Page 35 of Every Sunset

“I just don’t, okay? Please. You said you wanted me to ask you both for help when I needed it. I’m asking you now,”

“Are you and Max wanted for something?” Maddox asked as he studied me.

“No! Of course not!”

“Then why are you scared of the police?”

“I’m not scared. I just don’t want them to make it official in any paperwork where we are. It’s better if Max and I just st-stay hidden,” I explained.

“You told us you were safe. You said no one would come after you. Is that what this is? Did someone from your past cause this accident?” Logan demanded as he too studied me.

“No! Jesus! No one is coming after us. There’s no one from our past who could.

This was just an accident, but I don’t want Max or I to have out location reported anywhere it shouldn’t be, okay?

Just in case. It’s just better if we stay under the radar.

” I tried to explain, desperate for them to just give in.

I couldn’t tell them anymore than that, but as tired and shaken as I was, I knew I’d spill of they pushed too much harder.

“Is he a cop? The asshole who hurt you? Is that it?” Maddox asked.

“You promised,” I reminded Logan as I looked to him. “You promised the past could be the past. You said you wouldn’t push me.” Tears filled my eyes and I tried furiously to blink them back.

“I did. You’re right,” he nodded. “Let’s just get you home, okay? I can call a guy to tow your car in the morning too. No police, no hospital,” he agreed, much to my relief.

“Logan…” Maddox began, but Logan looked to him and just shook his head.

“I promised her, brother. She says no one is coming after her. Everyone’s safe.” Logan reassured him.

“I wouldn’t have stayed if I thought I could be bringing danger to your doorstep, Madd. Please believe that. No one will ever come after me or Max. I promise.”

“I just want to keep you both safe,” Maddox told me as he looked to me with pain filled eyes.

“I know that, but we’re safe. This was just the handiwork of some prick who thought he could drive his fancy car after getting wasted,” I assured him.

“Why don’t you help Anna into our car while I grab the stuff from hers, okay?

” Logan suggested, looking to Maddox. I was relieved when Maddox nodded, then came closer to me.

I reached out a hand for his help to stand, but he bypassed that and gathered me up from the ground, standing with me bridal style in his arms. I squeaked in surprise and reached for his shoulders to steady myself, not that I had any concerns he would let me fall. He’d never do that and I knew it.

I looked up into his eyes when he just stood still, and found him watching me with so much stress and worry in his face, his brow wrinkled and his eyes alight with concern.

“I’m all good, Madd,” I told him as I slowly moved my hand to his cheek – giving him chance to pull away if he wanted to – but he didn’t. Instead he pushed against my hold on his stubbled cheek and seemed to finally take a deeper breath.

“You’re not. You got hurt and I can’t stand to see you bleeding,” he told me softly. “It can’t happen again.”

“It probably will though. I’m a klutz,” I tried to joke, but Maddox looked anything but amused.

No more driving alone at night. From now on Logan or I will drive you to work and back. No more risks. I don’t want to lose you when I just found you, Anna. I can’t,” he told me so earnestly it made my heart pound even harder in my chest.

“You won’t,” I promised him as I lifted my other hand, framing both sides of his face now. I pulled him closely and laid a soft, poignant kiss on his lips, loving the way his stubble brushed against my skin as I did so.

When I tried to pull away he followed me with his lips and crashed them down over mine, kissing me more passionately, but he was gone again before I could even get into the kiss.

“This everything in your car, sweetheart?” Logan asked, startling me. I turned to look at him and nodded when I saw the groceries I picked up earlier under his arm, and Max’s spare gym bag in the other hand.

“Yeah. I…I think so,” I agreed shyly. Had he seen me kissing Maddox? Was he angry after I’d been with him just the night before? But they were the ones to suggest the ménage relationship with both of them. Surely that meant they were good with seeing me show affection to the other, right?

“Let’s go home. You’re too cold,” Maddox told me as he pulled me closer, then moved to the back seat of their car. I might have still been shivering on the outside, but inside I was burning hot for the both of them.

Logan had only just started the car when his phone started to ring over the loudspeaker.

“It’s Max,” Logan said just as the call picked up.

“Logan?”

“Hey kid. Everything good?”

“No…maybe. I….I don’t know. My mom. She was working at the diner and she said she’d be home a half hour ago, but she’s not here. I don’t know…”

“I’m here, Max. Breathe, honey. I’m okay,” I spoke up, hating the clear panic in every word he spoke.

“Thank fuck! I was worried. I thought you were coming straight home?” Max questioned, making me smile at how parental he sounded.

“Your mom got into a bit of a fender bender on the way home,” Logan said, and I turned a glare on him. Max didn’t need to know that. The last thing I wanted to do was scare my son any further than I already had.

“What? Mom?”

“I’m fine Max. Just a few cuts and bruises. I’m on my way home now,” I tried to reassure him.

“Don’t you need to go to the E.R. or something? You could have more serious injuries? Internal bleeding o-or a brain bleed? Did you hit your head?” he panicked all at once.

“Max…” I started, but was cut off by Maddox.

“She’s okay, Max. Just take a breath and calm down. Why don’t you head over to our place? I’m gonna take care of the cuts your mom has and check her for signs of a concussion, but I’m confident she’ll be just fine.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll meet you out front. What about the car?” he asked.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to fix it back up, kid. Let’s put it that way,” Maddox replied as he glanced to me with a strained look. “Your mom was lucky to walk away from the crash.”

“Jesus mom!” Max hissed.

“I’m fine. I was lucky, so you can quit your worrying. Just head to bed. I’ll be home soon. You don’t need to come to the guys place,” I told him as steadily as I could. My adrenaline surge was still causing me to shake, and I was freezing cold too, which wasn’t helping.

“I’ll meet you guys out front,” he said after a deep sigh that we heard down the phone line.

“Be there in a couple,” Logan told him, then he hung up.

“Why did you tell him? Now he’s just gonna be worrying about me again. I don’t want him to do that,” I growled looking between the two of them.

“He’s your son, Anna, and he’s almost grown. He’s gonna worry about you now, and I think you have to just get used to that,” Logan sighed.

“It isn’t like he wouldn’t have worked out something happened anyway. The cut on your head is deep, and he’d definitely be asking questions when your car was missing,” Maddox asked.

“He’s fifteen!” I snapped. “He’s a kid! He should get to be a kid. Its not his responsibility to look out for me. I can take care of myself and my son.”

“You’re gonna have to accept the fact he’s almost an adult one day soon, Anna.

I know you want to shelter him but you can’t.

It’s too late. Your kid is smart, and whatever he’s been through, it’s made him open his eyes to the reality of how shitty life can be.

That’s not your fault, but it’s happened and you can’t change that.

Maybe instead of trying to pretend he’s still a child, you need to embrace what a good man he’s growing into,” Maddox told me, somewhat brutally.

I knew it was all true, but it still hurt.

I didn’t speak again for the last few minutes of the drive. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t argue with the truth. My mistakes were what had forced my son to realize the shitty realities of this world, and Maddox was right that there was nothing I could do to go back and change that.

My son had been forced to grow up in a matter of moments that night at our apartment, and ever since I had been attempting to take that back.

To make my child a child once more. But that was never going to happen, and having that pointed out so clearly made me pull my head from the sand I had been trying to bury it in for weeks, once and for all.

It was time to stop trying to push my son to go backwards and be a kid again.

It wasn’t going to happen. All I could do now was embrace the amazing man my mess had proven him to be, and pray he found his way.

Nothing would stop me from being at his side, but he wasn’t going to let me stand before him as I had for so many years until that night.

Even knowing it was the truth didn’t cause me to feel any less terrified for my boy.