The Bachelor's Perfect Match

by Kathryn Springer

  As soon as he said the words, Aiden wished he could take them back, but he didn’t want Maddie to join the long list of people who thought he was trying to cover his lapse in judgment with a lie.

  “Aiden—”

  “Never mind.” He couldn’t look at her. It was bad enough he’d seen the doubt in his brothers’ eyes. Aiden couldn’t bear to see it in Maddie’s, too. “It’s not like I can prove it.”

  * * *

  Bitterness saturated his words, and Maddie realized the damage to Aiden’s truck didn’t begin to compare to the internal injuries he’d suffered.

  Maddie stared at Aiden’s pickup and tried to imagine who would have done what he’d claimed. Someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Or someone who’d been distracted one moment and terrified the next, when Aiden’s truck had skidded into the ditch?

  Either way, the driver should have stopped to help.

  Lord, give me wisdom.

  And just like that, the answer came to Maddie.

  Let him tell his story.

  “What happened?”

  Aiden remained silent for so long, Maddie wasn’t even sure he’d heard her ask the question.

  “I don’t remember.” Aiden laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Now, that makes my claim sound legitimate, doesn’t it?”

  “You remember something,” Maddie said evenly. “Or you wouldn’t have told me there was another car.”

  The accident had made the local newspaper, but the article didn’t say anything about another vehicle involved. Still, Maddie couldn’t imagine Aiden making something like that up.

  She’d heard people describe him as reckless, but it didn’t fit the man who’d put the safety of the River Quest competitors first when he’d supervised the building of the wall that afternoon. Aiden might push the limits, but he didn’t ignore them or pretend they weren’t there just for an adrenaline rush.

  “It was a truck,” Aiden muttered. “The high beams blinded me for a second when it came around the corner. It all happened so fast. I thought we were going to hit head-on, so I took the ditch...and the truck kept going. I read Deputy Bristow’s report and found out another driver called 911. He stayed with me until the rescue squad showed up.”

  Maddie had never met the deputy in person, but she recognized the last name. Carter Bristow had sent in a registration form so his five-year-old daughter, Isabella, could attend the children’s story hour Maddie hosted at the library, but the little girl’s grandmother had always accompanied her.

  “Is Deputy Bristow looking into it?”

  “As far as I know, he closed the investigation because he couldn’t find any evidence to back up what I said.” Aiden’s gaze slid to the truck again. “And according to my brothers, if you end up with a mild concussion, your memory isn’t all that credible, either.”

  The shadows in Aiden’s eyes had returned. Did he think Brendan and Liam doubted his story, too? If so, Maddie knew it would only add more weight to the burden he carried.

  “What I do know is that someone wrecked my truck and my chance to...” His lips pressed together in a thin line, sealing off the words he’d been about to say. “Whoever it was should be held accountable. I’m not sure how, but I’m going to find out what happened.”

  Maddie wasn’t sure what Aiden had been about to say, but she believed him. Judging from his expression, he was as committed to finding the person who’d run him off the road as he was to finding his sister.

  She could only pray the truth that Aiden uncovered—in both of the searches—wouldn’t bring more pain.

  Chapter Eleven

  Aiden heard the heavy tread of footsteps outside the door of the sunroom and closed his eyes.

  “Aiden—”

  “Shh.” Liam’s voice. “He’s asleep.”

  “No, he’s not. He’s faking because he doesn’t want to talk to us.” The footsteps drew closer and stopped next to the couch. “You’re awake, aren’t you?”

  “No.”

  “What did I tell you?”

  Aiden cracked open one eye and saw his oldest brother grinning down at him.

  “Dodger...attack.”

  The dog, camped out underneath the rocking chair, didn’t so much as flash an incisor.

  “Really? Selective snarling?” Aiden scowled at his roommate. “No more rawhide chews for you.”

  Brendan flopped into the chair across from Aiden. “So, what do you think of the obstacle course so far? Mom said you took a group of teenagers out there today.”

  I think it’s not getting done as fast as you told me it would.

  Aiden didn’t dare voice the thought out loud, though. It was almost the end of September, but for the first time in a long time, business at Castle Falls Outfitters hadn’t shown any signs of slowing down. His brothers already crammed more hours in during their workweek than most people. Aiden wasn’t about to criticize them for not spending what little free time they had on a project that had been his idea in the first place.

  He wasn’t going to bring up the truck, either. In order to keep a grip on his emotions, Aiden had been trying to put it out of his mind...along with the memory of Maddie’s touch.

  A touch so light it shouldn’t even have registered, and yet the effects had lingered the rest of the afternoon.

  Brendan cleared his throat, and Aiden realized his brother was still waiting for an answer.

  “What we saw looked good,” Aiden said. “They didn’t see the whole course.”

  “Why not?” Liam claimed the other empty chair. “Did you convince them to give up? Don’t look at me like that, bro. I figured out your devious plan when we were in the Trading Post yesterday.”

  The plan that had backfired. Spectacularly. Maddie’s students had worked tirelessly for four hours. But instead of giving up, the more they worked, the more excited they seemed to get about the competition.

  Brendan frowned. “Why would he do that? I thought the goal was to register the maximum number of teams for the event.”

  “They need a little coaching, and Aiden claims it’s a conflict of interest,” Liam explained.

  “It is,” Aiden muttered.

  Laughter gleamed in Liam’s eyes. “I think you’re conflicted about your interest, all right.”

  Aiden pushed into a sitting position. A guy couldn’t effectively spar with his brothers while horizontal. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I’ve seen Maddie Montgomery twice in the past twenty-four hours,” Liam said. “And according to my sources, you’ve visited the local library a few times, too.”

  “Your sources?” Aiden repeated. “I want names.”

  “Don’t change the subject.” Brendan leaned back in the chair, crossed his arms behind his head. “This is getting interesting.”

  There was no way around it. Aiden was going to have to tell the truth. Or at least part of the truth. He could define his relationship with Maddie much easier than he could define all the conflicting emotions that relationship had brought into play.

  “I’ve been at the library because Maddie agreed to help me.”

  “Help you what?” Liam bent down, reached under the chair and ruffled one of Dodger’s ragged ears. “Are you finally going to finish that book report for freshman English?”

  “I asked Maddie to help me find our sister.”

  Eyes rounded. Mouths dropped open. As if Aiden’s statement had sucked all the oxygen from the room.

  “The day Liam announced his engagement to Anna, I promised I would track her down before the wedding,” he reminded them.

  “I know.” Brendan paused. “But, Aiden...”

  Based on past experience, Aiden knew those two words never preceded good news.

  “What?” he demanded. “Isn’t that the reason you told us? I was under the impre
ssion you wanted to find her.”

  Brendan flicked a look at Liam. “Of course we do.”

  That sounded convincing.

  Did they think Aiden was going to mess this up, too?

  Liam reached across the coffee table and gave Aiden’s shoulder an encouraging little cuff. Aiden supposed he should be grateful his brother hadn’t tried to scratch his ears, too.

  “Bren’s telling you the truth, Aiden, but we’re just not sure...what if she doesn’t want to be found?”

  It had never occurred to Aiden their sister might be content with her life. That she might know she had siblings without feeling the need to get to know them.

  “I have to try,” Aiden said tightly.

  Brendan and Liam exchanged The Look. They thought he was being stubborn. Or, even worse, that the search for their sister was simply one more challenge Aiden wanted to take on.

  Fine. Better his brothers think there were reasons for the quest other than the guilt that had started to gnaw away at Aiden ever since Brendan had broken the news about their youngest sibling.

  “You really think Maddie can track her down?” Liam waded bravely into the tense silence that had descended on the room. “It was a closed adoption. Wouldn’t the records be sealed?”

  “I’m not sure.” Unfortunately, that thought had crossed Aiden’s mind. Unlike him, Maddie wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions. The moment Aiden had uttered the words closed adoption, he’d seen the flicker of concern in her eyes. “But anything else Brendan can remember about the conversation between Carla and the social worker would be helpful.”

  “I told you everything I know.” Brendan closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were trying to re-create a picture in his mind. “I’d skipped school that day because I couldn’t stay awake in class. We’d spent half the night in the ER while the doctor stitched up your head after you fell off the fence at the park. I overheard Mom talking to someone in the kitchen and caught enough of the conversation to figure out what was going on. I couldn’t confront her without admitting I’d been listening in, though, and I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

  Aiden remembered the park, although it was a stretch to call it that. The square of concrete, once a small playground for a private school that had relocated to a safer part of the city, had become a gathering place for kids like Aiden and his brothers, who didn’t want to be at home.

  Aiden had a vague memory of grappling with a rusty chain-link fence because he’d decided it looked more fun than the swings. But it was a memory he shouldn’t have had at all, if Brendan had gotten the details right.

  “When you told us about our sister, you said I was about three at the time.”

  “Yeah. You were.”

  “I’m pretty sure I fell off that fence when I was five.”

  “No.”

  “He’s right, Bren,” Liam said. “The nurse said Aiden needed five stitches, and I remember him saying he knew how many that was because he was five years old.”

  Brendan still didn’t look completely convinced. “So what happened when he was three?”

  “That was the shopping cart debacle.”

  Aiden liked the way Liam summed things up. Debacle sounded so much better than “Aiden found an abandoned shopping cart, climbed inside and then proceeded to crash into the stop sign at the bottom of the hill.”

  “Right.” Brendan shuddered at the memory. “I can’t believe I blocked that one out.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Liam chucked a pillow at their brother. “It’s Aiden’s for ending up in the emergency room so many times.”

  Aiden knew his brother was trying to lighten the moment, but he didn’t argue.

  A lot of things that had happened in their family were his fault.

  * * *

  “Checkmate.”

  Maddie blinked and the chessboard came back into view. So did her dad’s smiling face across the coffee table, and the king he’d neatly pinned in the corner with nothing more than a pawn and a rook.

  “You won.” Maddie couldn’t even recall the move that had sealed the white kingdom’s doom.

  Ever since she’d arrived at her parents’ house for their weekly Saturday night dinner, Maddie hadn’t been able to prevent her wayward thoughts from straying beyond the walls of the living room.

  Ordinarily, she looked forward to playing chess with her dad and sharing what had happened over the course of the week, but no matter how hard Maddie tried, the last conversation she’d had with Aiden kept scrolling through her mind.

  “I certainly did,” her dad agreed with a wink. He slid Maddie’s king across the board. “Care for a rematch?”

  “It’s going to have to wait until after dessert.” Tara Montgomery poked her head out of the kitchen. “Dinner is almost ready.”

  “I’ll set the table while Dad basks in the glow of victory.” Maddie rose to her feet and padded into the kitchen, where her mother was garnishing the salads with chunks of crusty bread and a dusting of Parmesan cheese.

  Tara loved to cook, and meals had always been on the formal side while Maddie was growing up. Tonight, French onion soup simmered in a pot on the back of the stove, and steam rose from the rosemary chicken and red potatoes arranged on a platter.

  A few hours ago, Maddie had been sitting cross-legged on the ground with her students, dipping tortilla chips in the bowl of fresh salsa Sunni had packed in the cooler and passing it around the circle while Aiden recounted some of his adventures to an exhausted but captivated work crew.

  Maddie had been a little captivated, too.

  Listening to Aiden, Maddie had witnessed the fun-loving daredevil who’d led countless expeditions into the wilderness. No wonder people requested him as their guide. Aiden could make anyone believe that things like lightning strikes and snakes napping under the seat in the canoe were all part of the outdoor experience.

  Like any gifted storyteller, Aiden probably embellished the details a little—but Maddie had no doubt he’d been telling her the truth about the accident.

  She’d left several hours ago, but the image of the crumpled pickup truck remained etched in Maddie’s mind. Until now, she’d been able to separate Aiden’s injuries from the accident that had caused them. Not anymore. Now she could match the damage—the shards of broken glass, the gouges and dents where the vehicle had connected with the ground—to the damage Aiden’s body had sustained.

  Maddie closed her eyes and thanked God again for sparing him.

  “Maddie?” Her mom’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Are you feeling all right?”

  The picture dissolved, and Maddie realized she had one hand pressed against her middle.

  It had to be hardwired in every mom, the ability to morph from gourmet chef to doctor in less than an instant. Tara abandoned the French silk pie on the counter and zoomed in for a closer look.

  “I’m—” Maddie forced down the bile that had risen in her throat, a side effect that came from imagining a world without Aiden Kane “—fine, Mom.”

  Tara didn’t look convinced. “You seem a little distracted today, sweetheart...and you look a little flushed. Are you sure?”

  “Really, Mom.” Maddie forced a smile. “I spent the afternoon outside, and my ten-hour sunscreen only lasted four.”

  “You should have called your dad if you needed help raking leaves. You know how much he enjoys puttering around outside.”

  Actually, Maddie knew that her dad, a retired high school history teacher, preferred to spend a Saturday afternoon in his study with a cup of French roast coffee and a Winston Churchill biography. He only “puttered around outside” when absolutely necessary. And he spent more time tending the postage-stamp-size lawn around the library than his own, so that Maddie wouldn’t have to.

  “I wasn’t raking leaves today. The high school students I’ve been tutoring s
igned up for River Quest, so we checked out the course together.” She decided not to mention they’d also helped build one of the obstacles for that course.

  “On a Saturday?” Tara didn’t look happy. “I thought you only met with your high school students during the week. And why are you chaperoning their field trips? Isn’t that the school’s responsibility?”

  Maddie braced herself for another conversation about boundaries. If it were up to her parents, her duties at the library would cease when she locked the door at the end of the day.

  “It’s my responsibility because it was my idea. I got permission from the library board to sponsor the team.” Maddie opened a drawer in the built-in china cabinet and retrieved three linen napkins embroidered with autumn leaves. “Last week I couldn’t get the kids excited about anything, and now they can’t wait to go back to Sunni Mason’s tomorrow.”

  The frown that creased her mom’s forehead told Maddie that her dad had mentioned seeing Aiden in the library. And that Tara had instantly connected the family dots.

  “I read the article in the newspaper. Isn’t Aiden Kane in charge of the event?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Maddie edged toward the dining room, but her mom blocked her path, a sign the conversation wasn’t over. “River Quest was Aiden’s idea, but his whole family is involved.”

  “And he recruited your students?”

  A smile surfaced before Maddie could prevent it. “Actually, it was the other way around. I recruited him. Justin and Tyler needed a coach.”

  “I understand your wanting to sponsor a team, sweetheart, but why can’t you just write a check?”

  Maddie could have...but she wouldn’t have seen Justin and Tyler’s looks of pride when they’d finished the wall. Wouldn’t have heard Skye laugh.

  Wouldn’t have discovered the truth about Aiden’s accident and seen a very different side to Castle Falls’ most popular daredevil.