Page 44

Matt would say he was a good person. He donated a lot of money to a number of charities, called animal control when he saw some asshole lock their dog in a car in the blazing sun, and he rarely got into fights—except for the annual exception on the ice.

He had his principles. He believed in honesty. He was against gun violence. And he firmly believed that you shouldn’t judge anyone based on first impressions.

However, the guy who had his hands on Maddie’s back and his chin on her shoulder, his nose almost touching the soft spot right above her pulse point, was a damn scumbag who was about to lose a couple of important limbs if he didn’t let go of her!

Matt wasn’t the jealous type – at least so he’d always believed. If it had been any other man, even Leon fucking Alvarez, it wouldn’t have bothered him that Maddie was hugging him.

But this weasel’s hand was close to Maddie’s ass, the other almost on her neck…Maddie wasn’t returning the hug. Her arms hung stiffly at her sides. The idiot should have noticed that!

Before he could lose his head and go breaking limbs, a hoarse sound slipped from his throat that made Maddie flinch and the guy loosen his grip.

“Matt,” she said breathlessly, smiling broadly, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I can see that,” he replied slowly without taking his eyes off the man, who had a pointy face, excellent for receiving a fist print. “And you are?” he asked coolly.

The man frowned and glanced between him and Maddie for a few moments, confused, as if trying to explain the connection. “Clemens Hardy. We’re old friends.”

Clemens .

Yeah, of course.

“Ah,” Matt replied slowly. “ The Clemens. So, you’re friends?”

He almost expected Maddie to give him a nasty look for that, but she didn’t react at all. She stared at her ex with her mouth gaping as if she couldn’t believe he was here. Matt wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. Her face was too expressionless to gauge.

“Yes. We know each other from college,” Clemens continued happily. “Maddie practically invited me to meet her here today. To talk about old times.”

Matt pressed his lips together. She had not. He waited for Maddie to tell the clown exactly that, but she remained silent.

“Maddie?” Matt murmured, taking a step forward and putting a reassuring hand on her neck. She sank into his touch and then came back to life. She glanced up at him hesitantly, almost apologetically, as if it was her human failing that had led to this unpleasant situation, not Clemens’.

“About old times…What? Clemens. What are you doing here?” she finally asked slowly. “I still don’t quite understand.”

Clemens laughed. “Well, seeing you. Aren’t you happy?”

Maddie blinked, looked at Matt, and then back at Clemens before smiling warily – not with her eyes, but wide enough to deceive everyone except Matt. “Yes, of course. Nice to see you again. I just…didn’t expect you to come here. That’s all.”

“Well, I have to persuade you to come to my wedding! Maddie, you’ve never said no to me before, so why start now?” He winked at her and grinned. “You can skip ice hockey. Really, Maddie, I can’t do it without you.”

Maddie flinched at the last sentence and Matt wasn’t the only one who noticed. Clemens’ gaze kept searching Maddie’s face, as if he wanted to memorize her every reaction. It was as if he was looking for…confirmation.

The question was why? He couldn’t handle her indifference?

Shit. He was actually here because she had declined to meet him for the first time in five years.

“I don’t think I’ll be going, Clemens,” she said slowly, her voice still icily civil. “I’m sorry, but as I said, I hope you have a nice wedding.”

“What? But why? You’re my oldest friend,” he blurted out, sounding almost hurt. But only almost. There was a glint in his eyes.

Oh, Matt didn’t like that, or anything about this situation.

However, it wasn’t his fight. It was Maddie’s. He had no right to interfere, so he focused on controlling his fists. Just the thought of how much that bastard had hurt Maddie…

“I don’t think it’s appropriate, Clemens,” she said calmly, giving his arm a quick squeeze. Shit, she didn’t honestly believe his pity act, did she? “Because of our past, you know?”

“Our past?” Clemens raised his eyebrows in surprise. But there was that glint again.

“Your breakup,” Matt coolly helped him out, so Maddie didn’t have to – so she didn’t have to take on the degrading task of reminding the man that she’d once loved about their nights together.

Shit, how Matt hated him.

“Breakup?” the asshole repeated, blinking in almost convincing confusion. “No, Maddie and I weren’t together.” He took on a businesslike tone that Matt would have gladly shoved down his throat. “Did you tell him that? Really, we just had a casual fling, that’s all.”

Maddie opened her mouth but still said nothing.

He waved her off. “That’s old news. We were friends and parted on good terms. It would make me happy if you came to the wedding, Maddie.”

Maddie blinked, took a deep breath…and Matt waited for her to burst. For her to finally stick it to the guy like he deserved. However, she merely smiled tightly and nodded. “It was probably a misunderstanding back then.”

Clemens raised one corner of his mouth. “Exactly.”

Matt stuffed his fists in his pockets because of that expression on his face — smug and so sure . So cheerful.

Oh, that bastard. He had known it, just as Matt suspected. He had known that Maddie thought they were soul mates, that she had been in love with him, and had imagined a future together.

Matt was as sure of that as he was that Maddie had done his laundry again yesterday without asking!

Maddie had never been wrong. She and Clemens had been together.

In a relationship. By every definition of the word.

When Maddie had caught him with someone else, he had preferred to convince her that she had misunderstood their relationship rather than be man enough to break up and apologize to her!

Clemens knew what he had done to her just as he knew that he had won a fight that Maddie didn’t even realize they had fought.

A rage so hot and destructive boiled up inside Matt, he felt as if his organs were going to melt. This guy had hurt Maddie — and now Matt was going to hurt him. He…

Maddie grabbed his hand and squeezed each of his fingers.

What was she doing? He needed those digits to strike.

“Clemens, it was nice to see you,” she replied calmly. “But I won’t attend your wedding. I’m sorry. Good luck and so long.”

Clemens sighed as his gaze slid over the fingers that Maddie had entwined with Matt’s, but then he nodded. “Okay. But give me a call sometime, okay? Then we can go have a coffee.”

“Sure,” she said lightly. “Until then.”

She raised her hand and he reciprocated…and then he was gone.

Matt stared after him. His lips were a straight line of tension and the blood was rushing so loudly in his ears that he almost couldn’t understand Maddie when she spoke to him.

“You were close to exploding, weren’t you?” she asked, laughing and looking up at him. “My goodness, I heard your back crack because you were tensing up so hard.”

He narrowed his eyes abruptly. Why was she laughing ? Didn’t she see what he saw?

“Why the hell didn’t you tell the guy to go to hell?” he burst out. “Why the hell didn’t you kick him in the balls or at least punch him in the face?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Because it was unnecessary.”

He laughed mirthlessly. “Maddie. He was only here to see if you were still attached to him! To find out if he could still hurt you by getting married. To boost his ego.”

“Was he?” she asked, irritated. “It didn’t seem that way to me.”

Of course not! “No, because you believe in the good in people!” he exclaimed.

She snorted. “And that’s suddenly a bad thing, right?”

“Maddie, he was here because he loves knowing that there’s a beautiful woman out there who’s pining after him,” he whispered tersely.

Rolling her eyes, she squeezed his hand. “Bullshit. He thinks we’re old friends. Come on, Matt. Stop being jealous.”

“It has nothing to do with jealousy,” he replied harshly. “It’s about Clemens being a sleazy asshole.”

Maddie pressed her lips together, obviously not taking him seriously or agreeing with him. “It doesn’t matter why he was here, he’s gone now.”

“Yes, without you telling him how angry you are at him,” he mumbled. Without closure, the situation would stick to her like a limpet until she finally put it behind her.

Maddie sighed in frustration and pulled her hand away from him. “Matt, not every argument has to be a battle.”

“Yes, but you don’t do anything .”

“That’s not true! I’ve had two arguments in the last week.”

“With your family.”

“So what? What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that Clemens took advantage of you and hurt you — and he doesn’t deserve to leave this parking lot without you yelling at him or me knocking him on his ass!” Preferably both.

“Matt,” her voice soft but firm, “you’re taking this the wrong way. I don’t need to argue with him because I’ve long since forgotten about it. Because winning isn’t important to me!”

“Arguing isn’t about winning. Arguing isn’t a hockey game. Arguing is about you expressing your opinion and your feelings, and that’s your damn right!”

“I know that,” she snapped, annoyed. “That’s why I’ve been trying to do more of that lately. Right now though, I feel like you’re becoming unnecessarily worked up. Matt, he doesn’t realize how much he hurt me. He didn’t know we were really together.”

Matt snorted loudly. “Oh, please, he knew! Of course he knew , Maddie. I only had to take one look at him and it was crystal clear!”

She glanced up at him, perplexed. “What are you talking about?”