The look on her face…it was killing him. Both her smile and her eyes were dreamy and satisfied—as if he didn’t even need to make her come to bring her unbelievable pleasure. And yeah, that was one page they absolutely were both on together. If he could just spend the entire rest of his life right here, doing this,feelingthis…It would be more than enough.
But then she came—and proved him wrong yet again, because Jesus, making Shayla come like this was his new favorite thing in the world. And for those endlessly long seconds, as she unraveled in front of him and around him, it didn’t matter what they called their relationship. This connection, these feelings, this moment they were sharing—it was real. It was truth.
It was there, solid, beneath whatever name they gave it.
And Pete came, too.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Fiona hadn’t lied about where she’d hidden the key to her mother’s house. It was exactly where she’d told Maddie she’d left it—buried in a bright blue flowerpot that sat out on the back patio, by the pool.
After their conversation with Mrs. Clark, Maddie and Dingo had sat in his car, parked just down the street, prepared to wait for however many hours it took for her to leave her house.
They hadn’t been there long when Maddie’s phone vibrated and she saw that she’d gotten a text from “Dad’s” girlfriend, Shayla. She’d sent another email with another attached installment of the story about Lisa and Peter.
Maddie had just finished reading it aloud—the graduation party and her dad being the first boy ever to sayno,which must’ve freaked Lisa out—when the garage door opened, and Mrs. Clark pulled out and drove away.
Since they had no idea how long Fiona’s mother would be gone, Maddie had put her phone back in her pocket as she followed Dingo around to the back of the house. She didn’t even attempt to discuss it with Dingo, or even reply in any way to Shayla’s text as he dug through the dirt for the key. There’d be time for that later. Assuming Nelson’s men didn’t catch them and kill them first.
Maddie watched as Dingo used the pool water to rinse off both the key and his hands, and then unlocked that back door.
It led into a mudroom that was nearly as big as the studio apartment she’d shared with Lisa in Palm Springs. That opened into a kitchen the size of a ballroom. God, Lisa would’ve loved cooking in here.
“Found the stairs going up,” Dingo called—he hadn’t stopped to gape at the granite countertops and real wood cabinets and center island with its own little sink.
Maddie followed the sound of his voice over to a set of plushly carpeted stairs. Together, they went up.
“Find the master, then look for the bedroom farthest from it,” Ding said, and sure enough, there was Fiona’s bedroom at the end of the hall.
“Holy shite,” he said, echoing what Maddie was thinking.
The room was decorated in girly hues of pink and lacy whites—not only the curtains and bedspread, but the furniture was painted in those colors, too. It was a generic decor that held not an ounce of Fee’s own personality. It was like someone had come in and vacuumed every little last ounce of the girl out of the pink carpeting. It made Maddie appreciate the neutral tones of the bedroom furniture that “Dad” had gotten for her, instead of pretending that he magically knew what she liked and…
Huh.
The bookshelf beneath the window was Maddie’s destination, and that was pure Fee. It was filled mainly with DVDs instead of books—mostly horror movies and inane romcoms with an entire shelf dedicated to ancient TV shows.Mr. MagooandMr. Ed.My Favorite MartianandPetticoat Junction. Gilligan’s IslandandLost in Space.
In the midst of it all, there were only two books.Anne of Green GablesandLittle Women.Neither of which Fiona had probably ever read.
Maddie reached forAnnebecause it was hardcover, and flipped it open.
Nothing. She turned it upside down and shook, but nothing fluttered from its pages.
She tossed it onto the floor and pulled outLittle Women.
And there it was. The pages had been carefully cut out from the center, leaving a storage area in which Fiona had put the roll of bills.
Maddie’s heart leapt, but her elation didn’t last long, because there was no way that this was ten thousand dollars. At the most, it was half. Probably less.
Dingo was thinking the same thing. “Better’n nothing,” he said. “Take it, and let’s go.”
Whrrrrrrrr!
Shit, that was the sound of the garage door going up.
“Run!” Dingo said. “Go!”
Whrrrrrrrr!Now, it was going back down.
