“Yeah, okay,” she relents, running her hands down her dress and looking around the parking lot before reaching out and wrapping me in another hug. “I missed you so much,” she whispers. And in that moment, I feel better than I have in days.

46. Maddie

Chapter 46

Maddie

I’m so out of my element here. And yet there’s no place else I’d rather be.

I’m sitting out on Dempsey’s balcony, listening to the frogs and crickets, while fireflies dance in the canopies of the trees. It’s unbearably humid tonight—but that’s Ohio in July. There’s a familiarity to the heat and the moisture clinging to the air. It reminds me of summer nights with Rhett, Tori, and Jake. Freeze tag and skinned knees and the ice cream truck rolling through the neighborhood.

He walks onto the balcony wearing athletic shorts and a ribbed tank—a total departure from the sharp suit he had on for most of the day. When we got back to the house, he explained that Fielding was keeping their dad busy tonight. I guess it was Fielding who encouraged him to take it easy and spend the night with me.

I’m grateful for it. My own selfish reasons aside, Dempsey looks like he could use a break. His eyes aren’t as bright as usual, and the wrinkle between his brows has barely left his face. I feel terrible about the passing of his mother, but I can’t help but hope that now that the funeral’s over and most of her affairs are in order, he can regroup and some of the burdens he carries will ease.

“Hi,” I offer when he spots me in my favorite chair. It’s identical to the other loungers out here, but this is the chair he was sitting in the first night we hooked up.

“Hi, you,” he murmurs, grabbing for my hand as he sits down beside me.

I immediately rise to my feet. Sitting side by side doesn’t feel close enough after all that time apart.

Earlier, when he found me in the parking lot and held me, something clicked back into place. The countdown is on for the rest of our time together, but if he’s all in until the end, then so am I.

I straddle his lap and join him on his chair, my body melting into his solid, muscled frame as he pulls me closer. We sit like that, neither of us speaking, both wrapped up in the other, listening to the frogs and crickets in the distance.

“What can I do for you?” I ask eventually, shifting back so I can brush his hair out of his face. God, I missed touching him.