Chapter 37
“Where’s Trace?” Denise asked when Fi and Solange waved to the computer camera from where they were sitting on Fi’s sofa.
Fi sighed. “He’s still wrapped up with work. We rescheduled a couple of times so he could make it, but it didn’t pan out.”
“Damn. This is probably when he could use the company the most too,” Denise fretted. She made a mental note to send Trace a check-in text. She hadn’t messaged with him since the week before.
“I’m going to kidnap him for coffee later this week,” Fi said. “I know it’s bad manners showing up at his office unannounced like I do sometimes, but that’s on him for being too well-mannered to tell me to fuck off.”
Denise and Solange’s laughter was interrupted by a rap on Fi’s door.
“Oh, that’s Lyle!” Solange announced in a sing-song voice before hopping off the sofa to answer the door.
Fi’s mouth tightened, but she didn’t say anything for once.
She didn’t need to for Denise’s benefit, at least. She could tell Fi was annoyed by Lyle’s presence.
But she was also big-hearted enough to open her home to him to make Solange happy.
Denise couldn’t help wondering now if it was all busyness keeping Trace away from tonight’s gathering and not partly Solange’s newfound happiness with Lyle.
Solange reappeared on camera. “Lyle’s over in the kitchen opening the wine. He’ll come say Hi in a minute. Now, where were we?”
“We were asking Denise how things are going with Maddox,” Fi announced.
At the mention of Maddox’s name, Denise’s traitorous cheeks began to flame.
“That is not where we were,” Denise argued as demurely as she could when her face was the color of a fire engine.
Fi slapped her knee and guffawed. “No, but how else could we get your real reaction before you had a chance to put all your damn walls up?”
Denise chuckled gamely, but in the back of her mind she latched onto the damn walls comment. Even after several years of post-breakup friendship, that was still a sore spot with Fi.
“Things at the resort are going well, thank you for asking. I revised my offer to Oliver and he will most likely be accepting it once his lawyer has checked everything over.”
When Fi and Solange both simply stared at her with strikingly similar poses: arms folded and eyebrows raised, Denise relented. “Okay, fine. Maddox and I…did some things again.”
“Did some things?” Solange repeated with a cackle. “Honey, your face is saying you had yourself a five-alarm hookup.”
“It wasn’t a hookup!” The protest was out of Denise’s mouth before she could even think about it. It was how she felt, though.
Fi leaned in. “Wait…so you mean things are actually serious?”
“I-I don’t know. We haven’t actually talked about it that much. It just sort of happened. And it feels…big. But it’s so damn complicated. I mean, for one thing, we could be in a work dynamic for years now.”
“Hold up,” Solange said, her hand raised in a Stop gesture. “What do you mean years?”
Denise sighed and gave them an abbreviated explanation of the deal she was making with Oliver, including her intention to stay on and ensure the project proceeded as she’d envisioned. When she was done, Solange and Fi were both gaping at the screen open-mouthed.
Fi finally spoke up first. “So, you’ve spent the last two years dreaming and planning about how you’re going to leave your old man’s company and start your own non-profit, and then you decide to add a few years onto your sentence because of someone you met barely a month ago? Do I have this straight?”
Solange raised both eyebrows high and shook her head slowly. “Ain’t nothing straight about any of this.”
Fi snorted, and Denise rolled her eyes. “Hilarious.”
She leaned in closer to her room’s computer desk, where her laptop was set up.
“Look, I know how strange and impulsive this sounds, but this isn’t only about Maddox.
I mean, yes, I want this project to benefit the community because it’s so important to them.
But it’s been strange: working on this deal, researching the area, collaborating with people from nearly every department I worked in at Farrington to brainstorm the plans for the park…
I’ve actually really enjoyed it. And I don’t know what to do with that. ”
She sank back into the desk chair and avoided looking at the screen for a few seconds.
She felt like a giant spotlight was beaming down on her, showing off her incompetence, exposing her cluelessness about her own future in a way she’d tried so hard to avoid.
And yet here she was, casually admitting it to two of the women she respected most in her life.
“That’s awesome, babe,” Fi said with such complete sincerity that Denise had no choice but to look back at the screen to see if she was reading the reaction correctly.
“It is?”
“Well, sure! It’s always awesome to find work you enjoy and are good at, even if it’s not in the place you expected. That just shows you have an open mind.”
“Right?” Solange agreed. “And besides that, this doesn’t have to be an all or nothing deal. Hell, honey, your daddy owns the company! Do your nepot baby thang and go to the office twenty hours a week. Then spend the rest on your own stuff. You can figure it out.”
Denise sat up taller as her friends’ words took root. “You know… I guess y’all are right. I don’t know why I never thought of that before.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the right time yet,” Solange offered with an encouraging smile.
Fi shrugged. “Or maybe, I was right all along and you just needed to get yourself laid.”
“Fi!” Denise yelled, despite the laughter trying to bubble its way up in her throat. Neither Fi nor Solange attempted to stifle their own giggles, though, and Denise finally gave in and joined them.
Denise ended the call with her friends and stood to stretch. Despite being stiff from sitting in the same spot for over an hour and maybe a bit sore from her activities with Maddox the evening before…and last night…and once again this morning, for that matter, her body felt surprisingly light.
Maybe Solange was right. Maybe she could find a way to balance her time and energy between her growing interest in the family business and her other passions.
As soon as the word passion filled her mind, so did a visual and sensual memory of Maddox leaned over her, worshipping her naked breasts. Her thighs twitched reflexively.
In some ways, it felt like a dream that she, Denise Farrington, who’d had exactly two serious relationships in the past and had been single and not looking for the past three years, had found herself locked in a hotel conference room, sprawled out on a meeting table with Maddox making love.
Making love. Denise bit her lip. Was that what that had been?
She had no idea. Being with Maddox this time around, after spending time together, seeing their heart, entering their world and learning to care about some of the things they cared about, and then experiencing all the nerves and tension and buildup between them after the presentation.
It had felt different. Bigger. More meaningful than the first time.
And she’d never really recovered from that one!
Maddox had looked and felt just as invested as Denise was. But were they? That was the problem with not talking before or afterwards. When she’d left their bed this morning, Maddox had gone to work and she hadn’t seen them since.
Did Maddox want to keep being intimate together?
What about more than that? Denise hadn’t forgotten that Maddox did have a reputation for “showing guests a good time.” She didn’t hold that against them, but did it show they only cared about casual encounters?
Did they ever want an actual relationship?
Denise scoffed. Why would they change their pattern for someone like her?
If they wanted something serious, there were probably dozens of less messy and complicated women they could choose who would jump at the chance to be with them.
Women whom they hadn’t seen at their lowest moment.
Women who hadn’t pushed then pulled then pushed them away again because they couldn’t get their shit together.
Women who didn’t work for the company buying up their place of employment.
Sinking onto the bed, Denise let out a frustrated groan.
Why was she even considering this? There were so many reasons why it was a bad idea.
But one thing struck her with startling and, frankly, terrifying certainty.
The decision on how to proceed had to be just as much Maddox’s as it was hers.
She’d completely taken that out of their hands before, and she’d been wrong.
They deserved better than that. If they wanted whatever was between them to be a fling, Denise would need to accept that.
Even if the thought of stealing a few more kisses and wild nights before saying goodbye was already making her stomach feel like she was on the downward plummet of one of the famous Farrington coasters.
But if Maddox happened to want more…
Denise felt a jolt. Her heart starting thumping so hard she wasn’t sure how her rib cage contained it. Hazy possibilities, daydream visions, future inklings filled her mind. And for the first time in years, she didn’t see herself alone in them.
What did it mean? It was almost too much. Too thrilling but too intense too. That old feeling of being opened up and exposed to heartache and loss of everything, and herself worst of all ripped through her.
But for once… she didn’t shrink away completely. For once, she found herself wondering what it would be like to buckle down, hang on, and see how it all turned out.
Denise swallowed past the sudden dryness of her throat and breathed in and out a few times. Maybe she was blowing this whole Maddox situation way out of proportion. Maybe exploring this unexpected connection was the farthest thing from their mind. Maybe it should be the furthest thing from hers.
And maybe it shouldn’t.
God help her, she wanted to find out.