Single Mom’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #2)

23. Logan

23

logan

I never thought of myself as a family man. And why would I? Because I have an idyllic view of what family life should be? Nothing in my past should make me say the words, “Yes. One of those, please.”

But the past week with Maeve and Jayce has made my outlook on family life a bit different. I know it’s only been a few days and that our situation is temporary, but I can’t help but feel that this is actually how a family is supposed to be.

Maeve and I work during the day while Jayce is at school. When he gets home, the three of us have taken to meeting in the kitchen, grabbing a snack, and talking to him about his day before he and I exit for some much-deserved SpaceCraft time. One hour exactly, because Maeve sets the rules and I dare not defy them. But that hour? It’s the best part of my day.

It’s been years since I’ve played the game through the eyes of a player and not as the creator looking to see what I could make better or tweak. Seeing the excitement on Jayce’s face fills my heart and makes me excited again. Especially since video games have brought me nothing but strife the past six months.

“Are you beating him, Jayce?”

I hit pause on the game as I hear Kat come into the gaming room, coincidentally when the one-hour timer goes off. What I don’t expect is for Maeve to be with her.

“Not yet, but he’s close,” I say.

“I bet I can beat you by Christmas!”

He probably can. The kid has skill. “We’ll just have to keep playing.”

He nods and puts down his controller and exits the room, but not before doing our just-invented secret handshake, giving Kat a fist bump, and his mom a hug before taking off.

“He’s a good kid,” Kat says. “Not enough to make me want children. But in a general sense.”

“Thanks,” Maeve says as she takes a seat next to me. “But can I ask why you needed me in here? I feel like I’m being called to the principal’s office.”

“No trouble at all,” Kat says as she takes a seat in front of us. “In fact, the newest modern family is loved by the press. Who knew family man Logan Matthews would make my job so easy? I should’ve married you off months ago.”

I cringe at the thought of marrying any of the women that Kat set me up with. They were all nice enough—well, everyone except the last one—but I can’t imagine spending any more than our few nights together.

“Really? It’s working?” Maeve asks. “The headlines I’ve seen have been mixed.”

Kat shrugs. “You’re always going to have some bad. And that’s because you’re an unknown, Maeve, and gossip columns want scandal. And unfortunately, they can only call you a cougar so many times before it gets old. What they’re doing now is trying to create things out of thin air. Luckily for you, there aren’t any skeletons in the closet. Wait…are there?”

Maeve shakes her head. “No scandals. Never even had a speeding ticket.”

“Love to hear that,” Kat says. “Now, be warned: They might try and create some drama, which is probably why they were on your tail those first few days. They need to stir the pot.”

I tense up at the mention of that. “They’re not following Maeve and Jayce to school anymore, right?”

Kat shakes her head. “No. I shut that shit down real quick. I told them to come after you all they want. But the second that they start involving Jayce, Auntie Kat is going to make their lives fucking miserable.”

We only noticed cameras the first day of Maeve and Jayce living here, but that was one day too long. He’s a kid, and more than that, him being followed by paparazzi is something Josh could use against Maeve, which would defeat the purpose of all of this.

“Thank you so much for that,” Maeve says. “I really owe you.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Kat says. “Though now I have to come in with the next bit of news.”

Maeve and I share a glance. “What news?”

“The news that you two need to make next week.”

Maeve and I share a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“Next week is your trip back to Los Angeles,” Kat says to me. “And the newlyweds should be there together.”

“No,” Maeve says immediately. “Josh’s biggest strike against me is how much I travel. I can’t be jet setting off to LA with my new husband and leaving my child days after he filed.”

Yesterday was the day that Josh officially served Maeve papers, saying that he wants to renegotiate Jayce’s custody. Luckily, Jayce was at school so Maeve could say every curse word in twenty different languages about it.

“She’s right,” I say. “She shouldn’t go.”

Even though I’d love her to…

I’ve always dreaded red carpets when I was with whatever woman I was set up with. But Maeve? I’d be honored to have her on my arm.

I bet she’d look bloody stunning in a formal gown.

“She doesn’t need to be there the entire time,” Kat says. “You have meetings Wednesday through Friday. Friday night is nothing. Saturday is the big night. It’s the Tech for Tots gala that would be the place to be seen together.”

She’s right. On my side of this, having Maeve on my arm would do wonders. A now family man showing up with his wife for a gala benefiting educational toys for underprivileged children? The good headlines write themselves.

But in my opinion, the bad outweighs the good, which means Maeve needs to stay here.

“If you can’t make it, I understand,” I say. “If anyone asks me, I’ll tell them that you’re at home with your son, make it all about you and Jayce, and that maybe next time we can make a family trip together.”

Maeve shakes her head. “If it’s Saturday, then I can make it. Maybe Friday, too—I haven’t firmed with Josh what the plan is for the weekend. With the holidays, our normal schedule with Jayce is all over the place. If it works that he’s taking him all weekend, I wouldn’t have to worry about neglecting my child.”

I hear the sarcastic bite in that last part.

“Are you sure? Don’t do anything for me that would jeopardize you and give that man ammunition.”

She shakes her head. “I won’t. I promise. Let me make sure everything lines up.”

Kat nods, and Maeve and I share a look. I mouth a “thank you” to her, giving her hand a squeeze for good measure.

“One more thing,” Kat says. “Our charity party that we’re hosting is in the final stages. Maeve, since you’re here, I figured we’d get a status update on the setup and everything else you’ve been doing.”

And just like that, Maeve is sitting up straight, her shoulders back, and clearly in her element as she talks about what stage of progress the house is in. Every day she amazes me with how much gets transformed and seeing her vision come to life has been beautiful to watch.

She’s magnificent.

Brilliant.

And I’m damn proud of her.

“I think that’s it,” Kat says. “I’ll see everyone tomorrow?”

We all say our goodbyes and exit the gaming room. I should go back to my office and try to get some work done. Maybe actually invent a video game.

But I want nothing to do with video games. Well, at least in that way.

“Are you done with work today?” I ask Maeve.

“Mostly,” she says. “Why do you ask?”

The more I think about this idea that just came to me, the more I want to do it.

“Have you started cooking dinner yet?”

Not that I care or demand Maeve does it, but she’s insisted. I keep telling her that she doesn’t need to cook for me. That I’m a grown man and can properly order carryout since I’m a shit cook. Her response was she was already cooking, so what’s one more plate?

“No. Actually was just going to start getting it going. Why?”

I check the time, and if we leave now, we can have plenty of fun while also getting Jayce back in time for bed.

“How about our first family outing?”

“Yeah! Take that! You better watch out!”

I try to duck and weave my character as best as possible, but Maeve’s character—and Maeve—are machines right now.

And before I know it, my wife has knocked me out in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.

“Yes!” She shouts, doing a little celebratory dance. “Take that, Matthews!”

“Did you win, Mommy?”

“Darn right I did!” Maeve says, giving Jayce a high five. “And we thought Logan was the video game guru?”

I shake my head, wondering how I didn’t know that the woman that I’m married to, who I’m also quite infatuated with, was somehow a video game savant. “Where did you learn to do that?”

She shrugs as she helps Jayce onto a stool so he can play a game featuring everyone’s favorite video game turtles. “I grew up with an older brother. There were some years in there before I had sisters to hang out with. That game just happened to be the one I was very, very good at.”

I laugh, now realizing why she suggested we play that specific one out of all the ones available to us.

“I was hustled,” I say as I stand next to her as we watch Jayce in action.

When I got the idea to come to this vintage video game hall—that also makes a pretty good pizza—what I’d wanted to do is rent it out. Pay them whatever amount of money they asked so that Maeve, Jayce, and I could have it all to ourselves.

But apparently even when you’re a billionaire you can’t make a call out of the blue and shut down a video game shop within an hour. Even when you’re Logan Matthews.

Now I know I need to give them a day’s notice.

And I will next time. Because that’s what you spend your money on when you have it to spend—on the people you love. The people you care about. You spend it to watch their smiles.

And the one on Jayce’s face right now? It’s a look I’ll never forget.

“Thanks,” I whisper to Maeve. “I needed out of the house.”

She playfully bumps me with her shoulder. “So did I. And this is perfect.”

“Take that!” Jayce yells as he starts to figure out the mechanics of the game.

“I remember when this first came out,” Maeve said. “I don’t think my brother played anything else for months.”

“Did you play it when you were little, Logan?”

“A bit…” I don’t want to admit that it wasn’t as popular when I started playing games because of how long before it had come out. Luckily for me, my wife makes the crack instead.

“He was too young,” Maeve said, giving me a wink.

“Really?” Jayce says without taking his eyes off the game. “How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-nine,” I say while simultaneously wondering how good Jayce is at math and figuring out that his mum has a few years on me.

“You’re younger than Mom,” he says immediately. “But you’re older than Vivian. She’s twenty-four. I asked when we were on our trip, but I think she was lying. She looks old.”

Both Maeve and I do everything in our power not to snort laugh.

“What do you think old is?” I ask, now needing to know more of what’s going on in this kid’s head.

“Hmmm,” he thinks about it for a second, but doesn’t stop playing the game. “Thirty.”

“Jayce!” Maeve gasps. “You know I’m thirty-six, right?”

“Yeah,” he says. “But all moms are old so it doesn’t count.”

I laugh as Maeve just shakes her head.

“Thanks, I guess,” she says. “Hey! Watch out for the bad guys!”

“Let me help you out,” I say, moving to stand behind him as I put my hands over his, making sure to show him what I’m going to do. “Keep pushing this button. Faster! Now…power up! Yes! Brilliant!”

Before I know it, I’ve moved on to another set of controls, Jayce and I playing in tandem with one of the most classic arcade games ever made.

God, what I would’ve done for this as a kid. I mean, an arcade would’ve been great, but there were none around me. And no money, even so. But just to have a friend to play games with, it would’ve been the best escape. Not just sitting in my room alone, trying to drown out the noise with headphones, pretending that I was anywhere but there.

“Logan! We did it! We won!”

Holy shit, we did. “Heck yeah, buddy!”

I was barely prepared as Jayce somehow jumps into my hold, his tiny arms squeezing my neck. I hug him back, and that’s when I see Maeve. She’s standing next to the game, leaning against it, biting her lower lip, and if I wasn’t mistaken, her eyes are maybe a bit watery. Is she crying?

“Are you okay?” I whisper.

She nods. “Thank you.”

I don’t know what exactly she’s thanking me for, but I want to thank her too. Because I want another day like this.

I want a hundred days like this.

With them.

The family that’s able to find the calm in the chaos.