Take Me Home (The Heartbreak Brothers 1)

Gray’s mouth turned dry. “Maddie Clark? Ash’s sister?”

Tanner laughed. “That’s what I said.”

That wasn’t right. Maddie Clark was fourteen years old and wore braces. Gray shook his head to try and clear his thoughts.

“What about Maddie Clark?” Becca asked as she carried an empty plate into the kitchen.

“Gray’s getting confused between Cora Jean Masters and Maddie Clark.” Tanner’s eyes twinkled. “It’s an easy thing to do.”

“All this fame’s gone to his head.” Becca rolled her eyes. “And from what Aunt Gina said, Maddie Clark saved your ass. Those teenage girls wanted to eat you for breakfast.”

Gray was still trying to get his head around it. “Maddie Clark,” he said again. “I didn’t know she was still living in town.”

Becca grabbed a fresh towel from the drawer and helped Tanner dry the dishes as Gray placed them on the rack. “She left for a while. Went to Ansell to study music,” she told him. “But something happened and she came home again.”

“Something happened?” Gray repeated. Curiosity rose up in him. “What was it?” Everybody knew only the best got into Ansell. The performing arts college in New York had one of the most prestigious music programs in the country.

“I assume she came back to look after her mom.” Becca shrugged. “It’s a shame because I thought we might’ve had another star on our hands.” His sister grinned at him. “It might have shrunk your head a bit.”

“Maddie performed?”

“She played piano. Still does.”

“I knew she played. I remember her having lessons with her mom when I dated Ash.” He frowned, remembering those days. Ash in her cheerleader’s outfit, Gray always sporting a bruise or two from football. Little Maddie sitting at the piano, her mom leaning over to point at the sheet music in front of her.

He could almost smell the aroma of pot roast drifting out from the kitchen within his memory.

“But now she works in the diner?”

“And teaches piano.” Becca shrugged. “Has for years.”

He wanted to ask more, but Becca was already curious as to why he was curious. Another question and she might be asking a few herself. And right now, he wasn’t prepared to answer them.

A couple of hours ago, he nearly kissed his ex-girlfriend’s little sister. And what a shitstorm that would have released.

Gray finished washing the last dish and placed it in the rack, then emptied the water, frowning as it took forever to drain. “Does anything in this house work the way it’s supposed to?” he asked.

“Nope.” Becca grinned. And wasn’t that the truth. After the morning he’d had, it made him want to hit something.

“I’m going to head up to my room and play some guitar,” he said when they finished putting the dishes away. “I’ll see you later.” A little strumming was what his soul needed. Anything to take his mind off this house and this town and the damn inhabitants who were driving him crazy.

Especially the one who made him laugh and want to kiss her, and lied to his face about her name.

Yeah, especially Maddie Clark.

* * *

“Come in,” Maddie called to her niece and nephew, flinging the door wide open with a grin on her face. Little Grace threw herself at Maddie, who just about managed to catch her without getting winded. Carter hung back, a shy smile on his face as he pulled at the collar of his shirt. “Hey bud,” Maddie said, ruffling his light brown hair. “You’re looking dapper.”

“What’s dapper?” he asked.

“It means fancy. But old-fashioned fancy. It’s how guys used to dress when they knew how to woo a woman.”

“What’s a woo?” Grace asked as she climbed down from Maddie’s hold. “Is it something to do with witches?”

“Are you confusing my children again?” Ashleigh asked as she walked up the steps to where Maddie was standing.

“Mom, what’s a woo?” Grace asked her, scratching the top of her blonde hair.