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“I think that’s fine.” Maddy pulled her eyes away from Kyle, and he thought it took her some effort. He hoped.
“It’s four nights a week,” Adam said. “You’ll have to be careful not to work more than your contracted time.” He gave Maddy a nod and trained his attention on Kyle. “How did the stage tour go?”
“Good.” He opened his box and found a ham and cheese sandwich inside. Not his favorite. He had gotten the sour cream and cheddar chips he liked, so he pulled that bag out first. “I think she’ll recommend that Double Barrel come.” He opened his bag of chips and pulled out the top one. “Did you get your paperwork signed, Mads?”
“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t think I started until Monday, but these two were waiting for me in the hall the moment I left Blake’s office.” She gave Jesse and Adam a smile that said she wasn’t really upset by that.
Jesse actually chuckled. “We’re just so excited to have you here,” he said. “It’s something new and different for the guests.”
“Right,” Adam said, never one to add more to a conversation than necessary.
The conversation stalled there, and the words piling up in Kyle’s throat prevented him from eating too much. Maddy didn’t seem to have that problem, and Jesse and Adam started a conversation about saddling classes and demos.
Kyle caught Maddy’s eye again and hooked his chin toward the door. Her eyebrows went up, and then she reached to close the top of her lunch box. He did the same and got to his feet. “See you later, boys,” he said.
Jesse said something about eating a mint before kissing, but Kyle ignored him. He didn’t think there’d be any kissing between him and Maddy right now. Soon, he hoped, but first, he had some groveling to do.
“I can help you move in,” he said.
“You can?” she asked. “This afternoon?”
Kyle thought of his schedule, which included meeting the band coming in for tonight’s concert at three o’clock. He’d be busy the rest of the afternoon, evening, and night. He nodded anyway. “Sure.” He led her down the hall to the staff area, and by a miracle, no one sat at the single table there. “Do you want to sit here or go outside?”
“It’s hot outside.” She claimed a seat at the table, and this time, Kyle did sit next to her. She started to open her box, but Kyle couldn’t.
“I’m really sorry, Maddy,” he said. “I shouldn’t have…stopped talking to you.”
Her brown eyes had always captivated him, and today, they blazed with energy and light and…displeasure. Probably that. “Why did you?”
“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “I mean, I kind of know why. It felt like we were on two different paths.” He flipped open his box. “Diverging paths.”
She nodded and pulled out a small plastic container of potato salad. “Are you upset I’m here this summer?”
“Absolutely not,” he said.
She nodded again, but he didn’t like how she wouldn’t look at him. Like it took so much concentration to open the container and pick up a spoon.
“Are you mad at me?” he asked.
She did level her gaze at him then. “Should I be?”
Kyle swallowed, his guilt raging through him like wildfire. What did he say here? He’d apologized—she hadn’t. “I don’t think so.” He pushed back the guilt and nerves. “I apologized. I hope you can forgive me, and maybe we can try again this summer, while you’re here.”
Maddy nodded, and he hated feeling like one of her naughty kindergarteners. “I suppose I could’ve called you too.”
“Mm.” He didn’t want to make any big movements right now. Not when she was coming toward him like a nervous squirrel. After another handful of seconds of companionable silence, he reached over and covered her hand with his. Pure lightning arced up his arm and into his shoulder, and she had to feel that.
Her eyes came to his, indicating she did. “I just have one more question, Kyle.”
“Okay.” He barely got the word out of his tight throat.
“What do you think will be different come summer’s end? I’ll have to leave. You’ll stay here.” She recapped her potato salad and looked at him again. Right at him, which he loved and appreciated. “If we have a second chance this summer, what will be different when it’s over to make you want to keep talking to me?”
What a great question. One he didn’t know how to answer, because she was essentially asking him to read the future, and no one could do that. Not even him.
ChapterThree
Maddy hated the words that had come out of her mouth. She’d been thinking about them since finding Kyle with that brunette.
