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Deacon looked surprised by the question. “I thought he was with you. He called and said he was going out of town for a few days. It was after Dad called and said you were at the fishing cabin so I just assumed. You haven’t talked to him?”
Now concerned, Nash pulled out his phone and checked his messages. There were ten from Eden, which he ignored, and one from Grayson, which he listened to.
“I have to get Chloe out of town. Same problem as before. I’ll call you later.”
“Did Grayson call?” Deacon asked.
Since Deacon still knew nothing about Madison and Chloe being escorts, Nash stretched the truth a little as he slipped his phone back in his pocket. “He’s fine. He just took some model on a little trip. No doubt he’s sketching her on the beach somewhere.”
“Well, when you talk to him, tell him to get his ass back to work. I want that catalog out by the end of next month.”
“Roger that.” Nash got to his feet. Once out of Deacon’s office, he tried calling Grayson. When he didn’t answer, he turned to Kelly. “Do you have Madison’s number?”
“I can look it up for you. But if you want to talk to her, she’s doing fittings in the design studio.”
Madison wasn’t in the design studio, but Samuel and Deirdre were. And it appeared that all employees had decided to take the name of the lingerie company literally. Except Samuel was kissing Deirdre much more intensely than Jason had been kissing Kelly. And when Nash cleared his throat, they didn’t spring apart. Samuel kept his hands on Deirdre’s waist, and she kept her fingers entwined in his mussed hair. Which, for some reason, had Nash apologizing.
“I’m sorry. I was looking for Madison.”
Since Deirdre looked a little dazed, Samuel was the one who spoke. “She just finished trying on the mock-ups for the new line of comfort bras and I sent her to lunch. So you might want to try the break room. Someone mentioned that there were chocolate-covered doughnuts, and we all know that chocolate is Madison’s weakness.”
Nash did find Madison in the break room, but she wasn’t indulging in the doughnuts as much as watching one of the designers eat one.
“Describe it,” she said in a hushed voice. “Is the chocolate rich with plenty of cocoa or light with just a touch?” She licked her lips as the designer took a big bite. “And the pastry? Is it yeasty and airy? Or more dense?”
“Madison,” Nash said, “could I speak with you for a minute?”
It took a while for her to pull her gaze away from the doughnut. When she saw Nash, she looked relieved. “You’re here!” She got up and hurried over to hug him. “I’ve been worried sick that you weren’t going to come back. You guys have made up, right?”
He glanced at the designers who were listening intently to the exchange before he guided Madison out of the break room and into the deserted hallway. Rather than talk about Eden, he got straight to the point.
“Where’s Grayson? And what happened to Chloe?”
Madison looked disappointed. “So you haven’t talked with Eden.”
“I talked with her, but she didn’t mention Grayson. Now where is he?”
Madison looked around before speaking in a whisper. “He’s taking Chloe to Eden’s parents’ house. But you can’t tell anyone because Zac thinks Chloe turned him in.”
“She didn’t turn him in. I did. The bastard needed to be behind bars.”
“I agree, but now we have to hope that the cops find him before he finds Chloe. Although I doubt he’ll tangle with Grayson.” She smiled. “It’s hard to believe that someone so quiet and creative as your brother can be such a badass. And such a sweetheart. When I called Grayson to say I would be late for the fitting today because I was taking Chloe to the bus station, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer to take her to Eden’s parents’. And since I was worried about Zac following us, I thought it was a better plan.”
“But why didn’t Eden go with them to her parents?”
“Because she wasn’t here. She had moved back to Grover Beach. According to Chloe, she was devastated that we both thought the worst of her.”
Nash snorted. “She didn’t look devastated this morning.” And maybe that was what had pissed Nash off the most. There had been no tears, and no begging for forgiveness. Eden had just acted like nothing had happened, while his heart had felt like it went eighteen rounds with a world champion.
Madison studied him before she shook her head. “You don’t understand Eden at all, do you? She’s not the type of person who is going to let anything keep her down for long. She’s the type of person who, when she gets knocked on her butt, is going to get up and continue to fight for what she wants.”
“And just who knocked her on her butt, Madison? If anyone was throwing the punches, it was Eden when she wrote the article and published it.”
Her eyes widened. “But she didn’t want the article published, Nash. After she got to know you, she planned to leave the newspaper. It was some other writer at the paper who sent it to her editor.”
It took a few moments for Nash to process the information. “So Eden didn’t want the article published?”
“Of course not. Why would she want to humiliate the man she loves? Which is exactly why she wrote the retraction letter. And came back here. And moved in with her grandparents. Eden is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her new goal.”
