“Sorry,” I mumble. “I’m not exactly used to this. Company.” My shoulders lift, and I tuck my hands into my pockets as we step out of the coffee shop and onto the street.
“I totally get that, but I’m just glad to be spending time with you again.” Sam playfully nudges me in the arm. “So try to cheer up a little.”
I grunt in response, wishing she’d found something else to do besides come see me at work again. I knew what I did the other day would have consequences.
Just didn’t think I’d be paying for them with coffee. As it is, I turned her down yesterday and the day before that. But feeling like an ass after how I used her, I told her I’d shout her this once.
Besides that, I’ve been wondering why the hell Ryan hasn’t shown up to see me since I got out. And I was hoping Sam might have the answers about what he’s up to, yet she’s been oddly evasive.
The sound of the seagulls flying above pierces the air, the noise from the traffic flowing in either direction drowning out my repetitive thoughts. Then the sound of wailing hits me like a punch in the nuts, making me think of Archie. Christ, I need to get my shit together.
The wailing doesn’t stop, and pretty soon, I’m not even nodding at whatever it is Sam is saying, because there’s no way I can pretend to be listening over the volume of it.
It quiets suddenly, turning to low whimpers as we stop by a bunch of people huddled together on the sidewalk.
“What on earth is she doing?” someone asks loudly.
“Maybe we should call 911.”
Someone gasps at the same time Sam does.
“Holy shit,” Sam breathes. “Is that …?”
My stomach lurches when I catch sight of the auburn hair. “Felix, what the hell is she doing?” Sam asks.
Maggie appears to be rocking, holding Archie tightly to her chest. Which would be sweet and all if she wasn’t sitting in the middle of the fucking sidewalk on a busy city street.
I don’t even give myself time to question it. I tell Sam I’ll see her later and shove my way through the onlookers, who’re just standing there like stunned idiots.
“Felix!” Sam cries, but I shoo her away with the flick of my hand and bend down.
“Back up,” I growl at the people hovering around my kid.
Maggie lifts her head then, her doe eyes looking vacant as they try to focus on me.
“Mags.” I grab her face. “What happened?”
She blinks, and it’s as if whatever spell she was under breaks. “Shit,” she hisses.
Maggie looks around, her cheeks turning pink when she realizes all these people are watching her sit on the ground.
“I-I don’t know.” She swallows and tries to stand. I grab her arm and help her, then without even thinking, I take a whimpering Archie from her and hold him to my chest, his head flopping to my shoulder. “He was screaming, and I dropped my stuff. I was picking it up and hurt my head or something.”
I can tell she’s lying without even looking at her, but I let it go. For now. “Your car?”
“Yeah, ah, parked just around the corner.”
We head back toward the coffee shop and around the corner to where her car is parked across the street. She removes her arm from my hold and digs a shaky hand into her pocket to grab her keys.
I take them from her, and she doesn’t argue, just hops in the car while I try to work out how the hell you buckle a baby into this weird contraption.
I figure it out after a minute, then end up just staring at Archie. “Car!” He grins, kicking his legs and blowing a snot bubble out of his nose. Which is probably thanks to all his crying.
Well, he seems happy enough now. I bend down and grab one of the toy cars from the floor and pass it to him. He shoves his thumb into his mouth and holds the car to his chest.
Resting his head against the side of his seat, he looks as though he didn’t just almost cause a riot of curiosity in the street.
It makes me chuckle as I move out of the back seat and open the driver’s door. “Out.”
Maggie looks up from where she was staring at her hands, that small nose scrunching. “What?”
I jerk my head to the passenger side. “I said get out. I’m driving you home.”
She shakes her head. “You really don’t have to do that.”
Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose as I mutter, “I kind of do. I don’t know all of what happened back there, but I’m not letting you drive home with our son after whatever that was.” I raise my brows at her, then pull out my phone to text Jared. “Don’t make me say it again.”
She obeys, silently getting in the other side and staying that way most of the drive back to Bonnets Bay.
When the silence only increases in volume, I finally ask, “Gonna tell me why you were sitting on the sidewalk?”
She shakes her head in my peripheral vision, a nervous laugh bubbling out of her. “Like I said, all I remember is dropping my stuff, trying to pick it up, and then getting hit in the head with a heavy bag maybe as someone walked by.”
Teeth gritting together, I tell myself not to ask.
Don’t ask.
Don’t … “Are you okay?”
Idiot.
“Yeah.” She reaches up to touch the side of her head. “I’m fine. Just … I think it shocked me more than anything.”
She’s quiet again after that, and I try to figure out how much truth sits behind her words.
“He sick or something?” I ask when we hit the turnoff and I see in the rearview mirror that Archie has fallen asleep.
“No, just teething.”
That’s all she says, keeping her gaze directed out the side window, where it’s been the past twenty minutes.
Her despondence puts me on edge. The quietness a glaring contrast to the woman who’s been trying to reason with me for weeks now. And the same woman I used to know so well.
Sensing she needs it, I let her have her quiet and try not to inhale that familiar scent of strawberries that I know comes from all that thick, beautiful hair. My dick hardens, as memories of what I used to enjoy doing with that hair try to invade, and I almost growl.
Dicks are fucking traitorous things.
I soon pull into the driveway of the large, two-story light blue home that sits in front of the bay, and not knowing what else to do, I turn the car off and just sit here for a moment.
Maggie’s phone rings, and she steps out of the car, digging it out from the back pocket of her jeans and answering it only after she closes the door.
“Well, little man,” I murmur, looking away from her ass and lifting my eyes to the rearview mirror to look at my sleeping kid instead. “Hell if I know what to do now.”
When she hangs up, I watch her for a minute, wondering if she thinks I can’t see her standing near the rear of her car. She rubs her hands over her cheeks, then shoves them into her hair, roughly pulling at the thick strands and closing her eyes.
I wish I wasn’t such a stubborn asshole because right now, I know she really needs a hug.
Blowing out a breath, I undo my seat belt and hop out, opening the back door to unbuckle Archie and carefully carry him to the house.
Maggie walks over to the side gate, holding it open for me to walk through.
Right. She lives in some tiny little shack out the back. I walk through, my heart swelling when Archie mumbles and blows hot little bursts of breath onto my neck in his sleep.
My arms hold him tighter to me in response, and I wonder how the hell I was so afraid to touch him like this.
It’s one of the best damn things in the world.
So much so, that I continue walking to the rear of the yard, sitting down on the grass in the shade, and keeping him held to my chest.
Maggie disappears inside her little house, and I try not to wonder what she’s doing.
We’re out here for what has to be at least twenty minutes when I hear her footsteps crunch on the grass as she approaches.
“Want me to take him?” she asks.
I shake my head, and Archie stirs, his chubby hand whacking me in the chest and making me smile.
His eyes spring open, his head snapping up. “Ma,” he blurts hoarsely.
“Hi, little guy.”
Little guy. Like she used to call me big guy. Something lodges in my throat.
He then looks at me, blinking before he asks, “Mik?”
The fuck? I’m starting to get real sick of all these new men popping up in their lives. “Who’s Mik?”
Maggie laughs softly, and the sound tries to tunnel through my ears to my damn heart. “He wants milk.”
Oh. “Ah.” I grin at Archie in relief. “Milk, eh?”
“Mik,” he affirms with a smile, then tries to shuffle off my lap. I let him go, watching him walk over to Maggie, who lifts him up and kisses his cheek.
Fuck me. Time for me to go, I think.
I get up, grabbing my phone to call Jared as Maggie walks back inside.
“Hey, can you pick me up?” I ask when he answers.
“I guess, where the fuck are you? You said you were taking lunch, not a damn vacation.”
I look over at the water beyond the fence. “Yeah, I kinda ran into Maggie. I’m in Bonnets Bay.”
He whistles. “Text me the address.”
I’m tucking my phone away when Archie comes running back over the grass, stumbling and falling on his ass and dropping his sippy cup in the process. He looks from it to me, his bottom lip wobbling like he’s about to lose some serious shit.
I rush into action, grabbing his milk first ’cause I know that’s what’s important to him. Then I sit down beside him while he drinks it and try not to feel all cocky about my crisis averting skills. But shit, watching him smile at me around his cup like I’ve saved the day makes me feel like I’m the king of the world.
He drops his milk a minute later, on purpose this time, and waddles off back to their little house. I notice Maggie sitting on the porch steps at the back of the main house, watching us.
“He’ll be back,” she says, then returns her attention to her hands.
She’s right. He’s back not even a minute later, dumping trucks, cars, and motorcycles into my lap and pointing at them all while he babbles.
We play in the grass for a little while until my phone beeps, letting me know that Jared’s probably out the front.
I’m hit with a wave of unease as I look at my boy. Maybe now that it’s all sunk in, it’s so much harder to say goodbye. “Hey.” I pick Archie up and poke him in the tummy. “I’ll see you soon, little man.” I kiss his head, inhaling his scent and walk him back over to where Maggie’s still seated. He climbs into her lap and rests his head on her boobs.
Shit. Shit, fuck, shit. I clear my throat, inwardly cursing out my hardening dick and trying not to get choked up from all these damn feelings and the way she looks. Which is more beautiful, if that’s even possible, than she’s ever been before. Motherhood looks good on my Little Doe.
Leaving them stings differently this time, but I head for the side gate and make my heavy legs move.
“Thank you,” Maggie says so quietly, I almost don’t hear her. My feet stop for a second. But I don’t turn around, and instead, I force myself to keep walking, closing the gate behind me.
“How the hell did she end up here?” Jared asks as soon as I get in the truck.
Letting out a sigh, I put my seat belt on as he reverses out onto the street. “Good fucking question.”