Chapter 2
Two
Mac left his backpack at Maddie’s apartment and headed into town in search of her purse.
He thought about the hour he’d spent with her and the terrible beating his ego had taken.
Not that he was a playboy or anything, but as a rule, he tended to be quite popular with women.
He’d never met one so eager to be rid of him.
And what could she possibly have against his parents?
They ran a decent business and took care of their employees—at least he thought they did.
To be honest, he had no clue how their business—which had grown exponentially since Mac left the island—was run today. However, he planned to find out, and if Maddie’s opinion was to be believed, he might not like what he discovered.
Mac wasn’t surprised to find Maddie’s mangled bike propped against a split-rail fence across the street from the Sand ’n Sea novelty shop.
Someone had used the cabbage roses growing through the fence to camouflage the bike.
Her purse was still sitting in the basket that hung from what used to be the handlebars.
He opened her battered wallet to find a twenty, a five and several ones still tucked inside.
The sight of the undisturbed cash filled him with an odd sense of homecoming.
In Miami, the purse, the cash and what was left of the bike would probably be long gone by now.
Tucking her small purse into the tote bag, he tossed the mangled bike into a dumpster and planned to get her a new one.
Twenty minutes later, he returned to her apartment bearing cheeseburgers, fries and sodas. On the way upstairs, it occurred to him that she might be a vegetarian like Roseanne. Mac sighed. He was so tired of difficult, hard-to-please women.
At the top of the stairs, he paused, uncertain as to whether he should knock, since she expected him to return. Then, remembering how prickly she’d been earlier, he rapped on the door and stepped into the living room to find the sofa empty.
“Maddie?” He listened for a moment, worried that she might have tried to venture out on her own. “Maddie?”
A muffled sound from behind a closed door caught his attention. He put the food and her bag on the kitchen table and went to the door. Knocking softly, he said, “Maddie, are you okay?”
“Will you please just go away and leave me alone?”
“Why don’t you come out here and we’ll talk about whatever’s bothering you?”
No reply.
“I got you something to eat. Come on out, Maddie.”
More silence.
He waited another minute before he knocked again.
The door clicked open, and she stared at him through tear-reddened eyes. Something odd and curious twisted deep inside him at the sight of her ravaged face. In that moment, he realized this was not going to be the stress-free vacation his doctor had ordered.
“Are you in pain?” he asked, alarmed by her distress.
“It’s better since I took the pills.” She took a step and grimaced.
“Let me help you.”
Every muscle in her body tensed as he lifted her. Once she was pressed against him, she relaxed into his embrace. Her hair brushed against his face, and he absorbed the bewitching scent of summer flowers.
“W-what’re you doing?”
“Nothing.” He snapped out of the trance, carried her to the sofa and sat next to her. “How about you tell me what’s got you so upset—other than the obvious, that is.”
“Why do you care?”
Good question. “If I hadn’t stepped off a curb into your path, you’d be at work rather than crying in your apartment.”
“It was an accident. No one expects you to fix everything.”
“We’ve already agreed that I’m going to help you until you’re back on your feet, so why don’t you start by telling me what’s wrong.”
As if it was taking too much effort to hold up her head, Maddie leaned it back against the sofa and expelled a long sigh.
Her weary resignation tugged at him and made him want to fix her every problem—even the ones that weren’t his fault.
“I don’t know how I’m going to take care of Thomas in this condition,” she said in a small voice.
“Ever since he came along, I’ve worried obsessively about losing my job and not being able to take care of him.
I never imagined I’d get hurt so badly—”
“I’ll take care of him. Whatever he needs, I’ll do it.”
She turned her head so she could see his face and maybe gauge his sincerity.
Their eyes connected, and Mac again felt the impact ricochet through him.
He couldn’t look away. Unable to resist the overwhelming urge to touch her, to offer comfort, he brushed the hair back from her tearstained face and dallied longer than he’d intended when his fingers sank into the fine silken strands.
“I don’t want you to worry about anything.”
Her eyebrows knitted with confusion. “Why?”
He combed his fingers through her hair, no longer because it was in her face but because he liked the thickness and texture. “I don’t know,” he said, bewildered by the undeniable pull.
The statement hung in the charged air between them. With every cell in his body fully aware of her, he couldn’t recall a single other instance in his life when he’d been as powerfully drawn to another human being.
She licked her lips but didn’t look away.
Fascinated by the play of her tongue over her plump bottom lip, he shifted to hide his arousal.
“This isn’t going to happen,” she said.
“So you’ve mentioned.”
“I’m not interested.”
His fingertips skimmed over her cheek.
A sharp intake of breath made a liar out of her.
“Okay,” he said. His face hovered half an inch from hers. “Maddie?”
Her lips parted, almost begging him to take what he knew she wanted as much as he did, even if she’d never admit it. “Your lunch is getting cold.”
Glancing at the bag on the table, she broke the spell.
An odd twinge of disappointment warred with relief. Just as well. He had no business wondering what it would be like to sink into the lush sweetness of her mouth, to run his tongue over that sexy bottom lip, to see her caramel-colored eyes darken with desire...
He helped her get comfortable on the sofa and got up to find plates. “Ketchup?” he asked, glancing back to see her nod. Interesting that the same woman who couldn’t tear her eyes off him a minute ago was now having trouble looking at him at all. “I hope you eat meat.”
“I’ll eat anything.”
Mac smiled at the irony. If he wasn’t careful, he might just start to like this guarded, closed-off, supposedly uninterested woman. “The foil wrappers kept the burgers warm, but the fries are kind of soggy.”
“I don’t care.”
He delivered her plate and sat in a mismatched chair that had been old ten years ago.
As they ate in silence, he took a closer look around at the threadbare room.
The furniture was worn and battered, but every surface was clean.
Other than a few photos of an adorable blond baby posed with another darker-haired baby of about the same age and the toys stacked in the corner, the room contained no further clues to unlock the mystery of Maddie Chester.
Who was she? Who’d fathered her child? Where was he now?
Did she love him? Did she miss him? Did he help her out financially?
Mac had never been so curious about a total stranger.
Well, she was no longer a total stranger.
.. Since he’d held her in his arms and carried her home, they’d probably graduated from strangers to acquaintances.
Maybe by the time he nursed her back to health, they’d even be friends.
He glanced over at her to find her expression blank, her eyes fixed on the scuffed wall.
Okay, friends might be too much to hope for.
“Who’s the other baby in the pictures?” he asked, settling on the safest of his long list of questions.
“My niece, Ashleigh. She’s a month older than Thomas.”
“That’ll be nice for them to have someone to play with.”
“I guess. If we’re still here.”
“Going somewhere?”
“I’d like to move to the mainland.”
He took a bite of cold potato. “So why don’t you?”
“I can’t leave my mother. She has a lot of problems, but I dream about getting out of here. Better jobs. A fresh start. No one knows me there.”
“Why would you want to live alone with your son in a place where no one knows you?”
She shot him a withering look.
He had no idea what she meant. He’d ask his sister Janey. She knew everything that went on in Gansett.
A knock on the door startled them.
“Maddie? Are you home?”
He got up to answer it. A pretty, dark-haired woman looked at him with accusatory eyes. “Jim came home for lunch and saw a man...” Her brows furrowed. “Who are you, and what’re you doing in my sister’s apartment?”
“Come in, Tiff,” Maddie called.
Mac stepped aside to admit her, deciding that Tiffany must resemble their other parent, because he saw none of fair-haired Maddie in her.
And whereas Maddie’s curves were extravagant, her sister had the lean, lithe build of a dancer.
At the moment, she resembled a protective panther about to pounce.
Tiffany saw Maddie and let out a gasp. “What happened?”
Mac extended his hand. “Mac McCarthy.”
Tiffany just stared at him, and once again, Mac wondered why his name drew such an odd, almost hostile, reaction from the Chester sisters.
He let his hand drop to his side. “We had an accident,” he said, filling Tiffany in on the details.
She went to her sister for a closer look. “Oh God, Maddie.”
“I know.”
“Don’t worry,” Mac said. “I’m taking care of her.”
Tiffany’s head whipped around, and the look she gave him could’ve cut glass. What was that all about? “I’ll take care of my sister. You can go now.”
“I tried that,” Maddie said. “He’s quite difficult to get rid of.”
For a brief instant, Mac thought he saw affection on her face, but it was gone before he could celebrate the breakthrough.
“It’s my fault she’s in this predicament, so I’ll be covering for her at the hotel and at the daycare until she’s able to get back to work,” Mac said.