Unconditional

She makes a face of confusion and raises an eyebrow. “You can’t fire me, boss,” she snaps. “This is what’s best for Maddie.”

“Staying with me is what’s best for her.”

She slaps her hand against the table. “You say that now! But you both need some distance from each other.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means she is far too dependent on you, and you feed off of that. You feed off of her needing you. The more vulnerable she is the more you feel it’s your job to fix her. You’ve always been this way.”

“She doesn’t need fixing, Aria. She’s perfect.” I immediately regret my choice of words. That didn’t particularly sound like a guy that is proud of the girl he raised. It sounded more like a man that is proud of the woman he is currently fucking.

She sighs and shakes her head. “Maddie’s feelings for you are…changing, Cal. And the only way to help her get over it is distance. She can’t live here and be in your space. She’s confused and she’s just going to get hurt or…” she swallows and I can tell where she’s going, “you’re going to get hurt.” I hear the implications as loud as if she’d spoken the accusation aloud. If you touch Maddie, and people find out, you’re fucked.

“I know that you love her, Cal,” she continues, “and anyone with eyes can see she’s crazy about you. But that’s the point I’m trying to make—you two have history and it’s just not right.” She crosses her arms. “You shouldn’t even be thinking of Maddie like that.”

“Who said I am?”

She shrugs. “Years of police training.”

“Aria, look. Nothing is going on so—”

“And it needs to stay that way. Maddie is moving out.” She points at my door and I have to take a breath before I explode.

“You don’t have a fucking say. She’s eighteen in less than two days and last I checked I am her legal guardian.”

Aria stares at me for a beat before she stands up with a long sigh. “You’re right, Cal. You are.” She begins walking towards the door before she stops and lets her head drop. “She’s already lost the people that were supposed to love her unconditionally. You do something…you go down a road you can’t come back from…” She turns around just as a large tear slides down her cheek. “It would break her to lose you too.”

A sniffle breaks the silence after the door shuts and anxiety creeps up my spine as I think about Maddie sitting on the stairs, having heard everything that was said. I make my way to the stairs and stand at the bottom, watching Maddie sit in her usual spot when she eavesdrops. “What did I tell you about that?” A stream of tears is flowing down Maddie’s face, her blue eyes almost as clear as the ocean.

She gives me her middle finger and then she’s bounding down the four remaining steps and into my arms. “I don’t want to leave. Please don’t make me go.”

I think about Aria’s arguments and I feel them weighing on my chest. I could see the judgment in her eyes. The fear. The devastation. I hadn’t admitted anything but the words left unsaid hung in the air and cloaked us in tension.

My body tightens around hers as I carry her up the stairs. I move into my bedroom and set her on the bed before dropping to my knees in front of her. “I’m so sorry,” I tell her and she frowns. “I should have been better prepared.” I shake my head, thinking about all the ways that this could have gone. “I knew it was coming, and it’s as if I didn’t even think to deny it. Deny us.” I drop my head to her lap and wrap my arms around her midsection, clutching her like she’s a life raft floating towards the treacherous waters of the future. “I acted like a man crazy in love with a woman.”

She gasps and grabs my face, bringing her gaze to mine. “Don’t apologize. Never apologize for trying to protect…us. I love seeing that side of you.”

“I only have one side, Madeline, and it’ll rip anyone apart who thinks they can take you from me.”

“It’s been that way for a while, I think.” She licks her lips and it makes me want a taste of her tongue. “I’m eighteen, Cal. She can’t make me. I can’t leave you. I can’t…be away from you.”

The thought of her being away from me makes my heart slam against my rib cage. I get off the floor and sit next to her on the bed and her body immediately reacts, as if it knows what it means to be in bed with me. She’s in my lap before I can reach for her and I hold her in place to prevent her from squirming against my dick. “I don’t want you away from me. Ever. I need you by my side every morning, every night, and when I get home from work.” I cup her cheeks and rub my lips against hers. “I just got you…I can’t give you up.” I look down at her and the pain in her eyes is a direct reflection of mine. Blue eyes that I could spend a full day getting lost in are filled with sorrow and guilt.

“Promise I can stay,” she whispers as she rubs her fingertips over my lips. Her eyes are fixated on my mouth as if she’s hypnotized by it. I’m thankful not to be looking in her eyes, knowing I can’t refuse her anything when she bats them at me. It gives me a second to collect my thoughts.

Is it the worst thing for some space? Maybe not permanently. But maybe for a month or two just while we gain our footing? Maybe just till the end of her school year?

As if she can hear my thoughts and the fact that Aria’s words affected me more than I want to admit, her eyes jerk upwards and narrow into slits. “You’re gonna make me stay with Aria and Henry? Your brother who knows the truth?”

I let out a breath knowing that this is going to be a battle getting her to agree. I’d never let her go with Aria and Henry. Henry is a wild card, and I know Maddie wouldn’t feel comfortable living there knowing that he knows the truth. She’s already nervous to be around him tomorrow. “Would you be open to staying with Margie?”

“I can’t believe we are even discussing this!” She begins to move off my lap when I tighten my grip. I need her close to me. I want her to feel that she’s not the only one that’s hating this idea. That the idea of living without her under this roof like she has for the last ten years guts me.

“Stop moving,” I order her but she doesn’t listen and continues to try and break free of my grip.

“No, let me go, Cal.” She makes it off my lap and stands in front of me with her hands on her hips in that sexy as fuck way that makes me want to drill into her cunt until she loses the fucking attitude. “This is bullshit, and I don’t agree with it.”

“Can we take it down with the attitude? You’re being a brat.”