The only thing that remains of that boy is a promise fulfilled and a habit of tucking his gun into his belt buckle on occasion. Try as he might, Ethan never fully broke him of that habit.
“Fea.” Maddox stops. “Sorry, I forgot you were coming.” He rushes over to a cage in the middle of the room and puts the slithering animal away and closes the cover over it, blocking it from view. “You’re a woman.”
Uh oh. Something’s wrong with Mindy. “I am.”
“You understand woman things.”
It’s really bad. Try not to smile. “Sometimes.”
“You’ve got to help me.”
It’s really hard to hold back that smile. My best friend is happy. Well, not exactly at the moment, but he found a woman who loves him as much as he loves her. “Tell me what’s wrong?”
“Mindy won’t quit one of her jobs. I’ve asked her. I’ve told her. I explained to her that I want to spend more time with her. The stubborn woman won’t quit. Millions…I’m worth millions, and my woman insists on working herself to death. What do I do?”
Maddox forgot the first effect of being poor. “You need to make her feel safe.”
He stops pacing. “What?” He starts again. “But she is safe. I will never let another person hurt her again. She should know that. What can I do? Should I wear a weapon around her? Or ask my brothers to? Maybe I should show her the security system we have going.”
Oh, he’s got it bad. “That’s not what I meant. Though it probably wouldn’t hurt.” Especially after all that she’s been through. “I meant she needs to feel financially safe. A person who’s been living on the edge for so long has a hard time feeling financially secure.” It took years and years for me to feel that way. Even now, I’m shocked at my bank account sometimes, andstill keep a stash of cash around the house in case something happens and we need to run.
“How do I make her feel that way? Would dumping a million dollars into one of her accounts work?” Maddox reaches for his phone.
“I don’t know. You’re going to have to talk to her about that. And you might need to step back and let her do what she needs to do to feel financially secure for a while.”
“No way. There’s no way I’m letting her work herself to death. I’ll go all caveman and stop her from going to work.”
Where did the rational Maddox go? The unflappable man, who can solve any problem put in front of him without blinking, is losing his mind over the woman he loves. It’s so cute. “Talk to her. Ask her before you go all caveman.” Maddox, with Mindy tossed over his shoulder, is a mental picture I won’t soon forget.
“Fine. I’ll talk to her again. Weren’t we supposed to be talking about something?”
So cute. “The visitor at the café today.”
“Ah, yes. Fill me in on the details Jacko might have missed.”
Ready?
Max
Leaning against a post, I watch the beautiful young woman who’s supposed to still be five years old laughing with her cousins. Mom throws a party for just about any excuse, but my little girl’s first day of work feels monumental.
It was just yesterday that she was dancing around with golden curls framing her face, chasing butterflies, and then asking me to carry her around on my shoulders so that she could catch them. I’m going to blink, and she’ll be graduating from high school.
Ivy should be leaning against my side, watching Hope laugh. She should have been here for Hope’s first step, her first word, the first time she giggled. What if I’m doing this dad thing all wrong, letting her intern with—
How can I even think about Fiona and Ivy at the same time?
Cheating…you can’t cheat on a dead woman.
“You’ll make it through this.” Gabe claps me on the back.
Will I? “There are endless teenage boys there who are going to try hovering around my baby girl like bees around a flower. Maddox is going to end up killing me for flattening them.”
Gabe has the nerve to laugh. “You know you don’t have to worry about them. Sasha will kill anyone who looks at her twice.”
I follow his gaze to where Sasha and his brother Alex are standing next to Hope.
“That boy scares me.”
