Tense was probably the best way to describe the entire build-up to the actual moment we told Loretta. But it was done and now we could move on. When I heard from Madeline again a few hours after I’d left the hospice that day, she explained what I’d expected. Loretta had had a whole lot to say once I was out of there. Mostly, she had questions, some more alarming than others. How long had this gone on? Was she certain there was no basis to my bastard kid stories? Had she slept with me yet? At first, to my utter relief, Madeline lied and said we hadn’t.
“I spared her having to hear about how I was the one who insisted we could go there,” Madeline had explained. “But only because I could tell she was looking for something negative to say about all this. If she’d made a single comment about how it’s likely all you were in this for was sex or that you pressured me into anything, I would’ve told her exactly how it happened. I didn’t want things to get ugly.”
Turned out Madeline had a few surprises for me too that day. The first was a painting she’d painted for our anniversary. It was of the two of us. “I painted that picture Maggie took of us by the bridge last year on my birthday when you met me at Pike’s Crest.”
I remembered the very moment the photo was taken. I’d just wrapped my arm around her neck and kissed her sweetly on the temple. I relished that feeling of knowing she was all mine finally. As usual, the attention to detail was exquisite. I hung it in our great room first thing when I got home, and everyone in my family agreed it was amazing.
The second surprise was her telling me how her mama said she’d known all along about us. She’d just held out hope it was just Madeline being a rebel and that maybe she’d only been seen on my bike once or twice, but the town was so ridiculous they blew everything up. Now that she knew how serious it was and heard all our plans, she was a little relieved.
“She said it made her nervous to think you might break my heart,” Madeline explained. “She was more worried about that than anything else. But she said she had to agree with Grandma you look as smitten as I do.”
It’d been a huge weight off my shoulders. I’d meant it when I’d told Madeline I was ready to go above and beyond to prove to Loretta just how much Madeline meant to me. But my relief that Madeline hadn’t told her about us being sexually active yet was premature because the transition wasn’t as smooth as I thought it might be. I’d been naïve again to think Loretta was going to just agree to this so easily.
Because she was under the assumption that her baby girl was still a virgin, the claws were still out. She started to make all kinds of rules, such as Madeline wasn’t allowed to be at my house unless my dad or Ama were there. So we were back to sneaking around when it came to certain things until the night my heart nearly stopped again.
“I told her,” she said one night when I picked her up and she got in the shop’s van. “She was about to invent another one of her rules just now when she saw the van pull up—that she didn’t want me riding around with you in this van because people might get the wrong idea.” I was already staring at her, holding my breath when she laid the rest on me. “So I told her they wouldn’t be getting the wrong idea. They’d be right.”
Of course, instead of looking as horrified as I was feeling, she smirked then leaned over and squeezed my hand. “I’m an adult now, baby,” she said, kissing me softly, once, twice, then a third time, until I took a deep breath. “Besides, I don’t buy for a minute that my mother believed I was still a virgin, being as I’m so hopelessly in love with one of the big bad Cortez brothers, especially knowing I’ve been on birth control for years. She took my lie about not being active yet and used it to her advantage.”
That was just a few weeks ago, and it actually calmed her mom from all the rules she’d started making. Our relationship was also no longer a rumor around town. It was a fact. I’d even had lunch with Maddie and her mama at that same café I’d first been struck by her. I thought I’d seen every side of Maddie and her sister, but seeing them around their mother shed a whole new humorous light.
When Madeline finished putting in her heavy breakfast order, she giggled when Maggie ordered the oatmeal, fruit, and side of whole grain toast. “Maggie, really?” she said as the waitress walked away. “Whole wheat toast? Can’t you live a little for once?”
“And order the prison slop with a side of heart attack? No thanks.”
“Prison slop?” Madeline feigned being aghast but couldn’t quite stifle the giggle. “Biscuits and gravy are the absolute best.”
“Oh yeah, if you like food that looks like cat puke on shit—”
“Margaret Adele,” Loretta hissed. “We are at a restaurant.”
“Well, Mama, she orders that every time,” Maggie protested even as she, too, seemed to be refraining from smirking as Maddie now giggled outright. “She knows I’ll be forced to smell it when I hate how it smells.”
Later, when the food arrived, Madeline attempted to make Maggie taste her biscuits and gravy, even lifting a spoonful near Maggie’s face with a giggle. Maggie nudged her hand away, making the prison slop splat onto the table.
“Will you two knock it off?” Loretta said even as they both giggled now; then she turned to me with that Hellman cocked brow. “I promise you they are capable of behaving like adults.”
The girls continued to giggle despite their mother’s annoyance, and it was only the beginning of watching them enjoy rattling their mother. Madeline had been right when she’d assured me that her mother’s bark was far worse than her bite. Most times she ended up laughing along with them and their silliness.
But she did put on a good show of being a hard ass. It made sense now. Being a single mom of two beautiful girls in a town full of gossiping town folk made her have to put up a front. There had been lots of curious stares around town, some more obvious than others. The day at the café Loretta took it upon herself to greet some of the more blatant whispering gawkers. Looked them square in the face when she did it as if to say, you have any questions, go ahead and ask, but stop whispering behind our backs.
I should’ve known Loretta’s claws would be out when it came to standing behind her daughter, even about this. Though it hadn’t been without any issues. The night of her birthday I gave in and let Madeline have a birthday puff of my weed. But I laid down the rules. “Only time I ever wanna hear that you’ve done this is when I’m there to take care of you, you hear me?”
“It’s not like it makes me crazy, Nico,” she tried to counter. “It relaxes me.”
“I don’t care. It still alters your senses, and I don’t want you doing it unless you’re with me.”
She laughed, saying that’d hardly be a sacrifice. We were inseparable most of the time anyway, and it wasn’t as if she was planning on becoming a pot head. We’d since shared a few hits here and there; even Maggie had had a few. It only made me even more hyper alert with an overwhelming feeling of responsibility to take care of them both if Nolan wasn’t around.
Nolan and Maggie were still taking things super slow on the surface, but Madeline had confided in me that they’d done more in private but Maggie had sworn her and Nolan to secrecy. Seems she was far more modest than Madeline, which I thought was sweet, but no way would I have ever agreed to keeping secret the fact that Maddie was mine after even one time of having my lips on hers. Of course, Maddie had made me swear not to tell Nolan I knew anything. And since my brother was obviously respecting Maggie’s wishes to keep her secret, it wasn’t something he and I talked about.
But once again, Loretta was on to her daughters. As far as I knew, Maggie had only ever done weed with Madeline and me. Even when she did, she was far more reserved about it than Madeline. She took one hit, if that, while Madeline could take several in one evening.
I arrived at Madeline’s just a few weeks after it had all been out in the open, and already I was dreading Loretta being home. She’d been perfectly accepting of our relationship, even told Maddie she was glad we’re being smart about planning things out and not just rushing things along like most young couples so anxious to wed. But we had a minor setback last week when Loretta smelled the evidence that Maddie and Maggie had done weed.
She blamed me, but Madeline was quick to point out she’d been the one insisting I let her try some and then gave her the same spiel about pot being less toxic than alcohol. Madeline said she seemed to have gotten over it, but we’d have to be a lot more careful from here on when doing it. Still, I wasn’t anxious to get an earful from Loretta, and I was relieved she wasn’t home.
After my usual greeting from Madeline, we started to my dad’s delivery truck. Madeline was right. The only thing Loretta did balk about was Madeline riding around on my bike.
I reminded her to put her seatbelt on before moving. She started putting it on as she told me about their latest debate on the subject. Clearly, Madeline’s mind was made up. Despite her mother’s opposition to her using weed falling on deaf ears, Madeline had done her research, and her argument and opinion about it still stood. She wouldn’t use in the presence of Loretta out of respect for her mother’s wishes. But she was an adult and would do it responsibly out of her mother’s sight whether Loretta agreed with it or not.
As nervous as her obstinate defiance made me, because I knew her mother ultimately blamed me for introducing her to the stuff, I couldn’t help but laugh as Madeline leaned into me. She told me more about the apparently long debate they had over this today until we reached the theater.
Thankfully, Madeline had reserved the tickets online to the horror flick we were seeing because they were sold out. This was another thing Madeline and Maggie were polar opposites on and why her sister wasn’t here with us tonight. While Madeline enjoyed being scared to death by a horror flick, Maggie wasn’t having it.
Using the van was one of the pluses of having to comply with Loretta’s no-motorcycle rule. Now that she knew we’d make good use of it, she was never thrilled about her daughter’s boyfriend picking her up in a van. But it was the only vehicle in my household that wasn’t a motorcycle. Even Dad owned a bike and took leisurely rides still. So, after the movie, we did what we’d done so many times already: we parked in a secluded area by the river or lake, and I stripped her down to nothing and enjoyed every minute of having my way with her—repeatedly.
The twins, like my brother Nolan, were officially high-school graduates now. Although Nolan had had his GED for months. When he left to do his internship, he switched to doing school online and finished that way. We’d talked about taking a road trip to Chicago this summer before Maddie started college in the fall to check out some of the art museums there, but just after she graduated, she was temporarily promoted. While she’d already told her boss she’d be quitting once she started school, she was asked if she’d stand in as the store manager at the Little Caesars where she worked at for a few weeks while they found a full-time replacement. Madeline was actually a little excited about it. She was already a shift manager, so she knew she could handle the added responsibility, but she was more excited about getting our dream going.
So, our road trip would have to wait a few more weeks, which was fine. Only drawback to her temporarily higher-paying position was she was putting in a lot more hours. Which meant our time together took a hit.
One of the days she was working a full eight-hour shift, which usually ran a bit over, I took advantage and drove out to Williamsburg, the next city over, with my brothers to check out some new machinery for the shop. We were so into our discussion about the state-of-the-art machines Quino had been telling us about for weeks I didn’t even notice until midway through the day that my phone had died. When we were done for the day, I broke down and bought another charger, to add to the three I already had back home, and charged my phone in the car.
I set it aside because I knew it’d be a while before it had enough juice for me to use it. We were back to discussing the machines we test-drove today and debating which we should get first. I checked my phone when we got back in the van after stopping for a bite to eat. Cursing under my breath, I scrolled through several missed calls and texts I had from Madeline. I noticed most were in the morning. How long ago had this stupid phone died anyway?
I was even more annoyed about missing her texts, when I read them. Her car had broken down, and she was wondering if I hadn’t left town yet so I could give her a ride to work. In the next couple of texts, I realized she’d broken down on the road, not at home, and she’d been trying to get a hold of Loretta and Shelby but hadn’t had any luck with either. “Fuck,” I muttered, scrolling to the next one.
To my relief, the very next one said she’d gotten a ride, was at work, and for me not to worry. The last of the texts was from just an hour ago. She was home now and so was her car.
I hit speed dial, bringing the phone to my ear. “Hey, baby,” she answered, sounding as cheery as ever.
“Peanut, what happened to your car?”
“It overheated. By the time Mama and I went to pick it up, it started up for me, so I got it home okay. Just not sure if I should be driving it around like this.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said, glancing at the time on the dash. “I’ll come over when I get home. We’re about a half hour away. I’ll take a look at it. You work tomorrow?’
“All week, but Mama can drive me into work if the car needs to go in the shop.”
“I might be able to fix it,” I said with a frown but refrained from saying I told you so about the stupid car.
When I got to her house that evening, she walked out and greeted me with her usual hug and giddy smiles. My annoyance about the car and her having been out there this morning stranded was easily snuffed away by her smile alone. A few kisses and I was putty in her hands, smiling from ear to ear.
“So it just overheated?” I asked as we walked toward the car in her driveway.
“Yeah.” She winced. “I didn’t even notice the little warning light until the engine was already smoking, so I pulled over. I thought it might be on fire. There was so much smoke, so there was no way I was driving the rest of the way.”
“Where’d you break down?” I squatted down and opened the back hood.
“Off highway sixty-eight by the river.”
I glanced up at her. “You went in at nine this morning, right? I was still here.”
She nodded with a frown. “Yeah, but you know how spotty the signal is right around that area. I tried you, Mama, and Shelby, but it took several times for any of them to go through. Even then, none of you answered. Then I texted and no one responded.”
Just looking at the motor, I could already tell what the issue might be, so I stood back up. Then I remembered she said she went back after her shift to pick up her car. “So, how’d you get to work?”
She glanced away as we walked back toward my dad’s van where I brought a few things with me. “Well, luckily, because I wasn’t having any luck getting a hold of anyone, someone drove by and offered me a ride.”
I slowed as we reach the van. “Who was this?”
Our eyes met, and I caught the flicker in hers. “Shane.”
Instantly, I was hot, but I realized I couldn’t blow up at her, not under the circumstances. “Shane gave you a ride to work?” She nodded but didn’t elaborate, so I had to ask. “In his car?” She stared at me for a moment then shook her head. “You got on his fucking bike?”
Her hands went immediately to my face, trying to assuage me because I felt ready to blow and I was sure she knew it. “I had to get to work,” she said anxiously, running her fingers over my temple then kissing it three times.
She reiterated about having tried everyone else without any luck. “Then he drove by and said he’d be happy to give me a lift.”
“Yeah, I bet he fucking did! Did he offer to pick you up after and give you a lift home?”
The very thought of Madeline’s body touching that douche bag’s clouded my seething thoughts for a moment, and I didn’t even notice she hadn’t answered my question. She started to caress my temple again, but I intercepted her hand and held it. “Did he?”
She shrugged with a soft smile. “He asked if I’d have a ride home. He was just being helpful, Nic—”
“The hell he was. He knows you have a boyfriend, a mom, and friends who’d be more than willing to get you home. I’ve always hated that motherfucker. Next time you break down, you Uber if you have—”
“Even when I’m somewhere with no signal?” Her brow was cocked like when she was getting pissed, but she smiled instead, placing her hand on my chest. “I get it, okay? Mama wasn’t happy about who gave me a ride either. I knew you’d be upset, but I had no choice. Can you please just not be mad at me and fix my car instead so it doesn’t happen again?’ I felt my expression soften and she smiled big. “I made you a carrot cake from scratch.”
I nodded, leaning in and kissing her. Who was I kidding? I could never be mad at her. “I think you just need some coolant. You’re completely dry. I had a feeling,” I said, motioning to the bottle in the van. “It’s why I brought some.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I was treated to a crotch-tightening deep kiss before she pulled away, smiling. “I’ll go get that cake.”
I walked over to her car and got to work as she hurried inside. A few minutes later I heard the door open, but to my surprise, when I glanced up, it was Loretta coming out. I stood up from where I was still squatting and wiped my hands on a rag. “I think that does it. She should be good for now. But I’ll have my mechanic friend check for leaks just to be sure.”
“Any chance you can talk Maddie into trading this thing in for something safer?”
I chuckled, still cleaning off my hands. “I have about as much chance of talking her into that as you do of talking her into dumping me.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, I think I’d pretty much given up on that even before she came clean about the two of you. I had a feeling and I know how passionate Maddie can be. If she was in love already, I didn’t stand a chance. There’d be nothing I could do about it.” She crossed her arms in front of her and tilted her head. “Not sure if she told you, but the only thing I was ever really worried about was you hurting her. I can see now, without a doubt, you never would.”
“No, ma’am, I never would. You can count on that.”
She nodded, smiling. “She told me you were upset about Shane picking her up today.” I frowned with a nod but didn’t say more. “I was too. Never did like that boy and not the way I had my reservations about you either. He’s a bad seed like his daddy. Now him . . . I would’ve fought tooth and nail to keep him away.” She chuckled, glancing back at the house. “I never thought I’d see the day I’d meet my match when it came to loving one of my girls. I’d stop at nothing to protect and spoil my girls.”
“You can be sure of that, Ms. Hellman. I’d stop at nothing to protect and spoil Maddie either.”
She nodded as if she didn’t doubt that now either. “I wanna thank you, Nico, for taking such good care of my girl. This will probably surprise you, but I’ve always known you’re a good guy. She’s lucky to have you.”
Stunned didn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling at the moment. All I could do was smile and try not to look blown away, which clearly I failed miserably at because she laughed.
“Come on,” she said, motioning me toward the house. “Maddie had a feeling you’d be livid about Shane, so she made your favorite. Let’s get you some.” She turned as I followed her. “Now we both know where Maddie’s real talent lies, and it’s not in the kitchen. So no matter what this tastes like, we pretend it’s much better than it actually is.”
“Always do,” I said with a chuckle. “Always do.”