Page 32 of Their Stormy Reunion

“Have you ever been kissed by someone you liked and not put your arms around him?”

Her silence spoke volumes.

“Well, I haven’t,” I continued firmly. “I always put my arms around his neck.”

She tilted her head, considering. “Sometimes I grab the guy’s shirt. Maybe she did that. Would you have seen it from where you were?”

“Okay, maybe not,” I admitted. “But I haven’t told you the last thing.”

Maddie shook her head sadly.

“Don’t look at me that way. It’s not like I want him back. I’m not pining over him. I just want to close this chapter of my life.”

“And I believe the moon is made of cheese.” Maddie took another big sip of her cocktail, then swung it toward me in a grand gesture. “But please, enlighten me with the last thing.”

“Michael knew I was due at Dorothy’s Antiques before closing to pick up my brooch bouquet. You know, the one you talked me into getting?”

“It was going to be so pretty.” Maddie sighed. “I never got to see it.”

“I need you to focus, Mads.”

“I’m focusing.”

“Michael knew what time I would be at Dorothy’s; it was going to be right before she closed up. And as I pulled up to Dorothy’s store, that’s when I saw Michael’s truck in Lindsay’s driveway, and Michael on the porch.”

Maddie’s eyes widened.

“At just that time?” she whispered her question.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you say something before?”

“Because I didn’t really think of it before? It never even entered my consciousness until Michael started acting all crazy about me now and I realized something seemed hinky.”

“So this could have been a setup…”

I slumped back into her couch and I felt my eyes begin to burn. “But that would be so much worse. Why would he do something like that to me, Maddie? We were each other’s everything. We were best friends. Why would he throw that away?”

Maddie’s gaze softened—just a little. “Fallon, he did throw it away. I mean, even if it was a setup, he threw it away.” She picked her margarita glass back up.

I fell quiet, my mind spinning. Things between Michael and me had been perfect—until they weren’t. Everything had been fine until we found the house. That’s when the shift happened, I realized.

Maddie snapped her fingers in front of my face, jolting me back to the present. “Earth to Fallon. Where’d you go?”

“Back in time,” I muttered.

“Care to share?”

I sighed, leaning into the couch cushions. “It started with the house. The wedding plans didn’t faze him, but the second we made an offer on that house, everything changed.”

“So that’s when he decided to become a manipulative asshole. Mystery solved.” She threw her hands up, splashing tequila into her hair. She didn’t even notice.

“Uh, you might want to…” I motioned toward her tequila-soaked locks.

She waved me off like a diva. “I’m accessorizing.”

“You’re a disaster,” I muttered.