Maddox

by Lisa Helen Gray

  “I didn’t know that would happen. Let’s just see what Amelia says after.”

  “You’d better be right, otherwise I’ll find this fucker and go back on my word and end him.”

  I grimace. “It doesn’t end well. Look at me and Lily. Do you want that with you and Charlotte?”

  He runs a hand through his hair. “No. But I also don’t want her hurt either. She’s too kind, and I’m worried he’ll change her.” He pauses, stopping at the door that leads into the café. “It will be my fault. Since Paisley, the gym and the extra work, I’ve not had as much time to spend with her as I used to. I feel like shit, man.”

  “We won’t let that happen, Landon,” I assure him. “And this isn’t your fault. She must have known that at some point in your life you’d find a girl who took up your time.”

  “But I promised I’d always be there for her.”

  I clap him on the back. “I know, man. I know.” I push open the door, and stop, breathing in the sweet aroma. I turn back to Landon. “You are so fucking paying.”

  “Fuck!” he grouches, sulking behind me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  AMELIA

  The leaves rustle, the sun warm with a chilly breeze as I head across the road to Maddox’s. Yesterday, I had to go pick up Jasmine and go to my aunt’s for dinner with the kids, so I never got a chance to talk to him about my conversation with Charlotte.

  “Can I eat the cookies?” Jasmine asks as I push the pushchair up the kerb.

  “No, baby. Not until you’ve had lunch at Nanny’s, and those are Maddox’s.”

  “Not fair,” she grumbles, making me smile.

  “Yo, bitch,” Cassie calls out, her hair knotted and sticking out.

  Her red-rimmed eyes narrow on me, her jaw clenched. I let out a sigh, not bothering to reprimand her for her language. “What do you want, Cassie?”

  “Just to let you know we aren’t going anywhere. I don’t care what the council say.”

  “I’m sorry to hear it,” I lie. “But it has nothing to do with me.”

  “Like I believe you. Pregnant and spreading your legs to that fucking prick. You’d do anything.”

  “Cassie,” I hiss out, covering Jasmine’s ears. “Leave us out of this.”

  I ignore her reply and rush up Maddox’s path. I bang on the door, not wanting to give her a chance to say anything else.

  He opens the door, wearing his work clothes. The cut on his arm has me wincing, and the nurse in me coming out. “Oh my God, what did you do?”

  He moves his arm out of the way, but I snatch it back. “It’s nothing.”

  “That’s not nothing.”

  He chuckles. “Look at you, all bossy.”

  “She bosses to me too,” Jasmine adds, and I send her a disapproving look.

  “Let me take a look at it,” I demand, pushing Asher up the step. When he doesn’t budge for a moment, I begin to think he’s not going to let us in, but then he steps aside, letting us through. I head straight for the kitchen I can see down the hallway, leaving a sleeping Asher just outside the door. “Jasmine, go watch Peppa Pig on your tablet.”

  “It’s fine,” he assures me, taking a seat at the table where supplies are scattered all over the place. “It’s just a scratch.”

  “It needs stiches,” I warn him, bringing his arm closer. “And a deep clean. How did you do it?”

  He groans, sitting back. “The guy I fired? He came back to dispute his last paycheque and ended up taking a swing at me with a steel bead.”

  I begin to sort through the supplies. “I hope you called the police. This is bad.”

  He tries to pull back again, but with one hand, I grab his wrist, keeping a tight grip on it. I grab the sterile water, and quickly soak the wound.

  He hisses out a breath. “Shit. That hurts more than the time they took those cheesy things off the McDonalds menu.”

  I chuckle, dabbing it dry. “Are you okay with me stitching this together?”

  “I’d rather sit round next door for the day, but I guess.”

  I chuckle under my breath and get the needle ready, pulling it out of the packaging. “I’m not even going to ask how you have all the equipment to do this here. Or how some of this is hospital issue.”

  “Fuck,” he hisses, and I grimace.

  “I’m sorry. You don’t have any numbing cream here.”

  “It’s fine,” he tells me, making eye contact with me. My thumb rubs in a small circle along the top of his hand. Clearing his throat, he breaks the spell between us. “And to answer your non-question; Landon got into a lot of scrapes before Paisley. We kept these in stock just in case.”

  “Why do I feel like there’s a but?” I tease.

  He chuckles. “Because there is,” he admits. “Remember I told you about the feud with the Hayes family?” I nod, and he continues. “Well, that was another reason we had them on hand. Couldn’t let the hospital document injuries.”

  I finish up with the last stitch just as my phone begins to ring. “Don’t move. I just need to get that,” I tell him. I rush over to the pushchair, grabbing it out of the bag I’ve hung over the handle.

  Seeing Mum’s name, I quickly answer. Jasmine and Asher are due over there soon, but she may want to get them sooner. “Hey, Mum, is everything okay?”

  She coughs into the phone. “I’m sorry, darlin’. Your dad is in bed with the flu. Is there any way you could drop the kids over to us? He’s not going to be able to drive and my car is in the shop being fixed. You know I can’t drive manual.”

  “Mum, you don’t sound too good yourself,” I tell her, clicking my fingers and pointing to the chair when Maddox goes to get up.

  “I’m hungry,” he grumbles.

  I inwardly sigh, stepping back and grabbing the pasta and the tub of cookies I made for him earlier. I hand them to him before pulling open the first drawer I find and hitting the jackpot for a knife and fork.

  Mum finishes her coughing fit, followed by a sniffle. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

  “Mum, I love you, but you need to rest. I’ll make you a pot of soup and bring it over once it’s done.”

  “What about the kids? You have work soon and you can’t take them with you.”

  I pace the small space of the kitchen. “I’ll call in sick. I’m sure Auntie Tracey won’t mind.”

  “Are you sure, sweetie? You’ve only been back a few days and you’re still struggling to get sleep.”

  “I’ll handle it, Mum.”

  “All right. I love you,” she tells me.

  “Love you too, Mum,” I reply, before ending the call.

  I drop back down in the seat, feeling a heavy weight on my chest. I need these hours, especially since I can’t work the long ones I normally would. “Everything okay?” Maddox asks around a mouthful of food.

  “No. Yes. It will be fine,” I tell him.

  He arches an eyebrow. “What’s going on? You said you’d call in sick, but you aren’t sick.”

  “Mum and Dad are, and they were having the kids for me.”

  “Don’t they have a child minder?” he asks.

  “Normally Jasmine does, but she’s having a few issues there, so I decided to pull her out. And Asher is too young to go there.”

  “I’ll have them,” he blurts out.

  “W-what?” I stutter, wondering if I heard him right.

  “I’m not allowed back into work. It’s company policy,” he explains, shrugging. “And it’s not like I’ve not had them before.”

  “Yeah, but I’m always in the house,” I state.

  “Not when you went to the hospital after you gave birth. I did good then.”

  I snort, rolling my eyes. “You also had a house full of people to help.”

  He glares at me, sitting forward. “I’ll have you know, I did everything myself. No one helped me with Jasmine at all.”

  “I don’t know. It’s a big responsibility,” I murmur, unsure.

  “I have over forty-seven em
ployees and a business to run; I’m pretty sure I can do this.” He pauses, looking at me closely. “Unless you don’t trust me.”

  “Of course I do,” I tell him truthfully.

  “Then it’s settled,” he declares, getting up.

  “Fine,” I give in. “But sit down and let me wrap that up.”

  “Thank you.”

  I glance up at his soft tone. “Shouldn’t I be the one saying thank you to you?”

  He chuckles, his eyes sparkling. “No. Doing this, I… thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I reply. “Now, let me wrap this up and then I can share of some of the things Charlotte and I spoke about.”

  “She spoke to you?”

  “In confidence,” I add. “So, I won’t be repeating all of it.”

  “We want to help her,” he demands, his tone light though.

  “I know you do. But you can’t overwhelm her. I don’t know her all that well, but in most cases, it could lead to you pushing her closer to him.”

  “I’ll kill him if he’s touched her.”

  “I don’t think he’s physically hurt her, but that doesn’t mean abuse isn’t there.”

  “So he is abusing her,” he concedes, going to stand up.

  I grab his arm, sitting him back down. “Stop. I’m not going to tell you anything if this is how you’re going to react.”

  “What can you tell me?” he asks, sliding forward in his chair. “Because we’re getting worried.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you yesterday, but I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it in front of Landon.”

  “Why? He’s her best friend.”

  “Because I didn’t push Charlotte to talk to me. I talked about myself in the hope to gauge her reaction.”

  “I, I didn’t know,” he murmurs.

  I begin to clean up the mess, busying myself as I talk. I can’t look him in the eye whilst talking about this. “We began talking about a love interest in a book we had both read. She had this dreamy gaze in her eyes as we were talking about him. I knew that look.”

  “What do you mean?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

  I force a smile as I get up and put the stuff in the bin. I stare outside the window into his spacious, tidy garden. “Reading romance sucks you in and keeps you there. It gives you the misguided notion of what love is and what it should be. It’s not all happy endings. The endings are only the beginning in the romance world. The things that come after stay a mystery for a reason. It’s to give you hope. Because not all love is boy meets girl, girl meets boy. It has obstacles, hardships, and mountains to climb. For there to be highs, there is always a low.

  “I took one look at Charlotte and I knew she wanted a love like that, so much so that she’d do anything—even put up with a dickhead—to have it. So I told her how reading helped me escape while I was recovering. I shared my past about Cameron and how stupid I was for believing it could be how it’s like in the books.” I turn around, wiping the tear rolling down my cheek. “I explained how I let my dreams of a picture-perfect family brainwash me, and that it nearly cost me everything.”

  “I-I… Amelia,” he breathes out, pushing back in his chair.

  When he begins to walk over, I back up against the sink. “This isn’t about me,” I tell him.

  “I didn’t mean for this though. I wanted to help Charlotte but not at the expense of bringing up painful memories.”

  I force out a dry chuckle. “The trouble with that is Charlotte only sees love in your family. She sees it in her parents, her aunts and uncles, and now her cousins. And she craves it. She’s not going to listen to people who have it when she wants it. I wanted her to know my story. If you want her to listen, to really listen, she needs to know not all love is like your family’s. It can be cruel, hard, and manipulative.”

  He steps closer, getting in my personal space. When he places his hands on my biceps, a shiver runs up my spine. “What did she say to that?”

  I blink up at him, and time freezes as I stare into his eyes. He’s watching me like it’s his first time. I swallow down salvia to cure my dry throat. “She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Her body language and eyes said it all.”

  “What does that mean?” he asks, his chest rising and falling as he steps closer.

  I don’t think he’s even aware of what he’s doing, especially when he begins to run those hands up and down my arms, offering me comfort.

  “It means you need to give her time to see it’s not love but a consolation prize. I told her I was wrong not to listen to my gut. I had my doubts about Cameron. It was a tiny voice in the back of my head that told me he wasn’t the one.”

  He tilts my chin up with his knuckles, then bends until we’re eye level. “He was a fool to do what he did to you,” he croaks out.

  “Maddox,” I whisper, stepping closer, placing my hand on his hips.

  “Mum, are we going? I want my cookies.”

  A look up and horror washes over his expression. He jumps back, clearing his throat. I straighten my top, forcing a smile for my daughter. “Change of plans, Jasmine. Maddox is going to watch you today,” I inform her, before turning to Maddox. My stomach clenches when I see the look of disgust on his expression. “If that’s still okay?”

  He looks up, and quickly rushes to confirm. “Wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

  Jasmine pumps her hands into the air. “Best day ever.”

  Maddox meets my gaze, locking me in place to the point I’m not sure I can catch my next breath. “Yeah, best day ever.”

  “We have to watch one of my movies today,” Jasmine announces. “That gun movie was okay, but not as good as mine.”

  I arch my eyebrow at Maddox, who has the nerve to go red. “It was a Christmas movie,” he defends himself.

  “Christmas movie?”

  He lets out a sigh, narrowing his gaze teasingly at my daughter. “It was Die Hard.”

  “I’m not even going to comment,” I tell him.

  “She loved it at the end when the good stuff happened,” he explains, stepping closer to me.

  I awkwardly stand there, trying to force my emotions down. “I bet.”

  “Amelia,” he murmurs, and I know in my gut he’s about to talk about the moment we just shared. And I can’t have him tell me I’m just a friend once more.

  I quickly grab my phone off the table, forcing a smile. “I need to get some things done before I have to get to work. I’ll make lunch for the both of you. Forty minutes?”

  He nods, looking away. “I’ll be there.”

  I grip the handle of the pushchair, pushing Asher back down the hall. Maddox jumps in front of us, pulling open the front door.

  When I get outside, I turn back to him. “Don’t get that arm wet. I’ll check on it later after work.”

  “Wait,” he calls out when I begin my descent down the path.

  I pause, my legs feeling like they are about to give out beneath me. “Thank you for having the kids for me.”

  “That’s fine. I want to, but—”

  “Say bye to Maddox, Jasmine.”

  She looks up from her tablet. “See you later, alligator.”

  He grins. “In a while crocodile.”

  “Why are you walking so fast?” Jasmine asks as we cross the road.

  “Because I know how much you want those cookies,” I tell her.

  She slaps the palm of her hand over her forehead. “I left them on Maddox’s sofa.”

  I chuckle, pulling my keys out of my bag. “Bit of a good job we have more.”

  “We could go back and get them.”

  I pause with the key halfway into the lock and look down at my naïve, beautiful daughter. “They will be gone.”

  She lets out a sigh, glancing wistfully at Maddox’s. “Yeah. He eats everything.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  AMELIA

  I stifle a yawn as I tear open another box. My aunt has a trainee working so I th
ought I’d let her get experience by following Hope around. I volunteered to stock our medical storeroom.

  There’s a light knock on the door and I startle, glancing to the door. “Yeah?” I call out.

  My aunt pushes open the door, peeking her head round. She smiles when she spots me at the far back. “There you are. Hope said you were here but when I came by earlier, you weren’t.”

  “I had to go sign for an order,” I explain, pointing to the boxes.

  “Talk to me,” she demands softly.

  I’m taken aback by her words. “Um, we are.”

  She snorts, and steps further into the room, closing the door behind her. “You have been a zombie all day. It’s like you’re in a world of your own. Did Asher keep you up all night?”

  Surprisingly, no. The neighbour’s music was drowned out a little by the ear buds I bought. Maddox is the reason for my mood. I was stupid to think he was going to kiss me, stupid for letting myself feel like this towards him.

  “No, Tracey. I’m just not with it. I must be having an off day.”

  She gives me a knowing look as she takes a seat on the stool. “Is this about a boy?”

  I rear back, shaking my head vehemently. “No. Of course not. What made you think that?”

  She chuckles, shaking her head disbelievingly. “You might have pulled the wool over your mum’s eyes over the years, but you’ve never been able to do it to me. I know about the hot neighbour. One your mum said has been doing a lot for you,” she states, arching an eyebrow when I go to deny it. “She even said he has stayed over.”

  “It’s not what you think,” I defend, unable to look at her. She’s right. There were times I could fool my mum, but I’ve never been able to do it with my aunt. She could always see past the façade.

  “Tell me what’s going on.”

  I drop the bandages onto the side and turn to her, knowing she’ll never drop it until I answer. “He’s so frustrating. He showed up one day and offered to help me. I let him. A complete stranger,” I rant. “Then, he happens to turn up the day I go into labour and delivers the baby.”

  “I’m not hearing anything bad,” Tracey comments, smirking.