couldn’t believe he’d do that to her. Again. Then, when she confronted him, they’d fight....” He shook his head as if shaking off a memory. “Eventually, things would settle down. He’d apologize and promise to change and she’d forgive him. She always forgave him.”
Neil’s mouth was tight, his shoulders rigid, but his tone remained cool.
How he managed to be so detached was beyond Maddie. But she wouldn’t mind taking a lesson on it from him. Especially when she found herself softening toward him. Thinking of how horrible it must have been for him as a boy, witnessing his parents’ dysfunctional marriage.
What it must be like for him to see his sister making the same mistakes as his mother.
How he must have hated himself for following in Sam’s footsteps.
She stepped forward, realized she meant to lay her hand on his back. To soothe him. Offer him comfort. She stayed rooted to her spot, her hands curled into fists at her sides. “And you think Fay is doing exactly what your—” No, she couldn’t think of that woman as his mother. Not when the only mother she’d ever known him to have was Gerry Pettit—even if he didn’t feel the same. “What Annie did? That she’ll take Shane back?”
“That’s up to her. I just...I want her to have options. Like the means, the financial means, to take care of herself and the boys.”
Maddie chewed her lower lip but she couldn’t stop herself from asking what worried her most. “What if she’s not strong enough to take care of herself?”
“She is,” he said, as if there was no way Fay would dare prove him wrong on that. As if he couldn’t afford to believe otherwise.
Maddie hoped he was right.
God, how messed up was that? Her wishing Neil Pettit was right and she was wrong? This entire morning had been one surreal moment after another—Neil declaring he was staying in town and wanted more time with Bree. Maddie agreeing.
And those moments just kept coming, piling on top of each other like dominoes.
Crossing her arms, she pinched the inside of her elbow. Hard. It hurt. This was, indeed, her current reality. Neil Pettit taking over her kitchen, his movements graceful despite being too big, too masculine, the play of the muscles of his shoulders and back distracting. Irritating. He sliced and diced, tossing ingredients together like some contestant on Top Chef.
It was too weird, having him in her house, too intimate having him cook in her kitchen, his shorts and T-shirt showing how different he was now, how muscular and hard.
Maddie snorted, sent him an innocent look when he glanced over his shoulder at her. Who was she kidding? He’d always been hard. Hard, closed off and brooding.
She had been a fool to think she could soften him.
She would be an even bigger fool to believe that just because he’d shared a tiny piece of his past with her—after all these years—that he’d changed. Was capable of changing.
Okay, so it was the first time he’d talked with her about his biological parents. Ever. But Maddie had already known his and Fay’s life with Sam and Annie Douglas had been horrible.
Fay had told Maddie long ago about her parents’ fights, the shouting and name-calling. Annie would fly into a rage, slapping and kicking Sam, screaming that she hated him. Wished he was dead. Sam would throw things—plates, chairs, even the TV once—swearing and threatening to leave forever.
Then they’d make up and things would settle down. Until the next fight.
So it wasn’t as if Neil had opened up to Maddie. He still hadn’t admitted how he felt about growing up that way. How Annie’s death and Sam’s abandonment affected him. How hard it’d been for him to be put into the foster care system, separated from his sister for almost a year before the Pettits—who already had Fay—took him in.
He’d given Maddie the facts. Just enough to prove why he was right about buying Bradford House for Fay. He hadn’t revealed any deep truths, thoughts or feelings. Everything important Maddie knew about Neil’s past, she’d learned from her friendship with Fay.
She couldn’t soften toward him or let her guard down around him just because he’d tossed a few sentimental scraps her way. It was too dangerous, made it too easy to confuse the past with the present. Neil had cheated on her. He’d abandoned her. Her and Bree. She couldn’t forget that.