“Nope. We’re all set. Just take care of you and Maddox.”
Guilt washed over him. He didn’t think he deserved the hospitality Ry and Maz showed him. Not after what had happened when Ry had been shot down while stationed overseas with the army.
His best friend had been injured and required months of rehab and Jake had backed away when Ry had needed him most because he’d done the stupid thing of sleeping with Ry’s wife when they’d both thought he was dead.
Admittedly there were extenuating circumstances and a lot of those had only come to light after Renee had taken Maddox. Like the fact Renee had known Ry wasn’t dead like she’d told Jake, and none of his best friend’s injures were life threatening. One of many lies the woman had told him over the course of their ten-year relationship.
“Stop.” Jake met Ry’s hard gaze. “I know what you’re thinking and we’ve spent months sorting out that bullshit. No one except Renee is to blame for what happened. Not you. Not me. And definitely not that sweet little boy. I don’t blame you. Maz doesn’t blame you. Now, if you’ll pull your head out of your ass on that once and for all, I’m going to get Madman a playmate,” Ry finished with a grin.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Madman. A friend to play with?” He looked down to find Mad had dozed off, one rosy cheek squished against Jake’s shoulder and a little drool coating his sagging bottom lip.
Ry chuckled. “Maybe after a nap.”
“Why are you not in the car, Rylan?” Maz shuffled toward them. “I told you to start the car.”
“I’m on it,” Ry assured her holding up his keys. “I hit the remote start as soon as the garage door went up.”
“Humph.” Maz reached out and wrapped her hand around Ry’s forearm. “Okay. Here comes another one.”
Jake watched as Maz breathed through her contraction. Ry did the same, although his pain came from the fingernails digging into his arm not a baby trying to get out of him.
He didn’t interrupt, and he wished he could do more than stare, except he couldn’t help being fascinated by the process of child birth even if he was clueless about most of it.
Sure, he knew the basics and he’d googled the hell out of the subject after he’d been given custody of Maddox, but firsthand experience had eluded him before now.
Another thing to blame on Renee.
There was so much he regretted about his relationship with the woman he’d once contemplated spending his life with and only one thing he didn’t.
Even with all the pain she’d caused him and his closest friend—not to mention or even think about what she’d done to her own child—the manipulative bitch had given Jake the most precious gift in the world.
A gift he would walk through the hell she put them through again and again to be standing right here holding a sleeping Maddox in his arms.
2
Mallory slowly turned on one heel, her gaze taking in everything around her, and couldn’t stop her lips from stretching wide in a huge smile.
She loved it here.
She’d been in Sunnyville a total of three days if she counted the day trip a few months ago and already decided it was a perfect place to live, to raise a family.
Sunnyville was what she’d consider a mid-sized city. Not a metropolis like New York or LA, or even San Francisco, although she wouldn’t call it small-town either. The population was large enough that even if she’d grown up here she wouldn’t know everyone, and yet…it kind of felt as though she did know everyone.
Except of course she knew no one.
It might have something to do with the fact everyone she passed—on the sidewalk, in a store—acknowledged her with a smile or a nod, sometimes both, and other times she got a cheery good morning or hello.
Everyone was seen.
Shefelt seen—important.
And when was the last time she’d felt noticed like that?
Felt as if she was more than an afterthought?
When her dad was alive?
When she wasn’t the last Dawson?
