3. Maddie
3
MADDIE
“Madison Yardley, open the damn door.”
The knock on Maddie’s bedroom door was loud, annoying, and insistent—and somehow oddly endearing.
“Come on, Mads, we know you’re in there,” her younger sister, Lindsay, called from the other side.
“I have a key,” Naomi chimed in, using a singsong voice that Maddie swore she’d heard her older sister use on her children.
Maddie sat up from her bed, squinting one eye at the back of the door. This was the problem with having moved into the attic apartment above their grandfather’s Country Depot store that she and Naomi ran on Main Street. Naomi did have a master key.
Groaning, Maddie flopped back down onto the bed. “I’m changing the locks as soon as you leave today,” Maddie said into the pillow.
“Do you even know what time it is?” Naomi asked, concern in her voice.
“Knowing her, she’s probably wearing Josh’s Virginia Tech hoodie, eating Little Debbie cupcakes, and has been listening to ‘All Too Well’ on repeat,” Lindsay said.
Maddie cringed, swiping the cupcake packaging off her bed as she sat and pushed back the orange hoodie off her head. Her sisters meant well, but she wasn’t ready to leave the bed.
Maybe not for the whole next day.
But Naomi had a point. She checked her phone for the time. Yikes. Almost eleven p.m.
Biting her lip, she trudged toward the door and opened it reluctantly. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at her sisters, who were illuminated by the yellowish light in the hallway. “What do you want?”
“Do you really think this is the healthiest way of dealing with this? We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for hours. The news about River House and the town fair is all over town.” Naomi wrinkled her nose.
Ugh. Dammit. Maddie cringed. Leave it to her lovely little hometown, where every teeny thing that happened spread like wildfire within hours. Except it was always like a terrible game of telephone, where fifteen different versions would circulate, no one quite knowing the right version.
Lindsay set a hand on Naomi’s arm. “Maybe we talk about that another time? She’s clearly having a rough time.”
“I get that, but this isn’t healthy. Josh is a douche who doesn’t deserve your tears. He’s gone too far this time in stabbing you in the back—he stabbed all of us Yardleys. Don’t waste your tears on him.”
Maddie sighed impatiently. “That’s easy enough to say when you have the perfect husband and she”—she gestured toward Lindsay—“has the perfect boyfriend. Meanwhile, the guy I was desperately in love with completely pulled the rug out from under my feet.”
Lindsay and Naomi exchanged a look. Lindsay brushed past her, flipping on the lights. “Number one, you’re completely overestimating the so-called perfection of our partners.” She collected scattered food wrappers from the floor. “And number two . . .” She appealed to Naomi.
Maddie raised a brow. “Number two?”
Naomi gave her a chagrinned expression. “Maddie, it’s not like you were with Josh that long. You fall in and out of love pretty easily, sweetheart.”
Ouch.
She’d always suspected they thought that about her, but hearing Naomi put it so bluntly hurt. In the gut.
Maddie glared at Naomi. “Low blow, Na?—”
“We’re not trying to hurt you, babe.” Lindsay came over and tugged at her elbow. “You just feel things hard. And that’s a good thing sometimes. But you dated Josh for like four months and were already talking about long term. I know he’s a shitbag for moving on so quickly?—”
“He practically cheated on me, Naomi.” Maddie set her hands on her hips. “And now this? You should have seen him at the damn meeting. He was so cold.” Also, her sisters knew nothing about how it had been with her and Josh when they’d been together. They’d both fallen hard and fast. Gone from a first date to moving in together after two weeks. Josh had been just as vocal about forever as Maddie had been.
And then he’d gone on that work retreat with Gina, and it had been over in a blink.
“We’re not saying he’s anything other than a total loser.” Naomi frowned. “But we care about you. And the fact that you’re letting him get to you like this worries us.”
Maddie rubbed her swollen eyelids, then twisted her hair back into a messy bun. “Seriously. Go home, guys. I’m not ready to move on and prove how happy I am without him. Not tonight. I’m completely heartbroken tonight.” She’d even rearranged the schedule for tomorrow so she didn’t have to work the next day in the store.
Naomi grimaced. “He doesn’t deserve your tears, Mads. But if this is how you want to spend the night, let us at least stay here with you. We can hang out. Drink some wine. The kids are asleep, and Jeremy won’t mind if I stay over with you.”
Maddie considered their offer as Lindsay continued to straighten out the room. Ever since Lindsay had moved in with Travis last year, she’d become appallingly neat and organized, leaving Maddie as the wild and crazy “messy one.”
Wild and crazy. Exactly what they think about you. Crazy to fall in love so quickly. Crazy to still be hung up on Josh.
Maddie sniffled, hating feeling sorry for herself. Naomi was right. Josh was out there with Gina, happy. A happy ending that hadn’t included her after all.
No matter how much that made her chest ache, she couldn’t change it.
She flung the sweatshirt into the corner of the room into a pile of laundry. “Did I mention I effing hate him?” she moaned, not meeting either of her sisters’ gazes.
At once, Lindsay and Naomi enveloped her in a hug. She said nothing, soaking in their warmth and friendship. God, I’m so lucky to have them. Her siblings, including her eldest brother, Logan, and her younger brother, Jake, had always been tight-knit. There for each other. Now that Lindsay and Logan had smoothed the friction that had formed between them when Logan had found out she was dating Travis Wagner the year before, they were all closer than ever.
Maddie’s closeness to her siblings had actually been a point of contention with Josh, come to think of it. He’d grimace when she “overshared” details about their relationship with her sisters.
Deep down, she knew she was better off without him— but why does it still hurt so much?
It wasn’t like she was the only single one in her family—both Logan and Jake were, too, and heaven help the woman who dared to date Logan.
She stopped trying to psychoanalyze herself and sighed, pulling away from the embrace. “I’m fine, you guys. Really. Go home. I’m really okay. I didn’t realize it was so late. I just . . . needed a good cry after the meeting.”
“Can you try to make that the last cry?” Lindsay asked with a worried expression. “We want you to be happy.”
Maddie gave her a half-hearted smile. “I’ll try. I promise.”
And she meant it, really. Or she thought she did.
She could make it through the night without crying. Or worrying about what she was going to do about the town fair when morning came.
But as she walked Lindsay and Naomi through the attic apartment to the door, she considered having them stay, watch Gilmore Girls , and eat too much chocolate. God knows she’d already done that enough the last few weeks since the breakup, though, and it hadn’t helped. Their company would be nice, but the best thing to get them to stop talking about everything for now was to convince them she was fine and then do whatever she wanted when they left.
Naomi seemed to sense it. “You’re not just trying to get rid of us still, are you? We really want to help.”
Maddie forced a smile. “No, really. I’m good. You’re right. It’s ridiculous for me to be mourning someone who’s clearly happy without me.”
“That’s not what we said.” Lindsay looked chagrinned. “I was just?—”
“Really, it’s okay. I’m just tired at this point. Maybe if it wasn’t almost midnight, we could do something, but I don’t want you guys out all night on my behalf.”
“We tried calling and texting earlier, but you didn’t answer,” Naomi said.
“You know how bad cell service is at the store.” And also, I put my phone in Do Not Disturb mode. Maddie held the apartment door open. “I’ll call you guys tomorrow. Maybe we can grab brunch at the pub. If I’m still heartbroken by then, I’ll drown my sorrows in Orange Crushes.”
Somehow, the attic apartment felt even smaller once they’d gone.
Maddie turned, resting her back against the doorway. This wasn’t meant to be a long-term living solution—she’d just moved in here three weeks ago after Josh had broken up with her. She and Naomi had designed the place when Pops was still coming up with plans for the Depot—a little functional apartment complete with a tiny kitchen, a bedroom, and a full bath in case either of them wanted to crash here after a long day.
At first, they’d both used it a lot. Getting Pops’s store off the ground had been a ton of work, considering his level of national fame from his cable television show on the Happy Home Network, which owned the This Charmed Life magazine that had discovered her grandfather. The Depot had become the destination for any tourists coming to Brandywood to get the “Peter Yardley experience”—so popular, in fact, that half the town had lobbied to kick it off Main Street at one point.
But now that Naomi and Maddie had been at it for a few years, they’d been able to delegate many of their responsibilities to their employees. They were both still at the store almost every day—Pops insisted on a personal level of involvement for any of the family businesses he’d established—but the apartment had lain unused for almost a year until Maddie had moved in.
She hadn’t considered at first how it might be to have her home and work be at the same address. Maybe it was part of why she’d felt so suffocated lately.
Maddie sighed and smoothed her hands over her T-shirt. She needed a shower, but she was tired and grouchy and ready to jump back into her bed.
Naomi and Lindsay were right.
It was time.
She needed to move on from Josh.
Not shed another tear over him. Especially after the stunt he’d pulled with his cousin’s band.
Maybe tomorrow she’d wake up ready to face her problems head-on. Tonight, though, a little sulking wouldn’t hurt anyone. Sleep would help her feel better anyway.
She shut off the lights in the living room and headed for the bedroom.
Convincing her brain to sleep was easier said than done. Doubts crept around the edges of her racing thoughts, frustrating her with everything she should have said to Josh. Comebacks that were several hours too late, and she’d never get out of her system.
An hour after lying in bed sleeplessly, she pulled out her phone and started scrolling. That didn’t help either, though.
When it was finally past three in the morning, she threw the covers to the side.
This is ridiculous.
No more.
I’m not letting Josh rob me of one more second of sleep.
With a sigh, she headed to the bathroom.
A half hour later, she exited into her bedroom, a towel wrapped around her torso. She’d taken the time to linger in the hot water and exfoliate and damn if it hadn’t made her better than all the sad love songs and cupcakes.
She hadn’t gone far when a loud, hideous screech sounded in the store below her.
Maddie steadied herself onto the wall, yelping.
What the hell was that?
She ran to the small window, heart slamming against her rib cage.
Had something exploded in the store? She could have sworn the floorboards and wall had shaken.
Clutching her towel to her chest, Maddie ran through her apartment and flung open the apartment door. She was down the stairs in a minute, the thought that she should probably get dressed barely registering as she made it to the ground floor. If there had been an explosion, there might be a fire, and she might need to get out immediately. Clothes be damned.
The stairs led to the back hall of the store. Nothing there.
She headed to the door that opened to the main area of the store. Opening it, she threw the lights on and blinked.
Then she gasped.
Where the main display window normally was—the one that faced Main Street—there was a crashed car instead.