Page 89 of The Last One You Loved
MINE WOULD BE YOU
“What’s the greatest chapter in your book?
Are there pages where it hurts to look?
What’s the one regret you can’t work through?
You got it baby, mine would be you.”
Performed by Blake Shelton
Written by Ruttan / Alexander / Harrington
Wakingup in Maddox’s bed for the second morning was still a shock and also nothing like it had been waking up with Kerry. Maddox and I were a tangle of limbs, blended so closely that, if he hadn’t been so muscled from head to toe, I wouldn’t have been able to tell where he left off and I began. With Kerry, we’d had our corners of the bed and only mixed temporarily before retreating to them again. “I can’t sleep with your hot body touching me,” Kerry had said.
And I was hot at night. I’d always been. It was why I slept in as little as possible. That had been another thing Kerry hadn’t liked. He said it was “low class” to sleep in nothing more than underwear and a tank top. Maddox didn’t seem to have a problem with it, as his hands were all over and under the skimpy pieces of clothing as I stirred awake.
His mouth was on my neck, and I’d just let out a little purr of approval when the door burst open. Mila was on the bed in two seconds flat, and Maddox had to put out a hand to catch her, otherwise he would have had some very injured body parts.
“You had a sleepover without me!” Mila cried out. “That’s just mean. I love sleepovers. Nana says I give her the best back massage ever with my knees and feet. I don’t even know I’m doing it.”
“Good morning, Bug-a-Boo,” Maddox said, squeezing her to his chest.
“Oh. Yeah. Good morning.” She kissed his cheek and then turned and kissed mine. My eyes filled with tears of joy. “McKenna, we bought MissyThe Day the Unicorns Saved the Worldand a stuffed unicorn, even though it isn’t Chester or Charlotte or any of their friends because Daddy says they're improbable to find. Do you think that is going to be a good enough present? Because I told Daddy we should have bought her some more rainbow or unicorn things.”
“Impossible, not improbable,” Maddox said with a laugh. “And take a breath. I’m not sure McK and I are awake enough yet for this barrage of words from you.”
Mila frowned. “What does barrage mean?”
“A lot.”
“I’m hungry. Can we go to Tillie’s again for breakfast because she always has bacon, and we don’t have any bacon left. Rianne said we have to go grocery shopping to get more.”
“We’re not going to Tillie’s again. Nana sent us home with leftovers.”
Mila’s little face mushed together. “I don’t want turkey for breakfast, Daddy. I didn’t even want to eat Bob last night.”
“Bob?” he asked with a frown, and I realized he hadn’t heard the conversation about the turkeys and her wanting to save them.
“Bob was a turkey, Daddy, and he just wanted to live a life on the farm with his family, and Nanafrozehim!Frozehim, Daddy! Just think of how awful that would be.”
“It’s too early for this kind of talk,” Maddox groaned.
I untangled myself from them and got out of bed with some reluctance, but I wanted to let him get some rest since he’d barely crawled into bed at three in the morning. Maddox eyed my scantily clad body as I pulled on a pair of yoga pants I’d flung on a nearby chair the night before.
“Come on, Mila, let’s see if we can come up with something for breakfast while your daddy gets an hour or so more of sleep.”
Mila bounced along the bed, sliding off and then skipping toward the door.
“I’m not going to be able to sleep now,” Maddox said, voice thick as his eyes lingered over my butt.
I winked. “At least try. We don’t need to be on the road until eight.”
He groaned, but I didn’t get a chance to respond before Mila was pulling me out of the room, chattering away about turkeys and unicorns and breakfast. It really was a lot to wake up to, but I loved every single second of it.
? ? ?
It wasn’t until two hours later, when we were in Maddox’s work truck and heading for Knoxville, that I became nervous. I hadn’t actually seen Trap since I’d left Willow Creek and he’d given me the key to Maddox’s house. I hadn’t talked to him in four years, and in that time, he’d been arrested, gone to jail, and been released. Our lives had spiraled even further apart than they’d ever been.
