Page 53 of Deserving Maddie

He remembered Missy complaining of the same thing. He never understood how people could start lining up as early as an hour before school let out. Didn't people have jobs?

"I'll walk you out."

"Pretty sure I couldn't leave on my own if I wanted to," Maddie laughed.

That would be changing soon. He wanted her to be able to drop in anytime she wanted. And since evenings were off-limits until Kat could visit again, he would have to take advantage of any daytime meetings he could get.

Ray walked her out to where his vehicle was parked in the lot. Hers would be ready tomorrow. He had every intention of surprising her with it. That way, Anders didn't have to take the brunt of her anger when she found out he paid for it again.

After she promised to call him when the kids were in bed and he kissed her goodbye, Ray walked back into the barn and went in search of Arlo. He found the Charlie Team leader in his own office on the computer.

"Wow," Ray whistled. "I thought you hated this space and refused to use it."

Arlo and Falcon had thrown fits when Wes decided to give each team leader an office. Neither of the men liked being chained to a desk.

"It's growing on me." Arlo shrugged his shoulder. "Not the actual office itself, but the possibility of peace and quiet. The situation room can get noisy sometimes."

Ray dropped into the only other chair in the office. "I know what you mean. It seems like this place is never quiet anymore."

"I remember when it was just Charlie Team. Before Bentley found Ash and started this whole snowball effect of everyone finding their soulmate. There were days you could hear a pin drop from the other end of the building it was so silent. That would never happen these days."

That was long before Ray's time, before Wes realized Arlo couldn't run a team and handle all the cyber stuff on his own. Before the technical analyst position was even created.

"Not with Trista in the building," he laughed. "You can blame Ash for that. She's the one who brought her crazy friend to Texas."

"She actually brought Monica to Texas first. She was tame compared to Trista."

"She's the one who took over the company Ash was supposed to inherit, right?"

He'd never met Ash's friend, but he thought he remembered her talking about Monica and how Ash and Bentley would travel out to visit when they could.

"Yeah. She doesn't get to come out as much as she did when Ash first moved here. Monica was at the baby shower and was here for the birth, but both times she had to come in quickly and leave immediately."

It made sense, then, that he never met Monica. Unlike most of his teammates, Ray waited until after Ash was home from the hospital to visit the baby.

"Either way, Ash started this whole ball rolling," Ray mumbled.

"Are you really complaining? Those same women just pulledyourwoman into their fold after only a few minutes."

That they did. They managed to make her feel like she was part of the group for months rather than a newcomer.

"Nah, I won't complain."

"So, did you come to find me for a reason, or just to bust my balls about being in my office?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the security on Maddie."

Arlo leaned back in his chair and crossed his tattooed arms over his chest. To anyone outside their group, Arlo looked like a mean motherfucker, but to those who knew him well, he could be a big teddy bear. Ray had it on good authority he was a softie to both of his little girls.

"I'm listening."

"Her son wasn't happy that they moved to Texas. I would prefer if whoever is tailing them could remain unseen. I don't want Maddie to have any more problems than she already does."

"The plan was always to be covert, but I'll make sure the team knows not to engage unless there's a problem." Arlo agreed. "Can I ask though? Does that mean her kids don't know about the two of you?"

"They don't, and it will stay that way until she feels comfortable enough telling them."

Which, according to Maddie, wouldn't be until after Gabe graduated. That's when she initially planned to leave Anthony and now it was the same timeline for their relationship. It sucked because, now that he got a taste of it, he found he wanted her in his bed every night. But he promised to respect her decision on the matter. They were her kids, after all, and she knew them best.

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