by Hanna Hart
“What if Skylar finds out?”
Hunter laughed. “Good! I hope she does, and she goes insane with jealousy.”
Though his brother couldn’t see it, Jaxon started to nod. He was under no delusion that Skylar would come back to him. Especially not now that she was getting married.
He was still surprised that she was tying the knot. She had seemed perfectly happy not to when she was with Jaxon—she never even made it seem like a priority. He could even remember several occasions when she had given a playful roll of her eyes and joked about how her best friend was “newly shackled” after she’d gotten engaged.
Was marriage something Skylar had wanted all along?
If it was, she should have told Jaxon.
He wasn’t wild about the idea when they were first together.
He wasn’t wild about it at the end, either. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t committed to her. He had no intention of ever being with anyone else. They had started a family, they had promised forever, they had become parents. Wasn’t that what it meant to be a family?
After she left, Jaxon had obsessed over the word: Family.
A primary social group; parents and children. A unit who lived together, shared common attributes.
He, Skylar, and Sutton were family once.
“If you cancel now, you’ll look insane,” Hunter said with humor.
“How so?” Jaxon asked. “People get busy—stuff comes up.”
“Okay, hear me out. You canceling makes you look flaky,” his brother explained. “Second, it makes you sound like scared, or worse, like you aren’t over your ex yet.”
Jaxon wanted to say he wasn’t over Skylar, but pressed his lips together tightly, swallowing the words.
“Plus, you’ll hurt her feelings or make her think that you changed your mind or somehow figured she wasn’t worth your time. Now you’ve made the new girl with no friends feel bad about herself,” Hunter continued to ramble in his endless way. “Now add to the fact that she’s your next-door neighbor.”
“So?”
“So!” Hunter exclaimed with a laugh. “So, you don’t get involved with the neighbor unless you really mean it! This is someone you have to see every day. If you don’t go out with her—or if you do and it doesn’t work out—you’ll have to deal with her giving you the stink-eye and kicking over your garbage cans for the rest of your life.”
“She’s not going to kick over my garbage cans,” Jaxon chuckled. “Plus, the properties are pretty big. I doubt I’ll notice if she’s glaring at me.”
“You’ll feel the aura of her glare,” Hunter said.
“Her aura?” Jaxon mocked. “Rachel’s really got you with that yoga stuff, huh?”
“Her vibe then! Either way, you’ll bring the whole neighborhood down. Then you’ll have to move, and you’ll probably be father away from the ranch, which means you’ll be wasting more time in the car and spending more money on gas, which means you’ll be needlessly polluting the universe and adding to global warming and basically becoming the sole villain in the story of the destruction of our planet. Is that what you want?”
Jaxon shook his head, unable to fend off the tight grin on his lips.
“I will be the sole villain,” he repeated. “Of the world.”
“Yup.”
“Because I didn’t take my neighbor out on a date?” Jaxon asked.
“Mm-hmm,” his brother confirmed.
“Big stakes here.”
“Now you finally understand what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Hunter cracked up. “You need to take this girl out!”
“You are insane,” Jaxon enunciated. “You know this, right?”
“I do, yes,” Hunter confirmed.
In the background of Hunter’s call, Jaxon heard his sister-in-law shout, “I tell him every day!”
“Yeah, well, tell her she’s crazy, too,” Jaxon said. “Thanks, man.”
“Let me know how it goes, okay?”
“Alright,” Jaxon nodded. “I’ll text you later.”
Jaxon could feel his body wash over with nerves. He looked back at his reflection and marveled at how old he suddenly felt.
He was only twenty-five, but he felt as though he had lived his life in sections.
Childhood, spending endless amounts of time with friends and family.
His teenage years, still overloaded with social groups, but beginning life on the ranch.
Graduation, when he started working full-time at his father’s ranch.
Twenty-one—the year that he fought hard against moving away from Texas.
Then, in what was once his favorite chapter in life so far—the Skylar years.
And now, in what was quickly becoming his least favorite chapter—the single years.
Except he wasn’t single. He was a father now.
Going through a breakup when you have a toddler had its pros and cons.
The pros: Jaxon had someone to take care of; someone to keep him distracted; to keep him on schedule.
He had someone who endlessly craved his love.
He had someone to love right back.
The cons: Jaxon couldn’t mourn the loss of Skylar in the same way he would have if he weren’t a father. He couldn’t drink his cares away or fill his time with trips with friends or an endless string of girls.
He had to be responsible and put-together. He had to put Sutton first in everything.
He knew it was just a stupid date—a stupid date with somebody he actually liked—but it felt like he was opening up a new chapter in his life, and Jaxon wasn’t sure he was ready for that.
But apparently, he would be the world’s biggest monster if he didn’t—so said his brother.
Jaxon picked Madelyn up and the two drove thirty minutes out of town to the nearest movie theatre. They caught a new romantic comedy, which they both enjoyed. Afterward, they went to a little Greek place for dinner.
Making conversation with Madelyn was easy. She was beautiful and fun to talk to, which only scared Jaxon more.
“So, you have a big family, huh?” Madelyn asked as she cut into her spinach-stuffed spanakopita.
“Huge,” he said, wide-eyed. “Five brothers, one sister, two crazy parents.”
“Did you ever wish you had a smaller family?”
Jaxon thought about it, then shook his head. “No. It was all I knew. Plus, I was one of the youngest, so I had a little more space and attention than the rest of my brothers did.”
“Follow up,” she said, throwing a finger into the air. “As we all know, every parent has a favorite child—”
“No, they don’t,” he interrupted with a laugh.
“Sure, they do!” she giggled. “It doesn’t mean that they love one of their kids more, it just means they like one of their kids more.”
“That’s insane,” he said, laughing again. He couldn’t imagine acting that way if he had another child.
“Come on!” she urged him. “You know it’s true, deep down. Who are your parents’ favorites?”
“Not a clue,” he said, refusing to answer.
Madelyn scrunched up her face in mock-annoyance, crossing her arms at her date. It was cute, and it made Jaxon smile.
“Alright, alright,” he said. “Well, if I had to take a stab at it, I would say my mom’s favorite is probably Phoenix. Without a doubt. They’ve always been close.”
“She must be proud of his musical success,” she said with a nod.
“I think that’s the part of his life that worried her the most, to be honest. But yeah, she’s proud, but he could have just done the ranching thing and she would have been just as jazzed to brag about him.”
“And what about your dad?” Madelyn asked. “Any favorites?”
“That’s a hard one. If he favors any of us, he doesn’t show it. Maybe Hunter? Maybe the oldest, Jett?” he shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
Madelyn raised her brows in surprise. “Then, what about you? Do you have a favorite si
bling?”
“Me and Kennedy, that’s my sister, we’ve always been pretty close. We’re the closest in age, so...” he trailed off. “Hunter’s pretty cool, too.”
“Any sibling rivalries?” she asked.
Jaxon smirked.
“Aha!” Madelyn exclaimed, pointing a finger across the table in success.
“No, no ‘aha!’” he chuckled. “There are ones I’m not especially close to, I guess. I used to have no use for my oldest brother, Jett. He’s the one who stepped in to make sure I ended up with a ranch, but I really respect him now. He helped me a lot after I moved here.”
She shook her head knowingly and said, “Everybody has a favorite,” in a sing-song voice before dipping back into their shared plate of hummus.
“What about you?” he asked. “Any siblings?”
“Only child,” she said as though she were saying, “Guilty as charged!”
“Mom bailed before she could have anymore. I mean...” Madelyn trailed off, then shrugged. “Maybe she did have more kids, but I wouldn’t know one way or the other.”
“That’s rough. I guess that narrows down your favorite parent, at least?”
“No, not really. Dad’s...well, he has problems,” she said flatly. “But that’s a whole other story.”
“I’m sorry, that sucks.”
“You have a favorite parent?” she asked in return.
“They’re both fine. Mom’s kinda strict, kinda nosey, but she means well. Dad’s...well, he’s quiet. He’s a hard worker, expects a lot from us running the ranches. But I’ve never been someone who crashes under pressure, so it’s cool.”
“My grandma was my stand-in parent,” Madelyn offered. “She was...kind of amazing. She wasn’t your typical grandma. She wasn’t judgmental over anything, and believe me, I gave her a lot she could have been judgmental about.”
“Were you a wild child, Maddie?” he teased.
She smiled. “I am definitely not someone who learns from other people’s mistakes.”
“You have to make them for yourself?” he joked.
“Exactly. What about you? Any big doozies in your life?”
“Nah,” he shrugged. “I left that up to my other brothers. I mean, did I go to parties in high school that I probably shouldn’t have? Yeah, sure. But I’ve never tipped a car or ended up in jail or on some crazy bender. Clearly, I’m no match for the Queen Rebel over here.”
“Subject change,” she declared happily. “What’s your biggest pet peeve?”
Jax leaned forward, thinking, and then snapped his finger. “People who say ‘Ew!’ to the food you’re about to eat.”
“Oh!” she said excitedly, adding, “People who eat food off your plate without asking.”
“People who use a thousand hashtags on a single post,” he said.
“People who say, ‘Let’s hang out soon!’ and then when you actually try to hang out with them, they act shocked or surprised,” she snorted.
“When someone starts talking over you when you’re still in the middle of a story.”
“Oh, oh! When you’re telling someone about your dream and they interrupt you just to tell you about a weird dream they had,” Madelyn giggled.
The two of them continued to laugh and once again he marveled at how easy it was to be around her.
“I’ve got my ultimate pet peeve,” he announced, and she leaned in. “The misuse of the word love.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“People throw that word around a lot. Love. People love bagels, yet they also love their spouse. If you’re telling me you love me more than anything and in the next breath, talk about how you love pizza or would die for pizza, how am I supposed to feel about that?”
“I mean, being on the same playing field as pizza is a really high bar,” she said with a wink.
Looking across the table, Madelyn was so beautiful and so exciting to be around, but he couldn’t help but wonder what he was getting himself into by opening his heart up again.
Skylar said she loved him. She said she loved him more than anything—more than cookies, more than the feeling of taking your socks off at the end of the day, more than air.
Inevitably, she lied, and he didn’t know if he could put himself through that again. Especially not now that he had Sutton.
8
Madelyn
Tribeca was only a two-hour drive south. This might have seemed like a long journey to some, but it was a relaxing drive for Madelyn.
She met her contact, Sarah Manning, at her uncle’s New York office in Manhattan. The two of them hit it off right away and weren’t that far apart in age.
Days later, Madelyn drove back to Tribeca early in the morning to catch her client’s husband, Daniel Monroe.
Daniel was a thirty-one-year-old accountant who had been married for seven years. His wife suspected that he was having an affair, and Madelyn and Sarah were tasked with following him around for most of the day.
Their inspection of the suspected cheater had been unproductive so far. She’d driven to Manhattan almost every day this week, starting early in the mornings and getting in late at night.
“If it keeps going like this, I’m going to have to rent a room here in the city,” Madelyn said.
“Ah, we’ll get him,” Sarah said, stretching back in her seat.
“What if he isn’t doing anything?” Madelyn asked. “I mean, we’ve heard from his wife pretty regularly. Seems like he headed home right when he should of every day this week. He doesn’t take especially long breaks at work.” She shrugged. “Maybe the wife is being paranoid.”
“Nah,” Sarah said in her hard, knowing way. “He’s a cheater. You can tell.”
“How’s that?” Madelyn asked.
“He’s handsome,” her partner said. “Arrogantly handsome.”
“So?”
“I can just sense it from him,” Sarah continued. “He’s cheating. They’re always cheating.”
Madelyn nodded. She very rarely had friends break up without some sort of infidelity finding its way to the center of it all. Still…
“That’s not true,” she said.
Sarah turned her head to her partner and cocked a curious brow. “You name me one relationship where someone wasn’t screwing around before it ended.”
“Mine,” Madelyn said.
Sarah backed down, her eyes briefly flashing with sympathy. Then she resumed her patented Sarah know-it-all stance and said, “He probably had a girl on the side and you just didn’t know about it.”
“No,” Madelyn said firmly. “Sometimes there are just…complicated situations that drive people apart.”
Her ex, Travis Pollitt, had shaggy dark hair, blue eyes, and adorable dimples that formed in his cheeks when he smiled.
The two met when she was twenty, he was twenty-seven.
They met on the job, only they hadn’t worked together.
Travis hired her uncle’s firm to do a background check on his father’s new young fiancée.
Travis suspected the woman was only after his father’s money or a green card.
He had been right.
She had been working on the case with another investigator, Bernie. After only a month of working together, Madelyn was the one to present the final verdict on their investigation, alone.
“There’s a definite possibility that she’s only after a green card,” she explained to him. “We’ve tracked her bank account and it looks like she’s been sending your dad’s money to an account in the Philippines.”
Travis raised a brow and looked down at the tablet she held in her lap.
“Who has she been sending it to?” he asked calmly.
“Her boyfriend,” Madelyn said. “His name is Joshua Rizalino. They’ve been together for fifteen years.”
Travis nodded, unsurprised by the revelation.
“I knew I couldn’t trust her,” he said with a laugh. “Now I have to find some polite way to tell my dad I’ve been s
pying on his fiancée.”
“I don’t think there’s a polite way to do that,” she said with a laugh.
They met at Travis’ house, making themselves comfortable on his couch.
He set the tablet on the coffee table in front of them and turned to her, offering a besotted smile.
“So…” he began slowly. “Case closed.”
“Yep,” she mumbled.
“Does that mean I don’t get to see you anymore, Maddie?”
Her arms erupted in goosebumps.
“Don’t get involved with a client.” This was a warning echoed throughout the firm. It could be easy to get wrapped up with a client since you were spending so much time obsessing over their personal life, but she couldn’t help herself. She and Travis had a connection she had never felt before.
“Not necessarily,” she said coyly.
“Good,” he said. “Because I would hate to think this was the end of the road for us. I like you, Maddie.”
“I like you, too,” she said breathlessly.
He ran his hand along her waist and pulled her close to him on the couch, pressing his lips against hers in a soft, warm, dreamlike kiss.
The kissing continued, and he guided her down on the couch where the two stayed for hours.
She and Travis were together for two years after that.
Things were good, until he decided that—
“Look, look,” Sarah said suddenly, ripping Madelyn from her memories.
Madelyn looked over and saw Daniel slipping out of work early. He left on foot, meaning Madelyn and Sarah would have no choice but to follow behind him the same way.
They walked casually, discreetly using their phones to record and take photos, and followed him into a divey Chinese restaurant.
He sat down at a long table with about a dozen people. Curiously, he sat next to a petite Asian woman.
Sarah and Madelyn stayed at the restaurant for over an hour, eating dumplings and soup and endlessly sipping tea as they kept a careful watch over the table.
The most he did was brush a stray hair from the woman’s face. It was clearly a romantic gesture, but there wasn’t anything substantial from the interaction, either.
“We’ll get him,” Sarah said, sounding somewhat discouraged at the end of their night.
