Free Montana Reunion by Soraya Lane Page B

batteries, hang out with her family, and be itching to get back to work.
But now that she was here, just the idea of leaving and going back to reality
was like a slowly building headache that had developed from a mild pain into a
rapid thump in her skull. And she knew the man behind her had more than a
little to do with how she felt.
    “How much?”
    Jack was standing with a pot in one
hand and an open rice container in the other. Seeing him so domesticated put a
smile on her face. “Couple of cups,” she said, eyes fixed on him again.
    “If we got married, would you cook
for me?” she asked.
    “Would you put out?”
    They both burst out laughing at the
same time.
    “Trust you to say something like
that,” she said, trying to glare at him but unable to shake her smile.
    “It’s a fair question,” he said
with a twinkle in his eye.
    “So was mine.” Maddison was blushing, she knew it, but she refused
to be embarrassed even if her skin was betraying her.
    “Can I ask you a serious question?”
Jack was pouring water into the pot, but his change in tone made her sit back
down and listen.
    “Would you be here, with me? Or
would you be back in the city?”
    She tilted her head, nodding. “You
want to know if our marriage would be real, right? ”
    Jack’s stare told her she was dead
on the money.
    “I don’t know,” Maddison told him honestly. “I mean, I want to see more of my family, and if we’re
married I’d want it to be real in the fact that we’d be here for one another,
but I can’t just give up the career I’ve worked so hard for. It’s like I’m
between a rock and a hard place right now, and I don’t know which way to turn.”
    It wasn’t as straight forward as
that and she knew it, but thinking about moving back here for good wasn’t
something she’d ever considered. Until now. Her dad
might not live to be the old man she’d always imagined he would; and now adding
Jack into the picture? Would their marriage even seem real if she didn’t move back here, at least
semi-permanently? The flight between Billing and Los Angeles was only a few
hours, but still. She knew she’d soon tire of it, even if she was spending
every other week back here.
    “I wouldn’t ever stand in your way, Maddison , not if I could help it. I need you to know
that.” His voice was deep now, like he was telling her something that he’d been
thinking about for awhile, that he’d been waiting to tell her. “You were my
best friend and you probably will be again, and I want you to be happy.”
    Maddison felt tears welling up again. Why couldn’t her ex have been more like Jack?
Instead of taking everything from her like a bloodsucking leech when she’d done
nothing but give in return.
    “That’s why I’d marry you, Jack.
Because you’d do anything for me, and I want you to know that I’d do the same
for you.”
    The mood had changed again, the
feeling in the kitchen having gone from fun to serious too many times for her
liking. And from the look on Jack’s face, it wasn’t going back to fun anytime
soon unless she did something about it.
    Only
she wasn’t ready to change things just yet. Not when she still had something
left to ask him.
    Maddison took another slow sip of wine, and then another for extra courage.
    “What if we did fall in love? What
if we did get married, and then things… ”
    Jack was standing in the center of
the kitchen, his eyes burning into her like he was capable of setting her on
fire just with his stare.
    “Became real?” he asked.
    Maddison caught her bottom lip between her teeth, not sure whether to run away or
encourage him. Thinking about Jack this way was difficult. After telling
herself that she was sworn off men, that she’d never let herself be hurt again,
here she was ready to let Jack have his wicked way with her and marry him! But he was Jack – he was
dependable, strong… and available. Would
she regret not giving them a chance, a real chance, if he met someone