Montana Reunion Read Free

either. Especially after what
she’d been through lately, and the decision she was
trying to make.
    He held up his hand to shield his
face from the sun. “Does that mean you’ll join me for dinner?”
    Maddison smiled, wishing she could just be relaxed about the idea of hanging out with
Jack again. “I think dinner with an old friend is exactly what I need, so yes.
Dinner would be great. Your place?”
    He nodded, leaning into his car to
pat his dog. “Is tonight too soon?”
    Maddison shook her head. “Not at all. Want me to bring dinner?”
    That made him laugh, but she had no
idea what he was finding so funny.
    “What?” she asked.
    “ Maddie ,
I learned how to cook a few years back. I’m not a boy anymore,”
    As
if she hadn’t noticed .
    “Get ready to be impressed,” Jack
said with a chuckle as he slid back into the driver’s seat, arm around his dog.
“I’ll see you tonight. Around six.”
    “You bet,” she called back,
gathering up her reins. “And I’ll be expecting a culinary masterpiece.”
    Jack tapped on the roof of his
truck with his fingers and gave her a wave before circling and driving off.
    Maddison kept her horse still as she watched his vehicle disappear slowly into the
distance. She’d missed this more than she’d been prepared to admit. The heat of
the sun as it started to beat down hard, threatening to scorch her skin; the
satisfaction of sitting up high on her horse and riding across the fields –
everything. And Jack . Seeing Jack again was worth coming back home.
    Los Angeles was great. She loved so
much about it. But when she thought what the place had given her? A lying
asshole of an ex, an apartment that looked more like a hotel than a home, and a
body so stressed from work it was a wonder she hadn’t had a heart attack like
her father had. Which made being back in Montana exactly what she needed right
now.
    Maddison clucked and gave her horse a tap with her heels.
“Let’s go.”
    “So what are you doing for the rest
of the day?”
    Maddison stretched and reached for her coffee. “Nothing,” she told her sister. “Nothing at all, unless it’s something that involves family.”
    Her mom touched her head as she
passed, smiling down at her. Just like
old times . Sitting in the family kitchen, watching as her
mom bustled around, talking to her sisters.
    Maddison frowned. Only she was missing a sister. “Have you heard from Amanda lately?”
she asked. “Last time I spoke to her was a couple of weeks back.”
    “She phoned a few days ago,” her
mom said. “She’s getting her latest collection ready for that big exhibition,
the one you’re father and I were hoping to see.”
    “ You were hoping to see.”
    Maddison leaned back in her chair, rocking it on two legs as soon as she heard her dad’s
deep voice. “Hey Daddy.”
    He kicked his boots off at the door
and left his hat on the stand beside it. “Your mom’s still trying to organize
me, can you believe it?”
    Yeah, she could believe it, only
now she was ready to agree with her mom. “We’re all kind of worried about you,”
she said, standing up so she could give her dad a hug. “You’re the only dad
we’ve got, so don’t go telling me not to fuss.”
    He grumbled as she let him go. “As
if I’m ever going to get my own way with you three
ganging up on me.”
    Maddison laughed and looked from her mom to her sister, then back to her dad again. She
could see he’d lost some of his strength, and his left side was slower than his
right after the stroke that had followed his heart attack, but if she ignored
that, it was just like old times.
    “You seen Jack yet?” her father
asked.
    She looked up again slowly, fingers
playing against the smooth surface of her coffee mug. The last thing she needed
was her sister answering for her. “Yeah,” she said. “We bumped into him
yesterday on our way in, and I saw him this morning when I was out riding.”
    Charley raised an eyebrow but she
ignored her,