Unbound (Crimson Romance) by Nikkie Locke Read Free Book Online

convince her.

Chapter Seven
    The next morning started for Payten with the ringing of her phone. She groped blindly for the cordless on her nightstand.
    “What?” she grumbled, her face nearly buried in her pillow.
    “Payten?”
    “Yeah,” she answered, too asleep to recognize the caller’s voice.
    “It’s Maddie.”
    “Maddie. Right.” Missed that one, she thought. “What do you need?”
    “You to let me in.”
    “What?” Payten sat up in bed.
    “I’m on your porch. I’ve been knocking for like five minutes. And the key isn’t under the damn doormat.”
    “Oh.”
    She hung up the phone and went to open the door. Maddie looked as tired as Payten felt.
    “What is it?”
    Nothing, not even a tornado, could drag Maddie out of bed before noon when she was home. “The grapevine,” she answered with a slow smile.
    “What?”
    Maddie moved into the living room and plopped down in the recliner. “It seems that pretty Payten was spotted making out with a man on her front porch last night.”
    “Oh, God,” Payten groaned. She sank onto the couch across from Maddie.
    “That’s according to my mother who talked to your aunt who has been house-sitting for your parents. Your aunt caught the message off the answering machine after she — get this — bumped it,” Maddie explained.
    “Who left the message?”
    “Mrs. Henderson who heard from Mrs. Nelson who heard it from Ms. Taylor who was on the phone with Ms. Clarke last night when you were involved in said macking.”
    “No,” Payten whimpered, her hands over her eyes. This is what I get for buying the cute little house across the street from the town’s biggest gossip.
    “Yes. And, I know who it was.”
    Payten glared at her through the cracks in her fingers. “Maddie,” she warned.
    “Bridgett’s mom told my mom that Bridgett and Michael stayed to help you and Dean clean up.”
    “Maddie.”
    “Payten,” she mimicked. “You were standing on your porch last night making out with Dean Whitley!”
    Payten got up and headed toward her bedroom. “You’re sure it wasn’t Colonel Mustard in the library?”
    “My cousin,” Maddie exclaimed, following her. “My cousin and I have to hear it from my mother at seven in the freakin’ morning. Why didn’t you call?”
    “Seven? It’s seven?”
    Maddie shrugged. “About ten after or so.”
    “Shit! I overslept.”
    “So?”
    “So? So! I have a diner to run, and I’m not even dressed.”
    She darted to her closet and flung its doors open. She grabbed the first shirt and pair of jeans she saw.
    “God, Payten. You can’t wear that to see Dean.”
    Payten let out an exasperated breath. “I’m not going to see Dean. I’m going to the diner.”
    Maddie ignored her, moving to the closet. “He’s already there.”
    “Really?” she asked.
    “Yeah. Cooper called him.”
    “Oh.” Some of her excitement faded. “So he isn’t waiting for me?”
    Maddie laughed. “He’s been waiting for you since we started middle school, but that’s beside the point. Cooper called him because Mary Beth went into labor this morning.”
    “Oh, my God,” Payten exclaimed. “How is she?”
    Maddie shook her head. “No word yet, according to my mom. Go grab a shower. I’ll find you something to wear.”
    “Thanks.”
    She hopped into the shower, rushing through her morning routine. She stepped out of the shower, wrapped herself in a towel, and brushed her teeth quickly. She grabbed a ponytail holder before she stepped out of the bathroom.
    “What am I wearing?” she asked when she came into the bedroom.
    “This!”
    Payten winced at Maddie’s choice. Too short, too tight, and too revealing, the skirt and top would not have been her first choice. “Not happening. I have to wait tables all day, and I can’t do it in that.”
    “Oh.”
    Payten walked to her closet and considered her options. “How about this?”
    She showed Maddie a pair of faded jeans and an off-the-shoulder, gray-and-navy-striped