She took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you. No one from your office had heard from you and you weren’t answering anyone’s calls.”
“I lost my phone for a bit. How did you find me?”
“I sweet-talked Nancy in your office into telling me where you were. What are you doing at this out of the way place? Do you have any idea how hard it was to find it?”
Nancy, the secretary, needed to be given a stern talking to about privacy. Nancy had always been an outrageous flirt with Justin when he came by the office, so Madeline wasn’t surprised the secretary had given out information when Justin turned on the charm.
“She shouldn’t have given out that information.”
“Come on, Madeline. People were worried. I was worried.”
“I’m not sure why you would be.”
“Okay. I deserved that. Look, I might have made a mistake when we broke up.”
“We didn’t break up. You dumped me.” Madeline crossed her arms across her body feeling the old hurt begin to well up again.
“It was a bad time for me. Work was crazy busy. I just couldn’t deal with everything.”
“Yes, it was very inconvenient for my mother to die when your work load was so overwhelming.” What had she ever seen in this pompous, self-centered jerk?
“Oh, don’t talk like that. You know what I mean.” Justin stood there, his shoulders square, his face holding a look of righteousness. He was, as always, dressed impeccably, from his designer suit, expensive Italian shoes, and an overnight bag at his side that cost more than her first car.
“Yes, I know exactly what you mean. What I don’t know is why you came down here.”
“I wanted to get things straightened out between us.”
“Straightened out?”
“Yes, get back together. I miss you. We were good together.” He took a step closer to her again. She sidestepped him this time and crossed over to the fireplace.
“We weren’t good together, Justin.”
“Sure we were. We have the same friends. The same crazy work schedule.”
“We had your friends, Justin. When was the last time we did anything with my friends?”
“Of course we did.”
“No, we didn’t. I molded myself into your world. I’m not interested in doing that again.”
“Okay, well, you pick who we go out with next time.”
His tone scraped a raw space in her that she thought had healed. A tone like he was talking, patiently, to a wayward child.
“There isn’t going to be a next time.”
“Don’t be like that. I said I was sorry.”
“No, actually, you didn’t say you were sorry.”
“Oh, well, I am. Come back to St. Louis with me. We’ll work things out.”
“I’m not ready to leave.”
“What could possibly be keeping you busy in this tiny little town?”
“Justin, I don’t have to answer to you.”
“Come on, Madeline. I know you’re sore at me. Let’s just put the break up behind us and work things out.”
“Justin. Let me make this very, very clear. I have no intention of getting back together with you. Not now. Not ever. I needed you and you weren’t there. You broke up with me right when my mother died. That is heartless. And besides all that, I don’t love you. I’m pretty sure I never did.”
“Yes you did. Sure you did. I told you I was just crazy busy and overwhelmed then. I handled it badly.”
“I was a bit overwhelmed myself, Justin. But it doesn’t matter now. I’m not getting back with you. I’m sorry you wasted your time coming down here.”
“I’ll just spend the night. We’ll see if we can talk this out.”
“You’re free to spend the night. I’ll see if Rebecca has an extra room.”
“Come on, Madeline, don’t be like that. We’re good together.”
Madeline didn’t remember his voice sounding so whiny before. Right now it was grating on her last nerve.
“I’ll go check with Rebecca and see if she has a room for you.”
For the first time since Justin had broken up with her, Madeline was at peace. She was glad he’d dumped her. He was a selfish human being and she’d wasted way too many years of her life trying to please him. She had absolutely no desire to ever see him again, much less date him. Maybe she’d grown up a bit in the last month or so and found a bit of herself again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was a beautiful crisp cool morning. The sun was sparkling through the branches and the wind was almost nonexistent. A fine day for a morning walk. Gil decided to head over to the Sweet Tea and see Maddy. He’d gotten tied up at work until late last night, and had figured it was too late to call on her then. Lou was opening the store today so he had time for a nice leisurely cup of coffee with Maddy before getting in to work. He picked up the pace, anxious to see her again.