“I wanted to.” Kendra’s smile stayed in place, warm and easy. “You’ve had a rough couple of days. It’s the least I can do.”
Hadley managed a small nod. “Thank you then. That’s very sweet of you.”
“They’re my famous homemade cookies. Everyone always loves them. Just ask Max. He can’t get enough of them.” Kendra glanced toward the hallway. “Anyway, I should get going. I didn’t want to stay long—just enough to check on you and bring you something to eat.”
“I appreciate it.” She held up the bag and tried not to grimace at the thought of Max enjoying these cookies.
Kendra offered one last sympathetic look before walking away.
As her footsteps faded down the hall, Hadley sat there a moment.
Max had stopped by Kendra’s place.
Max always likes to check on me. He didn’t tell you?
The thoughts circled, unwelcome but persistent.
They’re my famous homemade cookies. Everyone always loves them. Just ask Max. He can’t get enough of them.
Hadley opened the bag and glanced inside. Chocolate chip cookies stared back at her, their sweet scent tantalizing yet sour at the same time.
It didn’t matter. Her appetite was gone, and her mind was still trying to settle around everything that had just happened.
Max carried two cups of coffee down the hallway, his thoughts still turning over everything that had happened.
Nothing about this morning’s events sat right with him. The clinic. Susie. The timing of it all.
When he stepped into the waiting room, his gaze went to Hadley.
She sat in the same chair, but something about her expression had shifted. It wasn’t fear necessarily. It was something quieter and more unsettled.
Then he saw the brown paper bag in her hands and the smell of vanilla and chocolate drifted to him.
Max slowed as he approached. “You got some food? I could have gotten that for you.”
“It’s not really food. Not nourishing food, at least. They’re cookies.”
“Cookies? I thought you said you weren’t hungry.”
“I’m not hungry.” She hesitated before continuing. “Kendra stopped by and gave them to me. I’m surprised you didn’t pass her in the hallway on her way out.”
His chest tightened, and he set the coffee cups on the small table beside Hadley. “She was here?”
“She said she heard what happened, that you were at her place when I called.”
His breath caught when he realized how that sounded. His thoughts flashed to Hadley’s ex-husband, to what she’d shared about him cheating on her.
Women who’d been cheated on carried those scars long after. They remained on edge, not wanting to miss the signs again.
He’d seen that in his own mother. It had led her to making a string of bad decisions.
It had ultimately led to her death.
The last thing he wanted was for Hadley to feel insecure about his loyalty.
“It’s not like you think,” he assured her. “I went over to Kendra’s after I dropped you off so I could talk to her. I didn’t want her hearing anything about the two of us from a secondhand source. I wanted to tell her myself . . . about us.”
Hadley’s brow lifted. “About us?”
