Page 27 of The Encounter
“We haven’t done anything beyond that, though. I mean, he kissed me on Halloween, but we haven’t kissed or done anything else since then.”
Kailynn sighed. “You’ve been holding out on me, girl.”
Maddie giggled. “I’m sorry. I always get worried about crossing the employer/employee line. Being in a relaxed atmosphere at a job is new for me.”
“I understand. But after everything you helped me through with Chase, I think we’re more friends than anything.”
“So I can whine about boy problems to you while we are working?”
“Girl, you can do that anytime—day or night. I’m all ears. So the date was good?”
“Yes. We got to know each other. It was nice.”
Kailynn turned back to her sewing, so Maddie turned back to the project she was working on.
“What’s his place like? I mean, it has to be gorgeous.”
“It is. Very beautiful. He has the sweetest dog named Roxy. There’s a ton of art around his place. He even has one of my dad’s paintings.”
Kailynn swiveled in her chair to face Maddie.
“Wow! Are you serious?”
Maddie stopped working and turned to face Kailynn again. “Yeah, it was crazy. He said he met my dad at a craft fair and had bought it then.”
“Did he know he had one by your dad?”
Maddie shook her head. “No. He didn’t know until I told him.”
“That’s incredible. It’s like fate saying that you’re meant to be.”
“Or maybe it’s my dad speaking to me.”
“Quite possibly.”
Maddie began working again as the silence between them grew.
“You know, you never told me what brought you back to California,” Kailynn said.
Maddie stopped typing and looked over at Kailynn. “Eh. Boy stuff.”
“I wondered about that.”
Maddie had tried to force herself to stop thinking about it, but it constantly ran through her mind. Especially when random texts would still come through from him. She finally got the courage to block his number, but he always seemed to find a way to contact her.
“I was seeing this guy, Brad, back in New York. He was the greatest person I had ever met. So charming, so perfect.” She sighed. “I guess that should have been my first clue that things weren’t right. Nobody is perfect.”
Kailynn groaned. “Don’t tell me he was cheating on you.”
“Worse. He was married.”
“No!”
“Yes. I found out when I showed up at his place one night to surprise him. He always made excuses on why we couldn’t meet at his place. He just always wanted to come to mine. One night I made these cookies that I thought he’d like. I packaged them up and wore lingerie under a cute trench coat. Made my way through Manhattan like that. I even stopped at the store and got a can of whipped cream.”
Kailynn’s eyebrows bounced up and down suggestively.
Maddie laughed. “Yeah. His wife answered the door. She asked if I was the whore he was seeing.”
