I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when Uncle Maddox showed up if she didn’t want to go with him. What if she started crying and holding onto me? What then? I couldn’t send her off with someone that she didn’t want to go with but it’s not like I had any right to keep her.
Maybe I would call Charli and see what she thought about the situation, I thought as I bit the inside of my mouth. Except, my phone was dead.
Lexi began squirming in my arms. “I have to go potty.”
Actually, now that she mentioned it, so did I. Coffee went right through me.
“Okay, let’s go.” I set her down and we grabbed my purse and jacket and went to the restroom we’d visited several times since arriving.
After washing our hands, we walked out, and Lexi took off running her arms outstretched as she yelled, “Uncle Maddox!”
I was right behind her when I looked up and saw that she was heading straight for a beautiful specimen of a man. He had dark features and a muscled physique. He was wearing a polo shirt and jeans that showcased his chiseled frame.
Okay, so apparently there wasn’t going to be a scene.
Damn, if her uncle looked like this, I wondered what her father looked like. Not that it mattered. There was only one man I’d been tempted to break my dry spell for, Mr. Smolder. Not even Uncle Maddox.
“Hey, Squirt!” The man bent down and picked her up, flying her around like a plane.
“Hi, I’m Sadie.” I lifted my hand in a wave when they came in for a landing.
“Maddox Cruz, nice to meet you.” He shook my hand and I waited for something… a zing, a zip, any sort of reaction that I was skin to skin with a man who could easily grace the cover of Men’s Health.
But there was nothing. Not even a shiver of awareness.
“Thanks for staying with, Squirt.” He ruffled Lexi’s hair and giggles bubbled up in her.
I was so happy to see her laughing. I’d done my best to distract her but clearly, he was doing a much better job.
“Of course.” I nodded.
“Any news on Mrs. G?” he asked.
“I keep asking, but they won’t tell me anything because I’m not family.”
The corner of Maddox’s mouth lifted in a half-grin and I saw a glint of challenge in his eye. “Let me see what I can find out.”
He walked toward the nurse’s station and I couldn’t help but notice he looked just as good leaving as he did coming.So why no zing?I wondered.
Oh well. It didn’t matter anyway. I was on a dating hiatus.
I pulled the pictures that Lexi had colored out of my purse. “Thanks for hanging out with me today. Here you go, sweetie.”
Her big blue eyes stared up at me. “Those are for you.”
“They are?”
She nodded.
“Thank you.” They would be going on my fridge as soon as I got home.
Maddox returned just as I pulled my jacket on. “Did you find anything out?”
He smiled, revealing two very deep dimples. I loved dimples. I had a thing for dimples that dated back to my AC Slater from Saved by the Bell crush. But the deep crevices framing a row of perfect teeth in front of me were doing absolutely zilch for my libido. Maybe I was broken.
“She’s stable,” he shared.
“Oh, thank goodness.” I clutched my chest and exhaled my first real breath since she’d collapsed on the floor.
