Chapter Seventeen

Maddie signed in, took her name tag and peeled the paper off the back so she could affix it to her dress just under her right collarbone. Then she turned and walked into the ballroom.

“Wow,” Maddie murmured under her breath as she stepped back in time. She recognized some faces, not others, and it amazed her to see all the people she’d last been around twenty years before.

“Maddie? You made it! I’m so glad!” a woman screeched as she barreled toward her.

***

From the other end of the room, Mason’s ears perked up when he heard Maddie’s name called out. He scanned the crowd looking for her.

Beverly Bennett touched his arm, pouting that the richest man in the room wasn’t paying full attention to her.

“Mason, dear,” she started to say, but he cut her off.

“Excuse me, please,” he murmured and began to weave his way through the crowd, looking for Maddie.

***

“Hey, Stacie,” Maddie managed to say before she found herself in a bone-crushing hug from a very inebriated former classmate.

“I was telling Beverly just the other day I hoped you would come,” Stacie Frios slurred. “You poor thing. How are you holding up? That must have been such a shock, finding all that out about your husband, huh?”

The people in attendance around them got very quiet, watching and waiting for Maddie’s reaction.

“It was,” Maddie murmured, raising her chin defiantly and glaring at Stacie.

But her high-school alum failed to see the warning signs and continued to barrage Maddie with questions.

“I mean, wow. He was gay? How could you not know that?”

Maddie flushed scarlet all the way to her hairline, extricated herself from Stacie’s grasp, and quietly said, “That’s enough,” then turned and walked away.

She heard laughter behind her, and picked up her pace, tears threatening.

By the time she made it down the short flight of steps to the front door of the building, her breath was hitching in short, dry sobs.

***

“What the hell did you do to her?” Mason thundered at Stacie.

“I was just making conversation,” Stacie gulped as she swayed. “Not my fault her husband was a fraud.”

Mason snarled, stepped around her and moved toward the door he’d watched Maddie leave through.

“Mason, darling,” Beverly purred as she placed her hand on his arm again. “Surely you’d rather stay here and talk to me.”

“The stuck-up bitch that made fun of me all the time?” Mason shot back. “Don’t hold your breath, sweetheart.”

And he wrenched his arm loose and went after Maddie.

***

Mason threw the door open and raced into the night, desperately looking left then right to try to see where she went.

Movement across the street in the parking lot caught his attention, and the lights sprinkled through the lot illuminated just enough that he caught a glimpse of her.

“Maddie!” he shouted and barreled across the street.

She kept moving, never looking up.

“Maddie!” he yelled again, as he broke into a full run toward her.

She stopped, lifted her head, and slowly turned toward the sound of her name being called.

“Maddie,” Mason panted as he slowed his gait, walking the last ten steps toward her. “Maddie.”

“You should probably get back to your date,” Maddie whispered.

“What date? I didn’t bring one. Because the one I wanted to bring has had my number for months but never called me,” he said, breathing heavily. “And I wasn’t smart enough to get her number when I had the chance.”

“I started to call you, so many times,” Maddie admitted. “I just… thought I’d waited too long, and you’d moved on.”

“Moved on? Seriously?” Mason asked. “Wow. But then again, it’s my fault for never telling you.”

“Telling me what?” Maddie questioned, completely confused.

“You remember Mrs. Caney’s class? When we had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution?”

Her brows knitted together.

“Back in like, fourth grade? Yes, I remember. Why?”

“And you got up there and sang it. You’d made up your own little song about it. Remember?”

Maddie blushed.

“I remember. Why are we talking about this?”

“Well,” Mason said as he took her in his arms, “we’re talking about this because I’ve loved you since that very moment.”

Her eyes went wide.

“You have?”

“I have. I just never had the courage to act on it, until now.”

She tilted her head and looked up at him.

“You realize that makes both of us pretty damn stupid, then,” she told him.

“How so?”

“Because I’ve loved you about that long, too.”

He smiled.

“So, does that mean you’ve figured out what you want, Maddie?”

“It does. And it’s you,” she answered, and stood on tiptoe to kiss him.

He returned the kiss, then picked her up and swung her around with happiness.

“So, what’s next?”

“Wanna come see the shelter I’m building?”

“I’d love that. But only if I can show you my place afterward. Come spend the weekend with me.”

She grinned, and the sparkle in her emerald green eyes warmed his heart.

“I’ll say it again, just for the record. If we do this, Maddie, I want way more from you than a one-night stand,” he whispered, nibbling at her bottom lip.

“I know. And I bet we can work out something.”

***

The following April, Maddie wore a cream-colored suit and held a small bouquet of roses as she recited her marriage vows to Mason, whose blue eyes were bright with happy tears.

“I do,” Maddie answered with a brilliant smile when the time was right.

A few moments later, they were pronounced husband and wife by the Justice of the Peace, and Mason’s parents, Maddie’s parents and Kathy were all misty.

Allen passed Kathy his handkerchief, and she smiled as she accepted it.

Well, well, look at that. I think I see a little spark going on there, Maddie thought to herself as she watched her and Mason’s best friends interacting.

“Are you ready to go eat?” she asked her husband.

My husband. That sounds so right.

“Yes, my love,” Mason confirmed, holding his arm out to her. “I am completely ready to show off my beautiful bride to the world.”

After a long and festive lunch, Maddie and Mason made their escape to the hotel room they’d booked in downtown Fort Worth for the night.

“What an amazing day,” Mason announced, as he waited in bed for his wife to appear from the bathroom. “You coming to bed?”

“Just a minute,” she said, her face glowing with excitement.

Oh my God.

“Hey, honey,” she managed. “Can you come here a minute?”

“Sure,” Mason called out from the other room. “What’s going…”

His voice trailed off as he came into the bathroom and saw what Maddie was holding out toward him.

“Is that…”

“Yes.”

“And… two lines on the little window means…”

“Yes,” she gushed.

Mason gently took the positive pregnancy test from his new bride and set it on the bathroom counter, then picked her up in his arms.

“Let’s celebrate properly,” he growled against her throat, and Maddie Gentries giggled as he carried her to bed.