Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Jimmy waved us off and headed to his next mission, leaving Maddox and me all alone once more.
“Well, I should probably get back to work too,” Maddox said. “Lots to do before we get you in there.”
But I wasn’t ready for him to go. It didn’t matter what had happened between us or how we’d fallen apart the last decade. I still didn’t want him to go.
“Did you finish the renovations on Gran’s house?”
He startled. “How’d you know I was renovating?”
“Marley,” I said softly.
“Right. Of course.” He nodded. “Yeah. I just finished. Took a full year, but it’s done. Still feels like Gran and Gramps’s house, but it needed the upgrade.”
“I bet it’s so satisfying.”
“You have no idea,” he said, animation coming back to his face.
“I’d love to see it.”
His face shuttered at that. “Yeah. Where are you staying? You get a hotel or something?”
I breathed out heavily. “I’m staying at my mom’s.”
His eyes widened. He blurted out the question seemingly before he could stop himself, “Why?”
“I keep asking myself that question. I called to tell her about the show, and she asked me to stay with her.”
“And you agreed?”
“She seemed sincere. I’m kind of kicking myself right now. She greeted me with a martini.”
“Of course she did,” he said with a soft laugh.
My chest ached at that sound. I’d missed it.
“Maddox,” I said, biting on my hair nervously.
“Old habits, Jos.” He caught the piece of hair and pulled it out of my mouth.
My body went still at his nearness. Our eyes met. He looked away first.
I swallowed. “Are we going to be okay for the next six weeks here?”
“At work?” He shrugged. “Sure.”
“And outside of work?”
He sighed. “Josie …”
“We’ve been friends our entire lives.”
“Friends,” he said darkly.
“You know what I mean,” I rushed on.
“Unfortunately, I do.” His gaze shifted away from me.
I ground my teeth together. “Why did you even take this job then?” I couldn’t keep the heat out of my voice. The old Josie shooting to the surface. “You knew it was my movie. You knew I’d be the lead. You knew I’d be here, in your city, for six weeks. All of that, and you didn’t tell me. Why would you do all of this, Maddox, if you were just going to avoid me the whole time?”
“What do you want me to say?” he demanded, fury creeping into his voice.
“I’m trying to understand what you’re doing here if you clearly don’t want anything to do with me.”
“Not everything is about you, Josie.”
I huffed. “I wish things could go back to the way they were. We don’t have to be enemies when we were always more.”
“Well, that’s wishful thinking.”
I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. “You didn’t miss me?”
Maddox stepped forward, brushing my dark hair off my face. I met his dark eyes. “I missed you.” I listed toward him at those words. His eyes dipped to my mouth, as if at any moment, he might claim what rightfully belonged to him. “But that doesn’t change anything. And we both know it.”
When he stepped back, putting even more distance between us than before, I felt as cold as ice. The second of emotion in his eyes when we’d been within kissing distance had disappeared. Somehow, he could hide his emotions even better than the actress in that moment. And we’d done this to each other. I’d taught him how to harden himself as much as he’d taught me to open up. We were both reaping what we’d sowed.
“I’m going to get back to work,” Maddox said. He took one last look, almost drinking me in, before walking away.
And I let him go.
Something was broken between us. One conversation wasn’t going to fix years of damage. But I hadn’t realized how much I wanted it to until I saw him.
If only we could go back to when we’d both been young and innocent and redo it all. If only …
3
SAVANNAH
MARCH 29, 2005
“You made it!” Lila cried. My best friend dashed out of the front door of Marley’s house, throwing her arms around me.
I laughed and caught her head-on. “I made it!”
The person who completed our trio, Marley, hopped down the front sidewalk. “It’s about time.”
“It’s a four-hour drive!” I shoved at her shoulder and then pulled her into a hug.
“You should have come last night.”
“I wanted to, but you bitches were busy.” I shrugged.
It hadn’t been my fault that I couldn’t drive down to Savannah from my home in Atlanta the day before. My spring break had started Friday afternoon, and Dad had said I could leave whenever I wanted. But Marley had been working at the dance studio all weekend, and Lila’s mom, Deb, had made her be involved in all the Catholic church activities for Easter. Deb had started working for the church, and she’d forced Lila into the all-girls Catholic school, St. Catherine’s, when tuition was waived. Lila wasn’t even Catholic, but it was the best school in town.