14. Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
Maddox
My hands grip the steering wheel while I try to focus on not breathing through my nose. Her perfume is like sunshine and rain and it’s fucking with my thought process. I knew the role I had to play. I knew it four years ago when I got too close. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t do anything wrong; it was me. I crossed the line. Brady had been through enough, and sometimes I feel like we both turned our eyes away from his choices. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Neither of us wanted to hurt him. She didn’t want to break his heart and I didn’t want to give him another reason to resent me. But that line had to be drawn, no matter how much I wished it didn’t exist. I drew it in the sand that night and now I was here, and she was there. In the same fucking truck but a whole different galaxy.
I punch on the radio, keeping it at a decent enough volume that neither of us feel the obligation to make small talk. Just because she was back in Mayson Ridge, it didn’t change anything. She still hated me, and I still deserved it. But my resolve is only so strong. I can handle a few days with her in my cabin. I like to think I’m a man of self-control. What kind of a dick would I be if I let her sleep on a shitty couch while there was a soft bed available knowing about her back issues. It would raise suspicion if I didn’t at least try to convince her, and I wasn’t aiming to draw any attention to us or our complicated past.
When we finally pull into the hospital, I park as close to the front as space will allow. She’s out the door before I can make it to her side. I'm tempted to scold her. She knows the rules when riding in my truck and I may have been a prick at times, but I was a gentleman.
Her feet are quick, and her shoulders hunched as she walks through the automatic doors. I hadn’t been in a hospital since the night I lost my father, but I shove it aside. This wasn’t about my baggage; this was for her. For Emmett. I owed him a lot and the least I could do was make sure she gets to see him.
The elevator ride is just as tense as the drive. She kept her eyes away from me, her foot tapping a rapid beat against the floor.
When the doors slide open, she rushes out. I sigh before rubbing a hand over my face. My feet slide across the blue linoleum, but I halt when I see Ivy frozen at the edge of the waiting room. I slowly approach, hovering just behind her to give her a moment. As far as I know she hasn’t seen Emmett in a while, and I can feel the anxiety rolling off of her.
After a few moments, I finally step up behind her.
“We can leave,” I say quietly.
She swallows, giving me one curt shake of her head. “No.” She clears her throat. “I need to do this.”
Before I can press my palm to the small of her back like a complete fool, because it would only make this worse, she vaults forward, moving toward his room with determination. I follow closely, until she reaches the door. I stop, glancing back to the waiting room.
“I’ll be out here.” I hike a thumb over my shoulder.
I made it into the building. Going into that room is another story.
Her eyes meet mine, and a flash of empathy crosses them.
She knows.
“Okay. I won’t be long.” She disappears inside the room, while I disperse to a corner chair in the waiting area, trying to forget what my dad looked like laying in that same bed.
The second we get back to the cabin, Ivy heads straight to the spare bedroom. I hear some rustling before she emerges with two bags and a laptop.
“Ivy.” I hold out my hands. “It’s almost eleven. Just stay here.”
“I appreciate the offer. But no thanks.” She hikes one of the bags up. “I would rather stay with Cooper.”
It shouldn’t sting, but it does. Before she left Mayson Ridge there was a lot of unspoken words. Apologies that needed to be made on my part, but I never got the chance. I never got the chance to tell her I fucked up, so I took it as a sign. Me and her….it just creates more problems than solutions. It effects more than just the two of us and if I’ve learned anything since my dad left this earth, it’s not to be selfish. I can’t be selfish, even though I want to. So damn bad.
“Ok.” I move closer, reaching for her bags.
“I got it.” She turns away.
“Ivy, there aren’t any lights on the path to the barn. It’s dark. It’s summer and we have rattle snakes. Let me walk you and carry your bags.”
She stares at me a moment before finally letting out a surrendering breath. “Fine.”
I take both bags, opening the door and giving her enough space to walk through before snatching a flashlight by the door. Shining the light ahead, I watch her move, careful not to shine where she can’t see.
“Be careful by this fence...” I begin.
But she interrupts by tossing her hands up. “I’ve lived here my entire life, Maddox. I think I know the way to the barn.”
“Ivy.” As soon as the word leaves my mouth, she stumbles, her flimsy shoe catching on a loose rock.
“Damn it,” she hisses as her hands clench at her ankle.
The bags meet the dirt, and I’m crouched down in front of her before she can protest.
“Let me see.”
“I’m fine," she hisses as she drops to her butt.
“Goldie,” I say calmly.
She freezes, her eyes slowly drifting up to mine.
“Please let me see it?” I ask, my hand brushing along her calf.
Her breath hitches, but she masks her reaction, blinking her eyes. “It doesn’t even hurt.”
My palm wraps around where her hand is placed, and she winces. “You’re a terrible liar. Have been since you were a kid.”
She scoffs. “I am not. Remember when I got in trouble for stealing dad’s gin?” She lifts a blonde eyebrow.
“Yeah. You got your ass ripped for two weeks about that.” I can’t help but grin at the memory.
“Well guess who fibbed?” She leans back on her palms, the movement hiking her dress up her thigh. I swallow, trying to avoid the smooth flesh.
“Me. It was actually Dakota, but I didn’t want her to get in trouble. She sold the bottle to some old man in the trailer park so she would have lunch money for the week.”
There’s that golden heart.
“I never even told her that I got in trouble,” she whispers next.
The silence hangs as my light shines down on her ankle that’s already swelling. Without waiting for the response that I’m most likely going to ignore, I scoop her up in my arms and haul her back to my cabin.