Page 11 of Spring Forward
Tomorrow.She would spend another night with Derek. There were certainly worse things in the world.
She’d thought of him many times over the last two years, but had never let her thoughts linger. Thatnight she spent hours doing just that, and found herself walking a dangerous line. Spending so much time with Derek McGee could only lead to heartache. She’d start to remember all the reasons she loved being with him. If she wasn’t very careful, she’d forget all about the pain men always brought into her life, and she would open herself up to be hurt all over again.
Chapter Six
Derek managed to talk Uncle Grant and Teresa—during the course of their conspiracy, they’d switched to first names—into making their fifth “fake date” a walk around Folsum Lake. The night after the movie, they’d gone for dinner at Romanelli’s. That had been interesting to explain to the person who’d seated them:
“We want a seat in view of those people’s table, but where they can’t see us.”
But the ridiculousness of it had made Maddi laugh, so it was worth every moment of embarrassment.
The night after Romanelli’s, they’d hit the bowling alley, picking a lane as far from Uncle Grant and Teresa as they could.
Last night he and Maddi had made up a pathetic excuse about him needing banking advice for his insurance office. They’d sat at Teresa’s kitchen table, in full view of the living room and the horrible made-for-TV movie their relatives were staying at home to watch.
Five dates wasn’t exactly rekindling their relationship, but they were enjoying each other again. Maddi was smiling and laughing with him. It was almost as if that night two years earlier had never happened.
He could still perfectly picture the moment. She had been shoving the last of her things in the trunk of that beat-up Altima.
“I took a job,” she’d said. “Out of state.”
“Permanently?” There’d been no warning, no hints that she was getting ready to leave. “Were you going to tell me about this?”
“An opportunity came along, and I’m taking it.” She didn’t even look at him, just slammed the trunk closed.
“What happens to us, Maddi? You’re packing up and leaving the state without even telling me?”
She pulled open the driver’s door. “It’s just... it’s time.”
“Time to what? To move on?”
She’d kept her gaze on the inside of her car, not even glancing his way. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve told me you love me, Maddi. Did that change?” He remembered so clearly feeling like she’d punched him right in the gut.
“I’m sorry,” she’d whispered and climbed in her car.
She’d driven away, leaving him baffled in the street. Every time she’d come home after that, and they’d run into each other, things were awkward. Whenever she was in town, he avoided her street. Last time, he’d simply left. But they were together again. The awkwardness was gone. Things between them were like they had been before she left.
Being with her that week had shown him something about himself that he hadn’t admitted over the past two years: he still loved her. He’d never stopped loving her. And he only had two more days to find out if she felt the same way.
“Your uncle thinks like you,” Maddi said as they walked up toward the path around the lake.
“What do you mean?”
“A walk around the lake.” She said it as if that alone should make her meaning clear. “Where have I seenthatdate idea before?”
She remembered. Their time together must have meant something if she still thought about it.
“You realize, of course,” he said, using the conspiratorial tone they’d adopted over the last few days, “that if their date ends the way ours did the last time we walked around Folsom Lake, you’ll have to decide if you’re going to interfere.”
That brought color back to her face. Yes, she definitely remembered that walk.
“Do you plan to stand around and watch them?” He laughed at the picture forming in his head: the two of them ducking behind bushes, spying on the older couple lost in a passionate kiss.
Maddi smiled, then grinned, then finally laughed outright. “No. I’m not going to watch.”
“You trust him enough, then?”
