I immediately went and gently hugged him. He clung to me for a moment, until heavy steps came from the staircase.
I went to pull away, but Madden looked mischievous for a moment and went back into the hug.
“See you tomorrow,” he said, squeezing me once more.
He let go and stepped back into the room. When I turned, I saw Jack turning his head quickly.
He opened his door, and I started past him.
“Good night,” I said quietly.
“Night.” He didn’t sound grumpy exactly, but it was close.
It wasn’t until I was in bed a while later that I realized he might’ve sounded…jealous? Nah, that was just wishful thinking on my part.
It also hit me that I’d been going into Madden and Mona’s room a lot in the last couple of days without once thinking about how open the space was across the hall from their door.
When we first got here, I couldn’t go anywhere near the railing there. Hell, I preferred to not even look that way. Now, I could walk around the house and go a bit further from the walls outside, and I was fine indoors.
Maybe there was hope for me yet?
* * * *
River and Ben left to go do Thanksgiving at Ben’s parents’ place. We’d all agreed that we’d have our “Friendsgiving” on Saturday instead, and basically everyone we knew was invited.
Everyone who lived at the rescue would attend. So would Seb, Toby, Sierra, and the sisters, Penny and Poppy. The latter was our farrier and Penny was a horse person. They lived next to Seb’s property, apparently. Even Hudson would make the drive from Chicago to join us.
I knew Toby had asked if Madden and Mona would want to come to his sister’s—Abe’s mother Rachel’s—place for Thanksgiving, but Madden said he wasn’t ready.
“Did I do wrong?” Madden asked me when Toby left the house on Wednesday.
“No. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready.”
Mona skipped over from the office where she’d been having a lesson of some sort with Lake. “Ready for what?” she asked, peering at us curiously.
“Nothing, Bug. Can you go get your coat? I want to go for a walk,” Madden redirected her enthusiasm.
“Okay!”
Once she was gone, he sighed. “At least he comes over on Saturday, right?”
Jack, who had heard our exchange, nodded. “He’ll be fine. He’ll try, but at least he asked without including Mona. He knows what he’s doing, he just needs to remember to respect your pacing.”
“What he said.” I grinned.
Madden rolled his eyes at me and headed for the front door. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
He’d started to go on tiny walks around the yard with Mona, both to spend time with her and get himself moving. She loved to tell him all kinds of things about the yard and the animals, and yesterday Madden had watched her get a riding lesson from Theo.
After the siblings had left, I went to sit on the stool and leaned my cheek to my hand.
I watched as Jack started on a snack plate for Mona.
“What’s got you so quiet?” he asked, glancing at me as he stirred some sort of a dipping sauce together.
“I just…Madden and I talk a lot, right?” At his nod, I continued, “I want to be able to give him good advice or at least…I don’t know, say the right things.”
Jack hummed thoughtfully. “I mean, that’s all any of us can do to someone we care about, right? Try to give good advice.” He deemed the dip ready and placed it in the middle of the round serving plate. “But consider this: does he need advice or friendship more?”
