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Maddie’s lips tilted up. She appreciated the fact that Saff hadn’t automatically assumed that she either couldn't or didn't play sports.
“I liked to swim, but I never really competed,” she replied. “My parents were the opposite. They didn't really want me doing anything physical, but always pushed me to do the academic stuff. It paid off, though. I went to Brown on an academic scholarship.”
“Must've been pretty good,” Saff muttered, copying Maddie’s compliment.
She smirked. “Not bad, I guess.”
Saff leaned back another inch. “What’d you study?”
“Finance,” Maddie answered, trailing her fingers up into Saff’s hairline.
Saff grunted. “You don’t seem like the finance type.”
Maddie chuckled. “I wasn’t. I just did it because my parents wanted me to. They were both in venture capital. That's actually how they met. They were working on some big deal together.”
“Romantic,” Saff muttered.
Maddie chuckled, moving her hands down to the base of her skull, rubbing long strokes down the muscle.
“I actually enjoyed it, but I don't know if I would have picked it on my own without it sort of being the family business.” She kneaded her palms in a long slow stroke down Saff’s neck andonto her shoulders, and felt Saff relax further back into her. “My brother went into venture capital, too. But I think he definitely just did it to be close to my dad.”
Saff’s head bobbed slightly beneath her fingers.
“Did you end up with any step siblings?” Maddie asked.
Saff was quiet for a few moments. Then she cleared her throat. When she spoke again, her voice sounded different, almost like she was half asleep. “I think so. Two boys.”
Maddie absorbed the words, wondering what would make her unsure.
“You don't know for sure?” she asked quietly, working her hands down Saff’sshoulder blades to the center of her back.
Saff hummed in a lazy, tired way that Maddie hadn't heard from her before. It sounded nice. It sounded like, for the first time since they'd been together, she was perfectly at ease.
“We didn't have any contact after she left. I found her on Facebook, though.” She paused for a few moments, then spoke again, but this time her voice had regained some of the hardness it usually had. “Looked like she'd gotten remarried and had a couple kids.”
Maddie was quiet for a few moments. “Did you ever reach out to her?”
This time, when Saff spoke, her voice completely returned to its stone-like state, and Maddie wondered if she would have told her these things at all if she wasn't so tired.Probably not.
“Once. She never responded.”
Maddie's jaw tightened. She couldn't imagine a mother ignoring her child—the child she was supposed to love and protect.
Saff cleared her throat and suddenly shifted her body, instantly morphing back into the tightly wound version of herself. Maddie could almost feel it happening beneath her hands, the way her shoulders stiffened, her body curling inward.
“Thanks,” she muttered, shifting forward. “That actually did help.”
Maddie left her hands resting on her shoulders, letting them slide down her back as she stood.
“Want me to keep going?”Maddie asked, already sort of missing the way Saff’s voice sounded when she wasn't on guard.
“That's okay. I'm pretty tired.”
Maddie nodded. Then, as if on cue, a yawn escaped her own mouth.
Chapter thirteen
Nine days.
