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Kyle stood there in the chilly air conditioning while yet another person in his life—someone he thought he was close to and someone he’d counted on to forgive him—walked away.
The door closed, and he jumped though she hadn’t slammed it. In fact, the lodge door couldn’t be slammed, as Adam had installed one of those slow-close mechanisms on it.
Kyle blinked, sure she hadn’t left the dance hall in town and driven the twenty minutes here only to break-up with him.
It sure seemed like it, though.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Maddy held her clipboard-folio to her chest, her nerves raging through her veins. Her foot wouldn’t stop shaking, and she stood from the chair she’d been sitting in and started to pace in the employee break room.
Blake was running behind on his appointments, and Maddy thought if she couldn’t spit out the speech she’d prepared soon, she’d throw up. She glanced down the hall but still didn’t see Blake.
“Hey,” Gina said, and Maddy gave her a tight smile. “What’s eatin’ you?” She carried a perfectly frosted rolled cake, and Maddy nearly lunged for it. She hadn’t eaten since dinner last night, and it was almost noon.
“I’m just waiting to talk to your husband,” Maddy said.
Gina flicked her eyes down the hall too. “He’s running late.” She didn’t phrase it as a question. She set the cake on the table. “Let’s have some of this.”
Maddy retook her seat, her nerves only about to be amplified by the sugar. “This is gorgeous.”
“Do you think it says wedding?” Gina opened a cupboard along the back wall and got out some plastic plates.
“Maybe in the country,” Maddy said. “It’s kind of small.”
Gina turned toward her, a smile on her face. “It’s out in the country all right. Town with a population of one hundred and sixty-five.”
“Wow.” Maddy took the plate from Gina, and she returned to the bank of cabinets to get silverware. She first took a picture of the cake, as if she hadn’t in the kitchen, and then sliced a piece straight from the middle for Maddy.
“The bride and groom have known each other for twenty years,” Gina said. She spoke in a quiet, kind voice, and Maddy really liked her. She loved hanging out with her, Hadley, Holly, Sierra, and Starla—when she was in town.
She felt included with them, and she reasoned she had friends at her school too.Is it still your school?she wondered. She hadn’t talked to her principal yet, because she hadn’t talked to Blake yet either.
At the same time, none of her friends had stayed in much contact this summer. They all had busy lives, but Maddy simply felt invisible among the more mature or married members of her elementary school staff. Even on her team, she was the youngest and the only woman who wasn’t married.
She fit better here at the Texas Longhorn Ranch than she did her school, and she’d made up her mind. She wanted to work here full-time, despite her break-up with Kyle last week. He’d stopped by her cabin a couple of times, if Hadley was to be believed. Maddy saw no reason for her to lie, and the fact that Kyle hadn’t asked her out told Maddy that Hadley didn’t live a completely perfect life.
If he had, it honestly would’ve wrecked Maddy. Her heart ached as she took her first bite of the moist, rolled cake. Thick vanilla cream sat coiled inside, and she moaned as all the sugar and delicious chocolate met her tongue. “Gina,” she said around the food. “You have to make my wedding cake.”
Gina grinned at her. “Deal.” She took her own bite, which was decidedly smaller than Maddy’s had been. She licked her lips. “I heard you and Kyle broke up, though.”
Maddy nodded, forcing the last bit of cake down her throat. “Yes,” she said. “He’s…well, I don’t know what he is.”
“He’s a good guy,” Gina said.
“Yeah, he is.” Maddy smiled, but it didn’t sit quite right on her face. “I really liked him, but I talked to my momma, and I decided I didn’t want to be second behind his music career.”
Gina nodded. “You’re a strong woman, Maddy. He’ll come around.”
Maddy looked up from her next bite of cake. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, look at you. You’re smart, beautiful, and you’re about to ask Blake for a permanent job here at the ranch.”
Maddy glanced at the folder under her plate. She hadn’t opened it. Gina hadn’t seen inside it. “How did you know?’
“You’re as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Gina said. “I assumed.” She smiled at Maddy. “You love it here, and you’ve said a few times that you can’t imagine going back to the hectic atmosphere of a classroom.”
She had said that, and Maddy took her next bite of cake. “Do you think he’ll come around to me again?”
