Will she wish she was the one with me?
Does she regret…?
“We’re a long way from Texas,” I said.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
The pressure built as I clenched my teeth. “What do you want?”
Her slender shoulders lifted and fell as she inhaled and exhaled. “You don’t have to make this so hard.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s fucking seven o’clock on a weeknight in the middle of the goddamned summer in Wisconsin. After five years you show the fuck up on my doorstep. Tell me how I’m making this hard.”
Her neck tightened as she lifted her chin. “This isn’t easy for me.”
“What?” I asked again. “What are you doing that isn’t easy?”
Madison’s lips came together in a straight line as her green eyes glistened. “I knew Lena was wrong.” Lowering her head, she turned away.
Reaching out, I grasped her arm and spun her back toward me. “Lena didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“I asked her not to. I…I thought maybe…”
My temples pounded with an explosion of memories, hopes…dare I admit…dreams. “Fuck.” I pushed the front door inward. “Ten minutes, Madison. I’ll give you that.”
“You owe me more.”
I didn’t owe her a fucking thing.
That was my thought as she walked past me, stepping into my home, the one I’d purchased with the hope of more. I was done hoping. More didn’t come because someone wanted it or wished for it. More came from hard work. It came with success and if others were trampled along the way, so be it. I fucking wiped the grime from my Italian leather shoes and moved on.
Until that fucking dream came steamrolling back.
Shecame back.
She showed up at my door.
Madison’s eyes opened wide as she took in the interior. The house was nice, fucking nicer than what she had gotten used to having. Yes, I checked periodically. I sent a PI and I had Lena and Olivia to fill in blanks.
“Your house is beautiful, Van.”
“Its days are numbered.” There was another house on the property going through a remodel and expansion. As soon as it was completed, this one would be dust. “Much like your minutes. For the last time, what do you want?”
Her arms wrapped around her midsection as if she could hide behind them. Madison may be five years older than the last time I’d seen her, but she’d aged well. Her hair was still as blond and her eyes as vivid a green. At one time, I’d known every curve she had covered with the cheap sundress.
“I want to ask you a favor.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You want a favor from me?”
She nodded her head and walked farther into the house, pausing by the piano. “I miss hearing you play.”
I no longer played. That didn’t mean I’d get rid of the piano. I wouldn’t.
When I didn’t respond, Madison kept going, stepping over to the windows overlooking the bay. “You always said you’d get away from the city.”
“Apparently, I wasn’t worth the wait.”
Madison spun my direction. “You’re not being fair.”