Текст книги "Unsung"

Автор книги: Shannon Richard

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

Chapter Eight Found…Again

It was one of those slow motion moments, like when Liam had first seen Harper at the bar, where everyone and everything disappeared besides them. As her head turned to face them, his heart started beating out of his chest and he stopped breathing.

And then those violet eyes were on him, going wide as she choked on her drink. She coughed, covering her mouth.

“Are you okay?” the blond with curls asked, turning around.

The sound of someone else’s voice so close brought Liam back to the room filled with people and the reality of the situation.

It had been six weeks since he’d seen her. Six weeks of thinking he’d never see her again. Six weeks of being out of his mind, and here she was. Standing in front of him.

“I’m fine,” Harper said when she caught her breath. “Just swallowed wrong.”

“This is my wife Mel,” Bennett said, introducing the new guests to the circle. “And our friend Harper Laurence.”

Harper Laurence.

“And these are Logan’s parents, Dustin and Edie James,” Bennett continued with introductions. “His sister, Adele, and his brother, Liam.”

The shock in Harper’s eyes was giving way to something else that he wasn’t quite sure of. Where he was pretty sure he hadn’t breathed since he saw her, he thought she was about to hyperventilate.

“Liam James,” she whispered.

Ahh, so she’d just figured it out.

“You want an autograph?” Well, he’d apparently found his breath and his voice. But he couldn’t help himself.

“Liam!” his mother gasped. “Don’t be impertinent.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, Harper and I know each other.” He tilted his head to the side as he looked at her, the smile on his face not one of amusement. “We met a few weeks ago.”

This time it was Mel choking on her drink, coughing hard as she tried to catch her breath. He knew the look in her eyes had nothing to do with him being a singer. Apparently Harper had mentioned him, and that weekend, to her friend.

Liam didn’t have to look at his brother or his sister to know that the two of them were playing a tennis match, looking between him and the woman in the blue dress. He couldn’t bring himself to look away from her again, afraid that if he did she’d disappear.

“You look magnificent as ever, Harper.” His eyes dipped, taking in the rest of her. Her mouth was painted a deep red, and her black hair was up, all piled on top of her head. She was wearing a form-fitting midnight blue dress and those damn bronze strappy heels she’d had on the second night…the last night…the night she’d knelt down on the floor between his legs wearing nothing but those heels and lace.

A blush started to creep up her chest, maybe because the word magnificent had her thinking about his mouth on her breasts. Or her completely naked underneath him. He knew that’s what it made him think of.

“Holy shit,” Logan whispered low enough for only Liam to hear, but even at that volume he could clearly hear the surprise in his brother’s voice.

Well, he could just join the fucking club.

“Small world, isn’t it?” he asked.

“You two know each other?” Abby looked between the two of them, and then her eyes went wide. Apparently she knew a little something about the situation, too. Liam wondered for a brief second if Logan had mentioned something or if she’d heard about it from Harper herself.

Then he realized he didn’t care. He didn’t care who knew what. All he cared about was the fact that she was here.

What he didn’t know was how he felt about it. Yeah he was angry, there was no doubt about that, but a sense of relief was running through him, too. And then there was the need to touch her. He wanted so much to grab her and pull her close. Take her mouth again because it felt like forever since he’d gotten to taste her.

“When did you guys meet?” Bennett asked, looking a little bewildered. He obviously didn’t know what was going on, and the only other people in his boat were the two boys, and Liam’s parents.

“In Nashville,” Harper answered.

“I had no idea you knew Abby or Logan,” Liam said.

“We met through Abby’s best friend Paige. She lives in our hometown and is married to one of our very close friends.” Mel was speaking now, probably trying to take some of the attention off her friend. It didn’t work. The majority of the eyes in that circle were on Harper. “We’ve known Abby for years.”

“Well, isn’t that fascinating?” Edie asked, and there was something in her tone that made it clear she was picking up on the tension as well. She might not know what had happened, but she did know her son, and Liam was hiding nothing. He couldn’t.

“Yup, fascinating.” He downed the last of his bourbon.

“Where are you guys from?” Dustin asked.

“Mirabelle, Florida,” Bennett answered. “It’s a tiny town on the beach about three and a half hours west of here.”

“And the world just keeps getting smaller,” Adele said.

“No kidding.” Harper tipped back the last of her drink.

She’d barely finished it when a waiter came up, taking the empty glasses from the group. Not a second later there was another waiter, offering up some filled glasses.

“No, thank you.” Harper shook her head. “Actually, I need to get some air. Liam, do you have a second?”

His instincts were at war with each other. Part of him really wanted to be the arrogant bastard he knew was in there and not give her anything she wanted. She hadn’t given him the courtesy, so why should he give it to her?

But that part of him was small in comparison to what the rest of him was screaming for…to get her alone and get some answers.

“Sure.” He nodded his head, finding that he wouldn’t have been able to say no, pissed or not.

Harper gave a friendly smile to the group, one that he knew took everything in her to achieve. She reached out as she turned, grabbing Mel’s forearm and squeezing tight before she let go, her hand shaking.

*  *  *

So, that just happened.

The last three minutes weren’t really processing fast enough. Harper was in shock, so unbelievably unprepared for seeing Liam. And not only that, but meeting his entire family.

It’s lovely to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. James. And oh, by the way, I’m carrying your grandchild.

Her step faltered at the words that echoed in her head, and she stumbled a little bit. A hand was suddenly at her side, another at the small of her back. And just like that she had the sure and steady weight of Liam’s palms on her body, his fingers gently pressing into her and holding her firm.

“You okay?” His mouth was at her ear and she turned instinctively to look at him.

He was so close. Those green-gold eyes of his focused on hers, eyes that hadn’t hid anything from her before. But now…now she couldn’t decipher them to save her life. There was a hardness to them she didn’t recognize.

Hardness she had no doubt put there.

“Harper?”

Just the sound of her name on his lips had her back in that cabin, no one but him and her. Nothing but the feel of his hands on her skin, his mouth at her ear as he moved inside her.

Making love to him had been so real. So raw and bare, everything stripped away besides the two of them.

But that was gone now.

“I’m fine,” she forced herself to say before she turned away from him.

She had no idea how she was going to get through this. She wasn’t ready, was supposed to have the rest of the weekend to figure things out, and then even after that there still should’ve been more time until she was doing this. Until she was face-to-face with him and telling him…telling him that she was going to have his child.

There was supposed to be more time.

But she’d known the second she’d seen him there wasn’t going to be any more waiting. She couldn’t do it. Couldn’t possibly be around him for any length of time and not have him know the truth. And she wouldn’t be able to walk away without telling him, either.

He deserved to know and she wasn’t going to be a coward. Not this time around. She was going to bite the bullet, ready or not.

His hand didn’t move from the small of her back as he came up next to her and guided her through the crowded room. His hands on her body were killing her, splitting her heart in two. But she didn’t want him to stop, because it was probably going to be the last time he ever touched her like this.

The familiar ache she’d known for the last few weeks settled over her, and her chest tightened for about the eighty-sixth time since she’d seen him. The second they were outside and away from the crowd, his hand disappeared from her body.

Oh, look at that, her chest tightened for the eighty-seventh time.

The ballroom of the Brogan-Meyers Hotel was located on the roof of the building, which just so happened to be the thirtieth floor. There were a few people out on the terrace that ran around the floor, and Harper kept walking until no one was near them.

She went to the railing before she stopped and turned to look at him. Somehow she managed to speak first. “I had no idea you were going to be here.”

“Funnily enough, I guessed that.” His eyes moved over her face, like he was seeing her for the first time. Like he didn’t know her. And at the end of it all, they didn’t know each other…not really.

Case in point, he was Liam James.

The country musician. The country musician whose albums she had. The country musician who wrote the songs “It Ain’t Me, It’s You”; “Buckle Up”; and “Mother Trucker.” Songs that she’d sang along to quite loudly more times than she could possibly count.

She knew his music, so how was it possible that she hadn’t made the connection? She’d even had her own private show.

Maybe it was because when he was around her she couldn’t think straight to save her life. Maybe that was the reason.

“I owe you an explanation.” She started to run her hands up and down her bare arms.

The sun had only gone down about an hour ago, the temperature dropping to the mid-seventies. It was still warm, even with the breeze coming from the water, but it didn’t matter, she suddenly found herself very cold.

“You mean for leaving and not saying good-bye?”

“Yes.” She nodded slowly. “For that.”

“By all means.” He gestured to the space between them. “The floor is yours.”

Her mouth went dry and she regretted downing the last of her ginger ale. “I’ve thought about this more times than I can count. Gone over what to say to you. But now that you’re here, and I’m looking at you, none of it seems right. I don’t know where to start…I didn’t expect it to be this hard.”

“Did you think it was going to be easy?”

“No…” She shook her head. “No, I didn’t think it was going to be anywhere near easy. Nothing about you has been easy. Not from the moment I met you. I couldn’t in my wildest dreams have imagined you. Couldn’t have predicted that weekend. What it was like to be with you. It was unreal. Everything that happened…I don’t even know how to describe it.”

“But it was real, Harper.” He took a step toward her, closing the gap between them. “And you walked away.”

“I was scared.”

“That’s a bullshit excuse. Everyone gets scared.” She couldn’t help but flinch at the harshness of his words. “You don’t think it freaked me out?” he asked, taking another step toward her, their shoes almost touching.

He was only about an inch or two taller than her with her heels on, but she still had to tilt her head back to look up into his face. His expression was fierce, his eyes so intense that she was desperate to look away, but she couldn’t. Not for the life of her.

“You don’t think it was scary for me, too? That’s never happened to me before. Meeting someone, and having this…I don’t even know what it was, but it was something powerful. Something real.” He reached out, his hands landing on hers and stopping her palms from constantly moving up and down her arms.

Her next breath was sharp, the contact of his skin on hers overwhelming her beyond anything else. How was it possible to miss something so much? Something she’d only known for such a short amount of time?

“You think a single second of it was easy for me?”

“No.” The word fell from her mouth on a whisper.

“And then you were gone.” His hands disappeared from her body and he took a step back from her. “Dammit,” he all but shouted as he turned away from her, his hands going to his hair as he walked a few steps to the side. He leaned against the half wall that ran around the balcony, resting his forearms on the top and looking out to the city below them.

She came up next to him, placing her palms flat on the concrete wall. She watched the twinkling lights of the cars and buildings below them for a few moments before she spoke. “It wasn’t easy you know. Leaving you.”

He turned at her words, his hair falling across his forehead and into his eyes. She wanted to reach over and push it back.

Not appropriate.

She pressed her hands down onto the concrete, the grit digging into her skin. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“Yet you did it anyway. Why?”

“I thought it was safer.”

“Safer?”

“Liam, I’d just gotten out of the most serious relationship that I’d been in. Ever. Brad, my ex, he broke me. I’m not over-exaggerating, either. He really did, and that was after being with him for a year and a half. I knew you for less than forty-eight hours, and somehow you had more of that power than he did.” Her throat tightened, the corner of her eyes prickling as tears started to brim. “I’ve never done anything like that before.” She tried not to wince as her voice cracked on the last word.

God no, you are not doing this. Pull yourself together and do not cry.

He straightened, turning toward her and focusing on her face. “I know. You don’t go home with men you just met.” He repeated her words from that morning after. The first time she’d tried to leave.

“But it isn’t just that, Liam. I don’t sleep with guys on a first date, or the fifth date, or the twelfth date. It takes a lot of time for me to get to that point. But with you, there was no time. It just…happened. And it’s never been like that before…the sex I mean, because that wasn’t just sex. That was something else entirely. Especially that last time…it…it terrified me. So I ran.” She blinked, and the prickling in her eyes turned to a burn, the tears falling. “I’m sorry, Liam. I really am,” she said as she reached up and wiped at her cheeks, running her fingers under her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve regretted a decision more in my life.”

“Yet you didn’t do anything to fix it.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was going to? I think I’ve stared at your number on my phone, my finger hovering over the Dial button, almost every night since I left.”

“So you do still have my number.” His breath came out on an aggravated sigh as he shook his head. “Do you have any idea how incredibly frustrating the last few weeks have been? After meeting you, I’ve second-guessed everything. I can understand you being scared. And I might be able to understand you running. But what I can’t understand is that after all this time you still have done nothing, even though you’ve regretted your decision. So no, I don’t know if I believe you, Harper. I don’t know if I believe you were really going to do anything.”

“I deserve that.”

The full ramifications of the whole situation didn’t hit home until that moment. Okay sure, she wasn’t expecting him to get over everything that had happened and just forgive her for walking out. She wasn’t that delusional.

In the end though, not only was this man the father of her child, but she was most definitely in love with him. And now he might not want anything to do with her.

What had she done?

He turned away from her again, bracing his hands on the wall as he dropped his head between his shoulders and looked down at the city. “I don’t know what to do with any of this. Where to go from here.”

“I don’t, either. But…but there’s something else you should know…something that you need to know,” she amended.

He straightened, pulling his head up and looking at her. “And what’s that?”

“Liam, I…” The words caught in her throat.

Say it, Harper.

Say. It.

Tell him now.

NOW!

“I’m pregnant.”

For a moment nothing was registering on his face. It was blank, frozen, like the rest of him. He’d even stopped breathing.

Harper just stood there, not sure of what to do or say, waiting for him to speak first.

“W-what was that?” he finally asked.

“I’m pregnant,” she repeated. “With your child.”

“But we used condoms. Lots of them.”

“Apparently they didn’t work.”

“And you aren’t on birth control?” His tone was accusatory, like she’d planned it.

“Seriously? You’re blaming me for this?”

“I’m not blaming you. It’s just…normally there are backup plans in place.”

“Well, there weren’t.”

“And you’re sure it’s mine?”

She flinched at the question. “Wow, we really don’t know each other, do we?”

“It’s a fair question.”

“You’re wrong about that. Nothing about this entire thing is fair.” Try as she might she couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“Really, you’re going to get upset with me for asking what I think is probably a fairly common question, after the bomb that you just dropped?”

“The bomb that I just dropped?”

“Yes. What did you expect, Harper? For me to be overjoyed at the fact that I might’ve gotten you knocked up?” His voice rose, carrying across the wind, and quite possibly to the people on the other side of the balcony.

She took a step back from him, her stomach so tied up in knots at this point that she was pretty sure the ginger ale wasn’t going to stay down for much longer. “There is no might’ve, Liam, and I’m not going to stand here while you imply that I’m a whore.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I told you before, you’re the only person I’ve been with since my ex, whether you choose to believe that or not. This baby is yours. If you want to be a part of his or her life, that’s up to you.” She took another step back, taking up again with chafing her palms against her arms. Fresh tears welled in her eyes, but they were more from anger than anything else. “You figure that out and let me know. Abby can get ahold of me.”

She turned, heading back for the ballroom, but had barely taken three steps when he called out after her.

“So you’re just going to run again?”

She looked back at him over her shoulder, focusing on the hard stubborn line of his mouth that was so foreign to her. “I don’t see you trying to stop me.” She turned from him and walked away.

Chapter Nine No Going Back. No Starting Over.

Liam stared down into his glass of bourbon, his third since sitting at the bar in the lobby of the Brogan-Meyers Hotel. The glass just couldn’t seem to stay filled and the ice cubes looked lonely.

He obviously hadn’t gone very far after leaving the balcony. Alcohol or not, driving sure as shit hadn’t been an option. His head was spinning, still reeling from everything that had happened that night.

He’d found Harper…or had she found him? Oh, who the hell cared? He’d already been confused beyond reason before she’d gone and told him she was pregnant.

With his child.

And every time he closed his eyes he saw her crying. He hated seeing women cry. Hated it. But this was something different. Something that tore at every inch of him. And he’d done nothing to comfort her. Nothing because he couldn’t get over his own anger. Nothing because he was apparently the biggest dick on the face of the planet.

“So this is where you disappeared to. See, I told you we should’ve checked the bar first,” a female voice said behind his back.

“Yes, yes. You were right. Again. Happy?” a deep male voice answered.

Liam didn’t stop staring into his empty glass. He didn’t need to look over to see that his brother and sister were standing next to him.

“I’m always right,” Adele said. “And just as soon as the two of you start accepting it, things might go a lot smoother.” She leaned into Liam’s shoulder, grabbing the glass in front of him. “How many of these have you had?”

“Since sitting down?” He looked up and glanced over at them. “Three.”

“Shit,” Logan whispered. “Are you chugging them? It’s only been forty minutes since you followed Harper out onto the balcony.”

Really? It had only been forty minutes? It felt like it had been an eternity since he’d watched her walk away.

Somehow that was almost as painful as when he’d woken up without her.

Almost. At least this time he knew where to find her.

“Can we get three more of these?” Adele asked when the bartender came to their end of the bar. “We’ll be over there.” She pointed to the empty circular booth in the corner before she wrapped her hand around Liam’s arm and forcibly pulled him from the bar stool he was sitting on.

As he didn’t want his sister dragging him across the room like a little boy, he didn’t resist. They all settled into the booth, Adele in the middle with Logan on the left and Liam on the right. They were positioned in such a way that he could see both of them.

“Start talking,” Adele demanded pretty much the second their butts were in the seats. “And feel free to just jump right on in with what happened tonight, because Logan already filled me in on the Nashville stuff.”

Well, that was good, because diving back into that would make his head an even bigger mess. Who was he kidding? It was a disaster as it was. So really what was a little more chaos at this point?

He looked down, his palms flat on the table. The old saying, I know it like the back of my hand, repeated in his brain. But as he studied his own hands, hands that were scared and calloused over the years, hands that were his livelihood, hands that he thought he knew, he realized he knew absolutely nothing.

He started talking, his words coming out like he was telling a story that wasn’t his. But it was his story. This was the new reality.

A waiter came over about halfway through, sliding the drinks onto the table. Liam grabbed his but didn’t take a sip. He wrapped his fingers around the cool glass, focusing on that as he got to the climax of his conversation with Harper.

“So she’s pregnant,” he said before he finally allowed himself to take a sip.

Neither Logan nor Adele said anything for a good couple of seconds. Liam put the glass down on the table as his eyes came up, focusing on his brother and sister.

“And it’s yours?” Logan asked, his brow furrowed and his mouth flattening out to a grim line.

“Yeah.” He nodded. Because despite his words to Harper earlier, he did believe her. And he wasn’t sure if that just made him an even bigger fool.

“Wow.” Adele breathed the word on a sigh, grabbing her own glass and downing a good amount of it. “This just keeps getting more and more complicated.”

“You can say that again.”

“And you believe that she was going to tell you? Even if she hadn’t run into you tonight?” The look on his brother’s face was getting more and more severe by the second, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Logan had cherished being a father, no doubt more than anything else in his life. He’d loved his daughter from the very start and had always wanted her. Madison had never been a burden. Never been anything he’d ever regretted. And even though Madison’s days had been short, she’d been treasured for every second of them.

Liam looked down to the tumbler in his hand, tilting it to the side, the ice clinking against the glass. “I think she would’ve told me…” But what did he really know?

“Okay…so we’ve established the fact that this woman, who you’re in love with—”

“Thought. Thought I was in love with.” Liam corrected his brother.

“Right,” Adele scoffed at that, and both men turned to look at her. “Come on, you saw what happened when she walked up. You were about to come unglued. No one in that circle can deny your reaction.” She looked at Liam, her eyes brokering no argument. As per usual she’d missed nothing. “Or her reaction to you for that matter. And you better believe that Mom was entirely aware something was up, because the second the two of you stepped away, she oh-so-very-not-so-casually started asking questions about Harper to everyone in that circle who knew her.”

“Fantastic,” Liam grumbled, though it wasn’t all that shocking. That was Edie James for ya. “You guys probably know more about her than I do at this point.”

“I don’t think so.” Logan leaned back in the booth, stretching his legs out in front of him. “They stayed pretty tight lipped. I have no doubt Mel knows exactly what is going on, and she didn’t reveal more than she had to about her friend.”

“What did Abby say?” Adele asked as she ran her finger around the rim of her glass. “She’s known Harper for years. We want some insight, we should talk to Abby.”

But for whatever reason, that prospect wasn’t all that appealing to Liam.

“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to learn about Harper from anyone besides Harper.” Because the thing was, he still wanted to learn everything about her. Wanted to know all he could about her. That hadn’t changed, and he didn’t think it ever would.

He put the tumbler down on the table, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. His fingers were cold from touching the glass, and they felt good on his overheated skin.

“I just keep wondering what would’ve happened if she hadn’t left. Happened with her, you know?” He dropped his hand, his eyes opening as he looked across the table at his siblings. “But then again it changes nothing with the baby. That would’ve happened regardless, and I’m not walking away from my kid.”

My kid.

Something warm settled in his chest at those words. Something that had nothing to do with the alcohol. He was going to be a father.

“Well, obviously,” Adele said immediately.

“I didn’t doubt that for a second.” Logan shifted in his seat, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “But how are you going to proceed with Harper?”

Wasn’t that the question of the hour?

“I have no idea.”

“Well, you aren’t in this alone, Liam.” Logan lifted his glass, clinking it to Liam’s before he polished off the last of the liquid in it.

“And we’re going to be here no matter what to help you through it all.” Adele reached across the table and put her hand over Liam’s. “Because we’re family.”

Family…yeah, a family that was only going to get bigger.

*  *  *

The air conditioner on the opposite side of the hotel room kicked on, blasting cold air into the space. Harper snuggled down deeper into the mattress, pulling the comforter tightly around her shoulders.

She had absolutely no desire to get up. The moments of sleep throughout the night had been few and far between. All together she’d say she probably got about four hours, and she was going to pay for it dearly today.

After the balcony incident the night before, Harper hadn’t even attempted to rejoin the party. She’d made a beeline for the elevator and headed straight down to her hotel room. It had been the longest five minutes, fighting with the tears that had been simmering at the surface. Though a few escaped, trailing down her cheeks, she’d wiped them away the instant they’d fallen.

But the second her hotel room door snapped shut behind her there’d been no holding back. As was expected, she got sick first. Of course she would, heaven forbid she go ten hours without throwing up. The medicine she’d been taking had been working, but it wasn’t a match for her stress level in that moment.

And then she’d taken a shower, the heat in no way getting rid of the chill she just couldn’t seem to shake, even though it was June in Florida. Though she was pretty sure the shaking had more to do with her sobbing than anything involving temperature.

When she’d managed to gain an ounce of composure, she got out of the shower to find Mel sitting on the bed, already changed into her pajamas. Though Harper wasn’t sharing with anyone, Mel had a key card for the room to come and go as she pleased. Just one look from those concern-filled amber eyes, and Harper had lost it. Again.

That was how they’d spent most of the night, Mel not leaving to go be with her husband no matter how much Harper insisted. And to be honest, the prospect of spending the night by herself was not a pleasant one, especially as sleep had been an elusive bitch.

All she could think about was Liam. That pained look in his eyes. His frustration. His anger. His words.

What did you expect, Harper? For me to be overjoyed at the fact that I might’ve gotten you knocked up?

Overjoyed wasn’t the word she would’ve used, but neither was knocked up. It had just sounded so harsh coming from his mouth. Like this baby was unwanted.

Her hand automatically went to her belly, her palm pushing up her shirt and landing on her skin. The baby was obviously too small to be felt in any capacity—unless she counted her morning sickness, which she might be inclined to—but he or she was still in there. Growing.

Harper wanted this baby, and she would love this child no matter what. That was a love she didn’t doubt in the slightest.

Unlike another love.

Liam filled her vision, but it wasn’t the man in the blue suit with the hard eyes from the night before. No, it was the man from the bar all those weeks ago. The man with the quick smile and the gentle hands. But she couldn’t deny the fact that when he’d touched her last night, those hands of his had still been gentle. Still made fire burn inside her. Still made her ache in the sweetest, most painful way.

That oh-so-familiar tightening started up at the back of her throat, but she refused to give into it again. She wasn’t going to cry today.

Was. Not. Going. To.

She pulled the comforter from her body and slowly sat up, her head tender from the night before and her stomach uneasy. For whatever reason, the nausea was usually tolerable in the morning and got worse throughout the day. Apparently Harper liked to be an anomaly.

But the twinges this morning seemed to be even less than they normally were. It was just a slight rolling of the stomach and she was able to push it back with a few steady breaths. Maybe the medicine was working. Or maybe it was finally getting the massive weight off her chest that was the anxiety of talking to Liam.

Yeah, maybe it was that.

Harper got out of bed and walked over to her suitcase, searching for a change of clothes. The only light coming in the room was a tiny sliver from a crack in the heavy drapes. She was careful as she looked around among the chaos, trying not to make any noise to wake Mel. She finally found an outfit and headed to the bathroom.