Better With You - Maddie Poppe and Caleb Hutchinson Series (Book 2)

Chapter 2

Maddie's POV

When I'm finished eating I hurry back to my apartment. I go to my bedroom and just cry into my pillow. But why should I cry? I let him go. He's happy now.

I hear my phone ding. I raise my head and sniff before seeing that I have a message from Gabby. I wipe my eyes and unlock my phone.

'Wanna hang?'

I text back 'sure'.

A few minutes later I hear a knock on my door. I open it to see a smiling Gabby. She sees my eyes and her smile fades, "you've been crying?"

"Yeah, it's fine," I say.

"No, it's not," she says.

And then I start crying again, "it's just..."

She walks in and grabs my wrist, leading me to my couch, "What's going on?"

"I ran into Caleb," I sigh.

"Oh," she looks at the floor.

"And his wife," I fake laugh through my tears, "but I'm the one that let him go years ago. I shouldn't be crying."

"Hey," she puts her hand over mine, "you loved him."

"I still do. I never stopped," I admit, "I'm guessing you knew?"

"Yeah," she sighs.

"I don't wanna sound selfish, but," I stop myself.

"What? Tell me," she says.

"It's just..." I breathe out, "I always thought that when he was married.. it would be to me."

"Oh, Maddie," she hugs me tight, "Hey, come on. Let's go do something."

"Like what?" I ask, pulling away.

"Something to get your mind off of this," she states.

"Nothing can get my mind off of this. I lost him forever this time."

When we are walking down the street, I hear an oddly familiar voice, "Maddie?"

I stop walking and turn around. He slowly walks towards me. I smile at him softly, "Jace?"

"Yeah! Hey," he smiles.

"What are you doing here in Nashville?" I ask.

"Well, uh. A couple years ago, Bella moved here to work for her grandpa's company. I was madly in love with her so I moved here, too. We broke up but I just never moved back to Georgia," he says.

"Oh," I say, "Yeah, I saw Caleb and Bella today."

"Mhm," he looks at his feet, "Hey, maybe you'd wanna go out sometime?"

Gabby looks at me wide-eyed and I look back to Jace, sympathetically, "I'm sorry. My heart belongs to someone else."

"Oh, okay," he says, "are you here for work? I remember Caleb saying you moved back to LA."

"Oh, well actually, I moved back here because I switched labels."

"Oh, nice. Maybe I'll see you around then."

"Maybe."

"Well, have a good rest of your day," he says.

"You too," I smile and turn around.

"Uhhh, okay," Gabby laughs, walking beside me.

"Yeah," I laugh with her.

"He seems pretty cool. He hangs out with Cade and Caleb all the time," she states.

Caleb's POV

When I saw Maddie today, it was just like the first time. I thought I was over her. I thought I was ready to move on, so that's why I took a chance with Bella and it leaded us to here. I have to push away my feelings for Maddie. I'm with Bella now. We're married. I'm supposed to be committed to her.

Bella and I are only renting a house for now. We are renting it off of Jace. It's a little awkward since him and Bella were in a relationship a couple years ago, but Bella said it wasn't that serious.

I'm sitting on our couch watching TV when I hear the door open. I look up and see Bella coming in with a small gift bag.

"I'm home," she smiles.

"Hey," I say softly.

"I have something for you," she holds the gift bag up.

"I see that," I state.

She hands me the bag with a smile, "Here you go!"

I take the tissue out from the top and look in the bag. My breath stops when I see the plastic stick in the bottom of the bag.

"Huh?" I look up at her and she has a huge smile on her face.

"Surprise!" Her smile grows bigger, "We're having a baby."