I laughed then, my body saturating itself in endorphins, perfect after my crying jag. “I definitely don’t have anything appropriate.”
“But I do. Follow me.”
“The dishes—”
“I’ll take care of them later.” He led me by the hand upstairs until we entered one of the smaller bedrooms. I hadn’t really explored those spaces, hadn’t thought to. In fact, the one space upstairs that continued to intrigue me was the one place I wasn’t allowed to go.
He walked over to a small closet, unlike the walk-in versions in the master bedrooms. Opening the door, he motioned for me to join him. “Kate never took all of her clothes. All of her formal gowns she left here. Having them around probably would have been a reminder of me.”
I pulled one out, a pretty black gown that was completely backless, doubting I could pull the look off.
“There are shoes down there. Some of them have never been worn.”
“I don’t know, Maddox. Don’t you think it’s strange having me wear your ex-wife’s clothes?”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way. I just wanted us to do something together tonight.”
I got ready to protest, feeling a little creeped out, but the look on his face was so sincere, so warm.
The Maddox I was starting to feel more for than I should.
“Okay. When are we doing this?”
“In an hour?”
Nodding my head, I watched him leave the room and started looking through the dresses. There was a beautiful red gown covered in a plastic bag from a dry cleaner’s. I pulled it out from between a satiny emerald dress and a black velvet one before holding it up against my body while looking in the full-length mirror beside the closet. It was more gorgeous than anything I’d ever worn. The outer layer was lace over a short, silky skirt. The dress was sleeveless with a plunging neckline.
Starting to put it back, I changed my mind at the last second. Maddox wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. We could definitely do that—but I wanted him to see what he’d be missing.
Every little bit of it.