“How long have you lived here?” Lisa asked, following Maddie into the kitchen. “When I was looking for a house, I looked at one in this neighborhood.”
Maddie had to think before she answered. In some ways, it felt like she’d lived there forever, and in others, it seemed like she’d moved in last month. “Almost three years.”
It seemed hard to believe, but she’d purchased the home not long after she started working for Elite Force Security.
“Do you want something to drink?” She might not want Lisa to stay long, but a good hostess at least offered their guest a beverage.
“Some wine would be great. I don’t care what kind. But if you don’t have any, whatever you’re having is fine.”
Not only had she been thinking more like tea or coffee when she asked, but the wine she’d bought was for dinner tonight. Since the bottles were nowhere in sight, Lisa would never know she had some. “I forgot to pick some up while I was out, so I don’t have any wine. I was going to have some coffee. Or I can make you tea.”
“Coffee is fine.”
Lisa opted for the chair Maddie generally used at the table and hung her oversized purse on the back of it. The thing was large enough to hold a bowling ball, and Maddie couldn’t even imagine carrying around so much stuff to need such a large purse.
She had too many friends to remember how they all preferred their coffee. “Do you like cream and sugar in your coffee?”
“Yep. But I’ll use milk if you don’t have cream.”
While the coffee machine brewed the first cup, Maddie mixed the steak tips and the marinade together.
“Are you celebrating something today?” Lisa gestured toward the bakery box on the counter.
Once she had the steak tips safely in the fridge, Maddie replaced the full cup with an empty one and hit the brew button. “No. I didn’t feel like baking anything to go with dinner, so I picked up something while I was out.”
“You can’t go wrong with something from Sugar and Spice.”
She agreed 100 percent, and she’d had trouble deciding on a dessert. “That’s why I got a Boston cream pie that’s in the fridge and those cookies.”
“Is Keith coming by for dinner?”
Maddie wouldn’t be going through all this work just for herself. Nodding, she added sugar to her coffee. “He’s helping one of our friends move into his girlfriend’s house. Keith wanted me to help too. I promised to have dinner ready when he came home instead.”
It happened so quickly Maddie wasn’t sure if Lisa frowned at the word home or if she’d imagined it.
“I don’t blame you. Moving sucks. I don’t want to do it anytime soon.”
Lisa sipped the coffee that she’d added so much cream and sugar to that it must taste like coffee ice cream—a flavor Maddie had only tried recently while in Maine and had instantly added to her favorite flavors list.
“Unfortunately, cooking won’t get me out of helping Keith when he moves his stuff here.”
Lisa’s jaw clenched for the briefest of moments, and her eyes slightly narrowed. Or at least Maddie thought she saw the change.
“If he’s going to be back soon, I can leave.”
“No need for you to go. He’ll text me before they head over to the storage facility.” But Maddie wanted the conversation to move along. “You said you need to talk. Is everything okay?”
Lisa’s sigh would’ve knocked over a small child, but rather than answer, she took another drink of her coffee. “I’ve been communicating with my ex-boyfriend, Tobias, for the past few weeks. I told you about him.”
While not unheard of, it wasn’t a currently popular name in the US, and Maddie would have remembered if Lisa had mentioned anyone named Tobias. But in the short time Maddie had known the woman, Lisa had dated a couple of different men, so Maddie could understand how Lisa thought she had told her about him.
“Sorry, I don’t remember what you told me.”
“He’s thescience fictionfan.” She brought the cup to her lips again.
Sharing that she’d dated someone who liked science fiction wasn’t telling Maddie about the man precisely. But Maddie would not contradict her. “Oh, yeah, I remember. Is it safe to assume Teddy doesn’t know?”
She’d never met Teddy, Lisa’s newest boyfriend, but she had heard all about how great he was in bed.