Page 45 of Season's Schemings

She looks at me, her face a question mark.

“I want to check in,” I tell her. “Are you feeling okay about tomorrow? You can talk to me if you need to get anything off your chest.”

I mean it, too. Maddie is the first person outside of my teammates here in Atlanta that I’ve actually grown to care for, and I want her to know I’m here for her through the holidays.

She blinks a few times, twisting the ring I gave her—the ring which really does suit her—around her finger. “I’m… scared,” she admits. “Scared to see Adam again. Scared of how I’m going to react, of what the family is going to think of me. I’ve been going to this cabin for Christmas as an unofficial part of the Plumlee family for years, and last December, I remember thinking—this is it. He’s going to propose this year. Next Christmas, I’ll be back as an official Plumlee to-be. I’ll be talking wedding venues and dresses and honeymoon plans.”

She sniffs and wipes her nose with her sleeve before she continues, “Believe me, I’m not sad that it didn’t end up happening that way. Adam showed his true colors and I know I dodged a bullet. But it seems like… there’s so much history there, and somehow, in the space of just a few months, someone else moved into the place I’d been holding for over a decade.”

Maddie’s fist is clenched into a ball on her lap. I reach over and take her hand, releasing the tension a little.

“I’m angry that Elizabeth is where I thought I’d be this year, and I’m…” She glances at me, and then looks down at her lap again. “Temporarily married to someone else to spite them all. And, I guess I’m also scared that they’re going to see right through it, and I’m going to be an even bigger laughingstock.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. I have no idea how to help her with everything she’s lost. She was with Adam for a long, long time, and nothing is going to change the past and erase that history. It hurts, I get it. And I don’t want to downplay the legitimacy of that for her.

But what Icando is help her feel a little less achy for a while. Show up for her in a way that Adam obviously didn’t. Not gonna lie, the guy sounds like a total prick.

I touch my thumb to her chin to tilt her face towards me. “One: you are not, and have never been, a laughingstock. Two: you’re totally justified in everything you’re feeling right now. And three: I wish I could somehow make the pain of what Adam did to you go away. I’m sorry I can’t. But Icanpromise that, when we arrive at his cabin tomorrow, you’ve got an ally in me. A teammate. Iwant to be there for you. Okay?”

“Okay.” She lets out a long breath. “You ready to act like a married man, Slater?”

“All over it, Wifey.” I smirk, and she swats my arm. “But seriously, yes I am. I’ve got your back, like you’ve had mine. I’ll do whatever it takes to get you through the holidays as unscathed as possible.” I stroke the tip of my finger over the soft skin of her jaw. “You can lean on me, Maddie. I promise I’ll help you bear the weight of this.”

Her hand closes around mine, still cupping her face, and squeezes. “Thanks, Seb.”

“It’s what I’m here for. I’m your husband, remember?”

“How could I forget?”

She says this flippantly, her tone light, but her eyes are still wide, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip. I find myself wanting to make sure that she doesn’t have to worry about a damn thing.

“Just… make it look like you’re in love with me?” she asks.

I give her my best flirtatious smile—one that I’m hoping will make her smile, too. “Pretty sure I can manage that.”

16

MADDIE

We’re here.

It’s happening.

Lights, camera, action… Showtime.

A shiver runs through me as I stare at the forest-green front door whose threshold I’ve crossed every Christmas for the past decade. My fingers itch to straighten one waxy holly leaf that’s half escaped from the oversized wreath and is currently hanging droopily, ruining the whole, perfect, round formation of the thing. I feel for the little leaf—out of place and making everything messy.

Man, it’s cold out here. Is it always this cold?

It’s snowing, like it always is. So… probably.

A warm presence suddenly fills the empty, chilly space beside me, and I take in the now-familiar scent of Sebastian—clean and woodsy and manly and delicious in this understated way that makes you wanna breathe in deeper so you can have more.

“Mads?”

I look at him where he stands next to me on the stoop with all the bags he insisted on unloading from the rental car by himself. “Yeah?”

“You okay?” His voice is soft, his breath forming a white cloud in the frigid air.