Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (13 page)

Maddie ignored the pang of longing that went through her, telling herself that she
shouldn’t
want him after what he said to her.
 
Still, she couldn’t leave without speaking to him.
 
It was too childish and much too cowardly.

With her heels clicking, she walked by the other men, who all remained silent, even Jones.
 
Brian caught her eye and jerked his head towards Caleb.
 
“You guys get into a fight or somethin’?
 
I haven’t seen him like this since his uncle died.”

That
certainly didn’t make her feel good.
 
She swallowed and looked down at the cement floor of the garage.
 
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Brian,” she murmured, her non-answer as good as any answer.

“All right, sweetie.”

She approached Caleb, dread settling in her stomach, but she tried to remain as indifferent as possible.
 
Easier said than done.

He looked over as she approached, his lips pulling down into an even bigger frown.
 
He remained bent over the engine of the car, forearms bracing him, but he stopped working and pulled out one earbud.

“I left a note on your desk detailing what I finished today,” she said, proud that her voice was even and calm.
 
Still, she couldn’t quite meet his eyes, finding the insides of the car
extremely
fascinating.
 
“I’ll be back the same time tomorrow.”

Then, she turned.
 
But before she made it a couple steps, he suddenly said, “Maddie.”

She stopped, looking over her shoulder, an eyebrow raised.
 
He looked at her, wiping his forehead, smearing black grease, which for some reason only made him more attractive, not less.
 
For a moment, Maddie thought he looked
uncomfortable
.
 
But this was Caleb Montgomery and she doubted anything could make him uncomfortable, least of all her.

He didn’t say anything and left his thought unfinished.
 
So Maddie didn’t waste any more of her time.
 
She walked towards her car and didn’t look back.
 
Then she zoomed out of the parking lot, not able to get away fast enough.

TWELVE

On Sunday, the day after Caleb had called her desperate and irresponsible—which she still thought about more than she probably should—Maddie dreaded seeing him again.
 
In her mind, she told herself she’d play it cool, act like his words hadn’t affected her…even though he’d seen her cry after he said them.

Caleb, it seemed, had the same plan.
 
She went into the office that day—thankfully with no further remarks from Jones, although he’d glowered at her as she passed him—and nodded a greeting to him.
 
Then she took her seat and got to work, trying to do her best to ignore that he existed.

Immature, perhaps, but necessary for her dignity.

Their only interaction that day was when, surprisingly, Caleb asked if she was hungry because he was running out to pick up lunch.
 
If that was his form of an apology, he seriously sucked at it.
 
Naturally, she’d declined, even though she
had
been a little hungry.

So, Caleb left, giving her a good half hour of alone time, which she used to clear her head and try to recompose herself.
 
By the time he returned, she’d been studiously working, barely glancing up when he entered with his delicious looking sandwiches and chips, damn him.

When Maddie left that afternoon, she’d been proud.
 
She wouldn’t let him get into her head; she’d be strong and she’d finish her work and then never look back.
 
She could do it.

The next couple days passed in a similar fashion, although she had to come in the evening on both Monday and Tuesday due to classes and study sessions.
 
They worked in relative silence.
 
Maddie, however, occasionally had questions which meant she’d have to speak to him.
 
But otherwise, it was like they were complete strangers to one another…although that was still technically true.
 
They didn’t know each other.
 
Not intimately, at least.

And whenever Maddie thought back to that Saturday afternoon, when she threw herself at him, she’d cringe and flush, feeling like her stomach was tying itself into knots.
 
She
hated
that Caleb held that image of her in his mind.
 
She
hadn’t even known where that throw-caution-to-the-wind woman had come from, but it certainly hadn’t felt like her.

Now she knew better.

Maddie liked their routine.
 
It suited her just fine, although on occasion, she’d glance up to find Caleb’s eyes on her before he jerked his gaze away.
 
Whenever she did discover that, her stomach would flutter, but she convinced herself that she didn’t care.
 
He could look at her if he wanted, but nothing would ever come out of it.

If Caleb wanted to lie to himself, then she could lie to
herself
.
 
It only seemed like a fair trade.

When Maddie stepped into the garage on Wednesday evening, she smiled when she saw Brian and Peter.
 
The older man was telling him yet another story about his wife—who Maddie secretly knew he adored no matter how much he moaned and complained about her—and the teenager was laughing, something Maddie rarely ever saw, especially when she came around.
 
He was slowly getting used to her presence though.
 
He barely blushed now when he saw her, so Maddie figured that was progress.

“I come bearing cookies,” she announced proudly to the two of them, presenting them with a plate she’d wrapped up.
 
She’d had a study session with a few of her classmates, so she baked some cookies the night before for fuel.
 
She made sure to double the batch so she could bring some into the garage.

“Like an angel from heaven,” Brian declared, stepping over to snatch one off the plate as soon as she uncovered them.
 
Maddie laughed when he wolfed it down in two bites, already reaching out for another.

Peter hesitated as he stood from his chair, perpetually shy, but she smiled when he said, “Thanks,” and took one for himself.

Maddie noticed an open notebook at Peter’s feet and a stubby pencil and eraser shavings lying next to it.
 
But what fascinated her most was the beautiful sketch of a tree.

“Is that yours, Peter?” she asked, nodding down to the notebook.
 
“I didn’t know you could draw.”

The teenager didn’t say anything, although his blush was back in full force as he hunched over to retrieve his notebook from the ground.

“Can I see it?” she asked eagerly.

“Yeah, show her your drawings, Peter.
 
I’ve never seen anyone who could draw like him,” Brian added, snatching one more cookie before returning to the car he was working on.

Peter, although a little reluctantly, handed her his notebook and then immediately came to stand over her shoulder as she peered more closely down at the tree.

“It’s not finished yet,” he said in a rush.
 
“And I still haven’t shaded in the trunk right.”

Maddie’s eyes roamed over the fresh page hungrily.
 
The tree, she discovered, was so much more than she’d initially realized.
 
It was a mechanical tree, with metal branches screwed into the trunk and jagged spikes jutting deep into the earth as its roots.
 
A mechanical bird, with a robotic eye and wind-up wings, sat on one of the branches.
 
And blood was dripping from a large gap in the trunk, roughly closed with staple-like stitches.

It was grotesque, a little disturbing, but darkly beautiful, which Maddie told him.
 
“You’re so talented,” she added, unable to tear her eyes from the drawing.
 
“Where did you learn how to do this?”

Peter’s face resembled a tomato and Maddie figured he’d been tortured enough, so she handed him back his notebook.

“I don’t know,” he started.
 
“I’ve always been drawing.”
 
He pointed down to the ground, where another book lay by his backpack, a very well-loved copy of a drawing guidebook.
 
“But Caleb gave me that last year.
 
It’s helped a lot.”

As she stared down at the book, her heart squeezed.
 
Caleb had given that to him?
 
The cold-hearted, almost cruel man who could barely string a sentence together without insulting someone?
 
She wondered if him and Peter were close, even though she’d never seen them speak two words to each other.
 
Peter had been coming out of Caleb’s office one day, but other than that, Maddie just figured he tolerated Peter like he tolerated all of his employees.

“Well,” she said, after an uncomfortable pause, “you’ll have to show me more of your drawings some day.
 
If you want to, that is.”

Peter nodded hesitantly.
 
“Okay.”

She smiled at him, just as a truck pulled into the lot outside the garage.
 
Brian looked over his shoulder before wiping his hands on the rag hanging from his back pocket.
 
Maddie jumped when he yelled, “Caleb!
 
Luke’s here!”

Two people climbed out of the truck.
 
One was a very tall, very handsome man, with blonde hair and the most stunning blue eyes.
 
The other was a pretty woman, her dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a perfectly olive complexion that made Maddie envious.

Caleb had been talking to a ‘Luke’ on the phone, the first night she’d come to work for him.
 
Perhaps they were friends.
 
And she’d bet all of her Sephora gift cards that the woman he was with was his girlfriend.

No shit, Sherlock
, she thought, when she saw them link hands.

“Hey Brian.
 
Petey,” Luke greeted with a wide grin when they stepped foot in the garage.
 
His eyes lingering on Maddie curiously.
 
Luke’s girlfriend stopped at his side and smiled at her.
 
“And you must be Maddie.”

That
took her off guard.

A little flustered, Maddie said, “Um, yes.
 
I am.”

Smooth
.

The only way he could’ve known about her was if Caleb had told him.
 
Damn, what
did
he tell them?
 
Did he tell them about Saturday afternoon when she…?

Her face burned with embarrassment.

Then she heard the devil himself coming down the stairs from his office.
 
She was too mortified to face him, so she looked at her half-empty plate of cookies.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Caleb asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
 
He stopped right at Maddie’s elbow, joining the circle they’d unconsciously made.
 
His scent drifted towards her since he was so close but she tried to ignore it.

“Nice to see you too, honey buns,” Luke sing-songed.
 
Maddie would’ve laughed if she wasn’t so taken aback.
 
Luke smiled at her, no doubt seeing her surprise.
 
“We’re just meeting Maddie here, isn’t that right, my little ray of sunshine?” he asked, looking down to his girlfriend, with eyes reminiscent of an innocent puppy.

His girlfriend rolled her eyes and then looked at Maddie, an amused look on her face.
 
“I’m Kate, by the way.
 
This ridiculous oaf of a man is Luke.”

“You wound my masculinity,” Luke mumbled.

“Nice to meet you,” Maddie said politely, hiding her embarrassment behind a small smile.

Irritation radiated off Caleb in waves, which confused her because she thought that he and Luke were good friends.
 
Hadn’t they gone out together last week?

“Luke,” he bit out.

“Yes, honey buns?” Luke asked, smiling.
 
Caleb glared.
 
The two men exchanged looks silently until Luke finally said, “I’m just stopping by.
 
We were in the neighborhood,” which only served to irritate Caleb more.

“You live in the city,” he pointed out.

“And I may have spoken to Alex this morning…”

Whatever that meant…

Apparently it meant more to Caleb, since his hand clenched by her side.
 
“Oh really?”

If possible, Luke’s grin widened.

Something unspoken was going down between the two men.
 
Brian and Peter wisely stayed out of it.
 
In fact, they had both returned to work, leaving just the four of them.
 
An uncomfortable silence stretched out, making Maddie nervous.
 
So, she did the only thing she could and thrust out the cookie plate still in her hands.
 
“Cookie?
 
I made them last night.”

“I like you,” Luke declared, snatching one up immediately, like he’d been waiting for her to offer.
 
“I like her, Caleb,” he said, smiling, shoving the whole thing in his mouth.

Maddie shifted on her feet and Kate took pity on her.
 
“So, you’re working with Caleb, Maddie?”

“Um,” she said, casting a brief look at the man in question, only to find him still glowering at Luke.
 
“Yes, I suppose so.
 
I’m helping him with some bookkeeping.”

“I see.
 
Is that what you do?
 
As a career, I mean.”