Avery
“Maddi!” I shout between the thuds of her beating on a wall.
I brought her to the “new” house while trying to do some renovations on it. We started cleaning it at the beginning of the week, and now I’m doing small things I know I can do. She wanted to help, and I wanted her to be a part of the process in shaping the house.
I’d love to restore it back to the way I remember Mamaw had it, but the asshole who lived here didn’t see the same beauty we did. He destroyed it taking down walls or placing one in a dumb spot. But I can see through the disaster. I have a loose plan of what I want to do, which includes modernizing it while keeping the old country feel.
Starting small.
Hell, at my pace we won’t be able to move in for another year, but at least I can say it’s mine. The big hurdle is out of the way.
Max and I started over. We both realized life sucked without the other, but we had things we needed to work out. We met at a neutral place—Sienna’s—where he reserved a secluded table in the back corner. We discussed everything. I came clean about Maddi and all the reasons why I kept her a secret. I knew if we were going to work through things, I had to be completely honest and I was. I opened up fully going into graphic details about Aaron, from his physical and mental abuse to the calamity of his hitman. Although Max sat quietly listening, the rage was in his eyes.
He understood why I didn’t tell him about Maddi but was hurt that I didn’t give him the choice to make his own decisions.
Next came the explanation of the land. He delved into the multiple reasons why acquiring the land was so important. The critical reason—so no one else could build close to him. Left up to him, he’d have the surrounding one hundred acres. He said when my lawyer told my side, he brushed it off as a sob story. Being a businessman, he’s heard a lot of false and entertaining excuses.
Once I removed my personal feelings and saw it from a business angle, I understood it better. Even though it still sucked.
It’s been a week since we hashed it all out. It’s been great and we haven’t missed a beat. We’ve grown closer on a personal, more intimate level.
Maddi comes down the stairs covered in dust and dirty. Her hair is in braided pigtails and her forehead is red and sweaty.
“What are you doing up there?” I wipe my hands of the sticky glue where I’m pulling down the horrific wallpaper.
She bounces the hammer a few times in the air. “You know in my room where there’s a space beside the wall? I’m putting up a door.”
I snicker. “It’s a closet, silly. I took down the door so we can expand it. You don’t need to put it back up.”
“But it would be a good place to put up a door,” she says.
We’re interrupted by a knock on the door. I give her a hardened glare with an easy smile. “Don’t put that door back up, Maddi.”
I pull open the door and immediately I’m taken aback. Zach is holding a clipboard and a smug smirk standing beside Max. Both men are dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, looking like they’re ready to work.
My pulse picks up. Maddi hasn’t “officially” met Max yet.
“What are you doing here?” I glance around to see if Maddi is close.
“Rumor says you need some help.” Zach stretches his hands to the side. “The best has arrived.”
Max shrugs. “See what he can come up with.”
I know my eyes are wide, and my insides feel frantic.
“Max!” My daughter yells and then her feet pound the floor. She flings herself around his hip and hugs him. “Did you come to check on Frostbite? He’s going to be happy you’re here. I’ve taken good care of him, just like you told me to. He sleeps with me, but he’s a bed hog and he doesn’t like the covers.” She spins toward me. “Can I take him to see him?”
“I-um…” I look to Max for the answer.
He flashes a lopsided smile. “Talk to Zach while I go with her.”
Instantly, she grabs his hand and yanks him into the house, talking his ear off as she pulls him through the kitchen and up the stairs.
“Actually, I don’t need you right now. I need to spec out the house. Go make sure the kids are playing nicely.”
“I…yeah. Thank you,” I rush out and race up the stairs.
“This is gonna be Momma’s room,” I hear Maddi say as I head down the hall. “She said she wants a big bed and a really big shower. She wants to put her dresser here…” She leaps to the spot. “And a TV here…” she leaps again. “A mirror here and then she’s going to hang all her boards here.” She points to the area above the window. “Let me show you my room. Frostbite’s there holding up the door.”
She sprints out the door and into what will be hers. “I want my bed right here. That way I have allll this room to play…” she expands her arms. “Maybe I can get a desk so I can draw because I want to make dresses when I grow up. Momma said I’ll be great at it and I like to do it so I’ll need a desk. It’s going to be beside the window so I can look outside when I’m having a long hard day to make ends meet.”
Max laughs. “You have a long while before you need to make ends meet.”
Maddi shrugs and then her face becomes animated. She snatches Frostbite off the ground, dusts him off, and hands him to Max. “He’s dirty because he’s been helping. Oh. Let me show you where the bathroom will be. It’s already there but she wants to change it.”
Max is chuckling as he passes me.
“She’s really excited,” I whisper.
They stand in the little rundown bathroom and she tells him everything I’ve mentioned I want to do. Then she moves him into the empty room that will become the guest bedroom.
“Maddi. You’re dragging Max everywhere and talking a mile a minute. Slow down,” I tell her.
She cuts beady little eyes at me. “I’m giving him a tour of the house.”
“I know. But you’re—”
“Oh! I didn’t show you the best part,” she squeaks, ignoring me and tugging Max out of the door. She drags him back down the stairs, her little legs moving quickly through the kitchen, out onto the back porch and stops on the stairs. She points to the weed infested, rundown jibbing terrain Dad built me. “Grandpa built Momma this when she was little and she said she’s going to clean it up and keep it so she can teach me how to do all types of tricks. I didn’t meet my grandpa. He went to heaven before I was born but Momma said she knows grandpa and grandma are smiling and happy.” She takes off running where years ago, Dad installed a small ramp. “There used to be a…” she looks to me.
“Quarter ramp,” I remind her.
“There used to be a quarter ramp here. It’s not here no more, but it used to be. Momma said right here is where she thought she broke her butt.” Maddi breaks out into a giggle.
“She’s been excited about everything since we stepped foot in the door,” I say quietly to Max.
“She is? I couldn’t tell,” Max jests.
“I don’t like handouts. Besides, I can get most of this done on my own,” I say.
“Now you have professional help. He’s agreed to help you on the side.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything yet,” I smile.
He shifts, chuckling. “You don’t know Zach very well. He’s involved now. You’re stuck with him.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“I know you want to do things your way,” he says to me, keeping his view on Maddi. “But since we’re starting over, I was hoping to meet your daughter…properly.”
Maddi is still talking…
“I’m really nervous,” I admit.
“Of? I think I’ve proven—”
“That you’ll become her favorite person and replace me.” I grin to him and then call Maddi over to us.
I’ve been scared many times in my life. Being in an abusive relationship will have you fearing your own shadow. I’ve also been nervous, experiencing the most of it just before the starting line of my competition runs. But today, that line is the sport right beside me occupied by my four-foot-tall heartbeat.
I pull her to sit beside me. “Okay, I need to tell you a secret,” I start. “I’ve been really scared to do it, but I think right now is the perfect time to share it with you.”
“You said secrets are a bad thing,” she counters.
“They are, but some are for really good reasons.” I feel like I’m about to explode. “I’ve been seeing Max.”
She blinks to me with the most innocent blue eyes. “I see him too, Momma.”
I can’t help but chuckle. “I’ve been dating him. He’s the man we talked about.”
Her eyes flash as wide as silver dollars and she twists toward Max. “You’re her boyfriend?”
“Yep,” Max answers and pulls out a long-stemmed pink rose. I told him all about her fascination with these damn roses. “This is for you. It’s pink because you and I share our little secret and I’m hoping we could be friends.”
Maddi takes it, smells it, and then gives Max a stern glare. “You only gave me this to purse-ade me to like you so you can be Momma’s boyfriend ‘cause if I don’t like you all I have to do is give her the thumbs down and we kick you out.”
“Maddi!” I chide.
“Well, you are kind of right. I do want you to like me so I can stick around. I really like you and your mom.”
She ponders for a moment and leans close to him in a horrible attempt to whisper. “Will you make her smile?”
“I’ve been trying my very best,” he whispers back.
“You know if you make her mad, she has mace.”
Max breathes a laugh. “She’s told me that.”
“Will you be coming over for dinner?”
“If I’m invited. Will you cook for me?”
“Momma makes really good sketty. You’d like it, but I’m not allowed to cook yet.”
“I love spaghetti,” Max says.
“Can I tell you a secret? I knew momma liked you. I heard her telling Aunt Rave about you. You have pretty eyes.”
Max’s mouth twists to the side. “I get those from my mom.”
Max is still holding Frostbite and she takes him. “Momma says I have her eyes too.”
“You definitely have her beautiful eyes.”
Maddi smiles up to him. “Just don’t make her sad, okay?”
Max sticks his hand out and they shake. “Deal.”
She looks to me. “Is it lunchtime yet?”
And just like that, their heartfelt moment is over. I laugh at her change of direction.
We don’t have a fridge yet, but I did pack a cooler so we could enjoy a picnic on the back porch. What I didn’t plan on was all the emotions running through me as we—Maddi, Max, Zach, and me—sit together and eat. I’ve never experienced this with Maddi and it feels pretty damn good as we talk about anything and everything.