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I stopped walking and glared at my phone. Oh god, she didn’t. She thought she was slick, but I knew all her tricks. For years, she’d tried to get me to revisit. The one time I set foot back in Minnesota and she conveniently couldn’t get me? After she’d insisted on me not renting a car?
I wouldn’t be surprised if “Mr. Right” wasn’t the only thing she’d already picked out for me. If a reverend and witnesses were waiting for me at her house, I wouldn’t be shocked. Outraged, yes, but not shocked.
She hadn’t even mentioned what this guy looked like. A name would have been helpful. I scanned the waiting area, hoping for at least a familiar face.
Someone tapped on my shoulder. “Troy?”
No.
Nonono.
I slowly turned. Shit, my incantation to ward off the fling from my past hadn’t worked. My breath caught in my throat, and my heart hammered hard.
Life wasn’t fair.
Why else would Maddix Steiner be standing in front of me, looking like a wet dream? The man had grown even hotter in the decade since I had seen him. He’d bulked up. His arms were like friggin’ tanks in his sleeveless shirt. Back then, he’d had only a couple of tattoos, but now both arms were full sleeves.
He still wore his blond hair too long, past his shoulders. Had he let it down because I loved running my fingers through the tresses?
Of course he hadn’t. But what the hell was he doing here?
His piercing blue eyes were bracketed by deep grooves as though he worked outdoors a lot. The wrinkled skin might be new, but the eyes were still as mesmerizing as the first time I’d looked into them and seen desire. Back on the couch in his father’s house.
If only I’d shoved him away instead of kissing him back then. I would have saved myself a whole lot of heartache.
“What are you doing here?”
He winced at my voice lashing out in a way I would never have dared to do ten years ago. But this was a new me. I wasn’t the same wimpy nerd who allowed his face to be smashed into a locker while his heart broke into a million pieces. Maddix might still be bigger than me, but I’d beefed up over the years. My muscles might be leaner than his, but if he tried that shit he’d done in high school with me now, he wouldn’t walk away unscathed.
“Gladys asked me to pick you up,” he said softly. “Her knees were acting up.”
That old bird was healthier than the rest of us. I tightened my grip on my suitcase, the words on the tip of my tongue to tell him to take a hike. He’d driven all this way to get me on Gladys’s behalf, though. Turning him down would only make her suspicious. I would rather spend the two weeks I’d promised her in peace than have her pry into what was up between Maddix and me.
“You shouldn’t have,” I said, using my business voice. “But since you’re here, I won’t turn down the offer.”
“Good. And listen, don’t think anything of it. I was happy to offer.”
He’d offered?
He grabbed my suitcase handle, and our hands touched. A spark of electricity shot up my arm. Fuck. Some attraction was to be expected, given our history, but the pure intensity of it robbed me of the ability to breathe…to speak. Without a word, I let go of the suitcase, even though I didn’t like the idea of him carrying my luggage. The faster we got to Gladys’s, the better, though. Then I didn’t have to see him anymore.
“This way.”
I followed Maddix out of MSP airport toward the parking deck of terminal one. I would have to kill my aunt. Yup. My last living family member had to go. If walking to his truck was this awkward, how could I bear a ninety-minute journey sitting next to him, especially when he was trying too hard, opening my doors and shit?
The urge to call him out on his bullshit was strong, but to do so was to dredge up the past, which I refused to do. He didn’t need to know I worked as hard as I did to ensure I never had to return to Rosewood Pines ever again.
Settled in Maddix’s truck, I buckled my seat belt and pressed my hands to my knees to keep them from bouncing around. Then he would know I was anxious, and the only thing I needed him to see was the cool, confident, and successful man I’d turned out to be.
“It’s quite a long drive.” Maddix drove out of the parking deck. “We can stop to grab a bite.”
“I’ve been on four flights in the past forty-eight hours. I’m exhausted. Just home will do, thanks.”
No, not home. Home was back in Atlanta. I was not even back fifteen minutes, and I already associated the word with this place.
I found the science fiction audiobook I'd been listening to on the plane, resumed it, and closed my eyes. The book I’d been taking pleasure in no longer held the same appeal. It was high school all over again. Putting my studies off to the last minute, canceling the debate meeting to sneak off and be with Maddix.
Why did he still affect me like he did ten years ago?
