Page 63 of Mountain Dreams

“Maddie all settled in now?”

Obviously, Jax wasn’t going to give up, so Cody decided to give him something to get him off his back.

“We still have to get her stuff from Wyatt’s.”

“When do you plan on doing that?”

“Maybe this weekend.” He had no idea if that was true, since he hadn’t talked to her in three days.

“Let me know if you need help.”

Feeling bad for acting like a jerk, Cody divulged a bit more. “Wyatt stopped by a few days ago.”

“Oh, yeah? How’d that go?”

Cody held up his right hand and pointed to his bruised knuckles.

“Whoa. How does Wyatt look?”

“Probably a helluva lot worse than this.”

“What did he do to make you go off on him?”

Cody glanced around to make sure nobody was listening. “He accused me of trying to get Maddie in bed, among other things.”

“In other words, he was trying to pin his mistakes on you.”

“Exactly.”

“Was she there?”

“Yep. She witnessed the whole thing.”

“She still talking to you?”

We did a lot more than talk. “Not in the past few days, but I don’t think it’s because of that. We’ve both been busy with work.”

“Speaking of work, I’m prepared to offer her a job if she wants it.”

Cody’s eyes went wide. “Yeah?”

“Avery and I had a nice, long talk, and she convinced me.”

“I bet!” Jax wasn’t the easiest man to be with, but Avery had him right where she wanted him, wrapped around her little finger. I wouldn’t mind being wrapped around Maddie’s finger…

“Anyway, maybe we can all get together this weekend and discuss it.”

“All of us?” It sounded suspiciously like a double date, but he couldn’t imagine Jax playing matchmaker. This had Avery’s name written all over it.

Jax shrugged. “Avery thought the four of us could go out to dinner. She wants to get to know Maddie better, especially if they’re going to work together.”

“Makes sense to me.”

“Why don’t you ask your friend which day would work best and let me know?” Jax gave him a knowing smile and then walked away without awaiting a response. Cody watched him get into his truck and drive in the direction of the office and Avery.

Lucky bastard. He wished he were going to see Maddie tonight, but he had no idea if that would happen. At this rate, he might not see her until the weekend, and he didn’t know if he could make it that long.

Suddenly he had an idea. “Take a break!” he shouted to the crew.