Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (42 page)

“Smart ass,” he mumbled, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over his face.
 
He’d found himself smiling more in the past couple months than he probably had in his entire life.
 
Before he realized it, he was admitting, “I just worry about you.”

Maddie’s voice softened.
 
“I know.”

Clearing his throat, he leaned forward in his office chair, elbows coming down hard on his desk.
 
He was at a loss for words and he didn’t like it.

“You know what I read today?” she said after a brief pause.
 
“That at sixteen weeks, the baby is the size of an avocado.
 
An avocado, Caleb.
 
Can you believe that?”

Something fluttered in his chest.
 
Yes, he had already known that.
 
Every week, he researched online what to expect, so he was always prepared.
 
Not only was the baby the size of an avocado, but he—or she—could begin making facial expressions.
 
Caleb didn’t know what to think about that, but after he’d read it, he’d simply stared at the screen of his computer, in awe.

Caleb looked down at the palm of his hand, thinking that the baby would fit there perfectly right now.
 
“Is that so?”

“Yes,” she said, her tone excited.
 
Caleb listened to her talk about what else she’d read, content to simply hear her voice.
 
Warning bells went off in his head, telling him that he was getting in too deep.
 
For once, he ignored them.

A knock sounded on his office door and Caleb called, “Come in.”
 
Peter, looking like a scared puppy, appeared in the doorway.
 
Into the phone, he said, “Maddie, I gotta go.
 
Peter just got here.”

“Okay,” she said.
 
“Go easy on him.”

Caleb smirked, waving at the boy to come towards the desk.
 
“I will.”

After he ended the call with her, Peter spoke up, his voice a tad shaky.
 
“Brian said you wanted to talk to me.”

“Don’t be so nervous, Peter,” Caleb said, picking up a small booklet that he’d picked up from the DMV on his way to work.
 
He held it out to the boy, eyeing the yellowing bruise his father left on his jawline.
 
“Here.”

“What is it?” Peter asked, his words laced with suspicion.

“A driver’s manual.
 
You’ll need to study it and take an online class before you can take your permit test.”

The teenage boy’s lips parted.
 
“You—I…I thought…” Swallowing, he reached out to take the booklet.
 
He stared down at it blankly before admitting, “I thought you would kick me out of your house, for bringing Maddie with me last night.”

Caleb chose his words carefully.
 
“I’m not going to deny that I wasn’t pissed.
 
But I know how stubborn she can be and she told me what happened.
 
Everything’s fine.
 
But in the future, I want you to tell me if you have any problems, especially if they involve your dad.”

Peter nodded, still staring down at the booklet.
 
“I will.”

“You study that,” Caleb told him.
 
“And once you pass your tests, we’ll talk about finding you a car.”

Peter’s head snapped up at that, his eyes wide.
 
“Really?”

Caleb bit back an amused smile.
 
“Yes.
 
But I don’t want you getting marked down for single thing, you understand?”

Peter nodded enthusiastically.
 
“Okay.
 
I won’t.
 
I promise.”

The boy was just turning to go back down to the garage, renewed excitement in his step, when Caleb stopped him.
 
“And Peter?”
 
He turned.
 
“It’s your house too, you know.
 
It won’t ever be taken away from you, no matter what you do.
 
You never have to worry about that.”

Caleb watched the boy’s face tighten, looking suddenly like he was about to cry and Caleb was reminded of just how young he was, how he’d never truly been taken care of.
 
Peter nodded and turned his face away quickly.

“Thank you,” he murmured, his voice tight.
 
Then he hurried out of the office, closing the door softly on the way out.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Maddie was on the floor in the living room when Caleb came home later that evening.
 
Spread out before her were library books and she busy typing away at her computer, trying to finish a good chunk of a paper that was due next week.
 
But she was all too aware of Caleb’s presence filling the room and she forgot the point that she was trying to make at the end of one paragraph because of it.

The man was just too good looking for his own good.

“Hi,” she murmured, still feeling a little shy.
 
All she wanted to do right now was jump him.
 
He looked sexy in his blue jeans and heather grey t-shirt, even with smudges of grease running up and down his forearms, like he’d only half-heartedly wiped them away.
 
She’d been on edge all day because of their activities last night, but she knew that she was too sore to do anything about it…and he wasn’t exactly helping matters looking like that.

What was it about a man that worked with his hands?

“What are you doing?” he asked, coming to sit down on the couch, his eyes taking in her cross-legged position, her messy bun, and open notebooks.

“Working on a paper.”

“What about?”

She smiled, her eyes straying back to her computer.
 
“An artifact at the British Museum.”

“Tell me about it.”

So, she told him about the ‘Teotihuacan Ocelot,’ which had been discovered at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun.
 
And he listened as she rambled on and on about the speculation of its purpose, the research she’d done for the past few weeks, which led her to talk about the importance of their gods in religion.

Best of all, he didn’t seem bored by it.
 
He soaked it all in like the sponge he was.
 
Maddie knew that he’d never pursued higher education.
 
His loyalty to his uncle and his uncle’s business had prevented that.
 
But he was naturally intelligent.
 
He would’ve been the kind of college kid that didn’t need to study and he would’ve still aced all his finals with flying colors, the one that skewed the curve and left all his peers grumbling.

“What do you think you would’ve studied if you’d gone to college?” she asked him, curious.

He shrugged, running a hand through his hair.
 
“I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve always known that I would take over the garage,” he said.
 
“And I’m lucky in the sense that I like doing restorations and working on cars and I get paid for it.
 
I pay
myself
for it.
 
The business side, all that paperwork, not so much, but it’s a small price to pay in order to do something that I want to do.”
 
She smiled, liking his outlook.
 
“Besides,” he continued, “now I have you to teach me what I missed out on.”

She swallowed hard, her stomach fluttering.
 
He was teasing her, but it was the
now I have you
part that made her treacherous heart beat a little faster.
 
It was an easy realization that she loved him.
 
Natural, even.
 
But Caleb was complicated.
 
What she felt for him might never be mutual and she had to ask herself if she was willing to accept that.

No
, she thought, sullenly.
 
Eventually, it would eat away at her.
 
But what else could she do?
 
She’d now seen his passion first hand.
 
What would it be like to be loved by a man like him?

“Where’s Peter?” he asked.

Maddie looked back at her computer screen.
 
“In his room.
 
He said something about studying.”

She thought his lips quirked up.
 
“Good.”

“Are you hungry?” she asked, knowing how much food Caleb could eat.
 
Most nights when he came home, he was ravenous.
 
Maddie had never gone food shopping as much as she had these past few months.
 
Feeding Caleb and a teenage boy was no joke.
 
“I wasn’t sure when you’d be home so there are some leftovers in the fridge.”

“I’m good for now.
 
Brian and I ordered out a couple hours ago.”

A silence fell, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
 
It was…charged.
 
Maddie tried to finish off her paragraph but she could see Caleb watching her out of the corner of her eye.
 
She wondered if he would sleep with her again, even if they didn’t have sex.
 
Should she ask him?
 
Invite him?
 
If she did, what would she say?
 
Maybe he liked having his own space…

Blowing a strand of hair that had escaped her bun out of her eyes, she glanced at him.
 
Her nipples pebbled in her bra when she imagined crawling over to him and parting his jean-clad thighs before pulling his zipper down.
 
She blushed and forced herself to look away.

“Am I making you nervous?”
 
Maddie could hear the smirk in his voice.
 
“Or is it something else?”

“It’s something else,” she murmured softly, her blood pounding in her veins.

If he was surprised by her answer, he didn’t show it.
 
“I’ve been thinking about last night.
 
I’ve been distracted all day.”

She took a sharp intake of breath, her eyes darting over to the couch.
 
His dark eyes were hooded, a lock of hair brushing his forehead that she wanted to smooth back.
 
Her lips parted to speak, but then closed.
 
Finally, she said, “Me too.”

“I need to know whether you liked what we did,” his voice dropping an octave.

“Are you kidding?” she asked, disbelief replacing any semblance of a filter.

He shrugged, saying, “Some women don’t like being tied up.
 
It makes them feel like they have no power.”

Isn’t that what you want
? she wanted to snap, suddenly beyond irritated at the mention of ‘some women.’
 
And jealous.
 
So
unbelievably jealous.
 
How many women did he discover didn’t like to be tied up?

“I didn’t feel powerless, Caleb, in case you hadn’t noticed,” she finally bit out, hoping her voice didn’t sound too tight.

But she knew she blew it when he hesitated.
 
“Maddie…”

“What?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”
 
She stared at her laptop screen like her life depended on it.

“Maddie.”

She made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat.
 
“I’m sorry that I don’t want to know how many women you’ve been with, that’s all.”

“Ah,” he said, furrowing his brow.
 
Maddie hated the way he casually leaned back against the couch cushions.
 
“There’s no reason to be jealous, princess.”

She didn’t even bother denying his words, but the slightly amused lilt in his tone made her even madder.
 
She typed a mixture of jumbled words on her laptop, just for something to do.
 
Why was she feeling this way?
 
She felt even worse than when she’d found that box of rope mixed in with her stuff after the move.
 
It wasn’t like they were married…it wasn’t like they’d even talked about having a serious relationship.

No, I’m only pregnant with his child and living with him
, she thought irritably.
 
What the hell were they even doing?

“Maddie, come here,” he said.

“I need to finish this.”

She heard him sigh, get off the couch, and before she realized it, he’d plucked her off the ground.
 
She cried out in surprise, grasping his shoulders in a panic, before he returned to the couch and pulled her down with him so she straddled his thighs.

“I’m going to say this once,” he said, his hands settling over her leggings-covered ass, holding her in place.
 
She could feel the heat from his palms seep through the thin material and despite how upset she was, she felt her body respond to his closeness.
 
“I’ve been with very few women in the past five years.
 
The last one was almost six months before my uncle had been
diagnosed
, okay?”

Her brow furrowed.
 
“But the ropes…and you said you’d been with
a lot
of women in the past eight years.”

“Yeah, to piss you off when we were fighting,” he said.
 
“The majority of those women had been right after I found out my ex-girlfriend had been cheating on me.
 
I’m not proud of it, but there were a lot during that time period.
 
I was twenty.
 
They thinned out after a couple years.”

What?
 
His ex-girlfriend had…
cheated
on him?
 
Who the hell would cheat on Caleb?

Maddie shook her head stupidly.
 
“I don’t understand.
 
She cheated on you?”