Best Man

by Christine Zolendz

  I’d heard about a storm coming before I left the house this morning, but I thought it was supposed to be rolling in late at night. I checked my phone; it was only two in the afternoon. How was I getting this kid home without her getting soaking wet? I pulled up Travis’s number—maybe he’d still be nearby.

  “Aunt Maddie, there’s a man over there waving to you,” Chloe said, huddling into me for more cover. She burrowed into my side and pointed her hand toward a black Jeep near the entrance to the park.

  The jackass was waving at me. “Stupid prick,” I mumbled, holding my phone to my ear and listening to Travis’s voice mail robotically tell me it was too full for me to leave a message.

  “Who’s a stupid prick?” Chloe asked.

  “I’m sorry, love. I shouldn’t have cursed in front of you.”

  “It’s okay,” she smiled up at me and sneezed. Damn, the kid was going to get sick being out in the cold rain. Of course, he’d be the only one around to help us.

  “Okay, let’s run really quick to that black Jeep, okay?”

  “Is it a race?” she asked.

  “Yes, it is. Now go!”

  We ran through the downpour as Luke reached across his front seat to open the door for us. Chloe jumped into the back seat. “Hey, there’s no booster seat back here!”

  I pulled the door closed and watched the fat drops of rain pelt down against the windshield. “It’s okay, Chloe. Luke is a police officer. He’ll drive us home safely.”

  “Detective,” he grumbled.

  “What’s the difference,” I said.

  “The difference is—”

  “—I wasn’t really asking a question, Luke. I don’t want to know,” I lied. Lied. Lied. Lied. I wanted to know everything—every little thing that happened, starting from the night he’d spent with me.

  “Didn’t know you turned into such a bitch,” he growled under his breath.

  “And you’re a stupid prick,” Chloe chirped from the backseat.

  Luke’s eyebrows shot straight up. “Really? You taught her that?”

  “No, I didn’t teach her that,” I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest, trying to shake off the cold tremors quaking through my body. “She might have overheard me, that’s all.”

  “Nice,” he said drily, but I could barely hear him over my teeth chattering. His eyes darted down to my lips and he immediately reached out to turn up the heat. “Better?” he asked.

  “A little,” I whispered, looking up into his blue eyes.

  For just a moment we stayed like that in the car, staring at each other, his eyes on my lips and me taking in every inch of his face. He was so handsome. I’d always thought so. He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. Before I could even realize what was happening, his hand was lightly touching my face—his thumb brushing softly over my bottom lip. “Your lips are blue,” he whispered.

  “Lemme see,” Chloe said, pushing her little body between us and grabbing onto my head to turn it toward her. Thank God for nosy, pint-sized people. I would have let him kiss me slow and long, and ended up kicking my own ass right after.

  “Okay, okay, Chloe,” I said as she smashed my cheeks together and inspected my lips thoroughly.

  “They are blue!” she squealed.

  “Okay, thanks,” I said, pulling her hands off my face and touching my index finger to her cold nose. “Sit back down and buckle yourself in,” I said, smiling back at her. “You need any help?”

  “Nope. I got it,” she cheered happily. Her hair was wet and plastered all around her little face; she was adorable.

  I leaned back into the front seat and melted from the blast of heat, finally feeling the effects of it through my cold, wet clothes.

  Luke pulled the Jeep into the street and drove down toward Main Street. “Where am I taking her to dry up?” he asked.

  I took a deep breath and faced the windshield, pretending that his voice or his hands didn’t make me think of all sorts of deliciously nasty things. “Ava lives up on Forest Road in the same house she grew up in,” I said quietly as I pulled out my phone to text her I was bringing Chloe home. “I’ll text her to come out with an umbrella.”

  “Good idea,” he murmured and gripped tightly onto the steering wheel.

  “Yeah, I’ve been known for one or two of them,” I chuckled, completely forgetting to whom I was talking.

  “Is that a little laugh…Wow, are you actually smiling?” he said in a surprised voice.

  “Not because of you,” I said darkly.

  He ran his hand over his face, “Right.”

  We drove in utter silence for the next ten minutes. Chloe didn’t even make a peep, and she was the most talkative kid I knew. When Luke pulled up in front of Ava’s, I opened the window to wave to her, and she came running out with an umbrella. She helped Chloe climb out of the back then slammed the door shut. She hugged her daughter close under the umbrella and leaned her arm against my open window. “You look a little wet,” she smiled.

  “Yeah, we were at the park, and I was hovering over your offspring, so she wouldn’t get wet,” I said.

  Her gaze drifted to Luke and a wide smile tugged at one corner of her lips. “And this gentleman was there at just the right time to save your wet ass?”

  “Fortunately for your daughter, yes. Now step back, so I can open the damned door,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It would have been nice if you’d thought to bring me an umbrella too.”

  “Maddie, let me drive you home,” his voice rasped from the other side of me.

  Ava’s eyes fixed on mine and widened. “Yeah, why don’t you let this fiiine gentleman drive you home?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her, cursing at her in my head six ways to Sunday, and slowly spun my head around to face him. “That’s quite all right, Luke. I’d rather make my own way home.”

  “In this rain, Maddie? Come on,” he waved his hands toward the dashboard and out the front windshield. “Look at the flooding already.”

  “So I’ll swim,” I snapped.

  “You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met, Madeline Cross.” His eyes flickered up toward Ava, and he growled, “Step back. I’m driving her stubborn ass home whether she likes it or not.” Ava and Chloe quickly backed away from the car, and he skidded into the watery street, hydroplaning down the rest of the asphalt. “Where do you live?” he demanded.

  Oh, I wanted to fight with him. I wanted to get right in his face and make him feel every hateful thing I’d ever felt since he had left. “Let me out of here, Luke!”

  “No. Tell me where you live or I’ll take you home with me!” His eyes were dead serious. There was no way I wanted to spend time stuck with him at his house. My heart wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “56 Hollow Road,” I whispered.

  “Over Miller’s Bridge, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  We continued our drive in silence while the rain and wind howled outside. To the right of us, a huge branch crumbled and broke out across the road. Luke swerved around it just in time as I yelped out a scream. “No big deal, see?” he said, grasping my hand with his. “I got you.”

  Correction, oh stupid one, you had me. You got nothing now.

  He pulled into the driveway and thankfully kept the engine running. I didn’t want him to come in. I didn’t trust myself and wanted to stay angry with him. Because if I let him close, all he’d do is leave, and I refused to allow myself to go through that heartache again. “This doesn’t change my feelings—all this nice stuff. I still think you’re an ass.”

  He nodded but didn’t reply, and I climbed out without another word, making my way to my front door. I let myself in without turning around or waving goodbye, or even saying thank you. Yes, I was a bitch, just like he said—but the truth was I didn’t want him to see I had tears in my eyes or how much I had desperately missed him.

  In the front room, I stripped off all my wet clothes and hung them over a chair. I ran through the house naked and grabbed my old
robe that hung on the back of the bathroom door. A long hot shower and steaming cup of coffee would warm me up. My shift at the bar started at six, so I had plenty of time to wipe the tears away and slap on my big girl panties.

  I just needed a second or two to deal with the old feelings—I’d have to somehow get over it and finally get over him. I leaned against the door and slid my way down until my bottom hit the floor. I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face into the soft cotton of the robe. It’s good to remember the things that have hurt you every once in a while. It lets you realize how much you’ve overcome and how strong you really are. I gave myself five minutes of remembering the horror of being all alone at seventeen and feeling like someone ripped my heart right out of my chest and threw it out the window without a care in the world.

  It put my stupid longing feelings in perfect perspective.

  Screw him. I bolted off the floor, determined not to shed one more tear on someone who never wanted me. I stomped into the kitchen and set the coffee pot on the stove, brewing myself a whole carafe of the magical elixir of life, when I heard a soft rapping at the front door. I froze, startled by the noise, my body twisted tight with tension. The knocking became louder as I silently crept down the hallway into the front room and stood on my tippy toes to peek out of the peephole.

  “What the hell? Luke?”

  He knocked again. “Please open the damned door.” His voice sounded strange—hoarse and frantic.

  Unlocking the door, I slowly opened it no more than an inch. Outside, rain pummeled down against the trees, and the grass was drowning under a layer of water. Thunder rumbled somewhere off in the distance and a jagged bolt of lightning slashed across the sky.

  “Bridge is out,” he said darkly.

  I opened the door a little wider, looking past him. “Where’s your Jeep?”

  “Somewhere under the bridge,” he grunted.

  “What?” I yelped, stepping back and opening the door all the way. He stumbled in, rain dripping from his dark hair and over his face. A small cut lined his temple and blood and rain mixed together, sliding down his cheek and dripping thickly over his shirt.

  I was reaching out for him instantly, yanking at his shirt and pulling it over his head. “Where else are you hurt?” I asked, running my fingers along his jaw and down the wet skin of his chest. The rain was icy cold, but his skin was like fire beneath my fingers.

  His body shivered at my touch; his eyes pinned themselves against mine. “I’m fine, Maddie. I just bumped my head. I’m fine,” he said breathlessly. The muscles of his chest were moving hard, his lungs roughly pulling in air and exhaling harder. “Christ, Maddie. Are you naked under that?”

  I stepped back and looked down at my robe—it had untied and opened—and I hadn’t even noticed. I fumbled with the ties and wrapped it back around me as my skin tightened and burned with a strange heat. “Okay, if you could just stop looking at me like that, it would be real nice.”

  He looked down and away, staring off at something near the foot of the stairs, and whispered, “Could never stop myself from looking at you. You’re beautiful.”

  “Don’t say things like that to me if you don’t mean them,” I whispered back, tears stinging my eyes.

  He stumbled back against the wall and leaned heavily against it. “Yeah…you’re right…probably just hit my head too hard…”

  That’s when the idiot staggered over himself like a drunken fool and passed out across the foyer floor.

  CHAPTER 9

  LUKE

  I woke up in sheer terror. There’s a huge difference between waking up in a stranger’s bed, not remembering the shit you got caught up in the night before, and waking up knowing exactly whose bed you’re in, but still not remembering the shit you got caught up in the night before.

  I could tell right away it was Maddie’s bed. The sheets smelled just like her, and God forgive me, I laid there and breathed her in a while before I wanted to face the head on collision of anything we might have done for me to end up in this position. Again.

  I sat up slowly, my head throbbing with sharp pain, and swallowed down a huge lump of regret that was wedged in my throat. I could hear soft voices somewhere in the house. Dangling my feet off her bed, I sat for a few dizzy minutes and tried to remember anything. Last thing I remember was dropping her off, alone. Did she somehow get my number and call me to come back over?

  I stood up and immediately tumbled into the nightstand. What the hell? My head didn’t feel right…like I was swimming in a fog. I felt…high. Did she drug me?

  The bedroom door opened a crack, and her face appeared. “Hey, you’re awake.” She wore a small, scared smile.

  “What the fuck did you give me?” I snarled, trying to stop my head from lolling off my shoulders.

  Her smile disappeared instantly. There was a slow shake to her head, and a confused look crossed over her face. “Give you?”

  “Madeline, why the fuck am I in your bed?” I demanded, pulling myself up and leaning my weight against the wall.

  Her eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t remember anything?”

  “Stop playing games and tell me what I drank, or fuck…did you drug me?”

  Her head recoiled back like I’d slapped her. “Drug you?” Her gaze flitted down to her hands, and her fingers nervously fidgeted together. “So you think I drugged you…and then what?”

  “You tell me,” I growled, stepping closer to her and grabbing onto the door for support.

  She stared up at me with those liquid green eyes of hers and had I not been so angry, I’d want her to look that way at me while I was deep inside her. Fuck. FUCK. I had to stop thinking of her that way. She’s Travis’ kid sister, and she needed to stay that way in my eyes.

  Quick footsteps down the hall told me we weren’t alone. Shit. Who else was here? What the hell did we do? Travis’ large frame filled up the doorway. “Dude, I thought you were half dead. Glad you’re standing!”

  Travis was here? “What’s going on?” I stammered. “Where’s my gun?”

  He stepped inside his sister’s room, yanked my arm around his shoulder, and helped me walk out into the hallway. As we moved past her, I glanced back at Maddie, who was leaning her back against the hallway wall and staring up at the ceiling. She looked lost. Hurt. What the hell was going on?

  “Your gun is safe in the nightstand, and I had Mike’s Garage pull the Jeep out for you,” Travis was saying.

  “Pull the Jeep out of what?” I asked. We walked into Maddie’s living room and Casey and a few of the other guys in the wedding party were sitting on the couch.

  “The river. The bridge washed out while you were on it. You don’t remember?” He laughed.

  “No,” I chuckled, feeling a warm sense of relief sink in—tense muscles loosened all over my body. No wonder I felt like someone went at me with a bat. “I had no idea why I was waking up in your sister’s bed.”

  One of the guys on the end of the couch busted out laughing at my words. “Not the first time we’ve heard that,” he said, and everyone laughed along with him—everyone except Maddie—who had seated herself at the kitchen table in the other room, away from everyone.

  “Nah,” said one of the other guys, “she usually kicks them out right after. She’s a one-hit wonder.” There was another round of laughter, and Travis playfully punched the asshole. “What? Am I wrong?” he asked.

  I could see her through the doorway. She was still staring up at the ceiling and when the laughter died down, she gently wiped her hand just under her eyes. My gut twisted and coiled. I didn’t like what was going on. It wasn’t right—her sitting in the kitchen listening to them talk like that about her—what was wrong with them?

  With her?

  “So how long have I been here?” I said through a clenched jaw.

  “Since yesterday afternoon. Maddie said you passed out as soon as you stepped inside the cabin,” Travis said, laughing like it was a great joke, me passing out from a car ac
cident.

  “Yeah? And she took care of me? Put me in bed and shit? Made sure I was still breathing?” I asked, seething. Maddie was still gazing up at the ceiling.

  “Yeah,” Travis said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, his laughter gone, probably from the tone of my voice, which had lowered to just above growling.

  I could feel my body heat rising, “And you’re sitting in her cabin talking shit about her? Laughing at her expense.” I snapped my head to the first asshole who said shit about her. “I bet you’re slut shaming her, because she never gave your sorry ass the time of day.” My head was still spinning and aching when I slowly turned my eyes to the other rude asshole—no sudden moves for me or I’d pass out again. “How about you? You ever hit that?” The guy’s mouth opened, but nothing came out, then he shook his head slightly. “Not even once?”

  He continued to shake his head and looked away from me quickly.

  “Then all of you shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear anyone disrespecting that woman in front of me again,” I snapped, pulling myself up and walking into the kitchen.

  Maddie had her back to me when I got inside. She was busying herself with making coffee in one of those old coffee pots that percolated on the stovetop. “Hey,” I whispered, walking up behind her and holding onto the counter for support. I wanted to touch her—pull her back and wrap her in my arms. Protect her. I reached out and gently tugged on the hem of her shirt.

  Calmly, she turned around and locked her eyes on mine, a purple kitchen towel clutched tightly to her chest.

  “Thank you,” I said, watching the beautiful blush spread across her cheeks.

  “You thought I drugged you,” she whispered slowly, stating every word through clenched teeth. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say tears were welling in her eyes. “You thought I gave you something and made you spend the night here…with me.”

  “Maddie, I didn’t remember…”

  “And yet, your first thought was what? I was a drug-pushing whore? Someone who is so obsessed with you that I’d lock you in my cabin, feed you drugs, and fuck you without you knowing it?” She turned her back to me, pulled out a few coffee mugs, and lined them up along the counter. “You’re no better than the rest of them. But I figured that out a long time ago.”