by Hanna Hart
“Right...right,” he said.
“You’re mad,” she stated.
“Yeah. I’m mad. All I ever wanted was for you to be honest with me and now we’ve had this conversation twice. Twice you couldn’t just tell me the truth!”
“What was I supposed to say, Jaxon?” she asked meekly, looking back and forth from his eyes. “If you were me, what would you have said? Was I supposed to march up to you and say, ‘Hi, I’m your new neighbor and by the way, I’m also the mother of your son’?”
“Oh, hey, I don’t know—maybe say nothing! Because you gave up your kid and surrendered the right to come back and make decisions in his life,” he snapped.
She felt her face go hot. From a legal standpoint, he was right. But her situation with Sutton was circumstantial. She wasn’t some careless mother who gave him up or used his adoption to get money for herself. She loved him, and she had every intention of keeping him until her illness overtook her body.
“I was sick,” she said, trying not to get angry. Nothing would be accomplished by her getting defensive with him, but she wanted Jaxon to understand that she never wanted to give her child away.
“Jax,” she said, softer then. “I thought I was dying. If I knew I was going to survive, then I would never have given Sutton up, not for a second! And you have to understand that I didn’t know what I was coming into when I met you. I didn’t know if you had a wife and you guys were going to be this big happy family with Sutton. I didn’t know how to do this anymore than I do right now.”
“So that’s what this was to you? You came here and weaseled your way into a relationship with me?”
“I didn’t weasel my way in,” she snapped.
His face contorted into a suspicious frown as he asked, “To what end? To take Sutton from me?”
Madelyn snapped her lips shut, feeling caught.
“At first,” she began, and Jaxon interrupted her with a bitter, sad laugh.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he scoffed under his breath.
“I just wanted to meet him; to see him and make sure he was okay—and yes! Of course, I thought about taking him home and making him mine again. I wanted him back. Wouldn’t you?”
Jaxon turned his profile to her, meeting her eyes from a sideways glance. He set his jaw in frustration but didn’t answer.
Her featured softened as she said, “But then I met you, and...”
“Tricked me into loving you,” he spat.
“No. I met you and saw how much you love Sutton and how much he loves you, and I knew I could never take him away,” she said. “Not in a million years. But I just wanted to be a part of his life, no matter how big or small of a role that was for me.”
Jaxon ran his hands along his head and let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m trying to understand you, Madelyn. This is just really hard for me right now. I can’t help but think that you...you used me.”
“Maybe at first, a little,” she admitted. “But then I fell in love with you and then I didn’t know what to do. If I told you, I knew you’d be furious and react just the way you’re reacting now. I knew you’d think that what we had was fake and that I was just some conniving girl who was trying to ruin your life.”
“You should have told me,” he said firmly.
“I didn’t know how.”
“Let me ask you something. You say your feelings were real and that you loved me. That you weren’t using me to get close to Sutton, right?”
“Right,” she said.
“So, say we started dating, and it didn’t work out. We didn’t get along as great as we thought, and you’re not into the relationship.”
Madelyn licked her lips nervously and felt the heat of the summer air rush through her body in a humid flush. “Okay,” she said slowly, drawing the word out.
“Would you have broken up with me?” he asked curiously. “Or would you keep seeing me so that you could be around Sutton?”
Madelyn let out a long exhale but couldn’t bring herself to answer.
“That’s what I thought,” he said smugly.
“That’s not fair,” she pleaded. “Ideally, I would have told you by then, and it wouldn’t be an issue!”
“So, you did plan on telling me?”
“I mean, eventually, yes,” she insisted.
“And you waited until my kid was almost dying to finally tell me some information that could have been really important?”
“Jax,” she said, feeling her whole body weakening. “I’m sorry.”
Jaxon met her eyes once more, but the softness she was used to seeing in him was gone. He was just as angry as she feared he would be.
“I don’t know what else to say to you. I love you, and I’m sorry,” she said, giving way to tears and holding her hands over her face in embarrassment. “I’m so, so sorry everything happened like this. I know I should have been honest with you, but I just missed him so much. You don’t know what it feels like to be without him, to be missing this little piece of yourself all the time, every day.”
Jaxon considered her words and his anger seemed to fade, but he said nothing in response.
A long flow of silence passed between them. Jaxon tilted his head up and looking at the dusky sky as he finally said, “So...what do we do now?”
“I think that’s up to you,” she said.
He kept his head skyward as he asked, “Are you going to take me to court?”
“No. I would never do that. You’re his father, through and through. I know that.”
Jaxon swallowed.
She knew it was right. Jaxon was the only parent Sutton knew. She knew he didn’t remember her—maybe he felt a connection to her, but he hardly remembered her enough to piece their lives together.
It was Jaxon who he relied on, the one who taught him to speak and walk. The one who took him to ride horses, to splash in the pool, and the one he went to when he was upset. Jaxon was his dad.
“I’m the stranger in his life, as much as I wish that weren’t the truth,” she said, pained by her own words. “That was my decision, you’re right, and I’m going to have to live with it. I will respect whatever choice you make about how we proceed,” she paused. “With us, and with Sutton.”
Jaxon wanted the best for Sutton, and as far as Madelyn was concerned, the best thing for Sutton was to have his mother back in his life. But if he felt it was too much for Sutton to comprehend at this point, then she would respect that because she believed to her very core that Jaxon knew the best way to love, care for, and protect her son.
So if he didn’t want to be with her anymore, she could accept that. Her heart would be broken, but she would accept it.
And if he said that Sutton wasn’t ready to know his mother so soon after losing Skylar and being diagnosed as ill, then she would wait.
She would stay the girl next door.
19
Jaxon
When something new happened in Jaxon’s life, he needed time to process. That was exactly what he had been doing since finding out that his son was sick, and his girlfriend had lied to him—again.
Sutton had been home from the hospital for two weeks and was doing better than ever.
The news of Sutton’s condition, sickle cell disease, hit Jaxon hard. No parent wanted their child to be unwell—parenting was hard enough when your child was healthy.
Now there seemed to be new rules and codes to live by. Sutton had a care plan he had to stick to for the rest of his life, and it was Jaxon’s job to made sure he stayed well.
Jaxon took time off from the ranch and spent his first few nights back home in a sleepless daze. He was up every couple of hours, checking on his son.
He remembered back when he lived at home. It seemed like his mother checked on him constantly. He had to start locking his bedroom door at seventeen just so she wouldn’t barge in and check to see if he were still breathing.
That was what it meant to be a parent—to worry and nurture for the rest of your l
ife.
Even when your kids begged you to stop.
Jaxon had a lot more respect for his mother now than he did back in his teenage years.
Mothers truly had one of the hardest jobs in the world.
His thoughts twisted to Madelyn.
The girl next door.
Sutton’s mother.
The keeper of secrets.
The pair hadn’t spoken much since they left the hospital weeks ago. They would occasionally speak about Sutton’s health at the border of their lawns, but she had stayed true to her word and kept her distance until Jaxon figured out what he wanted to do.
He wanted to do the fair and right thing and give her access to his son. Their son. But everything had been such a mess between them, and he was afraid that she was going to try to take Sutton from him.
And to his surprise, he was desperately afraid she didn’t love him—that their relationship had been some strange farce.
The first week, Jaxon was angry and confused. He didn’t like being surprised by the girl he had been trying so hard to trust for a second time. He didn’t like having the rug pulled from underneath him.
For the last two years, he’d been the one who had known everything there was to know about Sutton, and to know Madelyn had been fooling him for the whole summer didn’t feel great.
It felt awful, actually.
Still, his heart was in it now. He loved this girl, and it didn’t take long for him to start missing her. Not only did he miss spending time with her, but he began to feel guilty about keeping her from Sutton.
He hadn’t purposely kept them apart; he just needed space to figure things out.
His heart ached every day for her, so one day, he decided he’d had enough. He was ready to invite this girl back into his life, but when he went to her house, she wasn’t there.
The more he watched, the more he learned about her whereabouts. She would leave at five in the morning nearly every day and wouldn’t come home until two or three in the afternoon. He didn’t know where she went—he wasn’t a stalker. But her daily disappearing act left him unsettled.
Then one morning, while perusing the West End Market, he saw her there.
Madelyn was wearing white overalls and a black t-shirt underneath. Her long, dark hair was pulled up into an oversized bun and her face was clean of any makeup.
She looked absolutely beautiful.
She was walking in front of a fruit stand, lugging box after box into a neat little pile.
Her face lit up, awkward at first, then pleased, when she caught sight of him.
“Hey,” he said in surprise.
“Hey,” she said as she lugged a wooden crate of peaches up to her chest.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Madelyn offered a curious expression and looked down at the box she was carrying. “Working,” she said with an amused laugh. “You?”
“I’m uh—I was—I’m here with the chef from the ranch; we were just seeing what’s in season and placing some orders for a wedding coming up,” he shook his head in disbelief. “What do you mean you’re working here?”
“I quit my old job,” she said, suddenly finding her shoes incredibly interesting. “Just...too much drama there.”
“Right,” he nodded. “I mean, good! I’m happy to hear that. And now you’re...?”
“Working at the markets,” she finished with a laugh. “It’s simple, but I like it. The people here are so nice and welcoming; it’s like I’ve already become a part of their little family. Early hours, though.”
“I bet,” he said, feeling warmer the longer he spoke with her. “Do you need any help?”
“Oh, this? No, thank you. Besides, if the boss sees me soliciting help from a customer, it wouldn’t look good.”
“Ah,” he waved his hand. “If anyone gives you heck, just send them my way.”
“Because they could never be mad at the eccentric billionaire,” she teased.
He raised both brows, surprised at how easy it was to talk to her again. “Is that what they call me? The eccentric billionaire?”
“No,” she said wryly. “That what I call you.”
He chuckled. “Why?”
“Because! You’re rich, and every rich guy needs some eccentricity.”
“Oh yeah?” he said. “What should mine be?”
“You should start wearing a monocle,” she said with a grin. “Maybe carry around one of those dancing canes with the diamond on top?”
“A monocle?” he laughed. “Okay, this was supposed to be eccentric, not crazy!”
And just like that, they seemed like them again.
Talking to her was so easy.
They only talked for ten minutes or so, but she told him that she didn’t want anything to do with her uncle’s agency anymore. She wanted to settle into life in Kerhonkson.
By the time he got home that night, he knew he wanted to be with her again. He didn’t want to be angry anymore, and he didn’t want another day to go by without Sutton getting to know his mother.
She had a lot of work to do to prove to Jaxon that he could trust her, but without even knowing it, she had already won some of it back.
First, she quit her job, just as she said she was going to do. Not only did she leave her dangerous profession behind, but she chose to do humble work and embrace the town that Jaxon loved.
Second, and most importantly, she respected him.
She’d given him all the time in the world to be alone with Sutton; to grieve his son’s health, and to get his emotions together. She gave him privacy, and never once acted like she had more rights to Sutton just because she was biologically his.
And in the end, he reminded himself...if Sutton’s mother could have been anybody, wasn’t Madelyn the perfect choice?
Shouldn’t he adore that that woman he loved was connected to the child he loved?
Jaxon had his time to be wild, and now was the time to grow roots. He’d already started in Kerhonkson with the ranch and with Sutton. Madelyn was the missing puzzle piece that made everything make sense to him.
This was a good thing, he told himself.
It had to be.
And Jaxon would know best. He’d spent many years watching his brothers fall in and out of love.
He felt the love his eldest brother had for his first wife before falling madly in love with Page.
He watched Bennett Brooks reunite with his old girlfriend, June, and make her his wife.
While in a period of grief and mourning, Colt, his middle brother, married Shelby and had never seemed happier.
Then there was the never-ending saga of his brothers Phoenix and Hunter. The two men who had both been in love with Rachel Piers since they were children.
Jaxon remembered when Rachel left Phoenix and shacked up with Hunter.
He remembered Phoenix putting out his album Terrible, Beautiful Words—a record entirely devoted to loving and losing Rachel.
The turmoil it created in their family felt like it was going to last a lifetime.
But one day, the brothers forgave each other for everything that had gone wrong between them. They put family above heartache.
And that was exactly what Jaxon was going to do with Madelyn. He wanted to put family first, just like he had been taught to do his whole life.
That evening, he saw Madelyn on her porch, taking in the slowly cooling summer night air, and knew he had to talk to her.
He was practically buzzing with energy.
“Hey,” he said, nodding toward her, silently asking if he could come and join her.
Madelyn brightened and pushed one of her deck chairs out toward him.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Busy,” she said with a smile.
“Work?”
“Yeah. You?”
Jaxon shrugged. “Just got back at the ranch a couple of days ago. I’ve been taking time off to be with…”
“Right,” she said quietly. “
How is he doing?”
“Great,” he nodded. “Look, I’ve been thinking a lot about something you said to me back at the hospital.”
“What’s that?”
“You said…” he trailed off, unsure if he wanted to open up this can of worms. “You said that you were a stranger in his life.”
Madelyn fixed a thick strand of dark hair behind her ear and watched him expectantly.
“You’re not a stranger, Madelyn. You’re his mother.”
“I never got the chance to be his mother.”
“Maybe not,” he agreed. “But you have one now.”
She looked at him in surprise, unsure what to say.
“Jax,” she stammered out. “Look, I told you...whatever you wanted to do with Sutton, I would completely respect your decisions. You don’t have to—”
“I want you to be a part of his life,” he smiled. “Both of our lives.”
Madelyn abruptly stopped rocking in her chair and inhaled a surprised gasp. Her eyes spilled over with tears, but she kept her composure as she said, “What do you mean?”
“I love Sutton more than I have loved anything in my whole life. I love him in a way that I never thought was possible.”
She nodded. “I know you do.”
“And I love you,” he concluded warmly, taking her hand into his. “I fell for you so fast, and I couldn’t understand why. It was so unlike me. Now that I know you’re Sutton’s mother, it makes sense. He’s perfect, and so are you.”
“I am not perfect, Jax.”
“You are to me,” he said. “I want you to have shared custody of Sutton. I want to make it official.”
Madelyn couldn’t help herself. She started full-on crying then, hanging her head as if to say, “I don’t deserve this.”
“When I saw you at the market the other day, I couldn’t believe how different you were,” he said.
“It was just a job change,” she said.
“No. It was so much more than that. You looked...like you belong here. You belong here in Kerhonkson with Sutton and me. I see that now.”
“You do?”
