Page 39 of Something to Believe In
Jace whistled. "Something is definitely going on here. Do you have Mitch working on this?"
Axel leaned forward. "I had him install cameras at my house and at the Barn, because Lacey showed up there. She's uncanny in the information she ferrets out. But I don't have him working on anything else."
Margo leaned forward. "You need to. That woman was definitely deranged. Her behavior was disturbing. And the look on her face - I've never seen a face distort like hers did. I can't get the sight of it out of my mind."
Maddyn nodded. She felt the same. It was disturbing. Now she was afraid to go back to Axel's house. She clearly knew he had cameras installed. Maybe she saw them leaving town last night and followed them. Maybe it was her, but she didn't flip out like she had tonight.
Axel nodded. "I'll call him now and ask him to work on this."
Jace nodded. "I have to get back out there. Stay here as long as you like. But I think your food will be ready soon. If you'd like to take it home, we can box it up for you. But your table is also still available to you."
She smiled at Jace. "Thank you."
Jace left the room, and she turned to Axel. "Should we go back out and eat our dinner? I'm a little hungry."
He chuckled. "I'd like that. I'm hungry too."
Margo nodded. "Follow me."
Chapter Twenty-Three
Axel's eyes scanned the area as they neared their table. The feeling of being surprised and dreading it, wrapped around him like a cloak. He wasn't all that hungry now, and he was surprised Maddyn was.
He held her chair out. She smiled when she sat, which made his heart flutter slightly. Just being with her, like this, on a date, made him feel great. The words of a song kept coming to him. This incident with Lacey, oddly, had the words barraging his brain. He couldn't wait to get home and put it together.
"You look far away."
His eyes snapped to Maddyn's. "I'm not. Not really. It's just that being with you has words to songs bombarding my headspace. I can't wait to pull them together."
She smiled sweetly. "I know what you mean. My mind is reeling with song lyrics and melodies. Maybe when we get home, we can each spend some time honing our craft."
He grinned and reached across the table to hold her hand. "You said when we get home."
"It was figurative."
His grin grew. "Or a Freudian slip."
She squeezed his hand but didn't respond.
A waitress brought them their meals. "Anything else I can get you folks?"
Mads shook her head, and he smiled at the waitress. "No, thank you."
"I'll leave you to it then."
The waitress left, and Mads picked up her fork. She took a deep breath and pushed the asparagus on her plate around.
"You're not all that hungry, are you?" he asked.
Her eyes stared into his. "Not really. I just didn't want people who witnessed Lacey's scary outburst to think she scared us away. If tongues are wagging, I want it to be for a good reason. But right now, I feel exposed and would rather be writing a song. I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "Don't be sorry, Mads. I feel the same way. We can have our meals packaged up and go home and work. If we're hungry later, we can pull these from the fridge and eat."
"Thank you for understanding. It was our first big date, and I feel bad for cutting it short."
He leaned in, so his words were only for her. "You and I have written a different path for ourselves. We've let duty to our friends and co-workers dictate our love. At least our ability to be together. We've been in love with each other for a long time. So, if our dating is different from others' dating is, who cares? We'll go home and write for a while, then we'll sit together on the sofa, eat our meals, have a drink, and that will be our date."
Her smile lit up her face. "Yes, you're absolutely right. Can we make a pact?"
