Page 25 of The Last One You Loved
I swallowed hard.
“Come on, Bug-a-Boo, let’s get her set up, and then we need to get you back to the house before it’s way past your bedtime.”
He grabbed her hand and turned, heading toward the back of the barn and the outside stairs that would lead to the apartment atop it, stuffed into the rafters. At one point, it had housed the farm’s business manager, but Ryder had taken it over when he’d left college and the Hatleys had no longer been able to afford the extra employees.
Mila skipped awkwardly next to Maddox, trying to keep up with his long stride, and once he realized it, he slowed his pace. The simple action?the sweetness of it?made my heart twirl and spin again, yearning for things I’d never wanted.
I wondered where his wife was. I wondered what she was thinking about him bringing his old “friend” out to his parents’ house to stay.
The old wooden slate stairs had been replaced with a beautifully ornate, wrought-iron set that was smooth and cool under my hand. At the top, Maddox unlocked the door that now had a fancy stained-glass insert, stepped inside, and turned on a switch to light the apartment up.
I swallowed hard. It looked like a five-star hotel instead of the bare-bones bachelor pad Ryder had kept. It was furnished with brown leather chairs, warm woods, and brightly colored linens. The cream-colored walls were littered with black-and-white shots of the ranch. Views you only found when riding on horseback across the hills and valleys they owned. Places I’d ridden with Maddox.
“Wow,” I said, hesitating at the door. “Everything looks so…different.”
Maddox looked around, jaw tightening. “It’s one of the guest units now.”
My brow furrowed. “Guest units?”
He sighed, as if not wanting to explain it, or as if the words pained him. “We’re a boutique, dude ranch now. Open April to September. You could have stayed in one of the cabins out back, but they’re all torn up at the moment with some big renovation Ryder’s trying to wrap up before next season.”
My lips twitched. “A dude ranch?”
“Sounds worse than it actually is,” he said with a slight grimace.
Mila was spinning in the small kitchen off to the side. It didn’t have an oven, just a two-burner stove and a minuscule refrigerator that, once upon a time, Maddox and I used to steal beer from. It was no longer the cheaply thrown together kitchenette it had once been. Instead, it had teal-colored, fifties-style appliances with white, farmhouse-chic cabinets.
When I turned back from the little girl and the kitchen, Maddox’s hooded gaze was resting on mine. My heart leaped, the pace increasing as awareness shifted over the air between us. I had to fight every single fiber in me that wanted to hug him, wanted to push my head against his chest and ask a thousand questions about his life. Mila had to be at least four, if not five, which meant he’d met her mom not very long after I’d told him to stop calling. I frowned, the math being almost too close to make sense of, but then I pushed it aside. It wasn’t my business.
He'd made it perfectly clear I was nothing more than a nuisance tonight.
A little hand slipped into mine, and I almost pulled away reflexively before Mila’s fingers tightened. “Come on, I’ll show you the bedroom. Auntie Sadie says she’s going to live here when she guaduates.”
“Graduates,” Maddox corrected her.
“That’s what I said, guaduates.”
Mila tugged me down the short hall to the open bedroom door. It certainly looked different than the last time I’d been there, done up in luxurious lines of purples and forest greens instead of the gray tones Ryder had used. Maddox and I had lost ourselves in each other here whenever Ryder went out of town. We hadn’t dared make love in the house because his mama would catch us. The woman had the ears of a barn owl, but here, I’d been able to moan and cry out, and he’d done the same.
My eyes pricked, and my skin burned with the memories. When I glanced behind us at Maddox, I could have sworn his ears were pink, and I didn’t know how it made me feel to know he was recalling our same moments.
Mila let go of my hand and sat on the bed, pointing to the side table. “That’s the drawer that is o-f-f, off-limits! Auntie Sadie says she has a right to some privacy, even if her brothers think she doesn’t.”
I couldn’t help it. My lips curved upward, thinking about what could be in the bedside drawer. When I glanced at Maddox, he’d definitely turned red and was looking up at the ceiling like he was trying to count backward and ignore every thought that had entered his mind about his sister. A little chortle escaped me that drew his eyes back to me and my lips.
My breath caught, my glance darting to his firm mouth. A mouth that had commanded and possessed even as a teen. A mouth that had brought me to heights I’d never experienced again. Not with Kerry. Not with any man who’d been in my bed.
“Mila!” The warning that burst from him had me looking over to Mila as her hand pulled back from the drawer handle, and my chortle burst into full-on laughter. It eased the tension in my chest and body.
“Okay, okay!” Mila said, picking up Chester and coming to stand next to her father. “Can we go say hi to Nana and Papa?”
God, she was too sweet. Thinking of Eva and Brandon as grandparents made me weepy again. They’d be perfect grandparents, just like they’d been perfect parents. I bet they spoiled Mila silly when they had her, sending her back to Maddox hyped up on sugar and gifts.
“It’s late. We’ll see,” he said, and when she pouted, I could already see he was going to give in. She had him wrapped around her finger like a ring she could twist, and it only made my smile grow.
Maddox backed out of the room, taking Mila with him, and I followed.
He pulled a key from his keychain, handing it to me. I hesitated and then reached for it. Our fingers collided, and the jolt of energy that shot through me had me jerking back without the key. He inhaled sharply, eyes closing briefly, and then set the key on the counter nearby.
