Bad Business

RO

Why was it not a surprise that Jack and Maddie had hit it off?

I hadn’t even been able to ask her what brought her to my doorstep before she’d arrowed in on my issues and set about solving them—the first something I’d experienced in my kitchen not two hours before, the second I knew from past experience.

Because she and her Maddie Magic were a big reason I had Jack here now.

But her magic was more than just navigating attorneys and court orders and running an entire division of my brother’s company.

It was…bonding with my kid, who’d hated me from the first moment he’d laid eyes on me, navigating through the barbed wires and spikes, and earning genuine laughter and smiles. Swear to fuck, I hadn’t even gotten a real smile for the first six months.

And now, I was leaning against the doorframe, pretending to not be watching them as they sat on the swings I’d had installed in my backyard.

Along with the play structure.

And the pool. And the hot tub.

And the landscaping and—

Hell, the house in general.

After Jack’s mother had skipped out on our relationship in the middle of the night, ghosting me and leaving me wondering where in the fuck I’d gone so wrong, I’d been all in on condo life.

On bachelor life.

On working hard but not letting it take over my life.

Because I had done every-fucking-thing to make a perfect life and ensure a happy future for Carrie and I and the family I’d hoped to make with her.

And…that hadn’t been enough to make her stay.

So, I might as well just…cut loose.

Live big and free and—

Maddie laughed again, louder this time.

I sighed.

That had worked out great, hadn’t it?

A kid I hadn’t known about. A dead baby mama. A custody battle that had raged on for years.

And now my life was a son who couldn’t stand me…and work.

Because something had to be done to pay for the legal fight, for the house, for the swing set…for the pool.

Though, strictly speaking, the last had come from the unexpected surprise of my business taking off, my bank account growing to obscene proportions, and my suddenly finding myself as the head of a multibillion-dollar company.

No one was more shocked than me.

Free and loose to—

My phone rang.

To this.

I glanced away from Maddie and Jack on the swings, heart pulsing for a reason I didn’t want to acknowledge, and down at the screen, seeing that my assistant was calling.

Bonnie was amazing.

She wasn’t what Maddie had been for my brother, ruling his life with an iron fist, showing such promise that Ash had felt comfortable promoting her over and over again (until she’d ended up as the COO of his European division), but Bonnie was still more than capable.

Sweet, matronly, the grandmother I’d always wished I’d had.

But her calling on a weekend meant that shit was hitting the fan.

I glanced from my cell, back up to the best buddies on the swings, and then down to my phone again.

I might as well get what was sure to be a painful conversation over with while Jack was occupied and happy.

Swiping across the screen, I lifted my cell up to my ear. “Bonnie.”

“Ro,” she said. “You’re not going to like this.”

I knew that shit was going down just from the timing of the call.

But I very much suspected that she was right—I wasn’t going to like what Bonnie had to say.

Not one fucking bit.

I flicked one more look toward my son, toward Maddie, and walked down the hall, to the kitchen, leaning back against the island and bracing. “Lay it on me.”

She did.

And, fuck, it was worse than I’d expected.

“No,” I said, long minutes later, after Bonnie had looped in several of my VPs and stayed on the call to take notes, “that’s not going to work. Do you want to fuck us on compliance? The shareholders alone will—”

A sound behind me had me whipping around.

Maddie froze in the doorway of the kitchen, hands coming up, palms out. “Sorry,” she mouthed, starting to back out.

“Hang on,” I said into the phone, hitting the button to mute my end of the call, and crossed to her. I captured her wrist before she slipped back out of the room, sparks shooting up my fingertips, heat blooming in my palm. Even though I’d touched her before, it had never felt like this, and the contact, the heat, the way my cock reacted was…surprising. But before I could sit in that feeling, something else had worry clenching in my gut. “Is Jack okay?”

Her lips had parted, gaze unfocused, but my question had her eyes sharpening, returning to mine. “He’s fine. I just came in to get us some water.”

Oh.

“Right.” I nodded, dropped her hand, and stepped back, feeling awkward because…

I didn’t know why.

Even though it had been years since I’d seen her, this woman had been a fixture in my family for years. She’d spent time in my kitchen—not this one but at my bachelor pad—spent time in my brothers’ houses and my mom’s and—

I’d spent time with her.

But had I ever touched her?

Certainly. I had to have. And—right—I ~had. I’d done it just hours before.

I just never felt—

My cock never—

“You should get back to that call,” Maddie said softly, tugging me out of my thoughts. “And if you have to go into the office, Jack and I will be fine.”

“I—”

She went on, “I was heading over to Ash and Mel’s anyway and he can tag along.”

My lungs inflated and I held that air inside then slowly released it. “You don’t have to—”

“I found my soccer ball, Maddie! Want to go play?”

She smiled at me, ordered softly, “Take the call. Jack and I will play. And if you have to go in, I’ll bring him over to Ash and Mel’s, yeah?”

Then, not giving me a chance to reply—probably because she knew there wouldn’t be anything I would be able to say in return—she turned and met Jack in the hall. “I don’t know the right way to kick one. Can you teach me?”

Jack glanced at me.

I’d been the one to show him that.

One of the few things he’d allowed me to give him.

But before I could sit in that feeling, he glanced back at Maddie. “I can teach you!” And then he ran down the hall, bursting out the back door—and slamming it in the process.

I sighed, looked up.

Maddie was watching me closely again.

“It’ll be okay,” she murmured, moving to the pad of paper I kept near the fridge, picking up the pen, and pulling out her phone. She tapped at the screen for a few moments then scribbled something onto the page. Nodding smartly, she tore off the sheet and walked back over to me, pressing it into my free hand. “It’ll be okay.”

I glanced down at the name and number on the page.

A name that was familiar, a connection that might help me through the shitshow on the phone.

More of Maddie’s magic.

My eyes had barely scanned the paper, brain still processing what she’d given me, before she too was gone, her footsteps disappearing down the hall, the opening and closing of the back door barely audible.

Disquiet and relief sat heavy in my stomach, warring like the enemies they were.

But voices echoed loudly through the speaker of my cell, not giving me any time to sit in that, to process what the fuck was going on in my head, my body, my cock.

“Rome, you there?” Bonnie was asking.

Christ.

Work was calling.

Something I’d never thought would be my life.

But—my gaze went to the doorway through which Maddie had disappeared—a lot of things about my life were how I’d never expected them to be.

Sighing, I jabbed at the mute button, put it back up to my ear, and said, “Yeah, I’m here.”