Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Ducking her head so he wouldn’t see her blush, she speed walked for the front door. “My feet were asleep.”
“Whatever you say, love.”
Eve was halfway to the club before she realized she was smiling.
Chapter Thirteen
Seven Years Earlier
Something wasn’t right.
Eve, now a sophomore, watched Madden from across the swimming pool, her narrowed gaze hidden behind a pair of black, cat-eyed sunglasses. Elton was telling Madden about his plans to ask out one of their mutual classmates, while absently tossing the ball into Madden’s waiting glove. Elton didn’t seem to notice Madden’s grimace every time he trapped the baseball in his leather mitt or the strain around his mouth when throwing it back.
Eve noticed.
She noticed everything about Madden.
How could she do anything but notice him when he shadowed her at school, a gorgeous savior trying not to be noticed unless he was needed? His unique way of intervening whenever someone harassed Eve both relieved her and perturbed her. Could she handle these goons on her own? Yes! Obviously. But, well . . . sometimes, in a period of weariness, she could breathe easier knowing she wasn’t alone. That he’d come, without fail, and be the voice she couldn’t find.
Other times, she resented Madden intervening because it made her feel helpless.
Dependent on his protective nature.
But . . . he seemed to understand that. And he wasn’t offended by her occasional lack of grace and gratitude. God, that was nice. To have someone stare into the face of her complicated attitude without flinching.
When Eve really sat down and dissected what Madden meant to her . . . she got overwhelmed. And so, she tried extrahard not to. Especially because of Skylar and her unabashed adoration of the man who’d become her stepbrother’s best friend.
But if Eve had to whisper the truth to the universe, she’d say Madden was the boy she pictured in her mind’s eye when she imagined her first kiss. Her first time having sex, too, his eyes steady on hers while he moved above her in a slow rhythm, their fingers twined together on either side of her head. On those days when he walked her to Cat Fight to make sure she arrived safely, gruffly reminding her to lock the office door in her wake, she stared at that door and wondered if he was staring back from the other side. Hoping and dreading that he might be, because what could she do about it?
Madden was the closest she’d ever come to trusting another human being. Maybe . . . maybe she even did. Trust this equally fierce and gentle man completely. With her very life.
Wasn’t that terrifying?
Bottom line, she noticed everything about Madden.
And he’d lost weight.
His usual robust frame had weakened in front of her very eyes over the last month. He’d declined to eat when the Pages invited him to stay for dinner. One lap in the pool earlier that afternoon had left him short of breath. Pale. Did no one else notice? Even his performance behind home plate hadn’t been as stellar, his throws seeming . . . labored.
“Just going to use the bathroom,” he said to Elton now, interrupting his friend midsentence. “Tell me the rest when I come back.”
Elton threw up his hands. “How can you stand the suspense?”
When normally Madden would have come back with a quip, his jaw only clenched. He patted Elton on the shoulder and walked toward the house, his gait abnormally stilted.
Eve chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, then made her decision. She reached over and popped out one of Skylar’s AirPods. “Going to run inside and grab a water. Do you want anything?”
“Orange juice, please,” responded Eve’s best friend, before she raised her voice and shouted across the pool, “If Elton didn’t drink it all!”
Elton shot her a middle finger.
Skylar returned with two.
Just your typical afternoon with the Page siblings.
Eve pushed her sunglasses onto her head and crossed the yard, opening the sliding glass door to let herself into the silent house. Doug and Vivica Page were out training for a half-marathon, leaving her alone in the house with Madden. A situation she craved and avoided at the same time. But intuition tugged at Eve’s consciousness, begging her not to avoid him today.
Something is wrong.
Eve turned down the hallway leading to the bathroom, stopping short, her ears ringing at the sight of Madden hunched over, his forearm braced on the wall to keep him standing.
“Mad,” she said, unable to keep her voice free of alarm.
He straightened, but didn’t turn around. A large, but withering silhouette in the late-afternoon dusk. Her heart started to canter.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, love.”
“I know something is wrong. You can tell me.”
“How can I?” His hand came off the wall to press against his lower back. “If I don’t know what it is.”
With a swallow, Eve moved in his direction . . . and for the first time, she understood his protectiveness toward her. How quickly it could manifest. Because the need to protect him flooded her in a deluge, so swift her legs became unsteady beneath the weight.