Beyond Broken(38)

"But that's just it, I always thought that it went beyond a crush for you," Kyra said.

"What do you mean?"

Kyra nibbled on her lip. "I had a crush on Caleb. I got over it in like, two days. Anne had a crush on Caleb. She got over it when she met Bobby. Almost every girl in our high school had a crush on Caleb Montgomery at some point. It was practically a rite of passage back then."

"Are you saying that I was the creepy girl in high school who never stopped having a crush on Caleb?" Maddie joked. Sad, but it was partially true.

"No, I'm saying that what you felt for him went beyond what everyone else felt."

Maddie shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Like I said, raging teenage hormones."

"No, not that. It was like you alone could see something in him that no one else could. He was special to you. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's no shame in admitting it. It's just a shame he turned out to be a complete asshole." Kyra turned her head slightly to look at her, a small smile on her lips. "He'll never know how wonderful you really are. That's his loss."

"Stop, before you make me cry," Maddie joked even though her throat had already started to burn at the words.

Maddie had never told Kyra or Anne about the day that Caleb sat with her in the courtyard after her father died. She'd never told anyone actually; it was their little secret. And while Caleb probably forgot about the moment the second he left once the bell rang that day, she'd carried that memory with her for years. Maybe she had felt something deeper for him, but that was because he'd given her a reason to.

But she was 25-years-old now. She wasn't a teenager any more, harboring an unrequited crush. Her adult self told her that Caleb Montgomery was heartbreak waiting to happen. She'd be a fool to put herself in his path.





FIFTEEN





The next evening, Caleb was in the garage when he saw Maddie's car pull into the lot. Brian had already left-it was date night with his wife, something that continued to amuse Caleb years after he found out about their monthly outings-but Peter was still hanging around, sketching on a plastic chair, his face rapt with concentration.



       
         
       
        

Caleb had pushed himself to work tirelessly all day. The first thing he'd done that morning was return the lawyer's call and tell him that he wanted no part in the will reading whatsoever. He didn't want anything of his uncle's ex-wife, absolutely nothing. The unconcealed fury in his voice convinced the lawyer of that and the poor man had been hasty to end the call, saying that the money his aunt had left him-guilt money, as far as Caleb was concerned-would be donated.

And that was that. The thought of his aunt dead filled Caleb with the purest relief and the greatest misery because it drudged up memories he wanted forgotten. He hadn't slept at all the night before, had tossed and turned on the floor of his office, and grappled with control over himself. Thinking of Maddie, how right she'd felt against him, helped and seemed to keep him calm. But those thoughts also brought up a whole new set of problems that he didn't have the energy or time to deal with.

Caleb wiped his brow, pushing himself out from underneath the car he was working on. He'd volunteered to take over Brian's work for the night, but the truth was that he needed to. He needed something to take his mind off the woman who was making her way towards them. Dressed in a flowy skirt that hit right above her knees, sheer black tights, and a light pink sweater, Maddie looked every inch the innocent seductress Caleb knew her to be.

And those damn, fucking heels again … Jesus.

Her nails were painted a dark burgundy today, he noticed, when he watched her push a strand of hair out of her face. He tried to ignore the way his body tightened with want and forced himself to look away. Busying himself with cleaning off his tools at the work bench, he heard her greet Peter in a chipper tone.

"Hi, Maddie," the shy teen responded.

"Are you going to show me more of your drawings today?" she asked, seeming to ignore the fact that Caleb was only a few feet away, which irritated him.

"Um … " was Peter's only response. Maddie was a cunning and determined little thing and soon, a somewhat baffled Peter found himself presenting his notebook to her. Caleb remembered those big brown eyes of hers and the light smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and how fucking persuasive they could be. It was almost amusing how easily Peter caved, especially when Caleb wasn't the one on the receiving end.

And as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, Caleb tried to forget the feel of her body against his own, the sweet smell of her skin as he ran his nose up her soft neck, the taste of her lips, the sound of her breath and her heartbeat hammering into his chest.