Chapter 33
It had been nearly a week since Denise and Jeremy had presented Farrington Parks’ offer to Oliver, and he still hadn’t given Denise an answer.
She understood the delay, though. As an old friend of Louise’s, Oliver had been concerned for her and had sat with her for a few hours both in the hospital and when she’d returned to the nursing facility.
He and Maddox had taken turns looking after Louise and dealing with responsibilities at the resort.
Until then, Denise hadn’t realized how close Maddox and Oliver really were.
In fact, she hadn’t appreciated how tight-knit the Middle Waters staff was in general.
It was no wonder Maddox took the future of the resort and its people so seriously.
The little community was the closest thing to family they had besides Louise.
Denise didn’t regret having this extra time at the resort, even if she wished Louise’s health hadn’t been part of the reason for it.
The past two mornings, she’d awoken early and enjoyed bundling up in a sweater with coffee on her room’s balcony.
She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d allowed herself a leisurely morning like that.
Back home, it seemed like she was always in a hurry to go to work.
She’d forced herself into the bustle of it all, as if the more she immersed herself and the faster she got things done, the sooner she’d be free to pursue what she really wanted.
But this time away was showing her how much life she’d been missing out on by only looking ahead and failing to appreciate what she had in the present.
The weather was so beautiful on this particular Wednesday morning that she followed up her coffee time with a walk on the trail behind the resort.
A strong breeze wafted over her as she strolled, but it was more refreshing than chilling.
Like stepping into a cool shower after a long, stressful day.
Everything felt so vivid today, from the crisp, rhythmic crunch of dried leaves beneath her shoes to the bright yellows and oranges of the leaves swirling in the wind around her to the stunning blue of the sky above.
There was sound and movement all around her, yet inside her mind was a paradoxical stillness.
It took longer than it should have to finally realize that peculiar feeling was peace. Denise felt truly at peace here.
She slowed her pace, attempting to savor the sensation.
Her direction was meandering, aimless in the sense that she didn’t have a set destination in mind, yet there was purpose to it all the same.
Her path stretched out before her past magnificent trees whose roots rose and fanned out on the ground around the trunks like ancient tributaries, and it sloped upward in a gentle incline.
As she reached an elevated clearing that seemed to overlook the lower areas below, she spotted Maddox standing a few yards ahead, with their back to her and their hands buried in the pockets of their jacket.
Her heart rate quickened, but the peace from a moment ago remained.
She found her lips curving up in gratification.
Somehow, somewhere inside, she knew she would find Maddox out here.
This was the destination her feet had guided her to without her even needing to tell them.
Denise blinked. What an odd thought! Where had it even come from?
It didn’t matter. Maddox was here, and they were turning around at the rustle of her footsteps. They watched her approach, a slow smile spreading across their face until it lit up their deep brown eyes.
Denise’s breath caught. What was it about Maddox? She’d searched for those eyes in the most crowded rooms. Whenever she was at the resort, she was always looking for them…even when she didn’t think she was.
“Morning,” they greeted her.
“Hi.” Denise tucked one of the curly strands of hair that had escaped her hair clip behind her ear, and Maddox tracked the movement with their gaze.
Her face warmed, but it wasn’t the prickly, uncomfortable heat she often experienced in new social situations or when a group of people were focused on her.
Once she was next to them, she finally dragged her attention away from Maddox’s face and looked out over the precipice where they were standing.
Below was a sprawling expanse of farmland and grass dotted with a few cattle, horses, and a distant barn and farmhouse.
Against the blue sky, the whole thing was like a landscape so idyllic that, if someone could capture it on canvas, Denise would gladly hang it in her apartment’s living room hoping to recapture the serenity of this morning.
Her face heated a few degrees more as she turned her head to discover Maddox watching her delighted reaction to the view. She nodded toward the area. “Beautiful.”
Maddox’s smile softened. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Denise raised an eyebrow, but Maddox quickly glanced away and cleared their throat. “Did you know the farm down there is one of the main suppliers for our restaurant?”
“No, I didn’t,” Denise answered, accepting the conversation shift. “That’s wonderful. It doesn’t get much more farm-to-table than that.”
Maddox chuckled. “Apart from Bobbette and me milking the cows ourselves, no, not much.”
Denise laughed. “I guess that’s one too many roles, even for Middle Waters’ jack-of-all-trades.”
“Yeah,” Maddox scoffed, but their grin faded into the tiniest grimace.
Denise wasn’t sure what had caused the change, but she thought it was probably best to redirect. “How is Louise?”
“She seems to be okay. Now that she’s at least back with her own chair and bed and books, her energy is returning a little.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Denise answered.
“Thanks.” Maddox looked down at their feet. “I know I said it already, but I really appreciate everything you did on Monday. It was completely unexpected.”
Denise bit her lip. “I’m sure it was unexpected because of the way I’d been treating you before that.”
Maddox started to speak, but Denise held up her hand to stop them. “No, wait. Please. I really need to apologize. Yet again. It seems like I’m always getting myself into this situation with you.”
She took a deep breath and released it slowly.
“I know I was cold and, honestly, kind of rude to you when I first got back here. And I’m really sorry for that.
The…decision for me to handle the negotiations happened so fast that I didn’t give myself time to consider the implications of working with you again and how to approach that.
When the fact is, it shouldn’t have been me making all the decisions, anyway.
I should have talked it out with you like an adult instead of dictating the terms myself and trying to pretend nothing had ever happened between us. ”
She’d faced Maddox while apologizing, with the hope they’d meet her eye and see that she meant what she was saying, but they were still looking downward.
After a pause, they said, “That’s really kind of you, Denise. I appreciate it. Maybe it would have been better if we’d talked when you got here, sure. But it’s no big deal. You don’t owe me anything. We had a simple little fling. That’s all I wa—all it was, and I understand that.”
Denise shook her head and took Maddox’s arm, firmly but gently pulling them to finally face her head on.
“Maddox, no. You’re a lot more than that.
And there’s no way anything could be truly simple between us.
Seven years ago, I only got a glimpse of the kind of person you are, but I’ve gotten a lot more now.
You’re special, Maddox. And the night we shared was beautiful. ”
Her hand was shaking with the intensity of her words, so she dropped it from Maddox’s arm and drew in a breath. “Look, I know that my being here for the buyout means we should keep certain boundaries in place, but I needed to get this out in the open, the way I should have when I first got back.”
To her immense relief, Maddox looked in her eyes with warmth in their own. Their cheeks turned the tiniest bit red, but they kept eye contact. “It was special to me too. I just thought I was the only one.”
“Not. At. All,” Denise said with as much emphasis as she could manage.
Maddox’s shoulders lowered with a sigh. “Right. So, we can both acknowledge it was special and…appreciate the memory for what it was?”
Denise swallowed.
A memory? Whatever was going on between them wasn’t some event or interaction confined to the past. It was pulsing, thriving, present, here in this very moment.
But even as she admitted that to herself, she drank in the cold, logical realization that a special memory was all it should be.
The two of them had to move on into some kind of functional working relationship until this deal happened or didn’t, and then they had two sets of complicated and separate lives to go back to afterwards.
All those logical little thoughts were quickly ripping open a gaping, shadowy hole inside Denise, but she covered it with a smile. “Right. I think we can do that.”
The best of times and the worst of times.
When Maddox had been in high school, their English class had read A Tale of Two Cities.
Well, about half of the class had read it.
For their part, Maddox had found the audiobook on CD at the library and listened to it.
It had been far from their favorite assignment, but today, the book’s famous opening line was scratching at their brain.
That’s what the morning had felt like to them: both the best and the worst.