Another crap thing that happened was that Pennington’s informed us they’d booked our date for the bungee jump. Now that I was in my right mind again, there was no bloody way I was putting Maia at risk by throwing us off a platform suspended forty meters above a river. Maia, however, decided she wanted to do it. We got into an argument, which I hated. She insisted Will had made her feel boring and unadventurous, and she’d like to prove to herself that she wasn’t. Who could argue with that? I put my overprotectiveness to one side and realized that my inability to say no to this woman did not bode well for me in the future. Though ultimately it wasn’t up to me whether she did the bungee jump. She was a grown woman, and it was her decision.
Whether I liked it or not.
The fact that when we went to dinner at her parents’ house and her dad found out and wasn’t happy about it almost made me want to throw my support behind him … until I saw the sheen of tears in Maia’s eyes as she argued her point. She wasn’t getting upset to get her way. Maia often got teary when she was frustrated, which just frustrated her even more. I thought it was adorable, though I knew better than to tell her that.
Other than the bungee jump discussion, dinner with her parents and Lockie went well. Lockie was a bit in awe of me, so I tried to make him comfortable and answered his million questions about football and the ProfessionalLeague. Maia’s dad treated me with an assessing politeness, but he warmed up toward the end of the dinner and joined me and Lockie in our discussions.
Maia’s stepmum Grace was a sweetheart, as always. She was one of the classiest women I’d ever met and had one of those posh English accents that made everything she said sound smart as fuck. She and Maia had a bond that transcended blood, and I decided Grace MacLeod had my loyalty for life.
Ainsley, of course, had then let it slip to my mum that we’d had the long overdue family dinner, and Mum’s response was worse than if she’d just been annoyed. No. She sounded butt hurt instead and I couldn’t handle that, so I asked Maia if we could do dinner at my mum’s Friday night. Maia’s answer was an instant “Of course.”
So here we were.
We slowed to a stop outside my grandparents’ house. “This is it.”
Maia looked up at the end-of-terrace home with its large front bay window.
At her silence, I asked, “What are you thinking?”
She turned to me. “That this seems like a nice house, a nice street, to grow up on.”
Emotion clogged my throat. To most folk, this was a modest house on a modest street. Totally ordinary. Nothing special.
Maia saw a family home. A street where kids could play safely together.
She saw that because she’d grown up in a dangerous, poverty-stricken area of Glasgow, never feeling safe inside or outside her home.
And I hated it.
I wish I could erase every second of the first fifteen years of her life.
Yet I also knew Maia wouldn’t be Maia without them. Life’s twisted sense of humor. Because she was a kinder person for having experienced those years.
“It was,” I answered roughly.
It was getting harder and harder to hold back those three little words.
“Let’s go in.”
Maia had met my mum at the hospital when I was injured, but she hadn’t met my grandparents. In her usual dry tone that confused most folk, Gran couldn’t stop commenting on how beautiful Maia was. I could see not only was Maia embarrassed, but she wasn’t sure if she was being complimented. I made a crack about it giving me a complex, like she was too gorgeous for me or something, and Gran laughed. She also didn’t say it again, though she kept glancing at Maia in this searching way that I knew Maia probably thought was assessing. But she looked at Ainsley the same way. My gran liked what she saw in Maia. Which made me want to puff up my chest in pride because as much as their opinion wouldn’t change my feelings for Maia, I did care what my family thought. Granddad kept sharing conspiratorial looks with me as if to sayWell done, my boy.I grinned, chuffed to fucking bits.
I knew Maia was nervous because she told me she was, but I also witnessed it in her slightly strained smiles. Over time, because my family was friendly, she relaxed more and let her personality shine. She cracked jokes, and when Gran teased her with her dry sense of humor, Maia teased right back, which Gran loved. They asked her about her job and about the campaign and about us.
It was good.
It made the last amazing week with her feel more real.
Sometimes I still couldn’t bloody believe it. I’d wanted her for so long.
After dinner Maia offered to help Mum with the dishes. I got up to help too, but Mum pressed a hand to my shoulder. “You keep your grandparents company.”
It occurred to me a bit belatedly that Mum might be mumming in the kitchen. And by that, I meant switching on momma bear mode. Fuck.
“I need another drink. Want anything?”
My granddad shook his head while Gran muttered, “Took him long enough.”
I took that to mean she knew Mum was up to something.
