that night wasn’t just a shadow between the trees. It was a man.
Watching.
Waiting.
Six months later, Madi was standing on the back porch, trying really hard to convince herself that she wasn’t thinking about Julian Mercer. There wasn’t time, and even if there were, she had already gone down that particular road so much that her tires were absolutely bare. Her metaphorical tires. Her real tires were in fine condition and attached to the van she hadn’t wanted, but needed, to buy.
She replaced the mental image of smiling Julian Mercer with one of her behind the wheel, gunning in the direction of Loraine Wilson. She knew it wasn’t polite, but it made her smile to imagine wiping the smug look off that wealthy woman’s face.
Madi knew a murderous rampage was taking her irritation too far, but she could blame it on her hormones.
Being pregnant, in the Tennessee summer heat no less, had stretched her patience and politeness thin.
“How are you doing it?”
Jenna Diggins—Hidden Hills’ chef, bartender and occasional cleaner—nodded toward the stone pathway that led from the backyard and forked between the rental cabin and a small nature trail. Loraine, one of three guests currently booked at Hidden Hills, was pacing across it, immersed in her phone conversation.
“How am I doing what?” Madi asked, feigning innocence. Jenna wasn’t just the only other employee—she had been Madi’s friend for a decade.
Jenna giggled. She bumped her shoulder against Madi’s.
“How are you destroying Mrs. Pearls and Coiffed Hair?”
Madi swatted at the woman but didn’t deny anything.
“Destroying seems like such a harsh word. What I’m doing is simply giving her a love bump with my new mom van.” She paused, then grinned. “Over and over again.”
Jenna laughed and handed her a bottle of water from her backpack. Madi took it, grateful.
Summer in Tennessee was just about Madi’s favorite time. Every tree and flower was teeming with life; every stream, creek and river was asking for companionship; and the skies stayed a shade of blue that had a way of making Madi appreciate life all the way down in her bones.
Or at least that had been her feeling about the sunny season before she’d been pregnant.
Now the sun made her already-hot body hotter, the trees and flowers stood by as the mosquitoes and bugs dive-bombed her every chance they got, and the blue of the sky was a reminder that she wasn’t the same woman she had been the year before. Just like she wouldn’t be the same woman next year, either.
The water was the only part of summer that Madi remained fond of, which was why she was getting ready to show the guests to the creek in the nearby forest that stretched across the property line. Madi had grown up taking advantage of the creeks and ponds and rivers to cool off. Not even Loraine’s passive-aggressive comments could derail her plans to enjoy herself today.
Someone cleared their throat behind them. Heat instantly flooded Madi’s cheeks. Ray Cutler, the guest staying in the rental cabin, gave them a humoring look.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “After listening to her go on and on about how she had to let her dog nanny go because she was positive he was watching her Netflix, I can appreciate your frustration.”
Jenna laughed but Madi still felt shame at being caught bad-mouthing a guest. After her whirlwind romance earlier that year she’d made a vow to never stray into unprofessional territory again. She should have known better. Yet there she was prattling on about how she’d like to run over someone less than two yards away.
“It’s the hormones making me cranky,” she said, knowing it was a lame excuse. “That and the heat, and I can’t stop babbling nonsense.” Jenna snorted. Madi pushed on. “Are you ready to go, Ray?”
Ray was what Madi’s mother, Dorothy, would call a middle man. He wasn’t short but he wasn’t tall. There was no myriad of muscles filling out his clothes but he wasn’t bone thin, either. He had one of those faces that seemed to be universally familiar, pleasant to look at but not knee-buckling handsome. His hair was a dirty blond, cut short and wavy, and for the last two days he’d been sporting a pair of glasses across his dark eyes. His personality so far had fallen in the middle, too. Polite and quiet but vocal when you hit the right topic. Madi liked the man because—unlike Loraine and her husband, Nathan—his love for the outdoors and Overlook seemed genuine. He cracked a broad smile.
“Two lovely ladies taking little ole me out to the creek on a hot summer day? This day would only get better if I could go back and tell my fifth-grade self about it.”
Madi and Jenna laughed and soon they were off across the stone path. Loraine ended her call but didn’t seem interested in focusing on her husband. Instead she breezed past him and matched Madi’s pace when the stones ended and the dirt trail began.
“Sorry about that,” she started, waving her smartphone around. “You’d think our gardener would know what we want by now. Do I like succulents? Yes. Do I want them in my bedroom? No. Roses are the only flower I’ll allow in there, and only on special occasions. You’d think after working for us for over a year he’d know better.” She let out a long, dramatic sigh. “But I suppose it isn’t his fault. His daughter is trying to become some kind of interior designer. She’s been trying to use me for practice. Stick with what you know, little girl. I’m not running some kind of weird work charity.”
Loraine gave Madi a look that clearly said she was waiting to be agreed with. Madi begrudgingly flexed her customer service muscles.
“Working relationships are hard to navigate sometimes. I used to work with my family before I opened Hidden Hills. It definitely can be tricky.”
Loraine nodded emphatically. Her hair, a teased-out red that matched her shade of lipstick and her purse, barely moved at the motion. A look of disgust flitted across her impeccably made-up face.
“My Nathan is a wonderful man in the boardroom but I barely can stand him at the house sometimes. I can’t imagine working alongside him, either. He’s been talking about retiring early and staying at home and that just makes my skin crawl.” Loraine let out a laugh. It wasn’t a good one. From Madi’s experience with the socialite during the past two days, she knew what was coming next. “Maybe I should do what you did. Buy a funny little house out in the middle of nowhere to keep myself busy. How fun would that be?”
Madi couldn’t blame the pregnancy hormones on the rage that kicked up in her chest. Luckily, she didn’t have the time to regret anything she might have said. Loraine prattled on without a care in the world.
And right onto the worst subject she could have prattled about.
“Though I suppose you won’t be doing this for much longer. Once that baby of yours is here you won’t have time to be a single mother and run your little inn.” Madi must have made a face. Loraine adopted a look of concern. Madi doubted it was real. “Oh, honey, just remember, there’s no shame in raising a kid all on your own. Whoever
