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Hadly only laughed—she didn’t giggle—and went back to her phone. “I’ll say we have to rush. The best light will be during golden hour.” She had a degree in marketing and human resources, and she was brilliant in a lot of things. She could talk to anyone, and Maddy had felt a close kinship with her the moment she’d met her. That made living together really easy, and Maddy was grateful for that.
“See you after your art class,” Hadley said. She glanced up from her phone, stepped into Maddy while she tried to tighten the hose to the spigot, and hugged her. “This is going to be so fun.”
“Okay,” Maddy said, but she was less sure about the fun aspect of a photo shoot. She had to do laundry and pack that night too, and she finished quickly with the goats so she could go get a head start on that stuff this morning.
Kyle hadn’t texted yet that morning, and after Maddy had put her clothes in the washing machine, she leaned against it and messaged him. What are you doing this morning? Anything exciting I can come sit in on?
He didn’t answer, and Maddy went back to the lodge for breakfast. She didn’t see Kyle, and he still hadn’t responded to her text. She knew what that meant—the music had already claimed him.
She loaded her plate with biscuits and gravy and all the bacon she dared to take and went to sit beside Holly and Sierra. “Morning, ladies,” she said.
“Maddy,” Holly said. She was already dressed to the nines, her hair and makeup flawless. “Did Hadley find you? She had the greatest idea for the main feature of our July e-zine.”
“Main feature?” Maddy repeated. She glanced at her phone, wishing Kyle would call. She’d take a pocket dial at this point. Her stubborn device remained silent and dark. She met Holly’s eyes. “She mentioned a photo shoot. She said nothing about a ‘main feature.’”
Sierra grinned and took another bite of her ham and egg sandwich. She was pretty too, as was Holly.
“You should do it, Sierra,” she said.
Sierra scoffed and shook her head. “I already vetoed that. Not gonna happen.”
“What about Josie?” Maddy asked, because Holly didn’t work the ranch. Her three-inch heels would sink right into the gravel out there. That, or she’d break an ankle.
“She said no too.” Sierra polished off her sandwich while Maddy spread her napkin over her lap.
“Great,” she said, her mood souring. “You’re telling me I’m doing the shoot because I’m the only sucker who said yes?” She hadn’t even been asked first.
“You said yes?” Holly asked, her whole face aglow. She squealed in the next moment, and she threw both arms around Maddy’s neck. “Thank you, Maddy! It’s going to be great, you’ll see.”
She didn’t think so, but she couldn’t back out now. She took the first bite of her breakfast, still waiting for Kyle to acknowledge her existence.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Kyle put one foot up on the bottom rung of the fence and shaded his eyes. He smiled as he drank in Maddy in that gorgeous red dress. It had no straps, and he’d never seen her wear something like that. She went barefoot out in the long grass, and she stepped like she’d never done so before.
“Here?” she asked, looking to the photographer for confirmation.
He’d finally gotten her texts close to lunchtime, at which point, they’d been able to eat together for a few minutes before her art class had started. She’d been in that since, and he’d gone back to the cabin to keep working on his song.
Jolene called every day now, and the pressure along the back of Kyle’s neck felt like it might pop his head right off at any moment.
He took a deep breath of the country air, but it was far too hot to truly enjoy it. He did feel freer out here, and he told himself he couldn’t spend all day, every day, in his bedroom, a music stand with a notebook on it in front of him. He needed fresh air. Sunshine. To talk to other people.
To spend time with Maddy.
He knew their relationship was currently skating across thin ice in the springtime. It could collapse and fall apart at any moment.
“Hold there,” the photographer called. “Lift your arm. Other arm.”
Maddy did all he said, and Hadley chimed in with, “Push that hair off your left side, Maddy. I want to see your shoulder… Better. Good.”
The shoot went on long enough to bore him, and by the time it wrapped, Kyle’s hat band was loaded with sweat. He’d stayed, because he’d told Maddy he would. He needed to get over to the arena to test the mics and prep the band, but he had a few more minutes.
Maddy tiptoed out of the field and slipped her feet into a waiting pair of sandals along the edge of the gravel. She looked up and met his eyes, her face brightening with hope and happiness. “Hey, stranger,” she said.
He chuckled and swept his eyes down the length of her body. “I saw you at lunchtime.”
“I live in a different world now,” she said. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m a famous model now, sir.”
