Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“Excuse me. I’m looking for Ryder Lynwood.”
I rolled out from under the car. She had her back to me, but as soon as the wheels stopped moving, she turned as if she knew the sound behind her was me.
“Mads…?” I asked, as if I didn’t see her standing in front of me. I couldn’t believe she was here, didn’t know how she even knew about my shop, but she did, and she was.
“Hi. I hope it’s okay I stopped by. I didn’t know where you lived. I heard about the shop through the Atlanta Elite Gossip Network,” she teased, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. She’d always had a great sense of humor when she let herself.
“Hey, yeah, of course. I just…shit, Mads. If I’m being honest, I just can’t believe you’re here.” I stood, walked toward her.
There was something different about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. She hadn’t aged much physically. There wasn’t a lot of difference between twenty-five and thirty. Where Hutch looked like his dad, both with dark-brown hair and brown eyes, Mads was all Nora—light honey-colored hair down to her mid-back, and her irises were the same hazel shade. She didn’t wear much makeup and never had. She was just…Mads.
“I know you’re busy. Work probably isn’t the best place to come and try to talk, but you close soon, right? I could hang out a bit or come back. I was hoping we could catch up.”
I had no business taking a break, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. If I got behind, I’d deal with the consequences later. “We can talk. Do you want to go somewhere, or is my office okay?”
“Your office will work.”
I told Kacen I’d be back. Mads walked over with me so I could wash my hands, and then I led her through the bay toward the building, down a hallway, and to my office, and closed the door behind us. Nerves ate at my gut, making it ache uncomfortably.
“You’re a mechanic.” She plucked nervously at the strap on her purse.
“I am.”
“Good for you, stepping out of the family business to do what you want. You remind me of Hutch that way. You’d never expect a parent to be upset about their child becoming a doctor, the way Dad is. If Hutch had gone into oncology, that would have been different, but then, you know all that. I’m not sure why I’m telling you.”
I did know it, and I couldn’t wrap my brain around it either. I would never understand how Grant was anything other than proud of Hutch. I thought about him with Layla, seeing him play the piano and the smile on his face when he’d looked at her. Hutch was a good man with a big heart, and that was all that should matter. “It’s okay. You can tell me anything. I’m just glad you’re here.”
She gave me a playful grin. “Are you going to ask me to sit down, or should I stand?”
I chuckled. “Shut up and sit down. You don’t have to wait for me to offer, and you know that.” At least she would have known that five years ago, before I told her I wasn’t in love with her, that I was gay, and asked for a divorce.
Mads sat on one side of the desk, and I took the other. I let her run the show, waited while she twisted the purse strap some more before she said what she came to tell me. It was difficult to breathe past the knot in my throat that wouldn’t go away until I heard what she had to say.
“How are you? Are things good? Are you…happy?” she finally asked.
“Yeah…yeah, I am. I, um…I hate how everything went down, that I confused my own feelings and desires, because in the process you became a casualty, but I’m happy, Mads. This is…who I am. It would have eventually killed me not to stay true to that.” Once I’d acknowledged my truth, it would have eaten away at me to deny it. That wasn’t really how I worked.
“Can I admit something to you?” she asked without looking at me.
“Of course.”
“I think… I think I always knew. Maybe not that you’re gay, but your feelings about me. The intimacy was a struggle. I just thought you weren’t sexually attracted to me, but I told myself I was wrong, and if we loved each other enough, it didn’t matter. I felt when things changed between us, and I know you. You’re right; it would have killed you to keep that secret…but even though I started to see that you weren’t in love with me, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to lose you. I was so damn scared of losing you. I didn’t know who I was if I wasn’t Ryder Lynwood’s best friend, then girlfriend, then wife. All I would have been then was the Hutchinsons’ sick daughter. The one who was broken and weak and everyone had to protect.”