. It was the middle of August and school was starting on Monday. The teachers had spent the last week planning, and Mel couldn’t wait for her students to be back in the classroom.

It was just after four on Friday when Mel pulled up in front of her little two-bedroom house. It had belonged to her grandparents and she inherited it after both of them had died. Otherwise Mel wouldn’t be a home owner; her salary as a math teacher at Mirabelle High School didn’t bring in the big bucks. She’d always loved the little buttercream-yellow cottage, with it’s robin’s-egg blue shutters and doors.

Mel grabbed her purse and groceries from the trunk of her black Jetta. She had just enough time to put everything away, jump in the shower, and get ready for tonight before Grace and Harper came over. There was a crawfish boil over at Slim Willie’s, and they were going to head over together. But only after they spent a little while catching up on each other’s lives. They’d all been so busy lately that they hadn’t really gotten to see each other.

Mel had been best friends with Grace since birth. Well, since two months after Mel’s birth, as that was how long it took Grace to join the world. Their mothers had been best friends as well, so Mel and Grace hadn’t had a choice, and really, they wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. They’d been pretty inseparable over the years, and when Harper had moved to Mirabelle in the sixth grade, they’d eagerly accepted her into the fold.

Harper was now a massage therapist, and she’d been booked solid all summer with clients. Mirabelle had a fancy little resort out on the beach called LaBella. They tended to draw in clientele with pretty thick pocketbooks. Harper also worked at Rejuvenate, the spa in downtown Mirabelle where Mel had been shot. Between the two places, Harper barely had enough time to think, let alone go get dinner.

Grace had been busy planning her wedding to her fiancé, Deputy Jaxson Anderson, and it was about damn time. The girl had been in love with her stubborn redhead since she was six years old, and they’d only just gotten together last April. It had taken Jax a while to figure out he was in love with Grace. The boy had always been ridiculously protective of her, but in his stupid-boy mind he’d thought he wasn’t good enough for her. He’d finally gotten a clue.

Mel opened the door and walked into her house. The air conditioner provided a welcome relief to the humidity that was Florida in the summer. She locked the door behind her and made her way down the hall, dropped her purse on the dining room table, and went into the kitchen. She put her bags on the counter and headed for the cabinet, where she grabbed a cup and filled it with ice water. Once she downed half of it, she pressed the cold glass to her forehead.

In all truth, there was no point in taking a shower to wash off the stickiness from the day. As soon as she walked outside again, the heat was just going to coat her skin and frizz up her hair. Mel had long, honey-blonde corkscrew curls that were a royal pain in the ass to maintain.

But Bennett Hart was going to be at Slim Willie’s, and even if it was just for five minutes, Mel wanted to look halfway decent. She might’ve had a small crush on the guy. Small meaning that whenever he was around she went all warm and gooey and felt like a freaking sixteen-year-old again.

But really, how could she not? He was gorgeous, all six feet and however many inches of him. And he had muscles everywhere. Toned arms and legs and abs of wonder. And don’t even get her started on his eyes. They were some sort of icy gray-blue that sucked her in. He had dark blond hair that he kept cut close to his skull. He hadn’t let it grow out when he’d gotten out of the military. But he had gotten a little more lax with shaving, and he now had perpetual five o’clock shadow on his square jaw. Mel had always been a sucker for a scruffy man.

Not to mention he’d been there the night Mel had been shot. But she’d liked him long before that fateful night at the spa. Him saving her life hadn’t started those feelings.

When the 911 call had gone through to dispatch, the closest deputy to the scene had been ten minutes away, so the deputy had called Jax. He had been hanging out with Bennett that night, and both of them had rushed over to Rejuvenate.

Mel had never been more terrified in her entire life. The pain had been unbelievable, and she’d been on the brink of passing out when Bennett had showed up. He’d been so calm as he talked her past the panic. His voice had been the only thing that had grounded her.

Bennett had stayed at the hospital all through her surgery and waited to see her after. He’d also been around for the last couple of weeks, checking up on her recovery often and going to more than one of her physical therapy sessions with her. He’d dealt with his own recovery a couple of years ago after he’d survived being shot in Afghanistan. He’d been more than aware of what was going on with Mel, and he’d helped her out in more ways than one.

He’d given her something to watch during her recovery time, too. He’d gotten her hooked on Lost, and he’d spent more than one night sitting on her couch with her and watching episodes. And then Bennett just had to go and do something that made her like him even more. He was going to volunteer at the school, working with Mel and her students.

For the last year, Mel had wanted to do a hands-on project with her students to show them how math could be used to build things. The former superintendent, Keith Reynolds, hadn’t given Mel or her project the time of day. But after more than one scandal had hit the Reynolds family, Keith had tendered his resignation over the summer.

As it turned out, Keith Reynolds was Grace’s father. This little tidbit of information had been revealed in a very public way, at a dinner honoring the superintendent. Over the years, Grace and her older brother, Brendan, had been the center of more than a little bit of gossip in Mirabelle. The mystery of Grace’s father had been a big part of it. It had also been a pretty big blow to the Reynolds family when it was discovered that their son, Hoyt, had been involved in all of those burglaries that had plagued Mirabelle.

So there was a new superintendent now. It had been only two months, but Fred Stafford was leaps and bounds better than his predecessor. The library at the high school was in desperate need of some new bookshelves, and Mel wanted to build them. She’d presented the proposal to Stafford, complete with costs and how she planned to raise the money. He’d approved it right away, thinking it was a fantastic idea.

Bennett had helped Mel with that proposal, and Bennett would help her out with the project. He was going to be at the school often, working with her and the students on a regular basis. For free.

But Mel had to keep telling herself that this didn’t mean anything. This didn’t mean he had feelings for her. No, he was just her friend. And so what if she had a little crush on him? Okay, so it was a massive crush.

Mel put the groceries away before she went into the bathroom and promptly stripped down. She hesitated in front of the mirror before she walked to the shower, her amber eyes dipping down to the scars on her right shoulder. One, the size of a dime, was where the bullet had gone in; the three around it, all surgical scars, were about the size of pencil erasers.

She reached up and touched the bullet wound, her fingers tracing around the small pucker on her skin. Even if her arm healed completely, the scar would always be there to remind her of that awful night.

Mel dropped her hand and got in the shower. The hot water poured over her, and as she stretched her arms up to wash her hair, the tight pain in her right arm made her wince. It might still hurt, but it felt loads better than it had.

When she got out of the shower she grabbed her blow dryer. Wrapped in her towel, she methodically dried her hair, doing her best to shape the curls into a manageable style. She put on a light coat of makeup, then went into her bedroom.

Mel stood in front of her opened closet, staring at her clothes and trying to figure out what she was going to wear. The winning combination was a flowing, knee-length, green cotton skirt and a white V-neck shirt. After she was dressed, she went into the kitchen to uncork a bottle of wine. If the girls were going to talk, they were going to be drinking as well. That was just how it was.

She grabbed three glasses from the cabinet, the corkscrew from the drawer, and the wine from the fridge. The kitchen had a view of the front yard, and as Mel finished pouring the wine she saw Harper’s car pull up. Grace got out of the passenger side, and the two girls made their way up the front porch.

There’d never really been a chance for the three friends to share clothes growing up—or even now, for that matter. Grace came in at a whopping five foot four. She had light blonde hair and a heart-shaped face that framed her blue eyes and pouty lips. She was tiny, with an A-cup bust and a slim waist, though she did have a fairly round butt that she was proud of and that Jax was pretty fond of. She wore tight jeans that accentuated said rear and a cute, little hot pink tank top that only she could pull off. Said tank top would’ve looked more than somewhat scandalous on Mel and just downright indecent on Harper.

Harper had been a little overweight when she’d first come to Mirabelle, and most of the boys in school hadn’t been very nice about it. But it had taken her only a few years to grow into her body. Now she was all curves. Men had absolutely nothing negative to say about how her D-cup breasts filled out a shirt or anything else. She was currently wearing a formfitting, light blue dress that made her violet eyes pop, and it looked incredible with her long black hair. Yeah, Harper didn’t have any issues catching a man’s eyes these days. Problem was, no one was catching her eye.

Both Mel and Harper were five foot seven, but that was where all the similarities stopped. Where Grace had most of her curves below the waist, Mel’s were above. She had a decent C cup, no real butt to speak of, and thin legs. But at least she had good thighs and calves, so she didn’t have a lot of complaints.

Mel put the bottle of wine on the counter and went to open the front door.

“Oh, no,” Harper said as soon as she saw Mel. “Oh, no, no, no. You get your skinny ass in that room of yours and change.”

“What’s wrong with this?” Mel asked, looking down at herself.

“It’s flirty. You don’t want flirty. You want sexy.” Harper grabbed Mel’s hand and pulled her down the hallway.

“Yeah, you need to show off those legs of yours,” Grace said as she shut the door and followed them.

“That’s what’s going to help you in your man-catching endeavors,” Harper added.

“What man-catching endeavors?” Mel asked, coming to a sudden stop.

“Bennett,” Grace coughed.

“Excuse me?” Mel, rounded on Grace.

“Oh don’t even deny it,” Harper said as she dragged Mel into the bedroom. “You sooo want to have that man’s babies.”

“Oh. My. Gosh. It isn’t anything like that,” Mel said a little bit too loud.

“Whatever you say. Now take off that skirt.” Harper let go of Mel’s hand and looked at her.

“You’re being ridiculous. My skirt is fine.”

“You don’t want fine, you want fine.” Except Harper pronounced it fwine. “And you wouldn’t be this resistant if Bennett were asking you to take off your skirt.”

Yeah, if Bennett were asking her to take off her skirt, she’d be completely naked in three seconds flat.

“Strip. Now,” Harper demanded.

“I’m going to go get something for us to drink,” Grace said and left the room.

“The wine’s already poured and on the counter,” Mel called out after Grace as she pushed her skirt down her thighs.

“Pretty pink panties?” Harper asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just find me something to wear so you’ll shut up.”

Harper turned to Mel’s closet and started looking through it. “No, no, no,” she said as she pushed through the hangers.

Grace came into the room holding three glasses of wine. She handed one to Mel and smirked as she looked at Mel’s undies. “Wow, those are nice. Were you planning on someone seeing those tonight?”

“Are the two of you quite finished?” Mel asked before taking a sip of her wine.

“We’re never finished.” Grace handed Harper a glass of wine and then sat on the bed.

“I see that teddy bear he got you is still on your bed,” Harper said, turning to them. She took a drink of wine.

Okay, so Bennett might’ve brought Mel said bear when she was in the hospital. And it was possible that she’d slept with it every night since. It was just because it was soft and cuddly and…

Yeah, she was pathetic.

“Look, it’s just a silly crush, so let’s not make anything of it, okay? We’re just friends. Nothing’s going to happen and I’ll get over it.”

“Uh-huh.” Harper raised an eyebrow. “Just friends,” she said slowly. “A friend who is helping you out with this little project at your school?”

“And by little, you mean this huge and quite extensive project. A project that is going to take months and lots of his time,” Grace clarified.

“He doesn’t have feelings for me.” Mel was getting just a little bit exasperated. These two were like a freaking dog with a bone.

“How do you know? Have you asked him?” Grace asked.

“No, and I’m not going to. And neither are the two of you,” Mel said pointedly, staring at her two friends.

“Who?” Harper tried to look mildly offended.

“Us?” Grace asked innocently.

“We would never.” Harper turned back to the closet and resumed her hunt.

“What about her jean miniskirt?” Grace asked.

“Ohhh, that would look really good with this orange tank top or this green V-neck with the stripes. Take your shirt off, too,” Harper demanded without even turning around.

“I’m going to need more wine.” Mel took a fairly large gulp before she put her glass down and did as Harper ordered.

*   *   *

Bennett Hart had been back in Mirabelle for just over two years now. He moved back when he’d gotten out of the air force. He’d enlisted when he was eighteen and spent eight years in the service before he’d been shot down in Afghanistan. There’d been ten soldiers in the helicopter that day; only Bennett and his commanding officer had survived, and both of them had barely escaped with their lives.

Bennett had been shot in the shoulder, but the bullet that had ripped apart his body was nothing. He’d had his life ripped apart that day.

He knew just how lucky he was to be alive, but that didn’t stop the survivor’s guilt. How could it? He’d watched as his best friends, his brothers, had died, and there’d been absolutely nothing he could have done to save them.

He was still plagued by the nightmares and panic attacks. He’d wake up in a cold sweat, screaming as he fought with his pillows and sheets like they were the demons that had taken his friends. That day would haunt him for the rest of his life.

These days Bennett took things easy. Well, easier. There were a certain number of hazards that came with working in construction, but he wasn’t being targeted on a daily basis. He’d picked up a thing or two in the military, and building schools and hospitals had stuck with him. Now he mainly worked on remodels with businesses and houses.

He was actually branching off a bit lately, doing more specialty jobs for his boss, Marlin Yance. There was a surprising demand for custom woodwork out at the beach houses, so Bennett had been pretty busy with those. He’d also been working on a few of his own creations.

Bennett had started restoring antiques and building his own pieces of furniture. So far it had mostly been for friends and family. He’d made quite a few things for Jax and Grace’s new house, and he had a few customers here and there.

For Bennett, it was more than just a job. He liked working with his hands, liked creating things. It gave him a peace he’d been missing for quite sometime. Another thing that was giving him peace was being back in Mirabelle. It was good for him to live close to his dad and stepmom.

Bennett’s parents had divorced when he was four. Bennett’s mother, Kristi, had run off to Arkansas with a man with whom she’d had an affair for years. Now they were married with three children. Kristi sent a card every year on Bennett’s birthday, which he never opened. Besides that, he’d had absolutely no contact with her.

Bennett’s father, Walker, had remarried when Bennett was six. Jocelyn had been the one who packed Bennett’s lunches when he was in school, taught him how to cook, and sat next to his father at all of his baseball games and his graduation. She’d always been much more than a stepmother to him; for all intents and purposes she was his mother.

Bennett had also fallen back in with a good group of guys whom he’d gone to high school with. Brendan King, Jax Anderson, and Nathanial Shepherd had all been a year older than him and they’d all played on the Mirabelle High baseball team together. The three guys had been best friends since preschool, or something like that, but they’d welcomed Bennett into their fold, and through them he’d gotten a whole other family.

It had been hard for Bennett at first, hard for him to let anybody into his life. When he’d first moved back he’d kept himself pretty isolated from everyone except his dad and stepmom. Losing his friends in Afghanistan had nearly destroyed him. It took him a while to realize that the country roads of Mirabelle weren’t the same thing as the deserts of the Middle East. Yes, tragedies happened every day, but his friends weren’t getting shot at.

Well, except for that one time a couple months ago.

Melanie O’Bryan was a sweet girl. Maybe just a little soft-spoken, but she had a quiet confidence. And she had this sassy sarcastic side to her that came out every once in a while. She’d drop these one-liners that tended to shock the hell out of him.

And damn, did she ever have a killer smile, one that made Bennett never want to turn away from her. She was a high school math teacher, and from what Bennett had heard she had the patience of a saint and was loved by her students. It wasn’t that surprising. Mel was just a good person. A great person.

When Bennett had walked into that spa all those weeks ago and seen her bleeding out on the ground, it had taken everything in him to stay calm. All he’d been able to think was, Not her. But Mel was strong and she’d survived it, and Bennett thanked God for that every time she was around him, which was quite often these days.

Mel had a knack for holding his attention whenever she was in the same room as him. So it came as absolutely no surprise that he zeroed in on her the second she walked up onto the back deck of Slim Willie’s.

The restaurant was more of an outdoor establishment with a deck that took up almost double the space as the actual building, which was pretty packed. The wooden tables were crowded with people digging into the food in front of them. The band played on a stage off to the side, and the dance floor already had a good amount of people on it. But even with all the commotion, Bennett only had eyes for one person.

Mel was wearing a skirt that showed off her killer legs and a purple-and-blue tank top that showed just a hint of cleavage. Her hair was down, and her curls framed her pretty face and ran over her shoulders and down her back.

Bennett was so distracted by Mel that he completely missed what Brendan had just said. The two men were standing at the outside bar waiting for a drink.

Brendan King was a mechanic at King’s Auto, which he and his grandfather owned. Brendan and his wife, Paige, had just had their little baby boy, Trevor, two and a half months ago, and they were taking advantage of a night out. Paige’s mother, Denise, was on babysitting duty.

“Sorry.” Bennett cleared his throat and focused on Brendan. “What was that?”

Brendan turned and looked over his shoulder. Bennett let his gaze travel back to Mel. She, Grace, and Harper were joining the table where Jax and Paige sat. Mel looked up as she pulled out a chair, and her eyes locked on Bennett’s. Her cheeks flushed a soft pink and she smiled at him. She waved and Bennett couldn’t stop himself from smiling and waving back.

“I heard you two were spending a lot of time together lately. And that you’ll be spending even more time together when school starts,” Brendan said, facing Bennett again. “How’s that going?”

“How’s what going?” Bennett asked.

“You and Mel.”

“There is no me and Mel.”

“Oh, really? So you just get smiley for all the pretty girls?”

“I didn’t get smiley.” Bennett frowned as he looked at Brendan.

“Right.”

“We’re just friends,” Bennett said as he tried to get the attention of one of the bartenders.

The two bartenders were giving a little too much attention to a group of about ten college girls. They were loud, bordering on obnoxious, and they were all processed to within an inch of their lives. Their dark tans were fake—too much time spent in tanning beds. Their makeup was on thick and their clothes were on light. They gave off more than a glimpse of their flat stomachs, and their breasts spilled out of their too-tight shirts.

They did absolutely nothing for Bennett.

His eyes automatically found Mel again. She had a natural, sun-kissed tan and her skin glowed. He wasn’t even sure if she wore makeup or not. And he liked the way she dressed. Her clothes gave off just a hint of the sexiness he was sure lay beneath. She was modest, and real. She was beautiful.

“Just friends?” Brendan said skeptically. “Okay, whatever you say.”

*   *   *

“You know he keeps looking at you,” Grace whispered in Mel’s ear.

“Shut up,” Mel said, kicking her under the table. “He is not.”

“Yes, he is.” Grace pinched Mel’s leg.

“Ow, don’t pinch me.” She rubbed the sore spot on her thigh.

“Then don’t kick me.”

“What are you two talking about?” Paige asked, leaning across the table.

Jax had gotten Grace’s, Mel’s, and Harper’s drink orders before he’d joined Bennett and Brendan at the bar. So only Mel, Grace, Harper, and Paige sat at the table.

“Bennett,” Grace said.

“Mel has a little crush,” Harper added.

“What part of ‘Shut up’ do you not understand?”

The noise from the crowd and the music from the band were loud enough that there wasn’t really a chance they would be overheard, but talking about Mel’s crush in public made her nervous.

“Don’t worry.” Paige grinned. “I won’t say anything.”

Mel loved Paige and did trust her not to say anything. Paige had fit right in with their little group when she’d moved to Mirabelle over two years ago, and she’d quickly become a very close friend. She had long, dark brown hair that fell in messy waves, gray eyes, and freckles across her nose and cheeks. She was tall, and her running habit had kept her legs in amazing form; it had also melted off almost all of her pregnancy weight.

“He’s really cute.” Paige looked over at the bar for a second before she turned back. “You should totally go for it.”

Cute? No. Bennett Hart was sexy as hell in a way that made Mel want to put her mouth all over his body.

Oh dear. I should not be thinking about that. “Can we please not have this conversation right now?”

“Oh look how red she’s getting,” Harper said. “She really likes him.”

Yeah, that was why she was blushing, not because she was thinking about how lickable his abs probably were. “I hate you all.”

“No, you don’t,” Grace said. “You love us dearly.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Fine, no more harassing Mel… for now. But we will have this conversation later,” Paige said.

“Count on it,” Grace said with a grin.

“So school starts next week?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, on Monday. I’m looking forward to the kids being back. Sitting in that empty room all week was making me crazy.”

Mel was glad they’d changed subjects, because when she glanced up again, Bennett, Brendan, and Jax were at the table, beers in hand.

“Here you go,” Bennett said, sliding a bottle in front of Mel.

“Thanks.” She smiled up at him.

“So what’s making you crazy?” he asked as he took the seat directly across from her.

Mel didn’t miss the matching smirks on Grace’s and Harper’s faces, but at least they kept their mouths shut.

“The kids not being there. It’s too quiet.”

“I’ll bet. Too much quiet makes me crazy, too. Well, it’s not going to be quiet when we’re in that wood shop with the saw going.”

“I would imagine not,” Mel said, shaking her head.

“Jeez, this place is crowded.”

Mel looked up to see Nathanial Shepherd and Tripp Black standing at the other end of the table. Nathanial, whom everyone called Shep, worked at his family’s bar, the Sleepy Sheep. He was tall with thick, shaggy black hair and piercing blue eyes. His jaw was covered in what could only be described as ten o’clock shadow, and his arms were covered in tattoos. He had the whole bad-boy image down to a tee.

Tripp Black had moved to Mirabelle over a year ago when he became the fire chief. He had dark brown eyes and thick brown hair. He was also a man of the perpetual scruff.

“Yeah, good luck getting a drink unless you’re going to flash something. But I feel like your legs could get you fast service.” Brendan looked at Shep.

“Aww, come on, Brendan,” Shep said. “You know you’re the pretty boy around here.”

“Who are you calling a pretty boy?” Brendan asked before he took a pull on his beer.

“You. You going to do something about it?”

“Nah,” Brendan shook his head. “Because we both know the truth.”

“That Jax is the prettiest of us all?”

“Exactly,” Brendan nodded.

Mel wouldn’t exactly say that any of the men around her could be termed pretty. Hot was a better word. Hot and incredibly built. Yeah, all of them were ridiculously good-looking, but none of them had ever inspired the feelings in Mel that Bennett had.

“I’m not even going to comment,” Jax said, shaking his head, as he put his arm around Grace and pulled her close to him.

“That’s because you have a maturity level higher than these two put together,” Paige said, pointing to Shep and Brendan.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Brendan pulled Paige in and gave her a loud, smacking kiss on the temple.

“We should start heading up for dinner.” Grace indicated the ever-growing line behind them and turned to Paige, Brendan, and Bennett. “You guys should start. You too, Mel,” she added with a wink.

Mel really wanted to glare at Grace, but chose not to draw attention to the not-so-subtle grouping. Instead, she got up from the table and followed behind Brendan and Paige, and Bennett fell in step by her side. She tried not to think about how that made her heart flutter a little bit.

It cost twenty-five dollars to get into the crawfish boil, but the food was all you could eat, the live band was sure to provide hours of entertainment, and a lot of people had thought the price was wo. . .