Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (26 page)

“How so?”

Christie shrugged.
 
“I had a run in with him at a grocery store when I first started seeing Adam.
 
Caleb was a little…cold.
 
He was that way with all of us.
 
But eventually, he warmed up.
 
It took time though.”

Kate nodded in agreement and took a sip of her coffee.

Christie got a small, conspiratorial smile on her face a moment later.
 
“Can I ask you something?”

“All right,” Maddie replied, slightly nervous.

“Does Caleb have his nipples pierced?”

Maddie was glad she hadn’t took a sip of coffee right at that moment because she would have spit it out all over the women sitting in front of her.

Kate sighed, shaking her head.
 
“Christie…”

“What?” the blonde asked innocently.
 
“It’s a genuine curiosity.
 
So does he?”

“Um,” Maddie said, feeling her cheeks warm.
 
“No, I don’t think so.”
 
Oh no, she could feel a nervous ramble coming on.
 
“I haven’t seen a, um, barbell or ring poking through his shirt, if that’s what you mean.
 
I mean, he gets cold sometimes and he wears tight shirts, so his, um, nipples
show
, but—”

Christie burst out laughing and Maddie reddened even further, taking another sip to save herself from the word vomit.
 
Even Kate tried to hide her grin, but ultimately failed.

“
Oh my God
,” Christie said, wiping away a tear.
 
“I love you.
 
I think we’ll be great friends.
 
Damn.”
 
She leaned back in her chair.
 
“I really thought he did.
 
There go my fantasies, right down the drain.”

“And what would Adam think about your fantasies?” Kate teased.

“Hey, my man is secretly a
freak
in the bedroom.
 
And he knows I think all his friends are hot, Luke included.”

That led to Maddie asking both of them how they met their boyfriends.
 
And they each told her condensed versions of their own romances—Kate worked for Luke after she rejected him in a coffee shop whereas Christie and Adam had started out as friends and morphed their relationship into an odd friends with benefits type of thing before going exclusive.

“And what about you?” Kate asked.
 
“Who was that guy you were with on Saturday night?”

“Oh, he was a blind date my friend set me up on,” Maddie said.
 
“I’m seeing him again on Thursday night for dinner and a movie.
 
We’ll see how it goes.”

Maddie had hardly thought about Paul since that night, which she felt slightly guilty about.
 
He was handsome, kind, and they seemed to really hit it off, despite Caleb’s
interference
.
 
But Paul gave Maddie a second shot and he’d texted her when she got home Saturday night to set up another date.

A part of her was looking forward to it.
 
Being with Paul was nice.
 
There was no drama, no fighting—at least not yet—and she’d really enjoyed herself on their double date.
 
Would she think about Caleb on Thursday night and maybe wish that it was him taking her out instead?
 
More than likely.

Kate glanced down at her watch.
 
“Shoot, I didn’t realize how much time has passed.
 
Would you mind if I asked you a bit about the museum stuff?
 
You know, what I originally asked you here for before my crazy friend turned it into an interrogation.”

“I did not!”

Maddie laughed and realized that she could be good friends with these women.
 
She felt comfortable around them.
 
“Of course.”

So, Kate fired off some questions and Maddie answered them to the best of her ability.
 
Christie chimed in with her experiences working in an art gallery and even though the two professions were different, Kate still had a good chunk of notes by the end.

When Maddie checked the time, she couldn’t believe that she’d sat there with them for two whole hours.
 
“Oh, I have to get going.
 
I start work in a half hour.”

“Where do you work?” Kate asked curiously.

“In my academic department,” she said, standing and pulling on her jacket, flipping her hair out of the back when she was finished.
 
“It’s just administrative stuff, a couple times a week.
 
Helps with the tuition, at least.”

“I bet.” Kate replied, standing to give her a hug.
 
“Thanks so much, Maddie.
 
You were so helpful.
 
We’ll have to get together again soon.”

Christie gave her a hug as well and they all promised to meet up again for drinks or a girls’ night.
 
Even though Maddie wouldn’t be able to squeeze in a library session, she wasn’t too torn up about it.
 
She’d had a good time and she tried to not think too much into what they’d told her about Caleb.
 
Kate and Christie were technically a part of his group of friends, so she could only hope that nothing soured between the two of them.

Besides, once she finished working for Caleb’s business—which would only be a couple days away now—she hoped that there would be no hard feelings between them.
 
They were adults and ideally, she’d like to part as friends.

TWENTY-THREE

What alarmed Caleb the most when he saw Maddie walk through his office door the next evening was the way his stomach jolted.
 
Fucking
butterflies
erupted in his stomach like he was a goddamn teenager seeing his crush in the hallway at school.

It didn’t help that she was wearing a blouse that gaped in front as she bent down to deposit her purse on the floor.
 
Caleb almost groaned when he spotted creamy skin and the round, tantalizing tops of her breasts.
 
His eyes drank her in like he was a starved man.
 
He hadn’t seen her at all the night before.
 
After she left his house, he’d told himself that he needed to distance himself from her, so he’d spent that evening in the back garage working on the restoration.
 
He only came back to the office when he was sure she’d left and the only proof that she’d been there was her sweet, lingering scent and a note taped to his computer detailing what she’d completed.
 
Caleb had frowned down at the list, noticing that she’d gotten
a lot
done.
 
He was all too aware that tomorrow night was Maddie’s self-imposed deadline.

Caleb knew that he couldn’t hide out in the garage again.
 
Not only did he have administrative related work tonight, but he also didn’t think that he could avoid her again.
 
Begrudgingly, he admitted to himself that he didn’t
want
to.
 
So, he silenced that little voice in the back of his mind that told him to be careful, that all the women in his life had eventually betrayed him, and tried to not look at the clock every few seconds, anticipating her arrival.

When he heard the click of her heels on the metal staircase…that sound did things to him.
 
Dark things, needful things.
 
Things that if Maddie knew about, she’d probably be running for the hills.

He swallowed thickly.

“And here I thought you’d be avoiding me again,” she said when she spotted him sitting at his desk.

If he was being honest with himself, he’d also started to miss that fucking smart mouth of hers.

“I like those claws of yours, princess,” he drawled.

She ignored that and asked, “How are you feeling?
 
Hangover from hell gone already?”

Caleb felt his lips quirk up but he smothered the smile before it could appear.
 
“Right as rain.
 
Although I’m sure you would’ve liked it to stick around longer, considering all the trouble you went through to nurse me back to health.”

“Who me?” she asked innocently, placing a hand over her chest.
 
“I would never want another person to suffer unnecessarily.”

“Except me.”

Maddie sighed.
 
“You know I wouldn’t want that.
 
Truly.
 
I’m glad you’re feeling better.
 
Although I think you should stay away from whiskey for a while.”

“Trust me, I am.
 
It was a mistake.”

Maddie hesitated.
 
“Do you want to talk about it?
 
Why you did it, I mean…”

Caleb’s lips pressed together and he ran a hand through his hair.
 
“You already know why.”
 
How many people could he say that to?
 
Not that many, that was for sure.

“Sometimes, it helps to talk it out,” she said, shrugging.
 
“But I also know you and I’m sure you’d rather…”

“Forget it ever happened?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re right.
 
But it happened.
 
I can’t take it back.
 
I knew it wasn’t a good decision beforehand, during, and after.
 
So yes, I’d rather put it behind me.”

Maddie nodded.
 
“Fair enough.”

For a second, Caleb wondered if his frankness hurt her feelings but she seemed to accept his words just fine.
 
He relaxed.
 
He liked that about her.
 
She just rolled with the situation and didn’t pressure him.

“Now…get to work, you pain in my ass.”
 
There was no rancor in his tone.
 
Caleb thought he sounded even
playful
and he frowned, looking away.

Caleb thought he heard a chuckle from her, but he kept his eyes dutifully trained on his computer screen, no matter how much they wanted to stray to the woman who’d become something like an obsession the past couple weeks.

An hour passed by when he started to notice her fidgeting in her seat.
 
She’d glance behind her at the clock every so often, even though he knew there was a time display on the laptop.
 
She’d even taken her phone out and fiddled around with it until returning her attention to her work.

He was just about to ask her why she seemed so nervous when Caleb’s phone vibrated with an incoming text.
 
It was from Luke, but he’d sent it to the group chat between himself, Caleb, Alex, and Adam.

Luke:
Caleb, I heard you aren’t locking your woman down.

Caleb scowled in irritation, choosing to ignore the text since he had no idea what Luke was even talking about.
 
Then Alex chimed in.

Alex:
I think she’s too good for him anyway.
 
Seemed pretty indifferent towards him on Sat. night.

Yeah, she was pretty fucking indifferent when she was sucking on my bottom lip that night, asshole
, Caleb thought.
 
He knew they were just baiting him, like they were prone to do.

Luke:
Sounds about right after what she told Kate and Christie yesterday morning.

Adam:
I’m wisely staying out of this one…

Caleb’s eyes narrowed on his phone.
 
What
had Maddie told them exactly?
 
His phone was in the palm of his hand before he realized it and he started typing out a text.

Caleb:
What did she say?

Luke:
Ah, so he finally speaks.

Caleb:
Asshole.
 
Cut the shit.

Luke:
Maddie’s going out with that guy again on Thursday.
 
You know what that means?
 
Make your move already or a certain someone is gonna make his first!!

Caleb stared down at the text on the screen and then his eyes snapped up to the woman sitting on the opposite side of the room.
 
Jealousy burned in his gut.

Before he knew what he was doing, he bit out, “You’re going out with that guy again?”

Her brows furrowed as she glanced at him.
 
“What?”

“That guy you were with on Saturday.
 
You’re seeing him again?”

Maddie stared at him and then realization hit.
 
“That’s none of your business.
 
How did you even find out?”

“From Luke,” Caleb grated.
 
“Who probably found out from Kate.
 
Is it true?”

“Oh, what?
 
Are you upset that your little sabotage stunt by the bathrooms didn’t work?” she threw back at him, standing up from her chair.
 
She was getting annoyed.
 
Caleb could always tell by the way her eyes blazed and the tops of her cheeks turned a light pink.
 
In some twisted way, it had always turned him on.

Caleb stood and stalked over towards her.
 
“You don’t honestly
like
that guy, do you?”

“At least Paul is nice and we weren’t at each other’s throats all night, which is something I can’t say about you.
 
With you, one moment, we’re fine, the next we’re fighting!”

“Nice?” Caleb hissed, staring down at her.
 
“Nice is just another way of saying boring.
 
And I guarantee that
Paul
will bore you out of your fucking mind.
 
You don’t want someone like him.”

“And now you’re the expert on what kind of man I want?
 
You think I like fighting all the time?
 
You think I like it when a guy drives me completely up the wall?
 
Or sends me mixed messages
all the freaking time
?”