Page 27 of The Last One You Loved

“Baby girl!” Mama called out as my daughter ran straight for her. “Isn’t this a surprise?”

“Nana! Guess what?”

“What?”

“Daddy’s friend is staying in Aunt Sadie’s apartment!”

Shit. Well, that was one way to break it to them. I took my hat off, hung it on the rack at the back door, and slid onto a stool while Mila and my mama hugged it out. Gemma slammed her laptop shut and joined me at the counter. Her lips were twitching.

“This should be way more interesting than reading my script for the fifty-millionth time.”

She shoved my shoulder, and her hazel eyes twinkled. She was the only one of us who didn’t have blue eyes, and sometimes, they reminded me of McK’s, the light golds and green mixing together.

“Who’s this, Maddox?” Mama asked, brows furrowing.

I opened my mouth to answer, but Mila beat me to it. “Her name’s McKenna, and Daddy says they were friends a long time ago.”

My heart throbbed hearing McK’s name coming out of Mila’s mouth. It caused a renewed wave of fear to coast through me. No one could know she was in town, and she had to leave as fast as she’d shown up.

My eyes dropped to the blender and the two margarita glasses sitting next to it.

“I think I’m going to need one of those,” I told her.

Gemma gurgled, and even Mama’s lips twitched.

“Why don’t you go look in your playroom and see if you can find what’s new?” Mama suggested to Mila, kissing her cheek and letting her go.

“This may be the best day I’ve ever had,” Mila said. “Rianne and I made snickadoodles, Daddy let me have three cookies after pizza, I watchedScooby, met a new friend, and now I get a present!”

Mila twirled out of the kitchen, heading for what used to be my bedroom and had now been converted into her playroom. It had a pink canopied twin bed for the times she spent the night and looked like a toy store had blown up inside it.

“That should keep her busy for at least fifteen minutes,” Mama said, reaching behind her to pull out a third glass. “So…this is a surprise.”

I dragged my hand through the stubble that I had to admit was now the start of a damn beard and spilled my guts about how McKenna had walked into the house with a key. “She can’t stay,” I said. “Sybil’s back. The judge has her holed up at the women’s rehab clinic after Bruce arrested her.”

“Well, hell,” Mama said.

“There’s nothing Sybil can do, Mads. No matter how much she blusters, she can’t take Mila from you,” Gemma said, putting her arm around me and resting her head on my shoulder.

I swallowed hard. “I can’t risk her suddenly remembering who the father is and having to fight for my girl all over again.”

My jaw clenched as I fought the tears that pricked my eyes.

“Did you tell her?” Gemma asked quietly.

My eyes widened. “About Mila? Hell, no.”

“She’s going to figure it out,” Mama said. “Just looking at them together will be proof.”

“Mila only has their eyes and their hair coloring. Nothing else. And you forget, I tried to tell McKenna. I tried and got my heart and soul stomped on for the effort.”

Mama slid a margarita over to me, and I took a huge swallow. There wasn’t nearly enough alcohol in it.

“You don’t know what was going on in her life at that moment,” Mama said gently.

“She was engaged, Mama. That’s hardly a terrible place.”

“When you tried to contact her about Mila, it had been, what, a year since she’d first told you to stop calling? How do you even know she was still engaged? Is she married? She’s here alone, right? What’s that all about?” Mama pushed.