Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (20 page)

Maddie shifted on her feet as Caleb stared at her, studying her, and then he said, “I see you’ve made your choice.”

He knew.
 
If Maddie wasn’t so uncomfortable with this situation, that fact might even bother her, that he could read her so easily.

“Yes,” she said, nodding.
 
“I’ve decided not to.”

He was silent, even as a man pushed past him to get to the restroom.
 
Maddie glided a little closer, realizing they were blocking the way, but she couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
 
So, she stared at the material stretched over his chest.

She felt like she owed him an explanation, even though she wasn’t particularly sure why.
 
Something told her that it took a lot for him to ask her in the first place.
 
The least she could do was give him a reason.

“I think it would be a mistake.
 
I’m…” her face went red, debating what she should tell him.
 
She didn’t want to tell him about her complete lack of experience, so she went for a half-truth.
 
“I’m not one for casual sex.
 
I’d be disappointed in myself, no matter how much I want to say yes.”

The last part came out as an embarrassed whisper, but she kept her chin high and didn’t look down at the ground like she wanted.
 
She was proud of herself that she’d told him.

Caleb was silent, long enough that Maddie thought he might not say anything at all and she was debating whether to walk away or not.
 
Then, finally, he rumbled out an, “Okay.”

Her eyes snapped up to his.
 
“Okay?”

He nodded.
 
“I can respect your decision.”

Well, that was…unexpected.

Some treacherous part of her, one she was ashamed of, had wanted him to fight, even if it was only a little.
 
He gave in rather easily, though her mind had already been made up.

Stop it
, she told herself.
 
She was being ridiculous.

“Okay,” she said, dumbly.
 
“Well, then, I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow.”
 
She’d meant it as a statement, but it came out more like a question.

Caleb nodded.
 
His head tilted a little, looking at something to her right.
 
And then, suddenly, he grabbed her by the waist, ignoring her gasp of surprise, and kissed her.
 
Maddie’s lips automatically parted, kissing him back without even thinking about it.
 
The warmth of his mouth, the taste of his tongue, was familiar to her now.
 
It was easy to get lost in it even though she knew she should pull away.
 
It would only make it that much harder to walk away.

He sucked on her bottom lip and then she did the same.
 
When she felt his fingers digging into her waist like he never wanted to let her go, she moaned and in response, Caleb’s hips tilted forward until she could feel the hard press of him against her stomach.

Heat flooded her, making her dizzy.
 
A warm rush between her thighs made it hard to focus or think about anything but the man kissing her.
 
He was dangerous with those lips.
 
He could make her do anything when he had her like this.

A dry, forced cough sounded beside her and Maddie pulled away, dazed.
 
Paul stood next to them.
 
He’d obviously been on his way to the bathroom and spotted them.

She gasped and pushed Caleb away.
 
“Paul!
 
I, uh…”

Her words faded away as she remembered the way Caleb saw something right before he kissed her.
 
When realization hit her, she glared at him.
 
That prick!
 
He’d done it on purpose.

And all he did in response?
 
Wipe his kiss-stung lips with the pad of his thumb.
 
She shouldn’t have found that movement ridiculously sexy, but she did.
 
Then, he said, “See you tomorrow, princess.”
 
He walked into the men’s restroom, like he hadn’t just kissed her when Paul was coming towards them.

Later, she’d analyze his actions.
 
She’d wonder why he’d done it.
 
But right then, she was embarrassed, angry at herself, and furious at Caleb.

“Paul, I’m—”

He cut her off.
 
“I’ll see you back at the table.”

Maddie bit her lip, feeling like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
 
She reminded herself that it was only a casual date, that she didn’t need to feel like she’d been cheating on him or anything.

Although kissing a man while on a date with another is
not
okay
, she told herself.

Paul walked past her and disappeared into the restroom.
 
She wondered if Caleb would say anything to him, but she didn’t hang around to find out.
 
Back at the table, Kyra eyed her, as did her date, Connor, no doubt wondering why her face was so red.

Maddie wanted to leave.
 
She was reminded why she was more of a home body, who liked to stay in and watch reruns of comedy sitcoms on tv then go out to bars and do something as stupid as
socializing
.
 
Surely, Sheldon Cooper would never kiss her to make another man jealous, or make her a naughty proposition and make her want to say yes.
 
No, Sheldon Cooper wouldn’t play games.

When Paul returned to the table, the mood went steadily downhill, until Kyra said it was time to go.
 
It was past midnight.
 
Maddie wanted desperately to apologize to Paul, for what had happened earlier, but couldn’t until she could catch him alone.

On the way out, she didn’t glance at Caleb, but waved goodbye to his friends.
 
She would deal with him tomorrow.
 
As they were walking towards Kyra’s car, parked a few blocks away, she walked slowly behind Kyra and Connor and glanced at the man walking next to her.

“Paul, I’m really sorry about what happened,” she said.
 
“I’m so embarrassed.”

He kept his eyes trained forward, his hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his jeans.
 
“It’s okay, Maddie.”

“No, it’s not,” she argued.
 
“What you saw…what I did…I’m not like that.
 
I mean, I’m not the kind of girl that does that sort of thing, especially when I’m on a date with someone else.
 
It was unexpected.
 
And it was a mistake.”

“You two obviously have some sort of history,” Paul supplied.

She supposed, in some way, they did.

“I’m helping him with his business,” she answered, because she didn’t know what else to say.
 
“But he’s not…I don’t see anything serious with him.”

Paul finally looked at her.
 
“So why did you kiss him?” he asked quietly.

Her face burned.
 
“It’s complicated.
 
But I can tell you honestly that I don’t think anything will happen between Caleb and I.
 
He’s not like that.
 
And I know that.
 
I’m just sorry you got pulled into the middle of it.”

“I thought we were having a good time.
 
I know I have no right to be jealous, but I like you, Maddie.
 
I’m not going to pursue this,” he gestured between the two of them, “if you’re interested in someone else.”

Maddie thought that she
could
like Paul.
 
He was kind, attentive, and made her smile.
 
He should be the kind of guy that she went after.
 
She realized that whatever she had with Caleb, it wasn’t going to go anywhere.
 
He wasn’t emotionally available and she’d known it a few days after she first started working at the garage; he’d told her himself.
 
Did she really want to get mixed up with someone like that?
 
Did she really want to fall head over heels in love with someone like that?
 
Because she had a feeling that if she continued down that road, she would.

Maddie sighed and stopped walking, turning to face Paul.
 
“Can we just start over?”

“What?” he asked, a quizzical look on his face.

“Let’s start over.
 
Could you forget what you saw tonight and just pretend like we’re meeting for the first time, right now?”

Paul gave a hesitant laugh, but his smile was warm.
 
“I think I can do that.”
 
Then he held out his hand, all mock-seriousness.
 
“Hi, I’m Paul.”

“Maddie,” she replied, laughing, shaking his hand.

“So, Maddie, hopefully you won’t think this is too forward of me, since we just met, but I think you’re beautiful and you have great smile.
 
Would you like to get dinner with me sometime?”

She smiled.
 
“I’d like that.”

NINETEEN

Maddie stepped foot in the garage early the next evening.
 
Even though if was almost five o’ clock all the mechanics were there, even Jones, the one that Caleb confronted after he made uncomfortable remarks to her.
 
She waved at Peter and Brian, but saw that they were busy with work, so she went straight upstairs, not wanting to bother them.

Caleb wasn’t in the office.
 
His computer was still running, but the screensaver was on, so she wondered where he was.
 
Mostly, she wanted to confront him about yesterday because he’d embarrassed the hell out of her.
 
Besides, being annoyed with him was better than dwelling on the fact that he’d asked to come home with her.
 
That
was something she didn’t need to think about in detail, no matter how many times her mind turned there.

He’ll show up eventually
, she told herself and got to work, throwing herself in the pile of paperwork.
 
She only had three days left of work, she estimated.
 
However, she knew from experience that there were always last minute problems.
 
Her timeline could easily extend until the end of the week.
 
Perhaps a part of her wanted it to.

A half hour went by quickly and there was still no sign of Caleb.
 
It wasn’t a problem until she hit on some abbreviations she didn’t recognize on a few invoices so she didn’t know how to properly organize them in the computer program.

Pushing up from her seat, Maddie went downstairs to the garage and walked over to Brian.
 
“Do you know where Caleb is?”

“Yeah, sweetie, he’s around the back in the second garage workin’ on a restoration,” the older man said, tilting his head towards the lot.

The second garage?

But sure enough, there
was
a second garage.
 
Around the corner and past the employee break area where Caleb had first kissed her was a smaller workshop, half the size of the main building.
 
Inside was Caleb, as well as a hunk of metal that
used
to be a car, sans tires, held up by four metal blocks with wheels on them.

The hood was popped off completely, the flat, rusted piece of metal leaning against a wall in the corner.
 
Caleb was leaning over the front of the car, cranking some mechanism with a chain that was slowly lifting what she thought was the engine out of the body.

He spotted her when she stepped a hesitant foot inside.
 
She remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him, but it didn’t stop her from peering inside the car curiously.
 
It looked beyond repair.
 
Rusted doors, rusted interior.
 
The leather seats were ripped, white fluffy filling spilling out.
 
The steering wheel was completely missing, not to mention the dark stains covering the floor.
 
The body of the car appeared to have once been a vibrant blue, but had greyed significantly over time and was now mottled with orange patches.

“So, this is what you do,” Maddie commented softly, straightening from her bent position.

Caleb nodded, not pausing his work.
 
Maddie watched as his forearms flexed each time he gave the chain another pull.
 
Slowly but surely, the engine continued to rise from the car, attached to some kind of crank and lever system.

“I don’t know much about cars,” she admitted.

“This is a 1963 Ford Falcon Ranchero,” Caleb supplied easily, which surprised Maddie.
 
“Just got her in this morning.”

Something pinged in her mind.
 
She remembered a telephone conversation she’d overheard last week.
 
“But I thought you weren’t doing restorations until after the New Year.”

Caleb glanced at her.
 
“I decided I needed a project.”

The way he stared made Maddie realize it was because of her.
 
She flushed, shifting on her feet, and swallowed thickly.

Get yourself together
, she commanded.

She cleared her throat.
 
“You like doing this stuff?”

“Yes, I like doing
this stuff
.”

Maddie couldn’t help the smile that spread over her lips at his grumpy tone.
 
It was almost cute.
 
“It’s impressive work.
 
How many have you restored?”

Caleb went silent.
 
The only noise in the garage was the chain clinking, but Maddie waited patiently.
 
In fact, his silence hardly bothered her anymore.
 
She knew from experience that he’d either answer her or not, but she was done feeling awkward or uncomfortable if he chose to do the latter.