Page 44 of Starfish Cottage
“Dex! Hello! I’m flattered you mistook me for Maddie.” Aggie laughed. “I’m a bit older.”
“Oh, sorry. Nick mentioned that she was wearing a red dress with a big feather.” He’d been chasing the wrong person all along!
“Oh, I see.” Aggie touched the feather. “She was going to wear this, but it was too big and mine was too small, so we traded. She’s in a lovely shade of hot pink now. But you won’t find her here.”
“I won’t?”
“She went home.”
“Oh.” That was odd. Why would Maddie leave the party she’d worked so hard for?
“She seemed a little down in the dumps.” Henry put his arm around Aggie’s shoulders and leaned toward him, a sparkle in his eye. “She was asking about you though.”
“She was?” Dex’s heart lifted.
“Yep, seemed keen to see you. You can probably catch her since she just left a few minutes ago.”
Dex didn’t need to think about it. He said goodbye to Henry and Aggie and jogged for his truck. He had an idea of where Maddie might go if she was feeling down, and if they were going to get back on the path they’d been on before Lorelei screwed things up, it would be the perfect place for them to start.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Maddie was about to open her second beer when movement caught her eye. She squinted down the beach, her heart jolting. Someone was coming!
She’d never considered that it might be dangerous to sit on this remote part of the beach alone. Shell Cove was such a safe place. She’d never heard of any crimes, much less a creepy stalker on the beach. Who would be out here at night, and why weren’t they at the party?
She rose, her heart thudding. She could run, but the person was in between her and the cottage. The other direction was more remote; there wasn’t a house or path off the beach for almost a quarter mile.
Wait. Something was familiar about the figure.
“Maddie?”
“Dex?”
Relief washed over her.
“I was looking for you at the party.” He looked kind of silly but also kind of good in his pinstripe slacks and white shirt. She’d only ever seen him in his work clothes of jeans and a T-shirt.
“I got partied out. It was a busy day, and I needed some quiet time. So I came to my special place.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. The party was a bit boisterous. I hope you don’t mind me joining you.”
“Not at all.” Maddie sat back down and gestured toward one of the smooth rocks for him to sit on.
“Beer?” She held an unopened beer out to him.
“I don’t want to drink your last one.”
“Plenty more at the cottage. Take it.” He took the beer, their hands brushing, eyes meeting. In that second, Maddie knew something had changed. He’d come looking for her, and even though she didn’t want to read more into it, she felt a closeness, and it wasn’t because he’d chosen to sit only a fraction of an inch away from her.
“The party was fantastic. Nice job.” Dex tipped his beer toward her, and they clinked bottles.
“Thanks. I had a lot of help. Speaking of which, thanks for all of yours.”
“Happy to do it.” Dex sipped his beer and gazed up at the stars. “I want to apologize for acting weird.”
“You weren’t acting weird. You broke up with someone that you’d been with for a long time. Of course that’s going to be a little strange.”
“Yeah, it is, but I think it was a long time coming. We weren’t really happy together, but it happened so gradually it took me a while to figure that out. And I guess I kind of floated along. I didn’t look at my long-term plan enough.”
