Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1) (27 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

T
he buzz of the office felt foreign to Maddi. Which was crazy. She’d been gone all of one week, and suddenly the structure and fluorescent-lit chaos was making her itchy. It was like she’d brought Hannah to work with her.

She sat at her desk and toyed with her coffee cup, looking at the two photos that adorned her desk. One of her and Monroe on a ski trip to New Mexico two years earlier. And one of her neighbor’s dog doing something so adorable that she just had to snap a shot and frame it.

“Knock-knock.”

Maddi looked up with a start. “Monroe!” she exclaimed, jumping up and running around her desk to maul her brother. “How’d you get in here alone?”

He shrugged and gave a little smile. “Receptionist said I could.”

Maddi grimaced. “Avoid her.”

Monroe laughed. “Yeah, I kind of caught that vibe.”

“So what brings you here?”

“I knew you were back today, and was nearby, and since you didn’t call me—” he said, widening his eyes as he sank into the guest chair.

“I just got back,” she said. “I haven’t had time yet.”

He gestured to the photo on her desk. “You got a dog?”

Maddi perched on the corner of the desk and gave him a look. “You were nearby?”

He tilted his head. “Okay, so I made a point of being nearby.”

“Because?”

“Because I wanted to check on you,” he said, his eyes serious.

“I’m good, Monroe.”

“Dog?” he asked again, pointing.

“Neighbor’s.” He sat back and studied her. “Quit that!”

“What?”

“Analyzing me!”

He laughed and looked away, rubbing at his eyes. “Sorry, old habits. It comes out when I know someone’s lying to me.”

“Oh, my God, just kill me now,” she said, getting up and walking back to her chair.

“So is the show cut?” he asked.

“Don’t know yet,” she said. “Haven’t heard the final word.”

“And you and Chase?” he asked.

She shook her head. “That’s what you drove over to ask me?”

“And the answer would be?”

Maddi sighed and rested her elbows on her desk. “We aren’t anything, I suppose.” God, it hurt to say that.

“Not anything,” he echoed.

“What I said.”

“Didn’t look that way the other—”

“Can you just take my word for it?” she said. “There are things, obstacles we can’t breach. Things he won’t—or can’t—change.”

Maddi relayed the whole storm scene from days earlier. More than she’d told him over the phone. She even played the raw cell phone video she had from the van, and when she looked up at him with misty eyes, his eyes were dark.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he said.

Maddi nodded. “I was trying to keep my job,” she said. “Stupidly. Trying to step outside my safe little box and grab ratings, grab myself some respect around here. And nearly got us all killed in the process. But we scraped through.”

Monroe glared at her. “Because he threw his job and his family under the bus to save your idiot self.”

“Glad you’re on my side,” she said, taken aback. Then she slumped and closed her eyes. “But pretty much.”

Monroe leaned forward on his knees. “And you think there are obstacles?”

Maddi blinked. “You don’t know everything.”

“I’m sure I don’t,” he said. “But I know never to let your team down, and he did. For you.”

“I thought you weren’t a Zach fan,” she said, feeling her throat close.

“I’m not, but I can’t deny what he did,” he said. “He was at work, essentially, and you rode in like a fool with guns blazing, forcing him to make a choice. And you think
he’s
the one with the problem?”

Maddi rubbed at her face. “Hey Monroe, how’ve you been? Talked to Dad?”

He chuckled. “I’m sorry if this is harsh, but damn, Maddi. You expect a lot for someone who is so afraid of life she has to put pictures of her
neighbor’s
dog on her desk. My neighbor has twin girls, want me to send you pics of them, too?”

Anger, quick and hot, filled her eyes with hot tears. “That’s a low blow.”

Monroe leaned forward again, closing his eyes for a second as if he were counting. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be mean.”

“Hmm.”

“But you need to stop avoiding every building for fear it’ll fall on you, baby girl,” he said, his voice soft. “Take a chance—the kind that doesn’t put other people’s lives in danger, preferably.”

Maddi swiped under her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispered.

“You want the job, push for it,” Monroe said. “You want the man? I’m guessing all you have to do is say so.”

“So—Jane returns from the wild, huh?” Nicole said from her doorway. “Oh, sorry. Hello.”

Maddi patted her face quickly and smiled as Monroe turned to greet Nicole. “This is my brother, Monroe,” she managed.

“Nicole Brian,” Nicole said, extending a hand and looking like saying her name might be all she could come up with.

“Nice to meet you,” Monroe said, standing and taking her hand.

“You as well,” Nicole said finally, looking flushed, which was entertaining. “You taking Maddi to lunch?” she asked.

“No, I have to go, I’m afraid,” he said, and Maddi got up to hug him again. “But another time.”

Maddi wrapped her arms around his neck. “You suck,” she whispered. “And thank you.”

She felt the shake of his laugh. “You’re welcome.”

He left, and Nicole widened her eyes at Maddi. “My God, is there anyone in your life that
isn’t
hot?”

“Brothers don’t count,” Maddi said.

“He’s not
my
brother,” Nicole said, flopping into the chair he’d vacated. “And as much as I hate unplanned production breaks,” she added, “I have to say, I missed having you around last week.”

“You called me nearly every day,” Maddi said, still trying to clear her head from Monroe’s words.

“I know, but you didn’t get to see my new boots,” Nicole said, holding up a leg.

“Nice,” Maddi said, nodding. Nicole was in an up phase, wanting to be girlfriends. Always good to know what category the day was.

“So?” Nicole prompted. “How bad was the damage to the family room, really? Still usable at all?”

“There’s no roof,” Maddi said.

“The table?”

“Still intact,” Maddi said, feeling a rush of pride that she had no business feeling. “Has a big scratch across it, but it’s still there.”

“That’ll just give it a good story,” Nicole said. “And I say still do some portables in the family room. Show the damage, show them affected directly. That’s priceless footage.”

“That’s their real life,” Maddi said. “You realize that, right?”

Nicole leaned forward. “Everybody has a real life, Maddi. Every reality show you watch has a grain of someone’s real life in it. That’s what people want to see.”

Maddi blinked away the disgust of that sentence. “What did Brown say?”

“He said to use whatever we have to,” Nicole said. “Woodbriar said this show goes on.”

Maddi narrowed her gaze. “I’m surprised. The way Woodbriar laid into Zach beforehand, it was like he didn’t want any part of it. Now it’s
the show goes on
even after a tornado literally rips all the cameras out?”

Nicole winked. “I heard a little bird.”

“What little bird?”

“A friend of mine on the board,” Nicole said. “Let’s just say he overheard a little convo at a fundraiser about the grande dame herself forking out a shitload of money.”

“The grande—Gran? About Granabelle?”

“You know, that name would be so cute on just about any other old lady,” Nicole said.

“She’s funding it?” Maddi asked. “But I thought—”

“Evidently it’s supposed to be very hush-hush,” Nicole said. “Woodbriar owes her some favor or something.”

Maddi rubbed her temples. “Jesus, that woman just can’t let go.”

“Well, it’s not like this is some evil thing she’s doing,” Nicole said. “I mean, seriously, she’s setting her family up to possibly do well.”

“Zach wouldn’t like it,” she said, the words falling out of her mouth before she could chomp down on them.

“Oh,
Zach
wouldn’t like it, huh?” Nicole said. “How is that going, by the way?”

“There is no
that
,” Maddi said, looking down into her coffee cup.

“Not what I saw,” Nicole said.

“So, do you want to go over the footage?” Maddi said, needing to change the subject. “We have the vehicle cam uploads as well as—” Maddi held up her phone. “A little raw amateur hour maybe, but it could be effective.”

“What is it?”

Maddi stared at the phone, swallowing back what was possibly a large bite of crow.

“Something scary,” she said softly.

Windows were overrated.

Zach had his duct-taped with plastic, and he was beginning to think that was good enough. Who needed to see out or in? And it was much less mess than all the glass he was still digging out of every possible square inch.

Sitting carefully back into the soft leather of his couch, his fingers landed on yet another rip he hadn’t seen. Damn it. He was running out of patches. Fucking tree.

Fucking storm.

Fucking life.

A light knock on his door brought his inner scowl out. It was eight thirty at night. No one ever came over after dark.

“Which makes me a fucking old man,” Zach muttered, getting up with a grimace.

“Hey, sunshine,” his mother said when he opened the door.

“Hey,” he said, frowning. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Gonna invite me in, or just let all the bugs in instead?”

Zach stepped aside, thrown off kilter. “Sorry. You just don’t normally come down here for no reason.”

“Well, maybe I need to remedy that,” she said. “Maybe you and I need to start having coffee on the porch or something.”

Zach closed the door and narrowed his gaze. “O-kay? What’s going on?”

“We’re worried about you,” she said.

“We?” he said. “We who?”

“Me, your brothers, your sister,” she said. “What
we
’s do you think? It’s not a big crowd.”

Zach sank onto a barstool as his mom sat on the back of his couch.

“I don’t need an intervention, Mom,” he said, pointing. “And what, were you raised in a barn?”

She got up and laughed, walking around to sit on it properly and lean over the back.

“You’ve waited years to say that, haven’t you?”

“Decades.”

“Zach, come sit down,” she said.

“I’m sitting.”

“Come on.”

“Jesus,” he grumbled, getting up just to sit down again. “What do you want? I’m not doing anything wrong.” He sat down slowly on the couch. “I’m not running around, I’m not yanking stitches loose, I skipped the last run they went out on yesterday.” Zach held his hands up in the air. “I’ve been good. What is there to worry about?”

“Have you talked to Maddi since she left?”

Zach growled, pulling his hands back down and raking them through his hair. “I’m not doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Talking about Maddi with you. With anybody,” he said. “It’s—there’s nothing to talk about, for one. That’s the past.”

“Well, that past was all back up in your present last week, and—”

“And I’ve been handling my own love life for quite some time now, Mom—”

“—and in this last week, I’ve never seen you happier,” she finished with a pointed look.

Zach blew out a breath, unable to find a suitable retort.

“Yeah, well,” he muttered.

“She brings out the best in you,” she said.

“And the worst,” he said, scrubbing at his face.

“Love’ll do that,” she said.

“I don’t—” He shook his head and breathed in deep, letting it go. His eyes landed on the bookshelves across the room. He could still see her there, looking up at them, touching them. Because he’d broken his own fucking rules. “Mom, I don’t have that luxury,” he said. “
We
don’t have that luxury.”

She frowned. “What are you babbling about?”

“Love,” he said, scoffing. “People like us—we don’t get to have that. No one wants to live with people like us. To be married to us. Levi’s the only one of us with any damn sense.”

She laughed. “He’s a single father, Zach, how do you figure he’s made out any better? And let me tell you something. Your father and I had the greatest love in the world.
I
wanted to live with that.
I
wanted to be married to that.”