“With pleasure.”

His predictable comment made her laugh. “What does it say?”

“From Mac. ‘Are you okay, brat?’ Want me to write back to him?”

“Just say I’m fine, and I’ll talk to him later.”

Joe sent the text and put her phone on the table. “You know your dad is going to be over here wanting to talk to you. If he’s not on his way already, he will be soon.”

“I don’t know what to say to him. I feel like a jerk for leaving the way I did.”

“Maybe just tell him that. He’ll understand, babe.”

“I’m going to have to meet this person, aren’t I?”

“The sister you never knew you had?” he asked with a teasing smile. “Yeah, you are.”

Though he’d planned to go to the marina after the meeting at his parents’ house, Mac found himself driving home instead. He needed to see Maddie. After two years of marriage, his need for her only seemed to grow exponentially every day, and he’d learned not to question it anymore. It just was. She’d know what to say to set him straight again.

He pulled into the driveway at the home he’d once surprised her with. Thinking about that day brought a smile to his face. After a brief time apart that damn near killed him, he’d gotten her back that day, and they’d been together ever since. Bounding up the stairs, he opened the sliding door and came to a stop when he saw her on the sofa holding Hailey as she slept.

Maddie gave him a quizzical look full of questions about what he was doing home early on a workday.

He went to her, took their sleeping daughter from her and walked his baby girl upstairs to her crib, where he tucked her in with a kiss. When he turned to leave Hailey’s room, Maddie was waiting for him in the hallway.

Mac took her hand, led her to their bedroom and shut the door. “Where’s Thomas?”

“At the beach with Tiffany and Ashleigh.”

Mac put his arms around his wife and hugged her.

“What’s wrong? You’re freaking me out.”

“Sorry,” he murmured, his lips finding her neck. As he breathed in the scent of summer flowers, a sense of calm came over him. No matter what happened, he would always have her, and she was all he needed.

“Mac? Honey, what is it?”

“My dad has another kid.”

Her entire body went rigid. “What?”

“Well, I guess she’s not a kid anymore at thirty-nine.”

“Start from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”

Mac told her about the woman who’d come to the marina the day before seeking his father and how she was actually Big Mac’s daughter Mallory.

“Wow,” Maddie said, exhaling a deep breath as she sat on the bed. “So you met her?”