Maddox dumps his napkin onto his sauce-stained plate. “It’s been a good couple of years.”
“Booze, brawling, and girls. Sounds like every guy’s fantasy.” This isn’t the first time jealousy has highlighted my tone today. It most likely won’t be the last.
Ignoring Maddox’s dusting of my nose like he’s removing the dirt my comment sprinkled it with, I stand to my feet. “I really should head off. Sloane is probably panicked out of her mind.” When Maddox screws up his face, I splay my hands across my hips. “You can’t honestly believe you know my best friend better than I do. I ditched her at the gym hours ago. That kind of dumping requires more than a tub of ice cream. I’m about to go broke in the candy aisle.”
He snatches up the bill wallet before my hand can get close to it, shoves it under his arm, then locks his eyes with mine. “Is Sloane spontaneous, strong-willed, and carefree?”
Confident he hit the nail on the head, I bob my chin.
“Then I have no hesitation in saying she’s praying for younotto rock up to your apartment any time soon.” Maddox pushes out with a chuckle while helming our walk to the counter to pay our bill.
I follow him like a lost puppy. Mercifully, I look like I’m begging, but my tone is far fiercer. “Once again, how would you know that? Sloane ismybest friend. I know her better than anyone.”
He pulls a wad of bills I don’t want to know how he got them out of his wallet, hands them to his cousin, then shifts on his feet to face me. “Saint is my brother, so I not only know him, I know how he operates.”
When I gesture for him to continue, a little confused as to what he means, he places his hand on the small of my back before guiding me outside.
“Should you really do that?” I whisper, grinning. “I may not know how your brother operates, but if it’s anything like the thread in the crotch of your gym shorts, you probably shouldn’t place either of them under a magnifying glass for the second time today.”
Maddox stops dead in the middle of the sidewalk. While acting oblivious to the people mingling around us, he says, “Are you saying what I think you are, Ms. Don’t-Call-Me-Andi? Are you implying you’ll need a magnifying glass to inspect my package?”
I wasn’t, but I am now. “Uh-huh.”
Maddox’s mouth falls open. “Oh, that’s it. This shit is about to get messy.”
I scream loud enough for two blocks over to hear when he bobs down, wraps an arm around my thighs, then tosses me over his shoulder. Like all women who read far too many erotic novels, I assume he is going to race us down the alley to prove the chunk of meat that dug into my backside hours ago wasn’t a footlong sub, but I’m not disappointed when he stops by an ice cream parlor a couple of minutes later.
“If leaving your best friend at the mercy of the guy she’s been crushing on for years deserves a tub of ice cream, you owe me an entire fucking store. You never, I repeat,never, diss a guy’s package on the first date. Common courtesies demand a no-package comparison clause untilat leastthe third date. That way, you can kiss hisboo-boobetter when he proves you otherwise.” The way he murmurs ‘boo-boo’ leaves no doubt as to what he’s referring. “It may be the only way you canpumphis ego back up.”
His reply makes me laugh, but it won’t stop me from pointing out the glitch in his grand scheme, “Date?”
Maddox places an order for two vanilla cones before replying, “Yeah, D.A.T.E. Did you not know this was a date?” When I shake my head, he mocks. “I wined you, dined you, and poked you in the ass with my dick. How could you not know this was a date?”
I accept my ice cream from the vendor before slowly pacing down the street. “I figured you’d have to ask a girl out before you could consider her your date.”
“Maybe in whatever part of the world you’re from, but that doesn’t work around here.”
His reply slackens the friction bristling between us. We’re not in Ravenshoe. We are in Hopeton, the very town my uncle makes it clear women aren’t just inferior, we’re easily replaceable. Here, we don’t get to say no. We do as we’re told or die. There are no in-betweens.
After snatching his ice cream out of the store assistant’s hand, Maddox jogs to catch up with me. “What did I say wrong?”
I shoo away his worry as if my stomach isn’t a twisted mess of confusion. “Nothing. It’s fine.”
“Dem—”
“I’m fine, truly.” I spin to face him, almost sighing when my eyes drift over his deliriously handsome face. A green tinge has returned to his eyes, making me wonder if there’s more to their change than just a shift in moods. “But I really should go.”
He almost argues, but the dumping of my barely touched ice cream into the waste bin at my side stops him. Even someone as cocky as Maddox Walsh knows turning down dessert after a date is the equivalent of snapping shut a ring box with the engagement ring still inside.
“Thank you for a fun afternoon.” I can tell by the twitching of his lips when I lean in to place a kiss on his cheek that he wants to say something, but he just can’t force the words out of his mouth. “I’ll see you soon.”In my dreams, where you must stay.
3
Maddox
With my feet planted at the width of my shoulders, and my head confident I fucked up, I watch Demi’s brisk retreat. I had wondered if I was coming on too strong. Can you blame me for being a little eager? For years, I’ve perused her big blue eyes, pouty lips, sinfully sexy face, and deadly black hair from afar because I was confident she’d forever be untouchable.
I don’t give a fuck if it makes me look like a wimp, I have no shame admitting I love my family. They’ve had my back for years and ensured I didn’t have the fucked-up childhood not many kids these days can say they went without. I’d do anything for them, anything at all. I even stood back from the girl I had a crush on for years because I’d rather endure the heartache than thrust it onto one of my siblings.
