Now wasn’t that time.
“You’re making it sound like I’ve abandoned my family,” she said. “As you said yourself, I’ve lived on that ranch for basically all of my life. I don’t have to set foot on the property every day, you know.”
Des rolled his eyes again. They were bright and ever-changing blue, just like hers and Caleb’s. Madi felt another jab of guilt looking into them. He’d been the first person she’d told about her dream of running a bed-and-breakfast and the first person who had encouraged her to follow that dream when the old Richman house had gone up for sale.
Even now, after her childishness, he kept to the high road.
“I’m not saying you are obligated to check in. You don’t have to go to the ranch at all, but you need to at least own up to the reason why you’re currently not making any appearances there.” His expression softened. “You’re avoiding Mom and you know it.”
Madi did know it but she didn’t dare admit it. Thankfully, she didn’t have to find a way to avoid the truth he was pointing out to her a moment longer. Like she knew his moods, she had to concede that he knew hers. Des took his cue to leave with grace. He walked around the table, gave her a kiss on the forehead and smiled. Then on went the Stetson.
“I really am proud of what you’ve done here, Madi. So are Mom and the others. Give them a chance to prove it to you.”
Madi watched him leave without another word.
In the small town of Overlook, Tennessee, there were no hotels or motels. If you wanted a place to lay your head, then you’d have to leave town limits to get it. The Hidden Hills Inn was Overlook’s quick and easy option for tourists who’d rather not bust their budgets by trying to rent one of the few cabins deeper in the forest and near the mountains. Or at the Wild Iris Retreat.
There was that flare of guilt again.
Her family owned the retreat. One Madi had left to open her own version of a hotel.
They’re different, she reminded herself. The retreat was for guests seeking an authentic experience of living on a ranch and staying on the land. Hidden Hills was just a cozy, less expensive place to spend a night or two. I’m not stealing anyone from Mom! They have more business than I do!
Someone cleared their throat behind her. Madi jumped clear out of her seat.
“Whoa there!” Julian had his hands out as if he could steady her despite the distance between them. “Sorry! I thought you heard me.”
Madi put her palm against her chest and gave him an embarrassed smile.
“No worries. I was just stuck in my own head.” She motioned to the road that Des had just driven away on. “My brother has a habit of making me think too hard.”
Julian took the joke with a good laugh and what almost looked like a dose of relief. Though maybe that was a touch of wishful thinking on Madi’s part. There was no denying Julian Mercer was a handsome man. His hair was as black as night and cropped close, neat. His eyes were dark, too, but held a softness to them as they moved to hers. While he was a tall, obviously muscled man, the sharp angles of his nose and jaw were an elegant kind of ruggedness. Madi placed his age around her own and noted on reflex that his ring finger was very much bare.
“Family has a funny way of doing that, don’t they?”
Madi nodded. Heat surprised her by moving up to her cheeks beneath the man’s dark gaze. It inspired an offer she didn’t have time to think about before saying.
“Would you like to join me, Mr. Mercer?” She waved to the table behind her; the lemonade pitcher on its surface had more than enough for two more glasses left in it. “Unless you would prefer to be alone, which is absolutely fine.”
The man’s smile only stretched.
“You can call me Julian,” he said, moving around her to the other chair. Its dainty size made him look even more rugged and muscled. Still, there was a softness to his eyes. One that, despite herself, intrigued Madi.
“And you can call me Madi. Madeline was my grandmother.”
Julian nodded and watched politely as she flipped a cup right side up from the serving tray and filled it. He chuckled before taking a drink.
“What’s so funny?”
“My friend just told me I need to learn how to enjoy myself more. One thing he suggested?” He tipped his glass toward her. “Buy a lady a drink. I was wondering if this counts?”
The heat in her face started to travel south, propelled by the glint in his eye. Madi knew it was probably just her imagination and yet...
“I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t.”
Julian’s eyebrow arched but his smile stayed.
“I can work with that.”
They lapsed into a pleasant conversation. It stretched into a walk along one of the trails. Then that became dinner. A proper drink came after.
Madi was too wrapped up in the unexpected great time to notice that the figure out in the woods that night wasn’t just a shadow between the trees. It was a man.
Watching.
Waiting.
Chapter Two
Six months later, Madi was standing on the back porch, trying really hard to convince herself that she wasn’t thinking about Julian Mercer. There wasn’t time, and even if there were, she had already gone down that particular road so much that her tires were absolutely bare. Her metaphorical tires. Her real tires were in fine condition and attached to the van she hadn’t wanted, but needed, to buy.
She replaced the mental image of smiling Julian Mercer with one of her behind the wheel, gunning in the direction of Loraine Wilson. She knew it wasn’t polite, but it made her smile to imagine wiping the smug look off that wealthy woman’s face.
Madi knew a murderous rampage was taking her irritation too far, but she could blame it on her hormones.
Being pregnant, in the Tennessee summer heat no less, had stretched her patience and politeness thin.
“How are you doing it?”
Jenna Diggins—Hidden Hills’ chef, bartender and occasional cleaner—nodded toward the stone pathway that led from the backyard and forked between the rental cabin and a small nature trail. Loraine, one of three guests currently booked at Hidden Hills, was pacing across it, immersed in her phone conversation.
“How am I doing what?” Madi asked, feigning innocence. Jenna wasn’t just the only other employee—she had been Madi’s friend for a decade.
Jenna giggled. She bumped her shoulder against Madi’s.
“How are you destroying Mrs. Pearls and Coiffed Hair?”
Madi swatted at the woman but didn’t deny anything.
“Destroying seems like such a harsh word. What I’m doing is simply giving her a love bump with my new mom van.” She paused, then grinned. “Over and over again.”
Jenna laughed and handed her a bottle of water from her backpack. Madi took it, grateful.
Summer in Tennessee was just about Madi’s favorite time. Every tree and flower was teeming with life; every stream, creek and river was asking for companionship; and the skies stayed a shade of blue that had a way of making Madi appreciate life all the way down in her bones.
Or at least that had been her feeling about the sunny season before she’d been pregnant.
Now the sun made her already-hot body hotter, the trees and flowers stood by as the mosquitoes and bugs dive-bombed her every chance they got, and the blue of the sky was a reminder that she wasn’t the same woman she had been the year before. Just like she wouldn’t be the same woman next year, either.
The water was the only part of summer that Madi remained fond of, which was why she was getting ready to show the guests to the creek in the nearby forest that stretched across the property line. Madi had grown up taking advantage of the creeks and ponds and rivers to cool off. Not even Loraine’s passive-aggressive comments could derail her plans to enjoy herself today.
Someone cleared their throat beh
ind them. Heat instantly flooded Madi’s cheeks. Ray Cutler, the guest staying in the rental cabin, gave them a humoring look.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “After listening to her go on and on about how she had to let her dog nanny go because she was positive he was watching her Netflix, I can appreciate your frustration.”
Jenna laughed but Madi still felt shame at being caught bad-mouthing a guest. After her whirlwind romance earlier that year she’d made a vow to never stray into unprofessional territory again. She should have known better. Yet there she was prattling on about how she’d like to run over someone less than two yards away.
“It’s the hormones making me cranky,” she said, knowing it was a lame excuse. “That and the heat, and I can’t stop babbling nonsense.” Jenna snorted. Madi pushed on. “Are you ready to go, Ray?”
Ray was what Madi’s mother, Dorothy, would call a middle man. He wasn’t short but he wasn’t tall. There was no myriad of muscles filling out his clothes but he wasn’t bone thin, either. He had one of those faces that seemed to be universally familiar, pleasant to look at but not knee-buckling handsome. His hair was a dirty blond, cut short and wavy, and for the last two days he’d been sporting a pair of glasses across his dark eyes. His personality so far had fallen in the middle, too. Polite and quiet but vocal when you hit the right topic. Madi liked the man because—unlike Loraine and her husband, Nathan—his love for the outdoors and Overlook seemed genuine. He cracked a broad smile.
“Two lovely ladies taking little ole me out to the creek on a hot summer day? This day would only get better if I could go back and tell my fifth-grade self about it.”
Madi and Jenna laughed and soon they were off across the stone path. Loraine ended her call but didn’t seem interested in focusing on her husband. Instead she breezed past him and matched Madi’s pace when the stones ended and the dirt trail began.
“Sorry about that,” she started, waving her smartphone around. “You’d think our gardener would know what we want by now. Do I like succulents? Yes. Do I want them in my bedroom? No. Roses are the only flower I’ll allow in there, and only on special occasions. You’d think after working for us for over a year he’d know better.” She let out a long, dramatic sigh. “But I suppose it isn’t his fault. His daughter is trying to become some kind of interior designer. She’s been trying to use me for practice. Stick with what you know, little girl. I’m not running some kind of weird work charity.”
Loraine gave Madi a look that clearly said she was waiting to be agreed with. Madi begrudgingly flexed her customer service muscles.
“Working relationships are hard to navigate sometimes. I used to work with my family before I opened Hidden Hills. It definitely can be tricky.”
Loraine nodded emphatically. Her hair, a teased-out red that matched her shade of lipstick and her purse, barely moved at the motion. A look of disgust flitted across her impeccably made-up face.
“My Nathan is a wonderful man in the boardroom but I barely can stand him at the house sometimes. I can’t imagine working alongside him, either. He’s been talking about retiring early and staying at home and that just makes my skin crawl.” Loraine let out a laugh. It wasn’t a good one. From Madi’s experience with the socialite during the past two days, she knew what was coming next. “Maybe I should do what you did. Buy a funny little house out in the middle of nowhere to keep myself busy. How fun would that be?”
Madi couldn’t blame the pregnancy hormones on the rage that kicked up in her chest. Luckily, she didn’t have the time to regret anything she might have said. Loraine prattled on without a care in the world.
And right onto the worst subject she could have prattled about.
“Though I suppose you won’t be doing this for much longer. Once that baby of yours is here you won’t have time to be a single mother and run your little inn.” Madi must have made a face. Loraine adopted a look of concern. Madi doubted it was real. “Oh, honey, just remember, there’s no shame in raising a kid all on your own. Whoever the father is, I’m sure you had nothing to do with him abandoning you. Try not to beat yourself up about it, okay? It isn’t healthy for you or the baby.”
Every part of Madi tensed. Her shoulders, her jaw, her fists. Her heart. Good customer service and good manners became just words in her head. Loraine Wilson continued to smile. There was a pointedness to it. An edge. Sharper than she’d expect from the wife of a rich businessman from Portland.
Loraine was intentionally trying to rile her up.
Why?
Was she that bored? Was she that unhappy in her own life that she had to tear down others?
“Hey, Madi! Could I steal you for a second? I have a question about tonight’s dinner.”
Bless her heart, Jenna appeared at Madi’s other elbow like a guardian angel. She gave her a squeeze that brought Madi out of her angry haze and back to reality.
“Sure, let’s talk.” Madi pointed a small nod and an even smaller smile at Loraine. “Just keep following the path. If you’ll excuse me a moment.” The woman seemed put out that the conversation was ending and let her husband, Nathan, who had been trailing behind them deep in his business call, walk alongside her.
Madi and Jenna waited until there were a few feet between them and started walking again.
“That was uncalled-for,” Jenna said in a harsh whisper. “Want me to go get the van?”
Madi didn’t mean what she said next but her heart was hurting. And she was sure that Loraine had done that on purpose.
“Forget the van. I’d like results faster than that.”
Jenna’s expression softened. She put her arm around her friend. They walked the rest of the way to the creek without saying a word.
The pain in Madi’s chest only grew once she dipped her feet into the cool, crisp water.
Madi felt no joy in it.
And that was Loraine’s fault, too.
* * *
THE DAY CRAWLED into night. After showing the guests the creek, Madi busied herself with chores around the inn. For the first time since opening Hidden Hills, she skipped dinner with the guests. Not that it was required of her or even asked, yet she had thought it was a nice touch. Tonight she couldn’t stomach sitting there and pretending everything was all right.
It wasn’t.
Even before Loraine showed up.
It had been almost five months since Madi had found out she was pregnant. In that time a lot of things had gone right and wrong. The inn had hit its stride for a few months and made Madi money rather than just breaking even. She threw herself into work and welcomed the distraction that kept her thoughts away from the fact that Julian Mercer was nowhere to be found.
The number he’d given her was disconnected. The emails she’d sent bounced back. His social media existed but wasn’t active. They’d spent two amazing, surprising and magical days together that had turned into a week. One blissful week she had never imagined would be as great as it had been. Yet the moment Julian’s SUV had disappeared down the road on his way out, it was like the man had vanished completely.
Since then the burn of anger and embarrassment had cooled. The drive to be the best parent she could be had taken its place. Along with what she had thought was acceptance. Never seeing the father of her unborn child again was a harsh reality, sure, but what had she really expected? What they’d had was, to her, once-in-a-lifetime hot, but once in a lifetime nonetheless. Julian had been a ship passing in the night. A momentary escape.
Though that had been her decision, hadn’t it?
Could she be mad at him for being radio silent after she’d been the one who said their week together was all they should have?
Madi ran her hand over her naked belly. The water from the bath had never been that warm. Now it was cold. She was only fooling herself. Almost every single time she felt her stomach she thought about Julian. Where was the mountain of a m
an who had rocked her world? She felt an emptiness that let Madi know she hadn’t accepted anything. At least, not with any enthusiasm.
The music that had been playing from her phone lowered. A rhythmic sequence of beeps filled the bathroom as a call came through. Jenna’s name scrolled along the screen. Madi wasn’t about to ignore her friend, even if she’d asked not to be disturbed.
Madi sloshed water out of the tub and with wet fingers answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Sorry to mess up your quiet night,” Jenna said, diving in. “But, uh, I have Nathan here with me right now and—” There was a rustling sound as she must have moved away from the man. She lowered her voice as she continued. “He wants to know if you and Loraine are done talking.”
Madi gave her reflection in the mirror over the sink a dubious look before grabbing her towel to dry off.
“Come again?”
“Right? That’s what I was thinking when he asked but he said that you called Loraine an hour ago and asked her to come up to your room. He tried calling her to come to dinner but the phone went straight to voice mail. He didn’t want to come up there because he didn’t know the rules.”
Madi felt her eyebrows fly high.
“Why would I do any of that? I wanted to not be disturbed because of Loraine. She was two seconds out from getting popped in the face.”
“Nathan seems adamant.”
Madi sighed.
“Tell him to go ahead and call Loraine again. She was probably just tying up the phone line with her gardener complaining about life.”
Jenna repeated the suggestion while Madi bent down awkwardly. She felt around for the drain plug and shouldered the phone. When a song started blaring from the next room she nearly dropped both.
Credible Alibi Page 2