Trust Me On This
They say you can never go home. But Maddie O’Callaghan doesn’t have much choice. When her freak of an ex-husband steals her job, her life and her sanity, Maddie finds herself with nowhere to go but back. Back to the small shop her mother is giving her six months to make profitable or she’ll be on the street again. Back to the town that abandoned her over her high-school mistakes. Back to her lifetime crush who turned her down. That last one was, admittedly, the worst, because Eli Harrison never turned any woman down.
To have a chance with her, though, Eli knows he needs to clean up his womanizing ways and fast, since Maddie’s dead-set against trusting anyone as smooth-talking as Eli. When Eli’s high-school girlfriend drops Rogan, the seventeen-year-old son he never knew he had, on his doorstep, his problems only seem to get worse. Rogan is distrustful of Eli’s attempts to build a friendship, and the boy is the closest thing to the Anti-Christ that Appleton has ever seen. Maddie wants to trust that Eli will do the right thing, Rogan’s trusting that he won’t and all Eli knows is that trusting his heart may just be the most dangerous gamble of all.
Excerpt
Chapter One
“Home sweet hell,” Maddie O’Callaghan said in the sudden quiet as she turned off her car. There was nothing like coming home to make you realize how far you’d come and how far you had yet to go.
She looked wearily into her rearview mirror at the boxes and suitcases stacked precariously in her back seat and wanted to do nothing more than crawl into the house and go to bed. Driving ten hours through one of the worst February snowstorms in mid-Atlantic history hadn’t been her smartest move. But at least she was out of DC.
This time, for good. Even if she had to sell her soul to the devil–or in this case her mother—to get here. But it would have to do. She didn’t have any place else to go. Hopefully landing in Appleton wouldn’t prove to be out of the frying pan, into the fire. Lord knows, she’d gotten out as quickly as she could before. Not that her absence had been objectionable to the town, she was sure.
She looked out the passenger window. A dark blue Ford Explorer sat parked in front of a sporty Miata in the driveway next door. Eli’s house.
Her best friend, confidante and co-conspirator since the dawn of time, or at least since the age of six months when, according to both of their mothers, Eli and Maddie began to babble at one another in some language only they understood.
Her best friend, that is, until the night more than three years ago when in a moment of sheer stupidity fueled by an extra glass of wine and yet another relationship that had headed south, she confessed her lifelong passion for her best buddy.
And he turned her down.
Which might not have been that awful except that Eli never turned any woman down. It was enough to make her feel sick even now.
Though, not as sick as the memory that his rejection made her do the ultimate in idiocy and marry the bad relationship. Hence why her suitcase contained a signed, sealed and filed set of divorce papers, and her bank account contained a modest settlement. One that better get her on her feet within six months.
Had she spoken to Eli in the past three years (other than one extremely uncomfortable, stilted conversation at an equally uncomfortable Christmas party at her mother’s house a couple years back) she could probably have asked Eli to help her carry in some of the bigger boxes. Now that she’d finally arrived, she barely had the energy to get herself into the house, much less a car filled with all her worldly goods. However, she hadn’t spoken to him, and she wasn’t ready to start now.
She’d gather the courage at a later time.
As she turned to the passenger seat to snag her snarling cat’s carrier by the handle, the driver’s side door opened. Adrenaline flooded her body as a startled yelp that didn’t quite form her ex-husband’s name flew from Maddie’s throat.
Only after she recognized Eli’s blue-eyed, friendly face did she breathe a sigh of relief, which she followed quickly with a moment of sheer mortification. She pressed a hand to her sternum, willing her heart rate to slow.
“It’s been a long time, Harvey. You’re still looking halfway decent,” Eli said. She was confused for a moment and then understanding dawned.
She took a long moment to size him up. His strawberry blonde hair was cut a little shorter than it used to be. It didn’t quite cover the gray creeping in near his temples. In spite of the crows feet at the corners of his eyes, the mischievous expression on his face made him look younger than thirty-four. It was that mischief that made her pause.
She rolled her eyes. Was this how they were going to treat the situation? Avoidance?
She could do that.
He was up to his usual tricks and he needed some new quotes. Their long standing game of Who-Said-It-In-What-Movie was only interesting when it required some thought.
“Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman in Batman and Robin,” she said. He offered his hand to help her from the car and she took it. She let herself be pulled into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his familiar, broad shoulders to steady herself as he lifted her off her feet.
Maddie tucked her chin into the curve of his neck and let the comfort of his hug start to soothe the months of hell she’d just escaped. And just a little bit of her embarrassment.
Eli’s arms should not feel this good. She shook her head and released him, sliding back to the ground and blinking rapidly before forcing a smile to her face.
“You should have called.” He tapped her nose with the end of a long, leather-gloved finger. “I’d have at least checked to see the heat was up and the fridge was stocked.”
It hadn’t really occurred to her to call. Which was sad. It used to be that there wasn’t a week that would go by that they didn’t speak at least twice.
“How long are you staying?”
She hesitated, considering for a moment that this was the sort of decision she’d normally have hashed and re-hashed with him before making. But that was before. “I’m re-opening Aunt Millie’s antique store,” she said finally.
“You’ve come back permanently?” His eyes widened in shock.
“At least for six months. My mom has given me until August to get the books in the black. If I can’t, it’s going back on the market as well as the house and I’ll be out of a home and a job.” And a life. Frankly, she’d be exactly where she was right now.
“Really… Just six months?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he evaluated her more carefully. Maddie squirmed under his regard. “Why the short time frame?”
She shrugged. “She’s probably trying to motivate me,” she said, trying to see her mother in the best possible light. Either that or her mother really didn’t think Maddie could do it, which was probably a bit more realistic.
She shook her head. She couldn’t afford to think like that. She needed to chin up. Six whole months with no rent due and a store’s worth of inventory was more of a break than most people got.
“Huh. There was a time when I would have at least heard about these things from my parents. Times have definitely changed.”
She nodded in agreement, remembering a time when Eli’s parents and Maddie’s parents had been the best of friends. But that was before. Before her brother lost his long battle with cancer, before her dad’s stroke, before her mom had moved herself and her invalid husband to Tucson.
“So why the change?” Eli asked.
She paused for a long moment but he raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. Because he’d been her best friend since, well, the cradle, he knew it was an effective way of getting her to spill the beans. Maddie shrugged, knowing it was useless to fight it. “Things were going downhill in DC, so I decided to come back home instead.” It wasn’t a lie, per se. It wasn’t full disclosure either, but it’d have to do for now. She just didn’t have the energy to go into the details.
“There’s more to that story,” he said.
She took a deep breath and shook her head briskly. “Not at the moment.” Which was also how she planned to handle the rest of their situation.
“Eli,” called a distinctly unhappy and breathy feminine voice from Eli’s yard.
Maddie swiveled around to view what must be the latest in Eli’s ever-revolving line of girlfriends. Tall, leggy and curvy, she fit the mold that was cast in high school with Eli’s first “serious” girlfriend. Not that there hadn’t been plenty of girls following him around before that. She wore a low-cut fuzzy winter-white sweater and a short brown leather skirt with matching knee-length leather boots and a pouty look which highlighted her distaste at being ignored.
Maddie rolled her eyes. Typical. “Better go deal with her,” she said pressing her palms into Eli’s chest and pushing him away so she had room to turn around and dig her belongings out of the car.
Also to regroup. She didn’t really need to be reminded of the kind of woman that Eli would pursue. That is, anyone but Maddie.
“Give me just a second. Veronica was leaving when you pulled up anyway,” he said, already trotting off toward his driveway.
It wasn’t like Veronica should make Maddie jealous. Or at least, Maddie should be used to it. As far she knew, Eli hadn’t gone more than a month without a girlfriend since the fifth grade.
He jogged back moments later as the Miata peeled out of the driveway in a cloud of exhaust.
Maddie avoided comment as she reached into the car and grabbed the cat carrier.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and help me carry my stuff in?”
He hadn’t even nodded before she deposited 21.8 pounds of pissed-off tabby-cat into his arms. He groaned at the load. “What do you feed this thing?” he asked, rearranging the carrier in his grasp.
“Small children, mostly,” Maddie deadpanned, popping the trunk with the key and pulling a suitcase from inside.
“I believe it. Nice devil kitty,” he murmured as the cat hissed and spit.
“Pazuzu,” Maddie corrected.
Eli chuckled. “Right. From The Exorcist. Clever.” He tilted his head to the car. “Your brother’s car giving you any trouble?” Eli asked.
Maddie ran a finger across the smooth racing stripes over the back of the car and felt a pang. Her brother, Andy, had been gone since her senior year in high school. And yet still this was his car. It would always be. Just like the basketball hoop over the garage was still his, even though they shared in playing many hours of twilight hoops, just as they had worked on the restoration of the old muscle car together.
“No.” She gave him a slow look. “And to answer your next question, no, I will not allow you to open the hood.” She dusted a bit of snow off the trunk for good measure. “Nowhere in Andy’s will did it say anything about you getting to tinker.”
But at least he’d been aware enough of his situation to write a will. Her parents, who’d been non compos mentis for so long during his illness, wouldn’t have even considered that it would be something she’d want. Her wants and needs during those four long years had been way down on their priority list, which is why she’d practically had to raise herself.
Not that she’d done a very good job of it.
Eli smiled. “It was worth a shot. Is this everything?” he asked, gesturing to the cat, a couple of boxes she’d dropped on the sidewalk and the suitcase in her hands.
“Sadly, yes. I’ve decided to try on “minimalist” for a change.” Which had everything to do with the fact that her ex-husband got the house, the furniture and their friends. “According to my mom, she’s doing the same at her new condo in Arizona.”
“Have you been out to visit them yet?” he asked, juggling the cat carrier and one of the boxes before following Maddie up the sidewalk.
“No.” The one time she’d planned to go, her apartment had been broken into and ransacked and she spent the week dealing with the police, a home security company and her insurance. Her mother still hadn’t forgiven her for that one. Was it any wonder that she stayed away?
“How’s your dad?”
Another conversation she didn’t want to have. “About the same. He doesn’t speak and doesn’t seem to remember anyone.” His stroke, a year after Andy’s death had been the final death knell of their once happy little family. “What about your folks?” she asked.
“They really like it in Florida.”
Well, good for them. And Eli was undoubtedly welcomed in with open arms whenever he felt like visiting.
She should get over it. He lucked out in the parental department and she hadn’t. How odd that their parents had been best friends forever.
The cat yowled and hissed as Eli and Maddie made their way up to the front door. Maddie juggled the boxes in her arms to get the key into the lock.
Opening the door, she let the apple-cider and cinnamon smell of her parents’ home wash over her. Breathing deeply, she pushed through to the kitchen, blinking back tears. It smelled homey, even if the memories weren’t.
Of course, Eli noticed right away. “You okay there, Tiger?”
His expression told her that the sharp jerk of her chin wasn’t enough of a response. “It was a long drive.”
“That it?”
She shrugged. No. But she didn’t want to face any of the rest of it. At least, not tonight. She needed to get her stuff in, have a hot bath and sleep until the world made sense again.
She figured that would happen somewhere around the turn of the next millennium.
“Anything you want to talk about?” he prompted.
“Not really.”
“Maybe later?”
She shrugged. There were so many things she couldn’t face at the moment. Her reaction to walking into her parents’ house was just one of them.
Eli set the cat’s carrier on the floor next to the kitchen counter, flipped the latch so Pazuzu could streak out, then straightened to drop a brotherly kiss on the top of Maddie’s head. “You know where to find me when you change your mind.”
“Thanks,” she whispered, patting his arm through his leather coat and wanting to tell him not to hold his breath.
“Don’t make plans for tomorrow night,” Eli told her, pulling back and winking which effectively broke the tension before tears could well out of her eyes. “Dan, Breezy, Steve and Kristi are coming over for dinner and movies. You have to join us.”
Oh, that would be just swell. She wondered if Breezy and Kristi still hated her. Not that she could completely blame them. “Won’t my being there upset your girlfriend?” she asked, hoping for any excuse to get out of it.
“She won’t be there. Veronica’s not a big fan of the old gang,” he admitted.
Well, it appeared Veronica’s days were numbered. No surprise there. His girlfriends never lasted very long. And that was exactly the reminder she’d needed. The last thing she needed to do was get another crush on her childhood buddy. Because as soon as Veronica disappeared, Bunny, Barbie or Bambi would take her place. They always did.
Yes. Another crush would be bad. Not that anything–besides the most embarrassing moment of her life—had ever come of any of the previous times she’d lost her mind. Not that anything ever would.
Thank God. She’d just purged herself of one womanizer. To fall for Eli again would be stupid in the extreme.
