He tugged the seatbelt across his chest and fastened himself in. Maddie had been like a kid in a candy store on the car lot. For every practical, cheaper, older model she’d selected, he’d upped the options until he knew for certain he was spoiling her. She’d declined every option, saying she didn’t need all-wheel drive, nine speed automatic transmission, or a 3.5-liter V6 engine. But he got them for her all the same. The only thing this woman asked for was the ability to charge her cell phone. She had all that and more now, including a new wireless charger for the cell he had yet to buy her.
Two hundred-eighty horses sprang to life the instant she pressed the ignition button.
“Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly. “We’ve got another week off. The sky’s the limit.”
“You’re driving. You tell me.”
“Okay then,” she breathed. “Look out world, here we come!”
Jameson adored the excitement in her tone. Since the morning had gone well so far, he broached a subject that had been on his mind since the first time they’d made love. “Do you see us having kids?”
“Sure. Someday.”
Cocking his knee, Jameson turned sideways, facing her. “How many? One? A dozen?”
Judging by the direction change in her voice, she’d glanced at him, then turned away. “To be honest, I’ve never thought about it. It never felt like something I could do with, you know. Him.”
He reached for and found the soft silky curls resting on her shoulder. “And now?”
Her hair brushed over his fingers as she turned her attention to him, then just as quickly back to the traffic on the street. “How many would you like?”
“Two’s the national norm, but I was an only child, and so were you, and—”
“You want a big family.”
His head canted at the hint of excitement in that statement. “Yes. If that’s what you want. It was lonely growing up. Always an adult, never just a kid. Not sure I want to do that to our child.”
“So, we’re house hunting for a mansion?”
That made him smile. “Only if you’ll help me fill it up, babe.”
Once again, he could hear her smiling. The energy between them when Maddie was happy felt warm, like a summer breeze off the Atlantic. A man could get lost inside that breeze.
“I’m not good at numbers,” she, the only one in the SUV with the accounting degree, lied blithely, while the vehicle shifted into a slow curve. “How about we practice until we get it right?”
Damned if Jameson’s eyes didn’t burn with unexpected emotion. Sweet Baby Jesus, this woman was everything he’d wanted. “I can live with that,” he murmured, his voice husky and his heart in his throat.
Her fingers reached under his chin. “Two people who love each other can do anything,” she whispered. “A very smart man I know taught me that.”
Taking hold of that sweet hand, he kissed her palm. “Can’t remember what I ever did before you came along.”
Her arm lifted with a shrug. “You make me happy. Let’s make lots of babies. Lots of little boys who look just like you.”
“And dozens of fairy princesses who look like their mom.”
Maddie drew her hand back and feigned choking. “Dozens?”
“We’ll see,” he promised with a grin. “You’re the CPA in our family. I’ll let you keep track.”
They were both laughing, as the SUV maintained a straight away for the next few miles.
Since that first topic went so well, Jameson broached another. “Have you ever wanted to talk with your mother?”
Instant silence. Precisely what he’d expected. He gave Maddie time to absorb that possibility. He’d never force her, but this was one very large stone left unturned in her life. And he had a good feeling in his gut, so...
“No,” she admitted, the joy in her tone throttled down to a flat nothing. “Why would I? She left me.”
Jameson stretched his long legs, loving the comfort this vehicle offered. “Thought maybe you’d like to hear from her why she left, not just what your dad told you.”
They rode in silence for a few long minutes before Maddie admitted, “He did lie a lot. Always made me feel worthless when I was a kid, too. I invited him to my college graduation. Thought that would impress him. Make him finally see that I was good for something after all.”
“He didn’t show,” Jameson said quietly.
“Of course not. I should’ve known better than to ask. Kids aren’t very smart, you know. Their whole life, they think they’re the problem, that they’re what’s wrong. That they’re the reason they get slapped or chewed out. They try everything they know how to make their dads and moms love them.”
Envisioning the younger, more gullible version of Maddie, Jameson settled his fingers over her forearm. “Kids are smart, babe. Their only mistake is they unconditionally love the people who should love them first. That’s why abused children cover up for their cruel, intentionally thoughtless parents.”
And Rick Bannister was a flaming narcissist. In between getting to know Maddie better and moving her into his apartment, Jameson had investigated the guy, which was why he was certain Bannister only kept Maddie to hurt her mother. Yet, because he was Maddie’s father, Jameson gave the bastard the benefit of the doubt. “Things aren’t always black and white. Deep down, we’re all just kids doing the best we can with what we’ve got to work with.”
She huffed through her nostrils. “You should’ve gone into child psychology.”
“I did. That’s my minor. Figured it’d go well with criminal profiling.”
A few more moments of silence invaded that great new car smell. “I don’t know where she lives,” Maddie murmured. “I, umm, guess I just believed my dad. What he said.”
“How could you have known any different? She left when you were a baby.” He canted his head her way, listening for a telltale sigh or a hard swallow. Maddie was still so much that little deserted girl, searching for her place in the world. Which, until
