“Then there’s no way you could have known anything she was thinking or planning.”
He nodded in the hope of ending the conversation. Now wasn’t the time to talk about it. And honestly, he was the one that needed to talk about it. “Okay.”
“Excellent.” Maz grinned at him. “Now, what is that amazing smell?”
“Oh, I forgot. I made dinner. Nothing fancy, just a ready-made lasagna, salad in a bag.” He shrugged. “I didn’t know if you’d be hungry or not.”
“I’m starving. Feeding this boy takes a lot out of me and it’s barely been a day.” She pushed to her feet. “Why don’t you stay here with Zane and I’ll get dinner sorted.”
“But—”
“Please. I need five minutes doing something that doesn’t revolve around the baby.”
Jake looked at Ry who shook his head in a silent message of don’t argue. “Okay. Sure. It should be heated through by now and the salad is in the fridge.”
“I’ll set everything on the dining table. And maybe if Zane stays quiet you can hold him while I eat. Although if he follows the pattern he’s set in his short life, the second I spoon food in my mouth he’ll wake up.” The laughter trailing after Maz as she headed for the kitchen told Jake she wasn’t really upset about her son’s habits.
He looked down to find Zane staring back at him. Big blue eyes unblinking. With that one look, a second little boy stole his heart.
And just like with Maddox, Jake vowed he’d do anything to protect the little boy in his arms.
8
It had been over three weeks of waiting.
Three weeks of hoping to catch a glimpse of her new landlord and yet not.
Mallory’s emotions kept swinging back and forth. One minute she’d be dreading an encounter, the next she’d be eagerly peering through her windows, excitement fizzing through her veins, after hearing a noise outside.
After the call from the real estate agent and going in to sign the amended contract, Mallory had expected to see Jacob and Maddox within days.
Admittedly, she had been in and out a lot of that time and when she was in she didn’t hang around outside in the yard. It wasn’t like she ran between her car and front door but until this moment she hadn’t spotted either of them.
But finally, after the weeks of waiting on tenterhooks, Mallory had her first sighting of Jacob and Maddox Conners.
And it was no less confusing than the waiting had been. She wanted to run at the same time as she wanted to stand there and watch them—soak up every detail of the two males in front of her.
They were near the large glass sliding back door that gave her glimpses into the kitchen from her windows. At first she thought they were either coming in or out but after a moment she realized they weren’t interested in going anywhere.
Maddox wore a frown she quickly worked out was his ‘I’m concentrating’ face as he made his way up the three back steps on hands and feet. Upon reaching the top step, he promptly reversed and came back down.
While his son went up and down Jacob hovered behind him, arms out, hands open wide, ready to catch the boy if he fell.
Unlike his son, Jacob’s frown conveyed concern with a liberal dose of fear thrown in. Although from what she’d seen, and she’d only been watching for about a minute, Maddox had mastered climbing stairs and Jacob’s apprehension and safety net were unnecessary.
Neither noticed her stopped on the section of the side path that was exposed to the yard. The gap between the house and her garage apartment was all of five feet wide, not big really, but it was a large enough space to give her an unobstructed view—a straight slice of the yard across the length of the house to the far fence.
Being able to watch them unobserved like this gave her a glimpse into the life Maddox had with his father. And after everything she’d learned about her stepsister in recent weeks, she would be forever grateful that Renee had listed the boy’s father on his birth certificate.
If she hadn’t…
Mallory shuddered. She didn’t want to think about where Maddox might be now.
He definitely wouldn’t be with a parent who clearly loved him.
And Mallory refused to think about what kind of danger Renee would have put him in if she’d retained custody. What she’d already subjected that boy to didn’t bear thinking about, never mind the could haves.
Another shudder wracked her and the plastic bags in her hands brushed against her legs making a loud crinkling noise.
