Page 56 of Flirt

“To pay Ally for cursing after I tell her,” Luna said, then laughed at Carly’s expression.

“You are a mean and evil woman,” Carly replied and pursed her lips. “Hey, wait a minute. We only pay her if she is around to hear, so it doesn’t matter if you tell. I don’t have to fork over cash to her.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t hear you and run in here. Yesterday while she and Neely were at the house playing video games with Paxton, and I was paying bills online at the kitchen table, my elbow hit my glass, knocking it over. I said ‘fucking hell,’ and before I could get up to grab a dishtowel, Ally walks in with her hand out and says she heard me. Evidently, she was coming out of the hall bathroom. The girl has the hearing of a bat,” Mac said, then turned to the stove when the timer buzzed and picked up the potholder off the counter.

“Is there anything else that needs to be done?” I asked, looking around the kitchen.

“With the rolls Mac is pulling out of the oven, dinner is ready,” Bailey said.

“I feel bad you guys had to do all the cooking,” I apologized, then moved around the island toward the living room doorway. “I will tell the men that dinner’s ready.”

Just as I reached the doorway, I opened my mouth to inform everyone about dinner, but instead froze when I heard Sawyer’s voice, “Are you really marrying my mom? Are we going to live with you? Can the bedroom in the front be mine, so I can look out the window and see Ally’s house? Am I going to get a brother or sister? Will you be like my dad?”

I stood unmoving and stared at Max with Sawyer in his arms. My daughter’s eyes shined with happiness.

“More than mattress bouncing happened at Flirt’s,” came from Carly and knew the women had heard. I felt their presence behind but never took my eyes off Sawyer and Max.

“Hold up. Are you going to give me a chance to answer any of your questions?” Max asked, and I watched as she looked intently at Max. “Okay, yes, I am marrying your mom. Yes, you will be living with me. Yes, you can have the front bedroom. I hope one day you will have a brother or sister. Maybe both. And to answer your last question—I won’t belikeyour dad.” At Max’s last answer, I watched Sawyer’s happy expression turn to one of hurt. Before I could even process why he would say that to my daughter, he continued, “Because I willbeyour dad. You were always meant to be mine. It just took a little time for us to find each other.” Sawyer buried her face in his neck, and I knew from her shaking of her body that she was crying.

Who wasn’t?I thought when I heard sniffling behind me and felt my own tears on my cheeks.

I knew one of the men said something to Ally, but my focus stayed on Max. He glanced toward the doorway, and our eyes met. I hadn’t even remembered walking toward the two until Max held out one of his arms and moved in and wrapped my arms around them both. We stayed wrapped up in our own little world until someone said, “Let’s eat before the food gets cold?”

“Can we move after dinner?” Sawyer asked when she raised her head off Max’s shoulder. I moved to his side, shook my head, and smiled when she lifted the bottom of her shirt to wipe her red-rimmed eyes.

I wasn’t sure how to answer her, but before I could, Max did, “After dinner, we’ll go and pick up some for you and your mom and any other important things you need to stay at the house. Next weekend we’ll start moving the rest. There’s a bed already in the front bedroom, and you can sleep on that until we move your bedroom furniture in. Does that work for you, ladies?”

“Works for me,” Sawyer said and smiled as Max put her down.

“Glad that’s settled. Let’s go into the kitchen before the food disappears. Since running over to the house and back, I am suddenly starving,” Max said, and I pinched his waist where my hand rested. He chuckled and started leading us toward the kitchen, and when Sawyer grabbed his hand, it took everything in me not to cry again.

“Can I call you dad now, or do I have to wait until you and mom get married?” Sawyer asked, and at Max’s abrupt stop, it had Sawyer and I stopping alongside him.

“Do you want to?” Max answered hoarsely, then looked at me, and I smiled to convey it was okay with me if he was.

“Yep. I got pictures of my dad that Mom showed me, but he died before she had me. I don’t have anyone to call dad like the other kids do,” Sawyer said, shrugging her shoulders while she looked up at Max with her big brown eyes.

“You know what?”

“What?” Sawyer asked.

“I’ve never had anyone call me dad, so I think it’s an excellent idea. Don’t you?” Max said. I picked up on the strain in his voice, but Sawyer hadn’t. A grin split her face and had me wiping at the lone tear that escaped.

“Uh huh, ‘cause I’ve been waiting for you, too...Dad,” Sawyer said, then pulled her hand from Max’s and headed toward the kitchen, not realizing when she used almost the identical words he said earlier to her, it had nearly undone him.

I squeezed his waist, then moved my hand to his and rubbed circles while I asked, “You going to be okay?” I realized listening to Sawyer that Justin may have been right about her having more than memories of a dad. She needed one in her everyday life.

Max took a deep breath and blew it out, then ran a hand down his face before he looked over at me. “Yes, I am. I think I am going to be more than just okay,” he said and smiled. We had started walking again when he gave an unhumorous chuckle. “Fuck, I owe a debt to Justin, and there is no way I’ll ever be able to pay it. He died, and I gained everything I wanted. He at least deserves a visit to his gravesite from me when we go to Las Vegas so I can meet your family.”

No decision I would make about my life from that moment on would top the one to move to Shades Valley. If I hadn’t made a move, I would never have met Max, and what an unfathomable thought.

“We’ll have to make plans to do that,” I said as we walked into the crowded kitchen and moved to where Sawyer stood with the other kids so I could help fill her plate.

“We’ve got plenty of time. Right now, you need to eat, Angel,” Max said, and I felt him kiss the back of my head as he leaned around me and grabbed a plate. “I’ll fix yours why you help Sawyer.”

“And there, brothers, is the sound of the last man falling,” Crusher said, and the other men, who stood on the other side of the island beside him, laughed. Then the typical ball and chain jokes started.

“It takes a while, but they do grow on you,” Bailey said beside me as she helped Neely.

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