Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game(69)

“Because I care about you too much to do this. You’d hate yourself in the morning, and you’d hate me even more. It’s your gift, remember? It’s yours to give, and I’m not your husband to take it.”

“It’s me, isn’t it?”

I rolled my eyes. “Jesus, are you even listening to me? More than that, are you incapable of feeling how much I wanted you?” I gestured wildly towards my crotch. “Damn, I’ll probably either have to go take a dip in the pond or take a cold shower tonight because of you.”

My little pep talk didn’t help. She started sobbing. “I just want someone to love me.”

Man, you’re so f**king blind. Jake loved you…hell, I love you. I tentatively put my hand on her shoulder. “You have lots of people who love you, Maddie.”

She shook her head. “Not like that. I mean a guy—a guy like you who wants me as more than a friend. I’m almost eighteen years old, and I’ve never had that!”

There had been so many times that I should’ve told her about the ring, and here was another example. Most of all, I needed to tell her how I truly felt about her. I opened my mouth to say something, and then it happened. She turned around and puked all over a bush. I grabbed up her hair as she heaved over and over again. She wiped her hand on the back of her mouth.

When she finally glanced up at me, there was such hurt in her eyes. I stepped forward just in time for her to tip forward and pass out. I stared up at the sky and rolled my eyes. “Fuck my life!” I grumbled as I gathered her up in my arms and started towards the Jeep.

***

Chapter Twenty-One

Holding Maddie, I couldn’t unlock the door, so I had to ring the doorbell. Thankfully Mom, rather than Greg, answered the door. At the sight of me carrying an unconscious Maddie in my arms like Fabio in some trashy romance novel cover, her eyes widened. “What in the world?” she demanded.

“She got drunk at Blaine’s party and passed out,” I grunted as I stepped through the foyer.

Mom slapped my arm. “Noah! How could you let her get drunk?”

I rolled my eyes. “Jesus Mom, I didn’t force her to drink it.”

“Don’t say, ‘Jesus’,” she admonished.

“Whatever.”

“Well, you should’ve been watching her better.”

“Presley needed to talk to me,” I replied.

Mom arched a dark eyebrow skeptically at me.

“Yes, she really needed to talk to me,” I said.

Mom sighed. “Get her settled on the couch and then you and I are going to have a long talk about this party,” she ordered, in a no-nonsense tone.

I didn’t argue. Instead, I gently laid Maddie down on the couch. I pulled the mauve throw off the back and draped it over before rubbing her cheek tenderly When I turned around, Mom’s expression had completely changed. Instead of being in a pissed Rambo mode, she was gaping at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You love her,” she murmured.

My eyes bulged. “No, I, uh…shit!”

Mom smiled knowingly at me. “Yes, you do. I can’t believe I didn’t see it until just now.”

Maddie stirred on the couch, and I stiffened. “Can we please discuss this somewhere else?”

Mom nodded and motioned for the sun room. I followed her out there and shut the door behind me.

“There’s nothing wrong with you loving her, honey” Mom said, softly.

“I know that.”

“Then why are you fighting it so much?”

Grimacing, I jerked a hand through my hair. “Because….of Jake.”

Mom’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What does Jake have to do with Maddie?”

“Everything,” I muttered before plopped down in a wicker chair across from Mom. “You know that night that Mr. Nelson and I were in Jake’s room?”

She nodded.

“Well, we found something that was pretty shocking.” From the look on her face, I could tell my mom was preparing herself for anything considering it was Jake. “It was an engagement ring.”

Well, maybe she hadn’t prepared herself for that. “What?” she questioned in a high, pitched shriek.

I nodded. “Yeah. He had the box wrapped up in the song lyrics to You Were Always on My Mind”.

“But who in the world was Jake in love with?”

I drew in a painful, ragged breath. “Maddie.”

Mom widened her eyes. “You can’t be serious! Jake Nelson, who was never faithful to a girl for over five minutes, was in love with a preacher’s daughter?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know how. Why do any two people fall in love? It just happens.”

“You’re right, sweetie. That was a silly question.” Mom cocked her head in thought. “And I suppose Jake did have his good points.”

“And he changed,” I admitted.

“He did?”

“Yeah, in the last few months of his life. Then he’d also told me he’d fallen in love, but he wouldn’t tell me who because he hadn’t told the girl yet. I just never imagined it was Maddie.”

She leaned forward and took my hand in hers. “But did Maddie love Jake?”