Page 1 of Spring Forward
Chapter One
“It’s Cancún, Madison. How can you say no toCancún?”
Madison slid her smartphone across the desk to Beth. “From my mom.” She indicated the chain of texts already open.
Beth gave her a curious look, but picked up the phone, reading out loud. “‘I had a wonderful evening with Mr. Fabulous. He took me to the new Italian place on Vine. He likes lasagna. That is a good sign, don’t you think—’” Beth looked up, eyes wide with amusement. “Her texts get longer all the time.”
“I know. It’s like she’s writing a novel.”
Beth dropped her gaze back to the phone. “I’m surprised she doesn’t have arthritis in her thumbs.” She took up the reading again. “‘Mr. Fabulous is coming over tonight again. He is so wonderful. Also, the water heater broke and flooded the basement. Talk to you soon. Mom.’ Wow. A flooded basement is an afterthought now?”
“Exactly.” Madison took her phone back. “I think it’s time I met ‘Mr. Fabulous.’”
“You haven’t yet?”
Madison dropped her phone in her purse, packing up for the end of the day. “I haven’t been home since summer. Mr. Fabulous wasn’t in the picture then.”
“Is his name really ‘Mr. Fabulous’?”
Madison hadn’t thought of that. “I hope not.”
Beth slung her own bag over her shoulder. They’d had desks next to each other at the bank for a year.
“What was the name of the last guy?”
They walked to the doors together. Madison waved to the afternoon tellers before pushing the door open.
“Mom called him ‘Captain Dreamy.’ The nicknames are a very reliable early warning system.”
“What was he captain of?”
“Being a pig.” Now in the parking lot, Madison unlocked her less-than-pristine Altima with the key-chain remote.
Beth’s sportier compact sat next to it. She spoke across the roof. “Was Captain Pig the Vegas guy or the Aspen guy?”
“Vegas.” Half the miles on Madison’s car were from driving to various places to pick up her mother after one guy or another had ended a relationship hundreds of miles from home. Vegas. Aspen. Anaheim. Phoenix. Madison had seen America saving her mother from romantic disasters.
“How about this time you let your mom deal with the loser, and you come with the rest of us to Cancún?”
Beth’s suggestion was tempting, but Madison needed to nip this latest star-crossed love story in the bud. “I don’t have enough vacation days to go to Cancún right now, and in another month or two, I’ll have to take more time off to chase my mother to San Francisco or Albuquerque or wherever she lands herself next.”
“So you’re picking Folsom Lake over Cancún. Are you just a glutton for punishment?”
Madison tossed her purse into the car. “Sometimes I think I am.”
Beth crossed her arms on the car top, apparently settling in for a conversation. “Willhebe there?”
Nothing beyond the pronoun was necessary. When speaking of Madison’s hometown, there was only onehe: Derek McGee. She’d known him since high school. They’d dated in college. Things had even been serious just after college graduation. It hadn’t worked out, and her heart was too stupid to forget him. Just thinking his name made her heart skip and jump around.
Stupid, stupid.
“He’ll be there, won’t he?” Beth was enjoying this too much.
“This trip is about mymother’sman troubles.”
“Man Troubles. That should be the name of your family business.”
It probably should have been. Her father was to thank for that. The only good thing that man had ever done was walk out on them.
