Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Aspen was totally, and completely, calm.
She was folding napkins into sharp triangles and lining them down the counter, because the other option was to stand in front of the front window watching for a black Range Rover to pull into the driveway, and she had already done that. Four times. Possibly five.
Her dad was reorganizing the living room furniture into a mini stadium. Chloe was preparing the snacks. Marion had claimed the armchair with a book, and the firm position that setup was a job for other people.
Maisie appeared at Aspen’s hip and studied the napkin in Aspen’s hand. “Why are you folding the napkins like that? They’re just going to get messy.”
“I just want everything to look nice.” Aspen said, carefully placing the napkin in line with the others.
“She has a point, you know.” Chloe chimed in from four feet away, without looking up. “We’re offering finger foods, not a five-course meal.”
“Will everyone just…lay off.” Aspen said defensively, tossing the napkin down.
Chloe turned her head. “Asp, you need to relax. Tonight is meant to be fun, remember? Maddy Sterling is not going to care how perfectly the napkins are folded.” She dropped her eyes briefly to Aspen’s shirt. “I’d be more concerned about the wrinkles in your clothes.”
Aspen’s face dropped. She looked down at her clothes, trying to find the offending wrinkle.
Chloe and Maisie burst into laughter.
“Excuse me.” Aspen went to find a mirror.
“Aspen, I was kidding!” Chloe called after her.
Logically, she knew Chloe had been messing with her. Illogically, she needed to check anyway.
She shut the bathroom door and studied her reflection.
The outfit was flawless, and had been chosen with great care. Light blue boyfriend jeans, torn open at the knees, distressed rips up the thighs, rolled slightly at the ankles. A heather-gray tank knotted at the front, just enough to show a sliver of her abs. Hair down, waves flowing down her back.
To everyone else, it would read as casual, effortless, exactly what she would wear to any other social event. To Maddy, she hoped, it would read as a rebuttal to the outfit she’d worn to the aquarium.
Aspen knew the second Maddy stepped foot outside of Bunny’s house on Saturday morning, with a slit in her skirt nearly to her hip, that she had chosen that outfit for Aspen. That she wanted Aspen to look. And look, she did.
Aspen may not be able to pull off sexy in the same way as Maddy Sterling, but she had a complete working file of every lingering look she had caught before Maddy could look away, and knew exactly which features to show off to draw Maddy’s attention.
“They’re here!” Maisie’s muffled voice called from somewhere on the other side of the door, followed by the pitter-patter of her footsteps running to the door.
Aspen’s pulse spiked. Here we go.
By the time Aspen reached the entryway, the door was open, and Maisie was greeting their guests from the landing.
Bunny was working toward the threshold one careful step at a time and narrating the climb with an exaggerated wince.
Golden hour had turned the whole street a glowing amber color, and behind Bunny, coming up the walk, were Maddy and Jake. Together.
Jake was a half-step off Maddy’s shoulder, head dipped toward her to say something low, the gap between them barely qualifying as a gap. And Maddy laughed.
Aspen’s stomach dropped. She had known Jake was coming. Knowing it and watching it come up the walkway of her childhood home, with Maddy, while making her laugh, were two entirely different things.
Aspen’s smile arrived on cue, if half a second late. She had promised herself she would respect this. If this was what Maddy wanted, Aspen would be warm and gracious and genuinely glad for her and Jake, and she would mean every word of it. Because Jake was her friend, and she was… evolved.
She watched Jake’s hand drift toward the small of Maddy’s back and hover there as they climbed the porch steps, an inch shy of the fabric. That inch put a hard little twist through Aspen’s chest. She felt her smile falter briefly before she quickly fixed it back in place.
So. Fucking. Evolved.
“Hello,” Aspen said as cheerily as she could manage.
“Hey!” Jake said, much more genuinely. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“Of course.” Aspen kept her smile in place. Her eyes shifted to Maddy, who was showing notably less skin tonight.
No slit. No bare shoulders. No tactical flash of leg.
Her outfit was casual. Chic. Entirely appropriate for a family game night.
A black blouse buttoned neatly down the front.
Fitted, of course, because Maddy was apparently incapable of even making full coverage merciful.
The soft V of the neckline showed the barest line of collarbone, nothing more.
The sleeves puffed slightly at her upper arms, and the hem disappeared into high-waisted denim that fit her hips perfectly.
A dark leather belt cinched her waist. Small gold hoops.
A few layered chains at her throat. Hair curled in loose waves.
Every available inch of Maddy had been placed under tasteful control.
And Aspen, who had spent seventeen minutes knotting her tank top to reveal the precise amount of stomach most likely to make Maddy’s eye twitch, suddenly felt both overexposed and underarmored all at once.
Maddy’s gaze flicked over to her when they reached the threshold. “Aspen.” Maddy gave her a slight nod and brushed past her.
Aspen inhaled. God she smelled good.
Within minutes, Bunny was perched on the loveseat with her donut and a cushion at her back, Dad settled into the spot beside her.
Maisie was giving Maddy a play-by-play of the last time she and her grandpa dominated in charades.
Marion—well, she still hadn’t moved from the armchair in the corner and was alternating between reading her book and reading the room.
But underneath all of it ran the miserable awareness that Jake had stayed welded to Maddy’s side since they’d arrived.
That was, until Chloe came through from the kitchen with too many snacks balanced in her hands, and Maddy nudged Jake in the side with her elbow, her eyes shifting to Chloe as she whispered: “Go help her.” And he did.
Everyone settled into the living room with wine and pre-game snacks, and Aspen’s eyes were locked on the six inches of space between Maddy and Jake.
Which got smaller every time Jake moved because he was incapable of speaking without using his whole body.
He had been on a tangent about Coronado High’s defensive line for fifteen minutes, and when he started to shift to the offensive line, Maddy cut him off.
“Jake. Weren’t you saying that you wanted to ask Chloe about the homemade treats she sells at the salon? ”
Jake blinked, hands frozen mid-air.
Maddy addressed Chloe directly. “Jake wants to make his own beef jerky, and was wondering if he could use the same kind of dehydrator you use for the dog treats and how you select your ingredients.”
Recognition dawned on Jake’s face. “Right. Yeah. Beef jerky.” He flashed a wide grin at Chloe. “I’d love to hear your process.” He turned the floor over to her.
And Chloe, who could talk about her dehydrator and hand-picked ingredients until the sun came up, lit up and launched into her step-by-step process.
Aspen cocked her head, looking between Maddy and Jake, and Jake and Chloe.
By the time Maddy mentioned, lightly, like a fact she’d only just remembered, that Jake had spent his entire summer break junior year volunteering at the dog shelter and running errands for his elderly neighbor, and how she was so happy to discover upon her return that he hadn’t changed since high school and was still such a good guy, Aspen had dropped the fake smile that had been plastered on her face since the moment they arrived, and a real one started to form in its place as she connected the dots.
She sat back and watched Jake glance at Maddy for cues while Maddy shot him a look he was supposed to be able to read and had about a fifty percent success rate.
She could tell by the way Maddy either smirked with pride or rolled her eyes which it had been.
She watched Maddy redirect the conversation back to Chloe every time Jake started to go on another football tangent.
And she watched Maddy nudge Jake again, just now, when Chloe said she needed to refill the chip bowl, and Jake sprang into action, saying, “I’ll do it! ” And snatched the bowl from her hands.
How had she missed this?
The knot of anxiety she’d felt in her stomach all day slowly started to unravel. Maddy hadn’t brought a date. She’d brought a project.
And it was devastatingly sweet. In the most Maddy Sterling way possible. Steering, directing, threatening with her eyebrows. It was Maddy at her most Maddy. Tactical. A little terrifying. And discreetly, privately selfless under all of it.
That was the exact reason Aspen had fallen for her all those years ago.
There was the vicious, relentless, merciless Maddy that had put a cocky senior in his place, which Aspen had found impossibly sexy and appealing. That was the Maddy that had caught her eye.
Then there was the girl who had held back and conceded points when it was her best friend Noa Reyes at the opposing podium, and it became obvious that Noa needed a confidence boost. She didn’t let Noa win, but she very intentionally didn’t humiliate Noa like she could have either.
That was the Maddy that had caught her heart.
And Aspen could always tell the difference. The Maddy sitting six feet away from her in her father’s living room, strategically orchestrating every interaction between Jake and Chloe, was definitely the latter.
Which meant the thing standing between her and Maddy Sterling had just gotten a great deal smaller, and she needed to find out exactly how much.
Jake had disappeared into the kitchen, carrying the empty chip bowl like he had been given the most important job on earth, and intended to do it well.