Free Montana Reunion by Soraya Lane

no?”
    That made her
laugh . Jack watched as she shook her head at him. “I think there’s a
reason you’re your own boss here, Jack. You probably wouldn’t do so well as
someone’s employee.”
    “You reckon? I’m not sure being on
my own is something I enjoy. Not anymore.” He was flirting and he knew it. And it felt good.
    Maddison’s eyes darted away from his. “I’m gonna tend to this
chicken,” she said, expertly changing the subject. But as she turned, he saw
from the look on her face she had a heap more to say.
    Jack waited. Because he knew Maddison , or at least he had known her, and when she pulled her deep in thought face he knew better than to rush her.
    “I know I said it before, Jack, but
I’m sorry it was you who had to find me earlier.”
    He shrugged, not wanting to think
about it. He’d freaked out then gotten over it, but it had sure shown him that
he was right. That he didn’t ever want to be in a position
like that again, and certainly not with his own flesh and blood.
    “Don’t shrug, because I know it
took you back in time,” she said, voice soft and low.
    Jack grunted. She was right, but it
didn’t mean he wanted to talk about it.
    “Does it mean you don’t want to get
married now?” she asked.
    His eyebrows knotted in surprise.
Jack clutched his wine glass. “If we did it, we’d have to set boundaries.”
    She smiled and turned away again,
hiding her face. Like
he’d managed to keep within his boundaries so well earlier. That’s what she’d been thinking, it had to be, because it was exactly what had gone
through his mind when he’d said it.
    “I’ve been working on my list,” she
said, sliding a dish into the oven, fiddling with the timer and joining him
back at the counter.
    “You have?”
    She laughed. “No,
not really. But I think you’re right about the whole agreement thing.”
    Jack had expected her to tell him
off, to say it was too impersonal – to talk about contracts and rules. But then
they were talking about a marriage of convenience, not a real romance. Or at
least they had been. “Are you about to tell me we can’t do what we did before?”
    He winked, trying to make fun of
the situation, and it worked. Maddison reached for
the bottle of wine, topping off both their glasses, shaking her head. “We’re
not driving so why not, right? Although I should probably
stop at two given the pain meds I’ve taken.”
    “Sure.” She was avoiding answering
his question and he wasn’t going to ask her again.
    “Have you ever thought about your dad. I mean…”
    Jack held up his hand. “Can we not
talk about him? I was liking this evening just fine,
but discussing my father is going to put an end to anything good.”
    Maddison took another sip of wine, slowly moving her head from side to side. “Can you
just hear me out? Let me ask you this, and then if you don’t like what I have
to say we don’t have to discuss him ever again.”
    The last thing Jack wanted was to
talk about his father. Period . He was gone and he didn’t need to consult the man, discuss him or think about
him again in his lifetime. Yet here Maddison was wanting to ask him
questions about the jackass . “No, actually, I don’t want to hear you out,
but I know you well enough to know that you’re going to say it anyway.”
    “Have you ever been in love, Jack?”
    He stared at her long and hard
then. He hadn’t been expecting her to change the subject so thoroughly. In love? No. In lust, plenty of times, but never in love. So why didn’t
he want to admit it to Maddison . “I don’t think so,
no.”
    Her smile told him that she knew it
was a definite no. “I thought I had, Jack, but now I don’t think it was ever love . Not really. Not when I look back on it.”
    Jack wished he knew what she was
trying to say, because he had no idea what this had to do with his dad, or if
they’d actually changed topic completely.
    “When my mom talks about my dad, I
know that I haven’t