her to see how hurt and confused I am. “Really good. Thanks again for having me. I had a lot of fun.”
She smiles. “Me too. I’m glad you came, and I hope to see you again next year. Hopefully by then things will calm down with Alana. Sorry you had to deal with some of the stuff she said and did.”
My smile fades, because from the looks of it, I’ll probably never come back here again. Logan and I are through, and Madden probably won’t want anything to do with me now that he’s had time to think about what we did. “Yeah, me too.”
“I heard what went down last night,” she says after a few moments of silence. “We all heard what went down between Madden and Logan. Is that why he took off so quickly?”
I nod and zip up my suitcase, my body tense, hoping she didn’t hear anything else. “Yeah. What did you hear?”
She looks disappointed as she takes a seat on the bed. “That Logan was the asshole Alana cheated on Madden with. It took us all by surprise. We planned to come talk to Madden last night and make sure everything was okay, but based on the noise coming from this room last night…” she trails off, a small smile taking over. “I thought it’d be best to wait until this morning.” She looks around, as if just noticing I’m alone. “Where is Madden, by the way?”
“On his morning walk.”
“Without you?”
“I was sleeping pretty hard. He probably didn’t want to wake me.” I try to convince myself that’s the case, but my stomach still feels empty. “Had a late night,” I add, hoping to make it more believable.
“Sounded like it.” She stands and wraps her arms around me, squeezing. “Tell Madden to give you my number before he hits the road, okay?”
I nod and smile, happy that we’ll still be friends after this. Jess was my favorite part of this trip aside from getting to know the real Madden—the version I fell hard for. “I’ll be sure to do that. I’ll send you a text so you can save my number too.”
We both look over when Jake pokes his head through the door and smiles. “Morning, ladies.”
“Morning.”
“I have the car mostly packed up and everyone else is almost ready too.” He nods to my suitcase. “Need me to carry that to Madden’s truck?”
I shake my head. “No, thanks. I’ve got it.”
“I’ve got it.” Madden’s voice has my insides gushing with excitement, making me feel like a damn teenager with my first crush. “We’ll meet you guys outside.”
“Okay, cool. I’ll help Jake grab the rest of our stuff. I want to make sure none of my makeup gets left behind.”
Once we’re alone, Madden hands me his jacket and kisses the top of my head, his lips lingering. I wait for him to say something, anything at all, but he doesn’t. It gives me anxiety as we head outside with the others.
Seth and Walker look hungover as shit. It’s a good thing they apparently rode with Riley, who is looking perky and ready to hit the road.
“I’m going to miss you all so much.” Jess walks around giving everyone hugs, and so do the others; all except for Alana, whose attention has been on Madden the entire time.
Her sunglasses are on, but it’s still easy to tell she’s been crying. Now she has to live with the fact that Madden knows she cheated on him with his brother. That’s the worst betrayal of all. I’m sure she’s worried he’ll never talk to her again, and a part of me hopes he doesn’t. She doesn’t deserve his time and energy.
After Jake whispers something in Madden’s ear, everyone goes their separate ways, him opening the door for me once we reach his truck. His eyes meet mine for a split second after I climb inside, before he shuts the door and walks away without a word.
The silence still lingering after we drive off has me feeling even sicker, and the fact that my phone goes off multiple times with texts from Logan once we’re in an area with better service doesn’t help.
After the sixth ding, Madden glances my way, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. “Is that my brother?”
I nod and flip my phone over, not wanting to read his messages right now. The way I’m feeling toward him, I just can’t deal with him.