Page 53 of Bossy Hero

Fuck me.

She offers a tentative wave accompanied by a half smile, seemingly nervous about being here.

I blink three times, questioning if I’m hallucinating.

Nope. Not a mirage. Maddie’s fifty feet from me, leaning against the side of her car with her legs crossed at the ankles.

My feet stutter a single step before rapidly propelling me toward her.

Did I say she was gravity? I was dead wrong. She’s much more than that.

Gravity is a constant, steady pressure that you can’t feel. Logically, you know it’s there, but you don’t actively sense the weighty drag holding you down.

Maddie’s effect on me is more severe than that. Powerful. It’s a profound force on all my joints, vehemently shoving me toward her. It’s elastic bands surrounding me, cinching tighter until I erase the space between us. A vacuum that removes the air keeping us apart. There’s nothing subtle about her effect on me.

Who the hell was I kidding?

I could no sooner give her up than stop the tides with a wave of my hand.

She uncrosses her legs and straightens as I come to a stop a foot in front of her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I answer back.

Just like when I saw her in her dining room yesterday, our stares might as well be bolted together.

Her shoulders lift with her sharp inhale, and she gestures toward her car. “Well, your ride to the airport awaits, sir.”

Facetiously, I narrow my eyes at her. “Maddie, I’ll allow you to call me Alan. Truth be told, I’ve grown to like it. But I draw the line at sir. That’s a no-go.”

With a flourish, she rolls her eyes and huffs. “Get in the car, Alan.” Turning on her heel, she saunters over to the driver’s side of the car.

I stand dumbstruck for only a few seconds before I sputter, “Yes, ma’am.”

At this point, I don’t give a fuck whether Sawyer’s on his way to pick me up or not. Maddie’s a far more appealing option.

If she asked me to stay in Maine, I’d move heaven and earth to stay for as long as possible.

And that fucking says a lot, considering how much Redleg means to me. I’m needed there. We’re building something special. My future is riding on that place. Redleg is my purpose. My responsibility. The people there are my family.

But Maddie is... she’s my home.

No clue how or why she came to mean this much to me. The only thing I know for sure is she is everything I need.

Once my bag is in the back, I eagerly slide into the passenger seat. I’m beyond curious to see this play out.

She starts the ignition, then tosses a bemused glance my way. “Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?”

I just grin. “No.”

“No?” she parrots.

“Did I stutter?”

Her pink lips press into a thin line. “What if I were here to abduct you? Take you to the middle of nowhere and murder you?”

A guffaw bursts out of me, unrestrained and boisterous. My shoulders shake, and my body vibrates at the hilarity of that scenario.

Maddie couldn’t hurt a fly. And I’m... well, I’m a fucking Army Ranger. We killed for a living, trained by the best in the world.

---