14. Madi

Chapter 14

Madi

Bookers Pub was as crowded as it ever was. Okay, so I’d only heard how busy it could get from my sisters. This was my first time here.

“Over here!” Abigail stood on her chair, waving her arms above her head.

I watched Riley tug her down and whisper in her ear. Abigail threw her head back, laughing, and I knew I was about to have fun. Tipsy Abigail was hilarious.

The three of us were as different as could be, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy their company. Riley was stylish and sleek, all about designer clothes and perfectly polished hair and makeup—she was immaculate. She wore designer jeans and a black blazer over a shiny white silk tank top tonight. Her pointy-toed, bright pink stilettos were her only pop of color.

Abigail was her opposite—picture a thirty-two-year-old version of Stevie Nicks with wild chocolate brown waves and boho clothes. According to Abigail, one could not have too many accessories; she was dripping in silver—a stack of bracelets on each wrist, a tangle of shimmery necklaces, and a ring on almost every finger.

My style fell somewhere in the middle. I had changed to a simple black sheath with long sleeves and a deep V-neck. Black patent leather stilettos were on my feet. I felt pretty. If I was about to get bad news, I had to look hot while I got it. Somehow, it made me feel better.

We were different in so many ways, but we always, always had each other’s backs. I hoped like hell they weren’t here to try to get me to take Ross back. Because no.

Riley stood, holding her arms out and wiggling her fingers as I approached. “Hugs!” she shouted as I walked into her arms. “I missed you, Mads.” She kissed the top of my head and then pulled away with a grin. “This one is trying to choose a Fire Brigade member to hit on. Help me keep her under control.” She eyed me sharply with a cat-eating-the-canary grin on her face. “We’ve heard Cole is off the market again. Is that true? Because I approve, one hundred percent. He’s a great guy. I’ve always thought so.”

“Um…” I slid into their booth, trying to decide what to tell them about Cole, if anything.

“Don’t worry, I won’t flirt with him ever again.” Abigail passed me a tequila shot as she attempted to reassure me quietly. “Last time I was here in town, Gigi told me he was divorced, so—” She shrugged. “Look, he was single and hot and right there across the street. Convenient, right? But he wasn’t interested in me, and I don’t have feelings for him—at all. So now that he’s yours, it won’t be a thing. Don’t worry.”

“He’s not exactly mine, and I’m not worried. I, uh⁠—”

“That’s not important now,” Riley cut me off and covered my hand with hers. “We have news, and it’s not great.”

I sighed. “Just tell me. Is Ross going to try to get me back? Because that’s never going to happen. It’s over⁠—”

“Not quite. He is⁠—”

“Fuck!” Abigail pointed to the entrance. “He’s right fucking there.” She was aghast. “What the hell is he doing here? Oh my god, Riley?”

“What?” I hissed. “He’s here? Are you trying to set me up—I thought—but you just said—” I was stammering in confusion because what the hell was going on?

“Hell, no.” Abigail drew her head back on her neck, and her eyes widened. “Fuck that guy, and I mean that, Madi. Fuck. Him. Shit, shit, shit. Riley, he’s coming this way with her.”

“Her?” I twisted in my seat but couldn’t see above the back of the booth. “What do you mean, her? What her? Who her?”

Ross was here? In Cozy Creek?

With another woman? Who?

I took a glance around the side of the booth.

“That’s Hanna Hadley,” I said through my teeth at Riley. “What is she doing with him?”

“We know who she is,” she gritted back. “Her grandma is frenemies with Gigi, and her mother, Heather, is currently attempting to screw her way through the Fire Brigade—she’s not having much luck, though. Ask Mom, they went to high school together, and Mom can’t stand her. Those three Hadley ladies are trouble.”

“What do you two know? Is this why we’re here? Also, frenemies? I had no idea. Gigi never said a word to me about that.”

“Well, you’ve never been to a poker game. That’s probably why it never came up. The Hadley’s are, uh, not great. Gigi is all about keeping your friends close and your frenemies closer. It’s better to see shit coming, you know? She likes to keep an eye on them.”

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Abigail was still fretting. But I needed answers.

“Riley, please. Tell me what’s happening.”

“He’s nothing but a selfish prick, Madi.” She took my other hand. “He promised to let us tell you first. He swore he’d stay out of Cozy Creek until you knew everything and had time to process.”

“Process what? Does Gigi know what’s going on?”

“No. Nobody knows anything as far as we can tell—including her family. He’s dating Hanna Hadley, Madi. I’m so sorry. Abigail and I saw them coming out of his apartment when we went to pick up the rest of the things you left there.”

“Wait a minute.” My hand went to my chest. “Back up. Is he seeing someone else? Already? Are you sure?”

Ross wasn’t a commitment phobe.

It was me. He didn’t want to commit to me.

I didn’t want him anymore. I didn’t even miss him.

But this fucking hurt.

What was wrong with me? Why hadn’t he wanted me? I would have made a great fucking wife, damn it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, snatched a napkin from the table, and dabbed it beneath my eyes as I stared into the light above our table, trying to blink back the rapidly forming tears.

“You guys.” I waved a hand to fan it in front of my face and bounced in my seat. ”I think I’m going to cry. I don’t want to cry. Tell me to knock it off.”

“No. Stop. You are not crying over that asshole. Don’t you dare. You’re going to be fine,” Riley all but growled. “I’ll fucking make sure of that. Don’t you worry about a thing, Madison. I got you. Do not look outside of this booth. They’ve stopped near the bar for a second. Shh.”

“He’s a goddamn prick, and I never liked her,” Abigail stated pointedly as she stabbed a fingertip at the top of the table. “Say the word, and I’ll smack her around for you. Him too. He’s tall, but I think I can take him. I’m pretty fucking pissed right now, and liquor gives me courage. No one fucks with family.” I almost laughed. She sounded like a mafia guy.

“That’s sweet of you, Abigail, but no thank you. The last thing we need is a scene. You guys, is he coming over here—with her? What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Act like you don’t care,” Riley answered under her breath. “We’ll get rid of him.”

“I don’t care. But also, I do. I have never had this feeling before⁠—”

“Get rid of him? No way,” Abigail protested. “There are three fucking drinks left on this table. He will be wearing at least one of them when he leaves. But don’t worry, we can get more.”

“No. Please,” I begged her. “Don’t start anything. I don’t want that, then everybody will know something is going on. I just want to go home. Get me out of here. Do not cause a scene, Abigail.”

“But I’m so good at it,” she whined. “Let me do this for you, my little baby sister. You’re too sweet to handle this properly. This needs to go down ugly, Madi. He doesn’t deserve it any other way.”

I burst out in a startled laugh. “Don’t make me laugh when I’m—I don’t even know how I feel about this.”

“You don’t care,” Riley insisted again. “He’s not worth it. You dumped him, and he deserved it. Do not forget that.”

Tears filled my eyes again, but I managed to blink them back. “Yeah, but he’s already moved on? What was wrong with me? It’s barely been two months. He cried when I broke it off. I told you that, didn’t I?”

They exchanged a look, and I grew alarmed.

“Nothing is wrong with you,” Abigail slurred. “Not one fucking thing. You are not crying over that prick, not tonight. We got you. Try not to listen to anything he says. It’ll all be a bunch of bullshit anyway.”

The time was nigh. He was almost here at my table. As he approached, he looked at me like he felt sorry for me. What the hell?

“Madi. I heard you were in Cozy Creek.” His eyes drifted to Riley and Abigail like they had planned this. Like they were expecting him to show up here tonight.

“Don’t look at us like we’re all still friends, dick. We didn’t tell you she was here.” Abigail huffed.

My eyes darted between them. The music here was loud, but I had a feeling Abigail would become louder.

“I told him,” Hanna confessed. “I can’t wait anymore. We need to clear the air before we announce our engagement. With you being Gigi’s granddaughter and her being so prominent in town, I felt it was important to give you a heads-up. I didn’t want this to cause a scandal⁠—”

“Why would this cause a scandal?”

Ice ran through my veins when I saw a ring on her finger. That finger. A big round solitaire on a white gold band. I didn’t want it, but it should have been mine.

Weird thoughts coursed through my mind as I put the pieces together.

They were engaged.

Already?

What the ever-loving hell?

“Um…” Ross looked to the ceiling, searching for words. It was a familiar quirk, but I no longer found it cute. Instead, I wanted to throttle him.

“Well, honestly, it shouldn’t be scandalous at all,” Hanna answered earnestly. She looked up at him with adoration and took his arm with both hands. She was all blond, bubbly, head-over-heels, and full of smiles for him. “Love rules all of us, doesn’t it? I met Ross last Christmas at the coffee shop when he was here in town, and we fell in love. It was amazing, special, and almost at first sight, right, baby?”

He looked down at her and winked in answer.

“When you know, you know,” she continued. “It’s as simple and as complicated as that.”

“Wait a second. Back up. Hold on.” I shushed them. “Last Christmas? When he was here in town with me.” I did the mental math. “Ten months ago.”

Ross held his hands out placatingly. “About that. Let me explain⁠—”

I held up a hand to quiet him. My mind was whirling with dates and numbers, and I realized that Ross would never have asked me to marry him when he had already been falling in love and planning his happily ever after with someone else.

“Hush. Shut up. Be quiet. Excuse me? Ten months. Ten months. TEN MONTHS. We were together ten months ago. You. And. Me. Together.” I was getting louder and louder and couldn’t stop it or find it in myself to care. Causing a scene was the last worry on my mind now. I was so angry.

“Wait for me outside, Hanna. I’ll handle this.”

“Handle?” Abigail screeched. “This? You mean the situation you caused by being a selfish motherfucking prick?”

Heads were turning in our direction.

Eyes were on me.

I decided to see what he had to say. I had to; grim curiosity was killing me, and I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t know every detail. I required closure on all things. I needed it to survive. Not knowing something would be worse than walking away on the high ground.

She kissed his cheek. “Okay, sugar. I’ll be in the car. You were the one to break up with him, Madi.” Her eyes were harsh on me. “Don’t forget that it was you who ended it. He was so upset.”

“This bitch is delusional.” Abigail got up to follow her out. I reached across the table to stop her, but she was too fast for me to catch.

“Riley!” I grabbed her hand in alarm. “Go after them.”

She scooted to the edge of the bench seat and then hesitated. “Damn it. I shouldn’t have let her start drinking. We were going to break the news and show you a good time tonight. Make it go down easy, then distract you with some cheese fries and some fun sister time. I’m so sorry, Madi. This is—” She shook her head as if torn about which sister needed her more. “I should have known better. I don’t want to leave you alone with him. Abigail will be okay.”

“No, I’ll be fine. I want to hear him out. It’s—it is what it is. And none of this is your fault. Please don’t let her get arrested. Oh my god.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” She glared at Ross after she stood. “Watch yourself, do you hear me? You’ll have me to deal with if you say anything stupid and upset her any more than she already is.”

“I’m not here to upset her, Riley.”

“You’re a moron, Ross. The biggest idiot I’ve ever met. If I come back here and she’s in tears, you are a dead man. Do you get me? You know I won’t fuck around when it comes to making sure you get what you deserve.”

“Yes. I got it, Jesus Christ, Riley. Just go and collect your sister, please, before she scares Hanna.”

“I’ll be okay. Get Abigail.”

“I’m so sorry.” She hauled ass to the door.

Ross grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “One last dance? We need this closure. That’s why I came. To say I’m sorry. And to give you a proper goodbye.”

“Get your hands off of me,” I seethed. “Closure? Okay, sure. Consider this closed. Don’t worry about me. My heart is closed up pretty tight right now. If you have something to say, then we can talk right here. Are you sure your fiancée won’t mind if you sit with me?”

“Of course not. She trusts me.” He slid across from me into the booth, giving a wary eye to the tequila shots on the table.

I popped an eyebrow up. Maybe he’d be wearing one before our talk ended.

“Was that meant to be ironic? I trusted you, Ross. Look where it got me. You made me feel guilty for breaking up with you. I actually felt bad, and you had been cheating on me for months.”

His blond hair flopped over his forehead as he shook his head. “Oh no, no, no. I am not a cheater, Madi. We need to get that straight first. We weren’t working, Madison. Our relationship had been on shaky ground for the last couple of years, and we both know that. You were right to end things. Hanna is not like you, though. She can’t cook worth a damn, and she turned all my white clothes pink.” He chuckled as if I would take it as a compliment that I was better at cooking and doing his laundry.

Thanks a fucking lot.

“You let me think you were going to propose to me when you’d been with someone else. You cried when I broke it off. But you were cheating on me—for almost an entire year. What the hell, Ross?” I was angry at myself for feeling embarrassed when he was the one who was in the wrong.

“It wasn’t cheating on you,” he reiterated in a whispered tone, eyes darting outside the booth. Yeah, plenty of people were listening. I knew I would eventually care, but I was just too upset to think clearly. “I would never do that. Hanna and I weren’t sleeping together,” he said under his breath. “We were just talking. A text here and there. That’s all.”

“Oh, gee,” I answered loudly as I toyed with a shot glass, considering whether I should toss it in his stupid face or drink it. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“Keep your voice down. People are watching us, Madi. I didn’t think you’d cause a scene. You’re too sweet to be this sarcastic. Come on now. It’s time for both of us to move on. Should I have told you I was talking to Hanna? Probably. But I wasn’t sure it would work out with her, and I didn’t want to lose you, did I?”

“You are unbelievable,” I managed to say, struggling for control. I was so angry that I didn’t dare raise my voice again, or I would end up screaming my head off at him.

He tried to hold my hands across the table, but I yanked them back. “And you’re wonderful, Madi. You were the best girlfriend I’ve ever had. But it worked with Hanna; now she’s ready to move forward with me. We’ll be spending a lot of time here in Cozy Creek while she plans the wedding with her mother.”

“Oh, I see. I get it now. Having the specter of our former relationship hanging over your head doesn’t work for your new fiancée if I’m not cool with it. Is that it?”

“Exactly. I knew you’d understand. I had to tell you myself, but Riley disagreed; she thought the news would be better coming from her. I had to come here. It was the honorable thing to do.”

“Honorable?” I threw the word at him like I was about to throw this damn drink in my hand. “No. It would have been honorable if you had told me the second you met someone you were interested in. Have you heard of emotional cheating, Ross? That’s what you did, and it’s just as bad as if you were screwing her behind my back.”

“I. Am. Not. A. Cheater. Why can’t you see that?” He shook his head vehemently. “I would never do that to you or anyone.”

“Fine. You’re not a cheater, just a total fucking moron then. Why didn’t I realize you were so selfish?”

His expression briefly clouded with anger. “I’ll let that go—you’re upset and not thinking clearly. This is not you. I’m sorry you feel this way. I was hoping we could end up as friends someday.”

“That is not looking good.” Blood pounded in my temples as I struggled to maintain what was left of my composure. “Did you want to do this publicly so I wouldn’t lose my shit?” Anger was singing the edges of my control as I struggled to contain it. I had never been this mad before.

“The thought crossed my mind,” he admitted. “I wanted you to listen to me. If we were alone, you’d probably storm off to pout like you sometimes do.”

My lips thinned at his chiding tone. “I⁠—”

“Listen,” he cut me off. “You’re upset, I can always tell, remember? Please try to understand this from my perspective. We’d been together for so long, we were, what? Four years into our relationship when I met Hanna. I didn’t want to throw all that history away on a mere possibility. You and I were so good together for a long time. It just started unraveling toward the end, is all.”

“You are seriously unbelievable.” My embarrassment and anger had turned to raw fury.

I lifted the shot glass in my hand and tossed the tequila at his chest. I would have picked his face, but I was familiar with his suit. It was his favorite, and it was expensive. He loved that fucking suit, the tie too. I’d given it to him on his twenty-ninth birthday; it was also expensive. I grabbed the second shot and tossed that one at him, too. But the third one was for me. I raised it in a silent toast, then tossed it back, smacking my lips at the tequila burn.

He drew back as if struck. “I thought I knew you, Madi. I can’t believe you’re reacting this way. I’m not a cheater⁠—”

“No, you don’t know me at all, and it’s clear to me now that you never did. I have to get out of here.” I climbed out of the booth, and he grabbed my arm and then stood at my side, towering over me with a determined look. I tried to pull away, but he held tight. “Let me go.”

“No, I can’t have you leaving this conversation thinking I’m a cheater. I have to make you understand first⁠—”

“I do understand. One hundred percent.” I tried to yank my arm away, but he wouldn’t let go. “I understand that I never want to see you ever again. I understand that you chose to string me along for five years—for your convenience, never mind what I wanted or how it would make me feel to have you constantly avoiding discussions about our future together. That is your mistake. Not mine. You live with it. I don’t forgive you. I’ll have my peace but won’t give you yours because I’ve given you enough.”

“Madi, please! I’m sorry, okay? I can see that I hurt you, and it’s not what I intended⁠—”

“No, Ross. Let me go.”

“I can’t. Not like this. We meant too much to each other to let it become this ugly.”

“I cannot believe you,” I sputtered, staring up at him in astonishment. “Like, I think I’m in actual shock right now.”

I didn’t want him back, but I wondered what was so fundamentally wrong with me that he would spend five years making me think we had a future together and, worse, that I’d believed it.

How could he do this to me?

How could I have been so blind?

I would never be able to comprehend this kind of casual cruelty and selfishness. Maybe that’s why I had believed in him for all those years.

Who could do such a thing and be able to live with it?

And why would he think a chat in a bar would provide closure? Ridiculous.

And his explanation? It was laughable.

And the thought that we could be friends after this? Zero fucking chance of that.

He had cheated on me, for fuck’s sake. Emotional cheating was real. How could he not see how serious that was?

I stopped struggling and stood there stupidly as my mind raced through all the ways I had been so fucking gullible and dumb.

For five years.

I shook my arm out of his grasp. I mindlessly crossed the dance floor toward the exit, not tracking my surroundings as I stewed over everything I’d discovered until I saw Cole sitting at a table with a few Cozy Creek Fire Brigade crew members and his brothers. Concern flashed across his face, and I shut my eyes against it.

Ross caught up to me and grabbed me again, turning me forcefully to face him.

“Please, Madi. Will you just listen to reason?”

My breath caught in my throat.

Could this be any more humiliating?

Apparently.

“Do it,” I heard Tate say.

“Get your girl,” Quinn added.