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“I’m going to fire you if you keep calling me sir,” he called after her.
Maddy grinned at him from the doorway and then left him alone with his wife. Her step was sure as she left the lodge, and she hurried home and skipped up the steps. “Hadley!” she yelled the moment she swung open the door. “I got the job! He said I could stay on permanently!”
Such was her joy that she didn’t realize Hadley wasn’t alone until all the words had come out. Hadley reached up and wiped her mouth, dropping her head at the same time. Maddy could drink in everything at once though, because Hadley stood across the cabin, near the back door.
With Little Nick.
“I should be goin’,” he drawled, and he stepped past her and out that door.
The click of his closing reminded Maddy that she stood with the front door open too, letting out all the air conditioning. She quickly closed it and said, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Hadley said, her voice hoarse and low. “It’s fine.” She turned away from Maddy, who frowned at her back.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re a bad liar.”
Hadley faced her, and while she was a natural beauty who didn’t need makeup, she usually wore some. Today, she didn’t. “I didn’t want to kiss him. You actually helped me, so don’t feel sorry.”
Maddy’s mouth gaped as she tried to figure out what to say. “Hadley, I’m so sorry.” This time the apology was for something else. “Did you tell him you didn’t want to kiss him?”
“He didn’t ask,” Hadley said. “It was innocent. He didn’t do anything wrong.” She got out a plastic container of potato salad. “Really, Maddy, it’s fine. I’m used to men wanting to kiss me.” She spoke in such a tormented voice that she didn’t sound like she was bragging.
“That doesn’t mean they get to.” Maddy looked toward the back door. “I will go hunt him down, and—”
“No.” Hadley started to laugh, some of her usual happiness filling the cabin. “It’s fine, really. I can handle Little Nick.”
“You’ve been out with him a few times,” Maddy swung her attention back to Hadley. “Why didn’t you want to kiss him?”
“Because.” Hadley sighed. “I just want work to be work and personal to be personal. I don’t want to date-date someone out here.”
For how much she’d been out with the cowboys who lived and worked here, Maddy would’ve never believed that Hadley really wanted that. She and Hadley were so different, on so many levels.
“Well, I got the job.”
“That’s amazing,” Hadley said. The true wattage of her smile shone through now. “We’ll get to keep being roommates.”
“Yep.” Maddy opened the fridge too, because now that she’d finished her meeting, her stomach complained loudly for food.
“Kyle came by again,” Hadley said.
Maddy looked over her shoulder. “I think he knows when I’m not here and comes by at those specific times.”
“He looks miserable, for what it’s worth.”
Maddy pulled out a strawberry yogurt. She peeled back the foil top and faced Hadley. “Does he say anything when he comes?”
“He asks for you. I tell him you’re not here. He says, ‘Tell her I came by, okay?’ and then he leaves.”
Maddy wasn’t sure what to make of that. “It’s weird.” They’d had some weird things between them before, but Maddy knew he had a phone which held her number.
“Oh, and Nash called me to say you left your phone on the table in the staff break room. He has it in his office.”
“Oh, goodness,” Maddy said. “I can’t believe I did that.” Her folder had to be over there too, and she didn’t want anyone to see that. “Thanks, Hadley.” She polished off her yogurt and went back to the lodge to get her things. She parked in the back, noting Kyle’s truck. Her heartbeat pounded as she went up the steps and through the back door.
She only had to go into the office and get her things. Two seconds, she told herself. In and out.
