Chapter 26
Maggie
Being an only child has neglected to prepare me for many things in this world. The most obvious one, right now, would be the ability to cope with the burst of squeals when Hadley and I walk through the front door of the homestead for supper.
His mom is working on something in the kitchen and gives us a big wave and a smile. Hadley rests one crutch against the wall and grabs some meat before heading out the back door on the remaining crutch.
“Oh Hads, I can do that,” his mother calls after him, her face falling with a frown.
Gemma and Nia are bombarding me with questions about my work. ‘Living in a legit National Park,’ their words, not mine. And what it’s like to live with Hadley on the road.
“Ah, I don’t live with Hadley. We’re road trip buddies.”
The two girls exchange a conspiratorial look and slide off their counter stools. Despite being nineteen and twenty-one, they still feel like teenagers. Well, maybe not Gemma so much. But definitely Nia. I guess it comes with being the youngest of four?
I wouldn’t know.
“Maggie, sit, you’re our guest,” Julie says as I move to help with the salad she’s making.
“Oh, I can help. Put me to work.”
“Yes, I have heard you’re here to help.” A smile grows over her face. “You’re more than welcome here any time.”
“Thank you. You have a lovely home, and the ranch is amazing.”
“My son works himself to the bone over this old place. It’s been in my family for three generations. I think that’s somewhat of a motivator for him.”
“I bet it is.” I chuckle. “The cows and calves looked well.”
“Oh, you went with. Good. He could use the company.” She winks as she picks up a large bowl full of the finished salad and moves to the table, placing it in the center.
The table is set with a white tablecloth and what I assume is the good cutlery and plates that have cloth napkins rolled on the top of them. It looks simple but beautiful.
Something hits the floor outside, followed by a curse.
“That’s my cue.” I slide from the counter stool and walk out the back door, Julie’s gaze following me all the way.
I find Hadley bending over. A few sausages have rolled over the floor. He’s struggling to grab them with his crutch at an awkward angle.
“Need a hand, cowboy?”
I bend down and pluck up the sausa—
“Shit!” It drops from my hand, my fingers still burning. I suck on the burned finger.
“They’re hot, careful.” His gaze swings up to mine. Kicking the sausages off the porch, he closes in. “Show me.”
“It’s fine. It’s just a hot sausage.”
The ridiculous words have a cackle spilling from my lips. Hadley runs a hand through his hair, grin growing over his handsome face. “Sunshine, you can’t say that shit around me and expect to live to tell the tale.”
That does it. I double over, hysterics twisting my stomach painfully.
I straighten, pressing a hand over my mouth, and tears course down my face. Hadley is laughing at me laughing. As the sound peters out, I move into his space. “Noted, no sausage talk.”
A painful huff slips through my lips.
“Now you’ve done it,” he whispers, hauling me into him.
Oh . . . I have. His hard length presses into my stomach.
“Happiness does it for you, Hadley Jones?” I breathe.
“Yours does,” he rasps. “You’re so fucking beautiful when you’re happy.”
I could drown in those brown eyes of his right now. Like a pool of the sweetest cocoa, a never-ending supply of comfort. His jaw flexes as I trace his jawline with my thumb and my hand slips into his hair at the back of his neck. A rough hand hauls me closer, tightening over my hip.
The grill flares, the steak engulfed in flames.
“The meat,” I mutter.
“Don’t care.” His mouth smashes against mine.
All I can think about is where the nearest wall is. My back needs to meet it. I need to be wrapped around this man. I nee—
A low whistle sees us part, and I dip my head, hand over my mouth.
“I take it you’re Maggie,” a young woman says from the back door. A grin as wide as the ranges that run through the Yoho lights up her pretty face as she leans on the doorframe with a beer.
“Maggie Gallagher, this is Kayley,” Hadley says.
The blonde, whose wavy hair dances around her shoulders as she pushes off the doorframe and walks toward me, holds out a hand. “It’s so good to finally meet you. Hadley didn’t tell us you were coming.”
“Yeah, sorry, I kind of just showed up. But to help.” I offer her a tentative smile.
“Nice. ‘Bout time Hads got some friends. Although, by what I just saw, you’re way past that.”
“Kayley,” Hadley warns.
She holds a hand up. “Secret’s safe with me. Those two”—she hikes a thumb at the window where Gemma and Nia are pretending to read and . . . knit?—“you’ll never hear the end of it now.”
Hadley curses under his breath.
“Maybe I should have stayed at the other house,” I utter.
“No way! Always up for some intelligent conversation. Lord knows I won’t find it with this lot.” Kayley gestures for me to follow her inside and I do.
“Need a hand, Mom?” Kayley looks around the kitchen but it appears the meal is done and waiting on the table. The only thing missing is the meat.
Hadley hobbles inside a second later, a tray of cooked meat in one hand his crutch in the other.
I close the distance and take it from him. “Sit down, please. I’m supposed to be helping.”
“Dinner’s up, girls!” Hadley hollers down the hall.
Gemma, Nia, and Julie gravitate to the table and take their seats. I hover, wondering where I’m supposed to sit. Kayley pulls out a chair beside her, and I drop into it. “Thank you.”
Hadley sits at the head and his mom at the other end. As he serves the meat, the fact that this man is the head of this house—and has been since he was twelve—thickens my throat.
“Maggie? Steak or sausages?” he asks.
“Sausage, please.” I keep a straight face, and he gives me an unreadable look as he places two on my plate.
“Thanks.”
“Salad, Maggie?” Julie passes the large bowl to Kayley, who takes some before handing it to me.
A few minutes later, every dish has made its way around the table and we are holding hands.
“For these and all his mercies, we are forever grateful,” Nia says.
“Amen” choruses out in unison.
“Amen,” I whisper.
“Dig in, girls. Kales is washing up.” Hadley’s grin stretches his face as he takes a bite of steak and points his empty fork at his sister.
“Yeah, yeah. Same old,” she banters back.
“I can help you,” I offer.
“Thanks.” Kayley’s brown eyes, almost identical to her brother’s, are round with happiness.
The food is delicious. Simple but well-made, and the flavors are amazing. My plate is clean too soon.
“More, hon?” Julie points to the dishes in the center.
“Oh no, thank you. I’m full.”
We sit and chat for almost an hour before Kayley and I gather the plates and dive into cleaning up.
I wash and she dries and puts away, since I have no idea where anything goes.
Hadley is in the living room with his two younger sisters.
He’s roped into fixing a few things and then they cuddle up to him and watch a TV show.
I can feel my heart expanding the more time I spend in this big old house with his family. They have a modest home, but they want for nothing. In fact, I would go as far as to say they have more than most when it comes to family.
Something like longing tugs at my heart.
Before my emotions can get the better of me, I finish up the last of the washing up as Kayley says her goodnights. It’s a twenty-minute drive back into Clinton, where she has her own small apartment, as she’s been telling me.
“Night, it’s lovely to meet you,” I say and she leans in and gives me a hug.
“Don’t let that brother of mine get away with a thing.”
“Never,” I reply softly.
She hovers for a moment. “It really was amazing to finally meet you. Hearing about you for months has made me goddamn impatient.”
She’s out the door before I figure out her meaning.
“Hey, ready to head home?” a low voice says from behind.
I turn back to find Hadley leaning on his one crutch, running a hand through his hair.
Home.
Not ‘back to my place,’ just home.
God it would be so easy to just fa—
“Oh! You’re leaving already?” Julie appears in the hallway. “Will we see you again before you go?”
“I have two more nights here, so maybe?”
She beams. “Oh, then you will. We always supper together.”
“Since I was twelve,” Hadley adds, with an unamused expression.
Since his father left.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” I give her a brief hug, and she huffs a surprised breath as Hadley heads for the door.
Gemma and Nia come flying through the hallway from the living room. “Night, Maggie!”
“Night, girls. See you tomorrow, hey?”
“Okay!” they chime back together.
Hadley grabs my hand and pulls me through the door. Once it snaps behind us, he lets go and we walk to the truck. “They’ll find any way to keep you there, Sunshine, and this old man needs to go to bed.”
“Tired already, cowboy?”
I shake my head at him as he holds the passenger door open. “That better be for you, Hads.”
“Huh, that didn’t take long.”
“What didn’t?”
“For Kales to corrupt you.”
I push him back playfully, and he drops into the passenger seat. His legs are inside the truck as I shut the door and he rolls the window down.
I lean on the frame. “For your information, I like your sister. In fact, I really like your whole family. They’re incredible.”
He rolls his eyes, but the gesture falls to a soft smile. “Yeah, they’re pretty great.”
Rounding the front, I climb into the driver’s seat and fire up the truck.
In a blink, we’re back at his house and I’m killing the engine. I must have got lost in thought because my door opens, Hadley standing waiting. “Come on, bedtime.”
I slide out of the truck and head inside, Hadley on my heels. I yawn, and he’s wrapped around me from behind a beat later.
“Someone’s tired.”
“Done a lot of driving since”—I slide my phone out and glance at the time—“three this morning. God, I’m exhausted.”
As if my body realizes the time as well, I suddenly feel so tired I could sleep on my feet. But I desperately need a shower.
“Bath and bed, Sunshine.”
Hobbling on one crutch, Hadley takes my hand and leads me to the bathroom. It’s neat and the shower space on one side has been redone with two showerheads, the other side with a bath. Lord, that would be so exquisite right now. However, I would be in danger of falling asleep in the tub.
Hadley flicks the shower on and pulls out some fresh towels before asking, “Anything else you need?”
“This should do.”
What I would have said, if I wasn’t dead on my feet, would be, “nope, missing one sweet, grumpy cowboy in the shower with me.” Since I’m barely functioning now, though, I’ll opt for a quick wash and passing out.
I make it through the shower as fast as an exhausted girl can washing her hair and all the rest. Toweling off, I realize I don’t have any clothes.
“Shit,” I hiss, and another yawn develops.
That’s what I get for opening my mouth.
A soft knock lands on the door. “Needin’ pajamas?”
“Yes, please.”
“Decent?”
Um, no.
“Sure.” I wrap the towel around my body. By the time Hadley hobbles through the door, I’m already leaning on the vanity and fighting off another yawn.
“Hell, baby, wait till you’re in bed, hey.”
I hum an incoherent noise.
“Step in,” he says. I look down to find him awkwardly squatting with one leg, his bad one bent out to the side as he holds my panties for me.
I’m so tired, I’m beyond being bothered.
I step in and he pulls them up, letting the elastic snap a little at my hip. I try to give him the stink eye, but I can’t even manage it.
“T-shirt, then bed.” His voice is low and gravelly.
He tugs the towel and I release it.
Without missing a beat, he bunches up the shirt and holds it above my head. I slide my arms through.
Why are we always dressing each other? A slight smile grows with that thought. I guess it’s a comfort thing. A taking-care-of-each-other thing. Hadley is good at taking care of the people he loves. Something snags in my mind, but I lose it when a yawn hauls another breath into my lungs.
The T-shirt slides over my chest, warm knuckles brushing over my breasts and down my stomach.
Now I shift my gaze to Hadley’s, but he’s all business. Only the flex of his jaw gives away any hint of a response to my bare state.
“Bedtime,” he whispers, but doesn’t move.
I can’t take it one second longer. I lean into him, closing my eyes. Maybe I’ll just sleep here . . .
A hand rubs circles on my back, and I swear I start drooling.
“Sunshine, bed.”
“Mhmmm.”
The warmth disappears, and I’m being lifted off my feet. My eyes open instantly. I’m snuggled against his chest a beat later. “No,” I utter.
“Hold still.”
He moves, slow and uneven. I don’t have the fight in me to argue right now. It only takes a moment before my back meets the softest mattress known to man.
“I’m in freaking heaven,” I murmur.
A light chuckle comes from overhead as the lamp turns off.
“No.” I reach for him.
“Give me a sec,” he rasps. The side of the bed dips and he leans over, grabbing up a pillow.
“Where are you going?”
“Sofa.” He dots a kiss to my forehead.
This has me pushing up on my arms, exhausted but still desperate to have him close.
“We’ve shared smaller spaces than this. Please stay.”
“Alright. No getting handsy.”
“If you say so.” I flop back onto the pillow, and he moves around the bed and climbs in.
“Maggie?” he says so softly I barely hear it over my tired breaths.
“Uh huh?”
He rolls over and slides his arms around my waist and tugs me into his chest. Me . . . little spoon . . .
Warm breath lands on my hair before a kiss to my temple.
Wrapped in the only warmth I’ve ever craved, he mumbles something I can’t make out. I sink into the bliss of it, sleep claiming me before the next breath.