Madison was perched on the armchair in front of them, equally shocked. She was staring at Haley wide-eyed, apparently too weirded out to speak.
“Wow, I mean, just whoa,” Alice said, fluttering her hands. “Why did you think he waited so long to tell you?”
Ah, that was a very good question. Haley had no clue what the answer might be.
“What if he was waiting for the moment it’d hurt the most?” Madison spoke for the first time since Haley had got home and told her best friends of the dreadful discovery. “Did something happen between you and Scott?”
“No,” Haley said. “Nothing out of the ordinary. I have no idea why David chose today of all days to remove the pin from the grenade.”
“So,” Alice asked tentatively, “is it a grenade?”
“Well,” Haley scoffed. “David and I kissed. How do you think Scott is going to take the news?”
“It happened before you even met him. Scott can’t get mad about it.”
Haley threw Alice an icy stare she hoped sent the message: Yeah, because when you found out Madison had slept with Jack before she even met you, that made you so not care…
Madison caught the stare and blushed.
Alice, too, got the unspoken memo all right and grimaced. “But you didn’t know, and it’s not like you hid the kiss from Scott on purpose.”
“Scott will look at me in a different way. This entire beef between him and David started over another girl they both dated back in high school. So I think Scott is definitely going to mind if his girlfriend happens to have a past with his brother.”
“Did David try to steal Scott’s girlfriend or something?” Madison asked.
“It was shadier than that,” Haley said. “This French girl, Brigitte, came to their school for an exchange program in her junior year. She was in the same grade as Scott, and a year younger than David.”
“Same as you…” Madison interrupted.
“Yeah.” Haley didn’t like the parallels one bit. “Anyway, apparently she was unbelievably beautiful and had this impossible-to-resist accent…”
Alice raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“…and she was a total bitch,” Haley continued. “She started dating David right away, but Scott told me they had like almost every class together, and they talked, and he was in love with her, and things with David weren’t going well, blah, blah, blah. Long story short, Miss Brigitte told Scott she’d broken up with David when she hadn’t, then started dating him too.”
“How’s that even possible?” Madison asked.
Haley shrugged. “I only heard Scott’s side of the story. She told him it was too soon after her breakup with David for them to date openly.”
“Okay,” Alice said slowly. “So she kept her relationship with Scott a secret. But if she was still officially dating David, how could Scott not notice?”
“I don’t know,” Haley said, exasperated. “She must’ve been an evil mastermind, making sure she went out with David only when Scott wasn’t around.”
“For how long?” Alice again.
“I. Don’t. Knoooow.” Haley was tired of answering all these questions, especially since none of them were bringing her any closer to deciding what to do next. Specifically, how to tell Scott. “Whatever little Scott told me, I had to drag out of him, and already it was harder than a dental extraction.”
“Ew.” Madison made a gagging impression.
Haley rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’m not sure how it happened. The only certain fact is that at some point David found them together, confronted his brother, and asked Brigitte to choose. She chose Scott, and because Scott kept dating her, David doesn’t believe Scott didn’t know she’d been cheating on David with him.”
Alice low-whistled. “Talk about family intrigue.”
“See why I’m not ecstatic history is repeating itself?”
“This is completely different,” Alice insisted.
“Totally,” Madison agreed. “Hey, do you think David recognized you right away?”
Haley closed her eyes, trying to remember the first time she’d met David—without him wearing a mask, at least. Haley and Alice had been in Hawaii for Christmas, playing groupies for the Harvard basketball team as Alice had been dating the team’s captain, Peter, at the time. That trip had also been when Haley had met Scott. And since Peter and Scott had been sharing a room, Haley had agreed to swap roommates so that Alice and Peter could bunk together. Except reception had confused Scott Williams with David Williams, and they’d sent her to the wrong room. She’d knocked on a door expecting to see Scott, and had found herself staring into David’s blue eyes instead. Had he recognized her at once? Haley squeezed her eyes tighter, pressing her hands to her temples. When David had opened the door and found her on his doorstep, all he’d said was: “Hello, again.”
Had that again meant everything… or nothing at all? Had he simply recognized her from the plane ride? Haley couldn’t tell, because immediately after saying hello David had acted like a total jerk, and then Scott had arrived, and then they’d started beating the hell out of each other and trashing the hotel room as they fought.
How didn’t I recognize him? Haley asked herself. His lips, his eyes, his scent… There’d been a moment when David had pulled her close and held her against his bare chest, just as Scott had turned the corner of the hall and found them talking. David had kept Haley tucked into him for a few long instants to make his brother mad, but he hadn’t smelled of citrus and the sea then. He must’ve used a different soap since they were staying in a hotel and he’d just gotten out of the shower. Or he must’ve not had the time to put on cologne…
“Hel-lo?” Madison called her back to present.
“Yeah, sorry.” Haley rubbed her eyes and opened them. “I’m not sure if he recognized me right away, Maddie. With David, it’s always hard to tell what’s going on inside his head.”
“You know nothing,” Alice joked. “You’re worse than Jon Snow!”
Haley grabbed a pillow and playfully smothered Alice with it. “You guys aren’t helping. I need to decide what to do.”
“Hey, I’m innocent here.” Alice stole the pillow and positioned it behind her back. “So, is this revelation making you feel any different about David? Does it make you question your relationship with Scott?”
Haley couldn’t help but notice the way Madison perked up in her armchair. Almost as if she hoped Haley would say yes. Sorry, Maddie. “No, I love Scott,” Haley said, looking away.
“Are you sure?” Alice insisted. “When you came back from the Venetian Ball last summer you seemed pretty taken up with masked Dav—”
Madison’s super loud ringtone filled the room, interrupting Alice. “Hello?” she picked up. “No, sure… You do that… No… Yes… I’m on my way.” All frenzied by the call, Madison stood up. “Guys, I forgot it’s my book club night. I should go or I’ll be late.” Then she sat back down. “I mean,” she added, chewing her lower lip between words. “I can stay if you need me to.” And then she started babbling. “It’s not like I can’t skip one night, even if I’m president of the club. I’m here for you. The chapters we’re discussing tonight aren’t all that interesting anyway; we’re still nowhere near chapter twenty-two or chapter twenty-nine…”
Haley goggled at Alice to check if she had any idea what Madison was rambling about, but her other roommate shrugged and shook her head.
“…but, still, I’m president of the club, and I proposed this month’s book—the classic not the retelling—so perhaps I should go?”
Madison finally went quiet, even if she kept torturing her lower lip with her teeth.
“Go,” Haley said. “I’m fine. I mean, I’m not fine, but you can’t do anything about it. And I have Alice to help psychoanalyze me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep!”
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Madison stood up again and
, bending at the waist, she pulled Haley into a bone-crushing hug before disappearing into her room to get dressed. She dashed back out all of three minutes later looking adorably crumpled in a frilly short dress with ruffles. Her style was completed by messy hair pinned on top of her head with a pencil, a frayed leather messenger bag strapped across her chest, and giant black glasses covering half her face. She was beautiful in a sexy-but-innocent librarian way, if only she’d realize it. If Madison gained just a dash of self-confidence, she’d be able to get any guy she wanted.
Well, not any guy. Not my guy.
But there was no reason for Madison not to find a gorgeous, loving, and caring boyfriend.
Haley still couldn’t understand why her friend seemed only to fall for the bad boys. Scott being the one decent-guy exception, but also the only guy Madison had never approached.
“I’m going,” Madison said. “Call me if you need anything.”
Haley smirked. “Aren’t cell phones banned from book club meetings?”
Madison’s eyes widened, her expression crestfallen.
“I’m joking,” Haley said.
“Ah, of course. Well, bye, girls.”
Madison blew them each a kiss and then was gone.
After the door clicked shut, Alice waited for all of two seconds before attacking Haley again with questions. “Now tell me, how do you really feel?”
Haley winced. “I don’t knooow.” She collapsed theatrically on the couch.
“Mmm… I sense a lie by omission here,” Alice insisted.
“Please stay out of my head.”
“Please let me in so we can sort out this Williams brothers situation.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“When I say ‘David,’ what’s your gut feeling?”
The little air pocket Haley felt in her belly was not the reaction she wanted to have after hearing his name. “Sometimes, I’m sort of drawn to him,” she confessed. “It’s this inexplicable, almost animal thing. He makes me tick, not sure why, because I genuinely dislike him. But whenever I’m near him I’m on edge… and knowing how good a kisser he is doesn’t help.”
“So you’re attracted to him in all his bad-boy glory,” Alice said, smirking. “Your body wants him and your mind can’t cope.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Apparently so.” Alice paused for a second before asking the next question. “Have you ever been tempted to… act on this attraction?”
“Hell, no.” Haley straightened up. “I’m with Scott, I love Scott. He’s the sweetest, most adorable…”
“Hot,” Alice suggested.
“…incredibly hot boyfriend in the entire world.”
“So why are you so worried? If you’re not having any existential which-brother-should-I-date doubts, what’s the matter?”
“Alice, I know I’m okay. But what about Scott? I don’t want to lie to him, but…”
“Lie? Why should you lie?”
“He’s going to ask me if I liked the kiss. What should I say?”
“Ah.”
“Yeah, ah! What if he starts asking all the wrong questions? Like, did I think about the kiss after it happened…? Should I tell him the truth and say I spent the next six months obsessing over his brother?”
“Err… probably not. You should downplay it a bit.”
“In short, lie.”
“In short, sugarcoat the truth a little for the greater good?”
“See why I’m not eager to have that conversation?”
Alice pulled Haley’s feet onto her lap and started massaging her ankles. “Eager or not, you’d better rip off the Band-Aid. No good can come from waiting.”
Haley groaned. “You’re so completely right. I hate you.”
“Aw, come on, you know you love me. Even when I’m painfully right.”
“I do.” Haley smacked her lips in a loud air kiss. “Any suggestion on the best way to tell Scott?”
Eight
Madison
“Madison, hey,” a familiar male voice called from behind her. “Wait up.”
She turned to find Scott waving at her. All the air left her lungs, leaving Madison breathless. Usually, when she saw him, she’d had time to prepare. But to meet him in the street by chance just like that, Madison was caught off guard. He was looking glorious in basketball shorts and a loose tank top, a cool sackpack strapped to his back. Her eyes roamed the length of his bare, muscled arms up to his shoulders, collarbone, chin, mouth… And those eyes… they were the darkest green in the soft light of the street lamps.
“Hey,” Madison managed to mumble. “What are you doing here?”
“I just came from the park,” he said, catching up with her. “There’s a basketball court there, so we go play sometimes. Didn’t expect it to last this long, but we ended up with a tie and had to do a re-match.”
“Did you win?” Madison asked with a smirk.
“Of course.” Scott winked. “Want to walk home together? Your house is on the way to mine.”
Did she want to walk home with Scott? Yes, please.
“What are you doing out so late?” he asked, and gave her a subtle once-over that made shivers spider-walk from her heels up the back of her legs and all the way up her spine to her nape. “Not playing basketball, I guess,” he joked.
“Book club night.” Madison smiled shyly as she started walking. “The discussion got a bit more heated than anticipated and we finished late…”
“Oh, which book?”
“Northanger Abbey. We’re reading the classic version alongside a modern retelling that stirred a literary fire.”
“The retelling, is it any good?”
“Why? You enjoy reading Jane Austen?”
“Hey, I might be a dude, but we’re not all like Mark Twain. I love Jane; I don’t want to ‘dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin bone’ every time I read Pride and Prejudice.”
“So have you read it many times?”
“Ah, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that a book lover has to read it more than once.”
Scott was walking her home, and now, on top of looking gorgeous in his sporty clothes, he was quoting Jane Austen at her. Could a guy get any more perfect? Madison bit her lower lip so forcefully she almost drew blood. How was she supposed to get over him? But I need to… I have no choice. Scott doesn’t want me, he’ll never want me. He has Haley… why would he ever spare me a second glance?
“So,” Scott continued, “is Pride and Prejudice your favorite Austen novel?”
“Nah, I’m more of a Persuasion kind of girl. I identify better with Anne Elliot than Elizabeth Bennet.”
Scott gave a slight double take. “Not searching for your Mr. Darcy, then?”
You are my Mr. Darcy.
STOP IT, her conscience raged inside her.
Madison cleared her throat to hide her internal battle. “It’s not about the hero, but the leading lady. Lizzy is too fierce, and I’m not. And my family… they can be pushy, just like the Elliots.”
“You mean they persuaded you to break off an engagement with the love of your life?”
Madison giggled. “No, it’s more of a modern-day issue.”
Scott raised his eyebrows interrogatively.
“My dad wants me to become a lawyer to join the family business,” Madison explained.
“Ah, and you don’t want to?”
“No, never have.”
“What would you want to do?”
Madison stared up at the night sky, wondering why she was pouring her heart out to Scott. She never discussed her plans and dreams for the future with anybody, so why open up to him? You know why… Yeah, she did. But what good could come of it?
“I’m sorry,” Scott said. “You probably don’t want to discuss your entire life plan on your way home on a random Monday night.”
“No, it’s not that.” Madison turned
to look at him and found his bright green eyes trained on her. It made her knees go soft. “It’s just that when you ask someone what they want… I mean, I doubt there’s a harder question to answer, right?”
“Touché.”
“If I had to tell you my biggest dream, it’d be to be a writer. To live in a small, remote cottage on the beach on the coast of Maine. Somewhere cold, with a view of a lighthouse, and only the sound of waves as a companion.”
“Sounds tempting…”
“You like to write, too?”
“Yeah, I love it.”
“Fiction, poetry…?”
“A bit of both. You?”
“Mostly fiction… I like stories.”
“So what’s stopping you from following that dream?” Scott challenged.
“My father would never accept it. The only other Smithson who refused to be a lawyer is my cousin Ethan…”
“I’m sure they didn’t burn him at the stake.”
“No, but his father told him Harvard was no longer free for kids who didn’t play the good little lawyer. So you see why I’m worried about becoming a penniless writer with so much debt on my shoulders. I would have to find a more reliable source of income. A job I could actually stomach that still had to do with books…”
“Like?”
“Like becoming a teacher, or working at a publishing house, or even a publishing startup.”
“Seems like a good plan.”
“More brave than good. I’m not sure I’ll ever find the guts.”
“Would you rather do a job you hate to make your dad happy?”
“No, I’m just saying that whatever I do, someone is going to be disappointed, and it won’t be easy either way.”
“No,” Scott agreed. “Nothing worthwhile ever is.”
Did that apply also to love? Madison wondered, and then she shifted the focus of the conversation away from herself. “Have you always wanted to be a doctor?”
Scott smiled. “So Haley has been talking about me?”
“She has.”
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