Her Dragon Daddy

4

It was a good idea. I knew I was waylaying their evening plans but sitting between my dad and brothers on the couch while I forced my mind to focus on mindless entertainment would go a long way to soothing my beast. When he was in a better frame of mind, I’d lay down the law.

He grunted. He didn’t like the idea, but too bad. He was going along with it.

I’d never been a patient man, by any means. But I’d waited eighteen years for her. Another week wouldn’t kill me.

Ava

“If we keep ordering delivery, I’m going to gain a hundred pounds.” I scrutinized my ankles. “I think all the sodium is making my ankles swell.”

Maddox rolled his eyes. “Okay, Mom, whatever.”

“Get ready, both of you. We’re going grocery shopping.” They both complained and sighed but climbed off the couch and went toward their rooms. “I want you showered, and your teeth brushed,” I called.

We’d been in Black Claw a week. I’d told the kids they had that long to settle in, rest and relax, then it would be back to school. The one time we’d ventured out of the house was to go to the school and register both of them.

The town was small enough that it had one school, with classes from pre-K through high school. The building was enormous, and I had my concerns about that many ages under one roof, but the principal assured me they were kept separate, with the three-story building running almost as if they had three separate schools. They even had two different cafeterias.

Maddox had been ogled by a handful of teenage girls on the way in, and he’d noticed, so his hesitancy about going to a new school had diminished. Now we just had to make sure he kept his temper in check.

Hailey hadn’t seen any younger kids while we were there. The administration office was on the third floor and not close to the younger grades.

It was their last day of break, and I knew they’d hoped to spend it with their heads buried in their various electronic devices, but I was serious about the food situation. It was dire. We’d stopped at a gas station on the way back from the school early in the week, but the milk and sodas we’d bought there were long gone. We’d been surviving on takeout and tap water.

I dug my purse out of the massive mess in the living room. “You ready to get warmed up?” I asked it. “We’ll be putting a dent in you.”

My ex-husband and I had split everything in the divorce. After everything that happened, I offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse—to sign over his rights to Hailey and let us disappear. No doubt he could figure out where we were if he wanted to. He knew I had this cabin, but I doubted he’d try. He’d checked out of our marriage years before.

His wandering eye had almost cost him his life and my son his freedom, in the end.

After sniffing a pair of socks which I found halfway under my bed, I decided they’d do and pulled them on. I hadn’t put on makeup all week. I wasn’t sure where it was. My bedroom and bathroom were mostly unpacked, but my toiletries box had been mixed up somewhere. I suspected it was in the living room disaster.

All the boxes we weren’t sure what to do with yet had ended up in the large living room. Slowly, I’d been working my way through them, but my break was over tomorrow, too. I had to start working and keep up a steady schedule.

Even with the sweet settlement I’d given Cade, I had a nice nest egg. It didn’t matter, though. I didn’t want to touch it. I’d calculated how much money I’d made from website design over the past year and pulled that out to live on until my freelance money started rolling in. The rest of the settlement money went into a savings account. When I was more secure with my current income, I’d roll it over into a college fund for Hailey.

“Ready,” Hailey chirped. Her chestnut brown hair was soaking wet and dripping onto her shirt.

I grabbed the blanket draped over the back of the couch. “Turn,” I commanded.

She whirled around and let me blot some of the excess water from her hair.

Maddox’s smell announced him well before I heard or saw him coming. “Madd!” I yelled up the stairs. “Don’t bathe in your cologne!”

He came down with a red face. “I just used one squirt,” he insisted, as he always did. “It’s just strong at first.”

I grunted and picked my purse up again. “Let’s go.”

Halfway to the car, I threw Maddox the keys. “You wanna drive?”

He grinned. “Hell, yes.”

“Mouth, Madd,” I chastised him.

At least he had the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry.”

He did a good job driving us. He’d had his license in New Mexico for a year, and his permit for a year before that. We’d have to get to the DMV soon and update everything.

I directed him to town, but once we got onto Main Street, I realized everything had changed from my memories. “Wow,” I whispered. “It’s so different.”

“Where do I go, Mom?” Maddox prompted me.

“Well, there used to be a grocery store right over there.” I pointed to the biggest corner of Main, but what used to be a mom and pop grocery was gone. “What is that place?”

I squinted at the sign and its fancy letters. “Does that say ax throwing?” I asked. “Surely not.”

Maddox grinned. “It does, and I want to go.”

With a snort, I shut that down. “Not happening.” I looked at the stores along Main. “I forgot that a lot of places stay closed on Sundays here. They don’t have enough employees to stay open all seven days of the week.”

“Mom,” Hailey said. “What is there to do in this town?”

I grinned. This was why I’d brought them here. “Connect with nature. Meet friends and spend time with them. Have a more wholesome life.”

Maddox scoffed. “Okay.”

“You laugh, but you’ll see. It’s great living in a small town.”

He’d come around. I was sure of that. “Oh,” I exclaimed. “There’s a grocery store.” The Hoggly Woggly. Okay, then.

I pointed to the left, and Maddox turned on his blinker. The traffic was nil, nobody to even tell he was turning, but I was glad he did anyway. “You’re a considerate, careful driver, Madd. I’m proud of you.”

He beamed as he pulled into a parking spot.

Only three other cars were in the lot. We’d have our run of the store. I’d heard of the grocery store before. It wasn’t a big national chain, but it also wasn’t a mom and pop. I hated to see that the old one was gone. I’d have to ask around at some point and see why it left.

The kids beat me out of the car. “Grab a cart from here.” I pointed at the cart return, which had two carts in it. “Keep the cart pushers from having to bring these two in.”

They nodded and filed between the metal bars to get the cart. After checking for cars, they raced toward the front doors. “Keep it under twenty!” I called to their backs. “Madd, watch Hailey!” He waved in acknowledgment. As if he wouldn’t have. They were so far apart in age that he’d been old enough to babysit for short spurts by the time I was ready for her to need a babysitter. Mostly while I showered or made dinner if her father wasn’t home. He’d held her, rocked her, fed her. More like an uncle than a brother. Whatever it was, they got along ninety percent of the time.

They loved doing their own food shopping. Of course, neither of them ever got anything healthy. I put a limit on how much they could spend. They also knew they had a limit on how much junk they could eat in a day.

I grabbed a cart inside the door and looked around, taking in the layout of the store. I preferred to get my cold and frozen stuff last, so I headed to the opposite side of the store, to the produce.

As I felt up some zucchini—I always felt like a pervert when picking out green zucchini—someone whispered my name, and a tingle of awareness went up my spine.

I knew that voice, even at a whisper. I didn’t want to turn around. My emotions roiled inside me, confused. Delight warred with anger and fear.

“Ava,” he said louder. “Is that you?”

He knew damn well it was me. I didn’t believe for a second he wouldn’t recognize me as easily as I would him.

I turned to face him, but at the last second lowered my eyes. I was a total coward, but it only took two seconds to find my backbone. Sucking in a deep breath, I lifted them to see Maverick f*****g Kingston staring at me over a huge pile of baking potatoes. I blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes and head. It was him.

How in the world could it have been him? After all my searching and all the times I’d tried to find him, here he was in Black Claw, standing in front of me behind some damn potatoes.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, my voice hard.

He chuckled. “Just some shopping. Picking up a few things for Mom.”

My heart clenched at his casual mention of his mother. Losing her and the rest of his family had hurt almost as much as losing him. I sucked in a deep breath and set my jaw. Cuss words filled my mind and threatened to spill out of my mouth. The hurt I’d felt when he abandoned me had never gone away, even through my falling in and out of love with Cade. After birthing two children and eighteen years apart, the pain ripped through me like it had happened two weeks before instead of two decades.

I forced myself to speak. “I mean, what are you doing in Black Claw?”

“My family and I moved back about four years ago,” he said. He moved to the left as if to come around the potatoes, but I didn’t want him to come any closer. I couldn’t take it, so I shifted to the right.

“How have you been?” he asked. His eyebrows were furrowed in concern and his eyes wide and worried.

I glared at him. How could I answer that without opening the biggest can of worms canned worms had ever seen?

There was no way to answer him.

He signed and his shoulders slumped. A few choice sentences sprang to mind, full of words of insult about him, but then I heard my son’s voice.

No. Not yet. I wanted to introduce them in the right way. I’d imagined it for so many years, and this wasn’t in any way how I wanted it to go, out of the blue at a grocery store.

“Mom?” Maddox walked out from an aisle of dry goods, several feet behind Maverick. I froze with my eyes on my son over his father’s shoulder, and I knew that the instant Maverick turned around, it would all be over. They looked so much alike, I felt like I was watching a TV show that had found a doppelganger younger actor to play the scenes of the main character’s past.

Please don’t turn around.

Of course, Maverick didn’t listen to my internal pleas. He turned, coming face to face with my son—Our son.

Maddox didn’t notice at first and continued toward me, close enough that Maverick turned. I could see both of their faces now.

Hailey bounded forward, stopping her cart right beside me. “Mom, I’m up to twenty, but I want these granola bars. Granola bars are healthy, right? So, can that go in your cart?”

I didn’t hear her words. I just took the box of bars from her and dropped them into my cart as I watched my son notice Maverick.

“Mom?”

“Hush, baby. In a second,” I whispered.

Maverick’s face had paled, and he’d put one hand on the potato display.

Maddox’s face mirrored Maverick’s. He paled as well, and I blinked several times. I knew they looked alike—almost identical. Maddox’s sweet face had haunted me for nearly eighteen years. I didn’t love him any less, just buried the pain of him looking so much like the lost love of my life.

I pretty much forgot how to breathe as neither of them said a word. Maverick looked up and down, scrutinizing Maddox. Maddox just stared at Maverick’s face.

“Whoa,” Hailey whispered.

I tore my gaze from Maddox and Maverick to look down at my daughter. She’d figured it out.

I put my arm around her and pulled her close. “Yeah, sweetie. Whoa is right.”