Aiden’s hands gripped the wheel harder as he tightened into the curve ten miles per hour faster than he should have. What kind of woman refuses flowers? They weren’t poisonous. If she’d read the note, she’d known he was on his way to explain everything. According to the idiot delivery kid, she wouldn’t even look at it. Well she might slam the door on a skinny kid, but she’d listen to him.
Aiden was so focused on how he’d convince her to open the door, he almost missed the rental car pulled over on the shoulder of the road. The driver sat leaning out the door, head between her knees, lovely brown hair brushing the ground.
She didn’t look up when he pulled in behind her. Slamming the door on the Avalanche he walked over to her and stopped inches away. She still didn’t look up.
“You seem to favor this position,” he said.
“Go away.”
“And leave you here on the side of the road?”
“Yes.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
“There is no problem.”
“Huh.”
“Go away.”
Aiden wanted to laugh. He longed to pull her into his arms and kiss the stubbornness out of her. Instead he squatted down in front of her and gently parted her hair to get a look at her face.
“What are you doing, Madison?”
She refused to meet his gaze, ducked her head lower instead. Though her misery came through loud and clear, he had to move closer to be able to make out her words.
“I wanted to go hiking.”
“You didn’t make it to the trails.”
“I’m scared of driving mountain roads.”
He didn’t even try to stop his laughter.
“I thought I could do it,” she explained.
“You can do it, Maddie. Look at me.”
“Go away.”
“If you’d kept my flowers you wouldn’t be in this position.”
Aiden had wanted a reaction, and Madison gave him one. Her head snapped up and chocolate eyes reminded him of a caged cat, a very unhappy caged cat.
“I don’t want your flowers, and I don’t need your help.” Madison got back in her car, slammed the door, and rolled up the window. She started the car and pulled out onto the road, spraying gravel.
So much for being afraid to drive on mountain roads.
He could follow her, but that would do no good if she wouldn’t talk to him.
He could wait at the bottom of the road. She had to come back this way, but what was the point? She’d shown him in no uncertain terms she wanted nothing to do with him.
It didn’t help that he’d received no update on Dambusters. Coyote seemed to have disappeared into thin air, and there was no additional activity being reported. The worst part of any op was the down time. If Aiden had been able to spend it with Madison, he wouldn’t be as frustrated.
But for now, it seemed as if frustration was his lot in life.
MONDAY AFTERNOON MADISON walked around her classroom, straightening chairs and stacking books. She needed to work on exit procedures since her students had left the room in complete disarray. Still, she’d managed to survive her first day at Edgewood High School, and that put it in the success column.
The morning began with a class of thirty-five juniors, including none other than delivery boy, Gabe. He was as surprised as she was but recovered faster.
“You’re the flower lady.”
“And you’re the delivery boy.”
“Why would Mr. Lewis send you flowers?”
“I’d rather not discuss my personal life, Gabe. I believe your seat is in the first row. Check the seating chart on the board to be sure.”
She had hoped it would end there, but of course it didn’t. After that she heard whispers in every class. Mostly the boys snickered and the girls stared. Madison ignored it as best she could. What with distributing textbooks and assigning enough work to convince them English III was not going to be a breeze, students didn’t have much time for socializing anyway.
Seven hours later, she collapsed at her desk and went to work finishing up her day’s paperwork. Entering the last period’s attendance, she was surprised to hear her classroom door jerked open by demon principal, Miss Joseph. Either she disliked Texans in general, or she simply hated Madison.
“Is there a reason you’re not at your duty, Ms. Hart?”
“Duty?”
“I sent you an email over an hour ago reminding you to be in the gym at 3:15.”
“The gym?” Madison realized how stupid she sounded, but she couldn’t imagine what she would be doing in a gym. By the look on Miss Joseph’s face, the Vice Principal couldn’t imagine what she was even doing in the school.
“Surely you know where the gym is.”
“Well, yeah. I saw it when I went to lunch.”
“Yeah? I would prefer a simple yes or no when you’re answering me. How do you expect to teach your students proper English if you can’t even provide a decent example?”
Madison stared at the woman. She was in her early fifties and one of the most bitter souls Madison had ever met.
“Now if you would be so kind as to report to your duty–in the gym—I’m sure the golf team would appreciate it.” And with that she was gone.
Madison shook her head, opened her laptop, and scanned through the emails she had not had time to read because she had been teaching. Sure enough, there it was.
Report to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon for your assigned duty—golf club sponsor.
Golf club? What kind of school had a golf club? And why was she its sponsor? She didn’t know anything about golf. She’d never even watched it on TV. And why did she have a duty that met three days a week, including every Friday?
Madison allowed herself a full minute to think wistfully of Texas, where football, basketball, and baseball reigned and they wouldn’t allow an English teacher any closer to a team than the stands. Shaking her head, she placed her laptop in the bag and headed to the gym.
AIDEN LOOKED OUT AT his team and relaxed for the first time in weeks—until he thought about the brunette down the hall who still wasn’t talking to him. He’d spent all of Sunday trying to charm his way back into her good graces.
He didn’t even know what she was mad about. He’d tried flowers again, sent chocolate, even balloons. No go. She’d taken to not answering the door to delivery men. He’d tried calling, but she’d hung up on him.
No doubt the entire town knew Madison was refusing his deliveries. They also knew he and Sharon had “broken up.” His brother had already called him twice advising him to reconsider.
“Maybe you should try saying you’re sorry, Coach.” Chase was the team captain. At six and a half feet, two hundred and thirty pounds, he looked more like a linebacker than a golfer, but the kid had taken them to the state title the year before. He was a born leader, and Aiden would miss him when he graduated this year.
“I do not want to talk about my private life, Chase. Now I’ve passed out our schedule. As you can see, between varsity and JV we have fifteen tournaments in the next ten weeks, so we have our work cut out for us.”
“What did you do to make her so mad?” Kevin asked, pushing up his glasses.
“Yeah, you’re always lecturing us about being sensitive.” Justin was also a senior and known for his temper. He’d received more than one lecture from Aiden about the importance of considering other’s feelings.
“Sounds like you blew it, Coach,” Chase said.
“Speaking of blowing it...” Aiden picked up his whistle and blew it shrilly. “Ten laps everyone.”
Amidst groans and claims of gimp legs, the boys climbed off the bleachers and started toward the door leading to the track. Aiden was staring down at his summer stats report when the boys suddenly stopped moving and grew strangely quiet. He suddenly realized every boy had his eyes locked on the gym door, and it only took him a second to figure out why.
Aiden’s pulse jumped as his
eyes met hers.
She looked tired, cranky, and more than a little mad, but to Aiden she was as attractive as ever.
“This is my duty?” she asked. “With you?”
All eyes turned toward him.
“Uhh. Let me see. I’m the volunteer coach, and I guess you are—”
“The team sponsor. Why do I smell a set up here, Mr. Lewis?”
She had stormed her way across the gym, and now stood in front of him—hands firmly planted on her hips, eyes blazing, a stubborn look on her face Aiden was sure he could kiss away if he could lose the dozen boys staring at them.
“Maybe we should talk about this in private, Ms. Hart.”
Madison turned to stare at the boys, then turned back to Aiden. “Why would we need to do that? Obviously, they all know about our situation already, since I have had to deflect questions about it in every single class. How small is this town anyway?”
“Pretty small,” Chase said.
“Way too small,” Justin added.
“It’s enough to make you crazy,” Gabe piped in.
Aiden’s look silenced the boys, but they still didn’t move. As a last resort, he grabbed the whistle and started blowing. Either that or the stormy look he sent them worked. They were out the door in record time.
The last week finally caught up with Aiden, and the absurdity of it won. What started as a chuckle ended up as an outright laugh—earning him a look from Madison that might have caused damage if he’d ever stop laughing. Sitting down on the bleachers he set the clipboard beside him and leaned forward, arms resting on his knees, studying her and waiting.
“Aren’t you going to storm out?” he finally asked.
“Excuse me?”
“You stormed out of the banquet. You stormed off the mountain. I figured now you’d storm out of the gym.”
“This happens to be a part of my job, buster.” She walked over to where he sat and stopped within a few inches of him.
She was so mad her brown eyes had turned nearly black, and still he was drawn to her, the attraction so strong it caused an ache in his bones.
“Whether I like the assignments I’m given or not I will do them. So, no, I am not storming out. Though I can’t imagine this is a coincidence.”
“Oh, it is a coincidence,” Aiden said. “Do you think I’d really ask for you to be our sponsor? You have no sense of humor, you’re more stubborn than any woman I’ve ever known, and you probably don’t know a thing about golf.”
“I do have a sense of humor. I have every right to be angry with you, and it’s not my fault I don’t know anything about golf. It’s not even a real sport.”
“Madison, if you’d let me explain.” When Aiden stood up she practically jumped back, then moved even farther away as Gabe walked back into the gym.
“I forgot my water bottle. Sorry, Coach.”
Madison took a deep breath and watched the boy scuttle away. “They put him up to that.”
“Absolutely.”
“No doubt he’s reporting every word he heard.”
“No doubt.”
Madison crossed her arms and looked around the gym as if she’d never been in one before.
“They’re good kids, Madison. Just curious.”
Madison raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t argue with him. Aiden wanted to cross the floor and shake the stubbornness out of her, or at least pull her into his arms and hold her until the fight was gone. He resisted the urge, knowing it would only raise her defenses at this point. He wasn’t sure who had hurt her in the past, but he suddenly understood this wasn’t solely about him.
To his surprise, she walked slowly across the gym floor and stopped mere inches in front of him. “How long is golf season?”
“Ten weeks, twelve if I can arrange an additional tournament in Banff.”
“I suppose we could find a way to work together for twelve weeks.”
Aiden pretended to think about it, rubbed his chin, and finally shrugged. “I guess we could.”
“Entirely on a professional basis.”
“Understood.”
“And only because I have to. Evil Ms. Joseph set this up. The woman hasn’t liked me from day one.”
“This is day one.”
“Exactly.”
“Madison, if you want me to request a different sponsor—”
Her chin went up in what was becoming a familiar look of defiance. “I can do this. Tell me what my responsibilities are.”
Aiden pulled the season’s schedule from his stack of papers and went over it with her, explaining where the meets were, what the practices consisted of, and what they would need her to do. Madison kept her distance the entire time, but he thought she relaxed a little.
And, suddenly, that was all right. It was enough for now to be near her and to know he would see her on a regular basis. He still didn’t understand why she wouldn’t give him a chance to explain, but it was a small town. She’d learn he’d broken up with Sharon, and then she’d listen to him.
All he had to do was wait, and he had no doubt Ms. Hart was worth waiting for.
MADISON CLIMBED INTO the van and gave Aiden her best you-better-behave teacher look. It worked on the teens, but Aiden’s grin only grew wider causing her heart to skip a beat or two.
The man was tenacious. She’d give him that.
There were several times when she had wondered if he’d hired someone to follow her as it seemed that she saw the same two cars in her rearview mirror much too often. But stalking wasn’t Aiden’s style, and no doubt seeing the same cars over and over in a small town was normal. He’d continued sending gifts to her house every day for a week. She’d refused the roses, tulips, carnations, potted plant, balloons, chocolate, and books.
But when she’d opened her door to a giant bouquet of Texas bluebonnets, she couldn’t send them away. She was suddenly more homesick than she’d ever have thought possible. She might be an independent woman, but even independent women miss the green, green grass of home—or in this case the bluebonnets of home.
He followed that with a week of phone calls, exactly what she needed to reestablish a baseline of trust.
“You can stop grinning,” she told him.
The noise from twelve boys juggling for seats in the back of the van covered their conversation quite nicely.
“Am I grinning?” he asked.
“You are.”
“We’re going to our first meet. I have a fantastic golf team and the very best sponsor in Edgewood, who also happens to be the most enchanting woman on staff. Why wouldn’t I grin?”
Madison made a face at his obvious flirting and turned to look out the window to hide her own smile.
“You look pretty happy yourself, Ms. Hart.”
She swung back around to look at him, brown eyes dancing. “I am happy, actually. The first two weeks of school are over, I have an excused-early pass on a Friday, and I’m going to visit a part of Montana I’ve never seen before. It should be quite an adventure.”
“You’re going to love Missoula.” Aiden’s voice grew serious, tender really, and the look he gave her almost melted Madison in her seat.
She’d been relieved to learn he had broken up with Sharon, although she still didn’t know why. He’d tried to explain it to her in one of their nightly phone calls, but she’d insisted she wasn’t ready to talk about past relationships yet.
The week she’d spent angry with him had given her a little perspective. The flight from Dallas had been traumatic and thrilling at the same time, but it had sent their relationship careening off in a serious direction much too quickly. Madison knew, instinctively, that she needed to apply the brakes.
She was eager to see more of Montana. She’d had no luck finding her father, but there wasn’t a day that passed where she didn’t remember her promise to her mother or the conversation they’d had that day in April. It seemed as if this trip would be fulfilling part of that vow. She couldn’t help wondering if her mother had follow
ed this same road with her father.
The noise level in the van settled down to a dim roar as the boys became absorbed in their cell phones.
“What will we see?” Madison asked.
“I can take you out and show you the stars tonight.”
“I was talking about scenery.”
“Oh.” Aiden gave her his hurt cowboy look as he pulled out of the school’s parking lot. “If it’s scenery you want, it’s scenery we’ll find. You’ll be able to see parts of the Bob Marshall Wilderness to the east and the Flathead Indian Reservation to the west.”
Madison slipped off her shoes and pulled her feet up into the seat, hugging her knees. “What kind of Indians?”
“Big ones,” Jack muttered.
Aiden laughed. “Some of the Kootenai are rather large. There are over 6,800 tribe members in all, including Salish and Pend d’Oreilles.”
“How do you know so much about them?” Madison settled into the corner of her seat and watched Aiden as he drove.
“He was one.” Gabe shouted from the back.
“They listen to every word we say, don’t they?”
“Unless it’s instructions.” Aiden tried to sound disgruntled, but didn’t quite succeed.
“So, there’s an Indian reservation. What else?”
“Not just any Indian reservation. The Flathead Indian Reservation is 1.2 million acres. It’s a majestic mountainous area. You’ll enjoy the drive.”
“What was the Bob Marshall thing?”
Chants of “Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob” filled the back of the van.
Aiden gave a short blow on his whistle he wore on a lanyard, and the boys immediately settled down.
“Are they always this crazy on a trip?” Madison asked.
“YES,” twelve voices shouted at once.
“They love the Bob Marshall,” Aiden explained. “Most of the boys have been going there since they were old enough to hold a paddle or shoot a rifle.”
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