“Hi, Ms. Drayton,” Maddy says politely, but Mom waves that off immediately. “Please. Call me Mabel, dear.”
“Sorry—yes. Mabel.”
Mom’s eyes slide to me, and immediately she gives me a disappointed look. “Ryan, please put on a shirt. You’re not a wild animal.”
I glance down at my still very bare chest, look over at Maddy and she is very deliberately not looking at me, which makes the corner of my mouth lift before I can stop it.
“Right,” I mutter, already turning. I jog upstairs, grab the first T-shirt I find, and pull it on as I head back down the steps.
Bailey is practically glued to Maddy, talking a mile a minute about surf documentaries and whether surfing feels more like flying or falling. Maddy’s keeping up, but she looks a little different, her fingers keep disappearing into the sleeves of her jacket like she’s not entirely sure what to do with them. She looks almost nervous. Like she just realized she’s standing in her boyfriend’s house. Which—considering this is fake—is kind of funny.
Bailey leans forward eagerly. “Can you teach me sometime?”
That pulls a real smile out of Maddy. “Yeah. Of course. I would love to.”
“YES,” Bailey shouts, like her life just peaked and
Mom’s attention shifts to Maddy’s shirt. “You still working at your dad’s café?”
“Yeah,” Maddy says. “He actually opened another location a few towns over.”
Mom’s brows lift, clearly impressed. “Oh wow, that’s amazing.”
Maddy nods once, a little proud, then asks, “Do you still teach?”
“I do,” Mom says. “Kindergarten during the day and then reading tutoring after school.”
“That’s very impressive.”
Mom smiles warmly. “It keeps me busy. And slightly young.”
Then Bailey asks; “What about your mom? What does she do?”
Shit. The air shifts and Maddy’s smile tightens just a fraction. Bailey sees it instantly, her face dropping. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. That was an automatic question.”
“It’s okay,” Maddy says gently. “Really.”
But I still catch the small tension in her jaw.
I remember her Mom, Hazel, so vividly. Even when she was sick, she was still… her. Still had that way of walking into a room and making everything feel lighter.
When she passed, I tried to be there for Noah as much as I could. He was quiet, yeah, but he could still talk about it. But Maddy was different. She disappeared in long walks, headphones, and silence that didn’t match her.
Because she’s the opposite. She’s like caffeine in human form. Sometimes, when Maddy talks too fast or trips over her words, I see pieces of her Mom in her.
Maddy shifts, nodding toward the door. “Well… I should probably head home. I didn’t mean to interrupt your night.”
“You would never, darling,” Mom says warmly. “You should come by properly sometime.”
“I’d like that,” Maddy says and Mom gives her one last soft smile before heading back toward the kitchen.
Bailey watches the two of us with a look that is way too knowing. “It totally makes sense,” she says.
I narrow my eyes. “What does?”
She shrugs. “I always knew you had a thing for blondes.”
Maddy lets out a slightly awkward laugh beside me while I huff and wave Bailey off. “Oh, get out of here.”
