Page 39 of The I Do Over

Again, they all sort of stared at her for a moment.

“Affection?” Babette asked. “As in…you still have feelings for each other beyond the whole closure thing?”

“I think so,” she replied slowly. “And believe me when I say no one is more surprised that we are. When Knox mentioned us continuing to see each other, I just…”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Jenna interrupted excitedly. “He wants the two of you to keep seeing each other? Like dating?”

“Well…yeah. So now we’re thinking…”

“Maddie…sweetie,” Babette quickly interjected. “Are you sure that’s wise? I mean…I realize a lot of time has passed and the situation back then was really out of your control, but…think about this. What about all the years he didn’t even respond to your letters?”

“He never got them! When I mentioned them to him, he was genuinely confused—like I was speaking Greek to him or something.”

“Really?” Heather added, her face a little scrunched up. “It seems kind of a convenient excuse. Who’s to say that he just didn’t want to admit that he was too pissed off at the time to read them or write back?”

Damn. She hadn’t thought of that.

“Of course there’s an equally good chance that he’s telling the truth,” Jenna countered. “Things were wild back then, and you said he went into the Navy fairly soon after it all went down, so…”

“But there’s no way to ever know for sure,” she said, more to herself than anyone.

Heather quickly apologized. “Oh, Maddie, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to throw that out there like that. It was just me talking without thinking.”

“No, you’re right. I never really even thought of it like that.”

“Okay, we all need to reel it in a little,” Babette said diplomatically. “Whether he got the letters and decided not to read them or if he never got the letters at all doesn’t change anything. It’s not going to erase the last two decades, will it?”

“I know but…”

“Did any of them ever get returned to you?” Jenna asked. “Like the whole return to sender thing?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“But it wouldn’t change anything right now, would it?” Babette asked again.

Maddie thought about it and realized it didn’t. She went into this whole going-to-see-him thing thinking he ignored the letters, so if he lied about never getting them…they’d still be where they were right now, right?

Unfortunately, she wasn’t so sure.

Part of the reason things went the way they did was because Knox told her he’d never gotten the letters. If he lied about that, what else had he lied about? And was he really interested in seeing her again because he enjoyed the relationship they were building or was it maybe just about the sex?

“Uh-oh…now her face is all scrunched up,” Jenna whispered loudly. “That can’t be good.”

“Do you think he’s just using me for sex?” she blurted out.

The last thing she expected was for her friends to laugh—or snort and then laugh—but…they did.

And she was mildly offended by it.

“Hey!”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Babette said, seemingly speaking for the group. “We definitely shouldnothave laughed.”

Both Jenna and Heather solemnly shook their heads.

“However…if I may speak freely.”

“You mean you haven’t been speaking freely thus far?” Maddie mocked.

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