Maddy's Oasis

Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

Her day of reckoning was finally here. His had already passed. He hadn't wanted anything to do with her since she walked away from him. He'd avoided her and thrown himself into the lobby work with effort even she would deem acceptable.

One kiss. That's it. He wasn't asking her for her hand in marriage. He wasn’t even asking her for more than a few minutes of her time.

Was he that wrong in reading her? She'd been interested, he felt it. Her breathing changed, her face glowed, even her eyes lit up. And then she'd turned yellow and ran. He drew a deep breath and entered the office, trailed by Toni.

“Are you satisfied with everything?” His tone was emotionless.

Madeleine looked at him from behind her desk. She wore city-girl clothes again in anticipation of Mr. Howard’s visit. Judging by the blue circles beneath her eyes, she hadn’t slept since fleeing his kiss two days ago.

He took no pity on her. After her blatant rejection, he refused to think of her as anything but what she was: a typical, self-absorbed city-girl worthy of a typical, self-absorbed city-boy like Mark. She'd been in the trailer since before he arrived at six. Twice she had toured the site and the lobby. Toni had trailed her and Eric while Jake remained as far from her as he could.

“Yes, thank you,” she said, and rose. “Mr. Howard’s staff is setting up right now. You’re not obligated to stay, though I'd appreciate if you did, just in case there are questions I can't answer.”

She searched his face. He remained coldly professional. He felt the familiar tension between them that had plagued their relationship since meeting.

“We wouldn't miss the show,” Toni said from the doorway. “Is that Duke that smells so bad?”

Her phone rang. Jake turned and crossed to the door.

“Come, Duke,” he ordered as he stepped into the hot mid-morning sun.

Mr. Howard’s security detail and staff, reporters, and caterers already swarmed over the site. Jake watched them approach the roped-off areas of the lobby and construction site, tense for more reasons than one. Madeleine was forefront on his mind despite his attempt to dismiss her. Just as insistent was the knowledge of how stupid people could be around a plainly marked construction site, and how disastrous one misstep into the roped areas could be.

The small parking lot was filled, the freshly graveled road leading to the site broken in by catering trucks and the hurried steps of city-folk preparing for the infamous Mr. Howard. The reporters loitered between a tent and their seats in the lobby while caterers worked within two massive, white air-conditioned tents. Mr. Howard even had an emergency EMT crew on stand-by.

Mark was there, running between all the major parties and relaying phone calls. Jake watched him for a long while, unable to shake his anger.

“You wanna watch or not?” Toni prodded.

“Yeah. Have a feeling things won’t go well.”

“Eric already caught two reporters in restricted areas,” Toni said. “If Mr. Howard steps too far to the left up there, the whole stage’ll go.”

“She knows and doesn’t care, so long as it looks pretty,” Jake said. Toni glanced at him at his tone.

“Something happen? You’ve been prickly for a couple days."

“No.”

Toni didn't pry further. They made their way to the lobby area and off to the side, beyond one of the ropes. Dressed in jeans and Javier and Sons T-shirts, they could be mistaken for none other than the construction crew.