Maxed Steel
Page 20
“Hey, Saylor. I’m Lindsey, your mommy’s best friend.”
“Look at meee!” Saylor mimics Cia’s reaction, and we all crack the fuck up.
“Question,” Cia says.
“Shoot,” I return as I kiss the top of Mila’s head as she and Saylor rub noses.
“Why wasn’t it funny when I said it?”
“It was, Cia.” I throw my arm around her shoulders and pull her into a half-hug. “It totally was.”
“You’re so weird,” she huffs.
As soon as our feet hit the bottom porch stair, the door flies open, and they all yell, “Surprise!”
I look down at Mila, who looks shook until Saylor throws her hands up in the air and yells, “Surprise!”
I look over at Cia, and her lips are swishing from side to side.
“It’s okay to laugh; they won’t mind, and they won’t change it, either.”
“A little extra, isn’t it?”
“No, nope, not at all.” I laugh. “It’s a lot extra.”
Mom waves us inside. “We have lasagna and garlic knots that Momma Joe brought over.”
Mila asks Saylor, “You wanna go in with Daddy?”
“Yep.” She dives into my arms.
“You ready to meet more family?”
“Big or little?” she asks.
I glance at Mila, seeking clarification, and she shrugs.
Taking the stairs, I tell Saylor, “How about you tell us when we get in there and meet everyone?”
Cresting the stairs, I see three South Shore paddle boards standing in a row, each personalized—Max, Mila, and Cia. Up a few more stairs, I see a little one with Saylor’s name on it. On the ground in front of them, a sign. “Our Forever Home” is etched on the sign that look like the boards.
Saylor slaps my cheeks on either side and turns my head to look at her. “What dat, Max Daddy?”
“They’re paddle boards, Saylor girl. Those are one of the coolest toys on the planet.”
She starts shimming, and I squat down to set her on her little feet.
“Hi, Saylor, I’m your grandma Carly.”
“Hi. I Saylor.” She points toward the paddle boards. “I play toys?” She takes Mom’s hand.
“I would love to.”
She pulls Mom over to the boards, and Mom gets down on her knees.
“This one says Saylor.”
Saylor jumps up and down, clapping. “For me?”
“Yeah, precious girl, it’s for you.”
Saylor stretches her arms and jumps into Mom’s. They hug for a beat, and then Saylor leans back, her hands on her face, and says, “Thank you, Gigi Carly.”
“Love that.” Bella laughs as she makes her way over to Mila and me. She gives Mila a hug, and I watch Mila smile as she hugs her back. “She’s totally adorable.”
“Where are your kids?”
“We decided that, if they were here, none of us would get even a second of attention from Cia or Saylor,” Kiki says as she gives Cia a hug. “Nice to meet you.”
Cia hugs her back. “You, too.”
She gives me a peck on the cheek and says, “Sweet little crew you got here.”
“Thanks, Kiki,” I say, practically feeling my chest puff out.
Kiki steps up to Mila as Bella walks over to Cia.
“Hey, Cia. How old are you?” Bella asks as she hugs her.
“Sixteen.” She hugs Bella back.
“Time to get her tatted up, Max.” Bella then kisses me on the cheek.
“She needs to commit first.” I wink at Cia.
“Don’t let him do it.” Dad’s voice comes from behind us. “Heard he had an unsteady hand.”
“Do what exactly?” Cia asks, and Kiki and I look at each other.
“Oh, it’s a tradition, apparently.” Dad throws an arm around Cia and looks disapprovingly at Kiki and me. “Show her, kids.”
“No shame in my game.” Kiki holds up her middle finger. “Fly that thing, Maxie.”
“No, I think you got it covered.”
“Um, so, I’m usually quicker than this”—Cia shakes her head—“and I got nothing.”
I reach over and turn Kiki’s finger. “At sixteen, we get finger ink.”
“Nice placement. What does it say?”
“Take your shades off, kid.” Dad winks. “We know what you’re hiding. There are no secrets in this family.”
She slowly takes off her shades, and everyone cringes.
Dad swings his head toward me. “This little fuck best be walking with a limp. He is walking with a limp, right?”
“No,” Mila says. “We decided to let it go.”
His eyebrows jump up, and he looks back at me. “No?”
“He wasn’t the one who jumped me. His girls did,” Cia blurts out.
“Ranger took care of it. And Mila and I are trying to figure out our next step.”
“Don’t want to step on any toes, but C and I have plenty of time to hang with any of our kids.” He looks at Cia. “Commit. I’ll do your ink, too.”
“What the hell?” Kiki laughs. “We got our asses chewed for doing it when you all found out.”
“Yeah, lot of good that did.” Dad laughs as he steps up to Mila and looks down at her. “You’re shorter than I expected.”
“Sorry to disappoint you on go,” Mila jokes.
“Not disappointed at all. You’ll be good for Max. No doubt he’ll be good for you.” He opens his arms. “Bring it in, short stuff.”
While Mila and Dad are hugging, I hear, “Who dat?”
A grin spreads across Dad’s face as he lets go of Mila and turns around. He looks down at her. “Hey, Saylor girl.”
She hops off Mom’s lap and steps in front of him, craning her neck to look up at him and then cocking her head to the side.
Dad smiles. “I’m Max’s dad, so that makes me—”
“Max Daddy?” She smiles and starts jumping up and down. “You Big Daddy!”
“You wanna tell Gigi that?”
Everyone laughs, and Saylor joins in as she lifts her hands up, wiggles her fingers, and jumps up. Dad catches her, and then her little hands land on his face, and she giggles as she scratches at his stubble.
“Saylor girl”—Dad shakes his head—“you’re absolutely adorable.”
“Big Daddy”—she grins as she hugs him—“I am.”
He closes his eyes and smiles. “Love you, Saylor Steel.”
“Love you, Big Daddy.”
“Group picture.” Lindsey sniffs as she steps out from behind Mila. “In front of the boards.”
* * *
Lying in my old bed at night, Saylor clonked out on my chest, Mila on her side, her head propped up on her hand, just staring at us, she rubs her back.
“I can’t wait until this is our every day,” she whispers.
“Gonna be.” I kiss the top of Saylor’s head. “Don’t wanna fight with you, Blue; wanna give you options.”
“Yeah?” She laughs softly.
“We can either go balls to the wall, get the house done in two weeks, and spend a mint. I can drop out for a semester and—”
“Not a chance.” She pushes my hair back. “You promised Gigi Carly.”
“Or we rent the place Dad found, close to JU. It’s in the same school district the house is in, so Cia can start school there and not even walk into Bayside High.”
“This is insane.”
“This is us, Mila.” I kiss Saylor’s hair again then take Mila’s hand and kiss it. “And straight-up, this is beautiful.”
She leans in and kisses me. “Love you. C, please.”
I can’t hide the smile. “We Forever Steel, Blue?”
Lips back on mine, she says, “No other way I wanna be.”
~~~ The End ~~~
Epilogue
Christmas Break
Mila
Looking around the warehouse, I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of peace and love.
Max Steel, my husband o
f three months, surprised me. More accurately, blindsided me by working on the warehouse while I was knee-deep and completely obsessed with saving money and finding the best deals on every piece of furniture, appliance—hell, even the building materials—as we took our time finishing the house.
Looking around the shelves full of items that my “assistant,” Lindsey, and Cia, Saylor, Carly, Momma Joe, Aunt Pam, and all the Steel babes have obsessively clipped coupons, shopped, and stocked. I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of peace and love knowing that families in the most poverty-stricken areas of Jersey will get more help.
Lindsey smiles as she looks around. “Have I told you how much I love you for teaching me this?”
“You have.” I laugh. “Have I told you how much I love you for being my best friend in the entire world?”
“How are my girls?” Max’s voice echoes from behind us as he walks through the door separating my part of the warehouse and his part, which is much smaller, that will be a surf shop opening in the spring.
“Fat and happy.” Lindsey laughs as she rubs her hand over her swollen belly.
“Same,” I say, doing the same to mine.
Yep, Lindsey and I are both knocked up.
“You gonna let Boo—”
“Nope,” she cuts him off.
“He’s got a truck. Could help with the transportation,” Max says, still trying to force a love connection between the two of them as he wraps his arms around me and rubs my belly.
“Jack Daniels and I would prefer to avoid the idiot for as long as we can.” She grabs one of his hands and puts it on her belly. “Besides, I have you.”
I look over my shoulder at him and smile. “You’re a good man, Max Steel.”
“I’m a lucky man, Mila Steel.” He kisses me quickly then steps back, his nose flaring a bit.
I love that he’s completely turned on by my pregnant body. Well, I do now that I’m not hurling over the sink and have him poking me in the ass with a hard-on while trying to hold my hair back.
Lindsey hasn’t been sick once, but she’s dealing with Boone and parents who have pretty much disowned her, so my Max rubs her belly on occasion.
“I’m gonna go grab the girls so they can be here to help out when everyone gets here.”
“We here, Daddy!” Saylor yells as she runs across the concrete floor and dives into his arms.
It only took a few weeks to lose the Max Daddy. I kind of miss it. Max? Not so much.
“You ready to do the good good?”
“Seriously, Max? That just sounds wrong.”
“Mind out of the gutter, Cia Steel, or Santa is gonna—”
Saylor covers his mouth. “Santa loves Cia.”
“Nom, nom, nom, nom.” He pretends to eat her hand, and she laughs hard, so hard.
“Can my boyfriend come over and help us load the vehicles?” Cia asks me.
“No,” Max says as I say, “Yes.”
“I know you all are saving for college, but you better save for a therapist, too.” She stomps away.
Max grins, and I shake my head at him.
Reality is that she has a ton of respect for him, and it hurt at first when I realized how desperately she wanted a male role model, but there couldn’t be a better one than him.
I still don’t play on social media, but I have a presence on Max’s and on Lindsey’s.
I watch as Max whispers in Saylor’s ear and sets her down.
Giggling, she runs over and kisses my belly then Lindsey’s, and then she takes one of each of our hands and pulls us over to the two comfy chairs that Max set up in the corner when we started spending more time out here and insisted we put our feet up. I would have fought it if Lindsey didn’t enjoy it so much.
“I rub your belly?” Saylor asks Lindsey.
“It would be the best Christmas present ever,” Lindsey croons.
I hear Max’s cell phone chime and watch as he smiles while walking over to hit the overhead door button, and the doors lift.
When a black Ford backs in, Lindsey sighs. “Do you think he’d sing to me?”
“Uncle Brand sings on the radio,” Saylor tells her. “And cousin Cooper is his boy.”
“With Aunt Kiki, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
When Justice, Tags, Tricks, Ranger, Tobias, and Amias come in, they are followed by Cyrus, Zandor, Xavier, and finally Jase, Saylor is done with belly detail and running across the floor, yelling, “Big Daddy here!”
Jase squats down and catches her when she launches herself at him. He scoops her up and twirls her around.
“We’re missing one,” Lindsey whispers.
“It’s disturbing that you notice that immediately.”
“The sexy Spanish guy, Matteo.” She wags her brows. “Where is he?”
“Remember, I told you he has a heart defect?”
She nods, and her smile falls.
“He’s been saving his energy for his boys. Things like this get to be too much.”
“And his wife?”
“She’s amazing. Strong.”
“Good. Now, let’s just sit back and allow me to eye-bang all these hot—”
“Married men,” I cut her off as I push myself up.
“Exactly. A girl can fantasize.”
“You do that. I’m going to go direct.”
When the kids and women come in, the whole place gets much louder as I walk over to Cia. “What do you think?”
She shrugs. “It’s all right.”
“It sure is.”
* * *
Christmas Eve
“We pushing publish?” Max asks as we stare at the computer screen after uploading the heavily edited combination of all the notes Carly found in Max’s room when she was cleaning one day. Notes he saved that we passed back and forth to one another for a solid seven months before anything at all happened.
I can’t say I hate Marcello Effisto anymore. The reality is that I made a shitty choice and believed him based on my low as fuck self-esteem. But, had I not wanted what Max calls a palette cleanse, I wouldn’t have slept … or sailed, with Max that night, and Saylor wouldn’t have been born. After hearing about him and Tris, and seeing his struggle, now I actually feel sorry for him.
He had love once, and he pushed it away.
Had Max not been Max, and had he walked away after the party where I tore him up, I could see myself ending up a lot like him—miserable. But, thankfully, he pushed. And I’m even more thankful that love lives everywhere that we are, and that, I, too, have fallen in love with love as Max has been since he was young enough to remember anything.
I will also constantly pick on him about being a momma’s boy, but I also know that, because of the way he truly loves, adores, and respects Carly, as role modeled through his father, I love him even more.
And now, here we sit, having cowritten a short, hot HEA, to publish on Amazon’s app reading platform.
“It’s what your mom wants for Christmas, so yes, we push publish.”
He wags his eyebrows and asks, “Do you think the world is ready for Mila Maximus’s brand of good good?”
“I do.”
“On three, two, one…”
Together, we hit publish.
“Now, if the crew wants to know who fixed my fuck-up on the piercing, they can read the book.”
“And what if your wife wants to know?” I pry a bit.
“All she has to do is ask.”
“Max, who do I have to thank for your piercings?”
“Momma Joe, of course.”
I laugh pretty hard but quietly for a few minutes, —okay, more than a few— before he asks, “You ready for bed?”
Smiling at the tree and remembering how I envisioned our Christmas Eves to be, in bed, making love as the girls sleep, I nod and look back at him. “Most definitely.
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Books by MJ Fields
MJ Fields
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