Choosing Happy (Madison Square #2) Page 19

  “Interesting,” said a voice that I assumed belonged to Jeremy. “What happened to Mr. Too Young For You?”

  I stopped just outside of the door. I should have knocked and interrupted their conversation that was obviously about me, but my curiosity won out.

  “Sean,” Madison replied. “He’s still in the picture.”

  “Well, well. Looks like boss lady’s playing the field.”

  Playing the field?

  “It’s drinks with a colleague,” Madison said. She sounded irritated. A colleague? Drinks with a colleague was no big deal.

  “Sure you are,” Jeremy said.

  “Don’t you have some work to do?” she asked.

  “Okay. I can take a hint.”

  Their conversation seemed to be wrapping up. I stepped forward and rapped my knuckles against the door frame to announce myself. Madison was sitting behind her desk. Her eyes went wide when she saw me, then darted to the large vase of flowers on her desk.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Sean, what are you…?”

  I took a step into her office and pushed my hands into my pockets. “I stopped by to see if you were free for lunch, but if you’re busy…”

  “Oh, well…” She looked at Jeremy, whose eyes seemed to be locked on me. His expression was a mix of shock and admiration. Madison cleared her throat to get his attention, and I dropped my head to hide my laugh.

  When I looked up at them, they seemed to be having a silent conversation with their eyes. Eventually Jeremy looked back at me and smiled. “Hi,” he said, offering me his hand.

  “Oh, right! Sorry. Sean, this is my assistant, Jeremy,” Madison said.

  “We talked the other day,” I said, shaking his hand. “Good to put a face with the name.”

  Jeremy’s eyes roamed my body from head to toe. He made no attempt to be subtle as he looked me over. “It sure is,” he said, continuing to shake my hand for far longer than was necessary.

  Madison cleared her throat, and Jeremy snapped to attention and dropped my hand. I laughed and he stood up straight, a smile lighting up his face.

  “Right,” he said. “Well, I will leave you two to talk. It was nice meeting you, Sean.”

  “You too.” He smiled and headed for the door.

  My focus returned to Madison. She looked hot in a tight pencil skirt and thin white shirt. I made my way toward her, wrapped my arms tight around her waist, and buried my face in her neck.

  “I missed you, beautiful,” I said, losing myself in her rich floral scent. I pulled away and looked down at her. “So, lunch?”

  “I would love to, but I have a meeting in a half an hour,” she said.

  I stuck my bottom lip out in a pout, and she laughed.

  “Okay, what about dinner tomorrow night? My place?”

  She smiled. “Sounds great.”

  The phone on her desk started ringing, and she pulled away, holding a finger up at me. She walked around her desk and picked up the phone by the third ring. “Madison Buchanan.”

  As I waited, I walked around her office, taking in the small but comfortable space. A bookshelf lined the wall behind her filled with binders, books, and reference materials. A small fern stood in the corner near the window behind a small round conference table that was stacked high with file folders and various papers held together with binder clips. There was a modular gray sofa along the wall by the door and a large black and white photograph of a calm river running through a remote forest.

  It was oddly generic. No pictures of friends or family, no knick knacks or art. Nothing about this space said it was hers. There was nothing remotely personal. I continued looking, trying to find something that reminded me of her, but I came up empty.

  She watched me as I looked around her office, nervously biting her lips. She was afraid I was judging her. I guess, in a way, I was, but the more time I spent with Madison, the more I wanted to know about her.

  My eyes locked on the bright colored flowers that sat in the corner of her desk. They were obviously fresh. It looked like they had just been delivered. She and Jeremy were talking about her having drinks with a colleague when I walked in, but the flowers seemed to tell a different story. Hell, Jeremy had accused her of playing the field. What the hell did that mean?

  She’s said before that she didn’t want to be exclusive, but after that night in the tub and the trapeze, I thought things were changing between us. I mean, they were for me, but what about her?

  She finished her call and hung up the phone. I nodded toward the flowers. “Another admirer?” I teased.

  “They’re from a colleague,” she said as she fidgeted nervously.

  “Colleague?” I asked. She nodded. Colleague my ass. Her nervous body language said that whoever sent her those flowers was more than just a colleague.

  “Well, I’ll let you get back to work,” I said.

  She came around her desk, and I pulled her tight against my chest. My lips crashed to hers, and I kissed her with all that I had. I wanted her to myself, and that kiss was a reminder of just how good we were together.

  I smiled against her lips and pulled away. “Later, beautiful.” Then I turned and headed out the door, leaving her with something better than a generic vase of flowers to remember me.

  ***

  I dropped into my usual seat at the end of the table and plucked a fry from Alex’s basket. She swatted at me, and I smiled and raised a hand to Liam for a beer.

  “What did I miss?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Millie said. “We were talking about the ceremony.”

  “Of course you were,” I said, rolling my eyes. This wedding had taken over not just Alex and Drew’s entire life, but the rest of ours as well.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Alex asked, looking severely offended.

  “It’s all we ever talk about anymore,” I said. David shot me look that told me to shut up, but I ignored him. “What? I’m just saying what everybody else is thinking.”

  Drew landed a swift kick to my shin, and I winced. “Ow, fucker.”

  “Is that really how you guys feel?” Alex asked, looking around the table as everyone tried to avoid eye contact with her.

  “Fine,” she said, turning to me in a huff. “We can talk about something else. How are things going with Madison?”

  I sighed, looking back at the bar to see where Liam was with my beer. He was still mixing drinks, so I guess I was going to have to face Alex’s inquisition without the comfort of alcohol.

  “So,” she prompted.

  “So what? She’s fine,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” Millie asked. “She seemed really upset when she left Gran’s.”

  “Yeah,” Drew said. “Plus, you’ve been alternating between pissed off and almost giddy. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear you were on your period.”

  “Real funny, asshole.”

  “We’re just worried about you, man,” David said.

  I looked around the table. They were all staring at me, watching me, with matching concerned looks.

  I sighed. “I don’t really know what’s up with us,” I said. “She freaked out at Grans party. Started telling me we were getting too close and that she wasn’t ready for anything serious.”

  “Serious? You’ve only been seeing each other a few weeks,” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know what to think anymore. One minute we can’t keep our hand off each other, the next she’s pushing me away. We just can’t seem to get on the same page.” I exhaled a long breath. “Now I think she may be seeing someone else.”

  “What?” Alex asked. She sat forward in her chair, her eyes wide in shock. “How do you know?”

  “I went to surprise her for lunch today and overheard her talking to her assistant about having drinks with a colleague.”

  “So? Those finance types are always making decisions over drinks or golf,” Drew said.

  “Yeah, but her assistant didn’t seem to think it was a work thing
, and the giant vase of flowers didn’t strike me as a professional curtesy.”

  “Ouch,” Drew said. I nodded. I really didn’t want to be right. Things between us were finally on track, and now I was back to wondering where the hell we stood. For the first time in a long time, I wanted more than just a quick fuck to take the edge off. I wanted Madison.

  “I’m just…fuck, I don’t know what to do anymore.” I dropped my head in my hands and raked my fingers through my hair. I was beyond frustrated.

  Liam set my beer down in front of me, but I didn’t raise my head.

  “What’s his problem?” Liam asked.

  “Your sister’s got him tied in knots,” Drew said. Alex scoffed and slapped him on the back of the head. “What? Look at the guy,” he said. “He’s a mess.”

  I lifted my head to glare at Drew. “Thanks, man.”

  Chapter 17

  Madison

  As soon as I stepped foot into Frazzaro’s, I felt uneasy. The bar was as busy as you would expect for a Friday night. The long, mahogany bar was full and all the tables were taken. People stood in clusters around the room, sipping their drinks and appraising the other patrons.

  The place practically screamed sex. Dark purple walls lined with plush velvet booths, dim lights, candles flickered from every table, illuminating the faces of businessmen in overpriced suits, drunkenly flirting with twenty somethings who pretended not to notice their wedding rings.

  A chill ran down my spine as I searched the crowd for Bryan. I found him tucked into a quiet corner booth in the back. I made my way toward him, cursing myself for missing the signs warning me of this guy’s creep factor. Bryan Townsend seemed like a nice guy, but judging from his choice of venue, his joke about getting to know the people he was getting into bed with took on a whole new meaning.

  I gave him a tight lipped smile as I approached the table. A bright smile spread across his handsome face, and he rose from his seat to greet me.

  “You look beautiful,” he said, gesturing for me to take a seat. He remained standing until I’d settled into the booth. He raised a hand to the waiter and slid into the booth beside me, a little closer than a colleague normally would, but not so close that I was looking for an exit…yet. Sex may have been his goal, but he didn’t seem to be on the hard sell, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

  The waiter approached our table, and I ordered a white wine to settle my nerves.

  “So,” I started, “this place is…intimate.” I made a show of looking around the bar, not that you could see much in this light, which I gathered was exactly the point.

  Bryan chuckled, the sound low and gravely in his chest. “I swear, this was not my choice.” I raised an eyebrow to question him, sure that he was completely full of shit. “I assure you, this is the last time I take any of Eric’s suggestions.” Eric? Figures.

  “Not your scene?”

  “It’s not the sort of place I would ever take a woman like you,” he said as he twirled his glass of scotch on the table.

  Just then the waiter came by and set my drink down in front of me. I reached for the stem and brought the glass to my lips, taking a sip of the cool dry wine. His eyes drifted to my lips as I took a drink but averted just as quickly.

  “What sort of woman am I, exactly?”

  Bryan leaned toward me, placing his elbows on the table as he fixed me with his cool blue eyes. He wore a look that made me squirm a bit in my seat. “Witty, brilliant, no nonsense, and of course incredibly beautiful. You deserve more than drinks in some trashy bar,” he lowered his voice, “where I suspect most of the clientele bring their mistresses for a discreet night on the town.”

  I laughed at his candor, and his smile brightened. “Speaks volumes about Eric, though, doesn’t it?”

  Bryan chuckled. “I guess so.”

  The combination of the laughter and the wine was beginning to put me at ease. He was charming and while his interest in me was apparent, he wasn’t being overly forward, so I decided to see how the evening would progress.

  “So, do you do this often?” he asked, sitting back in his chair his as he tapped against the side of his glass.

  “Do what?”

  “Have drinks with strange men in seedy bars,” he teased.

  I laughed. “Hardly.” I shifted nervously in my seat.

  “Don’t get out much then?”

  I nervously took a sip of my drink and set it down on the table as I nodded my head in agreement while trying to push thoughts of Sean out of my head. “Work keeps me pretty busy.”

  “You know what they say about all work and no play.” Bryan leaned forward, his elbows on the table and a mischievous smile on his face.

  He was laying it on pretty thick, and the warning sign in my head began to flicker. To him, this was a date. To me, it was drinks with a client to keep him happy and my boss off my back.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “That sounded much more charming in my head. I guess I’m a little out of practice.” He chuckled. “What do you say we start over?”

  I sighed in relief and nodded. “That would be great.”

  He stuck his hand out across the table. “Bryan Townsend.”

  I smiled and took his hand. “Madison Buchanan.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Madison.” His hand lingered in mine as he smiled at me.

  In theory, I should be overjoyed to be on what was basically a date with a gorgeous, interesting, successful, mildly charming man, but guilt filled my stomach as I sat there.

  I threw back the rest of my wine and signaled the waiter for another. He acknowledged me with a nod and took off toward the bar.

  “So what do you do for fun, Madison?”

  “Oh, I’m not much fun,” I said dismissively. His eyebrows shot into his hairline, and I cringed. “I…well, I mean, I…I don’t really have a lot of free time.”

  Bryan laughed. “So you said.”

  The waiter brought my drink, and I reached for the glass, holding on tight as if it was a life raft. I took a drink, and the alcohol made its way through my body, doing its job of calming my nerves.

  “What about you?” I asked, hoping to redirect the focus of the conversation to him and into safer territory.

  “You know, the usual. Golf, sailing. I enjoy the beach. I have a house not far from here right on the ocean. I don’t make it there as often as I’d like, but I do try to make it out a few times a year at least. The sunrise from the back deck is just breathtaking.”

  I’d gotten a little lost in the wine and the image he’d created. I was imagining billowing curtains and the distant sound of waves crashing to the sand, lulling me to sleep. “It sounds incredible,” I said in a soft, dreamy voice, so lost in my daydream I could practically feel the sand beneath my toes.

  “You should join me for a weekend. It’s beautiful this time of year. Quiet,” he said.

  I sat up straight, dragged out of my daydream by his invitation. “Uh, thank you, Mr. Townsend,” I said, “But I don’t think…”

  “Oh, it’ll be fun. Eric and his wife could join us. We could make a weekend of it, maybe hammer out the finer points of this development deal.”

  Eric, beach weekend, development deal. He was throwing a lot of things at me at once, none of which I could really say no to. Instead I smiled and took a sip of my wine.

  The rest of the evening seemed to go along pretty smoothly, despite the awkward start. We kept the subjects light and playful, and by my third glass of wine I was laughing at his ridiculous golfing mishaps and bad finance jokes. I was actually enjoying spending time with him.

  Before long, the waiter started to come by every few minutes to make sure we had everything we needed. Around his third trip, I noticed that the bar had cleared out. The staff was starting to strip the tables and stack the chairs. I took a look at my watch.

  “Oh my God, it’s one in the morning,” I said.

  Bryan checked his watch to confirm and nodded his head. �
�Indeed it is. Time flies when you are having fun.”

  “I guess so.”

  “We should get out of their hair.” He signaled the waiter for the check. After the bill was settled, Bryan, ever the gentleman, walked me to my car.

  Bryan was exactly the type of man I should be with. Of course, when that thought entered my head, Sean came right along with it. My body tensed as I was suddenly wracked with guilt.

  Bryan misinterpreted my body language and stepped closer to me. “Cold?” he asked.

  I nodded. Pretending to be cold was better than admitting I was thinking of another man. He rubbed my arms to warm me up. It was sweet and awful all at the same time.

  “I should go,” I said, and he nodded but didn’t step away. I looked up at him as terror ripped through my body. The look in his eyes could only mean one thing, he was going to kiss me.

  This was supposed to be a harmless date. I only came to keep our business deal on track, but the thing that scared me more than anything was the fact that I wasn’t so sure I didn’t want him to kiss me.

  Bryan leaned forward, still holding on to my upper arms and I braced myself for the impact. I closed my eyes tight and tried not to flinch. His lips grazed the corner of my mouth, and that was it. I kept completely still so he wouldn’t notice how uncomfortable I was, but he didn’t try again. It was just a sweet kiss good-bye and nothing more.

  “I’m in town again in a few weeks for a charity event. Can I see you again?” he asked.

  “I…yeah. Sounds great,” I stammered.

  “I look forward to it,” he said. Bryan took my hand, gave a small bow, and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. I smiled in return, because let’s face it, how could I not?

  He opened my car door and held it as I got in. “Good night, Madison.”

  “Good night, Bryan.”

  I had just started the engine when my phone vibrated in the cup holder, where I left it. I picked it up to check the message and saw I had a missed call from my mother and two texts from Sean. I deleted mother’s voicemail without listening to it and tapped the message icon to read the texts.