Walking up the driveway, Garrett tossed me the ball, and I stood around shooting some shots before going inside to get cleaned up.
Climbing into bed afterward, I closed my eyes and was once again met with Maddison and that doctor, feeling my irritation growing each time the vision popped in my head. I didn’t have any right to care. Quite frankly, it was wrong of me too.
***
“Where are you heading?” I arrived at Rhett’s just in time to see him walking out of the house, his keys in hand.
“Lucky’s.”
“I was coming over to sand your cabinets.” I needed something to clear my thoughts.
“Forget the sanding, man. There’s time for that another day. Join me.” He waved his hand toward his truck. “You need to loosen up a little bit. Meet a girl or something. You’re all work and no play.”
“I think I’ll pass.” I lifted my equipment back into the back of my truck. “I’ll just head over and see if Gramps needs any help with anything.” I heard Rhett chuckle and looked up just in time to catch him shaking his head at me. “What?”
“You’re acting like an old man.” Rhett challenged me to deny it. I didn’t. “Come have a drink with me, unwind, be the Mikey I know and love. Hell, I’m the one who’s been trapped in some dark place. You aren’t supposed to take my place now that I’m finally awake.”
I let Rhett give me a hard time for a little longer before I finally caved and agreed to meet him and his friends at the bar.
We’d been at Lucky’s for close to an hour, and I’d admit I was enjoying myself. Terrance and a few other guys from Rhett’s team had joined us. I was sitting near the end of the bar, talking to Trina, a bartender who had just started a few days ago. She was twenty-two, a single mom doing her best to support her daughter. She was friendly but overly friendly like the other bartender, Darla, who had asked me at least three times since I’d walked in if I needed her to welcome me home properly.
From what I’d heard, she’d been welcoming and re-welcoming anyone and everyone that gave her the chance for years.
Trina was down at the other end of the bar, and I was sipping on the beer she’d just gotten me when the front door came open. I paused with my beer pressed to my lips when in walked Maddison, with her doctor boy toy fucker just behind her.
She spotted us and walked over, dragging him close behind.
“Hey, guys.” She offered Rhett a quick hug then leaned in, doing the same to me but much faster. I was too busy watching the guy who was looking between Rhett and then me to notice Maddison staring at me from the side. “Do you know Tom?”
When I realized she was talking to me, I tried to recover quickly and hid my penetrating gaze. “Nope. Can’t say that I do.”
“He’s a surgeon.” I nodded in his direction, and he offered the same. I could still sense the way he was analyzing Rhett and me and our relationship with Maddison. “Tom,” she reached out and took his hands in hers, pulling him in closer, “this is Mike and Rhett, my cousins and best friends.”
With that, the guy seemed to relax, holding his hand out to each of us to offer a shake. I’d admit, when I shook his hand, I squeezed it a little harder than necessary.
“It’s good to meet you both.” I didn’t like the guy, and I knew it was because he was with Maddison and not because of the person he was, or even wasn’t.
That’s when it hit me.
I had feelings for Mad, true feelings. I didn’t like the idea of her being with anyone, but I also couldn’t do anything about what I felt for her. So I only had one choice: I had to distance myself.
And I also knew that it would fucking kill me too.
Chapter Seven
Five Months Later
Maddison
I’d been dating Tom for more than five months now, and I was still waiting for that spark, that feeling one gets when the one they’re with walks into a room and their heart soars and beats rapidly with excitement. It never came for me with him, but I kept holding out for it.
Maybe it was wrong of me to keep stringing him along because he really was a good guy. The sex was great. Not earth shattering but good. He was attentive but a little too caring and particular. For one, we never had sex anywhere other than his bed or mine. Even when I attempted to initiate it in the living room or even on the kitchen counter, he would always slow things down and guide me to the nearest bed. Our relationship was missing that passion I craved, lacking that hunger I needed. I wanted the tearing of clothes, bumping into things, knocking them to the floor kind of heated sex.
I knew I was settling, but I kept holding on to the idea that maybe, with time, we could get there.
I’d started avoiding home, or Brooklet, I should say. It would always be home to me, even though I worked and currently lived in Statesboro. So many things had been happening there, and though I’d kept in touch, I’d only actually visited a time or two.
I’d missed the last two big dinners, and when Rhett announced that he was going to be a father, I didn’t go there to congratulate him but instead called him and talked for over an hour with him and AJ.
