you ladies again tomorrow.”
The dog resisted momentarily and pulled against the leash. Chubs turned
to Aurora and slapped his wide tongue across the side of her face. She snorted
in response and then sat on her haunches and watched her new suitor follow
after Father Paul.
Maybe they weren’t
soul mates, but there was something special there .
INDISCRETION
Kate
I sat at Jonathan’s desk and considered the stacks of papers in front
of me. I’d spent the past few days, organizing it into something manageable and
come to one conclusion: Jonathan’s organizational skills had been severely
lacking.
When I’d taken on the job, there’d been documents scattered across the
desk. I’d found more thrown haphazardly on the top of the horizontal filing
cabinet behind the desk. There’d been even more stuffed inside it. Jonathan had
probably known where everything was. However, to an outsider, it looked like a natural
disaster recovery sight.
After scratching my head for a bit, I had decided to pull everything
out and try to put like things with like things. For a while, it looked like I
was only making things worse, but I was finally starting to see some improvement.
I had piles for personal finances, personal correspondence, and business
correspondence.
Of course, the business pile was the largest and the one that I had no
immediate interest in. But the papers that I’d earmarked personal stood tall,
too. It was apparent to me that his
beautiful home office had been just for show. I doubted now whether he’d kept
anything there at all.
“Hey,” Maddox said from the doorway. “You know, it’s okay to take a few
days to yourself. I didn’t intend for you to work yourself this hard. Take some
time to grieve, Kate.”
“I just want to get it over with, you know? I need to do something to
help.”
Sympathy washed over his face and seemed to highlight the dark circles
under his eyes. The situation had taken a toll on him, too. We were all in this
strange terrible place together.
I’d met Maddox almost four years ago when I’d come back for Trey’s
baptism. Jonathan and Grace had rented out the back room of a restaurant to
celebrate afterwards. I’d been poking sliced cantaloupe into my niece, who was
barely old enough to walk. We’d been deep in discussion about the pros and cons
of siblings when the man, who I’d known for all of an hour, sat down beside us.
Without further introduction, Maddox had boldly declared that, as
Trey’s godparents, we owed it to the kid to test out the chemistry between us.
‘Just in case,’ he’d said. The come-on had teetered on the line between
annoying and cute, falling harder on the annoying side. Now it twisted my heart
into a mangled mess.
Maddox walked into the room and sat down in the chair across from me.
He rubbed his hand down his face, seeming to grapple with something internally.
While I waited, I studied the man who’d somehow, despite the terrible pick-up
line, managed to lure me into his bed. His nose was a touch too large, but it
was flanked by the most beautiful set of blue eyes I’d ever seen. They reminded
me of the azure waters of the Maldives, which still ranked as my favorite
destination yet.
Though hard to get to, the Malidives had been
worth the effort, and I planned to go back someday on my own dime, when I could
lay on the beach for days and soak up the Arabian sun. It wasn’t going to
happen any time soon though. I had too many responsibilities now so I’d have to
make do with Maddox’s eyes.
“You’re doing a lot of good, Kate,” he finally said. “At home and
here.”
The adoration in his eyes was too much for me to bear. I knew he wanted
to finish what we’d started all those years ago. I’d come back to town, and it
was looking like I would be staying. But I’d never intended on settling down in Merriville , and doing so with Maddox was just too prophesy fulfilling. He was handsome,
The dog resisted momentarily and pulled against the leash. Chubs turned
to Aurora and slapped his wide tongue across the side of her face. She snorted
in response and then sat on her haunches and watched her new suitor follow
after Father Paul.
Maybe they weren’t
soul mates, but there was something special there .
INDISCRETION
Kate
I sat at Jonathan’s desk and considered the stacks of papers in front
of me. I’d spent the past few days, organizing it into something manageable and
come to one conclusion: Jonathan’s organizational skills had been severely
lacking.
When I’d taken on the job, there’d been documents scattered across the
desk. I’d found more thrown haphazardly on the top of the horizontal filing
cabinet behind the desk. There’d been even more stuffed inside it. Jonathan had
probably known where everything was. However, to an outsider, it looked like a natural
disaster recovery sight.
After scratching my head for a bit, I had decided to pull everything
out and try to put like things with like things. For a while, it looked like I
was only making things worse, but I was finally starting to see some improvement.
I had piles for personal finances, personal correspondence, and business
correspondence.
Of course, the business pile was the largest and the one that I had no
immediate interest in. But the papers that I’d earmarked personal stood tall,
too. It was apparent to me that his
beautiful home office had been just for show. I doubted now whether he’d kept
anything there at all.
“Hey,” Maddox said from the doorway. “You know, it’s okay to take a few
days to yourself. I didn’t intend for you to work yourself this hard. Take some
time to grieve, Kate.”
“I just want to get it over with, you know? I need to do something to
help.”
Sympathy washed over his face and seemed to highlight the dark circles
under his eyes. The situation had taken a toll on him, too. We were all in this
strange terrible place together.
I’d met Maddox almost four years ago when I’d come back for Trey’s
baptism. Jonathan and Grace had rented out the back room of a restaurant to
celebrate afterwards. I’d been poking sliced cantaloupe into my niece, who was
barely old enough to walk. We’d been deep in discussion about the pros and cons
of siblings when the man, who I’d known for all of an hour, sat down beside us.
Without further introduction, Maddox had boldly declared that, as
Trey’s godparents, we owed it to the kid to test out the chemistry between us.
‘Just in case,’ he’d said. The come-on had teetered on the line between
annoying and cute, falling harder on the annoying side. Now it twisted my heart
into a mangled mess.
Maddox walked into the room and sat down in the chair across from me.
He rubbed his hand down his face, seeming to grapple with something internally.
While I waited, I studied the man who’d somehow, despite the terrible pick-up
line, managed to lure me into his bed. His nose was a touch too large, but it
was flanked by the most beautiful set of blue eyes I’d ever seen. They reminded
me of the azure waters of the Maldives, which still ranked as my favorite
destination yet.
Though hard to get to, the Malidives had been
worth the effort, and I planned to go back someday on my own dime, when I could
lay on the beach for days and soak up the Arabian sun. It wasn’t going to
happen any time soon though. I had too many responsibilities now so I’d have to
make do with Maddox’s eyes.
“You’re doing a lot of good, Kate,” he finally said. “At home and
here.”
The adoration in his eyes was too much for me to bear. I knew he wanted
to finish what we’d started all those years ago. I’d come back to town, and it
was looking like I would be staying. But I’d never intended on settling down in Merriville , and doing so with Maddox was just too prophesy fulfilling. He was handsome,
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