Читать книгу The Bachelor's Perfect Match - Kathryn Springer - Страница 16

Chapter Five

Mondays.

Maddie decided there were times they deserved their reputation.

She clicked the mouse and brought up slide number twelve, even though she was fairly certain she’d lost the teenagers at number four.

Tyler’s eyes were glued to his cell phone, Skye was drawing on the cover of her notebook and Justin appeared to be napping.

But at least they were here. Maddie had expected to spend Monday evening catching up on her emails, but the teens had drifted into the conference room one at a time and claimed their seats at the table.

The high school guidance counselor had given Maddie the link for the career assessment survey, so they’d spent the first hour in the computer lab, filling out the questionnaire. She planned to go over the results at their next session, but there were still twenty minutes left in this one.

I could use some help here, Lord.

No sooner than Maddie sent up the silent prayer, Aiden limped into the room.

“The door was unlocked again.” He claimed the empty chair at the table as if it had been reserved especially for him.

As if he hadn’t been a no-show on Saturday afternoon, even though Maddie had stayed an extra hour—or two—waiting for him.

Aiden’s decision not to follow up on his request for help didn’t surprise Maddie. What did surprise her was the disappointment that had clung like a burr on her favorite cardigan for the rest of the day.

She hadn’t seen him at New Life Fellowship on Sunday morning, either. Maddie served in the church nursery twice a month, and by the time the last set of parents had picked up their child, everyone had left the building.

She’d told herself it was for the best, but here he was again. And once more, the teenagers were giving Aiden their full attention.

Maddie set down the clicker and went with it.

“Aiden, what was the topic of your senior presentation?”

“My senior presentation?”

She nodded. “You were a year ahead of me in high school, and I had to give one, so I’m pretty sure you did, too.”

“Maybe he skipped that day,” Tyler interjected.

The gleam in the boy’s eye told Maddie he was contemplating it, too.

“It wouldn’t matter.” Skye slid lower in her chair. “They just make you do it the next day.”

“What if he hadn’t come back the next day?” Tyler retorted. “Or the next? What if he hadn’t come back at all?”

Why did Maddie get the feeling that Tyler wasn’t talking about Aiden anymore?

Skye tossed her mane of brown-and-lavender-striped hair. “Then he would’ve been stupid—”

“Survival camping.”

Skye and Tyler, who were glaring at each other across the table, spun toward Aiden.

“What’s that?” Skye blurted.

“You go into the woods with nothing more than you can carry in a backpack,” Aiden explained. “You find your own water. Food. Make a shelter to sleep in.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “That’s crazy.”

“The faculty board thought so, too.” Aiden grinned. “But I still got an A.”

“It sounds like one of those shows on TV,” Tyler said. “I saw one episode where a guy climbed into a hollow tree and it was full of wasps. He got stung, like, a thousand times.”

Aiden shrugged. “I didn’t have to worry about bugs. It was February.”

He’d gone camping. In February. On purpose.

“Where did you sleep?” Justin unexpectedly joined the conversation. Maddie grabbed onto the back of a chair for support.

“I made a snow cave. Snow is actually a great insulator.” Aiden dropped his voice a notch. “That’s why you don’t see bears putting on sweaters before they go into hibernation.”

Skye giggled.

Giggled.

Justin had spoken up, Skye was acting seventeen instead of twenty-seven and Tyler was actually looking at Aiden instead of his cell phone.

And Maddie? She was a little in awe—and a whole lot of envious—at how effortlessly Aiden had connected with the three teenagers.

“You’re supposed to write an outline and do research and stuff.” Tyler tossed an accusing look at Maddie, as if she were the one who’d written the guidelines for their senior presentation.

Aiden laughed. “You don’t think I did some research before I ventured into the woods when it was only ten degrees outside?”

Tyler crossed his arms, covering his interest with a skeptical look. “They really let you talk about camping?”

“I didn’t just talk,” Aiden said. “I brought in my backpack and showed them how I made it through the weekend with the supplies I’d packed. Like Maddie said, the whole idea behind the senior presentation is to learn more about something that interests you...and in the process maybe learn something about yourself.”

At least someone remembered what Maddie had said during their study session the previous week. She just hadn’t expected it to be Aiden.

An alarm chirped, and Tyler reached for his backpack. “I gotta go,” he mumbled.

“Hold on a second.” Maddie decided it was time to take control of the conversation again. “Does anyone have any questions before our next meeting?”

She was greeted with silence.

“All right... I’ll see you at six thirty this Friday.”

They all grabbed their things and bolted for the door.

Everyone except Aiden. He raised the hand that wasn’t in the cast.

“I have a question. How do we find my sister?”

Maddie gripped the back of the chair again to counteract the unexpected weakness in her knees.

“But I...when you didn’t show up on Saturday, I thought you’d changed your mind.” The words came out in a rush, and the light in Aiden’s eyes disappeared as swiftly as the sun on a winter afternoon.

“No one in my family had a reason to come into town that day,” he said after a moment.

And Aiden couldn’t drive.

Maddie realized how difficult it must be for such an independent man to rely on others—even his own family—for help. Which made the fact that Aiden had returned to the library to enlist hers a little scary.

“Anna had to finish up an order tonight and get it ready for shipment, so I hitched a ride with her,” Aiden continued. “Bracelets...not ice cream, just in case you were wondering.”

Maddie didn’t know Anna Leighton very well—she’d been several years ahead of Maddie in school—but it was common knowledge the young widow had converted the second floor of The Happy Cow, her family-owned ice-cream shop, into a combination studio and boutique where she designed and sold a unique line of nature-inspired jewelry.

It was also common knowledge that Liam Kane had proposed to Anna a few weeks ago.

Maddie had overheard a group of women talking about how excited Sunni Mason was that two of her adopted sons had found love.

“Only one more to go,” one of them had said.

“I have a feeling Sunni will have a long wait with Aiden,” came her friend’s laughing response. “I’m not sure there’s a woman fast enough to catch that boy. Not that they haven’t tried, mind you.”

Maddie was used to people speaking freely in front of her. She was a permanent fixture in the library—like her desk or a lamp—and everyone seemed to forget she was there.

Still, Maddie didn’t want to analyze too closely why the details of that whispered conversation had been stored away, when so many others had slipped from her mind.

“Can you post this on your community message board?” Aiden dipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “I had to come up with a legitimate excuse for turning down Anna’s rocky road sundae.”

Maddie glanced down at the flier. The top half gave detailed information about River Quest, and underneath the dotted line was a registration form for those adventurous enough to sign up.

Suddenly, Aiden’s words sank in. “Your family doesn’t know you’re looking for your sister?”

Something dark flashed in Aiden’s eyes. “They know I promised I would...they just don’t know I started yet.”

* * *

Aiden was relieved when Maddie didn’t press him further and ask why. Not when he wasn’t sure of the answer himself.

All Aiden knew was that he couldn’t fail and disappoint his family. Just once, he wanted to be the hero who swooped in and saved people from trouble instead of the one causing it.

Maddie pulled her chair out from the table. “I...I’ll need some basic background information from you, and we can go from there.”

“Now?”

Aiden’s question seemed to surprise her. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“Yeah, but I thought we’d be setting up another day and time to meet,” he said slowly. “You worked all day and then had to spend the evening with Dallas and Ponyboy—”

“Aiden!” Maddie clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t quite suppress the laughter that backlit her beautiful green eyes. Beautiful green eyes that narrowed with suspicion a split second later. “Wait a second. You said you don’t read. The Outsiders is a classic.”

“There’s a book, too?” Aiden cocked his head, careful to keep his expression neutral. “I thought it was just a movie.”

He waited for the look of horror or pity, but the suspicion only deepened, which kind of took the fun out of teasing her.

Aiden had figured out at an early age that people didn’t think he had a lot going on upstairs. He wasn’t like his brothers. Brendan could crunch numbers and decipher complicated spreadsheets, and in his spare time, Liam could assemble a rocket from a box of spare parts.

In one of his Sunday morning messages, Pastor Seth had told the congregation that God gave all His children unique gifts. For Aiden, though, finding those gifts felt more like combing the grass for Easter eggs rather than spotting a brightly wrapped present under the tree on Christmas morning.

In other words, he was still looking.

“I don’t mind starting tonight.” Maddie pulled out the chair next to his and sat down, stirring the air—and Aiden’s senses—with the scent of lily of the valley. He recognized the fragrance because the flowers appeared every spring. They weren’t showy like Sunni’s roses or the hydrangeas that bloomed along the foundation of the house. Lily of the valley blossoms were small and delicate. Easily overlooked. But if a person was paying attention, the flowers were surprisingly strong, brightening the shadowy places in the yard and thriving where others would have faded away.

“Aiden?”

He hadn’t been paying attention. “Sorry.” Aiden shifted restlessly, rattling the joints of the high-backed wooden chair. No doubt the conference room was a cozy, comfortable place to hold a meeting, but at this time of night, the pain from his injuries would normally have already forced him to the couch. “What’s your first question?”

“What is your sister’s name?”

“I don’t know.” Aiden pushed the words out through gritted teeth.

“But...” Maddie paused and searched his face. “How can you find your sister if you don’t know her name.”

“That’s why I asked you for help.”

“Okay...” Maddie drew in a breath. Released it again. “We’ll do what we always do when we’re not sure where to start, then.”

“Dive in headfirst?”

“Ask God for direction.”

“Ask God.”

Aiden shouldn’t have been stunned by Maddie’s suggestion. She was a believer. Attended church every Sunday, just like he did. But the fact that prayer hadn’t crossed Aiden’s mind showed how far he’d drifted from God since the accident.

He tried. He really did. But Aiden didn’t know what to say—and he wasn’t sure God was listening. In his darkest moments, Aiden wasn’t sure God cared about the details of his life at all. If He did, where had He been the night Aiden had ended up in the ditch, leaving both his body and his plans for River Quest temporarily out of commission?