Page 5 of Spring Forward
Madison had known her fair share of people who fell through when people were counting on them. She refused to be one of those people. She managed to keep her sigh of resignation silent. “I brought my big, chunky, yellow necklace.”
Mom grinned, dropping the blue top on the bed. “Perfect! What about shoes?”
Before Madison had a chance to catch her breath, she was dressed for a night out and pulling up to Romanelli’s on Vine.
“I came home to save Mom from herself. How did she manage to distract me?” Madison leaned back against the headrest. “Tonight was the perfect opportunity to keep an eye on things, but here I am.”
And Derek is here too.
She was still wrapping her brain around having seen him the night before after not seeing him in a year. That year had been good to him. Even though spring had only begun, he was a little tan, with a touch of gold in his hair. He’d never been a jock, but he was always athletic. That clearly hadn’t changed.
And those eyes. Oh, those eyes.
She hit her palm against the steering wheel. What kind of idiot sat in her car dying over a pair of hazel eyes? Especially when those eyes belonged to someone she broke up with two yearsago? At the sound of someone knocking on the driver’s side window, she turned. She could have rolled her eyes.
Derek. Of course.
Madison forced a friendly smile so he’d think she was totally comfortable. She put down the window. “Hey.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Still talking to your steering wheel?”
She’dbeen doing that for years. “Yeah, well it’s a really good listener.”
He leaned his arm across the top of the car, leaning over to talk through the open window. “Come on inside. Everyone’s here. They’re all excited to see you.”
She could picture them all sitting at the big table, paired up all the way around. That was the worst part of seeing them all again: everyone had someone except for her and Derek. “We aren’t going to be the only single people in the group, are we?”
“You’re assuming I’m single.”
He was, wasn’t he? Madison’s stomach fell all the way to her feet. A sick, almost panicked, feeling welled up inside her. Hewassingle still, wasn’t he? Mom would have texted her a saga detailing the whole thing if Derek had a girlfriend.
Except that Mom’s head was full of Mr. Fabulous. She probably hadn’t even noticed Derek.
“I really should be spending more time with my mom.” She could be home in five minutes—two if she hit all green lights. “That’s why I came home, to visit her.”
“Sure. That’s why.” His smile tipped to the left side, just the way it always had when he teased her. “It didn’t have anything to do with warning off your mom’s new boyfriend?”
“I... That’s not...”
He walked around the front of the car. He opened the passenger door and took a seat.
“What are you doing?”
He pulled the door closed and leaned the seat back.
“Are you settling in?”
“So youdidn’tcome back to Folsom Lake to decide if my uncle Grant was good enough for your mom?”
She kept her gaze forward. If she had to look at him sitting there so comfortable in her car the way he used to, thinking about him and some phantom girlfriend, she’d start all over again with the what-ifs and if-onlys.
“I only came to visit.” She almost sounded convincing.
“I know you better than that, Maddi.”
She shook her head. “You alwaysthoughtyou did.”
He leaned in, close enough to whisper in her ear. “I know you well enough to know you talk to your steering wheel.”
