TWENTY-SIX
MADDIE HIKED FRYMAN CANYON THAT MORNING, desperate to quiet the fury she had woken up with.
It had worked—for a bit—but the storm returned with a vengeance by late afternoon.
Her anger felt stronger than usual that day, and she eventually decided to stop fighting it.
Maybe if she did, the rage would burn itself out by the time the sun set, and the iron grip on her heart would ease enough for her to sleep that night.
The colors in her backyard bled into the encroaching evening. As darkness settled, a matching chill began to spread throughout Maddie’s body.
She curled into a corner of her couch with a dirty martini in one hand and the remote in the other, then turned on the TV. She started flipping through streaming services, deciding that a horror movie might drown out her thoughts.
She had just landed on the Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster classic, The Silence of the Lambs, when her doorbell rang.
Ugh, not again.
Maddie yanked the door open as she huffed, “Kim, I told you—” Her heart stopped. “You’re not Kim.”
“I am not,” a voice spoke softly. “Is that okay?”
Maddie’s stomach fluttered, wild and breathless, as Hayley’s voice wrapped around her like it had in her dreams every night for the past few weeks.
Hayley was there, standing on her doorstep in a long overcoat that looked way too warm for LA. A living, breathing reality, smiling right at her like sunlight after a cold winter.
For a suspended heartbeat, stillness swelled in her chest, absolute and overwhelming. Then it splintered into a stark bitterness that tightened her muscles.
“Hayley.” Maddie’s voice trembled, her name feeling fragile on her lips. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to talk to you,” Hayley whispered, an ache in her tone.
“About what?” Maddie asked, crossing her arms tightly at her chest. “You need directions? I think Amy’s law firm has a branch out in Beverly Hills.” She was scathing as she motioned with a sharp jerk of her chin toward the distance.
“Maddie, please.” Hayley stepped closer, her expression raw. “Let me explain. I swear to you, nothing happened that night. I was trying to push Amy off me when you walked in.”
“Was this before or after she sucked on your neck?” Maddie choked out.
Hayley’s gaze dropped, her hands disappearing into her jacket pockets as though she needed somewhere to hide. “It was over. I told her that. I told her I was with you. She never meant anything to me, Maddie.”
Maddie sighed and opened the door wider as she stepped aside, her fingers trembling against the knob. “Just… come inside.”
Hayley cautiously crossed the threshold, as if one misstep might shatter the moment. “I’m not good at this, Mads,” she admitted. “But I want to try.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve never fallen for someone the way I have for you.”
Maddie froze, rooted to the spot.
Fallen?
The word echoed through her, loosening something within her body that had been clenched tight. Tension drained from her shoulders as she forced her feet forward, Hayley following her deeper into the house.
“Can I get you a drink?” Maddie asked, already reaching for a glass.
“Sure, if you want, I mean. Just whatever you’re drinking would be great.” Hayley drifted into the open living room and sat in the oversized plush chair beside the couch. It made her look small in a way that Maddie wasn’t used to.
Instead of pouring another martini, she pulled a lowball glass out from her cabinet and poured Hayley two fingers of the whiskey she still kept on hand for Caitlin.
She wished she had Macallan, but she hadn’t exactly been expecting Hayley to show up at her door.
She didn’t know what to say or how to feel, so she just handed Hayley the drink and sank into the couch, waiting.
“I’m sorry, Maddie,” Hayley started, then paused to take a long sip.
“For everything.” Her voice wavered, but she didn’t look away.
“I should have held onto you tighter. I should have been honest about Amy from the very start. And I should have told you the moment I knew my feelings were more than casual.” Hayley let out a soft laugh.
“Although I’m not sure my feelings for you were ever casual, since I’m being honest.”
Maddie stayed silent. The brutal surge of emotion from seeing Hayley again was beginning to settle, and beneath it, something unexpected stirred to life—a small, stubborn seedling of hope she hadn’t yet managed to uproot.
Hayley held Maddie’s gaze, her expression softening.
“The moment I saw you in New York, back when Caitlin and Gemma were still filming Forbidden Love, my heart just… stopped.” An embarrassed smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“A few weeks later, I was with a woman when I called her by the wrong name. I called her your name, Maddie. During sex. Gemma still hasn’t let me live that one down. ”
That pulled a chuckle from Maddie. She’d never known Hayley had felt that same spark she had, all those years before.
Her smile faded, and her voice grew quietly serious.
“But the thing I regret most? Letting you walk out of that wedding. I should have gone after you—I wanted to—but I froze. Then for weeks, I tried to convince myself it was better this way. Because if I had to lose you one day, the way my dad lost my mom… I wouldn’t survive.
So I let you go.” Hayley looked down at the glass in her hands, turning it slowly.
“I always thought being alone was the safest way to keep my heart in one piece, but I don’t want to live like that anymore. I don’t want to be afraid.”
“So what do you want, Hayley?” Maddie’s pulse hammered.
Hayley took another long draw of whiskey, then set the glass on the coffee table. Slowly, she rose, moving closer to Maddie and lowering herself onto the carpet in front of her. She knelt between Maddie’s legs, her expression open and vulnerable in a way Maddie had only seen once before.
“I want you, Maddie.”
A tremor shivered up Maddie’s spine. She had imagined hearing those words more times than she cared to admit. But wanting them and trusting them were two very different things. How could she know Hayley wouldn’t run again at the first sign of trouble?
Hayley took Maddie’s hands, threading their fingers together.
“I will go back and pack up my apartment tomorrow and move to LA if that’s what I need to do.
I mean it. I’ve thought about it. I can start a West Coast branch of Maddox Group.
” She squeezed Maddie’s hands in a silent plea.
“Before you, my life was… quiet. Sterile. Dark. But then you showed up and filled it with color and light. Because of you, I can see again, feel things again that I’d forgotten I could feel.
I don’t want to lose that,” Hayley whispered. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Maddie’s eyes flicked to Hayley’s lips, the sheer weight of the sacrifice finally sinking in. She had never even considered Hayley leaving New York to be an option, let alone for her.
Pulling her hands from Hayley’s grip, Maddie reached up to cup her face.
“Then don’t lose me, Hayley Maddox, because I want you too.
I want all of you.” She gazed into Hayley's dark eyes, wanting her to feel the truth in every word.
“I want your entire heart, every piece of you. Not just the good parts.”
Hayley closed her eyes for a moment, then turned her head just enough to press a kiss to each of Maddie’s palms. “You have it. Every piece of me. I’m in love with you, Madison Crane.”
“Hayley…” Maddie was at a loss for words.
Hayley had just laid her heart out in front of her, bare and exposed, and was now bracing herself in the bitter silence that followed.
When Maddie still didn’t speak, Hayley took a careful breath and continued.
“I want a life with you, Maddie, a real life. I want to come home to you at the end of the day and wake up beside you in the morning. I want to watch every season of Summer House with you in my arms, even when you talk through half the episodes. I want to hold your hand on the boardwalk and watch you steal my dessert. However long I have left on this earth, I want to spend it with you.”
A small, hopeful smile broke through as Maddie’s eyes welled. “Will you let me take you on real dates?”
Hayley leaned in closer, brushing away the stray tear slipping down Maddie’s cheek. “Anytime you want.”
Maddie tilted her head down to kiss her tentatively, afraid that Hayley might vanish if she moved too quickly. Hayley’s lips felt warm and familiar—like coming home.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Maddie breathed.
Hayley rested her forehead against hers. “And I’m not going anywhere.” She wrapped her arms around Maddie’s waist, pulling her to the edge of the couch. “I will find you in every lifetime, and I will choose you, over and over.”
Maddie kissed her again, this time with desperate certainty. “I swear to God, if you ever let another woman touch you like that again, I will personally tear the world apart.”
Hayley grinned softly. “No one but you will ever lay a finger on me again.”
Maddie’s heart, quiet for so long, leaped back to life now with the simple, undeniable proof in Hayley’s presence.
Hayley slowly rose from where she’d been kneeling, her hands resting on Maddie’s thighs. She brushed a kiss against Maddie’s lips and pulled back with a smile like she had just been handed everything she had ever dreamed of.
She watched as Hayley straightened, her fingers undoing the knotted belt that wrapped around the waist of her jacket. Maddie hadn’t even noticed Hayley was still wearing it. When the long coat fell from her shoulders, Maddie gasped.
Bathed in the soft light of the room, Hayley stood before her entirely bare, a sculpted goddess fully on display. There was nothing—no armor—between Hayley and her. Not a piece of fabric holding the soft swell of her breasts or resting high on her hips, accentuating the V that cut into her figure.
“Jesus.” The word escaped on a single breath. Maddie let her gaze roam over Hayley’s naked body, committing every exposed curve to memory.
“You can do more than look.” Hayley eased forward and placed one knee onto the cushions on either side of Maddie, straddling her thighs. “You can touch.”
Maddie swallowed hard and steadied herself, her hands settling on Hayley’s hips.
She is so goddamn sexy.
“Has anyone ever told you that you kind of look like Megan Fox?” Maddie asked.
They looked at each other for a beat before Hayley started to shake with laughter. Maddie joined in until they were both breathless.
The love she felt for Hayley in that moment wholly consumed her, and she didn’t want to waste another second. Maddie curled her arms around Hayley and pulled her close, molding Hayley’s body against her own. Hunger surged through Maddie, an ache born from weeks of fasting.
Arousal pooled hot between her thighs as Hayley’s tongue slid along hers. Maddie traced Hayley’s sides with her fingertips, up and around her shoulders before digging in her nails and scratching long, deep furrows down her back.
Maddie left one hand there, her palm anchoring Hayley against her while her other hand slipped between Hayley’s legs. Maddie’s fingers slid through her slick heat, feeling Hayley's desire match her own.
She would never get tired of touching Hayley, hearing her say she wanted Maddie, wanted a life with her. This woman had crossed an entire country for her, and that truth alone felt like a vow.
Maddie brushed her fingers the length of Hayley’s center, and Hayley’s breath hitched.
Hayley gazed deeply into her eyes, cupping her cheek as her other arm twined around her neck. “Please, Maddie. I need you.”
Maddie drew soft, teasing circles over Hayley’s clit, and Hayley tried to grind her hips downward harder against Maddie’s hand.
“Tell me you’re mine,” Maddie murmured, her movements slowing.
“I’m yours, baby. All of me.” Hayley’s body shuddered, her teeth biting hard into Maddie’s neck.
Maddie closed her eyes, savoring the sharp sting of pain as she ground the heel of her palm between Hayley’s legs.
“Make me yours, Maddie,” Hayley breathed between her moans. “For good.”
Maddie slid two fingers deep inside her.
Hayley rolled her hips, pulling Maddie farther into her with every thrust.
“More,” Hayley begged. “I need more of you.”
Adrenaline surged through Maddie, and she stood, lifting Hayley up and tossing her back against the cushions before settling between her legs.
“Fuck,” Maddie groaned, biting her lower lip as she watched Hayley drip. She curled her arms tight around Hayley’s thighs, pulling her closer until her lips met Hayley’s wet clit, her tongue darting out to savor the taste.
“Maddie,” Hayley panted, her back arching. “I love you.”
Maddie glanced up to meet Hayley’s gaze as she continued the long, rhythmic strokes. When a low moan escaped Hayley’s lips, Maddie realized she could never live without this again.
She kept her eyes fixed on Hayley’s face, watching the reaction Hayley’s body had to each flick of her tongue. She was breathtaking.
“God, baby,” Hayley gasped. “Oh, yes—I love you,” she cried out, whimpering as she came undone, and it was the most intoxicating sound Maddie had ever heard.
Maddie crawled up Hayley’s body to look directly into her eyes. “Say it again.”
Hayley’s gaze was wide and pleading.
“Say it again,” Maddie whispered against her lips.
“I love you,” Hayley burst out, the words tumbling from her lips again and again, like the chorus of a song she couldn’t stop singing.
Maddie’s lips met Hayley’s in a rush, the release of every single lingering glance and unspoken desire that had plagued them. The kiss was messy and frantic, a reckless collision that tasted of whiskey and unlimited promises.
Hayley’s fingers tangled in Maddie’s hair, holding her captive. The solid weight of their pressed bodies grounded Maddie, a steady pulse amidst the chaos.
The room fell away around them, leaving only the thick heat of their skin and the frantic racing of their hearts.
Pulling back just a breath, Maddie’s blue eyes filled with a burning passion. “I love you, Hayley. I’m yours.”
Maddie pushed three fingers inside Hayley once more, her thumb rubbing tight circles around Hayley’s clit. Their eyes locked, and the intensity in that moment was everything Maddie needed.
Hayley let out a long, breathless sob, completely unraveling under her touch.
Maddie slowly slid out of her, and Hayley shuddered as a soft, broken sigh escaped. Maddie collapsed fully against her chest.
Hayley held Maddie tighter than she ever had before, and Maddie buried her face into the curve of Hayley’s neck, inhaling a musky scent more intoxicating than any perfume. They stayed there all night, tangled together in the dim light, two souls laid bare to each other.
For the first time in Maddie’s life, the quiet that settled over the room no longer felt empty. It felt full—full of Hayley, full of possibility, full of everything she had ever dared to dream.