Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (157 page)

I let him out of the car and watched him
race towards the front door of the clinic as fast as he could; his limp was
almost completely gone, and I thought that it was just as well that I’d managed
to luck into a chance to make things right with Mack when I had—Landon couldn’t
possibly have too many sessions left before Mack cleared him.

I locked up the car and waited for a
moment before following my son into the clinic. I opened the door and saw that
he had somehow managed to convince Mack to come out from the back right away.
She was standing frozen in shock, staring at the flowers, the sweetest smile on
her face that I had ever seen in my life. I strode from the door to where
Mackenzie and Landon stood, and she looked up from the bouquet, her eyes still
showing her shock. She shook her head, and smiled again. “You remembered.”

“I did,” I said, nodding. The other
members of the staff had gone quiet; everyone was watching us. “I know you
wanted to keep things professional whenever we’re here together, but I wanted
to show you how sorry I am that I let everything fall apart the way I did.”

“It’s—no, it’s fine,” Mack said quickly.
“I’m just so surprised you were able to get peonies…and that you brought them…”
She looked down at Landon and then looked at me again. “They’re beautiful.”

“That was the first part,” I said, smiling
still. “I was also wondering if you had any plans for after you get done with
work for the day.”

“No,” she said.

“Would you do Landon and me the honor of
coming to dinner with us? I know you have to do some more things after the
session is over, but we can wait for you.”

“You want to take me to dinner with you
and Landon?”

I chuckled at the sheer surprise in her
voice. “I do. And Landon wants to go out with us, too,” I said, reaching out
and fondling my son’s hair.

“Does that sound good to you?”

“It does,” Mack said. She buried her face
against the peony blooms and I saw her take a deep breath. “No one in this
office is ever going to let me live this down,” she told me, grinning wryly.
“But it is totally worth it.” She took another deep breath and I saw one of her
hands dart up to dash away a couple of what I hoped were happy tears. “Let’s
head to the back and I’ll put these in some water.” She looked down at Landon.
“We’ve wasted too much time on your session sport.”

“Let’s get to work then,” I agreed. “The
sooner we get started, the sooner we can meet you outside to go to dinner.”

The session itself went by faster than I
thought it would, and Landon was still brimming with energy by the time
Mackenzie told him he was done for the day; he hopped up and down while she and
I went through the motions of being professional, discussing his progress. She
told me that she thought that by the next week, she could re-evaluate his
condition and that she might be able to even move him down to once or twice per
week sessions for a few more weeks, and then discharge him to go about his life
as normal.

“I just need to do some paperwork and then
I can meet you outside,” Mack told me, glancing at the bouquet that she’d put
into a vase of water before we’d started the session. “I have a change of
clothes in my locker too, if you can wait for me.”

“You look beautiful no matter what you
wear,” I told her. The rest of the staff at the clinic had looked at us over
and over again during the session, grinning in a truly happy way.

“Give me maybe fifteen minutes, and I’ll
be right out,” Mack told me.

“Remember to take the flowers with you!”
Someone told her.

“I will,” Mack said, rolling her eyes.
“Hurry up and make your escape before someone finds the mistletoe from the holiday
party.” I laughed and made my retreat, leading Landon through the waiting room
and out to the car outside.

“What are you going to get at the
restaurant, buddy?” I asked my son while we settled in to wait for Mackenzie to
be able to leave the office.

“Mozzarella sticks!” I laughed at his
choice.

“You’re going to need more than that,” I
pointed out. We discussed the different things that he could make a dinner out
of, and fifteen minutes later—maybe a little less—I saw Mackenzie come out of
the building and head for the parking structure. She looked around and I honked
the horn to get her attention, rolling down my window. Mack started slightly at
the loudness of the car horn and then hurried over to my SUV, smiling and
carrying the flowers I’d gotten for her in the vase she’d put them in.

“They told me I could leave my car here if
I had to,” Mackenzie told me. “I have tomorrow off, I can take the bus up here
from my apartment.”

“Hurry up and get in before you freeze,” I
told her, unlocking the car door. Mackenzie handed me the flowers and then
hurried around to the passenger side, and I realized that she had taken the
time to change into a pair of jeans and a sweater under her big coat.

In minutes we were out in the Chicago
traffic. Mackenzie turned around, peering over the back of her seat to talk to
Landon. “Do you know where we’re going for dinner?”

“
Ed
Debevic’s
!” Landon exclaimed, looking pleased with himself that he had
managed to get the name out clearly.

“Oh? Awesome!” Mack glanced at me and grinned.
“That sounds like the perfect place for everyone to find something.”

“There’s another reason for it,” I told
her, licking my lips and stopping as smoothly as I could at a light. I looked
at Mack, wondering if I was overplaying my hand a little bit. “It’s the first
restaurant that Joanne and I took Landon to, a couple of months after he was
born.”

“Really?” Mack looked at me sharply for a
moment and then her expression softened. “I’m flattered.”

“Obviously Landon wasn’t eating actual
food then, and we went during their quiet hours instead of during the dinner
rush, but Joanne had been craving their chili fries ever since she’d
delivered.” I smiled, remembering that we’d put off going in the hope that we’d
be able to use it as our celebration of successful treatment of Joanne’s
cancer; instead, when it became clear that the treatment wasn’t going to work,
we’d stopped the chemo and gone that same night to the restaurant, bringing in
a sleeping infant and going to town on all of our favorite foods until we were
uncomfortably full.

“She seems to have been a woman with very
good taste,” Mack said.

“Dad says she had horrible taste—she
married him.”

I snorted, shaking my head at what Landon
felt the need to contribute to the conversation.

“That was a joke Bud,” I told my son.

“Well I think she must have been a
beautiful, wonderful woman,” Mack said, looking from me to Landon. “Your dad
has worked hard to make sure you’re growing up to be a good kid, but I think
your mom must have been great for him to be so successful.”

We arrived at the restaurant; it was just
starting to get busy, with people coming in as much for the warmth as to eat
dinner, and I was glad that we were able to get a table—and that Mack hadn’t
needed another fifteen minutes, though I would have given them to her if she’d
asked.

I ordered the mozzarella sticks that
Landon wanted, but under Mack’s influence, my son ordered pot roast instead of
his usual chicken strips, and when I asked him whether he’d eat the vegetables
if I got it for him, he just gave me a look that told me I was embarrassing
him. Mack ordered the meatloaf, and I got a burger.

I had worried more than a little that
Landon wouldn’t be up to behaving himself through dinner, with Mack there and
with the noisy atmosphere of a restaurant after being so hyped up from his PT
session; but he was polite, letting Mack and me talk, sticking with his
coloring or playing with one of the toys I’d let him bring with him into the
restaurant. Mack made a point of asking him about school, about soccer, all the
things that Landon loved.

By the time we ordered a dessert to share,
I had relaxed completely. Landon was perfectly fine with Mack outside of the
session, and Mack was able to handle my son just as well in a restaurant as she
did while she was putting him through physical therapy. Everyone was happy—most
of all me. “I just have to drop him off at my sister’s,” I told Mack.

“Can’t I stay with you guys?” Landon asked
from the back seat of the car.

“Not tonight bud,” I told him. “Mack and I
need a little time alone.” I looked over at the woman I loved and grinned.

“Maybe next time we all do dinner together
we can go home and you and I can work on that kite,” Mack suggested.
Immediately Landon was on board, and the whole way to my sister’s house that
was all he wanted to talk about. I couldn’t wait to get him to Jess’ place so
that I could be alone with Mack—it had been far, far too long since we’d been
alone together.

Chapter Three -Mackenzie

“Are you sure you want to go home with me?
I mean—if you do, I’m totally thrilled, but I can drop you off at your car if
you want to wait a little bit.”

I grinned at Patrick as I fastened my
seatbelt. I was a little uneasy at the fact that I had started to become turned
on while Landon was still with us, but now that Patrick and I were alone
together, I wouldn’t have let him drop me off at my car if he paid me.

“I am absolutely sure that if you try to
avoid sex with me, I’m going to be disappointed no matter how great the rest of
the night has gone,” I told him. Patrick chuckled and turned the key in the
ignition, starting up the car. He pulled out of the driveway and turned onto
the street, and as soon as he straightened the car out, he reached over and
took my hand in his.

“I’m not even sure if the apartment is
worth seeing,” Patrick told me, shaking his head and smiling. “It’s pretty much
a constant disaster area, no matter how often I make Landon clean up after
himself.”

I shrugged, rubbing my thumb against his
palm. “You live with a five-year-old boy,” I pointed out. “I would be more
weirded out if your place was absolutely spotless.”

“As long as you know what you’re getting
into,” Patrick said, raising an eyebrow. I giggled and nodded.

“I can deal with some mess,” I told him
again. “I’m just glad to be alone with you again.”

“You have no idea,” Patrick told me, his
hand tightening on mine. “I kept wishing I could spend the day with you all
alone ever since the last date.”

“Even with how weird things were?”

I looked at Patrick sharply. It was hard
to believe that even when things had been strained between us—and I still
didn’t quite know why—he had been thinking about me, wanting to be alone with
me.

“That was my fault,” Patrick said,
shifting uncomfortably.

“How’s that?” I kept playing my thumb
against his warm, dry palm, tracing the lines as Patrick drove us out of
Jessica’s neighborhood and towards his place.

“I got all in my own head,” Patrick
explained. “I had been…well, I guess you probably realize that with Landon I
have to be pretty serious about anyone that I date. I can’t just have a lot of
casual flings.”

“I can get that,” I said, nodding.

“And things had been going so well between
us that I wanted to kind of—sound you out, I guess. See if you were looking for
something more than what we’d been up to.”

“Not looking for it exactly,” I said,
thinking about what he said. “But I’m not against the idea of things getting
serious.”

“I was trying to find out without being
direct,” Patrick said. He sighed. “That was why I asked you all those questions
about getting married and having kids. I wanted to know whether you’d be okay
becoming part of a family.”

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” I
told him. “I’m…” I took a deep breath and tried to think of how to say what I
wanted to say. “I was worried that you wouldn’t think I’d be a good part of
Landon’s life. And I don’t know if I’m exactly ready, but I’m not—I’m not
against the idea of becoming a more stable part of you and Landon’s life.”

“One of the things Jessica beat me up over
was the fact that I didn’t just ask you outright what you wanted—and what you
were comfortable with—in the relationship,” Patrick said. He shook his head
briefly. “I can see I was just being an idiot.”

“Well I wasn’t exactly at my best on that
either,” I said; I didn’t want him to feel completely horrible about how things
had almost gone wrong between us. It was only fair to take my own part of the
responsibility. “I didn’t really know what to say when you asked about family
and marriage…it’s been so long since I’ve really thought about it as something
I could have.”

“I’m glad that we had a chance to talk
alone,” Patrick said. “I’m not about to tell Landon that you’re going to be his
new mom, but I wanted to make sure everything was clear between us, and that we
both knew where we stood.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. My heart
beat faster in my chest; I’d never been to Patrick’s place but from the way he
was driving I could tell we were getting closer by the moment.
 
He turned into a driveway outside of a
nice-looking clump of row houses, and let go of my hand long enough to park the
car before turning to me once more.