A Next Door Neighbor For The Cowboy Billionaire (Brookside Ranch Brothers Book 6) Read online

  To his great relief, Madelyn oohed and awed over the food, her eyes closing with enjoyment with each new bite.

  “How are you liking Kerhonkson so far?” he asked.

  “It’s pretty good. I haven’t gotten to know all that many people yet since I work from home and all, so basically the only person I’ve talked to more than once has been Margie,” she began.

  “The bank teller!” Jaxon nodded.

  “Yes! Oh, and Sonja.”

  “From the grocery store,” he said, and Madelyn burst into a fit of giggles.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed. “How did you know that?”

  “There are only seventeen hundred residents here,” he said with amusement. “And I’ve been here for five years. Plus, we bank and shop at the same place. I love Margie. She’s like a second mother to me. Plus, she uses a calculator for everything, right? And I just think there’s something so charming about a bank teller who can’t do unassisted math.”

  “I love her!” Madelyn agreed.

  “Me too. Is this what it was like in Providence at all?”

  “Definitely not. We don’t have Margie or anyone like Margie. We’re also a lot bigger of a town. There’s like, one-hundred and eighty thousand? Something like that? So not a huge city, but a lot bigger than Kerhonkson. What about you—do you like living in a small town?”

  Jaxon considered the question as he cut one of the blueberry pierogis in half. “I hated it when I first moved here. I hated that everybody knew everybody else’s business and how much gossip there was. I hated when people would throw block parties or make their little comments about the ranch.”

  “And now?” she asked.

  “Now...? As weird as it is to say, I kind of love it. It’s like family here.”

  “Doesn’t it ever drive you crazy that there’s...” she trailed off.

  “Nothing to do?” he finished. “I mean, I guess so. Sometimes. But we’re not far from bigger cities, plus, I’m so busy with the ranch. Plus, it’s a great place to raise a family.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ah, my girlfriend and I, we were going to start a family here. Until she bailed,” he said with venom, cursing himself for even bringing the subject up. The last thing Madelyn needed was a rundown of his messed up romantic life.

  Madelyn nodded knowingly and said, “Relationships.”

  “Yeah, relationships.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure small towns are probably not the greatest place to raise your kids,” she offered.

  He narrowed his brows. “Why’s that?”

  “There’s nothing to do.”

  “Yeah, exactly. Nowhere to get into trouble,” he added.

  Madelyn offered him a wry, sexy smile. She tapped her nose as she said, “That’s why you learn to make your own trouble.”

  “Oh geez, I’d never thought of it that way,” he laughed.

  “Okay, let’s to rocket-fire questions!”

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “Best song ever?”

  “’Freebird.’”

  Madelyn’s face soured and she gave a playful roll of her eyes as she said, “Be serious.”

  “I am! It’s a classic,” he said. “What about you?”

  “‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ Now that’s a classic!” she said, and he was immediately charmed by her. “Next. What’s your favorite color?”

  “Blue,” he said.

  “Mine too!” she cheered. “Favorite drink?”

  “Coke.”

  “Yuck! Rot your teeth, why don’t you? Mine’s water.”

  “Wow. Water? Bo-ring!” he said, and they both chuckled.

  There was something surprisingly easy about talking to Madelyn. She had a playfully judgmental attitude about things, yet in the same breath seemed soft and gentle.

  He wondered, briefly, what it might be like to be with her, to kiss her, to wake up next to her, then banished the thought from his mind.

  “Are you seeing anyone?” she asked, pulling his thoughts back up to the surface.

  “No,” he said. “You?”

  “No. The last time I was with someone was, like, three and a half years ago.”

  “Messy breakup?” he asked—aren’t they all?

  “Understatement of the year,” she offered. “But yes.”

  “Same. Except mine was just a few months ago. I was never ‘let’s get married’ guy.”

  “Isn’t that any guy?” she teased.

  Jaxon shrugged. “Ask my brothers. All of them are in long-term relationships. They thought love was everything. I’ve seen them go through these super complicated breakups. I’ve seen then in on-again-off-again toxic relationships. I’ve seen them lose spouses to death, raise kids alone. You name it; I’ve probably seen it.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, checking her nails. “I’m pretty sure I could still give you a run for your money.”

  “Then color me impressed,” he said, and Madelyn adorably pretended to paint him with a paintbrush.

  “You were saying? Not a marriage guy?”

  “Right,” he nodded. “Until I met my ex.”

  “And let me guess: after you met her, you turned into the lovestruck, ooey-gooey mess that you swore you’d never become?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “I wanted to be with her forever, have kids, the whole nine yards.”

  “Ah, I’m sorry. That really sucks. What happened?”

  His eyes went wide as he said, “Apparently, she wanted to have a kid, but felt so-so about the ‘stay together forever’ part of the plan.”

  Madelyn sat a little straighter. She leaned in with her chin resting in her palm as she repeated, “You have kids?”

  “One,” he said. “We had him, and after a while, she decided she didn’t want to commit. How does anybody do that? You have a kid and then just go, oh, you know what? Forget it. I don’t feel like being a parent anymore.”

  “You were right. That is a complicated story,” she said, then trailed back to what he had just admitted. “I didn’t know you had a child. All this time, I’ve never seen you out and about with a little one. Girl or boy?”

  “Boy,” he said fondly. “And yeah, he is with his nanny a lot. Once I’m home, we usually chill out together in front of the TV. Usually, I try and take him out on the weekends, but...what can I say? You caught us on a lazy week.”

  “How old is he?” she asked.

  “Two and a half.”

  She swallowed. “Wow. Great age.”

  “Yeah,” he said, though left out saying that the “terrible two’s” was more than just a rumor.

  “What’s his name?” she asked.

  “Sutton,” he said. “Sutton Brooks.”

  6

  Madelyn

  All this time, Madelyn had agonized about how she was going to find her son, how she could possibly narrow down who his parents were, and in the blink of an eye, the answer fell right into her lap.

  He had been living right next door to her this whole time.

  Madelyn could hardly get through the rest of the dinner without getting emotional. She didn’t know whether to burst out crying and come clean to Jaxon or play it cool and do her best at getting close to the boy.

  She chose the latter.

  Sutton.

  It was the name Madelyn had given her son. It was the one she had signed on her adoption papers, begging the new parents not to change it—and apparently, they hadn’t.

  Jaxon never insinuated that Sutton was adopted and even used terminology that suggested Sutton was his biological son, such as “when we had Sutton”—but Madelyn knew otherwise.

  His name, his age, the neighborhood the child lived in—he had to be hers.

  It was all she could do not to burst into excited giggles or a nervous sweat for the rest of her evening with Jaxon.

  She wanted so desperately to meet his son and even asked to when they go back to their neighborhood—after what felt lik
e the world’s longest hike through the state park to see the Awosting waterfall—but Jaxon said it was too late.

  He assured her she would meet Sutton one day, and she knew her heart would be pounding until she could lay eyes on the child.

  “Give him a piece of you, Madelyn.”

  These were the words of her grandmother, May.

  When she gave birth to Sutton, May was the only one at the hospital with her.

  She lay with Sutton on her chest, trying desperately to feed, but Madelyn was too weak to help the infant along.

  Given her illness, she hadn’t given much thought to what would happen after her child was born. She should have been picking out names and making plans for the nursery, but instead, she was dealing with debilitating back pain, infections, and extreme fatigue.

  Once he was in her arms, it didn’t even feel real.

  “I don’t want him to have a piece of me,” Madelyn cried, looking down at the little porcelain baby and then to her withered body. “I don’t want him to have any part of me.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that,” May said, rubbing her hand along Madelyn’s arm.

  Madelyn looked over at her grandmother with a sudden calm. And then it occurred to her. “I want him to have a piece of you,” she said. “I want to name him Sutton.”

  Sutton was her grandmother’s maiden name and it was what all of May’s closest friends had been calling her since the nineteen-sixties.

  Madelyn could think of no one else she would rather name her baby boy after.

  “Perfect,” her grandmother said, touched.

  She remembered exactly what Sutton looked like as a baby. He had dark hair and the bluest eyes. She knew that children’s features changed drastically from birth to one year old and wondered if his dark hair had gone blonde or if he’d lost his little dimples.

  Madelyn spent several more days with Jaxon Brooks, but she never caught sight of his son. She started to wonder if maybe Jaxon’s ex had custody of the boy or if the reveal of her son being her next-door neighbor was something she thought up in a daydream.

  She also wondered why Jaxon and his girlfriend had broken up.

  How close were Jaxon and his ex? They must have been serious about one another if they adopted a child together. She wondered how Jaxon felt about unexpectedly becoming a single father. Then she wondered what kind of monster his ex was to leave the child she’d been raising.

  Then again, her ex, Travis, did the same thing when he found out Madelyn was pregnant. It was something she could never forgive him for.

  One Sunday, weeks after her move, Madelyn saw Jax come home in a black escalade and take a dark-haired toddler out of the car seat in the back. She only saw him for a moment, but it was enough to bring memories rushing back.

  “Hey, is that your little one?” she asked. “Your Sutton?”

  Her Sutton.

  “This is he,” Jaxon said, lifting the boy slightly. She could see a tuft of dark hair, but the boy’s face was mostly obscured as he nuzzled against his father’s shoulder. “We were off at the ranch with the horses. Tuckered him out, I guess.”

  “Or bored him to sleep,” she teased, trying not to sound too eager as she sprung up from her front porch.

  Jax chuckled and watched as Madelyn walked to her porch rail. “Can I meet him?” she asked.

  “Ah, he’s sleeping,” he said, not missing a beat. He kept walking toward his front door, and she couldn’t help but feel that somehow, deep down, he knew Madelyn’s interest in Sutton wasn’t so innocent.

  With one hand on his front door handle, Jaxon turned towards Madelyn’s house and said, “He’s just been really tired today and so he’s cranky. That’s the fun of kids.”

  She would take a thousand cranky days with Sutton than ever live another day without him.

  “No problem,” she said with a smile.

  That was the first missed opportunity to meet her son.

  Sutton remained the elusive toddler, and Madelyn felt more and more like the creepy neighbor as she sat in her office, staring out the slats of the window to peer into Jaxon’s backyard as the adoptive father played with her little boy.

  Her heart raced with excitement as she caught glimpses of his little features.

  She needed to find a way to get closer to her next-door neighbors. She knew she couldn’t rush it, but she was so desperate to reunite with her son.

  In the days that passed, her emotions were all over the place. She thought a lot about her ex, about the fall of her health, and about the choice to give up her son.

  The cold beginning of June was starting to fade into proper summer heat, and Madelyn was spending more time out on her front porch, reading or sifting through work.

  It was early one Sunday morning, out on her porch while taking in the first summer breeze of the day and sipping coffee, when her uncle called her.

  “Hey, kid,” he said. “How are you settling in down there?”

  “Good,” she said. “How are things back in Boston?”

  “Pretty good, pretty good. How are you feeling?”

  “Great,” she said hesitantly. “Why, what’s up?”

  “You up for a job?” her uncle said over the line, and she could hear his smile creeping into his tone.

  “Seriously?”

  “It’s a simple job,” he said almost defensively. “Woman’s wondering if her husband is cheating. He’s been spending a little too much overtime at work down at an accounting office in Tribeca. You think you can handle it? We just need you to follow him around for a couple of days with one of our girls, Sarah. Snap some photos, the works. You think you can handle it?”

  “Yeah, sounds perfect,” Madelyn said, excited and eager to get back to the work that she had once been so passionate about.

  “We’re gonna be shooting you a couple of jobs for the next couple of months. Nothing big, and not always on your own, alright? But I want to put you out there, get you back into it. You’ve got a knack for this, kid.”

  “Thanks, Uncle Jim.”

  “Alright, alright,” he said quickly. “Gotta go, Maddie. I’ll send you the brief to your work e-mail, got it?”

  “Got it, thanks,” she said before hanging up the phone.

  Madelyn was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. It had been so long since she felt useful to anyone.

  She knew her uncle was taking a chance on her. She hadn’t worked a job alone for years. Not since before she got sick. But she was ready for this.

  She spent the rest of the morning being productive—finishing up some paperwork, cleaning the house, and finally tackling the overgrown front lawn.

  Madelyn always loved it when people made fancy designs on their lawns. Back and forth cut rows of grass that seemed to bend in opposite ways, checks, chevron patterns. She tried her hand at it with her lawnmower, but all she seemed to make was a mess.

  “Well, if it isn’t my favorite neighbor,” Jaxon shouted over the sound of the lawnmower, smiling as he approached her.

  “Hey,” she said, cutting the engine.

  “What are you doing?” he said.

  “As is perfectly apparent,” she said, gesturing around herself, “cutting the lawn.”

  “Is that what you call that?” he teased.

  Madelyn tilted her head and smirked. “Why? You think you could do a better job?”

  “I could try,” he said, gesturing toward the push handle of the mower. “In fact, there’s a lot I could do to that old property.”

  “Like what?” she dared.

  “Mow the lawn, put in a vegetable garden, flowers, mulch. Whatever suits your fancy,” he shrugged.

  “You’re like my very own landscaping company rolled up into one handsome ball,” she flirted.

  “Here, let me,” he said, taking over for her and creating an awesome diamond checkerboard pattern across her lawn.

  Looks aside, Jax had a presence about him that Madelyn had never encountered before. He was instantaneously likable—
friendly, a conversationalist, willing to talk to everybody regardless of age or race, with the same interest and charisma that he might talk to one of his best friends.

  Madelyn wanted to hate him. She wanted to detest the man who was raising her child—the one preventing her from resuming the life she had dreamed for herself. But she couldn’t do it.

  Jax was kind and handsome, funny and talkative. In another life, he would have been somebody Madelyn would have pursued romantically.

  Then, as she watched him pushing the mower back and forth across her lawn and wiping the sweat from his brow, she wondered: why shouldn’t she pursue him?

  The spark between them was almost palpable. Her attraction to him, physically and otherwise, was so strong it pulled her toward him like a magnet. And most importantly, he was the stand-in father of her child.

  If she did go after him and everything worked out, then she would be back in Sutton’s life, and that was the most important thing of all.

  “Hey, Jax?” she called out, waving to get his attention.

  He cut the mower and raised his brows curiously at her. “Hm?”

  “Do you want to go out sometime?” she said, tilting her head to the side and putting on her best charming smile.

  “Like a date?” he joked; a callback to one of their earlier conversations.

  Madelyn pressed her lips together. “Actually, yeah. Exactly like a date.”

  7

  Jaxon

  Jaxon fixed the top button of his polo and stared in the bathroom mirror to inspect himself. On the dark granite countertop was his cellphone. Jaxon had been talking to Hunter about his poor decision to accept a date with Madelyn Woodward.

  “Should I cancel?” he asked.

  “What?” Hunter scoffed, his voice echoing through the speakerphone against the bathroom counter. “No way! Why would you cancel?”

  “I don’t know, it feels weird or something,” he said, embarrassed at how ridiculous he sounded.

  No matter how much he wished otherwise, somewhere, on some deep, twisted level, he still felt compelled to stay faithful to Skylar.

  “So, what’s the problem?” Hunter asked. “Go on the date!”