Yeah, I’m not hiding from his grandmother.

She’s the definition of a crotchety old bat, and whatever she wants to say, she can say to my face.

Grandmother Calloway approaches and halts a few feet from the pool’s edge. Careful not to wet her bejeweled sandals. Her bony fingers skim the pearls at her neck. “Have you seen my grandson?” she asks me.

“He’s around here somewhere,” I say casually. Maximoff might be a swimmer, but he won’t be able to hold his breath forever.

She purses her lips, scrutinizing my tattoos and my brow, lip, nose, and nipple piercings, all with visible judgment. Nothing that I haven’t met before.

“Do you need something?” I ask in an easygoing tone. “Maybe I can help.”

Her fingers pause on her neckline, and she meets my gaze. “I think you’ve done enough.”

I let out a short laugh. For fuck’s sake. Should’ve expected that. But I’m a little shocked she had the nerve to say it directly to my face. “Honestly, I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Maximoff is tugging my bathing suit trunks underneath the water. Wanting me to dive down. I have to hold onto the waistband so he doesn’t pull them off. And fuck, I’m smiling.

Grandmother Calloway instantly sees my amusement as an affront. She bristles, her lips more compressed together than before. “My grandson had a bright philanthropic career ahead of him, and then you came along. His life would’ve been better-served with a…”

She falters at the sight of my cutting glare.

“…with someone else,” she finishes.

“No, he wouldn’t have,” I say plainly. “There is no one better for Maximoff than me.”

Maximoff suddenly breaches the water, wiping water off his face.

His grandmother startles backwards. Shock parting her lips, and accusations lace her eyes. That’s when it dawns on me. Grandmother Calloway thinks that Maximoff was just blowing me in the pool.

I’m near laughter. Can’t make this shit up. Donnelly is going to be rolling on the floor when he hears.

“I should’ve known.” She’s trying to bite her tongue, but she spits out at Maximoff, “You’re just like your mother.”

My smile fades. I instinctively hold the back of his head. He’s stunned cold.

“Maximoff,” I whisper, wanting to draw him away from his grandmother.

He’s marble. Immovable. Cemented in place. “What’d you say?” Shock is seizing every part of him.

My hand falls to his left shoulder.

His grandmother shakes her head. “I’m sorry, sweetie. You know I told her I’d raise you in my home. It would’ve been better. She’s admitted she has a problem, and that problem has obviously affected you—”

“You can’t say that to him,” I cut in, coldness frosting each word.

“He’s my grandson—”

“That’s his mother,” I retort. I love Lily Calloway, and she’s one of the closest things that I’ve had to a mom. So no, I won’t let this fucking old bat try to drag Lily or Lily’s son down.

She fumes and looks to her grandson. “Max?”

I roll my eyes. “Max” is the only socially-acceptable name to this blue-blooded aristocrat.

Maximoff unfreezes enough to speak. “I know you’ve had issues with my mom in the past. But I thought you two buried that a while ago.”

My chest caves. He’s more upset that what she said could potentially fracture his mom’s relationship with his grandmother. I squeeze his shoulder.

Grandmother Calloway stiffens like she’s never taken a shit in her life. “We’re at a good place, but there’s room for everyone to hear advice. Especially your mother. If she can’t hear it from family, how will she grow?”

Loren Hale exits the saloon, passing the eating area, and once he leaves the shaded part of the deck and enters the sun, I see that his target is his mother-in-law.

I’m glad he’s intervening.

Lo sends her a seething glare. “I don’t know what you’re saying, Samantha, but unless you’re here to wish my son a happy birthday, you need to move along.”

She prickles. “I was here to wish my grandson a happy birthday, Loren. But come to find out he’s been underwater doing things that your wife used to do when she had problems.”

“Can you please stop talking about her like that?” Maximoff says like his heart is breaking into a million pieces, and at the same time, like he’s constructing iron walls around his world.

I cup his neck, and before Lo asks, I say the truth, “He was just under the water.” Shit, I’m twenty-eight; I never thought I’d need to defend something like this. We’re part of the older crew here. We’re not the teenagers.

Grandmother Calloway scoffs at me, like I just lied under oath. But believe me, if Maximoff had actually blown me under the water, she would’ve fucking known.

Lo makes a face at me. “It doesn’t matter what you were doing or not doing. You’re fine.” He narrows in on the grandmother. “What did you say to my son?”

“I told him the truth,” she says irritably. “I offered to raise him in my home while Lily recovered from sex addiction, and you both rejected that offer. He can’t be blamed for how he’s turned out—”

“Jesus Christ, you’re going to break her goddamn heart,” Lo says, shaking his head in disbelief with the same shocked disappointment that struck Maximoff.

“Like I told Max—” she starts.

“You’re off the damn boat,” Lo snaps. “This family has no room for your hate or judgment. I’ve told you that before. Go straight down to the rib: it’s the smaller boat that’ll take you to the city. I’ll have a stewardess pack your bags.” He’s about to leave but then he stops and turns back. “If you try to talk to Lily before you go, I will make sure your tombstone reads here lies Samantha Calloway, the worst goddamn mother in all of the century. And don’t fucking kid yourself, I will do it.”

Her neck flushes red. “My daughters will be more upset that you’re throwing me out like garbage.”

Lo flashes a bitter smile. “Decades later, and you still don’t know your own daughters.”

She scowls before strutting away to the saloon.

Maximoff watches her leave, and I draw circles on his neck with my thumb. He leans some of his weight against my hand.

“Thanks, Dad,” he says.

Lo searches his son for signs of breakage. Right now, he’s one-hundred percent stoic, jaw set sharp and eyes carrying little to no emotion. But I know Maximoff will only show more in front of me.

His dad opens his mouth, but Maximoff beats him to speak. “Can you just go be with Mom?” he asks.

Lo nods. “Yeah,” he sighs. “I’m sorry, bud.” He focuses on me. “Whatever Samantha said to you, her opinions are light-years away from ours.” I’m positive “ours” encompasses all the families.

“I know,” I say.

After another short goodbye, Lo leaves. And Maximoff and I turn to each other, water lapping around us, especially with the yacht cruising through the sea.

I sheath his cheek with my hand, his emotion fighting to break through. Fuck, I just want to hold him. Love him. Be there for him when his aristocratic grandmother turns heel.

“What are you thinking?” I breathe.

He pulls my chest closer to his chest in the pool. His buff arms around my shoulders, hands riding up my neck. His forest-greens start to stroke my eyes. Like hot caresses flooded with comfort and warmth. “It feels like every time I try to come up for air, someone else shits on you or me or us, and the only time I can breathe is when I’m looking at you.”

My chest swells, feeling his words before my lips slowly rise. “If that were true, wolf scout, you would’ve died from asphyxiation every time I left the room.”

He groans out his irritation, but then he breaks into deep laughter.

“I made him laugh,” I say matter-of-factly, and fuck, that sound is gorgeous. He looks surprised that the noise left his lips. That unannounced visit at the villa is still raw for me too. And I don’t regret stripping our clothes outside.

I don’t regret one thing we did.

I always take risks. I always live by my actions, not other people’s fucked-up ones. And out of everything, it just fucking rips me apart that the full frontal was of him and not me. So easily, it could’ve been me, and I would’ve done absolutely anything to change that, to protect him, to save him.

And I know I fell short this time.