“What do you think?” Grandma asked. “Will he like him?”
Again, Maddie didn’t know what the woman meant. She closed her eyes, wishing they could leave so she could go back to the cabin, sequester herself in the guest room, and resume wallowing until she was done once and for all.
Then her text alert sounded. Stepping out of Orson, away from Grandma, she dug her phone from her purse. Part of her wished it was from Rex.
HI. IMADE IT TO AMHERST IN ONE PIECE.
It was, of course, from Rafe. Her wonderful son.
She tried not to ungratefully feel disappointed, and responded with a hugging emoji.
“Madelyn!” Grandma called. “Put down the phone and answer me!”
“Sorry. What did you want?”
Grandma let out a loud sigh. “I want to know if you think Rafe would like to have Orson. A combination present for Christmas and his college graduation. Joe can get the engine spruced up and a new set of tires. Maybe even a fresh coat of paint. And new seat covers. What d’ya think?” She patted the dashboard as if she were expecting Orson, not Maddie, to reply.
Maddie’s anxiety started to slide away. Thinking about Rafe’s happiness had a way of doing that.
“I think your great-grandson would be honored to take custody of Orson,” she heard herself say and knew it was true.
“Took you long enough to decide,” Grandma sputtered.
Climbing onto the passenger seat, Maddie glanced around the interior that was closer in age to Grandma Nancy than to Maddie. “It’s a wonderful idea, Grandma. Really. He’ll never expect it. And sometimes the best gifts are the ones we don’t expect.”
Right then, she wondered if Rex was one of those gifts. And, if so, how—or when—she would ever know.
Chapter 5
Maddie knew that, sooner or later, she’d see Rex again. After all, he was their temporary landlord of sorts. What she hadn’t anticipated was that when she and Grandma returned from their outing, his pickup would be parked at the cabin. The sight of it alone made her palms sweat.
“I would have told you Rex would be here if you’d answered your phone this morning,” Grandma said when Maddie stopped the car. “He called right after you and Rafe left. He said that since the tourists have fled, he has leftover scallops that need cooking. He wants to make us a casserole in a white wine cream sauce. I told him to bring it on!” Grandma hated leaving messages; if she absolutely needed to, she kept them short, though not typically sweet: “Where in blazes are you, Madelyn?” was an example.
As soon as Maddie turned off the ignition, Grandma bolted from the car and trotted up to the cabin at her maximum speed, which wasn’t fast but showed enthusiasm.
Trying to gather an ounce of confidence, Maddie remained glued to the frayed fabric of the seat of her car. She knew she’d be fine. After all, she was in charge of her own life, her own happiness.
This morning simply had been a harmless misstep.
She would put up her guard and be fine. After all, she was a confident, career-minded woman, though her colleagues and friends back in Green Hills would question that if they saw her right now. Especially if they saw the haphazard creases in the skirt she’d worn earlier, thanks to her having yanked it off and tossed it onto the floor, not caring that it landed in a heap. An act of passion, if ever there was one.
She took a deep breath for what could have been the hundredth time that day, and marched into the cabin as if it was hers, not his.
“Hey,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Grandma paid no attention; instead, she was busy twittering around the tiny kitchen like a child who’d consumed too much sugar, pulling plates from the cabinet and silverware from the drawer, despite that they’d finished lunch less than two hours earlier.
“Sorry to let myself in,” he said, as he focused on scrubbing the pan he must have sautéed the scallops in because hints of garlic and butter scented the air. “But I don’t have much time ’til I have to get back and start prepping for the dinner crowd, slim though it will be.”
Maddie remained standing, her gaze fixed on his muscular back that looked even more muscular thanks to the black T-shirt he had on.
“No problem,” she finally said, recalling that at some point in recent days, he’d mentioned that despite the drop in tourism, the Lord James would open daily until Christmas Eve, then shut down until Valentine’s Day. He said he liked to use those weeks for deep cleaning the restaurant and taking care of whatever fixing and freshening up was needed. She blinked and looked at her bustling grandmother. “So I guess it will be the two of us tonight, Grandma. And I’m afraid I won’t be hungry for quite a while.”
Grandma frowned, then nodded. “Right. Then I’ll go take my nap.” She abruptly stopped futzing, thanked Rex for the scallops, then vanished into the front bedroom, leaving the plates and the silver on the table, slightly askew.
So, Rex and Maddie were suddenly alone, standing in silence, not exactly a postcoital kind, what with Maddie still in her jacket, and Rex with his hands in suds.
He spoke first. “You okay?”
