Page 41 of Ever With Me

“Not my problem.” Then he went inside, leaving her alone on the deck.

She might be gorgeous, but I’m right to keep my distance.Unfortunately.

13

MADDIE

Naomi wasin the back of the Depot getting a bag of flour to make waffle cones when Maddie found her. “Hey, got a minute?” Maddie asked, unexpectedly nervous.

It wasn’t like Naomi was her boss. When Pops had first pitched the idea of the Depot to them, they’d agreed that they would run it like co-owners. Maddie had gone to school for marketing, so it fell to her to do more of the administrative and marketing parts of the business while Naomi did more of the day-to-day operations.

But since Naomi was her older sister, there was always that feeling there that, somehow, Naomi was in charge.

“Sure.” Naomi set the flour down, then brushed her hands on her apron. “What’s up?”

“I need to take off this afternoon.” Maddie crossed her arms. “It’s for the business.”

Naomi gave her a curious look. “You know you don’t have to ask me about that.”

A guilty feeling went through her. “I just wanted to let you know.”

Naomi smiled as she tied her light blond hair back with an elastic hairband. “As long as you’ve got Lars covering you, I’m good. But thanks for telling me.”

Maddie nodded, then moved to go back to the front.

“Out of curiosity, where are you heading?”

The part of her that wanted to tell Naomi all about Brooks burned a hole through her gut. Naomi was her best friend. She was only a year older than Maddie and closer in age to her than Lindsay, so they’d always done everything together, including the Depot.

Not breathing a word about Brooks was killing her.

Especially after he was acting so human last night.

So nice, really.

Until she’d killed it by calling him sad and lonely and pointing out she was only there per their arrangement.

She’d long had a habit of not knowing when to shut up, and it had bitten her in the ass last night. Clearly, Brooks was lonely—why else would he call her up randomly like that?

Maybe as a flex.

But, no, he’d opened up. Told her personal things she got the feeling he didn’t share often.

Naomi must have read the tension on her face because her brows furrowed, and she stepped closer to Maddie. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired. Overwhelmed. Trying to find someone to play for the town fair. I think I’m close, but I just have a little extra work to do to make sure it happens.” That was practically the truth.

“I still want to punch Josh in the face for doing what he did. Did you hear he and Gina registered as a team for the Applepalooza this weekend? They’re signed up for every event.”

Maddie groaned. She’d nearly forgotten that was this weekend. Brandywood loved its fall events, and Applepalooza was one of the bigger ones besides the fair.

Her stomach clenched when she remembered that she and Josh had signed up a month ago for everything. He must have crossed out their names from the sign-up board in the middle of the town square.

“Guess I won’t be going,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. Well, as much as she could muster.

“Don’t do that. Don’t let him push you out of things you’ve always loved doing. Just find someone else to partner up with. There’s no way he’s going to win things anyway. Pops and Bunny, or Jen and Jason will win the apple pie contest again. That’s a given. And I think Pops has a good chance at cutest couple again, too.”

Maddie sighed. “Who am I going to sign up with? Jake? Logan?” She gave Naomi a tired smile. “Brandywood’s contests don’t favor the single.”

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