The Rebound - Noelle Adams Page 0,7
the library.
Maybe he was tired of always being good, the way she was. Maybe that was all it was.
She kept recalling the kiss. Imagining that it went even further. She had a good imagination, so the daydreams got her rather excited.
She didn’t work in the library on Tuesday morning, so she stayed in to write a few messages for custom arrangements. They came fairly easily, and she was happy with her morning productivity as she walked from the little apartment she rented above a downtown Azalea storefront to the flower shop a block and a half away.
Azalea was so small that the downtown area consisted of three blocks of Main Street and two blocks of Monroe Street, which ran perpendicular to Main. Her apartment was on Monroe, and the flower shop was on Main.
Both Skye and Ria were in the shop. They were excited about a new order they’d received for a birthday arrangement for the wife of a US senator who was popular on social media.
Madeline was excited too. Every time someone well known ordered one of their arrangements and shared it online, they were bombarded with new orders. They already had more than they could handle. They had to be selective about the orders they accepted, which only increased their cachet. People paid a lot for one of their arrangements and still felt lucky to be approved. A lot of their income now came from people who ordered one of their standard arrangements and poems, which they’d crafted for a number of different occasions, switched up every six months so they wouldn’t grow stale, and were served by florists they were connected with around the country. Those weren’t exactly cheap, but they didn’t require dedicated attention, so people who weren’t approved for the custom arrangements could still get something.
Madeline chatted with her friends for about an hour, helping to clean up the back room, which had gotten kind of messy from Ria’s work that morning. Several times she was on the verge of mentioning what had happened between her and Ken the evening before.
She never did, however. She wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t sure how she even felt about it, much less being able to explain why it had happened. And she was kind of embarrassed about being so hot for a man who’d always seemed like a grown-up.
Sure, she was a grown-up now too. Twenty-six was old enough to be attracted to older men without it being strange. But it still felt... naughty. Inappropriate. Ken had been a deputy when she was in high school. He’d been married for most of the time she’d known him.
He simply didn’t feel like proper dating material.
Madeline felt so weird about it that she kept it to herself.
She was leaving the shop, mentally debating about the merits of sharing or not sharing, when she almost ran into Josh Cantor.
Her ex.
He was a big man—still in pretty good shape and with all-American looks. Blond hair. Blue eyes. A wide smile that showed off perfect teeth.
He looked surprised when he saw her, but he smiled easily enough. “Hey, Maddy.”
He’d always called her Maddy, and she’d always hated it.
“Madeline,” she corrected, no longer caring that it would annoy him. “I prefer to be called Madeline.”
“I know. I know. Don’t get all upset about it.” He made a calming hand motion like she was an irate child.
She had to work not to grit her teeth at him. He had a way of making her feel like she was unreasonable and annoying, even when she knew very well that she wasn’t. “Do you really think I look upset?”
“You never did. But I obviously upset you if you jump down my throat for a nickname.”
“I didn’t jump down your throat.” She didn’t know why she was bothering to argue. He wasn’t going to listen to her. He never had. And for year after year, she’d told herself it was normal. That it was just the way men were.
God, what an idiot she’d been for way too long.
“Okay. Okay. No big deal.” He was smiling broadly. He might as well have been patting her on her head. “How’s everything going with you?”
“It’s going great. Business keeps booming.” She knew better than to give Josh any details about Second Chance Flower Shop. He never wanted to hear them. He’d never been really happy about her success.
Sometimes she wondered if he was jealous that she was making more money than he made from sales at his father’s car dealership.
“That’s good,”