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We pull up to my townhouse that I’d bought with the savings I had from working my ass off plus a little help from my mom. It wasn’t large, but it was enough space for me. A two bedroom, two and a half bathroom, with a finished basement is plenty of room for me and if I happened to settle down with a wife anytime soon. I look down at the little person who I swear has been gripping my hand for dear life since I met her. She pushes some stray strands out of her face and grips her bunny tighter. “Your house is pretty. I like the flowers.”
I roll my eyes as I think about my mother planting them to give the house some “warmth.”
“Pink is my favorite color,” she adds as we move towards the door. I have a small suitcase of her things in my other hand, and as soon as we get inside, my suitable sized house suddenly feels so small with her in it.
She swallows and looks up at me as if to say now what?
I have no fucking idea. “Are you hungry?”
She shakes her head, but I know she needs to eat something. It’s been a long night and although the social worker brought her some child-friendly snacks, she hasn’t had a proper meal.
“You should eat something, Maddie.”
She purses her lips together and looks towards my kitchen. “Okay, what do you have?”
I do a mental check of what’s in my refrigerator, which I’m pretty sure is beer and condiments and maybe a frozen dinner. My mother usually comes over every once in a while to make sure I wasn’t eating out for every meal but I don’t think she’s been over this week.
“We can order something?”
She looks up at me, pools of blue widen and she smiles. “Pizza!” A dimple appears for the first time, and I’m pleased that I put it there.
After she’s eaten, I can tell she’s tired as the exhaustion of the day is probably catching up with her. “You ready for bed?”
She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing the sauce further into her skin. “I should take a bath.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. “You sure you don’t want to just go to bed?”
“I need to take a bath before bed. My jammies are clean.”
I want to ask if she’s sure about that given that I was familiar with the conditions of her house and the fact that clean wasn’t a word I would use. “Fine, bath. Just let me call Aria.”
“The lady cop?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Her eyes, despite what she’s been through today are filled with innocence and curiosity and it makes me want to keep her this way forever. Untarnished by the bullshit in the world. Untouched by evil and darkness and hatred and malice. I find myself hoping that she’ll find her way back into the light before the darkness of losing both of her parents on the same night consume her.
I wasn’t sure how to tell her that I didn’t feel comfortable bathing her. That she shouldn’t feel comfortable having me bathe her. That she shouldn’t be naked around any boys until she’s thirty. But I figured she’d endured enough trauma for the day so I take the easy way out. “Aria has the good smelling bubble bath.”
I pick up the phone and walk out of the room, preparing myself for the shitshow of talking to Aria about my impulsive decision to take in a domestic violence victim. I can already hear her nagging. “She’s going to get attached, Cal! Hell, you’re going to get attached!” But that’s where she’s wrong. I’m not going to get attached. This is only temporary. By next week, I will be a distant memory to Madeline Shaw as she settles into her new life.
I’m sure of it.
Present Day
I walk into the kitchen to find Maddie typing furiously at her laptop.
“What are you doing up so early?” I’ve pulled sweatpants on over my shorts and a sweatshirt over my torso as I’ve caught her ogling me one too many times. I don’t think she means to let her eyes rove over me appreciatively, but that doesn’t stop my cock from twitching in my pants.
My body is traitorous under her lustful gaze, and it’s getting worse. It’s like my dick doesn’t know the difference. Never mind that she is seventeen or that this is Maddie. My cock only sees how she’s blossomed into quite possibly the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.
“You look like shit,” she tells me. “Not sleeping well again?” She gets up from the table and grabs a mug from the shelf. She holds it out for me and I can’t help but take in her attire. She’s wearing one of my Academy t-shirts and sleep shorts that are way too short making her toned legs go on for miles. Toned legs that she formed from ballet. And now I’m thinking about her in those tiny fucking leotards she parades around in from time to time. She is short, far shorter than me, but her legs are ones of tall models that seem to go on for miles. She usually wears her chocolate brown hair long and wavy down her back, but right now she has it pulled up into a high ponytail revealing a pencil behind her ear.
I snatch the mug from her. “Why are you awake? I usually have to pry you out of bed with the jaws of life in the morning.” I turn my back to her as I recall threatening her with every punishment I could think of as I yelled for her to get out of bed to get ready for school.
“I hated my English paper. I woke up at three and decided to rewrite it.” Forever the perfectionist. Maddie loves school and has a thirst for knowledge that you don’t see in many high schoolers. Certainly, not of the popular variety.
“You’ve been up since three? Maddie, it’s six, that’s not enough sleep.”
