Page 100 of Pucking Your Best Friend

What was she doing? He needed those digits to strike.

“Clemens, it was nice to see you,” she replied calmly. “But I won’t attend your wedding. I’m sorry. Good luck and so long.”

Clemens sighed as his gaze slid over the fingers that Maddie had entwined with Matt’s, but then he nodded. “Okay. But give me a call sometime, okay? Then we can go have a coffee.”

“Sure,” she said lightly. “Until then.”

She raised her hand and he reciprocated…and then he was gone.

Matt stared after him. His lips were a straight line of tension and the blood was rushing so loudly in his ears that he almost couldn’t understand Maddie when she spoke to him.

“You were close to exploding, weren’t you?” she asked, laughing and looking up at him. “My goodness, I heard your back crack because you were tensing up so hard.”

He narrowed his eyes abruptly. Why was shelaughing? Didn’t she see whathesaw?

“Why the hell didn’t you tell the guy to go to hell?” he burst out. “Why the hell didn’t you kick him in the balls or at least punch him in the face?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Because it was unnecessary.”

He laughed mirthlessly. “Maddie. He was only here to see if you were still attached to him! To find out if he could still hurt you by getting married. To boost his ego.”

“Was he?” she asked, irritated. “It didn’t seem that way to me.”

Of course not! “No, because you believe in the good in people!” he exclaimed.

She snorted. “And that’s suddenly a bad thing, right?”

“Maddie, he was here because he loves knowing that there’s a beautiful woman out there who’s pining after him,” he whispered tersely.

Rolling her eyes, she squeezed his hand. “Bullshit. He thinks we’re old friends. Come on, Matt. Stop being jealous.”

“It hasnothingto do with jealousy,” he replied harshly. “It’s about Clemens being a sleazy asshole.”

Maddie pressed her lips together, obviously not taking him seriously or agreeing with him. “It doesn’t matter why he was here, he’s gone now.”

“Yes, without you telling him how angry you are at him,” he mumbled. Without closure, the situation would stick to her like a limpet until she finally put it behind her.

Maddie sighed in frustration and pulled her hand away from him. “Matt, not every argument has to be a battle.”

“Yes, but you don’t doanything.”

“That’s not true! I’ve had two arguments in the last week.”

“With your family.”

“So what? What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that Clemens took advantage of you and hurt you — and he doesn’t deserve to leave this parking lot without you yelling at him or me knocking him on his ass!” Preferably both.

“Matt,” her voice soft but firm, “you’re taking this the wrong way. I don’t need to argue with him because I’ve long since forgotten about it. Because winning isn’t important to me!”

“Arguing isn’t about winning. Arguing isn’t a hockey game. Arguing is about you expressing your opinion and your feelings, and that’s your damn right!”

“I know that,” she snapped, annoyed. “That’s why I’ve been trying to do more of that lately. Right now though, Ifeellike you’re becoming unnecessarily worked up. Matt, he doesn’t realize how much he hurt me. He didn’t know we were really together.”

Matt snorted loudly. “Oh, please, he knew! Of course heknew, Maddie. I only had to take one look at him and it was crystal clear!”

She glanced up at him, perplexed. “What are you talking about?”

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