Page 60 of Heartless
I opened my mouth to ask what had happened between them, but he recognized my curiosity and stopped me. “I’m not ready to talk about that.”
“Okay.”
He took a deep breath. “God, I can’t believe you thought I fucked Jessica Montgomery. That’s disgusting.”
“Hey, she looked amazing. And there are a lot of couples with big age gaps.”
“Her physical appearance is not what makes it gross. Neither is her age. Back to you and your boss now. So Jess always says that everythingin life happens for a reason. I never really believed that. But you lost your job, then Annie Foster hired you to plan her wedding. At The Gem. The only place we could be forced to interact. And here we are. Fake dating to get rid of your mother.”
We both laughed.
“I don’t think fate would go through all that trouble just so we could fake date each other.”
The moment I said that, I realized how it sounded but it was already too late. I couldn’t take it back.
“Maybe we’re not there yet.”
“Where?”
“Where fate wants us to be.”
We both leaned in closer to each other but the dog started barking. I stood up from my chair at the kitchen table and sat down on the ground. Parker looked at us playing for a while before he joined us. I laughed when the dog tried to tug at his sock.
Neither one of us tried to define what we were doing spending time together like that. We just sat there on the floor playing with the puppy, talking about everything and nothing at the same time.
As the night wore on, and it grew late, he stood up. “I should take him for a walk.”
“Oh, sure,” I said and stood with him, not wanting the evening to end so abruptly. I walked with them to the door, but Parker didn’t invite me to join them for their walk.
“Good night, cupcake.”
I rolled my eyes. “No one in my family would believe I enjoy that nickname. You should come up with a better one.”
“Maybe I will.” He put the puppy down. It ran into the gardens and Parker followed.
Chapter Twenty
Parker
Madison and I fell into a weird routine of sharing the dog and dinner at her villa every night. We also scheduled a third wedding. The bride- and groom-to-be chose a date in April. Madison couldn’t stop talking about colors and flowers. And I couldn’t stop looking at her. She was so beautiful, it made me want things I shouldn’t want.
But it wasn’t just her looks. Spending time with her without all the bickering made me see her in a different light. I admired her determination. Her devotion. I also found it cute when she tried to convince me she hated Tyler’s dog even though a smile threatened to split her face in two whenever I left it with her.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the intense chemistry between us. And the more time we spent together, the harder it was to resist the pull.
I couldn't deny that Madison intrigued me in ways I hadn't expected. Beneath her guarded exterior, there was vulnerability that she tried so hard to hide. And damn, did it make me want to peel the layers.
The excitement I felt whenever I stood in front of her door waiting for her to open got mixed with guilt. Madison was the first woman I had spent time with since I started dating Franny in college. We didn’t do anything romantic or sexual. The attraction between us was thoroughly ignored and left to die, but still I felt like a scumbag. My wife had been dead for four years and yet it felt like I was cheating.
I thought about that a lot while Madison talked the night before the construction started.
“You don’t want to be completely ignorant and hire someone who doesn’t know what they are doing,” she reminded me. It was dinner number nine. And yes, I counted.
Nine consecutive evenings spent with Madison, pushing down the need to touch her and kiss her.
“I know more about planning a wedding than you think.”
That one slipped out of my mouth before I could think better of it. I wasn’t ready to have the conversation about Franny. I was barely able to have that conversation with Ryan. The only person I talked freely with about my dead wife was her still-grieving mother.
