It was a game to him.
Well, two could play that game.
“Right here? In my parents’ house? Aren’t you brave.”
She held his gaze and watched him mentally backpedal.
Sort of.
“I never have been able to resist a good cupcake. How did you know they were my favorite?”
She couldn’t take her eyes off his as he bit into it. She hated herself for melting just a little on the inside. And, wow, nice of her sisters to be so facilitating. Calling him up and somehow persuading him to drop everything to come over for cupcakes and Ping-Pong. Were they in middle school?
Maddie glanced at them, but they were pretending to be engrossed in a conversation of their own.
After what transpired last night, this was possibly the most awkward situation she’d been in in a long time. She didn’t know whether to curse her sisters for making it happen or pledge her undying gratitude.
This was either the beginning of something disastrous...or something very, very good.
Chapter Six
“Ready to get down to business?” Zach asked after he’d finished his cupcake—dark chocolate with mocha icing. “Best three of five? Winner of each round is the person who reaches ten first.”
Standing in the Fortunado recreation room, staring across the long green tennis table at Maddie, Zach couldn’t imagine any place else he’d rather be right now. Even with Schuyler and Val sitting on the sidelines, lost in conversation about who knew what, not really paying attention.
“Sure.” Maddie grimaced at Schuyler. “The winner can play the guest of honor.”
Schuyler pointedly stared at Val, acting completely engrossed in their conversation.
When Val had called him and extended the invitation to come over—to play Ping-Pong, of all things—he wondered if this was a setup orchestrated by the sisters on behalf of Maddie. What had she told them? He’d had other plans, but he had immediately rescheduled them.
Why not? He hadn’t engaged in a good round of table tennis in years. It seemed like a good way to break the ice after the events of the previous night. Even if Maddie’s sisters had in mind a personal outcome for Maddie and him, he would steer this get-together another way. It would be a fun, nonthreatening way to get him and Maddie back on the business track. They were meeting with Dave Madison, the developer of the Paisley, first thing Monday morning. It would be a good opportunity to go over their strategy so that their Monday meeting with Madison would be seamless and, most important, successful. They had one week before the wedding, one week before Kenneth would make his decision.
“You serve first.” Zach tossed the ball across the table to Maddie. She caught it with a deft swipe of her left hand and proceeded to bounce the ball on the table with the paddle, showing off her skills.
Maddie was quieter than usual. Almost to the point of seeming that she didn’t want him there. Zach was feeling a little subdued himself. That was even more reason that they needed to get over the quicksand of awkwardness and back on stable ground. He was happy to be the one to lead the way.
“Now you’re just showing off.” Zach picked up the beer Schuyler had offered him when he’d arrived. “Where are your parents?”
“They’re out tonight.” She rolled her eyes. “Disappointed that you won’t get to try to score some personal points with Daddy?”
“No, just having flashbacks to high school,” he said. “Playing Ping-Pong and drinking beer while the parents are out.”
“Is that how you spent your Saturday nights?” Maddie asked.
“Embarrassingly, yes. Quite a few.”
They laughed.
“So, you were a nerd, Zach?” she said.
“Be careful how you toss around that word,” he said. “I seem to remember someone saying your past is steeped in the game, too.”
“I love nerd couples,” Schuyler said from the sidelines.
Both Zach’s and Maddie’s heads swiveled to look at her.
“Schuyler.” Maddie glared at her sister. “Can you not?”
Ah, so there was an ulterior motive.
Zach didn’t hate the idea.
He hadn’t been completely immune to that kiss. If he was honest, it had taken everything in his power to stop himself from leaning in and kissing her again.
He’d woken up this morning thinking about that kiss and—
“Prepare to be annihilated, McCarter.”
A second after the warning, Maddie served, sending the ball over the net with lightning-quick precision. He barely had time to raise his paddle before it bounced off the edge of the table.
“One, zip,” Maddie said.
“Hey, I thought we were both supposed to be ready before we started,” Zach protested as he put down his beer, retrieved the ball and rolled it across the table to her.
“McCarter, I’m always ready. I thought you were, too. Obviously, I was mistaken.”
“You’re always ready,” Zach repeated. “That’s one of the things I like about you.”
“Let’s get this over with,” she said, making the ball dance with several whacks of the paddle.
“Do you have somewhere you need to be?” he asked, noting the edge in her voice.
“Tonight is my sister’s bachelorette party. The last thing I planned on doing was playing a match of Ping-Pong with you.”
She really didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want him there either. “The last thing, huh? Well, at least I was on your list, even if I was the last thing.”
She shot him a perplexed look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I planned a party. You weren’t invited.”
She leaned forward to launch her second serve and a hint of cleavage peeked out of her top. Zach tore his eyes away.
“Ouch,” he said, returning the ball like he meant business. “That’s mean. Do you want me to leave?” They volleyed several rounds. “When Val invited me over, I didn’t realize you had other plans. I’ll go.”
Maddie looked up and the ball she’d returned hit the net.
“I always finish what I start,” she said.
“Do you?” He gave her a knowing look and her cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink.
She lifted her chin a notch. “Always. Your serve.”
The raw look in her eyes coupled with the memory of her kiss made him imagine exactly how they might finish that kiss. If they were going to finish what they’d started, it would have to go a lot further than a kiss.
He answered by slamming the ball across the table. She returned it with equal force.
Innuendo was not the way to get them back on steady business ground. He tried a more direct approach.
“I had lunch with Dave Madison today.”
Maddie missed the ball, but rather than going after it, she set down her paddle on the table. “He’s out of town. How could you have had lunch with him?”
“He got back last night. Dave and I go way back.”
She put her hands on her hips. Zach noticed that somewhere along the way, Val and Schuyler had left the room. “You didn’t tell me you’re BFFs with Dave Madison.”
“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call him my BFF.”
“Quit being flippant.”
“I’d say calling Dave my BFF has quite a bit of flip to it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Zach? Why were you keeping that little tidbit to yourself?”
“I just told you.”
“Did you know this last night?”
“I did.”
“You kissed me and you didn’t bother to inform me you were meeting with Dave or, even better, invite me to join you?”
“If I recall, you were the one who initiated the kiss.”
Her cheeks flushed again, but this time her eyes flashed. “Don’t change the subject. Zach, we promised that we were going to work together on this project. Withholding information like that is not working together. I think you should go.”
“I think we need
to sit down and talk about this before we meet on Monday. If not, we’re not going to bring our A game.”
“I wanted to trust you, but I guess you’re no better than anyone else who is out for himself. So much for working together.”
Reading between the lines, he could take her no better than anyone else comment as she was comparing him to his brother, Rich. She didn’t say it, but the suggestion was there. Or maybe that was still a tender spot with him. Either way—whether she was stealthily punching below the belt or he was drawing his own conclusion—it stung. He should’ve never confided in her—or anyone—but mostly her. Because for some reason, Maddie Fortunado made him feel emotionally vulnerable in a way he hadn’t felt in years.
Why else would he have come over here so eagerly, rearranging his Saturday evening plans so he could see her under the guise of an asinine game like Ping-Pong?
“It’s two-one,” Zach said. “If you quit now, I win. You’ll owe me five one things.”
“Because this is all just a game to you, isn’t it?” She looked him up and down and he’d never felt so naked and exposed. Was that how she saw him?
“Fine, Zach. You win. That’s all you wanted. It seems to be the only thing that’s important to you.”
It’s not the only thing.
She started to walk out of the room.
“Maddie, stop. Come back, please. I didn’t tell you because I knew you would want to come.”
She whirled around. The intensity of her glare nearly leveled him.
“Wow. Thanks for that, Zach.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “I feel so much better now that I know your true intentions.”
“That’s out of context. Let me finish.”
He looked up at the ceiling, trying to gather his thoughts. Never had a woman had the ability to rattle him like she did. He prided himself on being unshakable. How the hell did she do that?
Why the hell are you letting her do it?
“Dave and I go way back. I knew him from Dallas when I was there. Long before I started working for Fortunado. I wanted to use this lunch to ease into the subject of us taking over as the exclusive listing agents for the Paisley. If you would’ve come, it would’ve obviously been a business lunch. You and I are work associates. What was I supposed to say? ‘This is Maddie Fortunado. She and I want your business?’ It wasn’t that kind of lunch. I couldn’t bring you. It’s not like you’re my girlfriend.”
The nanosecond the words left his mouth, he knew he’d put his foot in it deep.
Jackass.
“No, I’m not your girlfriend,” Maddie said. “Let’s just get that straight right now. I’m sure I have absolutely nothing in common with the women you date. Therefore, you and I have nothing in common beyond work. You bring your A game on Monday and I’ll bring mine. We should be perfectly fine. Goodbye, Zach.”
* * *
She wasn’t his girlfriend. If it hadn’t been clear before, it was perfectly clear now. And so was the fact that she had embarrassed herself by kissing him.
Every time she thought she had the upper hand, Zach surprised her and came out of nowhere with a better, stronger plan.
Case in point: his clandestine lunchtime meeting with Dave Madison.
“I still can’t believe you made him leave,” Schuyler said as they sat in the living room after Zach’s departure. “Val and I left you two alone so you could get cozy, not so you could pick a fight and kick him out.”
“I had a good reason for kicking him out,” Maddie said, rubbing a rough spot on one of her fingernails.
Schuyler swatted her hand. “Stop picking at your nails. Forget that I’m the bride-to-be, we are taking you to get a manicure tomorrow.”
Maddie crossed her arms, tucking her offending fingers under her arms. Her hands could use some attention. Her entire life could use a makeover right about now.
She explained what had happened—how she and Zach had had a deal that they would work together. Yet, he had not only cut her out, he’d completely kept her in the dark.
“So, let me get this straight,” Val said. “He went behind your back and met with Madison? Without you?”
Maddie nodded. At least someone understood why she was so upset.
“Did he have a good reason?”
“He said it was a personal lunch,” Maddie said. “He was meeting a friend.”
Zach McCarter was great at playing the friend card.
“He said he wanted to ease into talking about the deal. But we all know that if Dave Madison has a meeting with Zach and me on the books for Monday he’s going to ask him what it’s about. I know they discussed business. Now I can’t trust him to have told me everything. Maybe he’s keeping an ace up his sleeve for Dad.”
Val squinted at her as if she wasn’t completely siding with Maddie.
“What?” Maddie said as Schuyler sat down beside her with a nail file and a small bottle. She extracted Maddie’s left hand and began rubbing oil on her cuticles.
“I know you might not like this,” Val said tentatively. “But would you have been comfortable attending that lunch?”
Yes, because if Zach had invited me, it might have meant that he wanted me to be part of his life outside of the office. First, the kiss, next, lunch with his friend...who also happened to hold the key to a promotion for one of us.
Maddie shrugged. “I don’t know what I think anymore. All I know is I’ve always believed that nice guys finish last and somewhere along the way, I’ve gotten soft. But no more.”
“Maybe you just need to view this as an opportunity that will set you one step closer to clinching the deal,” Val said.
“I mean, the guy does have a personal life outside the office, right?” Schuyler said.
There was a certain look in Val’s eyes and while Schuyler was engrossed with salvaging Maddie’s nails, Maddie did her best to silently telegraph a message to Val: Do not, under any circumstances, reveal what you saw last night at the Thirsty Ox.
“Zach was so sneaky about it,” Maddie said. “Now I don’t know if I can trust him to be fair about everything.”
“Business is never fair, Mads,” Val said. “You taught me that. Now, love is a different story. You have to trust the man you love one-hundred percent.”
Schuyler’s head popped up. She had a gleam in her eyes. “And are we talking business or love here? That makes all the difference in the world.”
“We are talking business,” Maddie said. “One hundred percent business and only business.”
Val eyed her skeptically.
“That’s the unsettling part,” Maddie said before Val could out her. “My life is one hundred percent business. And then Dad yanked the rug out from under me...”
Maddie’s eyes began to well up with tears. Geez, what was wrong with her? When had she gone so soft?
All it took was one “Oh, honey” and a hug from Schuyler before the full-blown waterworks started flowing.
“I have sacrificed everything for Fortunado Real Estate,” Maddie said, as she let the tears roll down her cheeks. “I haven’t dated. I haven’t had fun outside of Friday happy hour at the Thirsty Ox. I’ve put my life on hold and now I’m twenty-nine years old and what do I have? What if all that sacrifice has been for nothing? What if I never have what you have with Carlo, Sky?”
The emptiness inside her felt cavernous. She was tempted to fill it with the rest of the cookies and cupcakes, which her sisters had moved to the living room coffee table after Zach had gone. She glanced at the plate and contemplated doing a face-plant in the cupcakes and drowning her sorrows. But then she’d just hate herself for losing what little control she had left.
She swiped at a tear and sucked in a deep breath.
She couldn’t tell if her sisters’ silence made it better or worse. At least they were giving her time to get a grip on herself.
She so needed to get over Zach McCarter. Any lingering feelings should have died the minute her father had announced his plans. Despite tonight�
�s throwback feel, she wasn’t in high school. She was a grown woman who needed to remember that the object of her desire—the former object of her desire—was now the person who stood between her and her life’s plan.
As Schuyler resumed conditioning Maddie’s cuticles, Val started the movie 13 Going on 30. As her sisters lost themselves in the movie, Maddie allowed herself to remember her kiss with Zach one last time.
What a dreadfully bad idea that had been.
She wasn’t anything like the women he dated. The women she’d seen Zach with were pretty—stunning, even. Trophy wife material.
Ugh. How boring an existence would that be?
Your one job was to look gorgeous and never, ever grow old. Or fat. That meant hours spent in hair salons. And forsaking Moonbeam Bakery cupcakes.
That would never happen.
Even if she had to be a little curvier than what might be considered socially acceptable. She wasn’t fat, but she loved her sweets.
She and Moonbeam had a pledge: ’til death do we part.
Schuyler’s Barbie and Ken comment sprang to mind.
With her free hand, Maddie reached up and rubbed the ends of her hair between her thumb and index finger.
If she’d been Zach’s girlfriend or even girlfriend material, he would’ve brought her to that lunch with Dave Madison. But she wasn’t his girlfriend.
Was Dave Madison cut from the same cloth? If Maddie somehow transformed into a stunner, would she be able to regain the lead that she felt had slipped away in one afternoon?
She was starting to realize that even if she had been working hard all these years, maybe she needed to do more. Obviously, she needed to do more.
Her appearance, for example. What would happen if she made just a little more effort in that area? Not the amount of time a professional trophy wife spent, of course. Who had time for that? But what if she did more? Got those highlights Schuyler had been talking about? They were coming into summer. She could ask the hairdresser to make it subtle. Subtle and professional. As much as she loved being outside, they’d probably fade naturally.
Her sisters laughed at a part in the movie as Maddie scrolled through her phone checking her email.
Maddie Fortune's Perfect Man Page 10