Maid for Love

by Marie Force

  "I'll sleep well tonight unless you decide to talk my ear off again."

  Maddie laughed as she play-punched his shoulder. "I can't believe you said that!" She sat up slowly and painfully.

  "We should see to those wounds."

  "Libby did it earlier after I took a shower. She said the one on my elbow looked like it might be infected."

  "I want to see it."

  "Later. I need to go get Thomas up, or he'll be awake all night."

  Mac bounded off the bed and headed for Thomas's room. "I'll do it. You take it easy."

  Maddie sat there for a long time after he left the room, thinking about what he'd said and wishing she had it in her to believe they really had a chance.

  Chapter 8

  She didn't say a word on the ride to North Harbor. With Thomas in his car seat between them, Mac tried to engage her in conversation that went nowhere. Instead, she stared out the passenger-side window, and he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake insisting she join him for dinner at his parents' house. She'd fretted for half an hour over what to wear and had finally settled on a pale pink T-shirt and a denim miniskirt that showed off her long, toned legs. Libby must've painted her toes, because Mac didn't recall seeing the sexy hot pink polish the day before—and he was fairly certain he'd noticed everything about her.

  Half a mile from his parents' house, Mac pulled the truck over to the side of the road.

  "What're you doing?"

  "Do you really not want to go? We can go back to your place, get a pizza from Mario's, rent a movie—"

  She startled and amused him when she reached over to squish his lips shut. "After I went through all that to figure out what to wear, we're going to your mother's. Now drive."

  Mac smiled at her show of bravado. He had no doubt that she'd much prefer the pizza and movie. "Yes, ma'am."

  Her bravado had faded again by the time they pulled up to the big white house. Mac freed Thomas from his car seat and carried him around to the other side of the car to help Maddie. "Take your time," he said, moved by the flash of pain that crossed her face as she slid down from the cab.

  She clutched his arm. "Stay close, okay?"

  "I will." Before they stepped into the light, he stopped her, tilted her chin up and kissed her. "You're here because I want them to know you're important to me. If anyone makes you feel uncomfortable, we'll leave, okay?"

  "I don't want to cause trouble between you and your family."

  "You won't."

  "If you say so," she said as they stepped through the gate into the light.

  "I say so."

  Big Mac met them at the door. "Come in, come in."

  He greeted Maddie with a kiss to her cheek and tickled the bottom of Thomas's foot, drawing a deep chortle from the baby.

  "Looks good on you, son," Big Mac said with a nod to the baby on Mac's hip.

  "He's a cool little dude." Mac felt a surge of pride as he showed off the baby. "Always happy."

  "I didn't know what you liked to drink, Maddie." Big Mac ushered them into the formal living room Linda reserved for company. Mac and Maddie sat together on the sofa. "So I got three kinds of wine and three kinds of beer." He ticked them off on his fingers.

  Mac could tell that Maddie was touched by his father's attentiveness. And while it was odd to be treated as a guest in the house where he grew up, he appreciated the warm welcome his father had given her.

  She turned those big caramel eyes on him, and his belly fluttered with awareness. "What're you having?"

  "A light beer."

  "That sounds good to me, too."

  "Two light beers, coming right up," Big Mac said. "Is the baby all set?"

  "Yes," she said. "Thank you."

  When they were alone, Mac squeezed her hand. "So far so good?"

  "Your father is very sweet. I haven't really talked to him before. He's never here when I clean."

  "He's the best guy I know."

  Janey came bursting through the front door. "Hey! Sorry I'm late." She stopped short when she saw Mac, Maddie and Thomas on the sofa. "Oh well. You're front room company now, big brother?"

  "Apparently." Mac rose to kiss his sister. "This is Thomas."

  "Wow, what a doll!" Janey extended a finger, and Thomas wrapped his hand around it while studying her with the serious expression he used to size up new people.

  "I don't think you know Maddie," Mac said.

  "We knew each other years ago in school," Janey said. "Nice to see you."

  "You, too. Congratulations on your engagement."

  Janey flashed a grin. "Thanks. It's the longest engagement in the history of the world."

  "The big day will be here before you know it, brat," Mac said.

  "Until then, I have to be satisfied with a monthly booty call," she said with a long-suffering sigh.

  Mac cringed. "I don't know why you have to say that stuff to me."

  "Because it makes you nuts," Janey said, laughing.

  Mac glanced at Maddie, who sent him a sympathetic smile. "My baby sister," he grumbled as he rejoined her on the sofa. "Horrifying."

  Big Mac came back into the room with three bottles of beer and handed two of them to Mac and Maddie. "Hi, honey," he said, kissing Janey. "I suppose you'll want my beer."

  She plucked it out of his hand. "But of course."

  Big Mac shook his head and glanced at Maddie. "See what I put up with?"

  Maddie responded with a girlish giggle, and Mac could tell that his father had already won her over.

  Big Mac left the room muttering about a man not being able to get a beer in his own house and returned a minute later with Linda, who he seemed to propel ahead of him into the room.

  "There you are," Linda said, swooping in to kiss Mac. "And Maddie, hello, how're you feeling?"

  "A little better, Mrs. McCarthy. Thank you for having me."

  Linda's smile was brittle, but Mac was certain only her family would know it as less than genuine. "It's my pleasure. This must be Thomas, who I've heard so much about."

  As he thrust the baby up and into his mother's arms, Mac hoped she wasn't referring to the speculation around town about the baby's father.

  "Oh," Linda sputtered. "My. Well. You're a cute little fella, aren't you?"

  Thomas picked that moment to loudly fill his diaper.

  Janey howled with laughter.

  Maddie gasped, tried to get up quickly and grimaced when her injured limbs refused to cooperate.

  Mac eased her back down. "I've got it."

  "You don't want to deal with that."

  "Believe me, it's the least of what I've dealt with today." He took the baby from his mother and grabbed the diaper bag. "Come on, pal. Let's get you cleaned up." Before he left the room, he noticed his father and sister watching him with nothing but amusement while his mother fumed. Mac was torn between needed to tend to the baby and not wanting to leave Maddie.

  "We'll take good care of Maddie," Big Mac said.

  "Thanks, Dad." On the way up the stairs, Mac caught Maddie's eye and winked at her. "I'll be quick."

  She sent him a grateful smile that warmed him all the way through.

  Over the pot roast dinner Mac had requested, Maddie stayed quiet and listened to their banter. Mac clearly adored his father and sister as well as his three brothers. Maddie found it interesting that he tended to give Linda one-word answers but engaged more naturally with his father and sister. He kept Thomas on his lap and managed to eat with one hand in a manner that was more common after months—rather than days—of practice.

  Maddie wondered if anyone else noticed that Linda completely ignored her as she managed to work a list of the island's most eligible women into the conversation. Maddie could definitely see Mac with someone like Doro Chase or one of the other prominent women Linda mentioned. At least with Doro he'd be on an equal social footing and wouldn't be fodder for the gossip mill the way he would with her. The idea of him with someone else saddened her, which was ridiculous, re
ally. It wasn't like he belonged to her or anything. What was she even doing here, eating at this table in the house where she was hired help?

  Mac's hand landed on her thigh.

  Stirred by his touch—as always—she glanced over at him.

  "Everything all right?"

  "Of course," she managed to say but could tell he didn't believe her.

  "Mom," Janey said, "maybe you should can the social register for tonight. Mac's here with a date. He doesn't want to hear about other women."

  Mac sent his sister a grateful smile.

  "No one told me they were on a date." Linda's frosty eyes skipped over Maddie and landed on her son. "I thought we were just having dinner."

  "I believe I was quite clear about that when we spoke earlier," he said, apparently capable of the frosty stare himself.

  Maddie's stomach began to hurt.

  "What'd you make for dessert, Lin?" Big Mac asked with a warm smile for Maddie.

  "Chocolate cake for Mac."

  "Thomas is getting tired," Mac said. "We aren't staying for dessert."

  Thomas was fine, but Maddie appreciated that somehow Mac sensed she wasn't.

  "You can't go yet!" Linda said. "You just got here."

  "We need to get the baby home, and Maddie's still recovering from her injuries."

  "She looks fine to me."

  Mac got up and helped her out of her chair. "She's not fine. I probably shouldn't have dragged her out tonight." To his sister, Mac said, "You'll help Mom clean up?"

  "Yep." Janey got up to kiss him good-bye. To Maddie, she said, "If you ever need a babysitter for that cute little guy, call me."

  "That's very sweet of you," Maddie said as Janey and her father started clearing the table.

  Mac escorted Maddie to the front hall. "I just realized I forgot the diaper bag upstairs. I'll be right back." Still holding Thomas, he dashed up the stairs. As she watched him go, Maddie noticed the bruise on his leg from the bike crash had gotten dark and angry-looking overnight.

  "You're fooling yourself," Linda said in an exaggerated whisper.

  Startled, Maddie turned to her. "Excuse me?"

  "He might be having fun playing house for now, but you'll never get him to stay."

  Shocked, Maddie had no idea what to say and was relieved to hear Mac's heavy footsteps on the stairs. She needed to get out of there. Right now. Even though she desperately needed the money, she decided she'd never clean this house again.

  "Ready?" Mac said, his hand on the small of her back.

  "Thank you for dinner," Maddie said on her way out the door.

  Mac gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Mom."

  On the way back to town, Maddie's heart beat fast with shock and dismay. Part of her wanted to take him home and have her wicked way with him just to prove Linda wrong. If she wouldn't be risking her own well-protected heart, she'd do it in a minute. She ventured a glance over at him. His eyes were fixed on the road, his jaw tight with tension.

  "That was a mistake," he said.

  "It was fine."

  "No, it wasn't." He reached over Thomas's seat for her hand. "Don't hold my mother against me. She has no power over me whatsoever, and she hates that."

  Maddie didn't know what to say. Sure he was his own man, and his mother couldn't tell him what to do. But Linda could make their lives miserable if she chose to, and Mac was the kind of son who wanted to please his parents, not alienate them. Maddie had no desire to be responsible for a rift between Mac and his mother, which was just another reason not to let things with him get out of hand.

  "What're you thinking?" he asked.

  "That I'm tired and I hurt." He didn't need to know the pain was mostly on the inside.

  He winced. "I'm sorry. We'll get you home and into bed. I shouldn't have dragged you out tonight. Next time I'll listen to you."

  There won't be a next time, Maddie thought, filled with sadness. She knew that not pursuing a relationship with him was the right thing for both of them. If only it didn't hurt so much to think about never seeing him again after he moved out.

  Mac beat himself up all the way back to town. What the hell was I thinking? Huge, huge mistake.

  Back at Maddie's, Mac helped her out of the truck and noticed she was moving even slower than she had earlier. We should've stayed home and had pizza. Damn it!

  As he carried Thomas and walked slowly up the stairs with Maddie, Mac tried to think of how he could undo the damage this night had done to their fledgling relationship. What could he say? What should he do? Unaccustomed to feeling so insecure around a woman, he had no idea what to do.

  "I'll give him a quick bath and get him ready for bed," he offered.

  "Thank you."

  The night before, she would've argued with him. Mac found that he much preferred the arguments to this weary acceptance. He moved quickly to take care of Thomas and brought him and his last bottle of the day to Maddie. Mac wanted to stretch out next to them on the sofa bed and hold her while she fed the baby, but instead, he straightened the apartment and gathered the growing pile of laundry the three of them had generated.

  "I'll toss this in at the marina when I go to work tomorrow."

  "You don't have to do ours—"

  He bit back a burst of temper. "It's no problem." When she didn't fire back, he knew it was bad. Whatever progress they'd made had been undone by a couple of hours with his mother.

  She was quiet, docile even. Not at all like the Maddie he'd enjoyed sparring with the last two days. He discovered he didn't like her this way, even if it was easier. He wanted his smart-mouthed Maddie back.

  After he got Thomas settled in his crib, he returned to the living room where Maddie had removed her bandages. The wound on her elbow had gotten pink and puffy with infection since Mac last saw it. "We should probably get that looked at."

  "Libby gave me some antibiotic ointment to put on it."

  Mac reached for the tube. "I'll do it."

  She took it from him. "I couldn't bear to have someone else touch it."

  Because it hurt or because it was him? Frustrated, he watched her dab the clear ointment gingerly on the angry-looking cut. Then she did the same to her knee and hand.

  "Libby said I should leave them uncovered tonight to let the air get to them."

  "She knows what she's talking about. She's had a lot of medical training." Mac stood, peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it into the pile of laundry. Turning, he caught Maddie staring at him with a needy, hungry look on her face. He took a step toward her. "Maddie—"

  Her expression shifted immediately to that impassive, unreachable thing she did so well. "Would you mind terribly sleeping on the floor tonight? I don't even want the sheet to touch me."

  Tension lodged in his chest. "Of course not." He set out the couch cushions and unrolled his sleeping bag. When they were both settled, he reached up to turn off the light. Unlike the night before, there was no conversation. Earlier in the day, he'd been happier and more content than he'd ever been in his life. Now, even though he was as tired as he'd been in ages, Mac lay awake for a long time feeling edgy and desperate—as if he had somehow managed to lose something he'd never really had in the first place.

  Over the next three days, they slid into a routine that began with Mac taking Thomas on a morning walk for coffee and breakfast. After Maddie nursed the baby, Mac delivered him to Tiffany's, rushed through Maddie's shifts at the hotel and spent as much time as he could at the marina measuring and outlining the needed repairs. He planned to start on the roof of the main building and had a four-man crew lined up to help him beginning the following Monday. By three o'clock each day, he was back at Maddie's to help out at Tiffany's daycare.

  He spent the nights on Maddie's floor, wishing they could somehow get back to where they'd been before he made the mistake of subjecting her to his mother. Wednesday evening, after they finished up at the daycare, Mac suggested they walk over to Mario's for pizza. Since Maddie was finally getting
around much better, she agreed.

  By now, people in town had grown accustomed to seeing them together, and while they still attracted some stares, Mac had learned to ignore the unwanted attention. He wasn't sure Maddie was able to ignore it, but she hadn't mentioned it to him. In fact, she hadn't said much of anything at all to him in three days. She seemed to be biding her time until she could be rid of him, and with every passing day, Mac's desperation grew more intense.

  He'd tried to give her some space to get used to him and the idea that he was interested in her. But like the disastrous dinner at his parents' house, that, too, had backfired on him. The more space he gave her, the more remote she became, until he was certain he would explode if something didn't change—soon.

  "Tomorrow's your day off at the hotel, right?" he asked.

  "Yes, and the daycare. Tiffany doesn't teach dance on Thursdays. That's when I usually clean your mother's house."

  "I have to go to the mainland for some building supplies. I thought maybe you and Thomas would like to come. We could go anywhere you want to while we're over there."

  He watched the debate play out on her face—wistfulness, yearning, nervousness and finally, resignation.

  "Thanks, but I think I'll just stay here with Thomas. I'm feeling much better. There's really no need for you to take care of us anymore."

  Mac had never experienced such pain. Reaching for her good hand, he linked his fingers with hers and watched her take a nervous look around the crowded restaurant. "Come with me. It'll be fun. We can buy Thomas some new big boy clothes and a bike. And a football. He needs a football. I noticed he doesn't have one."

  That drew a tentative smile. "He can't even walk yet."

  "It won't be long now."

  "I don't know," she said with a worried glance at the baby, who sat on Mac's lap like he belonged there.

  He squeezed her hand. "Come with me. It'll do you good to get off the island for a day." Knowing most of her expressions by now, Mac could tell she was tempted. He flashed his most charming grin. "Come on…"

  "All right! Fine. We'll go. God, you're relentless!"

  Swamped with relief, Mac sat back in the booth but didn't release her hand. "Good." It wasn't a breakthrough, exactly, but it was one more day together. Right about now, he'd take it.