ALEX
I tookthe steps up to Maddox’s newly renovated row house two at a time. I’d landed twenty minutes ago and thankfully traffic had been light from SFO. The plan was to grab Lexi and head to the hospital. Mia was on her way there now. She’d gone straight from the airport. There were messages waiting for us when we landed that Mrs. G had been moved out of ICU which was ahugerelief.
When I reached the porch, I stood at the door and heard the buzzing sound of the scanner a second before the door unlocked. Maddox was a tech guy, and this house held every bell and whistle known to man from the security system to the retina recognition keyless entry. To his credit, he’d spent a fortune to keep the charm of the original structure while still incorporating his state-of-the-art improvements.
I stepped inside and walked through to the back of the house where I found Maddox in the kitchen.
“Hey, thanks again, man. I really—” My mouth was still open, but no words were coming out when I saw a pink box on his counter with the Sweet Temptations logo on the top. “What’s that?” I asked, knowing full well what it was.
“Sadie sent it.” Maddox wore a shit eating grin that I wanted to smack off his face. “As a thank you.”
Why would she be sending a thank you to Maddox? If anyone deserved a thank you gift, it was her. And she’d be getting one. From me.
“How’s Mrs. G? Any news?” he asked, not addressing why the box was sitting on his counter.
“She’s out of ICU. A thank you for what?” The tone in my voice reflected the tension I was feeling. I told myself that my reaction was solely due to the stress I’d had over the last twenty-four hours, but I wasn’t sure I believed me.
“Dinner,” he shared smugly.
Even though I knew that he was probably just fucking with me, I couldn’t help but take the bait. “Dinner?”
“Yep. When I went to the hospital to pick up the squirt, I asked her out.”
He was fucking with me. That wasn’t Maddox’s M.O. He didn’t pursue women because he said it gave them false hope or the wrong idea. He kept things much more casual than “dating.” He “hung out” and “hooked up” with women but it was never anything serious. He didn’t wine and dine women. He didn’t ask them out on official dates.
The only “dates” he participated in were playdates for Hannah and those were usually forced upon him by his baby mama Lizzy so she didn’t have to be subjected to the disappointment on the mom’s faces when she showed up instead of Maddox.
Maddox hadn’t been in a serious relationship since high school. As an adult, he’d always been a free agent. No contracts. No commitments.
But then again, if anyone could make him rethink his stance on commitment, it was Sadie. She had that effect on people. Or at least on me.
My eyes narrowed. “You did?”
“I did,” he confirmed.
I was waiting for him to smile and tell me that he was kidding. When he continued staring at me, I heard myself asking, “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
Wait. Sadie didn’t date. She’d explicitly told me that she was on a dating sabbatical. Maybe that’s just what she said so that people would leave her alone and she did actually date.
Or worse, maybe shedidn’tdate but Maddox had been the man to make her break her rules. And she was the woman who had him rethinking his view of being tied down.
“And she went?” I asked in search of clarification.
His lips pulled from a cocky grin to a full-fledged smile revealing a straight line of perfect white teeth and two deep dimples that seemed to be most women’s weakness. “She did. We had a great time. She’s sweet. And funny. And her cupcakes are—” He stuck his finger in his mouth and pulled it out with a pop. “—finger licking good.”
I was 99.9% sure that this whole thing was just him fucking with me, but I couldn’t drop it. “Are you going to see her again?”
“Hope so.”
I’d heard of the green-eyed monster. Seen movies where people were consumed by jealousy. But I’d never experienced it, at least not in the romantic sense. Sure, I’d envied people. Namely, kids with happyLeave It to Beaverstyle families. But I’d never felt anything close to it when it came to another man being interested in someone I was.
When guys used to hit on Ash, I was secure in our relationship and trusted her implicitly. I honestly felt sorry for them because I knew they didn’t have a chance in hell. But standing in the kitchen of my best friend, who I considered a brother, I felt things I didn’t want to admit I was feeling.
My blood was boiling at the thought of Maddox taking Sadie out to dinner. Which made zero sense. I had been doing my best to avoid her. Hell, I hadn’t even gone into the bakery all of last week just to try and break the spell that she’d cast on me.
So why did thinking about him turning on his charm, opening her doors, and her giggling at one of his stupid jokes, make me want to put my fist through the wall?
