Page 18 of Stuck Together

Chapter 6

Logan

By the time we arrivedat the resort, snow was falling in large heavy flakes and a good six inches blanketed the ground. So much snow fell so quickly, the last fifteen minutes of our drive was tense and slow. The road vanished beneath the snowfall and the darkness of the evening. The sun set about an hour ago and the further we drove up the mountain, the darker it became. Between the loss of light, the heavy snow, and my unfamiliarity with the area, I struggled to navigate the car on the meandering, mountain roads.

Had I known the weather would take such a severe turn for the worse, I would’ve insisted we reschedule this meeting. Hopefully, the snow would slow down, and we'd be able to head back home in two days as planned. But with the way things looked, it was getting worse instead of better. This was the kind of early December blizzard that could trap us here for several days beyond our planned trip. As beautiful as this place may be, the last thing I wanted was to be stuck in the mountains of Vermont with my ex-girlfriend from high school.

After so many years of effectively suppressing my memories of Madison, I struggled to hold up the wall I built to block her out. Allowing myself to reminisce about her and how she felt in my arms, underneath my body, and that soft moan she always made when I kissed her just below her ear was dangerous. I had no business replaying that night in my mind and aching to know how it would be between us now that we were adults and no longer inexperienced teenagers. I wished I could say I didn’t like thinking of her like this but considering how inept I was at stopping the thoughts, that’d be a lie. She was all I thought about since I saw her Monday morning.

I should be focused on this new client. Winning this client was important to the company’s success and would pad next year’s budget considerably. The CEO of White Crest Mountain Resort, a new ski and vacation destination for couples, was in the market for a new advertising company to manage and develop a new campaign for this location as well as several expansion projects in Vermont and Maine. If we did well with these locations, we could take on a few locations out west too.

Winning this account would be huge and open our firm up to an entirely new client base we didn't’ traditionally work for.

The hospitality industry certainly wasn’t my area of expertise. I knew enough to take over this proposal when Bill resigned and get us in the door. I wasn’t convinced I knew enough to close the deal.

But Madison on the other hand, she did have this experience and if she got up to speed on this proposal and the client’s needs, she could very well take this home with a nice red bow on top. Her resume was impressive, and we were lucky to have someone with her experience in hospitality. It’s a huge market that we’ve never excelled in. She could change that.

For that alone, I should be grateful Grandmother hired her. There was no way I could manage this client if we won. I didn’t have the time with my existing clients. If fact, if we won this, we’d need to hire a new team to support the extra workload.

I hated to admit it, but I needed Madison. I just wish it hadn’t been her, but rather someone else with her experience.

If Grandmother only knew what happened between Madison and me, she wouldn't have hired her. Actually, that was so far from the true it was almost laughable. If she knew we took each other’s virginities, she probably would have instantly started plotting how to make sure it happened again. Our grandmothers had always wanted Madison and I to be together.

If our grandmothers hadn’t meddled so much in our lives when we were kids, we might have gotten together on own at a much younger age. We talked about having feelings that moved beyond friendship when I was sixteen, but we never acted on it. There was too much pressure on us, and we feared what a failed relationship would do to our grandmothers.

Not to mention, we didn’t want to ruin our friendship. We were inseparable during the summer months we spent together. But that didn't stop our relationship from developing into something more.

We never really dated. We only talked about it. The night we shared wasn’t planned, it just sort of happened. I think in large part, that was why it freaked me out so much. I didn’t expect my feelings for her to be so strong. I’d never experienced anything like that before. I knew it was a poor excuse for leaving the way I did, but I did it anyway.

And that friendship that we were so concerned about protecting was ruined despite our efforts.

Madison might be the only woman who ever really stuck with me. Even after all these years, she still affected me, and I still wanted her.

I thought I had found love with Kimberly, and that she would help me forget Madison. But I had been wrong. Kimberly never loved me. She loved the idea and the image of me. The wealth. The status. It was never about me. It was about what she could get from me.

When we found out we were having a baby, I was overjoyed. It crushed me when she admitted to me after Rylee was born that she never wanted kids. I had hoped she’d come to love our baby, but that never happened. The baby that brought me so much joy, depressed her.

I had sworn off women after Kimberly left. The heartbreak she caused me only confounded the pain I’d experienced from the loss of Madison. Since then, I dated casually, but I never let anyone in again. Seeing Madison after all these years, stirred a part of me I long ago suppressed. A part of me I don’t want to wake up. A part of me that will only result in more pain if I don’t guard my emotions carefully.

Madison was my kryptonite. She had no clue how much power she held over me. She could destroy me if I let her too close.

And now that we were coworkers, I had no choice but to maintain a safe distance from her. No matter how much I ached to run my hands through her silky blond hair or take her by the hips and press my body against hers, I couldn’t do it. Not now, not ever.