felt her cheeks flush. "It’s so weird. Having him here. The place is the same, the people are the same, but the dynamic is different."
Gage took a dish from her. His grey eyes didn't leave her face. This man. He’d always been there for her, was always supportive. "Good different or bad different?"
“Good different." She didn't hesitate. Aside from her dad's absence, the changes felt right. A natural progression. "The only thing that could make it better would be to see you and Micah get out there in the dating world."
That earned her a disgusted face. "True sign of someone who is completely smitten. Trying to inflict your happiness on everyone else."
“I'm not...smitten." Smitten sounded like a silly little girl's emotions.
Shaking his head, Gage crossed his arms over his chest, a knowing smile on his handsome face. If she looked closely, she could see the resemblance between him and Caine. The line of the jaw, the curve of his mouth. It wasn't overt, but it was still there. The years she’d spent trying to block her memories of Caine had dimmed the impact of how much the Maddox boys were alike. “Come on, now, Mel-bell. This is me. I know you. I know him. You're both so stubborn. If you'd just stopped fighting it, you could have been happy years ago."
“I've been happy." Mel sighed. "Maybe not as happy as I am now, sure. But as much as I care for him, I don't need your brother to be happy."
It was true. She loved being with Caine, but she wasn't about to have her happiness depend on him. She was home. She had a great family, a wonderful best friend, and the job she’d always wanted. Happiness had been around before Caine Maddox and it would be around after him. She looked back out the window in time to see him lift a giggling Jax over his head. Who was she kidding? God help her, Caine might be the only person who turned her happiness into joy.
Chapter 14
“Did you get a summons?” Caine demanded as he barged into the police chief’s office Thursday afternoon.
Gage glared at the paperwork he was filling out. “Of course. Mother said she’d heard that you’d gone to a family dinner with your—and I quote— ‘flame of the month’, and protocol dictated that she reciprocate immediately. Are they going to stay at the house?”
“Apparently. They’re even hiring staff from the club to come and serve dinner.” Caine looked at the wall, wondering how much it would hurt if he punched it. Olivia Maddox qualified for hurricane status. With only a few hours’ notice, she expected her every whim to be catered to. And from the barely concealed disdain in her voice, he knew this dinner would be hell for everyone involved.
“Have you told Mel yet?” Gage looked as worried as Caine felt.
He shook his head, tugging his hair. “No. I wish I didn’t have to. Mother’s never been a big fan of the Carrs.”
“You’re going to have to do some serious groveling to get her to agree to this dinner. Especially on such short notice.”
“No shit.” Caine had already started to formulate a plan. “I’ve got a present stored up for a special occasion. I’ll break it out to soften her up and then hit her with the dinner.”
“It better be one hell of a present,” Gage warned.
No kidding. Caine got in his car and drove out to his house. Hating his parents was a waste of energy, but that didn't stop the bitterness of memory from souring his mood. As a kid, part of him had always wanted to please his parents, even when he wanted to escape them. They were family. His grandfather had kept them from being too full of themselves and their own importance. Grandpa James. God, he missed him. The Maddox family patriarch had made Fortune Hill truly feel like home. When he died, everything had changed.
Turning into the drive, Caine remembered the day he’d left Fortune Hill for boarding school. It had been a hot summer day, about a month after Grandpa James's funeral. He’d come in after spending the day swimming in the river with Gage and Micah. Mel had gone to the clinic to help Doc Booth. Even back then, she'd been determined to be a doctor. Olivia and Joseph, his picture-perfect parents, sat in the living room and told him that his bags were being packed. It was high time he went to a proper school, they’d