That was his plan.
Didn’t really shake out that way, though.
When he got home Friday afternoon, he went straight to her. A bee to honey? Moth to a flame? Yeah. That was him. A walking, talking, can’t-get-enough-of-her cliché.
But he couldn’t stop thinking what a dumb-ass he’d been over Ella once. Having to come face-to-face with her again had brought it all way too sharply home. Three years of his life he’d wasted thinking he was in love with that woman.
And now, well, he couldn’t even remember what he’d seen in her. He’d made up a woman to love and put Ella’s face on her.
Screw love.
Simple as that.
Yeah, he knew Maddy was nothing like Ella. Maddy was generous and kind and good. She was beautiful inside and out.
But she would leave. She would leave for completely different reasons than Ella had. The kind of career she’d built, well, she might be going through something of a life crisis, what with learning she had a family she’d never met and finding out that her parents had no blood relationship to her. She might tell herself she needed a big change in her life to cope with all the shocking revelations that had come her way lately.
But in the end? Nobody walked away from Maddy’s kind of success. And he, well, he didn’t fit with her, not really. She needed to be free to find the kind of man who liked the high-powered life she led.
He didn’t resent that she would go. And no matter what she said about wanting to be with him when her time in Valentine Bay was through, she didn’t need him trailing around after her as she got on with her real life. And he’d never planned to live anywhere but here.
And that was what it came down to. Valentine Bay was not her life. She was on vacation, pure and simple. In the end, she would leave.
And he would stay.
Sunday afternoon, she rode off in a cab and didn’t come back until after two Monday morning. He knew what time she returned because he was wide awake—in his own bed, damn it—and heard a car pull in at the front of the house. A car door closed and the vehicle drove away.
He lay there staring up toward the dark ceiling, reminding himself that he was not getting up to go make sure she was all right.
If she needed him for some reason, she would let him know.
Three minutes later, his phone lit up.
Grinning like the fool he was for her, he grabbed it.
R U worried? Don’t be. I’m home safe.She included a selfie taken in the cottage kitchen. Her eyes looked kind of bleary and she had a goofy grin on her face.
Are you drunk?
Not exactly. Nice time at Daniel’s. Went out afterward with Hailey and Harper to Keely’s mom’s bar. I got kinda reconized. Had to autograph some napkins. But it’s OK. Everone was relly nice. Wish U were there.
You’re drunk.
If I send U a sexy pic will U come over?
Don’t tempt me.
Silly. That’s the point. 2 tempt U.
Even drunk, she made him laugh.I’m on my way.
Wait. I didn’t send the pic yet.
And she sent one. It was a close-up. Her eyes were crossed and she was sticking out her tongue.
He responded,I’m coming.
Told ya. I’m super hot. You can’t resist me.
