Christmas in Magnolia Cove (8 page)

“Red heads usually are.”

“So I’ve heard,” he said with a wink. “How can I help you?”

“Get this place renovated,” she said laughing. “I feel like I am so under the gun now. I didn’t need this hassle,” she said, putting her head back against the wall and closing her eyes.

“I’ve got a couple of errands to run. Will you be alright here alone for a bit?” he asked.

“Unless an ax murderer chases me, and then I am royally screwed.” Her laugh made him want to lose control.

“Okay, I will be back shortly. Just hang tight,” he said as he walked outside and started his truck.

Madison got up and hobbled into the kitchen while holding the wall for support. She needed crutches, but she would have to wait until she could go to the local drug store to get a pair. The small clinic didn’t have anything for her.

Slowly, she slid down to the floor and started messing with stain samples again. She could not decide between two colors. One was a dark mahogany stain while the other was more of a medium oak shade.

“Anyone here?” she heard a male voice.
Oh, great. An ax murderer. I am screwed,
she thought. “Oh, Madison, are you okay? What happened?” Brooks said as he walked into the kitchen and saw her sprawled on the floor with her big, ugly black boot.

“Had a little accident. How did you know I was here?” she asked.

“I went by the house, and Sam told me. Can I help you up?”

“No, I got down here on purpose, actually,” she said with a smile. “So, what’s up?”

“Just wanted to come by and say hello. See how things were going around here. Did you hire a contractor?” he asked, sitting down on the floor across from her.

“Yes. Do you remember Wyatt Reed?” she asked softly.

“Wyatt Reed… Doesn’t ring a bell
,” he said shaking his head. She wasn't surprised since Brooks and Wyatt didn't exactly run in the same crowd. Plus, she and Brooks were younger than Wyatt by a couple of years.

“Well, he was one of my high school bullies.”

“Why did you hire him then?” he asked.

“I didn’t know it was him. Anyway, things are going okay…”

“Until he pushed you down and broke your ankle?” he asked with a laugh. Madison chuckled at the joke.

“No, I tripped. Wore sexy boots, add in a paint can… You know the drill.”

Madison and Brooks spent a few minutes catching up on the latest gossip around town, how his farm was doing and her mother’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. Brooks was happy to hear that she was sticking around town for awhile.

“Madison, I’m back!” Wyatt yelled a few minutes later as he came walking into the kitchen with a pair of crutches. “Oh, I didn’t know you had company.”

“Hi, I’m Brooks Callaway,” Brooks said, standing up and holding out his hand, which matched Wyatt’s in size.

“Hey,” Wyatt said as he sized Brooks up.

“Brooks went to our school, Wyatt.”

“Well, only until tenth grade,” Brooks corrected.

“That’s right. He was also my eighth grade dance date,” Madison said with a smile as Brooks reached out to help her up.

“Oh, is that so?” Wyatt said with a smirk.

“Yep. She was quite a dancer back in the day,” Brooks said, doing a little dance move that had Madison cracking up. She had forgotten how funny he was.

Wyatt handed the crutches to Madison. “I forgot I had these at home. Thought you could use them,” he said. “Well, nice to meet you, Brooks. Gotta get back to work before I get in trouble,” he said with a slight smile.

“I’d better run too, Maddie. So good to see you yesterday and today. Are we still on for lunch Monday?” Brooks asked.

“Absolutely, but you will have to pick me up,” she said.

“Of course I will. See you around noon?”

“Sounds good,” she said as Brooks leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

“Later, Wyatt,” he said as he strolled out of the house. Madison found Brooks awfully attractive, but nothing he did was setting her on fire inside like Wyatt did. But, she sure wasn’t about to let Wyatt Reed know that.

Madison took the weekend off from the Granger place and stayed home with her mother and sister. They spent time doing family stuff like organizing old pictures. Madison enjoyed looking through all of the family photos until she came to the ones that were taken after her father died. Her heart ached for her Dad. He was her whole world when she was growing up, and she missed him every day.

She had instructed Wyatt to continue working on the house. Luckily, Mrs. Granger had allowed her to start work even before closing on the house so she could make the deadline. After all, Madison was the only one who had something to lose - her money.

When Monday morning rolled around, Madison got up and got ready to head to the house. She was waiting for Samantha to get home from a grocery store run when she heard a vehicle pull up. Looking outside, it was Wyatt’s big truck. What was he doing here?

“Wyatt?” she said opening the door.

“Ready for work?” he asked with a smile. Today he was wearing jeans, a faded gray t-shirt, cowboy boots, and a baseball cap. She wanted to eat him with a spoon.

“What?”

“You can’t drive, right?”

“My sister was going to bring me,” she said.

“Well, now she doesn’t have to,” he said walking toward her.

“I don’t need your help, Wyatt,” she retorted trying to look unaffected by his chiseled chest that was perfectly showcased in the morning sun.

“Well, I need to help you. After all, I dropped my wrench,” he said with a smirk.

“Fine. Let me grab my purse and leave a note for Sam,” she said.

A few moments later, she was standing outside of Wyatt’s truck yet again. He took the crutches, tossed them into the back of the truck and picked her up.

“You have to stop picking me up, Wyatt,” she said knowing full well she never wanted him to stop picking her up.

“When you can walk, I will stop picking you up. Until then, get used to it,” he said slamming the door and walking around the truck.

“Seriously, why do you keep trying to take care of me? I can do it myself!” she snapped for no good reason. Wyatt turned to her before starting the ignition.

“Because whether you believe it or not, I am a decent man. I may be brash sometimes, and I might not be a sophisticated guy, but I am decent. When I see a woman in trouble, I’m going to help her. And if I was so mean to you in school, it seems to me that I have a lot of making up to do.” With that, he turned the key and started to drive.

“Ah, I see. You are doing this out of guilt?” she said raising an eyebrow.

Wyatt ignored her comment and continued driving. He was determined not to let her rile him up so early in the morning, although the way his knuckles were turning white holding the steering wheel was a dead giveaway.

“Just so you know, I don’t need your guilt. I am a grown woman. Just because you spent your teenage years being the world’s biggest jackass to me doesn’t mean you have to change who you are now…” she continued prodding.

Wyatt veered off the road wildly and slammed the brakes.

“Are you trying to kill us?” Madison yelled hanging on to the dashboard.

“Now you listen to me, Madison Carter! I am not doing anything out of guilt. Maybe I do feel bad for how I treated you in high school. Maybe I was a jackass. But what I am trying to do now is help a woman that I happen to like, okay?” he said staring at her with steely eyes.

“You like me?” she whispered quietly as she raised her eyes to meet his.

“Of course I like you. I thought that was obvious when I was looking at your butt,” he said with a snicker. “And when I carried you to the clinic. And when I brought you my crutches. And when I picked you up this morning,” he said.

“Listen, Wyatt, I appreciate all of the nice things. I really do. And I shouldn’t have been so snotty a minute ago. But you have to understand that a couple of days of being nice to me does not change the way I feel about several years of high school torment from you and your cronies. I’m sorry, but all of this stuff you are doing to win me over isn’t going to work,” she said looking straight ahead.

“Well, I will tell you what. I am going to continue being myself, Madison. And if you always hate me anyway, there isn’t a whole lot I can do about that, is there?” he said as he cranked the truck and continued down the road. Silence was the only passenger riding along with them.

***

Madison sat on the floor sketching out her plans for each room’s Christmas decor while Wyatt worked on refinishing the cabinets. No words were exchanged, and she was starting to feel bad about how she’d lashed out at him.

“Maddie? You in here?” Brooks’ voice boomed across the virtually empty home.

“In the kitchen!” Madison shouted as she attempted to get off the floor.

“Here, let me help you,” Brooks said with a smile as he pulled Madison up by her hand. Wyatt glared at them from across the kitchen.

“Thanks. Getting up is a lot harder than getting down,” she said.

“Ready for lunch?” he asked. Madison sent a quick glance to Wyatt who diverted his eyes down at the counter in an effort to look like he could care less.

“Absolutely. I am so ready to get out of here,” she said with a smile as she reached for her crutches. “I’ll be back later,” she said to no one in particular.

“Thanks for the warning,” Wyatt muttered under his breath.

Brooks took Madison to the only nice restaurant in Magnolia Cove, Desanti’s. They served the best Italian food she’d had in a while. As she loaded up on salad and bread sticks, Madison enjoyed catching up with Brooks. He talked about the farm and how hard it had been to step into his mother’s place.

“So, let me ask you something, Maddie,” Brooks said between bites of lasagna.

“Okay…”

“What’s the deal with you and that Wyatt guy?”

“There is no deal,” she said rolling her eyes.

“Really? Because I sense a whole lot of tension between the two of you,” Brooks said smirking.

“I can’t stand him, so that’s probably the tension you feel,” she said.

“No. I mean sexual tension,” he said with a chuckle.

“Sexual tension?” she said with a gasp. “Good heavens, no!”

“Keep your voice down, Maddie. You know how people gossip around here,” Brooks said, motioning for her to turn the volume down.

“Look, I can assure you there is nothing going on there. Wyatt and his friends bullied me all through high school, Brooks. It’s one of the reasons I never came home much after graduation.”

For the next few minutes, Madison recounted what had happened to her in high school. She talked about the bullying, Kim Dixon, and how Wyatt had played along. She even told him about the apology Wyatt had tried to give that morning.

“Can I ask you something?” Brooks asked.

Afraid he might ask her out, Madison cut him off. “Listen, Brooks, you are a wonderful friend. And I am sure any woman would want to date you…”