The remainder of the short drive passed mostly in silence, bar Chloe humming quietly in the back seat. The innocent sound stirred a wealth of disconcerting memories. Watching her bake in my childhood kitchen or weed our vegetable garden, or hold me in her arms when it was just the two of us watching television without Dad telling her to stop fussing over me. Saying I’d grow up soft just like she was.
But even then, I knew my mother wasn’t soft. Neither of us was. Far from it. There was little place for softness in our house. Softness put a target on your back. Softness made you weak. You needed a core of steel simply to get through each and every day.
Mads snagged a park right outside the entrance to the small retail mall where the phone shop was located. He asked Chloe to wait in the car, explaining, “It’ll be under Nick’s name, not yours. And we’ll cover the cost. That way, if there are any problems, we can sort them out for you. We can also replace the phone if you lose it again.”
We, we, we.I smiled to myself, knowing that he totally got it. We were on the same page without me needing to say a word.God, I loved this man. I reached for his hand and brought it to my lips. He turned, surprise in his eyes, and so I kissed him again, not giving a shit that my mother was watching from the back seat. When I was done, I chanced a look at her face and found a small smile on her lips.
We made short work of purchasing a phone exactly the same as the one Chloe had ‘lost’ so she didn’t have to learn anything new. If we started charging it in the car, we could get the essential numbers in place before we dropped Chloe back at the townhouse. She could then finish charging it at home. We were making our way toward the mall’s exit when Mads grabbed my arm and hauled me sideways into a narrow corridor. A few metres in, he spun me to face him, putting my back against the icy vinyl wall.
I flicked my head toward the restroom sign on the opposite wall and smirked. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”
Mads glanced at the sign and snorted, both of us recalling another corridor and another restroom encounter just a few months before when we were trying to help a young man in an abusive relationship. The same young man and his brother who were currently residing in our home back in Auckland.
“You’re not wrong,” he agreed. “At least this time we’re not about to walk into a hornet’s nest of sex trafficking.”
I had to give him that. “Definitely an improvement.” I tipped his chin up and kissed him lightly on the lips. “So, exactlywhyare we skulking around public restrooms again?”
Mads took a step back, his expression growing serious. “I want to check in and see how you’re doing before we get back in that car. It’s been a morning, right?”
The smile left my lips and the exhaustion suddenly seeped into my bones until I almost couldn’t hold myself upright.
Mads frowned and slipped an arm around my waist, holding me up. Then he caught my gaze and held it. “It’s a lot, what Chloe’s asking of you. If you want to say no, then say no. Don’t be pressured into something you’ll regret. You don’t have to do this, Nick. You two can keep talking and just see where things go. You don’t have to make a decision today or even this week.”
I knew he was right, but for some reason, it didn’t feel like it.
Sensing my conflict, Mads went up on his toes and kissed me. “I love you. And I know how hard this must be. She’s your mother. And you’re a protector at heart. But right now, it’s your own heart that I’m concerned about. That needs protecting first. You’ll be of no use to Chloe if you don’t do this for the right reasons.”
His understanding meant everything. “I love you too. And I wish it was that easy. Like it or not, Iamher son. I might not like what she did, but how can I possibly turn her down, especially knowing she’d hand responsibility over to Austin?” I shook my head. “Call me suspicious, but I don’t fucking trust that man.”
“Me neither,” Mads admitted, dropping his arm from my waist. “Even if it’s just his annoying-as-fuck personality, I still wouldn’t want someone like Austin handling Shirley’s affairs, for example.”
I leaned back against the wall, nodding. “From what I overheard and what we’ve seen of Chloe the last couple of days, Austin isn’t just badgering Chloe into moving in with them and stripping her independence bit by bit. He’s gaslighting her about her health as well. I don’t think I could live with myself if I walked away.”
Mads studied me for a long moment. “Fine. All I ask is that you take the time to understand exactly what you’re facing, Austin included, because he isn’t going to be happy about any of this and I doubt he’ll make things easy for you. Remember, if Austin is right about Chloe and she really is losing her gripon reality at times, then we don’t know how much of what she’s told us is actual fact. For instance, does she really have enough money sacked away to look after herself? And how bad is her Parkinson’s? It all needs considering. Get the information from the bank and the doctor and look at it hard, with your big-boy pants on, not the eight-year-old version.” His narrow-eyed stare brooked no argument.
And he was right, of course. “Agreed. I’ll do my due diligence and take it from there. No rushing into anything. And I’ll talk to you first, before making any decision.”
Mads’ expression softened, his bright green eyes warm on mine. “Thank you. That’s all I ask.”
Mads looked almost surprised that I included him in my decision-making process, and I couldn’t have that. Together. We did this together, or not at all. I fisted his shirt and swapped our positions, bundling him against the wall for a hard kiss.
The clack of heels turning into the corridor had us jumping apart, but the young woman merely shot us a knowing look, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Good morning,gentlemen.”
“Good morning,” my steadfastly polite boyfriend replied as he watched her saunter into the ladies’ room, his face on fire. The second the door closed, Mads groaned and gave me a shove backward. “You loved every second of that, didn’t you?”
“Absolutely.” I straightened his shirt, turned him toward the mall, and sent him on his way with a none-too-gentle swat on the butt.
He glared sideways at me. “Arsehole.”
I leaned close and whispered in his ear, “And it’s all yours tonight, if you’re a good boy.”
He tripped over his feet, his fiery blush reaching all the way to the tips of his ears. “Stop saying stuff like that in public,” hegrumbled as we turned into the main thoroughfare of the mall. “You know I don’t like it.”
I chuckled. “Yes, you do. And no, I won’t stop saying it. I refuse to miss a single opportunity to let you know what you do to me or how much I love you. That’s not something I’ll ever agree to, baby, so you’re going to have to live with it. Life’s too unpredictable, something we both know.”
Mads shot me a quick look, his eyes soft and glassy. He reached for my hand and threaded our fingers together. “I love you too. So much. But if you make me cry in public again, I’m gonna string you up by your balls, so help me God.”
Next on the list was Chloe’s bank.
