I sat on the small space next to her, my body touching hers, and she tried to lean away from me. That broke my heart. “Maybe you two shouldn’t do this here.” Raven looked over her shoulder, and it was then I looked back at our family. My father and Reed stood near the porch looking over at us, my mother and Alexis whispering between one another with their eyes locked on our table. And then Colt, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face as he stared me down like I’d committed a crime. Maybe I had, but I didn’t know how to stop what I was feeling.
But the tension this entire thing was causing, not just with us but with our family, it was too much. She was right. I didn’t want to be the cause of any type of fallout, and I understood in that moment exactly what Maddison meant when she said we couldn’t.
“I just want you to know that I’m sorry.” I still stared at Colt but spoke to Maddison. “And you’re right.” I hadn’t even said the words, and my heart was already shattering from the pain it was causing just to think them. “There isn’t anything between us, just some weird moment that I think is best if we both forget about it.”
I felt like my chest was being cracked open, but this was what I needed to do.
“I just want everything to go back to the way it was.” It was the last thing I wanted. “Can we do that, Mad?” I finally looked over at her to find her peeking over her shoulder, tears in her eyes. Her sadness was enough to cripple me. “Can we be who we were before?”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever be that way again.”
Neither of us moved as we stared into each other’s eyes. The realization of what we had done to our relationship hit us both with equal force. I wanted to hug her, but that just felt wrong now. I wanted to force a smile and see her give me one in return, but I knew that wouldn’t make anything better.
So instead, I stood, reaching into my pockets to retrieve my keys, and turned my back to Maddison and to the rest of my family and walked toward my truck instead.
Climbing up inside, I turned over the key, and without a second thought, I backed down the driveway, using the shoulder to eventually turn around.
I never even took the chance to look back toward the house through my rearview mirror because, had I done so, I knew it would be uncontrollable that I would go back. As I drove for what felt like hours, I heard my phone vibrating in the passenger seat but ignored the incoming calls. Right now, I just couldn’t face what I knew was waiting on the other end of that line.
Questions, lots and lots of questions. But none that I had the answers to.
Chapter Twenty
Maddison
“Just tell us.” My mother pushed even harder, and I sat at the kitchen table in my gran’s kitchen with my head hung low. I couldn’t get the image of Mike’s face out of my head, that lost look that practically broke me in two. “What happened?”
My heart sank when I looked up to see a worried look and every single one of the faces looking back at me. But it was Maria’s that hit me the hardest. Tears stained her cheeks, and if I knew one thing, I knew that Maria didn’t shed a tear often. She was headstrong, and on most days, a badass, but not today. At this very moment, she was sad, worried even.
“He kissed me,” I finally said, and everyone stared at me without saying a word. “But it didn’t start there.”
“What didn’t start where?” It was Gran who asked me as she sat down at the table beside me. The rest were still staring like they were lost in thought, registering what I’d told them.
“There’s been this weird thing going on between us that I don’t think either of us unstop, exactly. A flirting thing.” I took in a shuddering breath as I turned my phone over and over in my hands. I wanted to call him the second he left, but I knew he wouldn’t answer. Hell, I was mad at myself for letting him go.
“But to be honest, I think it even started sooner than that.”
“I don’t understand,” Gran added, and my mother stepped in closer.
“I think we’ve all seen the signs.” She looked back at Kori and Maria.
“What signs?” Gran jumped in, sounding frustrated. “And am I the only damn person here that hasn’t seen them?”
Kori laughed, leaning in to hug her mother, and the rest of us laughed a little, too. “Oh, Momma, you’re just too sweet.”
“Okay, fine.” She finally smiled, too. “So, will someone please fill me in, then?”
“I think Maddison is gonna fill us all in.” My gaze locked on my mother. “Then we’re gonna help our kids figure this out.” Tears filled my eyes to the point that they were all becoming a little blurry. My throat burned, and my chest felt like something heavy was crushing it, but I nodded in agreement, and they all joined me at the table.
For the next thirty minutes, I told them all everything. I told them the details of every rush of emotions, every feeling that him just being close inflicted. I also told them my fears and confusions about everything. I ended with what took place in the bathroom here, and when I looked up, I found something I never thought I would. Smiles, happy elated smiles on each of their faces.
