Текст книги "The Other Boy"

Автор книги: Hailey Abbott

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Chapter Twenty-five

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David!” Maddy called, running breathlessly up the path to the little white cottage. Her long hair was slipping out of its ponytail, and she was wearing an old pair of gray gym shorts and a pink camisole—the first things her hand had touched when her cell phone woke her up half an hour earlier. “David!” she yelled again, trying not to slip on the gravel in her Havaianas. All of a sudden, she stopped, remembering Fred. He might not appreciate being woken up at seven o’clock, she thought, looking around quickly. His gray pickup was gone. He must already be out. “David!” she hollered with renewed vigor, cupping her hands around her mouth.

An upstairs bedroom window flew open and a sleep219

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tousled head poked out. “Are you nuts, woman?” David demanded.

“The furniture place called a few minutes ago,”

Maddy said from the driveway. “They’re coming to deliver everything in an hour. And Standish is bringing all the wineglasses this morning too!” As soon as she had gotten the news, Maddy had called the rug dealer. She had promised that her son would be over with the rug in a couple hours. Maddy was saving that as a surprise. David started to draw his head back in. “Just let me get dressed.”

“No, wait! We left all that painting stuff in there—

remember? And I think we should mop the floors and wipe everything off before they move stuff in. So come on!”

“You have way too much energy for this early,” David groaned. “Okay, just wait for me while I take a shower and get something to eat. The front door’s open.” He disappeared.

Maddy pushed open the old screen door and stepped into a small living room. The furnishings were spartan but neat; a plaid sofa with an afghan folded across the top, a matching armchair, a couple of bookcases filled with old books. A grandfather clock ticked solemnly in the corner. Maddy wandered into the kitchen. She could hear water running upstairs. She gazed at the white stove with its gas burners, and the old fridge humming in the 220

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corner. She glanced at the clock on the stove. David would have to hurry if they were going to beat the deliverymen.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. This was her second chance. Excitedly, Maddy yanked open the fridge door and pulled out a carton of eggs and a halffull gallon of milk. She opened cabinet doors until she found a bowl, a whisk, and a frying pan. Quickly, she whipped three eggs and a little milk into a deep yellow froth and lit the burner. It felt good to be in control again after the trauma of her last cooking experience. She cut two thick slices off a loaf of bread on the counter and dropped them into the toaster.

She was stirring the eggs in the pan as David’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Hey,” he said suspiciously.

“What’s going on here?”

Maddy turned around, smiling. His normally curly hair was gleaming wet and still flat against his head. He was wearing a T-shirt that read deadman trail 15k and carrying his Tevas in one hand. He dropped the shoes on the floor and came over to her. Maddy’s palms immediately started sweating. She grinned and held out the pan.

“Breakfast?” she asked, trying to sound smooth and failing miserably. The toaster pinged.

“Wow, I’m impressed,” David said, sitting down at the table. “I love a girl who makes me breakfast.”

Maddy giggled– like an idiot, she thought—and scraped 221

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the eggs onto a plate, adding the toast on the side. Please try to act intelligent, Maddy, she begged herself. It was hard, when he was so unbelievably cute.

David inhaled the eggs in four bites, piling them on top of the toast and stuffing them into his mouth.

“Mmm. These are great, Mad,” he said with his mouth full. Maddy beamed. He scraped up the last bits with his fork and pushed back from the table. “Okay, let’s get out of here.” He turned and smiled at her as if they were beginning an adventure.

Side by side, they hurried through Jenkins’s field, following the path along the stream until they reached the tasting room. Maddy pushed the big double doors open and together they quickly cleared the room of the remaining painting supplies: a big blue tarp, a ladder, some paintbrushes in a bucket of water, a pile of rags. David grabbed a bottle of Windex and some paper towels and went over to the windows while Maddy mopped the floor industriously. They were almost done when Maddy heard a diesel engine rumbling from the direction of the house and a screech of brakes. Her eyes met David’s.

“The stuff ’s here!” Maddy squealed. She had to restrain herself from jumping up and down and clapping her hands.

David dumped all the cleaning supplies into a garbage bag to take back to the house. He placed it outside the door and then turned back to Maddy, who was 222

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still standing in the middle of the floor. “Come on, Maddy-Mae, let’s go meet them.”

But Maddy didn’t move. She was gazing around the empty space, looking at the gleaming, polished wood floor, the glistening fresh paint, the sparkling windows with the wavy glass throwing little splashes of color all over the walls. David walked over to her. “What is it?” he said, touching her shoulder. She looked up at him.

“I was just thinking of the way this place looked the first day we saw it. Remember?”

He laughed. “Yeah, I do. How could I forget? I had no idea what to make of you. But I could hardly take my eyes off you.”

Maddy blushed and looked down. “I can’t believe how different it looks—we’ve done so much this summer,” she murmured.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” David said, looking down at her, “but this has definitely been one of the most interesting summers of my life.”

Maddy lifted her chin. “Yeah,” she said. “Me too.”

The moment was broken by an engine rumble. Maddy ran to the door. A guy with a clipboard jumped down from a truck parked just outside. “Madeline Sinclaire?” he asked, consulting a sheaf of papers.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Okay, I’ve got a delivery of furniture here. You want to tell the crew where you want things?”

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He had barely finished speaking when another, smaller truck arrived with standish & sons painted on the side. The next hour was a blur of workmen in heavy boots, boxes and crates with their lids pried open, piles of packing paper and straw littering the floor, furniture emerging from its wrappings and filling the room. Little by little, stacks of glittering glassware appeared from mountains of cotton padding, covering the long oak table pushed against one wall.

Everything was almost unpacked when Maddy heard a voice by the door. She looked up. A guy about her age was squinting at a piece of paper. “Excuse me, are you Madeline Sinclaire? I have your rug here.”

David looked up from where he was cramming packing paper into a box. “So that’s what you were getting in town, sneaky girl!” he said, straightening up. Maddy grinned at him. “Wait till you see it.” She motioned to the guy. “Can you just prop it over there?

We’ll unroll it later.”

The guy shrugged. “Sure,” he said and manhandled the heavy column wrapped in brown paper against one wall.

At last, the workmen were gone, stuffing the wrappings and boxes into their trucks and bumping back up the path toward the house and the road. The silence felt good. Maddy took a deep breath and turned to David.

“Want to see the rug now?” she asked.

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“Of course. It better be pretty amazing after all this buildup,” he teased. Together they stripped off the paper wrapping and, with a flourish, unfurled the rug on the shiny brown floorboards. David stepped back, his hands on his hips, and gave a low whistle. Maddy waited. She was surprised to find herself a little breathless with anticipation. “Wow,” he finally said. “I’m speechless.” He bent to examine the rug more closely. “This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. How did you even know it would be so perfect in here?”

Maddy beamed. “Thanks.” She walked over to stand next to David in the doorway, and together they gazed at the results of an entire summer of work. The whole place looked utterly fantastic. Two plump sofas covered in tan silk stood in opposite corners, with matching armchairs pulled up near them. Rectangular coffee tables in light maple were positioned at the perfect angle for resting glasses or propping feet. Near the middle of the room, four round bistro tables stood surrounded by elegant little straight chairs. The long oak table dominated one entire wall, crystal wineglasses lined up in perfect rows on its surface, looking just as Maddy had pictured them when she saw the table at the store. The pure Napa light poured from the clean windows, highlighting the mellow patina of the floorboards, the crisper, sleeker wood of the tables and chairs, and the rich texture of the rug. Framed by the big open double 225

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doors was that stunning view of the mountain that Dad had shown them the very first day.

David’s voice broke the silence. “Well, Mads, this room is really incredible.”

“I agree,” Maddy said, smiling.

“But I have to say that what really makes it stand out is that.” He pointed to the rug. “It’s, it’s . . .” He struggled to find words in an unfamiliar vocabulary. “It’s the perfect combination of rustic beauty and modern elegance!” He looked very proud of himself.

“How about the perfect combination of old and new?” Maddy suggested.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant. Actually, it’s the perfect combination of Napa and Maddy.” Maddy looked up at him in surprise and delight. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. It was the closest they’d been, Maddy realized, since that day in the lake. He felt just as good now as he did then; better in fact. His warm arms felt so safe around her, she never wanted him to let go. He must have felt the same way, because he squeezed her a little tighter before finally stepping back. They were both smiling a little selfconsciously, but this time Maddy didn’t look away. 226

Chapter Twenty-six

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Maddy collapsed onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling after she’d confirmed that night’s cooking lesson with David. Who would’ve thought this was how her summer would end up? She rolled over onto her stomach and remembered how David’s arms felt around her. Just then, her BlackBerry on the bedside table rang. Maddy picked it up and looked at the screen. Morgan.

“Hey, babe!” she said.

“Hi!” her friend squealed. “How’s everything going?”

Maddy smiled dreamily at the ceiling. “Awesome, actually.”

“Wow. Um, didn’t you just break up with Brian?”

Morgan paused. “And NOT tell me or Kirsten?”

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There was a moment of pregnant silence. Morgan was completely right, of course. The truth was, Maddy had been a little scared of how her friends would react. Why would anyone break up with Brian Kilburn, the sexiest guy they knew? Maddy realized she had done a lot of new things this summer. “Mor, you’re right. I should have called. It’s just . . . well, everything’s been a little crazy.”

“Okay. I’ll forgive you if you tell me what happened with you two. We’re dying to know.”

Maddy rose restlessly from the bed and wandered over to the porch. She gazed out at the Napa afternoon bathed in a rich yellow glow of sun. “We were just growing apart. I mean, he came up here to visit and it was really weird. It wasn’t fun at all. I felt like I couldn’t talk to him anymore.” She stopped and took a deep breath.

“And there’s something else. . . .”

Morgan screamed right in Maddy’s ear. “Stop right there! I knew it. You hooked up with that guy David, didn’t you?”

“No!” Maddy said, a little more emphatically than she meant to. “I mean, not really. We haven’t hooked up . . . yet.” She couldn’t help smiling to herself a little.

“But we have been hanging out a lot—and Mor, he’s really cool.”

Morgan sighed. “Well, obviously you’re going to hook up. I’m so jealous. I haven’t made out with anyone 228

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since your party, practically. It’s so great to have a fling at the end of the summer. Too bad you have to leave him in a few days!”

For a minute, Maddy didn’t understand what her friend meant. “Well, I might not have to. He goes to Westside Public. And Mor, I have to tell you—I think this thing between us is more than a fling. I mean . . . I really like him. I want to keep seeing him once we’re both back in the city.”

“What?” Morgan said incredulously.

“I . . . I think we might try this thing out—being together back home.” Maddy faltered a little. She heard Morgan inhale sharply.

“Maddy. I love you, and as one of your best friends, I have to tell you when I feel like you’re about to do something stupid. And this is really, really stupid!”

Maddy didn’t respond.

“Look, you’ve spent the whole summer mucking out stalls or whatever you’ve been doing, and you and that guy have been all alone up there, so it’s natural something would’ve happened with you guys.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s been more than that—”

Morgan let out an annoyed-sounding sigh. “Look, let me lay it out for you. Whatever it’s been, you’re coming back to the city now. You have a whole life here. How do you know a guy you met in Napa would fit in with us? I mean, what would you guys do together?”

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“I don’t really know . . . ,” Maddy said slowly. It was true that Napa wasn’t like the rest of the world—the ordinary rules didn’t really apply. She felt so close to David now, but could they maintain that when they weren’t in Napa? They were from very different worlds. Her head was starting to pound. “Mor, I have the worst headache. I’m going to get off and find some Advil.”

“Wait! I totally forgot the whole reason I called!”

Maddy groaned. “You mean it wasn’t to tell me that I was making all the wrong decisions?”

“No, but I’m glad I did. I’m having a party at Tangerine for my birthday on Wednesday and you have to come. I can’t celebrate without you!”

“And I can’t let you celebrate without me! But we’re not supposed to get back from Napa until Thursday,”

Maddy told her.

“Beg! Maybe they’ll let you come home early,”

Morgan insisted.

“Maybe,” Maddy said without much hope. “They’ve mellowed out a lot since we left. I’ll have to get them at the right moment.”

“Well, at least try, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, babe.”

“Bye.” Morgan hung up.

Maddy dropped the phone on the floor and closed her eyes just for a second, the warm afternoon sun streaming from the balcony doors onto her face. David’s 230

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image floated in front of her. They were standing in the tasting room again. He had his arms around her, but this time he was kissing her. His lips were warm and delicious. Maddy felt herself relax, the stress of the conversation with Morgan floating away. She and David were walking through the grapevines. She could feel his strong hands on her waist. . . .

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Chapter Twenty-seven

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The radio in the kitchen was on when Maddy knocked softly at the porch door of the cottage. She hadn’t been able to decide between the ultra-casual faded jeans and a white gathered eyelet tank top or the more flirty pink jersey sundress. She’d gone with the jeans in the end. David had seen her at her worst; selfconsciousness was out the window.

“Come in,” she heard David call. Sufjan Stevens provided the background music as she opened the screen door. The little kitchen with its neat wood cabinets and long marble countertops smelled like warm chocolate. David, wearing an army green T-shirt and jeans, stood at the counter, mixing something in a bowl, a striped dishtowel flung over his shoulder. He looked incredibly 232

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sexy. He glanced up as she entered, his hair falling in his eyes a little, and grinned at her.

Maddy held out a tub of strawberries. “I thought maybe we could use these.” The little red heart-shaped berries looked gorgeous. “I picked them up at the farm stand.”

“Well, well, maybe you’re not a hopeless cook after all,” he teased. He motioned her over to stand next to him and examined the berries while she examined him. She stared at the muscles in his arms as he dumped the berries into a colander and ran water over them. “So, we’re making chocolate mousse cake,” he explained.

“Strawberries will go great with that.”

“That sounds so good. . . .” She laughed, inhaling another strong whiff of warm, rich chocolate.

“It is—the chef at Mondavi used to tell me that he would serve this when . . .” He stopped and smiled mischievously. “Let’s just say this was a dish to impress the ladies.”

She laughed. “I’m impressed.”

“Come here—I’ll show you how to mix this,” he offered.

“Okay.” She stood close to him at the counter, watching as he poured a stream of melted chocolate from a small saucepan into a bowl of smooth, shiny batter. His strong arm blended the chocolate in streaks.

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of an oval shape, instead of mixing around and around.”

He glanced at her and smiled. “You want to try?”

“Sure.” She took the spatula and tried to imitate him.

“Here, try it like this,” he said after a minute, and she felt his hand close around hers. He moved so that he was standing just behind her.

“Like this?” she said, though she wasn’t paying the slightest attention to the batter.

“Mmhm,” he said. He sounded like he wasn’t paying attention to the batter either. She leaned back into him just the slightest bit, still folding the batter, though by this time the chocolate had long since disappeared. She could feel him inhale at her touch, and the muscles in his chest tensed a little.

Ping-ping-ping! The timer on the stove sounded. He exhaled and stepped away from her over to the stove.

“The layers are ready.” The scent of cake filled the kitchen as he pulled a pan out of the oven. Maddy wandered over to the refrigerator and peered at some photos stuck there with magnets. She squinted at one of two tall guys with their arms around each other’s shoulders, standing in the sun at the top of some mountain.

“Is that you?” she asked.

He turned around to see what she was looking at.

“Yeah. That’s my buddy Jim. We hiked to the top of Bismark Peak in Utah last summer.” Something started bubbling in a copper saucepan on the stove and David 234

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quickly bent over to reduce the flame. Maddy eyed his turned back. The temptation was just too great. She plucked a berry out of the colander, took aim, and pitched it at him. It bounced off his head and fell to the floor.

“Hey!” He whirled around to face her, already laughing. She giggled and threw another one, this time catching him on the chest.

“Okay, I see how it is,” he said. “Well then, how about this?” Before she could react, he scooped a spoonful of batter, closed one eye, and took aim, catapulting the cake across the room and catching her right in the face.

She squealed and wiped her eyes. “You jerk!” She darted across the room, scooped up her own glob of batter, and let it fly, splattering his shirt. He dove across the kitchen table, trying to catch her, but she slipped away from his grasp and ran to the other side. They faced off, grinning, until he held up his hands. “Truce, okay? I give up.”

“Okay.” She relaxed and turned away before feeling something soft hit the back of her head. A strawberry fell at her feet. “Ooh! You’re going down!” she yelled. In one quick movement, she grabbed the colander out of the sink and, evading his hands, dumped the entire contents on his head. Strawberries fell pattering at their feet like fat red raindrops and rolled to the far corners of the room. 235

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Maddy stood, hanging on to the counter, trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard at the sight of David with the colander still on his head. With dignity, he removed the metal helmet and placed it on the counter. “Do you know you look like a raccoon?” he asked, pointing at the mask of shiny brown batter now beginning to dry on her face.

“I know,” Maddy gasped, starting to regain control of herself. “Help.”

“Here,” he said, running a clean dishcloth under the faucet. He took hold of her shoulder with one hand and with the other wiped at her cheeks. Maddy stopped giggling like someone had turned off a switch. David looked down into her face, suddenly serious. She inhaled sharply. He’s going to kiss me, oh my God, he’s going to kiss me. She hoped he couldn’t feel the slight trembling of her shoulders under his hands. From somewhere outside, the song of a killdeer reached her ears. But David’s face filled her field of vision. He leaned down and she closed her eyes. For a brief moment, his hand tightened on her shoulder. Then she felt it drop away. Maddy opened her eyes in surprise. David abruptly turned back to the stove. An awkward silence descended as he stirred something furiously. She was totally confused. Wasn’t he going to kiss her? What happened? Did she have something in her teeth? She stared at David’s back, trying to gauge his feelings from 236

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his posture. But his rounded shoulders told her nothing. They had been having such a good time. And he was going to kiss her. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe—she hated to think of it—he was having second thoughts about her. “Um, well, I should get back,” she heard herself saying in a small voice. He turned around with the saucepan in one hand. She was flooded with relief when she saw his face—

desperate but not angry.

“Okay,” he said in a croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “See you later?”

“Definitely!” She tried to load all of her feelings into that one word. He nodded. They stared at each other for one long minute and then she made herself turn calmly and open the screen door, leaving him in the middle of the kitchen.

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