I pulled my legs over the side of my bed, searching for my phone when the door squeaked open."Perfect timing," she said, and my heart swelled at the sight of Madeline as she walked into the bedroom."Babe, I fell asleep. I'm so sorry—""We fell asleep together," she said, smiling as big as ever. "It was beautiful. I've never woken up feeling so perfect in my life!" She inhaled deeply, handing me the water I was suddenly in desperate need of, and kissed my forehead. "Your hot body next to mine, holding me so tightly . . . It's how I wanna wake for the rest of my life."She kissed me after I took a much-needed swig of water. "You rested up?"I brought my arms around her waist and pulled her to me. "Ready to go again."Madeline giggled as I kissed her, squeezing her even tighter. "First, I have questions."Swallowing back any nervousness because, for some reason, this unnerved me, I glanced up at her again. "Questions?""Yeah." She nodded, tugging my hand. "About some of the phot
I should've been prepared. Madeline was as impetuous about our lovemaking as she was everything else. Every chance we got, no matter where we were, if it was possible to get away with it, she was all for it. In fact, she was usually the one initiating it. As much as I enjoyed it and would never pass up the chance, a part of me was still trying to think ahead. I'd have my hands full trying to win over her mother—who for as much as Madeline said it wouldn't matter once she was eighteen—and I had no intention of being the cause of any riff between them.Madeline could say it all she wanted, but it was clear how close she was to her mother. Almost as close as she was to Maggie. I'd have liked the transition from doing things on the down low to being an official couple out in the open to be as painless as possible. I knew Loretta would not appreciate the fact that, not only had I taken her baby's innocence, I'd been doing it all over town. Despite this being legal, I'd still had dreams of
My heart nearly stopped as my head jerked away from my carving to look at her. She looked ready to spit. But before I could even respond, she went on. "You fucked her in an alley? When were you planning on telling me about this?"I dropped the rock and took a step toward her, but she flinched and stepped back. I held out my hand cautiously. "That was a long time ago.""So you really did?" Her voice went up a few notches. "Mama said it looked like maybe you two were making out in that dark alley, but you really did fuck her?"I shook my head, feeling like a fucking idiot, and took another step toward her, even as she backed away again. "We'd only been out there a few minutes; we were interrupted by the car your mom was in.""Why hadn't you told me?""It was a long time ago. Way before you and me.""So you've slept with her? This bitch that twice, that I know of," she said even louder, "has approached you since she moved here. Is she trying to hook up with you again?""No." I shoo
Turned out Loretta hadn't even been sure America was the same girl in the alley she'd seen with me. I fessed up for nothing, damn it. I didn't really want to talk about it anymore, but I had to know. Was Loretta really trying to cause problems between us over something that happened so long ago?Madeline explained that, for weeks, Loretta had been saying she was certain she knew the new girl at her work from somewhere else. Because of the not-so-common name it'd finally come to her that she was the same waitress that waited on her way back in that restaurant in Kings Falls—something I was not aware of.Even then, she hadn't put America and I together in that alley. I'd been right about her not having gotten a good look at America in the alley. It wasn't until my dad went into the feed store the day of the confrontation in the cave. America and one of the other girls who worked there began gossiping about the Cortez brothers loud enough for Loretta to hear. America mentioned how I dro
When I arrived at Madeline's house, I was greeted with the usual giddy hug and kisses I was used to. She was especially full of squeals this time, given the huge bouquet I arrived holding. After handing the birthday gift to her, I pulled out my anniversary gift and she went silent.She set the bouquet down on the table just inside the door. Before she even took the other gift, her hand was already at her mouth."Happy anniversary," I said, handing it to her.She smiled even as her eyes welled up and she reached for it. I hoped the fact that I wasn't down on a knee was heads-up enough before she got too ahead of herself about what it might be. She opened the box and her hand was back over her mouth. "I know it's not much, Peanut," I said with a wince. "But it's just a promise ring. A promise that someday I'll have so much more to offer you."With her face already crumbling and her sweet brows pinching tight, she took it out of the box, but I reached for it so I could slip it onto he
Tense was probably the best way to describe the entire build-up to the actual moment we told Loretta. But it was done and now we could move on. When I heard from Madeline again a few hours after I'd left the hospice that day, she explained what I'd expected. Loretta had had a whole lot to say once I was out of there. Mostly, she had questions, some more alarming than others. How long had this gone on? Was she certain there was no basis to my bastard kid stories? Had she slept with me yet? At first, to my utter relief, Madeline lied and said we hadn't."I spared her having to hear about how I was the one who insisted we could go there," Madeline had explained. "But only because I could tell she was looking for something negative to say about all this. If she'd made a single comment about how it's likely all you were in this for was sex or that you pressured me into anything, I would've told her exactly how it happened. I didn't want things to get ugly."Turned out Madeline had a few s
The twins, like my brother Nolan, were officially high-school graduates now. Although Nolan had had his GED for months. When he left to do his internship, he switched to doing school online and finished that way. We'd talked about taking a road trip to Chicago this summer before Maddie started college in the fall to check out some of the art museums there, but just after she graduated, she was temporarily promoted. While she'd already told her boss she'd be quitting once she started school, she was asked if she'd stand in as the store manager at the Little Caesars where she worked at for a few weeks while they found a full-time replacement. Madeline was actually a little excited about it. She was already a shift manager, so she knew she could handle the added responsibility, but she was more excited about getting our dream going.So, our road trip would have to wait a few more weeks, which was fine. Only drawback to her temporarily higher-paying position was she was putting in a lot m
Loretta liked to say Grandma Betty held on to see her granddaughters graduate from high school because just a few weeks after they did she died. I'd never say it out loud, but I was pretty sure mentally she was gone long before then. She'd lost both legs up to her thighs near the end there, but the people at the hospice ultimately just made her comfortable, ignoring any other pointless surgeries she might still need. The last time I'd seen her, which was days before she passed, she wasn't even talking anymore. She was so lethargic. Only good thing about it was, as close as Madeline was to her, she had time to process and accept the fact that she was losing her. By the time she did go, as sad as my peanut had been, she was more relieved her grandma was no longer suffering.Madeline having to work such long hours as she continued with her temporary promotion also helped. It kept her too busy during those first few weeks of mourning to think too much about it.It wasn't until near the e