Only One Forever, page 18
“I like that idea so much better than mine.” He rubs his nose against mine. “I’m going to go and get Maddox, and you can meet us there.”
“Fine,” I agree. “If you twist my arm.” I kiss him one more time before he turns and walks out of my office. I watch him walk toward Maddox, who stands there waiting for him. He’s dressed almost the same as Dylan, except his hat is forward and not backward. Dylan bends down in front of him and says something to him, and he looks up, and I wave at him. Dylan puts his hand on his head as they walk out of the arena.
I watch them for as long as I can, and when the phone rings I see it’s the groomers.
“Hello,” I say, answering right away.
“Hi there, just letting you know that Mac is ready to be picked up,” she says, and I look down at my clock and see that if I go and pick up Mac, I’ll still be able to meet them at the park for lunch.
I grab my purse and walk out of my office. “I’ll be out for lunch,” I announce to Veronica sitting down at the desk. “I have to go get Mac, and then I’m joining Dylan at the park. I’ll have my phone if you need anything.”
“We’ll be fine.” She smiles at me as I turn and walk upstairs. Grabbing two bags, I fill them with food and snacks, along with water and Gatorade. The heat hits me as soon as I walk out of the arena and get into the car.
Mac is so excited when she sees me walking in. She has a pink bandana wrapped around her neck, and when I squat down in front of her, she licks my face. “Come on. I’m going to take you to meet a friend,” I tell her while I put her in the back seat of the car and make sure I tie her in.
When I pull up to the park, I can see Dylan and Maddox off to the side doing lunges side by side. Dylan’s telling him a story. “Now you be a good girl,” I tell her when I look in the back at her. She finds Dylan right away and starts to bark and cry in excitement. I open the door for the back seat, grabbing her leash, and then go to the trunk to get the lunch I picked up.
There are other kids in the park since it’s summer vacation. A group of teenagers are on the soccer field playing. Another group of kids are chasing around a kite as it flies in the air. There are five or six moms sitting in a circle as they watch their kids in the distance playing with each other. The playground structure to the side is full of kids. I make my way over to them. “Hey,” I say when I get close enough, and Dylan smiles. “I brought food.” I hold up the bags and then look over at Maddox, who doesn’t move toward me until Dylan does. “And I brought Mac,” I say, letting go of the leash because I know she is going straight to Dylan.
“Hey there, princess,” Dylan says softly and then looks over at Maddox. “This is our dog,” he tells him, and Maddox just looks over at him. Mac makes her way over to Maddox and starts to sniff him. “Do you like dogs?” Dylan asks Maddox, who just shrugs. “She’s gentle.” Dylan rubs Mac’s head. “But don’t let her fool you. She will eat your toast if you go to the bathroom and leave it on the counter.”
“Does she get in trouble?” Maddox asks Dylan, who just shakes his head.
“Nah,” he says, rubbing Mac. “She’s a good girl. I got her when I was all alone and I was lonely.” Mac nudges his hand. “She kept me company.”
“I thought we could have a picnic.” I smile down at Maddox. “Have you ever had a picnic?” I ask him, sitting on the grass in the shade.
He shakes his head and looks at me as Dylan sits down, and he slowly follows. “Well, a picnic …” Dylan starts to talk, grabbing a bag and taking the stuff out. “Is when people sit on the grass and eat their lunch or supper.”
Maddox sits down, and Mac follows him and sits right beside me. He looks over at Dylan, who just smiles at him, and then hands him a sandwich. “Thank you,” Maddox says softly, taking the sandwich from him.
He grabs half the sandwich and eats it, and I watch him eat. “You are hungry,” I say when he finishes his sandwich faster than I think he should and I offer him another.
“So how do you like the house you are staying in?” Dylan asks, lying on his side and looking at Maddox. Mac sits beside him now as if she’s in protection mode, and I can’t help but smile at her.
“It’s okay. I get to eat food when I want,” he says, and the sandwich bite that I just took wants to come up. “The bed has two blankets,” he adds, shocked, and I just want to grab him and give him a hug.
“That’s cool,” Dylan says like it’s not a big deal.
“Yeah, and they don’t get mad at me if I wet the bed by accident.” He opens up to us. “They don’t make me sleep in it.”
I blink away the tears and look down at the sandwich in my hand, but I can’t see through the tears. My hands shake a little bit when I hear Dylan. “After we finish eating, we can kick around the soccer ball.”
“Okay,” Maddox says. When he finishes his second sandwich, I offer him an apple, and he takes it. Only after he finishes the apple and drinks a bottle of water does he stand. “Are you going to play with us, too?” he asks me, and I just smile at him.
“If you want me to,” I reply, cleaning up the mess and putting it in the bag. “But I’m better at tag.”
“What’s that?” he asks, and I clap my hands together in glee.
“Tag is when one person is it, and they have to catch the other person,” I explain to him. “When you touch the other person, they are it.”
“Can we play?” he asks me, and I just look over at Dylan.
“I’ll be it,” Dylan says, getting up after cleaning up his garbage. “But just because you’re little doesn’t mean that I’m not going to catch you.”
“Okay.” The way he says it, I can hear a lightness in his voice. His brown eyes are lighting up just a touch, I can’t help but smile at him
Once I have all the stuff out of the way, I stand. “You ready?” I ask Maddox, who nods his head.
“Okay, I’m going to count to three,” Dylan says, grabbing the leash from me, and stands there with Mac beside him, and my eyes open as I look down at Maddox.
“Run,” I say as we run in opposite directions. Dylan counts to three and then comes running to me with Mac by his side, barking the whole time, no doubt to show Maddox how to play. I run away from him, and then he follows me in a circle. Mac runs to me, jumping on me at the same time Dylan touches my back shoulder. I can’t help but laugh.
“You’re it,” Dylan huffs out. I squeal when his hand touches my shoulder, and I turn around to chase him back, but he ducks and runs to the side.
I stop and look at both of them. Mac stands beside me, waiting for me to move. Maddox looks at me, and then he runs toward Dylan. Mac takes off before me, running back to Dylan barking and jumping. “I’m going to get you,” I say to him, and he runs behind Dylan and then takes off. I chase him in a circle, and I wish I was saying that I was giving him a break, but I wasn’t. The kid is really fast. I reach out my hand to touch him, and he escapes by ducking to the right. “Dammit!” I yell, and there in the middle of the park, something happens that neither Dylan nor I could have ever expected. Maddox throws his head back and full-on belly laughs, the sound making my feet stop. My eyes fixate on his smile that lights up his whole face. “I’m going to catch you,” I warn, and he just runs faster. It’s so carefree that anyone looking at him would think he’s just another little boy, but what they don’t know is the hell that this child is living. Mac runs alongside Maddox, never leaving his side, not even coming to Dylan or me.
“Don’t let her catch you,” Dylan says as he runs past me, and I stick out my hand, touching him.
“You’re it,” I say, running away from him as fast as I can, but he grabs me around the waist, and Maddox isn’t the only one laughing. Mac jumps up and licks Maddox’s face, making him laugh even harder.
“Not so fast,” he says into my neck as he kisses me. All I can do is laugh as his hand tightens around me.
“You’re it again,” Maddox says, running past us with Mac jumping and trying to lick him again.
“I’m going to get you,” I threaten, escaping from Dylan’s grasp. I chase him for a good minute and finally touch him. He smiles when I tell him he’s it and then turns around and heads for Dylan.
I don’t know how long we play tag for, but when we stop, Maddox’s face is flushed pink, and he finishes off a whole bottle of water. His chest is heaving when he stops drinking, and he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. I’m busy making sure Mac is drinking when he says the words that make me want to do this every single day. “That was fun,” he says, drinking again.
“If you want, you can go and play on the playground before we head back to the rink,” Dylan says, drinking his own bottle of water.
I see Maddox look over at the playground. “I never played in the park,” he says. “We went a couple of times, but it was to sleep.”
My heart stops in my chest, and my eyes fly to Dylan, who just motions with his head not to make a big deal out of it. “But then the police came and kicked us out.”
“Well, we can go play now,” I say, making it a point to change the memories he has of being in the park to something happier. He follows me toward the playground. “Do you want to try the monkey bars?” I point at the bars that no one is on. “It’s fun.”
“I can show you,” Dylan says, walking toward the monkey bars. I sit down with Mac sitting right beside me at the edge of the park on the grass, watching Dylan teach him how to get across. He tries his hardest with his little arms to go across, and every single time, he makes more and more progress. Kids play around them, but Maddox is focused on the task at hand.
Nothing can prepare me for when he finally makes it across. I get up from the grass when he goes halfway, my body tense as he moves from one bar to the next. You can see the pain in his eyes as he almost slips, but his other hand finds the steel bar again. “Come on,” I mumble under my breath as he makes it through to another bar.
Finally, he gets to the last one, and when he reaches for it, I throw my hands in the air in celebration for him, then I put my hands on my head when I see him struggle with the other arm. I can hear Dylan’s voice softly encouraging him as he puts his hand behind him to help in case he falls. “You can do it,” he says to him. “Just focus.” When he reaches forward, his hand grabs the last bar, and his mouth goes into the biggest fucking smile I have ever seen on him. When his feet touch the bar, Dylan grabs him and hugs him so big. Maddox’s arms just fall to his sides, not sure what to do, and I have to sit down at the thought that no one has ever hugged him. Dylan must sense this and puts him down as he runs over to me.
“I did it,” he says with a smile. “All by myself.” Mac nudges Maddox’s hand with her head, making Maddox pet her.
I hold up my hand to high-five him, and he slaps my hand. “You did it, buddy,” I say, my chest so full and so proud of him. I blink away the tears that are stinging my eyes and sniffle. “It’s time to head back.” I get up, dusting off the sand from my jeans and waiting for Dylan to walk to us. He slips his hand in mine as we walk back to the bags and load up the car. Mac gets in beside Maddox and sits next to him, watching out the window.
Neither of us says anything as we get back to the arena. Julia is there waiting for us with a smile. “Sorry we’re late, we got hung up at the monkey bars,” I apologize, looking down at Maddox to see if he is going to smile, but his shield is back in place.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Dylan says to him, and all Maddox does is nod at him. Julia leads him back out toward her car, and when I look at Dylan, all he does is shake his head. “Are you done for the day?”
“Yeah.” I look around, and everything appears to be in order. If it’s not, they will call me.
We get back in the car and I look out my window as we make our way home. When we get into the house, Mac gets out of the car and walks right toward the back door. I watch her walk outside and finally turn around. “My stomach hurts.” I put my hand on my stomach. “Like it hurts knowing that he isn’t here with us.”
“I know,” Dylan says softly, sitting down. “I was thinking the same thing.” He runs his hands through his hair.
“It’s crazy, right?” I ask him. “Everything that is happening. The need to protect him. The need to make sure he goes to bed happy. The need to make sure he eats properly. The need to make sure that he feels loved.” I shake my head. “I …” I start to say, but I’m at a loss for words.
“I know,” Dylan agrees. “I know.”
Chapter 30
Dylan
“Hey,” I greet when I see Julia the next day. All night, I tried not to think of what Maddox was doing, but as soon as I closed my eyes, all I saw was his face. Then his words would echo in my ears. I can’t even imagine what he went through. I thought I went through shit when I was growing up, but at least I had my mother to protect me and show me love. He had no one, and the thought alone cuts me off at the knees.
“Hi,” she says, looking down at Maddox. “Someone was excited about getting here today. He woke up extra early.”
I smile and squat down. “You ready to hit the ice?” I ask him, and for the first time, I can see a little light in his brown eyes as he nods. “Why don’t you go say hi to Alex, and we can go upstairs and have breakfast? I’m starving.”
“Okay,” he says, walking away from us. I watch him until he walks into the office before I get up and turn back to Julia.
“I have a question,” I say, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Hopefully, I’ll have an answer for you,” she says, smiling.
“What are the chances we can get Maddox for the weekend?” I ask her, not sure if it’s even possible.
“You can’t just take him for the weekend, Dylan. He’s not a library book that you sign him in and out.” She just looks at me.
“I know that,” I huff out. “But what if you brought him here to the rink on the weekends? What if we offer weekend hours?”
“Do you offer weekend hours?” She tilts her head to the side.
“No,” I admit. “But I would come in on the weekend, and we can skate. I’ll talk to Wilson about it, and if I have to rent out the ice myself, I will.”
“I can ask his foster parents. I’m not sure if they will be okay with that. It will throw off their routine.”
“I want to adopt him,” I say the five words I’ve wanted to tell Alex all night but was scared to admit it. Julia looks at me, shocked as well. “I don’t know the first thing about being a parent.”
“Okay, one, that isn’t true,” Julia says. “You come from a family that pretty much runs itself.” I smile when I think about it. “And, Dylan, I really think you need to think about this.”
“I have,” I tell her, taking a deep breath. “It’s the only thing I have been thinking about. When I was eight, I got into my father’s hockey camp. I want to think he was made to be my father, and I feel the same way about Maddox. This whole thing, me leaving Montreal, admitting that I was in love with Alex, moving here. Coming here to help out, it was all for a bigger purpose, and that was Maddox.” I’m pretty sure I’m rambling now. “I know we are young but there is nothing that we won’t do for him.”
“Dylan, you have to be one hundred percent sure,” she says softly. “Before I start the paperwork or do anything like that, I have to be sure you are going to be in one hundred percent.” She looks over at the office and sees Maddox coming out with Alex. “Have you spoken to Alex about it?”
“Not in so many words,” I admit. “But I don’t think she is going to have an issue with it.”
“I’ll see what I can do, and we can talk about it,” she says, and I just nod at her.
The day flies by, and when he leaves with Julia again, a void is right back where it was yesterday. When I watch him walk out of the arena beside Julia and then feel Alex’s hand slip into mine, I swallow down the lump. As the hours ticked by, he got quieter and quieter. While he got changed out of his hockey gear, I sat with him, and everything inside me was yelling not to show him how sad I was. So I kept a smile on my face, and we made plans on what we were going to do on Monday. Well, I made plans, and he just listened. I am going to have to gain his trust. He probably had so many empty promises in his life he knew better than to trust anyone. “He’ll be back on Monday.” Julia lets us know that the family already made plans, and they didn’t want to change them as they wanted to gain his trust.
“Then what?” I look at her, my chest feeling like it’s being crushed. “Then we don’t see him until Monday.” Alex doesn’t say anything to me. All she does is lean into me and kisses my arm.
“You have the gala tomorrow for the foundation,” she reminds me. “First time Dylan Stone is going to be making his debut as a Dallas Oiler.” She smiles at me, and her smile makes the pressure on my chest lighten up just a touch.
“Did you get a dress?” I ask. Her eyes go big, but I don’t know why she’s surprised by this question.
“I didn’t know I was going.” She laughs. “It’s the first time on the red carpet. The press will be all over you.”
“It’ll be the best time to bite the bullet and make our grand entrance.” I put my arm around her and lean in to kiss her lips. “I’m sure you have something you can wear.”
“Of course.” She rolls her eyes at me. “Because everyone has a dress to wear to a gala hanging in their closet.”
I laugh. When we get home, she goes into her closet while I grab my iPad and start to make a plan of my own. The next day, I slip out of the house when the girls come over to glam her up. I grab Mac and her leash because I’m leaving her at my parents’ house for the night.
Two hours later, I’m walking back into the house, my hands shaking. “Hello!” I yell up the stairs, and she comes out of the bedroom, wearing a white robe. I can’t help when my stomach flips over at the sight of her. Her hair is loose and in soft curls, and her makeup is just perfect. I walk up the steps and pull her to me, kissing her lips.
