Page 58 of Made For Me

I walk up to the reception desk and the girl smiles. “I have an appointment at eleven,” I say softly. “Julia Williams.”

She types something in to the big Mac computer on her desk before turning and smiling at me. “He’ll be right with you,” she says. “You can have a seat.” I nod at her and walk over to the black chairs against the wall. I sit down, putting the baby bag beside me. My legs start to shake with nerves as I look down at my phone. My heart picks up and I can feel a panic attack coming. The doors open and my eyes fly up spotting Matthew and Max walking in.

The both of them are dressed in suits, looking at them you know that you don’t want to fuck with them. It’s this aura they give off. Max spots me right away and smiles as he walks toward me.

“Have you been here long?” he asks as I try to get up to give him a hug but my legs don’t move. He bends down and kisses my temple.

“No, I just got here,” I say and then Matthew looks around before turning to me and smiling.

“Hey, honey.” He sits down in the chair in front of me. “You good?”

“As good as someone should be,” I answer him honestly as Max sits next to me. “Um,” I start to say and then look down at my hands. “I need to ask you two something.”

“Anything,” Max and Matthew say at the exact same time.

“You have to promise me,” I start and Matthew is already shaking his head no. “You have to promise me you won’t sink any more money into this.” I look around. “I don’t even know if I’ll be able to pay you guys back for whatever you spent so far.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Max says from beside me.

“Listen, I love what you both have done for me,” I say, trying to be strong. “But I can’t let you guys take this over. It’s not your problem.”

“Hey,” Matthew says and I look at him. “You’re family.” He leans over. “Period.”

I’m about to argue with them, but all the words get caught in my throat. “What’s with the bag?” Matthew motions with his chin.

“It’s Penelope’s. The cop on the scene returned it to me the day after and I forgot all about it. I figured I can give it to the lawyer and they can get it to her.”

“We’ll get it to her,” Max says, putting his hand on mine.

I hear the sound of clicking on the floor and my head slowly turns to the side. A woman wearing a black skirt and silky white button-down top smiles at us. “We are ready for you,” she says and Matthew is the first one out of his chair.

Max gets up next and I start to stand, but my knees buckle. Making me fall back down and my hand goes out to stop myself from falling, hitting the baby bag, and sending it flying to the floor. It lands on its side and everything comes sliding out. Matthew flies to one side to catch me while Max grabs the other side. “I’m fine.” I try to laugh. “My foot was asleep.”

I lie and they both know I’m lying, but neither of them calls me out for it. “Let me get the bag,” I say, bending down. Picking up the two diapers that are lying there in front of the bag. The diaper cream is not too far away. I start putting the things back in the bag when I pick up one of the T-shirts and a white envelope slides out to the floor. It’s like the world stops spinning when I look down at the white envelope lying on the floor.

“What is that?” Max asks and I pick up the envelope, turning it over. My hands shake as if they know this is the missing piece.

“I have no idea,” I say, my heart pounding when I see my name written on the front in Monica’s handwriting. “But it’s addressed to me.” My hand moves over the block letters that are in the middle of the white envelope. “It’s in Monica’s writing.” I look up at them, my heart beating so erratically as I hold my breath, tears running down my face. “It’s from Monica.”

CHAPTER34

Chase

I pull into the garage at the same time Michael does. He gets out and stretches. “Someone looks tired,” I observe, getting out of my own car, we are dressed alike in the team track suit.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “Jillian was trying not to stress about Julia’s visit with the lawyer today, but that didn’t work.” He looks at me. “How was Julia?”

“Pretending like it doesn’t bother her,” I admit to him, my stomach in knots thinking about how she just sat on the couch last night and stared off into the distance. She thought I didn’t notice but my body was on high alert next to her. “I tried not to bring it up and instead I took her mind off it.”

“How?” He puts his hands on his hips.

I can’t help but laugh when the answer comes to me right away. “Sex.” The minute I say the word, his face grimaces. “You should have tried it.”

“I did.” Michael throws his hands up. “Obviously I’m not smooth like you, Casanova.” His tone is aggravated at this point.

“I can give you some pointers, if you like.” He glares at me while another car shows up and Cooper gets out, wearing blue shorts and a T-shirt with the team logo in the middle, his number in the corner.

He takes a second to look from me to Michael and then back to me again. “Why does Michael look like he’s about to bite your head off?” he asks and I chuckle.

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