Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MADDOX

After the long night Hiro had, I don’t think he even had the energy to fret over the idea of getting back onto a plane. He got in with little hesitation, said that Reggie was sitting on his lap, and then passed out on my shoulder.

He didn’t wake again until the food started coming around. And then he pulled out a book while seeming alert, complained that he couldn’t read the book through Reggie’s ass, and promptly fell asleep again. I ended up putting the book away before he could accidentally knock it on the ground and cry that the pages got bent.

Since I didn’t want to disturb him by digging our bags out, I was left cradling his book for a good bit of the flight.

By the time we touch down, I’ve been unable to sleep a second of the trip, but Hiro’s eagerly staring out the window.

“I’m so excited that we’re finally getting off!”

“Finally? You slept through the whole thing! It couldn’t have felt like more than an hour for you!”

Hiro pretends to ignore me. “I can’t wait to get home and sleep.”

“Didn’t you just sleep for like twelve hours?”

“Definitely not. Maybe you were the one sleeping because I sure wasn’t.”

“Uh… huh,” I say, quite skeptical about all of that.

He stifles a yawn as I give him a look that makes him laugh. “Stop being jealous! I normally can’t sleep on a plane, but you like… ran me around and made me do so much life-threatening stuff.”

“ I did?” I question. “You sure about that?”

“Sooooo much stuff. You were like ‘Hiro, chase this bad guy while I pop in here for tea.’”

“Was I?”

“And I had to brawl him and everything while you just kicked back and cracked open a beer.”

“Did you?” I ask. “I’ll run this past Patricia and see what she thinks.”

That stops Hiro in his tracks. “Don’t you dare. She will never even let me leave the house if we mention what happened in Japan. You know that shed where you brawled that raccoon for her? She’ll keep me locked up in there. We’ll just keep quiet and go about our day. She’s already convinced that I’m involved in too much.”

“So what you’re saying is that I now have a threat to hang over you whenever I need it? I quite like the sound of this,” I tease.

“You are now my fiancé. Threats are not going to happen. You hear me?”

“I hear you threatening me. But I suppose I’ll think about it.”

“You better do more than think!” he warns.

“You know, you’re really cute when you threaten me. I’ve had a lot of people threaten me in my life, but you’re definitely the cutest.”

Hiro glowers at me. “You’re definitely carrying all of the suitcases now.”

“Fine, fine,” I say as I follow him through the checkpoints until we’re finally free to grab our luggage and head outside. Patricia has been here since the moment we touched down but the second she sees Hiro, she pops out of the SUV and rushes over to hug him.

“You made it back and you have all of your limbs, but do you have all of your fingers and toes?” she asks as she grabs him.

“What do you think I was getting involved in over there?” Hiro asks as she squeezes him tight while examining his fingers, like he might actually be missing any. He was wise to put on a long-sleeved shirt before showing up so she doesn’t see the bruises and scratches that are beginning to fade.

“You… are you, Hiro. Don’t act like it’s weird for me to be suspicious of you getting involved in anything,” she says.

“You’re so wrongfully suspicious.”

“Rightfully!”

I dutifully load up the suitcases that weigh significantly more than when we’d left as she squeezes him some more, then she surprises me by grabbing me before I can get into the vehicle and giving me a hug. I always feel a bit awkward when she hugs me. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that my own mother rarely did it unless she wanted something out of me. Anytime she laid on the motherly act, I knew she’d be wanting something from me to the point that I began to hate her hugs. But Patricia’s clearly not wanting anything. She’s treating me like family, and I have to admit that once I realized she wasn’t wanting something out of me, I started to like the feel of it.

“Did you keep him in line?” she asks.

“Barely. You know how he is.”

“All too much. Did you…” Her attention snaps over to Hiro. She lets go of me and rushes back over to him before he can get in the car.

“Maddox, I think I’m getting mugged,” he cries.

“I want to see your ring. Maddox really didn’t take my words to heart, did he?” she teases.

“What? The words where you said he could do better?” Hiro asks in shock. “But, Momma.”

“Don’t try to guilt me. Congratulations, you two. I better get to be the flower girl,” she jokes. “I think I could pull it off.”

Hiro laughs. “Definitely. I’ll tell you all about our haunted house idea in the car.”

“Haunted house? I thought it was a wedding.”

“It is,” Hiro says as he gets in. It’s a good thing he napped as long as he did because he at least has enough energy to answer all of her questions—and there are a lot of them.

Nicolás meets us at our house with the cats who are both ecstatic to have us back. And while I had a great time, I can’t deny that I’m also thrilled to be home. Once everything is settled, we crawl into our bed that I don’t plan to leave for a good while. Hiro is immediately out as Bandit crawls on his face and Stella kneads the blanket between us. I give them both a pet before drifting right off.

The ringing of the doorbell wakes me up.

“I’ll get it,” Hiro says as I realize he’d already been up and reading. “You definitely need more beauty sleep.”

“Hmm…” I mumble before pulling my pillow closer. As he wanders off to the door, Bandit decides to sit on my face. “Bandit, why?”

He’s just so thrilled I’m home that he decides to show it by pressing his face as close as he can to mine while purring up a storm. Then he begins kneading my bare flesh, which could definitely pass as a torture technique.

“Stop,” I grumble as I slip out from under him. This would have disgusted Stella, but Bandit is persistent and just tries climbing back onto me as I push the covers down and sit up. He stretches onto my back, which feels partly good and partly dangerous as the nails slide down my skin. With my flesh intact, I pull on some sweats and a t-shirt. I start toward the bathroom when I hear Hiro talking to someone.

“I’m sorry, what’s your name?” he asks.

“Is this Maddox’s house or not? Where is Maddox?” she demands, her voice cutting right through me.

I hurry out of the bedroom to where Hiro is blocking the woman who seems to be standing far too close for someone who has clearly not been invited inside the house. The second she sees me, she’s all smiles.

“Oh, my baby!”

My entire mood tanks the instant I see her. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask as she tries to come in for a hug, but the way I’m standing in the doorframe doesn’t give her the room to get her arms around me.

She gives me a look of shock, like she couldn’t possibly figure out why I’m pissed about her being here. “Maddox? Where is this coming from?”

“Why are you here?” My voice is sharp as I ask it.

“I’m your mother. Can I not visit my son?”

“You are not my mother. You are a manipulative monster who I have rid from my life. You are well aware that you are not allowed in my life. So leave or I will make you leave.”

She has the nerve to look shocked.

“Maddox, why are you acting like this? You act like I was some monster when it was all your father.”

“Out.”

“Maddox!”

“You cannot even make me begin to believe you’re here for any reason other than to use me in some way. If I hear you’re harassing Ben as well, I will get a restraining order.”

“Based on what? You’re so fucking dramatic all the time. I literally came here just to see you. I haven’t seen you in years. I guess you’re more like your father than I ever imagined you’d be.”

“Maybe that means you’ll stay away from me,” I say.

She stares at me for a moment before giving me a smirk and turning to leave. A shitty car that’s falling apart is sitting in the driveway with a man behind the wheel. And I watch as the woman I hate to claim as my mother turns from smirking to looking like she’s crying. She shrinks in on herself, wrapping her arms around her body as if I did something horrible to her.

The guy immediately gets out of the car. “What the fuck happened?”

“He’s just like his father. He’s exactly like his father,” she sobs.

“What the fuck did you do?” the guy demands as he starts toward the door like he’s prepared to beat the shit out of me.

“What I’m going to do is fucking arrest you if you step up on my porch. I work for the Clinton Police Department. You do not want to fuck with me.”

The man looks caught between trying to look cool for my piece-of-shit mother and realizing that he really doesn’t want to go to jail. It’s not like I would actually arrest him unless he did something that warranted it, but he doesn’t need to know that. Instead, he flips me off and calls me “motherfucking asshole” before he gets back in the car, and finally, they leave.

Rage is eating through me. I just hate that she makes me feel this way. She makes me lose any sense of control over my emotions.

Hiro slides an arm around me and gives me a gentle tug. “Come on, Maddox, come inside.”

“But I want to glower at the spot where the car sat.”

“I know, but it doesn’t sound like she’s worth you wasting the time to do that,” he says. Honestly, he knows very little about my parents because I’ve shared very little. I know he’s open with me and always willing to talk or share anything. But when it comes to my parents, he basically knows that they’re pieces of shit and that’s it. Maybe it’s wrong of me to never tell him more. He fully has a right to know, but I just… can’t.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him.

Hiro looks over at me before squeezing my hand. “What in the world do you have to apologize for?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like you shouldn’t have had to deal with that. Like why the hell did she have to find me? My mom is not a one and done kind of person. She will be back. She’ll try to manipulate you.”

“Is it money she wants?”

“Probably. She’ll try to guilt you into it. Fuck you over. Make you feel like trash but be there to ‘take care of you’ so you think you can rely on her. She’s a bitch. If you see her anywhere, do not even interact with her. Just leave and I’ll deal with it.”

“Okay. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” I say stubbornly.

“You know you can, though, right?”

“Nothing to talk about. I don’t want to waste a second even thinking about them.”

Hiro seems unsure but nods. “Okay… I’m not sure that’s… you know, the right way to deal with this, but if that’s what you want, we can pretend to ignore it. I do think it might be good for you to talk about it at some point, though. So maybe someday?”

“I’ll consider it,” I say as I pull out my phone to text Ben.

Me: Mom stopped by my house. I don’t know if she knows where you live, but clearly, she’s up to something.

Ben: What the fuck is she doing trying to get into our lives again? Did you make her leave?

Me: I did.

Ben: Fuck. If you need me, let me know. I’ll tell you if I see her anywhere.

I slide my phone into my pocket and decide that’s enough of that bullshit.

“I love you and hope you always know I’m here for you to talk to,” Hiro says.

“Of course I know that. And I love you too. It’s definitely not you. It’s that expending any energy on her is an absolute waste.”

He seems uncertain, but when I pull him in and give him a squeeze and a kiss, he smiles. “Okay.”

“How about we get some breakfast and find a movie to watch?” I suggest.

“That sounds perfect,” Hiro says. “Much better than unpacking suitcases.”