All Madison wants for Christmas is the same person who once wanted her. Free from the shackles of her broken heart, she's finally ready to give love another shot. But is Madi too late to win back the man of her dreams?
SEQUEL to The Heartbreak Hypot...
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After seeing where Madi came from, everything about her made sense.
The sprawling, sparkling ocean right at her back door. The fresh, salty smell of seawater that drifted up and down Main Street. The residents of her coastal hometown—some weaving in and out of glamorous boutiques in their expensive shoes and designer clothes, others racing to and from the beach with their boards to check out the surf. Seeing Madi at home didn't change the way I saw her. It confirmed it.
She came up behind me, handing me a cup of cocoa filled with tiny marshmallows that she'd bought at the other end of the market. It was a Capri tradition, she'd said; during the week of Christmas, whenever the sun went down, the coast of her hometown became a riot of food trucks and market stalls and giant bonfires that dotted the length of the beach. I'd offered to get the cocoa myself so that she could head to the foreshore and get a good spot for the fireworks, but she'd mumbled something about local's discount before insisting that it was her treat.
When it came to my best friend, I'd learned that it was best not to argue.
She lifted her carry cup and motioned to the opposite side of the festive stall I'd found myself in. It was lined with decorative wreaths and pillowcases embroidered with candy canes, and I'd hoped to find some last-minute presents for my parents. The type of parents who already had everything. But with so many couches, they were bound to need a new cushion or throw.
Right?
But it wasn't the goods that Madi was pointing to. She gestured to two teenage girls hovering by a craft table opposite us. When I glanced their way, they both looked down and giggled. Madi arched an eyebrow at me, smirking.
"Looks like you have yourself a little fan club," she mused, trying to sound casual as she led me out of the stall. But I knew her voice too well, and I knew that the soft inflection at the end of her sentence meant that she was teasing me.
She always did that. She always drew my attention to some innocent passer-by who she insisted was ogling me. Maybe she truly didn't realize that people looked at her in exactly the same way.
To put it simply, Madison Watson was the most beautiful person I'd ever met. Not just the most beautiful woman, and not just beautiful physically. She was a beautiful person, one who reminded me of every color of every sunset. Of a never-ending holiday. Of spontaneous trips to the beach and of lazy days on the sand. Of a place that existed in the minds of kids, a place where rules didn't exist and where you never had to grow up.
Madi was summer. She wasn't just beautiful, she was light. Even cloaked in her dark clothes, hiding her bright smile behind her loose curls, Madi was blinding. Striking. She liked to pretend that she was a snow queen, that she had a heart made from stone that she kept buried deep within her chest. But she wasn't encased in ice. She melted it. She was the sun, and everyone else existed to move around her.
