you’ll be with him for that weekend, every other holiday you’d spend it with him.”
“He wants me,” Bree said, sort of in awe. She raised her head and her eyes were alight, her expression pure joy. “He said he did but I wasn’t sure....”
And Maddie realized why Neil had done this. He’d wanted to show their little girl that he meant what he said, that he was going to be there for her no matter what, no matter that he and Maddie weren’t together or that he lived across the country. They would be together.
“Of course he wants you,” Maddie said. “But only if you want this, too.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Bree said, sounding so much older than eleven. “I’ll always come back to you. We’ll still be together.”
Maddie choked up. Cleared her throat. “You’re right. We’ll always be together.”
Bree hugged her and went back to bed, and Maddie realized that she didn’t want to share Bree. Before, when Neil had kept his distance, it’d been easier for her to hold on to her righteous anger and sense of superiority. Her independence. She could control how things went, how Bree was raised. She could make all the decisions.
Bree was growing up, would be a teenager in two years, then it would be high school and boys and driving and she was already fighting for her independence, just as Maddie had done.
Then Bree would go to college, as Maddie hadn’t, but wanted her daughter to.
Maddie’s fingers tightened, curling the papers. Yes, she’d accomplished exactly what she’d set out to do. And she’d done so on her own. She was in complete control.
She’d never felt more alone.
* * *
NEIL STEPPED OUTSIDE of the Knights’ training facility and headed toward the parking lot. The day was overcast and he couldn’t help but miss the rolling hills of Shady Grove. He’d talked to Bree last night and she’d assured him it was okay that he wanted rules in place when it came to seeing her. He’d done the right thing.
He looked up and froze to see Maddie walking toward him in that same damn sundress she’d had on at the picnic at his folks’ house.
“Maddie.” He shook his head. “Is everything okay? Is Bree all right?”
“Bree’s fine. Everyone’s fine,” she said, looking unsure and nervous—both of which were so unusual for Maddie, he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. She was here. In Seattle. Her throat worked as she swallowed. “You really pissed me off with that custody arrangement.”
“You’re here to kill me, then?”
“I thought about it,” she said, sounding like her normal self. She tossed her head, her hair picking up in the breeze, dotted with drizzle. “But then I realized you were right. You need to have time with Bree. But I’m not signing it.”
His heart sank. He didn’t want to drag any of them through some long custody battle but he had to do what was best for Bree. “I’m sorry to hear that. Guess you’ll be hearing from my attorney.”
He started to walk away, so pissed at her for coming here, in that dress, when he hadn’t been able to convince himself he’d lost a few brain cells back in Shady Grove, that what they’d shared those few weeks wasn’t some figment of his imagination. He’d wanted to convince himself that he’d made more of their time together than what it was, that she was right to laugh in his face when he said he wanted them to be together, to be a family. That his feelings for her were just remnants of whatever had been between them years ago.
But he’d dreamed of her every night, wanted to talk to her every day.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, hurrying up to catch him. She grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her. “You don’t get to walk away from me. Not after I dropped everything—including the renovations you hired me to do—to buy the airfare to fly out here. Not when I took a red-eye flight, my first airplane trip, across the country to see you.”
“What do you want, Maddie?” he asked quietly.
“You,” she blurted. She pressed her lips together and met his eyes. “I want you, Neil.”
Hope lit inside his chest. He ruthlessly squashed it. “This some sort of trick to get me to back off fighting for shared custody?”
“No. Yes. I mean, I don’t want to fight you.” The wind blew her hair into her face and she tucked it behind her ear. “And I’m not signing those papers—”
“Goddamn it,