Page 127 of Ever With Me

Jake feigned a hurt look, and his gaze dropped to Brooks’s forearms. “Maybe a tattoo? Or three? Can you recommend someone, Brooks?”

“Hey, what about asking me?” Travis hollered from where he stood. “I actually live in town and have tattoos.”

A woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties came out of the house then, carrying a tray of appetizers. “Young people and their fascination with marking up their bodies. I just don’t understand it. When I was a teenager, the only men with tattoos were in the military or in jail.” She stopped in front of the group and smiled warmly at Brooks. “No offense, Brooks. I’m Maddie’s mother, Susan. That’s my husband, Larry, by the grill. Maddie’s dad, I mean.”

Larry waved. “He looks perfectly normal. Like an actual, real-life person. Don’t know what everyone was making such a big fuss over.”

As the group bickered with embarrassment and laughter, Brooks caught Maddie’s eyes.

Theywerea lot to take in at once.

But she looked in her element.

Completely, totally happy and herself.

And she was beaming with pride at him.

Because this is her home. And she never wants to leave.

A lump formed in his throat. As Dan intimated, Maddie was practically Brandywood royalty, but she was also blissfully content.Brandywood has more implants than I thought, but it seems rare that people leave.Here, she had a good, predictable life, but away from here? Would she survive the harsh reality of the real world outside of here?

Witnessing her here made one thing clear—there was no way he could ever ask her to leave.

34

MADDIE

“Areyou sure it’s not a problem?” Kayla’s face was anxious as she looked out from the passenger side window of Logan’s car.

“It’s fine. I’m here. And even if I wasn’t, Brooks is never, ever going to do anything to put Audrey in danger again. You can trust him. And my grandfather is taking us fishing,” Maddie said. She wasn’t about to tell Brooks that Kayla had displayed such a high level of concern—he’d be hurt—but she understood it, too.

Maddie leaned forward and smiled at her brother. “Have fun on your date, you two. And don’t worry about being back early. I can put Audrey to bed in my room if she gets tired.”

Logan grinned. “Thanks, Mom.”

She blew him a kiss and straightened as the window rolled up.

Flicking her gaze across the street, she frowned at the familiar sight of a paparazzi photographer parked across the street. Maybe Dan Kline had made her more aware of it, but in the week since they’d come back from staying at the Serendipity, she’d started seeing more of them.

Everywhere she and Brooks went.

Often, they seemed to arrive minutes after they got somewhere, like someone had tipped them off.

When they’d come to stay at her apartment for the weekend yesterday, they’d already been waiting in the parking lot. The more paparazzi arrived, the more Brooks seemed to grow agitated, too.

Whatever small semblance of peace Brooks might have felt in Brandywood before was clearly gone.

So when Pops suggested taking Audrey out on his fishing boat, Maddie jumped at the opportunity. She’d adored going out on the lake as a kid and had occasionally joined Pops on his morning fishing trips while she and Josh had been dating since Josh loved fishing.

Maddie headed into the Depot, glancing through the large store toward the darkened stage in the back. These days, they mostly used the stage area to display more retail items, but Pops had first built it as an area to film his home cooking show. Since he’d slowed down a year ago, he hadn’t been doing a lot of shows, but he had an annual Christmas special to film soon.

The energy that filled the Depot on filming days was unmatched. The crew came in from out of town, the store was abuzz with excitement, and ticketed guests waited in a line to get into the store early.

She missed the days when Pops filmed more. Partially because he’d lost a bit of bounce in his step the last couple of years despite being happier than ever married to Bunny.

Pops was showing his age more, and that worried Maddie.

She weaved her way through the displays toward the back of the store, passing a pine- and holly-scented section that reminded her of her favorite holiday.

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