Flirting With Disaster (19 page)

“
You weren't sure at
first.”

Naomi smiled. “Well, unlike Peyton I'm not
actively nosy so I would have never pried.”

Madison laughed because she remembered when
Peyton as a teen. The girl had a mouth on her, and she was never
scared to use it. She'd liked her, but Peyton had been four years
younger and that mattered in high school and definitely college.
And then...Madison shook her head. “Stop trying to placate me. I'm
angry.”

“
As you should be. I'd be
pissed too if I found I had four flats.”

“
Not four flats, four
slashed tires.”

Karma. That's exactly what this was. She'd
only came out to her car to put her purse up. Peyton had waved away
her money at the bar. The offer of free drinks had warmed Madison
and for the first time in a very long time she thought her
pessimism had been unfounded and a bit paranoid.

Ha.

Four slashed tires meant the local PD and
the local PD meant Reid. Cramps gripped her stomach. Knowing her
luck, he'd be on duty tonight. Any call coming in from The Grog
Monster would go straight to Reid. He wouldn't be able to stay away
because that was the kind of man he was. Protective to a fault,
stubborn as hell and the man could hold a grudge. His best friend
in college had broken his sister's heart, and Reid hadn't talked to
the man in ten years because of it.

And Madison, well, she believed in the
forgive and never forget school of thought.

“
Reid,” Naomi said
suddenly.

Madison glanced around the parking lot. It
was only them. She exhaled, relieved. “What about him?”

Naomi shook her head. “Thinking out loud.
Reid is a cop and you've been agitated since Peyton said she'd call
them. You must really hate him.”

Madison blinked. “Excuse me?”

“
Sorry. I've been working
with Broke for the past few weeks on that fundraising project. I
love her, but she's blunt. Must have rubbed off on me.”

Madison picked up the forgotten glass from
the hood of her car. Half empty. She drained it, thinking she'd
need a refill soon before the night was over.

“
It's okay,” Naomi
said.

Madison wanted to believe her. Maybe her
stomach would stop trying to tie itself into knots. “It's
okay?”

The other woman ran a hand through her ebony
locks, pushing stray strands from her face. Her brown eyes locked
on Madison's. “I see my ex-husband all the time. So...” Naomi's
smile had a mischievous glint. “I know a thing or two about hiding
my real reaction. There's a big difference in anger, sadness and
surprise. You had anger. Towards Reid. I'm intrigued.”

“
I don't hate him.” That
much was true. “It's been a long time since we ended
things.”

That truth was more...wispy. Ended things
sounded so neat and tidy. They had imploded.

Naomi clasped her hands on her stomach and
leaned against the car. “Hmm-hmm,” was all she intoned.

“
The emotion you saw wasn't
anger either. More like annoyance, if anything.”

“
Hmm-hmm.”

Madison snorted. “You're just going to keep
saying that until I spill the entire story?”

Naomi's smile widened. “Hmm-hmm.”

Much to her surprise, Madison let out a big
belly laugh. “Maybe another night.” She frowned at her empty glass.
“Or more liquor. Whatever happens first.”

The hairs on her skin
prickled. It wasn't the cold but a sudden awareness. Her stomach
flipped, feeling weightless and full of nervous energy. She scanned
the parking lot again and there
he
was. He wore denims, boots and a light jacket—no
uniform. He wasn't a detective who could get away with casual dress
while on the job but in a town this small titles didn't
matter.

All those years between them dropped away.
She remembered the giddy rush of love, old and no longer relevant,
but there because some part of her would always be that
nineteen-year-old girl who had loved Reid Tanner. The part of her
who couldn't catch her breath at the first sight of him. The one
who thought he'd be her husband. Those old feelings rose up so fast
she chocked on them.

On the next release of breath everything
afterward came rushing back. Real life had wedged itself in, and
they both got a good look of the couple they would be in thirty
years. She hadn't liked what she saw and neither had he. She wasn't
nineteen anymore. Her hand clenched around the glass, but she
relaxed her posture.

“
Wow,” Naomi
whispered.

Madison looked at her and realized the woman
had caught every facial inflection and probably every emotion that
had flickered through her gaze. “Yeah.”

Naomi took the cup. “I'll bring you more
whiskey.”

Before Madison could beg to not be left
alone with Reid, Naomi was striding across the parking lot. They
stopped, exchanged words and he nodded. He resumed his brisk pace,
his sandy-head of hair lowered.

Each of his planted steps puffed up dust
from the ground until he stopped at the trunk of her car. “Hey,
Madison.”

Her breathing refused to steady. “Reid, I
shouldn't be surprised to see you here.”

His blue eyes frosted. “Let me make this
short and painless. I'm off duty so I won't be the officer on
record. If and when you need to follow up on this, you won't have
to deal with me.”

Relief and annoyance jockeyed for position.
She shifted under that internal fight. “Okay.”

He pulled a small flashlight out of his
pocket. “What time did you arrive?”

“
A little after
nine.”

He flicked the light toward the ground and
began to make his way around the car. He chose the path farthest
from her first. “Were you parked here the entire time?”

“
Yes.”

“
Was anyone hanging around
out front or back here who seemed suspicious?”

Annoyance started to win. She forced her
voice to match the frost in his gaze. “Not a cop, so no I didn't
notice.”

“
A teacher. You're supposed
to look out for anyone who doesn't look like they belong at the
elementary school. You're supposed to notice when a student is
misbehaving or acting out of the norm. You have enough skill to be
aware.”

His tone was clipped and straightfoward, but
she still noticed his timbre had gotten deeper since college. His
shoulders had definitely gotten broader. The wind shifted again. He
smelled different though. His new deep, masculine scent brought the
flutter back into her stomach.

Her shoulder muscles bunched. “No. I didn't
notice anyone suspicious.”

He finally made it to her side, keeping a
good distance between them. Unlike any of the other times they ran
into each other while in town, he held her gaze. It was hard and
cold. “What time did you come outside?”

The flutter in her stomach slowly turned
into lead. “Sometime after ten.”

“
Closer to eleven or
ten-thirty?”

“
Ten-thirty.”

His voice grew gruff. “Why?”

Her heart lurched. “Why what?”

“
Why did you come
outside?”

She relaxed against the car's door. “I
wanted to put my purse up. I brought it in and Peyton refused to
take my money.”

A corner of his mouth lifted. “Sounds about
right.” He shrugged. “Have you pissed off anyone enough to have
them do this to your car?”

Not since him. “No.”

“
Well, it's probably just
some teenagers wanting to screw with a teacher.” He stuffed his
hands in his pants' pockets. “I'm not sure who is coming, but I'll
tell them everything. The officer will give you a case number. You
can follow up with that number. A report probably won't be ready
for a few days if you're going to need it for insurance
purposes.”

Silence thudded down on them. “That's
it?”

He gave her a look that said he didn't have
one goddamn care in the world. “That's it.”

This was the longest conversation they had
had in years. When they had first broken up she'd wondered what
this moment would be like. Would they be able to keep cool heads?
Would the old hurts be too much and one of them would break? Never
had she imagined this emptiness—this cold brush off.

“
Thanks.” She crossed her
arms and settled into her coat.

“
I don't think Naomi is
coming back.” His sigh sounded harsh in the quiet.

Madison looked toward the bar and sighed
like he had. “You're probably right.”

“
And I can't leave you out
here alone.” The words sounded pained, and for him it would
hurt.

She had no doubt Peyton had widened her
eyes, put on the little-sister-in-danger act and he had come to the
rescue. All to help Madison. Probably getting kicked in the balls
for an hour sounded more pleasant to him, and less painful.

A swell of anger rose in her throat. “You
don't have to protect me. I'm fine.”

“
Yeah?” His shoulders went
back, and he reached his full height.

He was all man. Always had been. It's what
attracted her to him in high school. If he suffered from acne it
was before they'd dated. His jaw line had been rough-hewn, bare
then, but now a shadow of a beard lined his sharp chin. Every
muscle he had, and he had a lot of them, coiled as he loomed over
her.

He placed a hand on her car and leaned into
her space. Anger had begun to melt the ice in his eyes. “I'm only
going to say this politely once. Get your ass in the bar before I
drag you in.”

Her mouth dropped down for a second at the
gall. “You wouldn't. Peyton—”

“
Is the one who begged me
to come out here in the first place. She can deal with the
consequences. I'm not in the mood to deal with posturing on
principle. I'm not leaving you out here alone. End of
discussion.”

Her back teeth ached from clenching her
teeth so hard. “When did you turn into a bully?”

The anger in his eyes sharpened. “When you
didn't want to be pregnant with my baby.”

The implication in his words hit her. Red
flashed in her vision. A sharp crack sliced through the air. It
took a moment for the sting on her hand to register. Her eyes
widened with shock. His jaw twitched and his head tilted at a
angle. She'd just slapped Reid.

A stuttered apology rose to her lips until
he looked at her. The words dried up. The last time she'd seen him
this angry he'd beaten the crap out of Declan.

His nostrils flared and he bent his head
down. Oh. Yeah. He was pissed. Since she had every right to be just
as angry, Madison steeled her words. “I had a miscarriage.”

“
You claimed to love me,
but you didn't want to be pregnant. You tell me you needed some
time to yourself to think about what you wanted, and the next time
I hear from you there's no more baby. You didn't call me when the
miscarriage started. You made sure I couldn't be there for
you.”

Because he was right about that last part,
her anger refused to ebb. If she let it, guilt could sink in. “You
proposed to me so it was more than just having a baby. I needed
time. There was nothing you could have done.”

“
We were going to get
married anyway.”

The first accusation had pissed her off.
This one hurt. “You accused me of having an abortion. Sooner or
later we would have realized love wasn't enough.” And because she
was still pissed off about that, she added, “Half this town thinks
your the golden boy. The perfect and brave Reid Tanner, protecting
a town that bears his name. You could run for mayor tomorrow and
everyone would forget it's supposed to be Peyton. And, yet, you
blamed me for something I couldn't control. You saw malice when
there was none.”

She had started to yell at him, rising to
her toes so she'd be right there in his face. “I wasn't ready, but
I wouldn't have made that decision without telling you first.” Her
chest heaved from the unspent anger pumping in her heart.

“
Madison,” his voice had
gone dangerously low, “it seems you have made your
choice.”

“
What?” She blinked and
then she was over his shoulder.

His hand curved under her ass as he steadied
her. The warmth of his palm on her so close to her sex shaved off
some of the anger. Had to be the shock. Before she could start up a
good and righteous condemnation, he started back toward the bar.
She could only sputter.

Her hair curtained everything but his back.
Madison fought the immature urge to bite him since that good and
righteous condemnation refused to come out in words. He slapped the
saloon doors hard enough they slammed against the wall.

Unceremoniously he dropped her off at the
bar. She pushed back her hair to glare up at him, but he wasn't
looking at her. Reid pointed at Peyton who stood behind the
counter.

His flushed face held an expression that
warned off anyone who decided to argue with what he said next, “You
owe me.” When he met Madison's gaze again, his jaw twitched once
and then again before he bit out, “I'll tell the officer you're in
here.”

His silent order barked—for her to stay
put—Reid marched out of The Grog. Heat suffused her face as she
took in the room. Everyone had stopped doing whatever it was they
were doing. Only music filled The Grog. How could they not watch?
The golden boy had dragged her into a bar, dropped off her near the
bar and made silent threats with a steely glance. Everyone would
assume the worse and would likely be right.

With all the dignity Madison could muster,
she lifted her chin and turned back to the counter. “A drink,
please.”