When their eyes finally met, his breath caught. She was beyond beautiful. She was stunning. He had no idea what prompted the sleepless nights or lonely tears, but in that instant, he desperately wanted to make it all better, and for a split second, he thought it worth the gamble. Hope sparked by the idea shriveled and died when reality set in. I have nothing to offer her but more problems.
He placed the empty cup in the sink. “Thanks for the cookies.”
“I made some for you to take home.” She hurried to the counter and grabbed a paper plate wrapped with foil. “It’s not much, but…”
“Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate it very much.”
“Please. Call me Sky.” She chewed her bottom lip and lowered thick, dark lashes before she straightened and met his steady gaze.
The bottom fell out of his stomach.
“Thank you…Max.”
His name never sounded so good before.
Sky watched Max limp out the door and close it softly behind him. The small kitchen seemed even smaller with him inside and surprisingly empty when he left.
She sighed and looked at the chair he’d vacated, easily recalling his features in sharp detail.
His eyes were not just dark brown. They had these gold rings around the edges and were framed by long, lush lashes she couldn’t mimic with a full tube of mascara. His lips were bow-shaped and full, their natural pink highlighted by a dark, scruffy beard, except where a narrow scar crossed his left cheek. Crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes suggested a lifetime of squinting at the sun, as did his tanned, weathered complexion.
A quick glance at the clock on the wall, and she jumped from the chair. Time to pick up Maddie.
She smiled when Blue started right away and said a quick prayer of thanks for Max’s generosity. Cookies weren’t enough. Someday, somehow, she would repay him.
Maddie was unusually silent when she climbed into the back seat a short time later.
“Hey, Munchkin. How was your day?”
“…Fine.”
Sky watched her daughter in the rearview mirror. “That didn’t sound very fine.”
Maddie looked out the window. “I hate Bobby Franklin.”
“Hate is a pretty strong word.” Sky eased into the flow of traffic. “What happened?”
When her daughter didn’t answer right away, Sky probed again. “What happened, Maddie?”
“He’s a jerk with oatmeal for brains.”
“Maddie…”
She caught her mother’s gaze in the mirror and asked softly, “Where’s my dad?”
Sky’s heart dropped to her stomach. She wasn’t prepared for this conversation, though she knew the day would come.
Born premature and barely weighing two pounds, Maddie spent the first five months of her life in a neonatal ICU. So many things had to be dealt with. As a nurse, Sky understood the medical piece of it, but the emotional one was altogether different. That particular roller coaster didn’t stop when Maddie came home, either. Her resistance was so low, any infection was potentially life threatening and required constant monitoring, so Sky placed her nursing career on hold to care for her.
Brett, her ex, honestly tried but couldn’t deal with the day-to-day life of a sickly, premature infant. With Sky’s attention so focused on their daughter, they soon drifted apart. The divorce came two months before Maddie’s third birthday. Within a year, he remarried and moved to Austin.
By that time, Maddie’s health had improved, and Sky was ready to go back to work. But then Maddie contracted pneumonia and nearly died. Sky endured those agonizing weeks alone. Brett called once but never came to the hospital. His reason didn’t matter; the fact that he didn’t come did.
She pushed the past away and focused on an answer to the question. “I know this is hard for you to understand, baby, but his job took him away for long periods of time. And people change.” Even now, the hurt and anger lingered. She could count on one hand the number of birthday cards and Christmas presents he’d sent over the last four years. His picture she had made for Maddie had long since been relegated to the bottom drawer of the child’s dresser.
“Did he love us at all?”
A sob lodged in her throat, and she struggled for control. Maddie meant did he love her. “He did—does—love you, sweetheart, but sometimes, well, people just aren’t meant to be together.” Eyes focused on the road ahead, she eased through the school zone. “But it doesn’t mean he didn’t love us. In his own way.”
“But he didn’t stay with us.”
“No. He didn’t.” What else could she say?
Maddie didn’t speak again until they were almost home. “Why didn’t you find another one?”
“Another what?”
“Male companion.”
Sky almost hit the trash can on the corner when she turned into the drive. “A what?”
“A male companion, you know, a boyfriend. Maybe someone who wanted a kid like me.”
She twisted in the seat to look at her daughter. “Where did you get that idea?”
Maddie ducked her head.
