“You need to consider whom you’re friends with, too,” he bit out.
“You let me worry about that. Buh-bye now.” I turned my back to Simon and faced Pete.
Pete watched him from behind me for a few seconds. “He’s gone now.”
The two of us burst out laughing.
“That was classic,” I told Pete and held up my hand.
He high-fived me. “The look on his face was the best.”
After our laughter died down, I told him, “Thank you for your help.”
He put his arm around me. “Anytime. That’s what friends do.”
I stepped out of his embrace after hugging him back. “I think that signals the end of my night.”
I took a quick glance toward Maddox again. I could only see his profile now, which probably meant he’d already forgotten all about me. That was my other reason for calling it a night.
I had a comfy bed and a good book that was more fun than watching my ex with a beautiful woman. I was going to have to grow some thicker skin when it came to Maddox and seeing him with other women, but today was not that day. I just wanted to be alone and go to bed.
“See you tomorrow,” I said to Pete. “And be good. I don’t want to bail you out of jail tonight.”
He laughed. “I will. I was just going to talk to Dana Schmidt.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “See how she’s doing since her divorce.”
“You are a bad boy,” I told him with a grin.
“Not yet, but I hope to be.”
I punched him in the arm. “Good luck. Let me know how it goes.”
I said good-bye and walked around to the alley to enter the back of the building and then my apartment. Once I was upstairs, I went straight to the bathroom to get ready for bed. After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I went to the living room and snuck a peek outside.
I knew I should go to my room, but my body didn’t agree with my rational reasoning. I looked down at the crowd to where I had last seen Maddox.
He was gone now, and so was Dani.
I scanned the whole crowd. They were nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t want to think about what they were doing together, but now, that was all I would be thinking about. I should have just headed straight to bed.
Calling myself all kinds of a fool, I went to my room, stripped off my clothes, and got in bed. Before I climbed under the single sheet, I checked to make sure my robe was behind my bed in case someone knocked on my door.
It was summer, and I lived in an upstairs apartment in an old building with crappy air-conditioning. The only way to stay cool was to sleep naked with barely any covers and with a fan.
I grabbed my book and tried to shut Maddox from my mind. It took way too long to push him from my thoughts, and it only made me go to bed, feeling confused and crabby. I could only hope sleep would be a little better than reading.
Ten
Maddox
I handed Dani my plate that I had practically licked clean. Two minutes ago, it had been filled with blueberry cheesecake. We were in the kitchen of her family’s diner. They had closed early tonight and were serving food outside at the street dance instead, so it was just the two of us in there.
“That was the best damn cheesecake I’d ever had.”
Her eyes lit up from my praise. “Do you want another piece?”
“No, thank you.”
I hadn’t eaten a lot of sweets when I was in the Teams, always wanting to keep my body in full physical form, and while I was retired now, it didn’t mean I was going to go crazy.
“Well, you know where to come if you ever get a craving,” she said and took my plate to the sink.
It was obvious she was talking about more than cheesecake, but I had no desire to go there with her.
When she was done washing both our dishes, I asked her if she was ready to get back out there. “I’m planning to meet up with my sister and brother.”
Dani’s face fell. “Oh. I thought maybe we could stay here…and talk.”
“Sorry. Maybe some other time.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
I felt bad for her, but I wasn’t going to let her know that. I just played like I didn’t know she’d been hitting on me.
Once outside, I told her, “I’ll talk to you later. I have to go find Foster and Kelly. Thanks again for the cheesecake.”
She looked crushed, and I felt like an asshole, but I wasn’t going to fuck her just because I felt bad about hurting her feelings. It wasn’t right, especially since it wasn’t her I wanted under me.
I found my brother and sister a couple of minutes later.
“Hey, man. How did the car- and home-hunting go?” Foster asked me as he shoved a huge bite of hot dog in his mouth.
“I found a vehicle.”
“What’d ya get?”
I hesitated. “A RAV4.”
“What the fuck, man? A foreign car? You always go American.”
And this was why I’d hesitated.
I shrugged. I’d fallen in love with Toyota while living in Virginia. I just hadn’t found the time to break the news to my brother.
“You’re a disgrace,” Foster said as he shook his head.
I laughed. “Tell me something that I don’t already know.” I looked over at my sister, who had her arms crossed and was scowling at me. “Still mad at me, huh?”
After my incident with the sheriff, Foster had brought me home. The two of us had told my mom and Kelly what had happened to me. My mom had just been happy to see me again. Kelly had been pissed. And, apparently, she still was.
Her eyes somehow narrowed even more. “You were gone for twelve years, and you let me think you were in prison.”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry. It was better this way.”
“I’m your sister.”
I put my arm around her. “And I love you.”
She pushed me away. “I’m still mad. I haven’t forgiven you yet.”
Just then, a blur of a person ran toward me and jumped in my arms.
“I’m not mad at you, Uncle Maddox.”
I set the young woman down at my feet and put my hands on her shoulders. “Serena?”
She nodded.
“Wow. You’ve changed so much.”
The last time I’d seen my niece was when she was six years old. Now, she was eighteen and looking way too much like a woman.
I looked at my sister. “How do you let her leave the house?”
The corner of my sister’s mouth twitched, but she held her frown. “I say a lot of Hail Marys.”
“If I were your mom, I’d never let you leave.” I gave Serena the side-eye. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
She giggled. “Maybe.”
I yanked her into my arms. “I missed you, kid.”
Her father hadn’t been around from day one, and I had helped my sister out a lot with Serena. I felt like I’d helped raise her in the beginning.
“I missed you, too,” she said so softly, I almost didn’t hear her over the band and people talking.
As Serena stepped back, I saw one of the two men who’d been talking to Addison earlier. The first guy was Pete. It had been over a decade, but he looked like an older version of himself. And he was currently hanging out with someone who wasn’t Addison, so I dismissed him.