Page 46 of The Last One You Loved
Mila twirled by, dancing over my foot and then landing next to her father. “Daddy, can I please have two more pieces of bacon?”
He looked down at her, and his expression changed from wary discomfort to adoration. Love. My heart stopped and then started again at a wild pace, the look peppering me with memories of him looking at me just that way.
“How many pieces have you already had?” he asked with a hint of humor.
She hopped from foot to foot. “Two plus three.”
“I can add, Bug-a-Boo, so I know exactly how many that is. Why don’t you wait until everyone has fixed a plate, and then if there’s more, you can have some then.”
“That’s maybe, right?” she asked, and he nodded with an eye roll that turned into a smile.
Mila leaned toward me and whispered, “Daddy’s maybes always mean yes.”
Then, she ran off, calling for Ryder, who I had a feeling was as wrapped around her finger as Maddox was…as all of them were. She’d lived a life spoiled in the best possible way. The lump in my throat grew. If she’d come to live with me, she wouldn’t have had any of this. She would have had a sister who was working a thousand hours to put food on the table and pay off college debt. A sister who might have turned bitter from giving up her dreams. Would I have ended up like my mom? Taking it out on her?
I shook my head. No way. Never.
I stepped in behind Maddox, reached into the dwindling pile of bacon, took two, and then placed them on Maddox’s plate before he could move away.
“She can have mine,” I said.
He froze, looking down at me with a frown. “You can’t win her over with bacon.”
“Be nice,” Eva scolded him.
Maddox turned and headed for the living room.
“Ignore him. He’s hungover and grumpy because he had to work on his normal day off,” Eva said.
She nudged me toward the food, and I piled my plate with a barbecued burger and potato salad before wandering around, looking for a place to sit. The only empty spot was on the couch next to Maddox or the floor near the coffee table. I made my way to the floor. I’d sat there a million times when I was younger, and it brought back more nostalgia. Unfortunately, it also brought me closer to Maddox than was probably wise.
I tried to look everywhere but at him. I listened as one of Sadie’s friends told Brandon about how she’d hustled several rough characters while throwing darts at a bar in Knoxville. Ryder was talking to the guy who’d had his arm on Sadie, still glowering. Gemma and Eva were talking pies. The entire atmosphere was relaxed and easy. The way it had always been. I’d forgotten so much…and now all I wanted to do was absorb it all like a sponge and hope the easiness rubbed off on me and the chaos of my life.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
MADDOX
LOVE THIS PAIN
“It’s a striking match, a tank of gas combination.
But here I am again lightin’ it up,
Knowing that she’ll just burn me.”
Performed by Lady A
Written by Green / Sellers
McKenna watchedeveryone with an expression of wonder on her face. It wasn’t much different from the look Mila had whenever she watched her favorite shows or experienced something new. My daughter was curious and adventurous and found everything about life fascinating.
Glancing from McKenna to Mila, sitting on Mama’s lap, and then back, it was impossible not to see they were related. I’d always thought Mila just had McKenna’s and Sybil’s hair, eyebrows, and eyes, but there was something about the curve of their cheeks and the turned-up tips of their noses that were the same as well. Mila’s face was more oval, and her hair was a wild bushel of curls versus McKenna’s gentle waves, but anyone could tell they shared DNA.
Mama had read me the riot act when I’d arrived this afternoon, having heard all about my drunken words to McKenna and the standoff at Tillie’s. She’d also insisted the best thing for all of us was to allow McKenna to stay with Mila and me while Sadie’s friends took over the apartment above the barn and the guest rooms at the farmhouse.
“She deserves to know her sister no matter what happened between the two of you in the past. I’ve always said that,” she’d told me. I’d started to interrupt, and she’d stopped me. “You know I’m right, Maddox. You’ve given Sybil Lloyd too much power over your life for too long. Don’t let her destroy one more thing of McKenna’s.”
It had hit me in the gut. Had that been Sybil’s intention all along? Another way to manipulate the daughter who’d finally escaped her grasp? Abuse, physical or mental, was all about control and power, and I was giving Sybil too much of it, letting her get off on it, letting her believe she could still pull strings in both her daughters’ lives.
