Page 105 of The Other Fork in the Road

“You just took off? Who does that?”

I wanted to hop on the table and scream the answer to Jax’s question.Only a bitch would do that, Jax, only a bitch! Tell her to hit the road!

“I know, and I’m sorry. I just needed a few weeks to think things through.”

I swear I could see all of the perfect moments they had spent together reflected in Jax’s beautiful eyes. It seemed he had forgotten anyone else was around. AKA, me.

Then the timeline resonated with me. It had only been a few weeks since Jax was in love with and proposing to the beautiful woman standing at our table.Weeks? I felt like the ship of “Madison and Jax” was going down. It was sinking fast, and while I still held some hope of bailing out the water pronto, it wasn’t looking good.

He took her by the elbow and led her to a corner of the room.

“What’s going on?” Zoey looked at Austin.

“I’m not sure. That’s a fire and ice situation. They dated for about a year, and it was fast and furious or not at all. He’d break it off, then she’d break it off, and they’d end up hot and heavy again. Then Jax proposed, and she took off. She took a news anchor job in Minneapolis, and he figured that was it. She never returned messages or anything. Until tonight.”

I looked over at Jax and Abby having a heated conversation in the back corner of the room. They both were freakishly good-looking people, and I imagined everywhere they went together, all eyes were on them.

And you know what else made sense? Jax and his fit physique. They probably worked out all the time when they were together, and I bet Jax even bench pressed her in his bed. I’m sure they would watch each other lift weights and get all hot, sweaty, and horny.

I looked down at my tissue filled bust and felt a little deflated, literally.

Zoey threw her hand in the air. “That’s bullshit. She can’t disappear and just show back up whenever the hell she pleases.”

Amen, Zoey. Because, well, what about me, right? The man I was crazy about appeared to be an engaged fellow. Fuck.

I excused myself and walked to the bar. Well, not walked—wobbled. Clearly, I’ve had more to drink than I realized, but a reappearing fiancé is reason enough for one more. I stood in the group of people waiting for drinks, and watched the beautiful couple. Jax seemed angry while she talked and wore a perfect smile on her face. Of course, I don’t know what she said next, but whatever it was, his face softened a bit.

It was then, as the drink line moved forward, that I realized I wasn’t wobbling because I was drunk. I was wobbling because I was only wearing one shoe. The other had been dropped under the table when Jax’s orgasmic hands had massaged my foot prior to the shit show that was the last five minutes of my life.

Forget the shoe—my head nearly exploded as I watched Abby pull Jax in and kiss him. A quick kiss, but still, my heart hopped out of my chest and threw itself against the floor begging to be put out of its misery. It was clear that my life could be summed up in one sentence:That didn’t go as fucking planned.

I watched them walk back to our table and quickly came up with a plan. The plan was to have no plan. It was risky and maybe plain stupid, but I was going to have to wing it.

I’m usually the kind of person who goes over situations a few times in my mind to try to prepare. Maybe put together some rehearsed sentences so I can know what I’m doing. But not tonight. I was going to be cool and just go with the flow.

I decided to hold my head up high, wobble back to the table, and spin up a plan on how to leave this reception as soon as possible. I sat in the chair next to Zoey because Abby was in my seat. Of course she was. She was talking to Austin and then looked at me.

“Hi, I’m Abby.”

I smiled because it would be rude to grab a chair and beat her. “I’m Madison.”

Jax chimed in. “She’s Jim’s other daughter.”

Jim’s other daughter? Not the woman he partook in appetizers with all afternoon. Not the woman he wanted to stay in Montana forever, and ever, and ever. Nope, suddenly, I was only Jim’s daughter. Yeah, it blew.

“You look great in that dress.” Oh, it figures; she was nice. Super.

“Thank you.” I realized the fake smile was likely my go-to until I could get myself the hell out of there.

I casually looked around for my shoe under the table, but it appeared to be gone. It was nowhere; what a weird way for the universe to kick me when I was down.

That’s when I saw the flower girl from hell in the distance. She held up my shoe, waggled it in the air, and stuck her tongue out at me before she ran away. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Jax was looking at me with an odd expression.

Stupid Abby chatted with Zoey, but all I saw was what appeared to be her reaching under the table and taking Jax’s hand. Or did she grab something else under there?

“Water!” I croaked out. All eyes shot to me. “Yeah. Yeah, umm, I need some water. Who else would like water?” Everybody just looked at me. “You know, we’re supposed to be drinking eight glasses of water a day to be healthy.”

I wanted to shut up, but in true Madison style, I couldn’t.

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