Page 34 of False Start

“Oh, my God, Kyle,” she said, covering her face with her hands. “Stop. You’re so stupid.”

“I’m serious. Used to be my goal, to get that laugh out of you at least once a day.” I paused, waiting until she uncovered her face. “Think I might need to bring that goal back front and center, actually. Think I might like to hear you laugh more now.”

Her eyes sparkled a bit when they met mine, a thousand questions dancing in her curious gaze.

But when her attention snapped somewhere behind me, she froze.

All the playfulness left her in an instant.

“Shit,” she whispered.

I turned to look over my shoulder, wondering what the problem was since Sebastian was playing in the opposite direction where we could see him and he was fine.

But when I cranked my neck, I saw a red-faced man storming toward us.

And there was no mistaking who it was.

He was older than Madelyn, that was easy to see from the get go. His medium-length brown hair had that whole salt and pepper thing going on at the edges, his eyes crinkled with crow’s feet, his freshly shaved jawline a bit soft. One look at his gait told me he held himself in high esteem. He walked the way only an overly confident man could.

I could admit he wasn’t ugly. But he was… average. About what I would expect to see if I pictured an almost forty-year-old veterinarian.

“I take it that’s your darling ex-husband?” I asked, cocking a brow at Madelyn when I looked back at her.

The joke died a bit when I saw the worry in her eyes. She masked it, feigning indifference, but I could see it.

She was scared of him.

Fuck, if that didn’t piss me off more than anything in my entire life had.

“Hey,” I said, calling her attention. For a long second, her gaze was stuck on where he was charging toward us. I didn’t dare touch her with him watching our every move, but I called her name. “Mads.”

Her eyes snapped to mine.

Slowly, I took a deep breath, nodding my head toward her to do the same. “I’m right here,” I told her. “I’ve got you. Okay?”

Madelyn just swallowed.

“You are safe,” I said, softer this time. I covered just the edge of her hand on the blanket with my own, angling my body so the touch was hidden from Marshall’s view.

It was like touching an electric fence.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” I said.

Finally, she pulled a fresh breath through her nose, nodding, her eyes slipping to where my hand covered hers before she slowly found my gaze again.

And in that moment, in that particular light, she looked like that girl I fell in love with years ago — her brown eyes golden in the bit of sun sneaking through the trees, the freckles on her cheeks dark enough to draw a map between them.

I smiled.

She smiled.

Then, I climbed to my feet, cracking my neck before I turned to face Marshall. He was just a few yards away now.

His stride slowed a bit when he realized how tall I was, and that made my fake grin even easier to slap into place.

Alright, motherfucker.

Let’s play.