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At the door, he knocked and then ran his palm down the front of his jeans. He felt like he was fifteen again, picking up Lousia Gilliam for the prom. His daddy had driven him, and having to go to a girl’s door while his father watched had been embarrassing.
The door opened, and Kyle started to smile. The woman standing there wasn’t Maddy, and the gesture froze.
“You must be Kyle,” she said.
“Yes.” He looked past her, but she stood several inches taller than Maddy, and he couldn’t get a good look into the cabin. “You must be new here.”
The woman had long, wavy red hair and big, gorgeous green eyes. She wore jeans that looked like someone had painted them on her body, with a white tank top tucked in. Also skin-tight. Kyle wasn’t sure what to make of her. She looked more like a model playing a cowgirl than a real working woman on a cattle ranch.
“I am,” she said. She extended her hand toward him. “I’m Hadley Esplin. I’m the new media manager here.”
Ah, the media manager. No wonder she looked like she didn’t know a cow from a bull. He smiled at her. “That’s great. Becks will be super happy about that.”
“Yes.” She laughed. “She hired me.” She stepped back into the house to let him enter. “I think Maddy is almost ready. Want me to go check?”
“She’ll come out.” Kyle did enter the house and close the door behind him. No need to cool the whole ranch. “When did you move in?”
“Today,” she said over her shoulder as she moved over to an open box on the dining room table. “The place is a mess, because I thought I didn’t have that much stuff.” She flashed him a smile that had definitely cost her a lot of money. She tucked her hair and peered into the box. “I left the rest in the car, because I still don’t have room for all the boxes we’ve already brought in.”
Kyle chuckled. “Life has a way of crowding in around us.”
Hadley looked up at him, her eyes ablaze. “That it does. What a great way to put that.”
Kyle tucked his hands in his pockets, not sure what to do with the compliment.
“Kyle’s good with words,” Maddy said, and he spun toward her. “He writes songs for a living.”
“You do?” Hadley asked. “You don’t work here?”
“I do,” Kyle said hastily, but he didn’t care to talk to Hadley. “Hey, baby.” He laughed as he jogged the few steps to her and hugged her. “It’s great to see you.”
She held him in return, and Kyle had missed her so very much. He didn’t care if Hadley watched, because Maddy had obviously told her about him. When he kissed her, he did keep it quick, because he also didn’t need to be putting on a show. “Should we go? It’s quite the drive to Cattleman’s.”
“Sure.” Maddy reached for her purse and stepped over to Hadley. “Sorry I have to go. When I get back, I’ll help you unpack some more.”
Hadley took her into a hug, which surprised Kyle. They were close already, and he wasn’t sure why that was surprising. “No problem,” Hadley said. “Go enjoy your handsome cowboy.” She gave Maddy a playful smile, and then one to Kyle too, before she turned back to her box. “I’ll still be here. Heaven knows I have a lot more boxes to go through.” She didn’t seem upset about it, though, and Kyle wondered if she was one of those people who never let much of anything rile them.
Holly was, and once she sniffed out Hadley, they’d be best friends. Kyle didn’t much care who his sister hung out with, so he took Maddy’s hand as she passed and followed her to the door.
Outside on the porch, he tugged on her fingers to get her to slow and stop. She did, and he kissed her properly now that there were no roommate eyes to see. “Hey,” he whispered as he slid his mouth to her neck. “You look good enough to eat.” She wore a peach-colored dress that barely brushed the tops of her knees. It had wide straps that went over her shoulders and left a lot of her back bare. She wore leather wedges, and as he moved his mouth to her ear, something whined.
He pulled back quickly. “Sorry. Did I do something to it?” He waited while she checked the speaker on her implant. She could read lips, but he also knew she didn’t like it when only one of her speakers worked.
“No,” she said with a sigh. “This one has been acting up for a while. Let me take it back inside. I’ll go without it.” She moved around him and back in the house, and Kyle went to the porch railing to wait for her.
Something tense rode in the air, and he couldn’t identify what it was. Had Maddy not kissed him back as eagerly as she had before? Did she even want to go out with him? She’d told Hadley she was sorry she had to go, as if helping a stranger unpack would be better than going out with her boyfriend.
She returned, and Kyle tried to smile at her. It sort of worked, and she sort of returned it. “You never detailed much about the demo,” she said.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “It went okay.”
“They didn’t cancel the contract.” She gave him a hopeful look. “Right?” She looked right at him, her gaze never wavering.
“Right,” he said. He didn’t say they probably would’ve had it not cost them more to cancel than to proceed. He didn’t know that anyway, only that his lawyer buddy had said that if they canceled the contract without even attempting to make an album, they’d have to pay him the full amount. Producing the album would be easier, and if it didn’t sell well, they could get out of the other two without having to pay more.
He kept all of that to himself, because he’d already spent a couple of days feeling like a loser. He didn’t want to keep feeling like that.
He was home, with Maddy, and he should feel amazing.
