Take Me Home (The Heartbreak Brothers 1)

“You wanna take a walk?” he asked her when he finally let her slide back down the wall.

“Now?”

“Why not?”

“Um, because it’s getting late and we both have to work tomorrow. And the town is full of busybodies who’ll take one look at us and light up the grapevine.” She raised an eyebrow and put a finger across her lips as though she was thinking. “Oh yeah, and I don’t have any shoes on. There’s that, too.”

It was crazy how much her sarcasm turned him on.

“Go get your shoes.” He nodded at the window. “And we’ll keep to the shadows. Everybody’s probably asleep, anyway.”

“And if they’re not?”

He shrugged. “Let them talk.”

“Says the guy who doesn’t live in a small town anymore.”

“America’s my small town. If I make a wrong move it gets plastered all across the Internet, not just at Chairs,” he pointed out.

“Another good reason not to make waves.” She looked pale. He wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the moon or the blood draining from her beautiful face.

“I just want to walk with you,” he told her. “I promise nobody will see us.” He wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her onto her window sill. “If you don’t want to come, that’s okay. I understand.” And he’d really try not to be pissed. But he didn’t want to go home. He wanted to be with her.

“I do want to,” she said quickly. “I’m just careful, that’s all.”

“Careful is good,” he told her as she climbed inside. He stepped forward, leaning on the sill to take a look at her room. It was small and neat. Her plaid sheets were tightly tucked, though there was a dent in the middle where she’d been sitting. The walls were painted a pale color that he couldn’t discern in this light. There were a few framed photographs on her dresser. He leaned in further to try and make them out. One of her, maybe, standing next to a piano in a long black dress. Another of a wedding – was that Ashleigh? And then another of two children, their blonde hair neatly combed, both cream-and-pink faces lit up with delight.

“Are those Ash’s kids?” he asked Maddie as she pulled on her sneakers. Her back immediately stiffened and he realized he’d messed up. He bit on his bottom lip, trying to figure out how to make it better.

“Yes. Grace and Carter,” she said, tying her laces. “They’re five and three.” She looked up. “Is it strange, knowing they could have been yours?”

“No. They couldn’t have been mine.” He shook his head. “Not at all.” He was still trying to find the right words. “Ashleigh and I were kids ourselves when we dated. There was no future in it. Not for either of us. We wanted such different things.”

Her expression was still guarded as she climbed back out of the window. He found himself missing smart-mouthed-Maddie. The one who could walk verbal rings around him.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

He turned right and she followed him, heading toward the edges of town. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Just somewhere.” He reached for her hand, sliding his fingers through hers. “You okay?”

She looked up at him, her chin jutting out. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He took a left then a right, his hand still enveloping hers. His body was buzzing, like he’d put his finger in a live socket. When was the last time he’d felt like this? Even singing an encore in front of fifty thousand fans who sang his lyrics right back didn’t feel this good.

The houses were thinning out, replaced by thicker rows of oaks that clustered together along the roadway. Taking a left, he pulled her down the dirt path.

Maddie stumbled on the rocky ground, and he slid his arm around her waist to steady her, activating the light on his phone to guide their way.

“Here,” he said as they reached the edges of the brook. “There’s a fallen log here. We used to climb on it when we were kids.”

“You were allowed down here on your own?” she asked him.

“Yeah. The bonus of having a widowed dad, I guess. He didn’t give a shit as long as we came back home at night and kept our grades up.”

Her eyes softened. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me. A million people out there have it worse.”