A/N: This is an AU fanfiction. It's placed in the Books category of The Host because certain details from Melanie's backstory are included here. No events from The Host actually occur. Multiple characters from it are included, some in name only, some just as the personality and characteristics right from the book (For instance, there is a Sunny character in this story, but it's Kyle's younger sister not a soul with implications as a future love interest). This story takes place in modern time, as in 2016-ish modern time. Initially inspired by The Notebook, though not an exact copy, just similar in general structure. Hope you enjoy. :)

EDIT: Reposted after beta job by sendtherain (8/12/17)

…

Chapter 1 - Lakeland Valley

The sun rose over the top of the hills in the distance, warming the little down and sending glitter sparkling across the lake. It was early summer and the citizens of Lakeland Valley had yet to rise from their beds. As in decades gone by, their work remained fairly steady and simple. There were carpenters, farmers, butchers and blacksmiths. There were teachers and a mayor, along with the small cluster of mailmen and the aging afternoon fishermen. In a world of electronics, where the newest phone, the biggest gadget, a million apps on every size mobile device you could imagine were seemingly the focal point for every human being, this place was still ruled by manual labor. In its simplicity, it thrived and spread magic to anyone who came to it, especially in the summer when true to its name, the lake brought easy joy not easily obtained at any tropical island or expensive resort.

It was also, it seemed, the place where the highly successful Mister and Misses Stryder, originally hailing from upscale New York City, had chosen to send their daughter, Melanie, for the summer. Melanie was smart, beautiful, and resilient in the face of her high school study abroad program shipping her off to London for half the school year. When she returned to New York, she'd looked so weary that her parents had made the almost instantaneous decision of taking a long vacation to a place that had no sign of anything fast-paced or of the modern age. That place, they decided, was to stay with Uncle Jeb and his sister Maggie in the small, simple town of Lakeland Valley, Louisiana.

Jebediah and Magnolia Stryder were an odd pair. Not every pair of siblings into their early sixties and beyond lived together, but they didn't seem to mind the occasional stare from the townspeople, or the fact that tongues would wag when they spread so much as the hint of a conspiracy theory. People brushed it off as a hobby because Jebediah brought in the best wheat in three counties and Magnolia produced clothing for women that was the envy of every seamstress around. Which maybe wasn't saying much since the twosome had lived in that small town most of their lives.

The gossip in Lakeland Valley was that Jeb and Magnolia had one other brother, Bartholomew; who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Bartholomew rarely visited, though he had a son and daughter-in-law, Trevor and Linda, who occasionally showed up for a family vacation with their children, Melanie and James. The children were doted upon, though they had been seen less and less lately with the city life keeping them busy year-round. This year, it seemed though, the speeding lifestyle had gotten the best of Melanie Stryder, and she had come to reside with her Uncle Jeb and Aunt Maggie for the summer.

She saw Jeb first when she stepped off the train. There was no airport in Lakeland Valley and no bus either, but the train station had been built into the town when it was first founded and managed to connect to the bigger stations in all the surrounding towns and cities.

"Hello, Melanie," he said, smiling at her and taking her suitcase right out of her hand. "You look worn out."

She half laughed-half sighed. "Hey, Uncle Jeb." She weakly smiled because she couldn't manage a hug with their hands full. "Thanks for meeting me. And yeah, I certainly feel that way."

"Well, don't worry. Your Aunt Maggie is making you a home cooked meal as we speak. Then I'll put up a fire in the pit in the back and all you'll have to do is sit back and stare at the stars. I can guarantee you those are hard to spot back in the city."

The weak smile remained intact, though there was some regret in it now.

"Actually, I was hoping I could just go to bed after dinner. I'm exhausted."

"Oh, sure." He nodded, almost as if he'd been expecting it. "Stars will still be out tomorrow," he said, and winked at her. She felt her guilt lessen and they slipped into easy conversation till they made their way to the old farmhouse on the edge of town.

…

Melanie woke the next morning to the sound of hammer pounding on nail outside her window. She opened one eye and winced as the sun streamed directly into it. She groaned and turned the other way on her bed, but it was no use. The pounding was getting closer, and so louder. There was no way she was going to close the window either. As she'd quickly learned when she arrived, it was much hotter in the house than it was outside, and Jeb and Maggie did not believe in air conditioning.

Still, the pounding was a mystery. She had noticed all the repairs that needed to be done when she first eyed the house before going in. Jeb had said nothing of fixing them though and neither had Maggie. Melanie figured they would have if they had planned on construction on the old house over the summer; especially if it would be done in the early morning right by her window before she was likely awake.

Melanie tossed the blankets off, straightened the tank top and shorts she'd gone to bed in and headed straight for the window, determined to give a piece of her mind to anyone who felt the need to make such a racket this early in the morning. Unless it was her family.

The pounding stopped right before she got there and she stopped too for a second, as if connected by whatever was disturbing her. Then she started moving again before the noise could interrupt her from the scolding she very much planned to deliver. She put her hands on the window sill and ducked her head out, looking both directions. She saw a ladder propped against the roof but there was no one in sight except Jeb, visible at a distance, out in the field along with a few other people she imagined assisted him in the task.

She pulled her head back inside and waited, expecting the noise to suspiciously start up again, but it didn't. She heard a clatter coming from downstairs, though.

Maggie. With breakfast, she thought.

Knowing she was unlikely to get any more sleep in a room that was quickly sweating her skin with humidity from the thick air and scorching sun, she decided to go downstairs where at least there would be ice water at the kitchen table.

The stairs squeaked beneath her as she went down to the lower level. She half-expected Maggie to welcome her before she walked through the doorway. Probably a clipped hello and nothing more, because Aunt Maggie was not the real cheerful type. Just observant, cautious, and a good cook. But there was no such welcoming.

When Melanie walked into the kitchen, it was not her Aunt Maggie she saw or Uncle Jeb. It was a man, a young man from what she could tell. His back was drenched with sweat through the white tank he wore and his dark sandy blonde hair was soaked in it. He was well-contoured from his shoulders to his feet, her lusting female hormones did not hesitate to inform her. But what he was doing in this kitchen still remained a mystery.

Then, most unexpectedly, he turned on the sink where he was standing, rinsing off his dishes and lowered his mouth to the faucet.

"Hey!" Melanie cried out before his mouth touched the gleaming metal.

He stopped, turned around slowly and looked at her. She had to force herself to focus on the atrocity of what he was about to do and not how absolutely gorgeous his eyes were, even from this distance.

"You can't do that," she said.

He smiled and her hormones started raging again. She almost said stop it out loud just to calm the butterflies down.

"Yeah? Says who?" he asked, turning the faucet off and then leaning against the counter, hands braced on the edge to give her his full attention.

"Everything that is righteous and holy," she informed him, eyes widening. He looked so amused now that it was no longer hard to focus on her argument, no matter how hot he looked standing there in her aunt and uncle's kitchen. "Who are you anyway?" she demanded.

His grin widened. "I'm the reason you're probably down here right now," he said and her jaw dropped.

"You're the hammer and nail outside my window?" she asked, aghast, though she'd suspected as much when she walked into the room.

He said nothing, but returned to the table where an empty glass stood beside a half-full pitcher of ice-cold water. He poured himself some and drank out of the glass then sighed loudly as it rushed through his body, cooling him.

"Good old Jebediah told me his niece was coming to stay with him for the summer." He started coming towards her and stopped when he was about a foot and a half away. "I have to say though, I wasn't expecting you."

She frowned. "What were you expecting?"

He grinned wide. "Not someone this feisty." He brushed past her, leaving some of his sweat on her arm, though he could have easily avoided it. "Definitely a city girl."

She turned around and followed him till he was almost out the front door.

"How long are you here for? A few hours?" she asked, a little too forcefully. She didn't know why.

He opened the front door and turned to look at her. He eyed her open hand, grabbed and wrapped it around the now empty glass. She looked down at it and frowned, then looked back up at him.

"All summer long, Melanie." He winked at her, then went out into the sunlight, leaving her alone with his empty glass, her jaw-dropping expression, and the butterflies in full flutter in her stomach.

It was going to be a long summer.