His heart refused to resume its normal rate. He headed for the driveway as Jill opened the backseat. The triplets were babbling and laughing like usual. Everyone was fine.
“No. I was calling and freaking out.” He massaged his forehead, drawing a deep breath in the hope that it might finally calm his nerves. “Your phone was off. I was just about to call Marie when you pulled in.”
Jill fumbled with her purse to produce her phone. “I sent you messages…” Her brows drew together as she inspected the screen. “Oh my god! They never sent! My phone was in airplane mode!”
She sighed, pressing her hand to her forehead. “It has been a day, Maxwell. I took these three to urgent care. Shelley had a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop, and I was nervous, so off we went.”
Maxwell helped unload the kids, taking extra time to look over Shelley. “Oh, man. She looks great now, at least.”
“Yeah. I made sure we made up for the doctor’s visit. We stopped for a tiny ice cream cone on the way home, which is why we weren’t here before you got home. The doctor’s office only had two lollipops, so of course the kids went off the deep end about it. I had to rectify.”
Maxwell held Shelley in his arms, feeling the need to coddle her a little while Cameron and Kevin toddled amok in the front yard. “Not gonna lie, Jill—part of me was ready to start calling around to police stations and hospitals.”
She sighed, resting her head against his shoulder as they lingered in the driveway. Kevin and Cameron headed for the bushes, where they started hiding from one another. Shelley wriggled in his arms a moment later, wanting to be let down and join her brothers. When it was just the two of them, Maxwell wrapped his arm around Jill’s shoulders.
“I’m so incredibly relieved you all are okay,” he said softly before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I would have come home right away if I’d known you were worrying.” Jill said. “I don’t even know how my phone got in airplane mode. Probably Kevin. He got my phone while I was cleaning Shelley up.”
“You did the right thing,” Maxwell said. “I’m not complaining.”
Jill looked up at him, her brown eyes sparkling. “So did you. You could have easily chewed my butt out for messing up the texts. So thanks for being you.”
They shared a warm smile and then Maxwell dipped down to press a kiss to her lips. “Back atcha, sweets.”
Jill laughed. “Oh, is that my new pet name?”
“Absolutely.”
“The one thing I counsel every patient to avoid,” she noted dryly.
“You might not want others to binge on sweets, but whether you like it or not, you’re the sweetest damn thing I’ve ever tasted,” Maxwell crooned.
She swatted at his chest, but her smile was ear to ear. “Now you’re pulling those player moves again.”
“Football player only,” he chided as he guided them to the front porch where they eased onto the bench swing. The triplets played happily in the grass, and their familiar squeals and babbles were a balm to his receding nerves. Neither said anything for a few moments as they watched the kids play.
“You know,” Maxwell said, “coming home and having silence be the first thing I heard instead of kids…it was strange. But it also felt really lonely.”
Jill looked over at him, a brow lifting. “It’s strange, isn’t it? How quickly we can adapt to this.”
“Yeah. All the noise and chaos.” He laughed a little, lacing his fingers through hers. “It’s starting to feel like the norm, I guess.”
The thought echoed through him strangely. He’d been waiting for his life to get back to normal. But was this the new normal?
As Jill nuzzled into his side, Mark’s words came back to him from the gym that morning. Good women didn’t come on a schedule. And in this case, an entire family had come when he least expected. It didn’t fit into his five-year plan…but part of him wondered if maybe he should try to make it work anyway.
12
Later that evening, Jill and Maxwell were in the wild throes of bedtime.
Bath time was wild. Jammie time was wilder. And getting these three settled for reading books seemed like an insurmountable task. Shelley shrieked with laughter while Kevin and Cameron scaled the sides of their cribs. Maxwell had made the mistake of laughing along with Shelley, which only encouraged Kevin and Cameron to repeatedly demonstrate their nighttime escape tactics.
Jill had sent Maxwell a stern look, but the grin tugged at her own lips too.
“All right, kids, enough!” She hoped the sternness in her voice would register with the two-year-olds, but she doubted it. “Let’s get cozy and read or else Auntie Jill is gonna fall asleep on the spot.”
It wasn’t entirely true—not with the way Maxwell’s lingering glances kept heating her up, promising that they’d be able to pick up where they left off from the night before. She hadn’t remembered a better morning than this one, waking up nestled in Maxwell’s embrace before he peppered her with kisses and went off to his day.
In fact, he made it a little hard not to swoon in general. He called her sweets, for God’s sake. From anyone else, she’d think it tacky. But with Maxwell? He had a way of making everything seem like a loving gesture.
And the truth was, for whatever doubts she had about whether things should proceed with this man…well, they were proceeding regardless. And she planned to enjoy the ride…for now.
Maxwell helped corral the kids into their usual bedtime corner, where the three of them piled onto the couch, flanked by the adults on either end. When Maxwell started to read the first book, Goodnight Moon, Kevin grunted angrily and took the book out of his hand. Then he passed it to Jill.
“Oh. Excuse me,” Maxwell said, feigning offense. “Have I been fired from book-reading duty?”
The kids said, “Auntie, Auntie!” and Jill couldn’t hide her laughter.
“The children have spoken,” she stated simply, opening the book. She began to read, and Kevin clapped happily. Once they made it through the usual nightly round-up—Goodnight, Moon; Cat in the Hat; and a board book that only had pictures of gorillas and balloons—Jill and Maxwell placed each kid in their respective crib and doled out all the night-night kisses. Then it was lights out, and they hurried out of the room, leaving the door open a crack.
“Let’s wait in my bedroom,” Maxwell said, leading her to the nearest door to the triplets’ room. “Until they fall asleep.”
“Mm-hmm.” She laced her fingers through his as they stepped into his lushly carpeted room. He was a bachelor who took comfort seriously, she’d discovered after spending a full night in his dark navy bedding that doubled as a cloud. “And I bet part of waiting will involve taking our clothes off too.”
“Only if you insist,” he teased. He guided her to sit on the edge of the bed and stood in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. “Sweets.”
Heat spread through her as she drank in his handsome face. The cut lines of his jaw, his beguiling smile, the dark shimmer of his eyes. Beyond the physical perfection, Maxwell was a catch. He cared. He responded. He listened. Seeing him day in and day out with the kids…it was hard not to get swept away in the warm fuzzies.