Page 32 of Broken Bodyguard

“You have a good day, monkey?” I’d started calling her monkey ever since the Twisty Monkey game. She nodded eagerly, dawdling on the center console.

“Grace, we need to get you in your car seat sweetie,” Maddie urged gently, looking behind us. “The others are waiting for their turn and they can get pretty feisty.”

“Do what your mama says,” I told Grace, jerking my head to the backseat. “We’re gonna go back to the cabin and we can catch up there.”

“Okay.” Grace clambered into the backseat, and Maddie snapped her into the car seat from the rear door. As she was finishing up, Grace added, “I missed you, Toy.”

There was that damn bubbly sensation again. Fuck if it didn’t make my chest a little tight—because I’d also missed her.

“I missed you too, monkey.” I looked at her in the rearview mirror as Maddie slid into the front seat, tugging her door shut. To her, I said, “I missed you too.”

Maddie sent me a shy grin as she buckled up. “Well I’m glad you admitted that first, so I don’t sound like the clingy one.”

A laugh rocketed out of me. I eased out of the pick-up line as I shook my head. “I’ll take the fall. It’s fine. As long as I know I’m not the only one thinking it.”

“You aren’t.” And she sent me a smile that was so pretty I wanted to take a picture of it. To remember not just her, but this moment, and the whole visit to Kentucky. “And speaking of taking a fall…did you get that knee checked out?”

“No. I was too busy with other stuff. And I didn’t fall,” I corrected. “I got hit with a bat.”

“You took the fall forme,” she pointed out.

I held out my hand, inviting her to give me hers as I drove. “You’re right. And I’d do it again.” She slipped hers into my big palm and I pulled it into my lap. And that’s when I knew the answer to my question:

Just like that.

That was how fast things had gone from ‘Mercedes’ family’ to ‘my girls’.

Something about Maddie clicked into place, just like that, and I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

One full week beneath Len’s buckhorn chandelier was all it took to turn me into a family man. Each day of the school routine cemented me a little further into this new role. Was I a stay at home bodyguard now? An alpha homemaker who made dinner for his girls every night? I didn’t know what the appropriate term was for this new phase of my life, but I knew one thing: I didn’t exactly want it to end.

But the deadline was fast approaching. After a whirlwind week of school drop offs and pickups, followed by lots of play time, family dinner, and then the hottest lovemaking this side of the Appalachian mountains, I couldn’t even remember who I’d been when I showed up in Louisville. By Friday evening, as I unveiled that night’s dinner of ribeye, garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli, all I could think about was that this was our last full day together before I needed to drop the girls off and head north.

And I was fucking sad about it, but determined not to let it upend our last moments together.

“Where’s my girlies at? Time to eat.” My voice boomed through the cabin, and then the giggles came. Gracie-bell loved it when I called her to dinner each night, always in a new way. She scampered into the kitchen, abandoning the work she and her mom were doing in the great room tending the fireplace.

"Oh my God, Troy," Maddie murmured as her gaze fell on the carefully arranged plates, each one with a showstopping ribeye. “You’re incredible.”

“Had to go all out for our last meal at the cabin.”

My words fell like dead weight between us. The stool creaked as she eased onto it, and we shared a look.

“Toy take me to school tomorrow?” Grace asked, looking between us as she settled into her seat.

“Honey, we don’t have school tomorrow.” Maddie pressed a kiss to the top of her daughter’s head then put herself at eye-level with Grace. “But tomorrow we are going back to Nana and Buppa’s house.”

“To live there?” Grace wobbily maneuvered a spoon of potatoes into her mouth.

“Yes, honey, to live there.”

“With Toy?”

“No, honey. Not with Troy.” Maddie stroked her daughter’s hair while an enormous pout erupted on Grace’s face.

“But why not?” Grace whined.

Maddie sent me a panicked look. She tucked Grace against her and mouthed to me, “I knew this would happen.”

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