Page 85 of Love You
Madison had already forgotten she was sitting there, now that the man of the hour had returned. Win handed Darcy her beer and winked. Then he completely ruined it by giving Madison a little shoulder rub. Darcy’s heart sank and she spent the rest of the meal pushing her chicken Caesar salad around on the plate.
After lunch, they went to the river for a kayak cave tour. Before Darcy could stop it from happening, Madison claimed the second seat of Win’s kayak, leaving Darcy to go it solo. The problem was she had never been in a kayak in her life, had no idea how she was supposed to paddle the thing, or steer it.
Win was so busy tending to the life jackets, the helmets, and the other details of their trip that he couldn’t see she was panicking. She toyed with the idea of faking an illness—appendicitis, food poisoning, a torn rotator cuff—but she wasn’t going to abandon the ship. She’d worked too hard to give up now. Besides, how hard could it be?
An hour later, she was seriously thinking of drowning herself.
“You okay there, Darce?” Win maneuvered his kayak and grabbed hold of hers to get it moving in the right direction. For the last fifteen minutes, she’d been paddling against the current and her arms felt like spaghetti.
She hissed at him and he gave her one of those hopeless looks as if to say,What do you want me to do?
I want you to kill Madison and throw her in the river so I can get in the back of your boat.
Madison turned around and waved, forcing Darcy to paste a phony smile on her face and say, “I’m having the time of my life.”
“Ready to go inside?” Win pointed ahead at a series of limestone caves and Darcy had a sudden vision of thousands of bats roosting in the caverns and wondered whether it was painful to die from rabies.
She followed behind as fast as her limp arms would paddle. At least the water was fairly still in this part of the river. When they entered the mouth of the cave, instead of bats there were hundreds of stalactites dripping from the ceiling. According to the literature they gave to their clients, the icicle-shaped tubes were actually mineral formations and to Darcy looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. She found them oddly beautiful and creepy at the same time.
Madison oohed and aahed and took pictures with her phone, the phone she hadn’t taken out once since she’d been with Win. The two of them took a selfie together underneath the stalactites and Darcy felt a tightening in her chest. They were gorgeous together. The kind of couple people whispered about as they passed by on the street.“Can you imagine how beautiful their babies will be?”
Darcy could imagine. And the band around her chest got snugger.
She took one last look at the mineral formations dangling like crystals in a futuristic fairy tale and paddled out of the cave. It and the day served as a wake-up call. It was time to stop playing before she got hurt.
Chapter Nineteen
Win took Madison to the hotel. All evening he’d counted the minutes until he could drop her off. Despite the day being an undeniable success, it had blown chunks. Madison had looked for every opportunity to hang on him and he’d looked for every opportunity to plug Garner Adventure, which had been exhausting.
And to think he had one more day of her incessant clinging. But his desire to prove himself, buy a house, and get Darcy her promotion overrode any impulse to flat-out tell her he wasn’t interested.
“You want to come up?” Madison asked innocently enough but Win had been down this road enough times to not misinterpret what was going on here. Turning her down was going to take some finesse but no way in hell was he going back to her room.
“We’ve got an early morning, Madison.”
She ran a finger down his shoulder. “One drink wouldn’t keep us out past curfew.”
One drink, his ass. But even more than not wanting to lose her business, he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She was a nice woman, extremely attractive, fun to be around, and at one time he would’ve been into her. But not now . . . not since Darcy. The revelation sort of knocked him for a loop. He’d had plenty of girlfriends over the years butcommitmenthad always been an elusive term for him. Until now. The Britney fiasco had changed his consciousness and made him vow to be more responsible. But Darcy had changed his heart and made him want to be a better man. It was a shift he wasn’t prepared to look at too closely because it scared him to death.
“Come on,” Madison urged. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Taking her chin in his hand and looking deeply into her eyes, he did what he did best and turned on the old Win Garner charm. “You’re too tempting, Madison. One drink?” He made a get-real face and let the corner of his mouth slide up into a half grin. “That’s some dangerous territory you’re talking about. Don’t you think we should keep this professional?” She was the CEO of a major company, she had to know what kind of minefield she was walking through here. It might be chickenshit but Win thought it would be better for everyone involved to let her be the one to walk away.
She arched one perfectly shaped brow. “We’d be good together. But, yeah, you’re right. Let’s get this deal done first. If things go as well tomorrow as they did today . . . well, let’s just say I’ve been very impressed.” Madison’s eyes glided over him, leaving no ambiguity about how she wanted to celebrate.
“Good night.” She leaned over and kissed him. But before it could get really started, he shut it down and walked her to the lobby.
“Get a good night’s sleep. Today was strictly sightseeing. Tomorrow, I’m gonna show you what team building is all about.” He intended to kick her ass so hard that by the time she limped to her hotel suite, she wouldn’t have any energy left for him. Unfortunately, that would involve chucking Darcy’s itinerary into the circular file.
She’d thank him for it later.
He drove to Darcy’s house but all the lights were out so he sat in his Jeep for a while, staring up at her bedroom window. He was no authority on women but he knew when they were angry with him. And Darcy had been throwing some serious shade at his ass throughout the cave tour. He hated that he’d hurt her but he was only trying to get the account.
His cell phone sat in the console next to his seat and despite being the king of self-preservation, he dialed her number anyway.
“I’m in your driveway,” he said. “Come sit in the car with me for a little while.”
Her response was a loud click. She’d hung up on him.
