Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Me, I couldn’t move. He just dropped the bomb of all bombs on me. My mouth was on the floor. “There’s an adult group chat?”
58
MASON
It was Maddy’s birthday and the house was full.
Though Sam enjoyed having the house full. She used to not be like this, but I knew she wanted to surround herself and everyone else with as much love as possible. She was making our home the opposite of what she grew up with Analise.
We were in the backyard.
The dogs thought the party was for them. Their tails were wagging. Tongues hanging out of their mouths. Nolan took over caring for the dogs and petitioned hard for them to be allowed to run free with the festivities today. It was Maddy’s birthday, but Maddy tended to be a pushover for whatever her siblings wanted so Maddy was okay with the dogs running loose. Each of the German Shepherds were giving their ball out to anyone who’d toss it for them. Nolan persuaded us to let her start fostering so we had a new dog darting around as well. Gus. He was smaller, golden fur, and he enjoyed herding people. Nolan thought it was the funniest thing. I knew Nash helped her with the dogs. The rest of us would help, but Nolan seemed to want to shoulder the responsibility for them. I was assuming she was gearing up for some big ask down the line, but until then, she was doing a great job. The newest foster dog kept getting distracted when he would run for his ball. If someone tossed it where he’d have to run past the pool, he would jump in.
Ball. Ball. Pool! What ball? Splash.
Nolan melted every time it happened, and seeing the soft smile on her face, I had a feeling that dog wasn’t going to be a foster soon. Gus was going to be adopted.
By us.
The kids were in the pool, doing as many cannonballs as possible. They were good with Gus swimming around everyone. No one left the pool shrieking. Yet.
Maddy never went far from Max’s side. She was a little clingier than normal, some part of her body was always touching his. I stared at them, long and hard, not sure if I should step in or not.
I wasn’t the only one noticing.
Channing and Heather arrived a few hours ago. Heather headed inside where Sam was, but Channing grabbed a beer and joined Logan and I at the table.
“Cannonball!” Axel yelled out, launching in the air before he hit the middle of the pool. Some of the other girls squealed. Turned out that Maddy did have female friends. The girl Maddy originally introduced as her friend arrived with an entire entourage accompanying her. Lucia was her name, if I was remembering it correctly. I was confused who Maddy's real friends were. I knew the trio: Axel, Steele, and Beltraine were solid with her. Max seemed to be included in that group as well, not like anyone was going to tell Maddy that Max couldn’t be there.
She seemed to be enjoying the new group of friends who arrived.
Sam stepped out to check on everyone, saw Lucia and the new arrivals, watched Maddy laugh with them, and she relaxed. A faint smile pulled at her mouth. She met my gaze, a message passing between the two of us. She was worried.
Fuck. So was I.
Was Maddy only friends with guys? I didn’t know how that would work out for our daughter, but I was also learning the truth of the situation was that we didn’t need to worry about Maddy getting hurt. We had an appointment scheduled next week to talk with a psychiatrist. We wouldn’t be only talking to him. Sam was adamant we’d be shopping around. Psychologist. Counselor. Social worker. She wanted to talk to a whole bunch of people, even mentioning reaching out to some intuitive people as well. When I asked who those people were, she explained they were people with similar gifts as Nolan.
I had a feeling it’d be a while before we found the right person or persons who could help us with Maddy. Maybe a specialist who worked with sociopaths?
“Nate’s here,” Logan remarked, kicking out a chair as Nate was winding through the party, heading our way.
“Uncle Nate!” Maddy shouted from the pool. She had a hand on Max’s shoulder and jumped up, right fucking in front of him, her other hand stretched in the air, waving.
I loved seeing the bright smile on her face, but fuck. Seriously. She was launching herself right in Max’s face, wearing that bikini both her and Sam insisted was fine to wear. I grunted.
Channing wore a slight grimace too.
I cut him a look. We’d talked about the two of them as a couple, because it was obvious that’s what they either already were, or would be soon. A part of me worried they’d be concerned their son was my daughter’s point of obsession.