Page 13 of His Secret Obsession
“I’ll take it for a test drive down the road so I can hear it for myself.”
Mary leans forward, her wrinkled fingers pinching my cheeks as she grins up at me. I get a whiff of vanilla and peppermint before she steps away, her white hair standing out under the sunlight. She looks so frail these days, and yet she’s always grinning. The bottom of her ankle-length, floral skirt blows in the cool breeze, and she takes a step back and wraps a brown cardigan tighter against the front of her body.
“Thank you, dear. I appreciate that. You know I don’t get out much these days with my arthritis and all.”
I do the obligatory drive down the road, and as usual, her car is running perfectly fine. Stopping at the nearest gas station, I fill her tank up. I clean off her front windows, check her oil, and add some air to the tires before heading back to her house. Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s the least I can do after all the years of free babysitting she did for me when Luke was younger and I was swamped at work.
But we both know it’s a farce, even if we pretend otherwise. After divorcing her first two husbands and losing her third to heart failure, I suspect she’s been lonely.
Pulling back into her driveway, I lock the car up and knock on her door again. She ushers me through her home to the patio. It’s really nothing more than a small concrete slab with a white metal table, but there’s already a tray of brownies and a pitcher of lemonade waiting for us.
“So, tell me,” she begins, “what’s it like living with Maddison?” I immediately tense. Why does everybody keep fishing for information?
“It’s…fine,” I murmur.
She gives me a pointed look. “Boy,” she chides. “I’m not getting any younger. Just spill the beans already. Don’t act like you don’t want to get it off your chest.”
Shaking my head, I release a sound that’s a mixture between a laugh and a scoff.
I’m not sure if it was a good idea or a bad idea that I told Mary everything.
Everything.
“She’s still with Luke,” I say softly. “Nothing has changed, not that it would make a difference.” I shrug, the gesture feeling more casual than that statement feels.
Her eyes soften as she pours me a glass of lemonade. “Is it hard to live under the same roof with her?”
Nodding solemnly, I stare off into the distance as my fingers tap on the table beneath me. “I always thought I would have her in my space one day, but not like this. It feels like torture every time he touches her.”
“It’s an honorable thing,” Mary says quietly. “Walking away at the bar, giving her time to grow up a little and live her life before you pursued her.”
“She was so young,” I whisper, my voice raspy. “I was damn near thirty. And here she was, nineteen and just starting college. I didn’t want to hold her back or have her worry about what people might say about our age difference.” I avoid her gaze as I give her a truth I haven’t spoken out loud to anyone else yet. “It’s probably selfish, but I thought if I could just wait until she turned twenty, then maybe people wouldn’t talk so much. I didn’t want her to go through that. Not for me.”
Releasing a heavy breath, I take a large gulp of lemonade. The ice-cold liquid feels good on my parched tongue as I savor the sweet tartness. Mary remains silent, waiting patiently as she cuts a brownie for each of us. My chuckle is devoid of any real humor. “I watched her social media for a while,” I muse aloud. “After a few months of that, I decided it was sort of creepy and stalkerish, so I quit. Maybe her going out with my brother wouldn’t have been such a shock if I hadn’t made myself stop.”
“Maybe.” Mary shrugs. “Maybe it’s time to tell her how you feel. Living together is going to make things…complicated.”
I give Mary an incredulous look. “Why the hell would I ever do that? It’s not like anything can ever come of it now; I can’t take her from my own damn brother,” I admonish. Hell, even if they were to break up, she’s always going to be the one woman I can never have. The thought makes my stomach twist.
She squeezes my hand. “No, but watching them under your roof while they’re together isn’t really fair to you.”
“Two months,” I mutter, gritting my teeth. Mary gives me a confused look. “She was two months shy of her twentieth birthday when Luke brought her home,” I explain. Even now, I can still remember the shock that slammed into my gut when he introduced us. I recall the way her beautiful eyes flared wide, the disbelief registering on her face. I’ve always wondered what went through her mind in those few seconds, and if she was remembering the way she ground that enticing pussy against my erection.
“Jax, this is my girl, Maddison Raddix.”
My heart sunk into my stomach at those words, and I don’t think I’ve ever recovered it.
“I was gonna show up at the coffee shop where she worked and ask her out. I knew she might not even remember me, or be interested, or that she might not be single anymore, but my fucking brother?” I give a self-deprecating laugh. “I never saw that one coming, and now I wish every day I hadn’t walked away from her at that bar. No matter how selfish it makes me.”
“And he still doesn’t know that you two already knew each other?” she asks.
My stomach twists again, and I clench my fist around my half-empty glass. For some reason, it really fucking irks me that Maddison has never evenacknowledgedthat night happened. Did it mean so little to her?
“I doubt it. I’m sure he would have confronted me.”
If I had taken her home that night, would my brother be the one hopelessly pining after a girl he can never have? Leaning back in my chair, I let my shoulders slump. My heart feels heavy at the knowledge that even knowing that possibility, I still wish I made her mine first. If there’s one thing I could do differently in my life, I would have never walked away from that woman. No matter the consequences. But now, Maddison Raddix will forevermore be the woman I’m secretly obsessed with.
“Fate is a fickle bitch,” Mary murmurs dryly.
