I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2)(71)

Hell yes, she could go for some wine. Or tequila shots. Whatever would make this conversation easier for both of them.

They both ordered a glass of white wine, and Madison picked up the conversation the second the waitress moved away. “So talk to me, Mollie. What the heck is going on over there? I thought he and I had reached a turning point when I made him dinner, but now I can’t get him to even respond to my text messages, much less meet with me. I keep thinking if I could just get him into bed, maybe have some angry-ex sex, he’ll remember how good things are.”

“Why do you want him back?” Mollie blurted out.

Madison blinked, looking surprised at the question. As though it should be obvious, she replied, “He’s my husband.”

“He’s your ex-husband. You filed the papers.”

Madison rubbed her temple, as though the conversation was beneath her. “Mollie, we’ve been over this, like, a hundred times. You don’t understand—”

“Right, I know, I’ve never had a big love like yours and Jackson’s,” Mollie said, not bothering to keep the impatience out of her voice. “But it’s just…hell, Mad, did you cheat on him? Early on, I mean, before everything got broken?”

Madison’s head snapped up. “What?”

Mollie fiddled with her fork but forced herself to continue despite her sister’s furious gaze.

“Jackson said he saw you. With Tyler. Said you guys were…you know.”

The anger had faded from Madison’s eyes and been replaced with cold shock. “He told you that?”

“Well, yeah.”

“That ass,” Madison hissed. “That was his and my private—” She broke off as the server brought their wine over.

“Ready to order?” their perky waitress asked with a wide smile.

“A few more minutes,” Madison said, her voice all sugar as she smiled prettily at the server. “Still deciding.”

Mollie felt a tiny stab of disdain. Had Madison always been like this? So easily able to go from furious to sugary sweet? And had the sweet part ever been genuine?

“He shouldn’t have told you that,” Madison said, her smile disappearing the moment the waitress walked away.

“So it’s true,” Mollie said a little sadly.

Madison rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me feel guilty about this, Mollie. You don’t know what it was like. Knowing that half the women in the country want your husband. Knowing that he started taking some of them up on their invitation…”

Mollie looked away. She still didn’t know whether Madison had just gotten really good at selling the lie or whether she actually believed Jackson had cheated on her, but Mollie no longer believed it. She’d seen the type of man Jackson Burke was. Hell, she should have always known it. He wasn’t a cheater.

Madison started to take a sip of wine, then paused as she studied Mollie closely. “You’re not serious,” Madison said, putting the glass down with a soft clank.

“About what?”

“You’re taking his side on this!” Madison accused, leaning forward. “Oh my God, you are! Ugh, I should have known that pushing you to live with him was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, perhaps it was,” Mollie said quietly.

Madison was too riled up to notice Mollie’s response. “You know, I actually thought you were over your stupid little crush. And I thought he was decent enough not to prey upon it. But, God, am I an idiot.”

The server approached them once more, her ready smile slipping when she observed the tension at the table, and she wisely backed away.

“You knew about my…crush?” Mollie asked, the word feeling woefully inadequate given the escalation of her relationship with Jackson.

Madison rolled her eyes. “Of course. You always looked at him too long, blushed when he talked to you…you practically fainted every time he gave you a token gift.”

Mollie felt her cheeks heating as she remembered that stupid red Chanel clutch. She’d always known that the gesture hadn’t meant as much to Jackson as it had to Mollie, but seeing it now through Madison’s eyes somehow made it downright pathetic.

“It’s not a big deal,” Madison said, her voice gentling slightly. “I don’t think he knew, if it makes you feel any better.”

Well, he sure as hell knows now, Mollie thought, and took a gulp of her wine.

“But you can’t let him use you.” Madison reached across the table. “I know he can be charming. I mean, trust me, I so know. And he knows exactly the right thing to say to get what he wants.”

“What is it you think he wants?”

Madison’s mouth opened, and then she shut it, frowning a little. After a moment she said, “He wants his life back the way it was.”

“But it’s never going to be the way that it was. He’s never going to play football. You’re never going to be that sweet virginal college girl he fell in love with.”

“Ouch, Mollie.”

“I’m not trying to be a bitch. But don’t you think it’s time to move on?”

Madison’s mouth set in a stubborn line, and this time when the server tentatively came back over, Madison ordered a salad, dressing on the side.

“And for you, miss?” the server asked Mollie.