a brief summer, MJ thought Mr. Simcoe really would be his father someday.
When Maddie told him on the path earlier that she wanted five kids and then tried to play it off, he knew she wasn’t joking. Growing up, she’d always wanted brothers and sisters. He had too. Being alone in the world was one of the reasons they clung together even though they fought all the time, like Sam and Holly. They’d talked about having kids someday, a big family so their kids would always have each other, always have someone to rely on.
Five kids. He could see it now. She’d probably end up with five girls, all with that bushy black hair and fiery blue eyes of hers.
One of the reasons he fought with guys his age, like the idiots on his baseball team—ex-baseball team—was because he couldn’t relate to their trivial, bullshit lives. They were all shallow douche bags who probably never had a thought about spending the rest of their lives with a woman who made them feel whole. A woman who was home and family and future.
Yeah, he was young and so were those other guys, but he knew what mattered in life and what he wanted. He wanted what he didn’t have growing up. A home. A family. He thought he’d have it with Maddie, but something came between them. He had to know what it was—what to focus his aggression on. What to beat the hell out of to get her back.
He bit the side of his cheek until he drew blood to get his head away from soul-sucking thoughts of Maddie having someone else’s kids.
Holly brought her rod back and MJ ducked. She swung it forward over her shoulder and let the line out over the water. “Nice,” he told her.
MJ shaded his eyes with his hand and watched Holly’s bobber land. His gaze found Maddie, who was lowering herself into a chair across from Rachael at a patio table under a tan umbrella beside the boathouse. Her dark hair blew out behind her with a gentle breeze that shook the saw grass on the bank. There were times, like right then, when he was struck numb by how beautiful she was.
“MJ and Maddie sittin’ in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Holly sang, watching him stare at Maddie. “First comes love. Next comes marriage. Then comes MJ in a baby carriage!”
Holly laughed like a loon, with no idea how much her words tortured him, and Sam joined in. “You kiss her, don’t you?” he asked, making a disgusted face. “I will never kiss a girl.”
“No. Maddie and I are just friends.” MJ ruffled Sam’s hair. “But if you never kiss a girl, you have no idea what you’re missing. Your mom and dad kiss, right?”
“No!” Holly shouted. “That would be the grossest thing ever!”
She’d never seen her parents kiss? MJ glanced at Roger who ignored him and dug another worm out of the bucket. “Well, trust me. It’s not gross.”
Holly shrieked and Sam made gagging sounds, but kissing was instantly forgotten when Holly got a tug on her line. “A fish!”
She started jerking the line violently, and MJ put his hands over hers to guide her as she reeled it in. “Easy. Just like this.”
The fish broke through the water and swung over the canoe like a pendulum. “I got it.” Roger grabbed the line and pulled the fish over where he took it off the hook. “How about that?” He held the fish out for Holly to see. “It’s small, but it’s a keeper.”
Holly clapped her hands together, thrilled, and Sam begged Roger to let him hold it.
MJ watched the three of them and glanced back at Maddie. He would have this for himself. It would be his someday. He wouldn’t accept any less. He wanted it with her, and he’d find a way to get her back.
MJ didn’t have a plan, but he did have a little nugget of leverage over Maddie.
He slid her diamond ring on his pinkie finger and left his room to find her. After they got back from fishing, she went to the pool with everyone else. MJ showered and took some time to gather his wits and steel himself to do whatever he had to do to get her to admit why she’d left him.
At the bottom of the stairs, Beck leaned in the archway from the entrance hall to the kitchen tossing an orange in the air and catching it. “Hey, Junior. I’m taking off to