her straw. “Did you have to give up going into the air force because you got pregnant with me?”
“Kiddo, I didn’t have to give anything up for you that I wasn’t willing to do without. You were worth all of it.”
“What was Mom like?” Bree asked Neil. “As a teenager?”
“This should be interesting,” Maddie said.
“She was...special,” he said slowly. Maddie’s throat dried but she didn’t dare take a drink, she didn’t move, couldn’t so much as blink for fear she’d miss what Neil said.
“She was smart and funny,” he continued, “and for some reason, she saw something worthy in me that no one else saw. That I didn’t even know was there. When I looked at her, I...” He held Maddie’s gaze. “When I looked at her, I fell so hard, I didn’t think I’d ever get up.”
Her skin was tingling and he hadn’t even touched her. He was potent. Dangerous to her sense of self and peace of mind.
But he’d given their daughter something she’d never had—a piece of her parents’ history. Maddie had been so careful not to ever bad-mouth Neil in front of Bree, had never told her to dislike her father or to be angry at him. But she hadn’t been completely honest with her, either. Had never shared how much she’d loved Neil, how he’d made her think. Made her laugh. She never talked about how talented a hockey player he was, how good he was to his family, how generous with the town and local charities.
She’d kept their past from Bree because it had ended badly. But by protecting her daughter from what had gone wrong, she’d forgotten about all that had been right. So while they ate together for the first time as a family, Maddie let herself remember the good times and finally told the story of how she fell in love with Neil Pettit.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“NEIL,” MADDIE SAID, “what are you doing here?”
She sounded surprised, but not disappointed to see him. And she hadn’t tried to slam the door on him, which was a good sign.
“I heard Bree’s spending the night at Fay’s. I thought maybe you’d want to go out, get something to eat.”
“Sure. I don’t have plans.” Leaving the door open for him, she spoke over her shoulder as she crossed to the table where her laptop was open. “I worked for a few hours this afternoon and was going to grab something at a drive-through.” She grinned. “But you buying me dinner sounds much better.”
He shut the door behind him. “The Wooden Nickel?”
Her favorite restaurant. At least, it had been. He’d taken her there on their one-year anniversary, had saved up for weeks to afford the expensive dinner, but it’d been worth it to see her so happy.
“I’d need a lot of work if we went to the Wooden Nickel,” she said, indicating her clothes—jeans so faded they were white in spots and a Black Eyed Peas concert T-shirt.
“Not so much,” he said.
She clicked something on the laptop. “Enough that it’d be at least an hour before we even leave here and tack on another thirty minutes for the drive out to the restaurant.” She glanced up at him. “I’m too hungry for all that trouble. Want to buy a girl Chinese takeout?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Great.” She shut the laptop’s lid. “I’ll grab the menu. I’m feeling lots and lots of pot stickers.”
She went to the other side of the kitchen, searched through the drawer while he waited by the table. They’d spent quite a bit of time together—he, Bree and Maddie—over the past two weeks since their dinner at Panoli’s. It’d actually become quite the routine—Neil would work out in the mornings, pick Bree up from soccer so they could have lunch together before he did another workout in the afternoon. Evenings were mostly spent at Maddie’s house. After dinner they’d go for a long walk or kick a soccer ball around in the yard. A few times he’d stayed and played cards with Bree on the porch.
It was all very...domestic.
And more enjoyable than he’d ever imagined. He loved being with his daughter, getting to know her better, seeing her open up to him again. But it hadn’t been easy being around Maddie so much—her smiles and laugh, her smart-ass comments and sarcastic sense of humor all enticed him. Appealed to him in ways they hadn’t when he’d been a cocky eighteen-year-old.
They’d had no time alone. Until tonight.
All the things he’d been without since he’d left Shady Grove, everything