Montana Reunion Read Free Page B

kitchen, looking out the window at the endless view of
grass-covered fields.
    “I know,” her mom said. “It seems
to me like they don’t make them like they used to anymore.”
    Maddison kissed her mom’s cheek as she laughed at her. “ Damn right .”
    “So how about I cook a nice big
roast chicken tonight? Some good old fashioned comfort food? Make you feel right at home.”
    She smiled at her mom. “Can I take
a rain check on that until tomorrow?” She didn’t want to make a big deal out of
her dinner plans with Jack, but she was going to have to tell them not to
expect her at the kitchen table tonight. “When I bumped into Jack this morning
he asked me over for dinner.” She paused, watching her mom’s reaction and
getting nothing but a smile that she couldn’t decipher the meaning of. “I think
he needs a friend right now, and to be honest? So do I .”
    Her mom nodded, patting her hand.
“We love that boy like he’s our own. I just wish he’d come around more often,
so you tell him that when you see him tonight, Maddison .
He shouldn’t be rattling around in that big house on his own all the time.”
    “Sometimes I think about him, mom.
About what great friends we used to be, how much I
could trust him and just be myself around him.” She sighed, not sure how to
explain what she meant. “I feel like I haven’t had that in a long time, and
seeing him has kind of brought it all back.”
    “You don’t have to explain
yourself, sweetheart. Go off and have a nice night with him. It’ll do you good
to see an old friend.”
    Her mom crossed the room and
started tidying up. Maddison planted her hands on the
counter, staring out the window, catching a glimpse of her sister and dad as
they headed out to work.
    Her dad seemed in good spirits, but
she’d never have forgiven herself if she hadn’t made time to come back and see
him. And if what the doctor had said was true, his recovery wasn’t going to be
as straightforward as he was pretending. No matter how much he acted like
nothing had changed, it had, and they all knew it.
    Maddison cringed as her phone beeped, its ring sounding shrill and rude in the quiet
warmth of the kitchen.
    “Sorry,” she muttered to her mom as
she reached for it. Pity the signal still
worked here. Maybe she should have turned it off and pretended it didn’t.
    “I thought you were actually taking
a break this time?” her mom asked.
    “Yeah, so did I .” Maddison glared at her phone
before taking a deep breath and clicking the talk button. Unfortunately, her
boss didn’t believe in the word vacation ,
even though she hadn’t taken time off in over a year.
    Jack finished rubbing down his horse
before letting her go, watching as she cantered down the field to the others.
His dad had hated doing work on horseback, had preferred to do everything from
a vehicle, but Jack liked sticking to basics. And now that his father was gone,
he had no intention of doing anything his old man’s way.
    He whistled to his dog and walked
toward the house. It was way earlier than he’d usually finish up, but he had
the ranch hands on task and he had a house to tidy. Not to mention he had to
figure out what the hell he was going to cook her for dinner.
    No matter how much he told himself
that she was an old friend, he wanted to impress her. Because nothing had prepared him for the woman she’d turned into .
Her hair, once short and boyish, was now so long it fell over her shoulders and
down her back. And her body? From what he’d seen that
had changed a lot too, and not in a bad way. Curves in all the right places… stop .
    He started to whistle to distract
himself. Thinking about Maddison like that wasn’t
going to help him any. She hadn’t been back in a long time, and she wasn’t
going to be here for long. Tonight was all about catching up with an old
friend, having someone to talk to that he could be himself with. That was all.
    Her
hair and her body had nothing to do with