CHAPTER ONE
Maddie
I eyed my best friend, my partner in crime, the guy who’d been there for me since we were ten years old. Matt Merryweather.Matty-Merry. Mims—since his middle name was Icarus.He deserved to be called Mims with that middle name. He narrowed his dark brown eyes, framed with long lashes that I’d once put mascara on, and leaned back further into the wooden chair at our favorite cafe. Bean Stop was decked out in holiday decorations and colored lights, giving it the perfect vibe for what I needed. December put people in a better mood—more cheer, more food, more music. It smelled like pine cones and cinnamon, and I took a deep breath, enjoying the quiet moment before gearing up for what I planned to ask.
Wealwaysgot coffee here when one of us wanted to talk about something important or when we had a major life update. When he got a new job, he told me here. When I learned about my promotion, this was the first place we met where he gave me the biggest hug and a vase of flowers. Visiting Bean Stop was foreverourthing. I stared too long at Matt, which sometimes I did that while I figured out what to say. Even though I’d practiced asking him for this favor in the mirror that morning, my pulse sped up at the reality he could say no.
He squirmed under my attention, his size causing the chair to squeak. He was a big dude. Honestly, one of the biggest I knew. He had broad shoulders and thighs the size of tree trunks. His forearms had no business being that muscle-y, with the cords and veins and everything. He had the body of a football linebacker but the softest soul. His kindness knew no bounds, and there were desperate times I might’ve…maybe…probably…taken advantage of it. However, Ineededhim. “Alright, Mattie. Will you come on the holiday camping trip with me this year?”
I used our childhood nickname to guilt him. Maddie and Mattie, the White Oak neighborhood children. Back then, we wreaked havoc everywhere we went and lived up to our reputation. Endless pranks and shenanigans, laughs and memories had filled my childhood because of him. I couldn’t love or appreciate the guy more.
He ran one large hand over his jaw, drawing my attention to his new beard. It wasn’t a full beard. More of a hadn’t-shaved-in-two-days kinda stubble, and it worked really well on him, providing an edge of mysterious roughness. He had always been ridiculously handsome, but I shut that part of my brain off. When your dating life was a train wreck, the last thing you wanted to do was to mess up aforeverfriend. But a girl could appreciate art and beauty. I loved Corvettes and always eyed them up, but I’d never ride one.Even though I wanted to sometimes.
“I need you for this.” I lowered my voice. And yes, I was laying it on thick, but it didn’t make it less true. He was the only person who I could survive this holiday-hell weekend with in the damn woods.
“Why me?” he asked, his deep voice taking a tone I wasn’t used to hearing. It had an edge, like he didn’t trust me. That didn’t sit right. I frowned, recrossing one leg over the other and tapping my newly done red and green nails on the table.
“Okay, look. It’s one weekend in nature. Youlovenature. And hiking. And being outside without cellphones or internet. You’d live off the grid if you didn’t need your job.” I reached across the table and took his free hand, squeezing it. It was warm to touch and a little sweaty. His face had tight lines around his lips, a sure sign he wasn’t going to agree to my ask. That meant I had to step up the game. I moved off my chair to get onto my knees.
Someone gasped in the cafe, and I rolled my eyes, waving them off. “Not a proposal people, calm down. Nothing to see here,” I yelled over my shoulder. People needed to mind their dang business and stop trying to make shit go viral. Sometimes I wanted to follow Mattie’s lead and delete all my socials. I didn’t understand—why would people want to intrude on a special moment…ifthis even was one?
“Stand up, Mads.” He sighed, rubbing his lips together before frowning.
I barely came up to his waist on my knees because he of his height, so I was aware I looked utterly ridiculous. He should’ve known better though. There was nothing I wouldn’t do when my mind was set, so this was on par for me. The issue though was his growing scowl. I wasnotused to seeing that directed at me. Bad drivers? Absolutely. Rude people who didn’t push shopping carts in? Duh. But me? He always looked at me with so much light and joy that the darkness in his eyes had me sweating.
We were honest with each other, so I had to trust he’d tell me if he was upset. It didn’t sit will in my gut, but I continued with my plan of begging.
Matt cleared his throat, trying to remove himself from my grip, but I held tighter. “It’s one weekend with my over-involved, well-intentioned stepsister and her entire wedding party obsessed with Christmas. That’s it.” My stepsister was a gem. I loved her more than words, but she was getting married and demanded a joint bachelor-bachelorette party, and since I was single as a Pringle, her and my stepmom had no less than ten people that they were considering pairing me with.And it wasn’t just a normal, casual camping trip. There were holiday activities we had to endure that weren’t so cute with someone you just met.
Like cookie decorating in the woods. Matching pajamas. Christmas karaoke with a prize. Last I heard, she wanted us to have a fantasy football team withholiday characters.She wasn’t a bridezilla by common definition, but she was going a little too hard with a holiday wedding theme.
“I don’t know, Mads,” he said, frowning even more. “Can’t you find one of yourboy toysto tag along?”
Yup. Mattie had a tone with me. Yup. No denying it. I held up a finger, arching a brow at him.
“First off,boy toyisn’t the right term. I have friends with benefits, and they serve a very different purpose than my sex toys. Don’t confuse them,” I said, enjoying his blush just a little bit. Dear old Matt clammed up whenever we talked about sex. Always had. It wasn’t weird for me. I grew up talking about anything and everything, but not Matt. He wasn’t inexperienced, but he was a feelings, love, and relationship guy. I admired it about him, whilst still teasing him every chance I got. I’d seen too many divorces (my mom’s) to believe in the whole monogamy thing, where Matt’s parents had been married and happy since they were eighteen.
“Maddie, stop,” he said, eyes widening as he looked around me. “You’re causing a scene. You can’t just…”
“Just what? Talk about sex? Please.” I scoffed. “And no, I can’t bring some hookup who I only know intimately. They don’t know me or my family, and like I said, I don’t even want to know them that way. I knowyou. Three days without showering and peeing in the woods? Matching outfits and singing? I need someone I know and trust.”
I had one card up my sleeve that I would play if he continued to be a grump butt. It would be a low blow, but I’d do it. I squeezed his fingers before letting go, stood up, and placed my hands on each of his shoulders. He sucked in a breath when I kneaded his muscles by his neck, and his eyes turned an even darker shade of brown. Like a damp tree. The same hue, just richer. I liked it. “Mims, I will wash your car, do your laundry, buy your drinks for two weeks.”
“I’m not sure if I can take off work.”
“Never told you when it was, so boom! It’s over holiday break, and you’re a teacheranddon’t coach then. Nice try.” I grinned because his defenses were thinning.Yes!“I can see you giving in. Do it. Say yes to me!” I shook his shoulders,finallyearning a smile from him. I threw my arms around him in a hug—which he did not return, the rude bastard—and moved him side to side. “Thank you, thank you!”
“I didn’t agree to go.”
“But you will. I know you. I know your faces.” I pulled back and stared at him. His full lips pulled down on the sides naturally. It might look like a pout to some, but it was his shape. His nose was slightly crooked to the right after a break in junior high. There was a scar on his upper right brow from when he ran into a wall, and he had a birthmark right in the middle of his left cheek. I poked the mole. He smelled like evergreen, soap, and coffee, and it was a very pleasant scent. I sniffed him, earning another blush as my nose hit his neck. “You smell great.”
“Maddie,“ he warned, his hands resting on my hips and pushing me back.
I pouted and blinked innocently at him. “Don’t make me use thebananacard because I will, without question.”
Our secret pact that we made when we were sixteen, never to be brought up unless it was dire times. This was dire. The thought of sharing a tent with someone my stepmom set up with me made my insides tremble with unease. “Banana, banana, banana,” I whispered.
He sucked his teeth before his lips slowly curved up. “You wouldn’t dare.”
