Page 54 of Fall at Once

She took my arm, smiling up at me when I opened the diner’s door for her to pass through. “Thank you,” she murmured as we followed the hostess to a booth.

“I feel like there’s an elephant in the room.” She took my hand across the table after we’d ordered drinks. “I know you heard some things tonight. You had to, or you wouldn’t have swooped in to save me like you did.”

“I did. I heard how he spoke to you, and I didn’t like it. You deserve better than that.”

“I didn’t like it either. I feel like I was in love with someone that didn’t exist and that my life for the last five years was a lie. How do you get over something like that?”

“I wish I knew. Add a marriage, two kids, and a cheating scandal, and you’re me. Sometimes I wonder if any of it was real.”

“That reminds me—I have to tell you something, and I should have done it a lot sooner, but I didn’t quite know how to bring it up.”

“It’s okay. Just say it. I’m all about honesty. Keeping things hidden is not healthy. For anyone. When something needs to be said—say it.”

“Okay, good. I feel that way too. Sometimes, Natalie talks to me about her mother when we’re out walking Basil. Not aboutyour relationship with her or anything like that. Not with details. But she confides in me about how much she’s hurting because of the divorce and the way her mother has changed.”

I squeezed her hand. “I know she does. She told me the two of you have a lot in common. Except for her, it’s her mom; for you, it’s your dad. And the same, no detail, just feelings. I figured it would come up when it felt right.”

“It feels right now.”

“So much about tonight feels right, Madi. I almost don’t believethisis real—me and you.”

“It’s weird how tonight started like a nightmare, but now I feel like I’m living in a dream.”

“I feel it too.”

We ordered, and our food arrived. We ate, and we chatted. It was natural and effortless. Once I got out of my head and stopped worrying whether she was judging me, the conversation flowed easily.

There had been many moments tonight when our chemistry would have led to us getting closer, to touch across the table, to kiss, or to say something sexy, and we’d let most of them pass us by. But oddly, I didn’t feel like I was missing out by keeping things relatively chaste throughout dinner.

It was the opposite. I didn’t just want to date her; I liked her too. She’d already felt like a friend—granted, she was the kind of friend I wanted to have all the benefits with someday—but now we were more, and I couldn’t wait to find out how far we could go.

Chapter 17

Madi

He had dropped me off and walked me to my door, kissing me goodbye and holding me close like everything that happened tonight wasn’t too good to be true, like it was real.

How could this be real?

Moonlight filtered through my window, casting shadows across the room as I tossed to my side, displacing Kenny, who had decided to fall asleep on my boobs. “Sorry,” I whispered in the dark.

He meowed and cuddled into my chest, purring while I stroked his soft fur. Victor stared at me from his position at the foot of my bed while Sage had turned herself into a black cat loaf on the pillow next to mine to stare at me with her glowing golden eyes.

“Is it real, Sage?”

She closed her eyes, ignoring me as if it were a stupid question and I should know better and trust my instincts. Rude.

I tugged my quilt to my chin and hugged Kenny against me like a cat spoon. I was exhausted, but sleep did not come easily.

It felt real.

Why did having hope have to be so scary?

I shut my eyes, willing my racing thoughts to stop.

Hours later, I awoke to dim before sunrise light filtering through the big bay window and three cats staring at me from atop my dresser, waiting to be fed.

“Fine, have it your way. I’ll get up. Good morning.”

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