Page 33

THIRTY-TWO

After we came back down to Earth, Hadley and I dressed and carried her salvageable things up to the main house.

She stayed behind as I grabbed Emilia, sorting through her remaining belongings.

When we got back to the house, stacks of Hadley’s belongings covered the living room.

Musty, damp boxes sat stacked against the far wall, some she had labeled for the trash and others for storage.

Next to them was the laundry hamper stuffed full with clothes waiting to be cleaned and stripped of the residual dust and debris from the ceiling cave in.

When we returned home, I tried to help her, but Hadley was insistent she wanted to handle all this change on her own.

Seeing her stuff destroyed was hard for me—I couldn’t imagine how she was holding up.

Besides those few minutes in the carriage house, Hadley closed off all her emotions, back to hiding behind her practiced smile and insisting she was fine.

It was on the tip of my tongue to offer to help replace what she’d lost, but Hadley was proud, and any offer of money right now would appear pitying.

Still, I wanted to take care of her, wanted to erase that lost expression on her face.

I wanted to keep her safe in my arms for as long as she’d let me.

Unable to watch and not help, I headed into the kitchen, grabbing some groceries out of the refrigerator to make dinner. Through the chopping and dicing, I kept an ear out on the other room, wanting to stay close enough if Hadley needed me but far enough to give her space.

Emilia had no such concerns and made herself right at home in all the chaos.

She prattled on about helping her aunt and uncle at their lodge while Hadley kept going through her things.

Yet, despite her divided focus, Hadley followed along with all Emilia’s stories.

When Hadley reached one box, piled high with photos and other mementos, Emilia dropped into her lap.

Her little hands grabbed a photo album and scanned through the pages.

“Who’s this?” Emilia asked.

I tried to stay in the kitchen and give them some space, but my need to learn more about Hadley got the best of me. I knew Hadley as a person—her personality and her core values. Her past, however, was a mystery I hadn’t dared to ask about before.

“Fuck it,” I muttered, turning the burner down to simmer.

When I walked into the living room, Hadley sat on the floor with Emilia in her lap, staring at the pictures with a soft smile.

In between them laid the photo album, opened to a photo of a woman standing in front of a dilapidated home.

The siding sagged, and mismatched shingles lined the roof—a poor attempt to patch some of the weaker spots, if I had to guess.

“That’s my mom,” Hadley answered.

“Really?” Emilia stared at the picture. “You look like her!”

“Thanks.” Hadley pressed a kiss to the top of my daughter’s head.

Emotion clawed at my chest as I watched them, loving how comfortable my daughter felt around Hadley.

When I’d dated women in the past, that was always the first question I asked myself.

How would they do around Emilia? All too often, I couldn’t see it, unable to imagine my date meeting her, much less spending real time with her.

After way too many first dates that led nowhere, I stopped trying, convinced I wasn’t supposed to have a partner.

Baseball and Emilia were all I needed.

But Hadley changed all that. With her, I saw it all.

Quiet mornings, future sports events we’d have to drag ourselves out of bed to attend.

Holidays with all of us together, celebrating with our own mismatched family.

We worked, despite all our imperfections.

She supported my career while also showing me there was more to life than the game, balancing me when I got in my head too much.

When Emilia spotted me approaching, she held up the album. “Daddy! This is Hadley’s mommy.”

“I heard, bug,” I said as I took a seat at their side. “What else do you have in there, Hadley?”

Her eyes softened as she looked over at me, almost relieved to tell more of her story.

This woman didn’t get it, did she? I was already falling for her, and I wanted to know everything about her, discover every part of her past she was willing to share.

As Hadley turned the pages of the book, she explained every single one, opening us up to her world before we’d met in college.

She’d recorded her life inside of the album—her memories, both good and bad, wrapped up in a bow.

When she got to the end of the book, Emilia frowned. “Why don’t you have any pictures of your dad?”

“Oh, umm…” Hadley’s face drained of color as she trailed off. “My dad wasn’t around a lot when I was a kid. It was just my mom and me.”

“That’s sad.” Emilia pouted. “Don’t you miss him?”

“Nope. You can’t miss someone you’ve never really met. Besides,” she held Emilia a little tighter, “I have the best family in the world. I have you, your mom, Adam.” Her eyes met mine. “And your dad.”

Emilia stared at the picture for a little longer, then shrugged her little shoulders, satisfied with that answer. She turned toward me. “Can we have ice cream for dessert?”

“You got it, Em.” I lifted her from Hadley’s lap and pulled her into my arms. She squirmed, trying to get down as I planted kisses on her chubby cheek.

I placed her back on the ground and nodded toward the playroom.

“Why don’t you grab your paint stuff? Hadley needs a few new decorations for her room. ”

With that, my daughter hurried off. Maybe I’d regret the request later, when she’d covered the kitchen with globs of paint, but Emilia’s creations always made Hadley smile. And right now—with the way she still ran her fingers along the pages of the album—it seemed like she needed it.

“Hey,” I said as I sat down next to her. My fingers wrapped around hers and guided them away from the photo album. “You okay, Hadley?”

She nodded, but a sheen coated her eyes. “It’s hard to look at some of these. They might paint a pretty picture, but my childhood…” She let her voice trail off. “It wasn’t the best.”

I squeezed her hand. “You don’t have to talk about it, not if you don’t want to. But if you do, I’m always here to listen.”

She gave me an apprehensive smile. “It might change the way you see me.”

My hand grasped her chin, forcing her eyes to meet mine.

“I don’t think you understand what I meant when I said you’re mine, Hadley McKay.

It means I want all of you, even the things you hide in the dark.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to change how I feel about you.

No matter what happened when you were a kid, it made you the woman in front of me, and I think she’s fucking incredible. ”

Hadley searched my expression, almost as if she wasn’t sure she believed me.

But whatever she saw written on my face must have been enough to convince her, because she leaned forward, lightly kissing me.

It differed from any other kiss we’d shared.

Don’t get me wrong—those were amazing, full of fire and longing and everything we refused to say aloud just yet.

But this?

This kiss was quiet, comfortable. It tugged at that knot in my chest, binding me to Hadley just a little more.

“My mom wasn’t the best parent. She tried—at least she did at first. But after years of thinking the world owed her, she got mean and started to drink.

At first, it was a couple of extra sips at dinner, a bottle of wine when she was watching TV.

” She exhaled a shaky breath as she stared down at the picture.

“It didn’t take long for those to spiral into benders.

Then one day, she just…disappeared. No call, no note.

I thought she was dead. But I kept waiting, hoping there was another explanation.

” Hadley laughed bitterly. “And when she finally stumbled into our apartment, she didn’t even acknowledge what happened.

Ne ver apologized. She just patted me on the head and told me to keep quiet so she could get some sleep. ”

My jaw tensed. “How old were you?”

“Eight.”

A curse flew out of my mouth. That was only two years older than Emilia. I wanted to scream, wanted to rage, to track down her mother and unleash all kinds of hell on the woman. But I kept my mouth closed, letting Hadley continue.

“Eventually, I stopped keeping track, just trying to get through each day on my own. My upstairs neighbors helped. I’d spend a lot of nights at their place, and they always made sure I had enough to eat.

” Hadley brushed the page with her fingertips.

“But then someone called CPS. After they found me alone and hungry because my mom had been missing for almost a week, they had no choice but to put me in emergency foster care.”

“Shit, Hadley.“ I took her hand again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she said. “I got lucky. My foster parents were amazing, and not everyone gets that. They took good care of me, but it was hard to understand what was happening. I was so angry—at my mom, at the people who’d called, even at my foster parents.

They took me to a therapist to talk about why I’d been removed, and after a good number of sessions, it helped.

I let go of some of that rage, so thankful I had people who cared enough to stick with me during the hard times.

” She scoffed. “Until my mom got out of court-mandated rehab. Almost a year of stability, and the judge ripped it all away and dropped me back into her house.”

Hadley turned to me and softly smiled. “I wish I could say I hate her, but it’s so much more complicated than that.

No matter what she’s done, she’s the only parent I have.

No matter how tempting it might be, I can’t cut her out of my life.

I don’t like to let most people in about my past. It warps their perception of me, like somehow, my mother’s shitty behavior is a mark on my record. ”

“Hadley,” I said as I shifted closer to her. “Nothing’s changed for me. If anything, I’m even more amazed by you.”

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to say that, Cam.”

“I mean it, Hadley. You’ve overcome so much, and you didn’t let it harden you. Instead, you use it to bring love to everyone you care about. People are better when they have you in their lives.” I brushed her hair away from her face. “I am.”

Hadley let out a damp chuckle. “Damn it, sarge. You’re making a girl swoon.”

“About damn time, woman,” I laughed as I pulled her into a hug.

As she nestled into my lap, a packet hanging out of one box caught my eye.

It was bound in a spiral coil, a sleek blue cover surrounding the document.

Without jostling Hadley in my lap too much, I reached out and plucked it from the box. “The Sunshine Academy?”

Hadley instantly stiffened in my arms, staring at the document in my hands. She tried to swipe it from me, but my arms were longer. I shifted, holding it just out of her reach while she stretched to grab it.

“Is this a business plan?” I asked, scrolling through the pages in awe.

I might have almost failed my only business class in school, but from what I could tell, the plan seemed on point.

It was thick and very thorough. There were neighborhood reports, pricing models, even a five-year expansion plan.

Graphs and projected numbers lined all the pages.

Someone had clearly put a lot of time and effort into making this plan a reality.

With one last huff, Hadley grabbed the portfolio and chucked it back into the box.

“It’s nothing.” Her tone was dismissive, but there was something else lurking within it.

Disappointment? Resignation? I didn’t know, but I hated the sound of it.

She snuggled back into my lap. “Are we done with the show and tell part of this night? Because whatever you’re cooking smells amazing, and I could use some sustenance after the workout you gave me earlier. ”

“Come on, menace,” I laughed as I pulled her up with me. “Don’t want you telling anyone I starved you.”

But as soon as Hadley turned around, I grabbed the document and shoved it into my workout bag, desperate to learn more about the woman quickly stealing my heart.