That Night with You (33 page)

Madison stood from the bench, refusing
to accept Charlie’s dire warnings about Hayden. “Enough about me
and Hayden; today is about you.” She began fluffing up the skirt of
the dress. “Are you ready to go out there and face your
mother-in-law to be?”

“
Do I have to?” Charlie
whined.

“
Play nice, Charlie.
Remember, she’s going to be grandmother to your children one
day.”

“
Gee, thanks, Mads. Now I
really want to call the whole thing off.”

Madison reached for the handle on the
dressing room door. “Just keep thinking of Nelson. You’re doing
this for him.”

Charlie gathered up her short train.
“I know, I know.” She headed toward the dressing room door. “If
this is the wedding, can you imagine the holidays I’ll have to
endure? Thank God for vodka!”

Holding the door as Charlie paraded
out of the dressing room, carrying the yards of shiny white fabric
in her hands, Madison grinned. Like most things with Charlie, she
knew a lot of the animosity towards her future mother-in-law was
more for show than genuine. That Caroline Peevy was having such an
influence on the wedding boded well for the two women building a
lasting relationship.

And what about you and
Hayden?
her inner voice taunted.
Are you two building a lasting
relationship?

“
God, I hope so,” Madison
muttered under her breath. “I really hope so.”

In her short time with Hayden, hope
had become her aphrodisiac; because nothing turned her on more than
the possibility of a future with the man who had conquered her
heart.

Chapter 17

The afternoon before the rehearsal
dinner, Madison was in her office, checking over the latest specs
the engineers had given her for the foundation on the Martins’
Turtle Creek home. She had been rushing for days to finish the
plans and line up the necessary drafts for the house to move out of
the planning stage and into construction.

While sitting at her computer, making
some last minute adjustments to the main beam along the atrium
ceiling, she heard a gentle knocking on her open office
door.

“
Yeah,” she hollered, never
looking up from her computer screen.

“
Is that any way to talk to
the boss?” his silky voice answered right before she heard her
office door close.

Madison spun around in her chair.
Despite the hours she had spent in his arms and in his bed, she
still got a jolt when she saw him before her. At times it was hard
to believe that her Harry had found his way back to her.

“
I was just finishing up
the engineering plans on the foundation.” She motioned to the
computer screen. “Seems you were right about that center beam in
the atrium. The engineers want steel beams and not wood to support
the weight.”

Hayden came up to her desk and leaned
over to her computer screen. “That will significantly increase our
cost estimates. Do they think we need it throughout the first
floor?”

She peered over at his profile. “Yes.
I know, not what we expected, but necessary.”

When he turned his head, placing his
lips within inches of hers, Madison’s toes curled. “Did you tell
the Martins yet?” he questioned.

Madison blushed.
How does he do that?
“Ah
no. Not yet.”

He knelt beside her chair. “I’ll tell
them tonight when we meet with the contractor to go over your
plans.”

“
Maybe you should cancel
with the Martins and come with me to the rehearsal dinner. Might be
more fun.”

“
Wish I could, baby, but
I’ve got to settle this deal tonight. Once they have signed with
the contractor, I’m going to firm up a deal with Pat on his house.
We can get together at my place later to celebrate.” He playfully
bobbed his eyebrows up and down.

She chuckled at his display. “You’re
lucky I’m such an understanding girlfriend.”

He placed his face right in front of
hers. “You’re much more, Madison. A girlfriend implies a half-assed
relationship bereft of commitment. To me you are
simply…mine.”

“
That’s something a sailor
tattoos on his ass, Hayden, and not what a woman wants to hear from
a man who has been preoccupying her every thought.”

Dismayed, he stood up. “I preoccupy
your every thought?”

Her eyes dropped to her desk. Perhaps
she had said too much. Charlie had always warned her to play hard
to get when it came to her emotions, but with Hayden that was
impossible.

As the seconds ticked by, Madison
became more apprehensive by his lack of reply and she squirmed in
her chair.

“
I was beginning to wonder
what I meant to you,” he finally voiced. “That I have become your
preoccupation means we’re finally even.”

She gazed up at him. “Even? I don’t
understand.”

“
You have been my
preoccupation since I first saw you in that bar. ‘Bout time you
started to get a little of your own back at you.”

“
I was your preoccupation?
I find that hard to believe.”

He tilted his head to the side and
casually tucked his hand in his trouser pocket, appearing coy.
“I’ll admit I’m not the most forthcoming of men with my emotions,
but I thought all the time we’ve spent together, giving you access
to my home and my life, would have at least let you know how I
feel.”

Madison was confused. Sure he had done
those things, but he had never actually mentioned anything about
feelings. Didn’t it only count when he actually said
something?

A knock at her office door interrupted
them, and Hayden backed away from her chair. The icy look that
overtook his features was more than a bit disconcerting to Madison.
He always seemed to run hot and cold.

“
Yes,” he called to the
door.

“
Sorry, Mr. Parr.” Emma
smiled sheepishly as she came into the office. “You told me to come
and get you when your two o’clock showed up.”

“
I’m coming, Emma.” Hayden
pointed to Madison’s computer. “We’ll need the engineering specs to
go over tonight.”

Madison’s eyes went to the door where
Emma was still waiting. “Yes, Mr. Parr.”

She thought she saw a slight smirk
cross his thin lips, but then it was gone. He was always so
difficult to read. As Madison considered the curve of his square
jaw, his carved cheekbones, and thick brow, she suddenly became
aware that there was a great deal about Hayden Parr that she did
not know.

“
Looks good, Madison,”
Hayden commented. “Bring them by my office before you head out,” he
added, and dashed for her office door.

She listened to his heavy footfalls as
he headed along the hallway toward the elevators. He laughed
briefly with Emma, but the sound faded. Tucking her chair into her
desk, Madison tried to refocus on her design, but that nagging
voice in her head would not let up. Instead of working, she began
to go over every detail of Hayden: his smile, his laugh, the way he
slept, the way he liked his coffee, and even the shampoo he used.
All the things she had come to know about him. And as she tallied
up his idiosyncrasies, preferences, and dislikes, Madison realized
that she did not know a lot about the man…emotionally, anyway. Some
people she could read, some she couldn’t, and Hayden Parr was
starting to feel a lot like someone who was very good at keeping
secrets.

“
It’s time to get to the
bottom of Hayden Parr,” she murmured, returning to her plans. “I
need to find out where this is going.”

***

When Madison punched the code into the
keypad outside of Hayden’s front door, she was fuming. Not only had
Charlie grilled her about Hayden’s absence during the rehearsal
dinner, she had been seated next to Mrs. Leder, and had put up with
even more questions about her relationship with the man.

“
You need to insist he take
you out to nice places,” Mrs. Leder had suggested, waving her fork
filled with prime rib in front of Madison. “Charlie told me he
never takes you out, just keeps you at his house all night,
counting ceiling tiles.”

“
It’s not like that, Mrs.
L,” Madison had argued, reaching for her glass of wine. “We’re
being discreet.”

Mrs. Leder had shoved the piece of
prime rib in her mouth. “And you believe that? He’s just using you
for sex. I’ve seen it a million times before, Madison. I knew he
was too good-looking for his own good.”

As the glass door to Hayden’s home
popped open, Mrs. Leder’s words repeated in her head. Incensed,
Madison shoved her shoulder into the door. Once inside, she had to
steady herself against the doorframe. The three glasses of wine she
had consumed with her dinner were beginning to hit her. Pushing
away from the door, she was about to go in search of Hayden when
she remembered she needed to input the code on the other keypad. As
she punched in the code, footfalls came from the foyer
steps.

“
I wasn’t expecting you
home so early, baby.”

Unsteadily, she whirled around and
watched as he descended the stairs. Dressed only in a pair of jeans
with his bare, muscular chest gleaming beneath the bright lights in
the entrance, Madison was momentarily distracted from her
irritation.

“
When did you get back from
your meeting?”

“
About an hour ago.”
Clearing the bottom step, he moved toward her. “After Pat and
Stevie signed the contracts, we discussed the sale of their
property.”

“
Did you make an
offer?”

He nodded as he came to a stop before
her. “In about a year, nine months if I’m lucky, we’ll close the
deal and I will be the new owner of that piece of shit across the
street.”

She patted his chest and wavered
slightly. “That’s great, Hayden.”

He put his arms about her waist, his
eyes intently exploring her face. “What is it? Was the rehearsal
dinner a disaster?”

“
No, the dinner went fine.
Charlie seemed really happy and was even getting along with her
future mother-in-law.”

“
That’ll be short lived,”
Hayden snorted, and eased the strap of her purse from her shoulder.
“Ellen and my mother fought like cats and dogs.”

“
Your mother?” Madison
paused. “You never talk about your parents. Where are
they?”

“
Three blocks over on Deer
Run Road. Why?” He took her purse to the stairs. “And I talk about
my parents. I told you about my old man.”

“
I know you took over the
company from your father, but that’s about it. You’ve never
mentioned your mother.”

Shrugging, he placed her purse on the
bottom step. “Nothing to say. She’s a housewife, active at her
local church, and has put up with my father’s bullshit for
thirty-six years.”

“
What’s she like, your
mother?”

He came back to her side. “Why? You’ve
met Mike; she’s a lot like our mother, except for the obnoxious
personality. Mom is more easygoing than my sister. Don’t worry,
you’ll find that out when you meet her.”

“
You want me to meet your
parents?”

“
Yes, of course I
do.”

“
When?” she demanded in a
harsh tone.

He stood before her, his eyes drawn
together in a perplexed scowl. “What’s wrong?”

She held up her head, appearing
confident, but on the inside she was swimming in self-doubt. “I
guess I’m starting to wonder if I’m the kind of girl you bring home
to Mom, or just the kind of girl you sleep with and get rid
of.”

“‘
Get rid of’?” His booming
voice echoed about the foyer. “What are you talking about? I don’t
want to get rid of you.”

“
That’s not the
impression…forget it.” She was about to stumble past him when he
clasped her arm.

“
What happened at the
rehearsal dinner? You were fine when we talked in my office earlier
this evening. And now you come back from that dinner…drunk and
upset.”

She shirked off his hand and went to
the stairs. “I’m going back to my apartment,” she proclaimed after
collecting her purse.

“
You’re not driving home.”
He took her elbow and urged her up the stairs. “We’re going to go
upstairs and you’re—”

She pushed him away and halted on the
first step. “If we go upstairs, we’ll just have sex, like we do
every night. You are just out to screw me.”

“‘
Screw you’?” He gripped
her arm. “We’re going to have a little chat.” He took her purse and
pitched it to the bottom step before pulling her toward the archway
that led to his den.

“
Where are we
going?”

“
Kitchen. I think you could
do with some coffee while we have that chat.”

When they reached the kitchen, Hayden
seated her at the glass breakfast table. She hadn’t wanted to admit
it before, but she was more than a little tipsy. In retrospect,
driving to Hayden’s had been a stupid idea, but her anger had
fueled her stupidity.

“
Charlie sends her
regards.” Madison smirked at him. “She asked me a lot of questions
about where you were tonight.”