“Look, Trent, I don’t really think that this is going to work.”
“Just change your plans.”
Change my plans?It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about. “No, I’m not talking about dinner Friday. I’m talking about—”
My sentence was cut off when the door opened again. I looked over expecting to see Bianca, I was three for three. Wrong again.
In my doorway was the man who had owned my heart since I was sixteen. His hair was messier than I’d seen it and the stubble covering his jaw told me that he hadn’t shaved in a few days. He wore a gray hoodie, worn blue jeans, and Timberland boots. His appearance reminded me of how he dressed when we were teens and my inner self went into full swoon. Maddox was brilliant, kind, funny, and sweet but he’d always had a bad-boy edge that had made him downright irresistible. Every time I’d seen him as an adult, he’d been in business clothes. I wondered if his casual, disheveled look had anything to do with the news that I’d sprung on him.
I took another step back from Trent, putting more distance between us.
“Maddox, hi.”
“We’re right in the middle of something.” Trent spoke dismissively, not even sparing a glance in his direction. “You can wait outside.”
“Trent! You can’t…this is…you can’t…” I was fumbling over my words. I did that when I got mad. I took a breath and collected my thoughts. “This is a parent of one of my students. We have a meeting. You need to leave.”
Trent shot me a look that would have put me six feet under if it could kill. I’d never stood up for myself or called him on his arrogant behavior. I’d never had a reason to. As much as I wanted to end things with Trent, to be over and done with it once and for all, right now I wanted him to leave more. I wanted, noneededto hear what Maddox had to say.
My soon to be ex took a step toward me. “Pey, pey—”
“No.” I cut him off. “I’m at work. I have a meeting. We can talk later.”
My heart beat heavily in my chest, but it had nothing to do with ending my ten-year relationship and everything to do with the relationship Ineverended twenty years ago.
33
MADDOX
A parentof one of my students?Even though technically that’s what I was, it still stung to be introduced that way. Especially to Trent, the non-exclusive prick. Peyton could’ve said that I was an old friend. I mean, damn, I was buried inside of her forty-eight hours ago.
I stood at the door giving Trent and Peyton semi-privacy to say their goodbyes and tried not to be too butthurt about the situation.
He was exactly what I’d expected him to be like in person. After the reunion, I’d looked him up. He worked for a law firm that had tried to get my company’s business. I’d passed and stayed with the firm I’d been with since the company’s inception. I was loyal like that.
Trent looked exactly like the headshot on his firm’s page. Dirty blond hair, narrow nose, square jaw. If you looked up “preppy trust fund baby” I wouldn’t be surprised if his picture was the number one result. I guessed some women might find him attractive, but he was a little shorter than I’d expected. Still, he was a decent looking guy and it was obvious from his well-tailored suit that he went to the gym.
But I could sniff out a douchebag ten miles away and Trent reeked of all the bags of douche.
Two seconds was all I needed to know that he wasn’t right for Peyton. Not that that wasn’t abundantly clear at the reunion when she’d told me that they’d been seeing each other for ten years and weren’t exclusive. That he saw other people and she hadn’t.
I guessed I should be thanking the man because if they had been exclusive, the night at the hotel or the other night at her house wouldn’t have happened. Peyton wouldn’t cheat. She was too good of a person for that.
It was one of the reasons I’d fallen in love with her. The first time I’d told her I’d loved her was when she’d found a wallet with a lot of money in it, and without hesitation turned it into the authorities, even though there was a prom dress at Macy’s she really wanted. She did the right thing, always. Which was why I knew it must have eaten at her to have kept such a big secret.
My hands fisted at my sides when Trent leaned down, put his hand on Peyton’s waist and pressed a kiss to her mouth. Did he have any right to do that? Sure. Did that stop me from wanting to put his head through the large glass window he was standing beside? No.
I’d never been the jealous type, except with fucking Peyton. She brought out a Neanderthal in me.
Douchebag turned to leave. On his way out he took a call, ignoring my presence completely. I couldn’t help but grin. If he had any idea who I was, he’d be kissing my ass. I knew his type. I knew that business trumped all in his world. Even if he knew that Peyton and I had hooked up, it wouldn’t matter to him if he thought he could acquire my company’s business, I’d be his new best friend.
“Prick,” I said under my breath as he walked by.
He stopped and looked at me. “Excuse me?”
From the ice cold look in his eyes, I knew that he’d heard me. I stared directly at him, silently daring him to do something about it. He didn’t.
It didn’t matter how much money was in my bank account, or how nice my suits were, or what home I lived in, or what car I drove, I was still a street kid at heart. And sometimes, it just came out.
