Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (5 page)

Maddie blew out a frustrated breath and assessed her options for the billionth time that night.
 
She was sorely tempted to walk back to that gas station and beg the counter clerk to call her a taxi.
 
He seemed nice enough.

But something told her that Caleb would catch her before she made it.
 
The question was, would he care enough to even come after her?

Probably not
, she thought.
 
Still…

Maddie sighed and hitched her purse over her shoulder.
 
Dejected, she made her way towards the SUV, her heels clicking loudly on the pavement.
 
She shivered, the late night chill easily threading through her thin cardigan.

Tugging open the passenger door, she slid inside and was immediately hit with the woodsy musk of Caleb.
 
Maddie almost sighed, but she was too busy greedily drawing in breath to be bothered.

She’d noticed his smell briefly when they were in the towing truck, but to be completely surrounded by it was something else entirely.
 
He smelled of a warm fire crackling inside a log cabin in the middle of winter.
 
A thoroughly comforting smell, one she wanted to wrap around herself, to bury herself in.

Maddie glanced over her shoulder.
 
She watched as Caleb shut the garage and locked the doors before turning towards his car.
 
Towards her.

She swiveled around quickly, assessing the interior to distract herself.
 
It was a relatively new car, she discovered, with black leather seats and an impressive looking navigation and media system.
 
And it was clean too.
 
Freakishly so.
 
Besides an empty coffee thermos in one of the cup holders, it was devoid of old fast food bags, CD cases, crumpled receipts, and sticky coins.
 
She shuddered just thinking about her older brother’s car.
 
Thomas didn’t know the meaning of clean.

Cold air chilled her again as Caleb folded himself in the driver’s seat.
 
He didn’t look at her and Maddie fiddled with the straps of her purse, mentally preparing herself for a silent ride home.

Starting up the engine, he touched a few buttons on the navigation system.
 
“Where do you live?” he asked gruffly.

Maddie watched his fingers, illuminated from the screen.
 
They were strong and long, his fingernails were cut short, and yet there was still a smudge of grease underneath a few, something she found surprisingly alluring, masculine.

“In Concord,” she said quietly.

“Type in your address,” he ordered, taking his hand away from the screen.
 
While Maddie typed in her street and apartment number with a trembling hand, Caleb turned his face away to look outside the window.
 
He would be completely content to ignore her presence, that much was clear.
 
Once she was done, she pulled her hand away and Caleb pulled out of the lot.

The drive was long.
 
And silent.
 
He didn’t even turn on the radio.
 
It was like he was deliberately trying to unnerve her.
 
It was working.
 
There was nothing Maddie hated more than uncomfortable silences.
 
They tugged at her skin, made her feel like she was sitting on the edge of her seat and fidgeting.

She wouldn’t give in.
 
She didn’t want to give him another chance to rudely cut her off, to hurt her by making her feel like a fool.
 
So, she struggled through the silence as the miles ate up the freeway.

Twenty minutes later, they were nearing her apartment complex.

“You can drop me off here,” she told Caleb.
 
Her voice was startling loud after the prolonged silence.
 
“I live just up the road.”

A small lift of his shoulder, which she took for a half-hearted shrug.
 
He smoothly pulled up next to a curb.

“Thank you,” she said softly.
 
Despite his cold treatment, she was grateful for the ride home.
 
Still, it was hard to meet his eyes.
 
“I really appreciate it.”

Maddie didn’t wait for a response.
 
She didn’t expect to get one anyway.
 
She unbuckled her seatbelt and then pushed open the passenger door.
 
Just when she was about to close it, she heard him.

“You can start on the bookkeeping when you pick up your car tomorrow night,” he said in his gravelly voice.
 
Her lips parted in surprise, eyes flashing to his.
 
His obsidian gaze wasn’t focused on her, however, but on the dark road in front of him.
 
“Be there at six.
 
But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
 
It’s a lot of work.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice a little breathless.

Maddie stood there, staring at the man who used to be the boy she’d cared for ten years ago.
 
A smile spread over her lips.
 
Maybe Caleb wasn’t as heartless as he seemed.
 
He couldn’t be, if he was giving her a chance to pay off her car repairs.
 
That kind boy who’d helped her in the cafeteria that one humiliating day was still buried deep inside this hardened man.
 
That gave her more hope than anything.

She was just about to shut the car door when something occurred to her.
 
Popping her head back in with a small smile, she said, “My name is Maddie, by the way.
 
I didn’t introduce myself.”

Caleb finally turned his dark gaze on her.
 
Cold, unreadable.
 
He was still the same man.
 
But even he couldn’t extinguish the sense of accomplishment boiling up within her.

So, she continued to smile at him, because she figured that eventually she’d break through that wall of ice.
 
“I won’t be late,” she told him.
 
And then she shut the door, waving at him before turning towards her apartment complex.
 
Once she rounded the corner next to the leasing office, she heard the smooth purr of his engine as he pulled away from the curb.

*
   
*
   
*

Maddie
.

Fuck.
 
A sweet name for a sweet girl.

Caleb fisted the steering wheel, wondering if he’d just made a big mistake as he turned on the offramp for the freeway home.
 
For fuck’s sake, what on earth had compelled him to give into her?
 
Again!
 
For the third time in one night.

It wasn’t the freckles.
 
It wasn’t that damn glorious hair, or her shapely thighs, or the way she squirmed in his passenger seat on the ride to her apartment.
 
And it certainly wasn’t because of those solemn looking brown eyes as she thanked him for the ride home.
 
No, it definitely
wasn’t
any of those reasons.

Caleb cursed.

Maddie.

He only hoped that he had enough restraint around her.
 
For her sake.

And for his.

FIVE

“Of all the stupid things for you to do!” her brother, Thomas, railed at her.
 
In the car, his voice seemed louder, probably because Maddie had nowhere to escape to, especially flying down the freeway at 80—no,
83
MPH.

“It’s not like I purposefully put diesel into my car.”

“I would expect a newly licensed
teenager
to make a mistake like that.
 
Not a 25-year-old grad student, who has been driving for almost ten years.”

“Thanks,
Dad
,” Maddie drawled.
 
“I get it, okay?
 
I messed up.
 
I
know
I messed up, so you don’t have to rub it in.”
 
The truth was, Maddie was extremely embarrassed already.
 
More
than embarrassed since Caleb Montgomery was the one who discovered just how much of an idiot she actually was.
 
“And where were you last night?
 
I was trying to reach you.”

Thomas sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
 
“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t pick up.
 
I was with Lara and—”

“Ugh, spare me the gory details.
 
I don’t need to know that my brother was getting laid last night, thank you very much.”

“Not so much getting laid, as getting laid into,” he mumbled.
 
“Lara and I broke up last night.
 
We were fighting when you called, so I didn’t hear it ring.”

“Oh, Thomas,” Maddie said, her brows furrowing, her irritation draining away.
 
“I’m so sorry.
 
I didn’t realize things were that bad.
 
I just saw you guys three days ago and you seemed happy.”

“We were fooling ourselves,” he said, shrugging.
 
“Anyway, I’m kinda glad it’s over, to be honest.
 
We just weren’t right for each other, even though the sex was—”

“Nope, nope.
 
Don’t want to hear it,” she said loudly, cupping her ears.

Thomas laughed and leaned over to ruffle her hair.
 
“Okay, okay.
 
Hey, speaking of relationships, did you hear that Mom went out on a date a couple nights ago?”

“Yeah, with Henry, right?
 
The guy she met in Home Depot?”

“Yep, the dirty lumberjack,” he grumbled.

Maddie laughed.
 
“You need to stop being so hard on the men Mom dates.
 
I’m glad that she’s finally getting back out there.
 
And you should be happy for her.”

“I just don’t trust a man in a plaid flannel shirt and a overgrown greying beard, okay?”

“Well, Mom seems to trust him and that’s all that matters.
 
Besides, flannel is making a comeback.”

Thomas grumbled.
 
“I still want to meet him before they go out again.”

“He has my seal of approval.
 
He’s nice and he really likes her, so stop playing the overprotective son and leave it alone.
 
Their relationship is their business.”

“We’ll see.”
 
Judging from his tone, he wouldn’t let it go.
 
“Can you really blame me though?
 
I guess I never got to play the overprotective older brother with you, so now I’m the overprotective son.”

A little stung, Maddie frowned.
 
She felt her cheeks heat and she turned her face out the window.
 
Staring out at the passing cars, she said, “Thanks for reminding me how single I’ve been my entire life.”

“Ah, Maddie, you know I didn’t mean it like that.
 
I mean, you’re every older brother’s dream, right?”
 
Maddie threw him a glare.
 
“Shit, I didn’t mean it like that.
 
I just meant—”

“Save it,” she said.
 
“I get it.”

Thomas was silent for a brief moment and then declared, “Well, I’m glad for it.
 
Now that you’re older, you know what you want.
 
At least you don’t have any embarrassing, cringe-worthy, fumbling hook-ups to remember.
 
You’ll be smart about it when a good guy eventually comes around.”

What Maddie didn’t tell him was that she wanted those embarrassing, cringe-worthy, fumbling hook-ups to remember, she just wouldn’t allow herself to have them.
 
She’d always felt left out of some exclusive inner circle, especially in the later years of high school—where her friends bragged about making out with so-and-so at so-and-so’s party—and in college—where her friends seemed to have an endless stream of one-night-stands and boyfriends.

And how many times had she blushed and stuttered whenever a new, unassuming friend asked about her love life?
 
Or when her group of girlfriends exchanged blow job tips when they were tipsy on a Friday night and she sat silently, nursing her wine, feeling horribly self-conscious, like something was wrong with her?

Yet, a part of her—that annoying, stubborn part—still waited.
 
And waited, and waited, and waited for her dream man to come along.
 
A dream man that had obsidian eyes and who she’d never seen genuinely smile.

It was silly.
 
Completely stupid.
 
Then again, she’d always been the hopeless romantic devouring romance novels, instead of doing her biology homework.

When Thomas pulled into
Montgomery Restoration & Repair
’s parking lot, Maddie felt her heart skip a beat.
 
She tugged at her cardigan in nervous excitement, wondering if she should’ve worn her cute black blouse with the bow detailing underneath or if she was right in choosing the delicate peach top with intricate beading.
 
It was girly, adorable, and it made her happy, so she allowed herself to be confident in her choice.

Turning to Thomas with a small smile on her face, she said, “Wish me luck.”

She wanted him to leave as quickly as possible, considering that he and Caleb were friends back in high school.
 
They hadn’t been best friends or anything, but they ran in the same circle and had eaten lunch together almost every day.
 
And for some reason, Maddie didn’t want Caleb to know that she went to the same high school with him, or that Thomas was her brother.
 
She wanted a fresh start, a clean slate.
 
Besides, they weren’t the same kids they were back then.