HUDSON
Halfway down the stairs, I caught a sound drifting in through the back door. Light, bubbling laughter, high-pitched and unguarded. Ivy. I stopped midstep. She didn’t laugh like that often, not unless she was with people she was comfortable with.
I crossed the hall to the back of the house, feeling more at ease than before due to all the time we now spent with the Magnusons. Over the past week and a half, we’d stayed for dinner, dropped in on my days off just so Ivy could see the horses with Matty, and we’d even slept over once.
I slipped outside into the backyard. The early evening light spilled soft and gold across the yard, the heat of the day long gone, leaving the air cool. It carried that sweet, fading scent of cut grass, threaded with the sharper tang of cooling earth. Gray was at the new swing set he had built for Ivy, one big hand on the back of the seat as he pushed Ivy in slow, steady arcs. Her giggle rang out again, unselfconscious.
Last week, Matty had pouted because Gray hadn’t waited for him to help build the swing for Ivy. Of course I’d taken his side, but I was pleased Gray had done it byhimself, so Matty got the idea that he didn’t have to doeverythingfor Ivy. He hadn’t been kidding about the kind of father he would make to my daughter. At this rate, I gave it six months, and I would have the most spoiled princess in the state.
Gray looked softer like this, relaxed in a way he only was when he was with Ozzie. None of the sharp lines or guarded posture he usually carried when he worked the ranch. Just a man entirely in the moment, keeping pace with a little girl who trusted him completely. Something in my chest tightened at the sight.
Ivy now had a hands-on second parent, a grandparent, and an Ozzie who loved her.
Footsteps sounded behind me, easy and unhurried, and I glanced over my shoulder. Ozzie stopped beside me, following my gaze to the swing set with a smile tugging at his mouth. “He’s so good with her, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. He really is.” My eyes stayed on Ivy, her head tipped back in midlaugh. “Thanks… for making her feel loved. She’s thriving, and it’s because of all of you. When Heather left us, I wasn’t sure how I would cope. She wasn’t much of a hands-on mom, but the little she did still helped. I was so worried about Ivy having stability and ensuring she was safe with the right people, but I don’t have to worry anymore.”
“She’s an amazing kid, Hudson, and we’re always happy to have her.” Ozzie’s smile deepened, and he nudged me lightly with his elbow. “So… things are going well with Matty then?”
My mouth curved into a smile before I could stop it. Just thinking about him—about the way he was committed to us—did that to me. “He’s incredible, Ozzie, though I worry sometimes he’s taking on so much. At twenty-three yearsold, he shouldn’t be so serious about life. I was a fucking stupid twenty-three-year-old.”
The past two weeks had been a blur since Matty decided I’d only work four days a week. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been running on fumes until I finally stopped. Suddenly, I had more time with Ivy. Real time, not the scraps I used to squeeze in between shifts. I soaked up every second. She’d already been to her new therapist twice, and for once, I didn’t lie awake worrying how I’d cover the next bill.
Money just… appeared in my account. Loan closures I hadn’t requested pinged into my inbox with cheerful “Congratulations!” emails. Matty never mentioned it, and I didn’t press him. Instead, I found other ways to thank him. Every day in the little things, and every night in the kind of ways that left us tangled in sweat and sheets.
Call it repayment if you want. Maybe it was. But he didn’t seem to mind, and I sure as hell wasn’t complaining. The man already had the milk for free, and I got just as much pleasure giving it as he did taking it.
Matty had replaced the old TV with an enormous flat-screen. Mounted it on the wall himself. Now Ivy sat in front of the TV, eyes bugged wide because for the first time she saw her cartoons in such vivid colors. He got us a new couch, swapped out the ancient microwave “before it caught fire,” and scheduled a new fridge to be delivered this weekend.
It was more than I could wrap my head around. My instinct was to worry about how much he was spending, but another part of me was touched by how he kept trying to make things better for us.
Ozzie chuckled. “It’s good seeing him this happy. He smiles all the time now. Truth is, the first time I met him, he scared me.”
I laughed. I could totally see that. “Yeah, you don’t want to be on his wrong side, but if you treat him right, he’s a keeper. Wish I’d figured that out sooner.”
“Hey, everything worked out for the best.” He nodded in Ivy’s direction, and my shoulders relaxed. He was right. I couldn’t picture a life without my daughter in it.
“And you?” I poked him in the side with a finger. “How are you holding up with all the gossip?”
He shrugged. “It’s not so bad. Is the situation ideal that I’m in a relationship with my ex-fiancé’s father? Nope, but Gray’s love makes it worth it. It’s not town gossip that we worry about. Mostly how us being together has affected his relationship with his kids. Matty is coming around, looks mildly less uncomfortable with us, but Carter’s a different story. He’s taken his inheritance and cut ties with us. Gray doesn’t say much, but he is hurting more over the rift between the brothers. Do you know if they talk at all?”
I frowned. “Matty hasn’t mentioned it, but I’ll find out.”
He always hated that he and Carter weren’t as close as before.
“Thank you.” Ozzie’s eyes flicked to Ivy, still swinging, pumping her little legs as she yelled for Papa to push higher. Gray gave her the illusion she was going higher while being gentle. “She seems to be fixing something broken in Gray. This is a time of healing for all of us, but as guilty as I sometimes feel, the truth is, this family was fractured long before either of us came along.”
“Yeah.”
The truth was, I hadn’t really checked in on Matty at all. Not in the way I should have. I didn’t know how he’d been handling all the gossip about the Magnuson family, whether the weight of it was crushing him or if he was hiding it well.
Hell, I didn’t even know if he was still talking to Carter.And now there was the mess with his mother because of me… I’d been so wrapped up in Ivy and my own shit that I hadn’t stopped to think about his.
God, I need to find Matty.
I need to know he’s okay.
“I have to find Matty,” I said.
