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“Absolutely. I’m just around the corner.”
“Thanks, Miss Maddie.” Gertie sipped her tea, a faint smile curling her lips.
“Listen, I know what you’re going through at school. I’m ashamed to admit that when I was your age, I was the one picking on other kids. I don’t know what made me think I was better or that I had the right to make those people feel bad all the time. I wish now that I hadn’t.”
“Did you ever apologize to any of them?”
Maddie shook her head no. She’d apologized to her brother, but never to Pepper as she’d promised. Or to Ivy. Or to any of the other kids at Rosewood High who she had made miserable. “I should. In the meantime, I want to help you. Trust me when I say that ignoring it helps. It might get worse before it gets better, but if they don’t get a rise out of you, they’ll lose interest. I know it’s hard to play it off, but killing them with kindness may be the way to go.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Gertie looked at her with hopeful eyes.
“Then we’ll bake up a tray of special brownies for you to share with the kids at school.”
“Really? I have to be so nice that I’ll take them treats from the shop?”
Maddie shook her head. “I said special brownies.”
/> “What makes them special?”
An evil smile curled Maddie’s lips. She reached out and patted Gertie’s hand. “Chocolate Ex-Lax.”
Chapter Eleven
Emmett pulled his truck out of the alley between the bar and the fire station and literally drove it across the street to Maddie’s driveway. It seemed silly, since they could’ve walked over to his truck together, but this was a date. Despite their history together, he wanted to do this right.
The hardest part so far had been deciding what to wear. He was balancing on the edge between trying to impress her and not giving too much of his past away. He’d seen her eyes light up at the courthouse when she’d seen him in his Armani suit. He could tell Maddie had an eye for quality and was both impressed and confused by his appearance that day. It was an older suit, not his best by any stretch, but he’d felt he needed to wear a suit to court and he didn’t have anything else.
He opted tonight for a nice pair of dress pants, a long-sleeved dress shirt, and a corduroy blazer, since it was getting a little chilly in the evenings when the sun set.
He’d faced the same challenge in deciding where to take her tonight. Rosewood had only three options. The diner and the pizza place weren’t appropriate for a date once you got out of high school. Whittaker’s was fancy, but that was what she’d expect. He liked keeping Maddie guessing. It had taken some thought, but he’d come to a nice compromise.
He knocked at the front door and waited. The porch light came on a moment later and the door swung open. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but once they did, he was stunned by the woman standing in front of him.
Emmett had seen Maddie at the bakery—usually wearing a pair of khakis, a polo shirt, and a frilly apron, with her hair in a bun. For community service, she’d donned jeans and a fitted T-shirt appropriate for getting dirty but still clinging to her curves nicely. But not once had he ever, ever seen her looking like this.
The bun was gone, her long chestnut hair falling in shiny waves around her face. Her striking blue eyes were enhanced by a smoky shadow and cat-eye liner, and seemed even bluer than normal because of the cobalt color of her dress. It was asymmetrical, wrapping over her right shoulder and gathering tight around her tiny waist, clinging to where it ended just above her knees.
He couldn’t stop his gaze from traveling from head to toe, taking in the pink-painted toenails that peeped out of her nude pumps and coming back up to admire the plump sparkle of her lips.
“Wow” was all he could manage.
Maddie laughed, reaching for her purse and stepping out onto her porch with him. “Did you think I was going to wear my apron tonight?”
“No,” he said with a distracted shake of his head. “But I hadn’t anticipated this, either.”
He took a deep breath and tried to blow out the arousal that had suddenly built up inside him. While he was very thankful he hadn’t opted to be obtuse and take her to Pizza Palace, he was now wishing he’d opted for something closer to home. That long drive with her inches from him was going to be torture.
“You look nice, too,” she said, reaching out to stroke the arm of his jacket. “The surfer has gone chic.” Maddie locked the door and turned back to him. “So where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,” Emmett said with a wide grin as he offered her his arm to escort her to the truck. “Rest assured it’s a restaurant that takes reservations, so at the very least, you won’t be facing sticky plastic tablecloths or disposable utensils.”
Maddie arched an eyebrow at him as they walked together. “Interesting.”
Emmett opened the passenger door, holding her hand to help her up into the cab of his dark gray Dodge Ram Lone Star. Once she was settled in, he shut the door and rounded the truck to get in the driver’s seat.
Emmett didn’t have a ton of miles on his truck. Since he didn’t have a commute and almost everything he needed was within walking distance, he only ever drove it to go out of town or to take the occasional fishing trip. Despite being three years old, it still had that new-car smell. When he shut his door, he was surprised to find a new scent lingering in his cab. Lavender. Maddie’s signature scent.
This time, when he took a deep breath, it didn’t help. It just made his awareness of her more acute. He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel and focused on the road. Fortunately, it didn’t take as long to get to the restaurant as he thought.
