Page 36 of The I Do Over

Would he eventually get tired of all the commuting? Would she? Would they get to a point where they both realized it wasn’t working and amicably go their separate ways?

Now it was his own words that came to mind.

No one’s looking to get married again. This is simply about being able to walk away as friends.

Somehow he doubted he and Maddie would ever truly be able to walk away as friends. There was too much there—emotion and history—to make walking away anything but hard.

But…they couldn’t go on indefinitely with long-distance dating. Eventually something was going to go wrong or someone was going to get bored or expectations would change. He might not be big on relationships, but he wasn’t stupid either.

Thinking about his buddies and what their romantic relationships were like, Knox knew that most couples hit a point where someone says, “This isn’t working,” and then you have to decide to either fix it or walk away.

His head was starting to pound and he knew he could sit here all night speculating on the ins and outs of relationships and what might or might not happen between Maddie and him. The bottom line was that he had to be willing to be the one to ask the difficult question.

He just wasn’t sure if he was willing to do it tonight or if he would wait until the morning.

“Ooh…did you open up the zinfandel?”

Turning, Knox’s heart kicked hard in his chest. Maddie was walking around wearing one of his white dress shirts. Her legs were bare, her hair was up in a messy knot, and she looked so damn beautiful and perfect.

Like she belonged there.

With him.

She looked at him over her shoulder and grinned. “I hope you don’t mind, but your robe was comically large on me and the thought of getting fully dressed was beyond unappealing.” Pouring herself a glass of wine, she walked over and joined him. “And in case you were wondering, this is my not-so-subtle way of telling you that I’d like to get takeout instead of going out anywhere.” And with a sexy wink, she took a sip of her wine and hummed happily.

Swallowing hard, he nodded. “Um…yeah. I wasn’t looking forward to going out anywhere either, although…” Then he shook his head. “Never mind.”

Reaching out, she rested her hand on his arm and it was stupid how much he instantly noticed how small and soft and warm it was.

“What?” she asked. “Never mind what?”

“It’s just…” Pausing, Knox cleared his throat. “I just felt like maybe I should have offered to take you out someplace nice. Not a pub or anything, but a nice, fancy place that served great food and the best wine.”

Her expression softened and she gave him a shy smile. “While that would have been lovely, tonight I definitely wanted for us to stay home.” Her eyes instantly went wide and her cheeks turned bright crimson. “I mean, stay in. I definitely wanted to stay in. We did a lot of walking today and then after catching so many fish, I just figured…”

She was adorable when she rambled, he thought.

“Maddie, it’s okay. I knew what you meant,” he said softly, caressing her cheek. “I was just feeling a little guilty for not taking you out, that’s all.”

“You don’t need to,” she said as she studied the glass in her hand. “It’s not like we’re dating or that this was some sort of romantic staycation.”

There was his opening and as much as he strongly felt that waiting until the morning meant less risk, he knew he’d make himself crazy if he didn’t ask her now.

Taking the glass from her hand, he watched as she looked up at him in wide-eyed confusion. “What if thiswasa romantic staycation?” he carefully asked.

“Wh…what do you mean?”

He put both their glasses down on the counter before reaching up and cupping her face in his hands. “I mean…what if we didn’t say goodbye tomorrow? At least…not really.”

She only blinked up at him and he realized he needed to be a little clearer.

“I know you have a life back in Chesapeake and I have a life here, but…what if we still found some time to see each other? Maybe a couple of weekends a month we can get together. I can come to you one weekend, you can come back here another, and…I don’t know…we sort of see how it goes.”

There was wariness on her face and for an instant he thought he saw some disappointment there, but it was gone in an instant.

“You…you want to keep seeing me?”

The uncertainty made him feel guilty. Could she really be that surprised by this? Had he somehow managed to come off as too aloof for the last few days? In his mind, Knox had been beyond attentive and loving toward her. They made love several times a day and after that initial first time that had been more about pent-up emotions and maybe a little bit of dominance on his part, he felt like he’d made it up to her.

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