Chapter Nineteen
Maddox
After a long morning of checking on two locations, I took a moment to breathe in my car. The day was busy, and I hadn’t had much time to reflect on more than menu changes and price increases. I picked an album to play on my phone and connected it wirelessly to the new audio system. A rhythmic bass began, followed by a soothing upbeat tempo that helped me relax.
I was excited for Everly to cook dinner, and even more excited that there was a chance we could have an honest conversation about Abby. We hadn’t discussed the terms of this weird relationship yet, but I felt as if we both were tiptoeing around that conversation. All I knew was that I liked her, and I thought she liked me. Unless I was horribly mistaken.
But I couldn’t mistake the way she looked at me for anything else. There was a clear desire in her eyes, a flame that I wanted to kindle until it burned brightly between us.
Something caught my eye in the rearview mirror, and I looked up to find Jackie storming toward me. She looked upset, and had a stack of paperwork in her hands as she stomped on tall heels.
I started the engine and peeled out of my spot in record time. Jackie didn’t believe in leaving work at work, and she would have thrown the files in the back seat of my car, given a chance. I decided to make it up to her later.
I drove straight to Nick’s house, pulling into his driveway just as he was getting home from a lunch outing with Abby.
“How was Chinese?” I asked Abby, who offered me a fortune cookie. I stuffed it into my pocket and followed them inside.
“It was good.” Her lip curled into a frown. “But they didn’t have sushi.”
“I already told you, that’s Japanese food. And I promised we’ll get sushi tomorrow,” Nick said.
“Should a 3-year-old be eating sushi?” I asked.
“You’re the parent.” Nick shrugged. “You tell me.”
I made a mental note to look that up later.
“I don’t have anything to cook tonight.” Nick frowned as he checked his fridge. He walked over to his pantry, and his shoulders slumped. “You mind getting Everly to cook up some extra food for us?”
I frowned. “Not a chance. I’m paying her to cook for me and Abby and to teach me how to cook, not provide dinner for my frugal best friend next door. Unless you want to chip in and help with the expense?”
“Yeah right. I wish,” he said. “Nevermind then. We’ll order pizza instead. We like pizza, right Abby?”
“Pizza!” she yelled, and Nick took it as confirmation. “Can I have the kind with fruit and ham?”
Nick gave me a sour look and turned to Abby. “Not when you’re at Uncle Nick’s, remember? Save that weird stuff for your dad’s house, okay?”
“Nervous?” Nick asked as I paced around his living room. Abby turned on the TV and started looking up videos to watch. I watched her, trying to remember if I knew how to open a door when I was three years old. My daughter wasn’t your usual child; though, and she was far more advanced than I’d ever been.
“No. Yes. I don’t know. It’s just dinner; nothing’s really changed,” I said.
“That’s bullshit,” Nick said and pulled out a couple of beers from the fridge. Abby heard the movement and turned.
“Juice?” she asked, and Nick handed her a bottled fruit juice. I popped open my bottle and took my time enjoying it. Hopefully it would help ease the nerves.
“Everything’s changed,” Nick said. “Do you even know how you feel about her yet? Usually you’re far more open to me about this sort of thing. She’s got you shaken up?”
I didn’t tell him that that very question had been on my mind for days.
“No, I know.” I admitted. “Then again, I have no idea. She’s special. There’s just something about her that makes me excited, makes me want to know more.”
“I think you should probably start backing away from this situation,” Nick said. “If you ask me. But then again, no one ever does, even though I’m usually right.”
The response surprised me. “Okay, I’ll bite.” I sighed. “Why do you think I should back off?”
Nick lowered his voice. “You have a kid, man. She doesn’t want kids. It’s not that hard to add the two together. Simple math.”
“You’re the one who said she might change her mind,” I argued.
“I know, and she still might. But I think you’re a little too emotionally invested in this. You’re too close, and if she ends up burning you, it’s going to leave a scar. An ugly one. Not just on you, but on her,” Nick gestured toward Abby. “This is her first time having her dad date someone. You need to be extra careful, for her sake. When you aren’t around, it’s all she talks about.”
I watched as Abby picked a video of a singing tomato as that all sank in. She clapped along, and even knew a few words of the song. Nick was right; if I got hurt, so would she.
“I’m being careful,” I said. “But you should have seen Everly and Abby together yesterday. She was a natural, and they got along so great. Everly may not want children, but I think she could really fall in love with Abby.”
Nick contemplated my words. “Just don’t expect too much from her.”
“I won’t; I’ll take it as it comes.” I threw my empty bottle in the recycling bin. I still had another hour before Everly arrived, so I took a seat beside Abby and watched awful children’s videos with her until it was time to leave.
“Is Everly at the house?” Abby asked as I said goodbye to Nick.
“She will be soon. I’ll save you some dinner.” I kissed her cheek, and she hugged me. I knew one day I was going to have to explain this to Abby, but surely when she was older, she’d understand.
I returned home and did a thorough check on the kitchen and dining room. Everything was immaculate as always, and I found myself killing time by checking the silverware.
A knock on the door startled me, and I dropped two forks onto the ground.
“Calm down,” I told myself and placed them in the sink to be washed later. Why was I so nervous?
I brushed my hands off on my pair of comfortable jeans and rushed toward the door as she knocked. Each of my heartbeats was faster than the previous. This woman was going to be the death of me one day. Sweet, slow death.
“I’m early, I know,” Everly said, and she pushed past me into my house. She had two arms full of grocery bags, and I raised my eyebrows. “I couldn’t remember if you had anything I needed, so I just decided to buy everything. Don’t worry; you’re getting billed for it.”
“Good to know.” I followed her into the kitchen. “What’s on the menu for tonight?”
“I thought we’d go with veal with mushroom lasagna and sauce perigord.” She began setting the ingredients on the counter. My eyebrows raised.
“We’re getting a little fancy tonight,” I said and glanced through everything. She picked only the highest quality ingredients, and in my head, I calculated at least 200 dollars’ worth of food for what might create four servings. Nick was going to eat very well later.
“I’ve shown you the general basics,” she said. “Plus, I’ve had a veal craving all weekend. It’s really not that difficult.” She knotted an apron around her blouse and pants and ran a few fingers through her hair before tying it up. She seemed happier, more relaxed, as she ran around my kitchen. It dawned on me that she moved as if she’s always lived in this kitchen.
I stifled a laughed. Cooking veal was certainly not an easy skill, but Everly seemed fairly confident in her ability.
“How has your day been?” I asked.
She walked to the sink and scrubbed her hands. “Long,” she said, but there wasn’t a single frown on her face. “Belle got a little sick at kindergarten, and Lacey had me pick her up and stay with her until she got home from work.” She pulled a towel from the drawer, and after she had dried her hands, she tossed it over her shoulder.
“Is she feeling better?”
“Well,” Everly took out some seasonings for the veal and started prepping the lasagna. “Between us, Maddox, I suspect a certain boy that Belle has a crush on said something not so kind to her, and she faked being sick to go home.”
I laughed. “She’s only five, isn’t she? She’s already crushing on boys?” I wasn’t ready for that with Abby. The way she tended to get carried away with things, I couldn’t image how it would be when those things were boy-related. I cringed.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it? When I was her age I was playing with trading cards and telling everyone I was part cat,” she said.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I muttered. She grinned, and set everything up on the counter.
“All kids are weird. Just wait, a few years and yours might end being part horse.” She focused our attention on the food and began telling me what everything was for.
I listened closely as she went through the process, seasoning this, washing that, and chopping and dicing vegetables. I pretended that I had no idea how to hold a knife, and she placed her hand on top of mine and showed me.
Her warmth electrified me, and I leaned into her. She hesitated, her breath hitching as she pulled her hand from mine.
“I think I got it,” I said and expertly sliced a tomato as she turned to regain her composure. Her blush was contagious, it seemed.
The rest of cooking dinner was similar, and it seemed our bodies were never more than a foot apart. Everly was just as desperate for intimacy as I was, or at least that’s what I told myself. By the time our plates were ready to be brought into the dining room, I was flushed with desire and having trouble focusing.
“Where’s Abby?” she asked as we took our seats.
“At my friend Nick’s,” I said. “He offers a pretty competitive rate for daycare. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to learn anything if she was here. She’d be trying to do all the cooking herself, and she’d most likely outshine me as a student. She loves cooking.”
Everly laughed. “Belle went through the same thing.”
We took our bites at the same time and sighed in pleasure. It was delicious.
“This might be the best yet,” I said.
“Think you could recreate it yourself?” she asked, her teasing tone a clear joke. I laughed, fighting the temptation to tell her that I’ve created dishes similar to this hundreds of times.
“Maybe a few more lessons,” I said. “So my mother has just not stopped asking about you. Did you really have to be so amazing at dinner and make her fall in love with you?”
“Was I supposed to be an awful person and make her hate me?” she asked. “Because I could have done that. Easily.” Her soft laughter was refreshing.
“I can’t imagine anyone hating you,” I said. She bit the inside of her cheek and stuffed a bite of lasagna in her mouth.
“Thanks, I guess?”
We finished the rest of our meal with pleasant small talk. I picked up her plate along with mine, and she followed me into the kitchen.
“So, I’ve been meaning to ask, do you just hide all signs of Abby in the house?” Everly glanced around the kitchen. “You don’t even have chocolate milk.”
“Abby’s been pretty spoiled when it comes to food,” I admitted. “She likes coconut milk mixed with melted semisweet chocolate, which we keep at Nick’s. As for the rest of the house, well, I have the housekeeper to thank for that.”
“Could you show me around?” Everly asked. “Like, upstairs? I just want to see how the spoiled daughter of a billionaire lives her life.”
I smiled and offered her my hand. “I can do that.”
I pulled her across the living room toward the grand staircase.
“How many rooms total do you have?” she asked.
“Ten or so.”
“And one kid’s room?”
“There’s only one kid here,” I said. We walked into another living area just above the stairs, where two desks and a chair hugged the wall and faced a giant television.
“Oh my God,” Everly whispered. “You have two living rooms.”
“Don’t try and keep count,” I joked.
I showed her Abby’s room, which had been decorated for a little princess.
“My mother did all the decorations,” I said as Everly brushed her fingers against a glittery, pink wall. A blue bed with a sheer, pink canopy above it was pushed into a corner alcove, on a two-step platform. The walls were lined with real diamond statues, and a giant unicorn stuffed animal lay in the middle of the room.
“I could have guessed,” She muttered, turning in a circle to take it all in.
The next stop was my room, and I stayed near the door as she spent her time browsing my things. The master bedroom was a series of three connected rooms, the first a sitting area, the second a bathroom suite with a closet the size of my kitchen, and the last a bedroom with a king-sized bed.
“Three living rooms.” She sprawled across a couch in front of a fireplace.
“Three that you’ve seen,” I said. She grinned, and I showed her the bathroom next, receiving an expected gasp as she walked inside the closet. I kept my suits neat and organized, with the back wall reserved for the plethora of shoes meant for several different occasions.
“This is bigger than my apartment.” She did another spin when we entered the bedroom. She glanced inside a corner door, where my office waited.
“Your apartment isn’t that small.” I offered the words to be polite, and she shot me a glare. I leaned against the door leading to the bathroom, waiting for this tour to end.
“Wait,” Everly said as her head popped into my office. It was fairly small, and from what I remembered, only had a single desk and a shelf of pictures. “Is this you?”
I groaned. I didn’t exactly have the best time during puberty. “No,” I tried, but she had already disappeared into the room. I followed her, shutting the door behind me to keep her from escaping, and raced her to the very unflattering picture of me as a child.
“You can’t hide this!” she yelled as she held it up. “Oh, Maddox. How unfortunate.”
“Give me that,” I ordered and tried grabbing it from her. I was behind her, her small frame between my arms, when she turned and fell into me. My breath hitched, the warmth of her skin pressed so tightly against mine doing unkind things to me.
She dropped the picture as my hand slid to her waist, pressing into her as I’ve been wanted to do since I first saw her. My other hand slid up her back, and her mouth parted slightly as she took a deep breath.
“Maddox,” she whispered, and the only thing I wanted in that one moment was to taste my name on her lips.