Maddie and Wyn (8 page)

Her eyes shimmering like crazy, grinning like the Cheshire cat, Maddie wagged her finger in his direction. “You’ll know when we get there.”

Her appearance in a white peasant blouse, jeans, moccasin loafers, scrubbed-fresh face, hair down and flowing, didn’t give Wyn a single clue to their destination. She perhaps looked slightly more put together than normal, but then again this was how Maddie tended to look for the most part if she wasn’t grungy from working at the garage—that is, except for the time he’d seen her all done up when he’d crossed paths with her when she’d been out on a date a few months ago.

The memory of seeing Maddie with that too-good-looking guy brought forth a low growl in Wyn. Witnessing Maddie’s accomplished and attractive date place his hand on the small of her back as they exited the movie theater and walked to a way-too-cool car that Maddie would surely drool over had set Wyn on edge for the rest of that particular weekend. Hypocritical and ironic he knew, since he was the one who’d told her to get out more. And she did need to, but that didn’t mean Wyn liked seeing it.

“Come on,” Wyn grumbled, a little bit of his latent irritation slipping into his tone. “Seriously? You’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

Maddie’s stance became that of the drill sergeant again. “No.”

Wyn rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why I ever agreed to a friendship with you.”

Fast as lightning, Maddie said back, “Yeah you do,” and lifted her shirt real fast, flashing him a very functional, not-at-all-meant-to-be-seductive bra fully covering her breasts.

Chuckling, Wyn rubbed his face. “Good Christ.”

“No.” After straightening her shirt, Maddie plopped back into one of his chairs. “Good
Maddie
.” She offered a goofy-as-hell, big smile.

“Jesus, woman.” Wyn slipped into the bathroom to shower before he did something stupid—like grab Maddie and drag her into his bed and keep her there forever.

* * * *

Much later that afternoon Wyn savored the last bite of mac-n-cheese with bacon and lobster, the tangy tartness of the cheese mingling with the sweetness of the lobster meat and saltiness of the bacon sending his taste buds into heaven, and then tossed the plastic sample-size bowl and spoon into a nearby trashcan.

Next to him Maddie did the same, smacking her lips and ooh-ooh-ooing the whole way. “That might have been my favorite. Of course, I have a weakness for mac-n-cheese so it already had an edge over everything else.” She rubbed her stomach and made an enticing little sound before adding, “That marinated brisket slider we tried is right up at the top of the list too.”

Having wandered around the food festival and expo for hours, Wyn grinned as Maddie very discreetly burped. “Are you up for trying more?” Although sample sizes, they’d both eaten quite a lot of those ‘bites’ since arriving, and he wasn’t sure how much more his stomach, let alone hers, could take. “There are probably still a good two dozen vendors whose samples we haven’t tasted yet. And I think we still have plenty of vouchers.”

Maddie pulled the book of vouchers she’d purchased from her back pocket and waved them at Wyn like a wad of hundred-dollar bills. “Lead the way.”

They strolled close to each other, loosely connected arm-in-arm in order to keep from getting separated amongst the tight crowd. With each booth they slowed to study, deciding if the food offered was worth the last of their coupons, a sweet, nostalgic pain pierced Wyn’s chest. Surprisingly, though, the sting of tears stayed away.

Clearing his throat, Wyn kept looking forward, but his throat tightened with appreciation for the young woman walking next to him. “Thank you for pulling my ass off the couch,” he told Maddie, his voice gritty. “My mom used to love coming to this festival. Too often when I was a kid I thought I was too cool to spend a whole day with her—with your mom out in public when you’re a teenager, you know.” All the time wasted rushed through Wyn, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. “But eventually I stopped being an idiot, and I was smart enough to come a few times before she passed. They’re good memories, being at this event with her.” He finally looked at Maddie, and the easy camaraderie and open affection emanating from her swirled around Wyn like a warm embrace, choking him up a little bit. “Thanks for opening me up to the festival again.”

New hints of pink blossomed on Maddie’s cheeks, and she shared, “I was hanging out with Aidan and Ethan last week, and after reading an article about the festival, Ethan mentioned how you guys came here with your mom sometimes. I know you’ve been having a hard time since officially letting go of the house.” Her voice became a little husky. “I guess I was trying to show you there are plenty of other places in Redemption where you can have fond memories of Jayne. They don’t have to all be tied up in your childhood home.” She shrugged, and finished, “Maybe you wouldn’t have heard me if I’d just said it. You needed to be shown.”

Wyn gave her the side-eye. “Is that your way of saying I’m stubborn?”

“Yeah.” She nudged him with her shoulder, almost cajoling, and then added, “But no more than I am, so I’m not judging. We’re alike in that way. Ooh look!” She suddenly veered across traffic, walking in the opposite direction, dragging him through the flow of fellow eaters, to a crowded tent. “Want to try Cuban fusion?”

“Sure.” Wyn’s work phone vibrated in his back pocket just then. When he shifted to get it, he forgot about their linked elbows and twisted her arm halfway behind his back. “Oops, shoot. Sorry. Are you all right?” Redemption was still a small enough community that if an emergency situation arose all law enforcement was required to report for duty.

Once Maddie gave him the thumbs up that she was okay, he gestured toward to the other side of the tent while he stepped back outside. “Go ahead and get in line while I take this.”

Maddie gave him the okay sign. He watched her secure a place for them as he put the phone to his ear. “Hello. Officer Ashworth speaking.”

An unbearably deep voice Wyn would never get out of his head filled his ear. “Son, it’s time for us to talk.”

The upbeat joy of the day bleeding out of him in a torrent, Wyn hissed, “I told you never to call me again.” Rage at his father blew through Wyn, heating his core past its boiling point. “And how in the hell did you get my work number?” Wyn did not pause or want an answer; this lack of respect and breaking of boundaries only fueled the flames writhing out of control inside him over this man. “That is a violation of my job. You have no right.”

The coward on the other end of the line had the audacity to sigh before he said, “You won’t pick up my calls on your personal lines anymore, son.”

“Damn right I won’t.” Shoulders hunched in, closed in on himself like an island in a sea of people, Wyn lowered his voice to a damning whisper. “And I’m not changing today either. Good—”

“I loved her,” Graham Ashworth interjected, his low tone ragged. “I swear I did. I loved her so much it broke me when she got sick. I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t hold up under the level of love I felt and the pain she suffered. You—”

Sick to his stomach, Wyn ordered through clenched teeth, “Don’t ever call me again.” If he heard another word from this man right now, he would throw up. “Goodbye.” This time, Wyn didn’t wait for his father to get another word in. He jammed his finger on the End Call button and shoved the phone back into his pocket.

Standing still while the crowd moved like fish swimming upstream around him, Wyn inhaled and exhaled fast and hard, struggling to normalize his breathing. Every time his father called, every time the guy managed to wiggle past Wyn’s paralyzing shock to spill more of his tale of unfathomable love that had crippled him and forced him to walk away from his wife or die himself through watching her suffer, Wyn grew more disgusted, not less, and an insidious poison inked into his bloodstream a little bit more.

Wyn remembered being a kid. He recalled how much he looked like his father, and how similar their demeanors were. People had often told him they were so much alike.

Maddie came up beside him and touched his elbow, jerking him out of his stupor.

“Hey?” A couple of small plates in hand, looking up at him with too much knowledge deepening the gray in her eyes, Maddie rubbed her shoulder against his arm. “Are you okay?”

Still tight all over, Wyn jerked his head in a nod. “I’m fine.”

“Liar,” Maddie said back, no hesitation or backing down one bit.

With her heels dug in, Maddie looked up at him without blinking, somehow menacing with her hippie chic getup and two small plates of delicious smelling food in her hands.

“Okay, fine,” Wyn backtracked, knowing he could either do it now or after ten minutes of steely looks from her that would break him down. “I had a shit moment of dealing with a phone call from my father—” he put a finger on her lips before she could get a word out, “—but we’re having a good time today, and you’ve planned a good time for the rest of the night,” they still had music and some sort of horror treasure hunt to do, “so I’ve shaken his intrusion off and am going to get on with the task of eating some great food with you.”

By the end of his speech Maddie bumped against him, like one animal offering companionship to another, but didn’t frown or cry or throw a fit on his behalf. “That I can believe and accept. Here you go.” She shoved one of the plates into his hands. “Start enjoying right now.”

After getting the phone call off his chest, and Maddie letting it go with only an acknowledgment of the facts between them, Wyn did actually feel a weight lift from his chest. Making a genuinely happy hum, he lifted the plate to his nose and sniffed. “Pork?”

“Yep.” The triangular shaped flaky pastry was piled high with shaved pork. Maddie inhaled and moaned softly too. “Then there’s some puff pastry on the bottom with a black bean paste, and the chef said the fusion is that the pork is infused with some Asian flavors.” She stuffed half the delicacy in her mouth, and around a mouthful of food mumbled, “Dig in.”

Wyn popped the whole thing in his mouth at once and chewed. The flavors were so bright and layered they exploded in his mouth and made his knees weak. Maddie’s facial expressions as she ate were akin to what Wyn imagined ecstasy would look like on her. The sight filled him with lightness and snuffed out the last of the darkness lurking in him from his phone call with his father.

As she licked her fingers, Wyn asked her, “New favorite?”

She paused for a good long moment, squinting as she looked toward the sky, but eventually only waved her hand in a so-so gesture. “Maybe in the top three.” She perked back up again fast, almost skipping in place. “But I’m willing to keep looking for an upset that will topple my list.”

Sliding his sunglasses back over his eyes, Wyn offered his arm to her. “I’m game too. Let’s go.”

Elbows hooked together once again, Wyn kept Maddie at his side as they began working their way back through the crowd. And all the while Wyn tried to keep from noticing how Maddie was becoming an even more beautiful woman with each passing day. Or how that at the end of any day spent in her company, he never regretted a minute of it or wished he was doing something else.

Forget his growing attraction to her; Maddie was becoming important to Wyn. Maybe, other than Ethan, the most important person in his life.

Under the bright and warm sunlight, Wyn trembled.

* * * *

Stars and lights around the park’s central pavilion twinkled in the night sky, and Wyn clapped and chanted along with the local pub band playing on stage, the quintet melding traditional Irish sounds with modern alternative rock. A few feet in front of him Maddie twirled as part of a circle, hand-in-hand with three other women, strangers who had pulled her into their dancing trio, making it a quartet. She’d jumped in without hesitation, laughing and easy, dancing with these free-spirited women who appeared roughly her age. As Wyn watched, a healthy dose of pride pumped through his blood.

Arousal lived and breathed there too. Christ, Maddie was spectacular. It wasn’t even that she was technically prettier than the other woman—although hell, if up to him, she was—but she was just so damned
alive
. And to see her interacting with such confidence with her peers now, when he knew how much she’d struggled with that as a kid and teen, imbued her with a powerful dose of sexiness. When mixed with her natural girl-next-door features, it all made Maddie downright dangerous to Wyn, who still possessed a healthy sex drive, yet could not let himself dive into this woman yet.

Maddie had kept her end of their bargain from that night by the creek at Ethan and Aidan’s cabin. She didn’t push him inappropriately or try to sneak kisses from him. In fact, if not for an occasional, innocent tease—such as when she’d flashed him at his house earlier—Wyn might not think Maddie was interested in him anymore for anything other than friendship. And they had become that. They were now true, real friends in every sense of the word. Which was good. Except that unlike Maddie, who was putting herself out there in the world so much more now, Wyn was so distracted by her he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone on a date.

His focus drifted to Maddie again, and the sight of her spinning in a circle, arms spread wide, hair flying, cheeks and lips the rosiest pink, pure joy radiating through her, stirred Wyn to life. His shaft swelled pleasurably, responding in a way no other woman had evoked in months.

Right then Maddie looked up and caught his gaze. She smiled at him in a way that lit the granite in her eyes to molten silver, and Wyn went from pleasantly aroused to sporting half wood.
Fuck
. At least the flannel shirt he’d put on after the sun had gone down gave him some cover. For all that Maddie had gone on at least a few dates in the last year, she still seemed innocent to the baser responses of raw sexual attraction.

The band on stage brought their song to a rousing crescendo, the crowd erupted in applause, and the lead singer thanked everyone for coming and told them to have a good night. With the end of the concert upon them, the fans surged in a wave toward the back of the park to leave. Wyn lunged to grab Maddie, encircling her in a protective hold to keep her from being trampled or pushed away from him within the throng of people.