Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game(62)

“Now wait a minute,” I began, giving her a look. “you have always worked not to conform to society’s ideals—you’re your own person, remember?”

“Yes, I remember. And one night singing a little karaoke to prove a point doesn’t mean I’m abandoning everything I am, Noah.”

“Are you positive? Cause if you’re not, I’m going to feel like I had some responsibility in all of this The last thing I need is to feel like I’ve corrupted you.”

Maddie smiled and leaned forward, sending her tits enticingly close to my mouth. “I’m positive. I’ll be back to my boring self tomorrow.” She made a sign across her chest. “Scout’s Honor!”

I tried not letting my gaze hone in on where she’d touched her chest. We were interrupted by one of the frat boys stumbling over to our table. “Babe, that was seriously awesome. We’ve got a party coming up on Saturday night. Would you wanna come and you know…perform?”

Maddie flushed the color of her pink tank top. “Um, no thanks,” she quickly replied.

“Whatever.” He hesitated for a second. “Well, could I get your number?”

“No!” Maddie blurted.

“Okay,” the guy replied before slinking back to his table in defeat.

I winked at her. “Charming college guys—my, my aren’t we Miss Popular tonight?”

She giggled nervously. “You’re never to tell anybody about this, you swear?”

“Oh, I don’t know if I can do that. It might be too tempting.”

“Noah,” she protested, playfully swatting my arm. With my leg almost asleep, I shifted her weight over to my other leg. That caused her to lurch forward, and her lips were inches from mine. We both froze, staring into each other’s eyes. When she licked her lips, I groaned. “Maddie…” I murmured as I started inching closer and closer to claim her delicious mouth.

Suddenly, she jerked her head back and scrambled out of my lap. She bolted so fast from the table I barely had time to call her name. I dug my wallet out of my pocket and threw some bills on the table as she scurried out the coffeehouse door.

Wait, what the hell did I do? Her eyes and body language told me she wanted the same thing I did. Just as I reached the door, I skidded to a stop. I knew why she’d bolted. Someone on the stage started singing The Pet Shop Boys version of You Were Always on My Mind, and I knew with absolute certainty.

Maddie was once and for all the one.

***

Chapter Nineteen

The stifling May heat hit me when I got outside. I scanned the sidewalk for her. “Maddie!” I shouted. I hurried back in the direction of the movie theater where we’d parked. I found her slumped over on the hood of my Jeep. Her body rose and fell harshly with her sobs.

“Maddie,” I said. Tentatively, I reached my hand out and touched her shoulder. Before I knew what was happening, she had wrapped her arms around me. “Shh, don’t cry,” I murmured into her hair. My arms tightened around her, pressing her against me. She felt like absolute and total heaven, and I never wanted to let her go. But in a way, I wanted to hold on as long as I could since things were about to change between us when I told her about the ring.

“It…was…our…song,” she replied, in between sobs.

I fought the urge to say, “Yeah, I kinda knew that.” But if I did, then I’d reveal what a major ass I was for not telling her about the ring.

“It was?”

“Um hmm,” she whimpered.

“Whose song was it?” I questioned, wanting to hear her at least vocalize it.

“Mine and Jake’s,” she replied in a whisper. I closed my eyes as my emotions rocketed through me, causing me to shudder.

Maddie pulled away from me and wiped her eyes. “Jake sent it to me one day after we’d been working on poets who wrote about Courtly Love. You know, how they couldn’t have the person, so they had to tell them how they felt in words, rather than actions.”

I fought an exasperated snort. Jesus, Jake was even deeper than I’d ever fathomed. Here I was thinking he’d just heard a jam, liked the song, and decided to charm her by making it theirs. Oh no, he’d searched out a song and related it to literature—an even more surefire way to melt Maddie.

God, what a player!

But then the more I thought about it, it almost seemed like a way of keeping her guessing. He could keep her at arm’s length, but at the same time appear as a hopeless romantic. It caused the blood to boil in my head, and if the ass**le hadn’t been dead, I would’ve killed him myself for doing that to her. Once again, it was like my best friend was a total stranger to me.

As if she were reading my thoughts, Maddie shook her head. “Yeah, but what’s a song right? It’s about being with the person totally and completely, not just being on their mind.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She smiled ruefully at me. “I mean, I don’t think he ever really thought of me in that way. Sometimes the way he would talk to me or look at me made me think it, and then sometimes late at night when we’d be talking, he’d say things like how much he cared about me—oh and he did kiss me once.”

I felt like I was in a club and the music had screeched to a halt. “He what?”

She nodded as a red flush entered her cheeks. “Yeah, it was right before he left on Spring Break. He came by my house. I told him to be careful and have fun—just not too much fun,” Maddie said with a smile. “Then when he got ready to go, he turned back to me and he—he kissed me. I didn’t question him about it—he didn’t mention it the entire time he was gone until that last day.”