Maddie and Wyn (29 page)

Once Ethan disappeared over the side of the garage, Wyn started to get up, needing to pace. Then he remembered where he was and what he was doing and sat back down. Still, the increased hum in his chest remained, and he started drilling the heels of his sneakers into the ground in place of walking the perimeter of the roof. Ethan was full of crap. Wasn’t he? There was no way Wyn would have purposely imploded his life and hurt Maddie the way he had.

Before he could assure himself such blind idiocy wasn’t possible, an image of Graham Ashworth from four years ago rushed into his mind, so different, yet so much the same as Wyn’s memories of the man from his childhood. And the panic and pain and…love Wyn had felt when coming face-to-face with the guy after so many years apart rushed through him again.

No.
Wyn shook his head as old insecurities started bubbling up again.
Stop it.

Just as Wyn started to jump out of his seat, the need to move crushing through his system, movement from across the field jerked his attention back to work. He brought the binoculars back up to his eyes, adjusted the focus once he found Nico, and followed the suave man up the back porch steps and into the house. Maddie and Wyn had opened all the curtains this morning, so Wyn had a good view to more than half of the rooms in the home.

In the kitchen, Nico stopped at the sink and turned on the water. On the roof of Corsini’s Garage, Wyn settled in and watched.

* * * *

Late that afternoon, looking over the mountain of work scheduled for the weekend, Maddie glanced up, looked out her office window, and caught her young employee working alongside Garrick, likely soaking up every bit of vehicle maintenance information he could learn.

Thank God that kid wandered into my garage looking for work this year.
Climbing out of her chair, Maddie strode to the door and rapped on the wood. “Jayden.” The moment the teen lifted his big amber gaze to her, she said, “You feel like coming in on Sunday? It’s looking like G could use your help.”

“Absolutely, kid.” Garrick gave Jayden a playful noogie. “Bill and I could use an extra set of hands whenever you can get here.”

Ever since taking full control of the garage at the beginning of the year, Maddie had given Garrick the job of running the place every Sunday. She worked the other six days of the week without fail, but Mr. Corsini had cautioned her to give herself one day off every week without fail or risk burning out. Thanks to Garrick, she’d been able to heed his advice.

Tucking his hands in his pockets, Jayden rocked on the heels of his tennis shoes. “My mom won’t let me skip church, but I could come right after.”

“Then you’re on the schedule.” Beaming at him, Maddie made the proper notation on her chart. “Thanks.”

As she walked back to her office, just before she stepped inside, Jayden rushed over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. “Miss Morgan?”

Maddie shook her head and fake strangled him. “How many times have I told you to call me Maddie?”

His smile sheepish, Jayden ducked out of her loose hold. “As many times as I’ve said back that my mom told me to always address my boss with respect. If I got out of the habit, and I said something in a casual way about you at home, she would chew my ear off. It’s not worth the lecture I’d have to listen to afterward.”

“I got you. Miss Morgan it is, then. What do you need?”

Jayden shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and then leaned in close. “When I came in from my break a few minutes ago,” he dropped his voice low, “I saw someone over at your house. For a minute I figured it was Lieutenant Ashworth; I heard he’s been helping you with some stuff over there. Then I started thinking about it again when you came out just now, and I don’t think it was him.” Jayden glanced at the door, and his tone went even quieter. “Do you want me to walk over there and see if we can catch whoever the heck it is at your house?”

Her heart expanding in the biggest way, Maddie touched Jayden’s forearm. “That’s sweet, and I appreciate you keeping your eyes and ears open for me. But nobody is lurking over there today. That’s Nico Corsini, the owner’s son.”

“Oh.” Jayden’s face fell and some of the color faded from his caramel skin, making his inky short hair look even darker. He glanced in the direction of her house, even though a wall without a window was all that was there. He crossed his arms tightly against his chest. “He’s just at your house all by himself?”

“He’s on vacation and digging into some overdue cleaning. He has my permission to be there,” Maddie promised, touched and amused at the way Jayden had so quickly picked up on the protective tendencies of the guys in her employ.

Looking to the wall again, Jayden frowned. “Sorry I bothered you then.”

“Not a bother.” Maddie gave the kid a quick hug. “We’re a family here, and I’m touched that you want to help catch whoever is doing this to me.”

The front entrance creaked right then, sending a long swath of sunlight across the garage floor. Nico filled the doorway, waved as he spotted her, and Jayden mumbled, “I’ll get back to work now,” and darted across the garage to Garrick’s side.

When Nico reached Maddie, she asked, “How did it go?”

“Slow.” The man’s features were pinched, and his light brown eyes seemed a little less sparkly than usual. “It’s tougher than I thought it would be. Now that I’ve looked at a lot of the stuff, I think I might take tomorrow off and think about what I really want to keep versus what I think I should keep because my parents would want me to. I have a few things in my car to take today and some stuff I’ve left at your house but tagged for donation. Is that okay?” He rubbed his temples, and she noticed his olive skin was a little pale. “I want to wait so that everything I want to get rid of can be donated at once.”

“No problem. I told you my house is yours, and I meant it.”

Nico’s smile was wan. “I cleaned up after myself. I didn’t leave any messes. Oh,” he suddenly perked up, snapping his fingers, “and your cat broke a little lamp. I heard the crash but by the time I got to the right room it had hightailed it out of there.”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “That’s what she tends to do.” If Mrs. Corsini intended to break something every time Nico was in the house, she and Maddie would have to have a little talk, even if they had to have it through a series of knocks to the walls. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“I cleaned the mess up. But be careful for little shards around that round table in the front room. I didn’t find a vacuum to do the rug.”

Maddie touched his hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it tonight. Call me when you’re ready for round two. Okay?”

“I’ll be in touch in a few days.” Lifting his hand in a small wave, Nico backed up to the exit. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Holding her smile, Maddie waited until Nico was gone before slipping into her office and picking up the phone. She watched her guys through the window, and when Wyn picked up his cell, she told him, “He’s heading home for the night. Won’t be back for a few days.”

“I’m heading back over there right now to check everything out. See you in a bit.” Before she hung up, he added in a cheerful tone, “I’ll make tacos for dinner.”

Maddie’s heart squeezed and her stomach flip-flopped. “Okay.” Her mouth went a little dry. “Bye.”

She hung up the phone and stumbled to her desk chair. The moment Wyn had said
“I’ll make tacos for dinner”
so casually and sweetly, it might as well have been
“I love you”
all over again, for as hard as both statements slammed into her heart. All day a heavy workload had kept her from spiraling into too much thought about Wyn’s admission during sex last night, but it came rushing back now. She had not been able to return the sentiment, her throat had choked up with too big a mix of pain and love to speak, but she’d reached orgasm so hard upon his declaration she’d as good as said the words back. And now they were casually chatting about dinner over the phone…
We’re getting so comfortable already; it’s like we both know he’s never going to leave.

Yet there was so much unresolved between them. Maddie was scared that she liked having Wyn in her house so much that she would drop the fact that he had betrayed her and had yet to really own it or be real with her about why he’d done what he had. She was terrified that if she let him back in for good she’d forever look over her shoulder, waiting for him to hurt her again. That was no way to live. Not for her. Not even for Wyn.

Garrick knocked on the window and beckoned to her, and Maddie pushed Wyn out of her thoughts for the moment and got back to work.

* * * *

The second Maddie walked in the kitchen door, Wyn spun at the counter and banged his hand against the granite. “He used a damned glass and washed it!” A little hotter under the collar than he’d intended to be, Wyn moved a pan off the burner and stepped away from the stove before he burned himself. “I went through the entire house, top to bottom. He didn’t leave one water bottle or food wrapper or anything in the entire place. How odd is that?”

Putting her bag on a chair at the table, Maddie made a so-so motion with her hand. “A bit, I guess. But it could just as easily be that he’s a neat freak and is being super courteous about not leaving messes for me. He wants to be a good guest.”

“Maybe,” Wyn conceded, much as it stuck in his craw to do it. “The son of a bitch is always very tailored and put together.”
Not to mention too good-looking. And already has a good relationship with Maddie.
Frowning, he added, “He’s a little too perfect, and that’s suspicious.”

Looking up at him with a smirk, Maddie crossed her arms under her breasts. “That’s your professional judgment based on seeing him up close one time and from through binoculars for a day?”

Wyn returned the put-upon look. “Am I wrong?”

Maddie paused, and then admitted, “He’s very put together.”

Bowing with flourish, Wyn tipped an invisible hat to her. “Thank you.”

“What about fingerprints?” Maddie kicked off her shoes, strolled to the fridge, and pulled out an individual-sized grape juice. “I know you said your tech friend could only pull an unusable partial off the candy wrapper, but what about if he was comparing it to a full print that we know is Nico’s?” Pausing to take a sip of the purple liquid, she held his focus from over the top of the bottle. “Would that work?”

Grinning as his heart skipped a beat, Wyn leaned in and bit off a quick kiss from Maddie’s red lips. “It’s not likely to give us anything one hundred percent, but there is a small chance, and I like the way you’re thinking. It is possible.” He lifted his bottle of beer and clinked it against her juice, his masculine pride swelling in her presence. “That’s why I already took a bunch of prints off the sink handle and the back door knob and set them aside to send to my friend tomorrow.”

“I guess that’s why you’re the pro.” Maddie stuck her tongue out at him, but she grinned as she did it. “You’re always on top of things and have the answer first.”

Just like that, responsibility and a bone-deep need to succeed, dropped with a thud in Wyn’s gut. “Let’s just hope my skills actually prove useful.” His voice dipped to a murmur.

They fell into silence then. Maddie wandered to the table and took a seat, and Wyn added a package of spices and some water to his ground beef and put the pan on a low heat to simmer. He pulled plates from the cabinet, brought them to the table, and then ducked back into the fridge for the taco toppings he’d prepared earlier.

As he brought them to the table, Maddie suddenly said, “Jayden might be nipping at your detective heels. He noticed Nico over here today and wanted to be a bad ass and come suss out the situation.”

Wyn smirked. “Or maybe he’s worried someone is poaching on his territory and wanted to get a closer look to feel out his competition.” Thinking about the small pile of items already in the front room, set aside for donations, Wyn chuckled. “Or maybe just grab a few more things before Nico takes it all.”

“Oh yeah,” Maddie rolled her eyes, “Jayden’s been breaking in here on the regular because he’s got the jump on the antique tchotchke black-market trade. That’s what is really going on here. We should have seen it from the start.”

“Don’t forget you had some money go missing too. And maybe he’s taking the little knick-knacks as gifts for his mom. In my research I found out that she’s not in the best of health, so maybe the figurines and stuff are something to make her feel better.” Wyn’s to-do list loomed in his brain; so many things still not crossed off made him growl. “I still haven’t had a chance to talk with the kid. I debated doing it today but I didn’t want to be in the garage in case Nico came in. I didn’t want him to see me hanging around.”

“And Nico did visit, so good call on that.” Straightening up fast, Maddie jabbed a finger at Wyn. “But I’m not sneaking Jayden’s DNA out on a water bottle for you, so don’t even ask.”

Wyn slid into the chair next to her and shared, “He’s a minor. He wouldn’t even be able to offer it up voluntarily. I’d have to get his mother to consent.”

Laughing outright, Maddie made an exploding bomb gesture with her hands. “Forget about it. That woman might be ill, but she is still sharp as a tack. She would shut you down before you even opened your mouth.” She looked him up and down and
tsked-tsked-tsked
and shook her head. “Maybe even make you cry.”

Memories of his own mom whooshed through Wyn’s system, softening his soul for this woman he’d never even met. “I like her already, even if her protectiveness gets in my way. She should protect her kid.” He gnashed his teeth and frowned. “Not enough parents do.”

Smiling softly, Maddie reached out and covered Wyn’s hand with hers. “Still thinking about your dad’s text?”

“Not really.” Wyn’s reply was automatic. Ethan’s advice from earlier tickled at his conscience though. Maddie stroked his hand and sat so patiently next to him that a little piece of the armor inside him fractured, letting small hidden pieces free. “At the same time, he’s never completely out of my head. There’s a voice in there that still picks away at me.” So little said, and already Wyn’s throat tightened nearly unbearably. “You know what I mean?”