32. Maddie
32
MADDIE
Lindsay opened the door to her apartment with a wide smile on her face. “Yay, you’re here!” she said, throwing her arms around Maddie’s neck. “I was wondering if I’d ever see you again.”
Maddie rolled her eyes and handed her the bottle of wine tucked under her arm. “I missed two family pizza nights. It’s not like I went to Timbuktu.” She was determined not to feel the slightest shred of guilt for spending every night after work this week with Brooks. He was all alone up there at the lake house—and they had a lot of catching up to do as soon as she walked through the door.
Which had been fun.
Sex in every room of the lake house, on multiple surfaces.
She’d never felt so close to being a sex goddess in her life before.
“Two is too many, which is why I called this emergency girls’ night.” Lindsay tugged her in through the door, nearly knocking them into Travis, who was pulling on a black leather jacket.
“You leaving?” Maddie asked Travis with a wry lift of her eyebrow.
“Are you kidding? I’m not about to hang around and watch Thirteen Going on Thirty with you all. I have manly stuff to do. Like poker nights and playing with cars?—”
“Don’t forget to pick up the dry cleaning while you’re out, please. Also, the groomer said to pick Ratchet up at seven. And tell the girls at the senior center bingo night that I promise I’ll come by next week, and I miss them.” Lindsay planted a kiss on his cheek and winked.
Maddie chuckled.
Travis muttered a grumble. “I’m only going because my grandmother likes for us to go occasionally.”
“And we all love Bunny. I get it.”
“Oh, by the way, tell your new boyfriend that his car will be ready next Tuesday. I finally got the windshield in.”
“I’ll let him know,” Maddie said with a wave as Travis backed out the door.
Lindsay shut the door behind him and squealed. “Okay, now that he’s gone, you have to spill.” She dragged Maddie into the living room, where Jen Cavanaugh was setting out charcuterie. “Is Brooks Kent as yummy as he looks? We need every sordid detail.”
Maddie’s face flushed. “Jen does not want to hear about my sex life.”
Jen’s blue eyes lit with interest as she sat on the sofa and grabbed a piece of prosciutto-wrapped melon. “Jen does want to hear about your sex life. I had twins a year and a half ago, Maddie. Action in my house in the middle of the night is Jason or me getting up to walk someone around until they fall back asleep again. And because there are two of them, they like to take turns on being awake.”
“Does he have stamina?” Lindsay asked, pouring a glass of Riesling. “He looks like he would have stamina. All those ab muscles.”
Maddie covered her face, chortling back a laugh. “You guys are ridiculous. What the hell do ab muscles have to do with stamina?”
“I don’t know. He clearly works his core muscles.”
“The hell with stamina. Who needs long-drawn-out sessions anyway? Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, can be pretty great. I want to know if he sings to you,” Jen said, lifting her brows. “Because that would probably make me fall completely in love.”
Maddie looked at their eager, expectant faces and shook her head. I’m not seriously considering telling them anything about my love life, am I?
Then again, it was fun to be with Lindsay and Jen. She had missed their company despite her time with Brooks. And Jen had always been like the fourth Yardley sister because she’d only had two older brothers and had been best friends with Lindsay her whole life.
Maddie chewed on her lower lip slowly. “He’s very?—”
The doorbell rang.
“Hold that thought. I’ll get it,” Lindsay said, popping up from the couch again. She crossed back toward the living room and opened the door. Naomi stood there, holding a plate of brownies.
Maddie’s heart lurched.
All week long, she and Naomi had done a decent job of avoiding each other. They didn’t both need to be on the floor of the Depot at the same time, and most of Maddie’s work was behind the scenes anyway.
Naomi locked eyes with Maddie, a frown settling on her lips. “I didn’t know Mad?—”
“Oh, cut the crap and get inside,” Lindsay said, dragging her by the arm. She shut the door behind them and pulled Naomi into the living room.
“Hey, Jen,” Naomi said, setting the brownies on the coffee table.
“You can’t ignore Maddie, Naomi. We all know what you’re doing, and she was just about to tell us all about Brooks’s skills as a lover, so don’t ruin it for us.”
Naomi made a face. “I’d really rather not hear about that.”
“You know what? Maybe I should go. I don’t want to kill Naomi’s fun. She’s the one with kids who doesn’t get to get out for girls’ night as much.” Maddie glanced back at the exit.
“No.” Lindsay stamped her foot. “What, are you guys just not going to talk anymore?” She turned to Naomi. “So Maddie lied. She fessed up and told the truth. Apologized. She made Travis lie to me, and I’m not still mad at her. Can’t you forgive her already?”
Naomi crossed her arms defensively. “I’m not the only one who’s mad, you know. Maddie kicked me out of her apartment.”
Lindsay backed away slowly, heading to the sofa and the safety Jen offered there.
Maddie sighed. “After you insulted Brooks and were incredibly rude to him?—”
“Well, what was I supposed to think when Fred Strickland called me to tell me you were having sex in his storeroom?”
“Oh, Brooks does sound like fun,” Jen whispered to Lindsay as she sat.
“He is fun,” Maddie said pointedly. “And a good person. One who doesn’t deserve to be judged by my older sister—who doesn’t know a thing about him—yet assumed every bad thing people say about him is true.” Now she was getting mad. “Logan said you practically rolled out the red carpet for him when he introduced you to Kayla. Why can’t you do that with the man I’m falling in love with?”
Naomi flinched. “Because I’m the one who has to be there to pick up all the fallen pieces of Maddie when the breakup happens. When was the last time Logan brought someone he cared about home? Never. You’ve met the ‘love of your life’ a half dozen times.”
Lindsay drew the gasp that Maddie felt deep in her own heart. Her eyes pricked with tears.
The room seemed to freeze, the four women staring at each other tensely.
Lindsay stood. “Okay, Naomi, I love you, but that’s probably the meanest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. Ever.”
She turned to Maddie. “And please don’t hate me when I ask this because I completely believe you know your own heart better than anyone, but could you tell us how Brooks differs from what the internet says? And why this is different for you?”
Maddie swiped her lashes. “I don’t think I need to defend what I feel, Lindsay. So what if I catch feelings easily? Just because I’m not afraid of falling in love doesn’t mean I should be an object of Naomi’s mockery.”
“I’m not mocking you,” Naomi said softly. “Haven’t you ever considered how hard it is for those of us who love you to see you go through that? To know that you’re suffering, even if it’s for someone who doesn’t deserve your tears...like how it was with Josh? Do you know how much it fills me with incandescent rage to know that Josh dumped you like he did and then got engaged to Gina? Gina, who doesn’t hold a candle to you, Maddie. I may be the quiet one of the three of us, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to scream at that prick for hurting you. And when I see someone like Brooks, where there doesn’t appear to be a single green flag in sight, I worry. ”
Naomi stepped closer, her own eyes shiny with tears. “I love our parents, but it’s always been us Yardley siblings watching out for each other. Mom and Dad are sweet, wonderful parents, but they don’t get involved in this stuff, even if it bothers them. Even if they should. No, I don’t think it’s a great idea for Maddie to hop into bed with Brooks after...I don’t even know how many days of knowing him. Especially not when she’s rebounding from a major heartbreak, and the guy practically has ‘love them and leave them’ as a tattoo.”
Jen cleared her throat. “If it helps, Naomi, I slept with Jason after knowing him for only a few days. We turned out all right.”
“And I had multiple one-night stands with Travis for years before we admitted we loved each other , ” Lindsay chimed in.
“I’m not sure if they count as one-night stands if it’s with the same person,” Jen said wryly.
Maddie gave them a sad smile, thankful for their efforts, then glanced back at Naomi. “Not everyone gets together the way you and Jeremy did—friends, then college sweethearts, marry, and have a family. Some of us have a different path to take. That doesn’t mean it’s the wrong one.”
Maddie hugged her arms to her chest. “To be honest, I don’t think you’ve earned the right to know about Brooks just because you want me to prove he’s a good guy. But if you don’t believe me, ask Kayla. Ask her about the sacrifices he made for her. He didn’t grow up rich with a silver spoon in his mouth. Hell, Naomi, he would probably kill to have our good, sweet, detached parents. He doesn’t have any parents, and that much you can find out online if you look. He’s had to work really hard to get where he is in life. A life I don’t even fully understand the difficulties of. And he’s attacked constantly, his privacy violated repeatedly.”
She didn’t mention that all week long they’d been finding themselves getting photographed. Since their picture at Applepalooza had gone viral, the paparazzi had found him in Brandywood. Making out on the balcony was no longer an option. Neither was any sort of intimate time in the hot tub.
Splotches of color formed on Naomi’s face. She stiffly sat on the loveseat perpendicular to the sofa, her shoulders falling with defeat. “I’m sorry,” she said at last. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. I just don’t want Brooks to hurt you, Maddie.”
“He’s not going to hurt me. There’s a much higher chance that I’ll hurt him anyway if I fall in and out of love as easily as you think,” Maddie said with an eye roll. She sat on the loveseat beside Naomi. She’d hated the distance between them over the past week and a half.
“I want my best friend back. It’s been killing me not to be able to tell you anything about Brooks. Why do you think I confessed so quickly? Meanwhile, I have Tweedledee and Tweedledum over here begging for all the details of my sex life and I’m strongly considering telling them incredibly NSFW stories because I don’t have my big sis to dish to.”
Lindsay’s jaw dropped with mock horror. “I resent that.”
Jen sipped on her glass of wine. “Long as you’re Tweedledum, I can live with the nickname.”
Naomi’s lips twitched with laughter. “God, I’ve missed your sense of humor. Family pizza night is boring without you.” She turned and slipped her hands into Maddie’s. “I’m so sorry. I have been an asshole. And honestly, it’s kind of impressive that you not only blackmailed Brooks into a concert but also bagged the man himself.”
“What’s that about blackmail?” Jen asked, looking from Naomi to Maddie.
“It’s a long story.” Maddie laughed and hugged Naomi. “I’m sorry for kicking you out of my apartment. And for breaking into Fred Strickland’s storeroom. It was stupid, and you’re right, if he’d caught me stealing that SD card, it all could have been much worse.”
“What!” Lindsay reached for a brownie. “I feel like I should have made popcorn. Y’all are gonna have to back up because clearly, Jen and I are completely out of the loop.”
“You guys don’t even want to know.” Maddie poured herself a glass of wine.
“Um, yeah we do.” Lindsay leaned forward eagerly. “ Nothing even remotely interesting happens around here, Maddie. It’s Brandywood. Gossip is all we have.”
Maddie smiled to herself, dropping back against the couch and curling her legs under her.
Somehow, in the past couple of weeks, Brandywood had felt . . . smaller.
But right now, she didn’t mind. Right now, she was with some of the people she loved the most. Including Naomi.