It’s obvious why Maddey wants the pair for one of her covers. They make a striking couple with the hockey player’s all-American boy-next-door appeal combined with Simone’s sultry Tyra Banks resemblance; they would make anyone do a double take.
“Cali.” Maddey drops her head with a groan. “Stop acting like English isn’t your first language and nuzzle Simone’s neck.”
If you were to look up the word uncomfortable in the dictionary, Cali’s picture would be next to it with the way he brings his face in closer to Simone.
“Should I tell Madz I’ve spent the last week telling Cali Griff will use him as his personal punching bag if he gets too friendly with Simone during the shoot?” Jase says out the side of his mouth.
“You do realize she’s best friends with your sister, right?” Jake asks his brother-in-law.
“And?”
“And I think he’s trying to remind you how your wombmate is the queen of revenge plots.” Gage points to Jase with his beer bottle.
“Motherfucker,” Jase curses.
Gage chuckles. “Blue,” he calls out to his wife. “Come take the baby before your bestie teaches him to curse like the twins.”
Rocky makes her way over, liberates Ronnie from his dad, and gently bounces him while propping his head on her shoulder. “I would prefer my kid’s first word not be asshole, best friend of mine.”
“Sorry, Balboa.” Jase holds his hands up in surrender, sounding anything but apologetic.
The rest of their bickering fades into the background as my gaze is drawn back to Maddey again when she starts to laugh. The action is so pure and unfiltered I feel my own lips pull up at the corners.
God she’s a vision with her head thrown back, errant curls falling from her messy bun and brushing along the line of her neck exposed by her position.
Cali may be having a hard time nuzzling Simone as instructed, but I want to set up camp in the curve of Maddey’s neck…lick down the tendon running along the side, biting down and sucking where it meets her shoulder, marking her so the whole world will know she’s mine.
Her laugh has always been one of my favorite sounds. It radiates joy in a way that makes you want to join in just because it’s so goddamn infectious.
I’ve been doubting if I did the right thing withholding the second part of what the stalker sent, but seeing this, how easily she’s been able to shake off her earlier terror, I’m glad I did.
I’m still unsure what my next steps are, but I’m going to have to take advantage of her being safe here, surrounded by her friends, to meet with Justin and Paul without her.
“Can you make sure Maddey stays here until I get back?” I ask the guys around me. She’s going to rip me a new one when she realizes I went off without her, but I’m going to shield her as much as I can.
“She got another gift didn’t she?” Ryan narrows his eyes, trying to read all the things I’m not saying.
I want to resent him for having been the person to hold Maddey’s heart for years and being something to her I’ll never be able to be, but he’s too genuine a guy to make it stick.
Sammy may try to insinuate that there is nothing between Ryan and Maddey anymore, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s only a matter of time before they get back together. As much as it will gut me when it happens, I can’t be mad about it. I’ve seen how he treats her.
I push to my feet, neither confirming or denying what he said. I’m calculating the best route of escape without being spotted when—is that my…
“Mom?”
“My baby.”
Mom is a force to be reckoned with, so much so that almost everyone always refers to her as Peggy Stone. It’s as if they need her full name to capture her essence. One of my favorite things about her is that her greetings always make me feel like a conquering hero. With her for a mother, it really doesn’t surprise me that it’s Maddey’s badassery I find most attractive.
First Mom served as the epitome of a strong military spouse, holding down the fort at home while Dad fought for our country side by side with Jack McClain and the teams.
Granted, I was only five when Dad was killed in action, but even before that, I never felt like I was missing out on having a parent because Peggy Stone—see? even I do it—filled both roles so seamlessly.
Then when Jack McClain decided to leave the teams and move his family from Virginia to New Jersey to be closer to his extended family, she made the selfless decision to uproot her life so I wouldn’t lose out on the only other family I had ever known.
“Look at you.” Soft hands cup my face hard enough to make my lips pucker like a fish. “You’re wasting away. Doesn’t the Navy feed you?”
It’s always the same whenever we see each other. Her being here now is everything. I probably should have swung by my childhood home before I ever went to Maddey’s, but the SEAL in me who always puts the mission first overrode the mama’s boy.
Yet in the midst of the shit-storm brewing in Tink’s life, she made sure to make this, Mom being here, possible. It doesn’t surprise me that she doesn’t want to take credit for how meaningful this is. She only brushes it off, dropping the ohana line from Lilo & Stitch about how family means no one gets left behind.
Sunglasses shield Maddey’s eyes, but I don’t need to see them to know they are swimming with unshed tears when our gazes lock.
“Gemma!” Mom’s shout breaks the weighted staring contest between Maddey and me.
“Yes, Peggy Stone?”
“I need you to cook up some of your heartiest dishes to stock at Maddey’s, please. My boy is wasting away. He needs fattening up.”
I roll my lips in to hold back a laugh. Thinking a child needs to eat must be in the official mom handbook or something, because she is always telling me I need to “fatten up” when she sees me. Granted, I may lose a little muscle mass when deployed, but I’m still over two hundred pounds. It’s insulting for Mom to think I’m a lightweight.
“Anything for you, Pegs.” Gemma looks me up and down. “But I think his physique is more than adequate.”
“I don’t know.” Zoey steps into our circle. She’s new to the group so there’s still a lot I don’t know about her, but I can tell she’s trouble like Becky. “Maybe you should take your shirt off so we can give you a proper inspection, Navy boy.”
See what I mean?
“I do so enjoy when The Coven gets a new victim to pick on.” Jase tips his beer at me in commiseration.
“Truth.” Vince taps his bottle against Jase’s with an audible clank. “It’s hard work being objectified all the time.”
“Don’t even try it, Muffin,” Holly calls out with a laugh. “You were stripping down in my kitchen long before you even properly introduced yourself.”
Holly’s comment sets off a volley of insults and trash talk while Mom pulls me down to sit. Guess I’m not going anywhere for the moment.
Mom catches me up on everything—and I mean everything—I’ve missed since we last spoke. I don’t mind. I know it’s her way of feeling closer to me when most of my life is spent half a world away.
No matter how hard I try to keep it on my mother, my gaze keeps wandering over to Maddey. She’s this intriguing combination of sex kitten in those sexy-as-fuck spiked heels and Diane Keaton in Baby Boom with one of the Donovan twins—don’t ask me which one; they are too identical—braced on her hip while looking at the images her photographer is showing her on the camera.