Shattered Hearts A MFM Love Story

~ ~ Maddy ~ ~

~ ~ Three years later ~ ~

“What’s times Casey gettin’ here?” Our sister was late for everything.

Riley Jo lifted the jug and poured out some more lemonade into her tall glass. “Any minute now. She’s picking up Danny on her way over.”

“Any change with her and Danny?”

Her and Danny for the past three years now have been doing the let’s pretend there’s nothing between us dance.

They ain’t foolin’ no one.

“Don’t even get me started,” she huffs. “That girl needs to get her head out of her ass before it’s too late,” she warns.

“Riley Jo!” I chastise, faking outrage because I know she’s right. “It’s none of our business.”

My sister puffs out her chest. “Pu-leeze,” she scoffs. “You’ve met that woman he’s dating, right?”

Riley Jo breathes out noisily. Danny has been dating a high-flying lawyer. ‘City-Girl’ as my nana calls her. Looks down her nose at everyone who doesn’t wear Prada or Chanel and drives one of those fancy European cars.

I think what everyone took umbrage with was that her family is friends with the Stantons. So you can imagine what my sister and Adam think about that.

But honestly, I don’t know what he sees in her either. Maybe it's the never-ending legs or ample breasts that have some kind of spell on him? He was a man after all, albeit one of the good ones.

Taking a sip of my sweet tea, the laughter of children running around the place and the sounds of Taylor bleed into the early afternoon summer breeze.

It’s Gracie’s birthday. Today, my beautiful niece turned four. And my sister, Riley Jo, was throwing the biggest darn four-year-old birthday party in the history of Lockwood Creek.

They have spared no expense, with horseback riding. Clowns and a magician. Not to mention acrobats and so many Disney characters you can’t swing a cat without hitting one. And it wouldn’t surprise if Taylor Swift shows up any second.

“There is nothing more sexy than a man holding a baby,” Riley Jo hums.

My eyes follow to where she is looking, and I can see all the men are in a huddle, keeping far enough away from all the kids running around but close enough to the barbecue and drink tables.

All their heads bob, talking animatedly between themselves. And weaving between their legs is mine and Riley Jo’s godson, Jake. Connor and Max’s son. He’s the same age as Riley Jo’s son.

But what steals my attention is what’s in the arms of my husbands.

My entire world, our children.

Jackson is holding our little girl, Delilah and Logan is holding our son, Grayson, and I have to agree with my sister. Watching them both with our children warms my heart and I love them even more.

Our twins will be five months old in a few days and whenever I hold them, I experience a feeling of weightlessness in my lungs that spreads through my limbs. Jackson, Logan and I made these precious little humans, and the notion still floats around me like a dream.

There are days I have to pinch myself to prove I’m not dreaming because there was a time—a dark time when I thought children wouldn’t be in our future. But Jackson and Logan never doubted or lost faith, and we put our trust in modern medicine and on our second attempt at IVF, they gave us the news.

I was pregnant.

Now, I would love to say my pregnancy was stress-free, but as with everything else in my life, I had to do it the hard way and in month five; they put me on bed rest as I had a condition called placenta previa.

Although we knew I could go into labour earlier because of my condition, it was still scary when my waters broke six weeks before my expected due date. But by the grace of god, everything turned out fine and every stressful second was so worth it when my baby’s cries filled the delivery room and I held them in my arms.

But that’s not our only surprise. A few days back, I’d been feeling all kinds of under the weather, and could hardly hold anything down. And when Logan insisted, I took a pregnancy test.

I told him he was flat-out crazy.

Turns out he wasn’t crazy at all. I was pregnant.

And nine tests later and a conversation with our doctors. They told us this had been known to happen. So I just accepted it for what it was—another miracle.

We’d not told anyone yet, wanting to keep it to ourselves for now, but we couldn’t be happier.

Placing a hand on my tummy, I stroke it, already feeling so much love for the tiny life growing inside me.

“So when are you fixin’ to tell me, those boys have got you in trouble again?” asks Riley Jo and my gaze swings left to meet her curious eyes.

I feign confusion, nudging my brows together dramatically. “What you going on ’bout— trouble?”

Her green eyes lower, settling on my belly. “Don’t you be acting all innocent.” She waved a hand over me as her dark eyebrows spike. “Can’t fool me. I’ve got a nose for these things.”

My jaw drops. I don’t know why I’m even surprised. She knows me better than I know myself.

“We only just found out.”

She leans over and kisses my cheek. “It’s wonderful, Maddy. Happy for y’alls.”

“Maaaaamaaa.”

Our heads both turn toward Gracie, running at full pelt toward us. Her pigtails are flopping all over the place as her pink princess dress flutters around her knees. She is also wearing princess slippers. They can’t get her to take them off.

She wears them everywhere, and Riley Jo says she even tries to get into bed with them on!

“Hey, baby. You enjoying your birthday?”

Her head bobs like it has a mind of its own as she climbs onto my sister’s lap with one arm curling around Riley Jo’s neck.

Little Gracie here is the perfect blend of Adam and Riley Jo. But hands down, she has my sister’s infectious personality.

“So, what’s got you running over here?” She cuddled her. “Why are you not with your friends?”

Gracie frowned, and still, she looks so damn adorable. “Because I wanna be big,” she says with a pout and yeah, even that is adorable.

“And why do you want to be big?” asks Riley Jo.

“Because I wanna get married.”

Me and Riley Jo share a look.

“And who are you planning to marry?”

“Wyatt!” she smiles brightly as if it’s obvious.

Riley Jo laughs. “Wyatt, huh?” Gracie gives her an enthusiastic nod as she scratches her nose.

Wyatt is a boy Adam met, three years back. At the graveyard, of all places.

Well, he’s not really a boy. He’s sixteen. Adam knew his father. He worked at Mercy. Both his parents did. But sadly, they lost their lives in a car accident and now he and his brother live with their grandmother, but the pair spend just as much time here, helping Riley Jo and Wyatt has an interest in medicine too.

And Riley Jo, being as she is, treats them like they’re family. Mothers them.

I don’t doubt she loves them just as much as if they were her own.

But next year, Wyatt has big plans. Planning on leaving us to go to college on the other side of the country and thanks to Adam, that dream will be a reality.

And Gracie here will not be happy about that.

“Don’t you think he’s a bit old for you, baby?”

Gracie shakes her head adamantly. “No.”

And now her smile is hiding behind a quivering chin. “Can I be big, Mama?”

Riley Jo sweeps a tangled dark strand of hair from her face.

“Wyatt says...” She sniffs and fetches her arms from around Riley Jo’s neck and crosses her little arms. “He says he can’t marry me because I’m not big.”

Riley Jo grins, and I can tell she doesn’t want to ruin her baby girl’s big day. “Pfft. Boys are dumb.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “Trust me. He’s gonna wait till you get big and then he will be askin’ you to marry him.”

“He will?” There’s so much hope in her green eyes it tugs at my own heart.

“Sure. But think on this.”

Gracie nods, listening. “You’re gonna grow up so beautiful that every man in this state and the one over is gonna want to marry you. So just keep that in mind, ’kay?”

My niece looks like she’s thinkin’ on it.

“Now. How’s ’bout you run and find your brother and Nana Em and Stella and tell them we’re about ready to cut into that pretty princess cake of yours?”

Riley Jo and Adam have a son, Jonah. He’s two years old and already has one of those smiles that has women young and old drop everything and make a fuss of him.

For sure, he’s gonna be trouble when he grows up.

Gracie’s eyes light up in an instant, her quivering chin replaced by a toothy grin. “Okay, Mama!”

She hops off Riley Jo’s knee and her little legs work fast with her head shooting all over the place, looking for her brother and our Nana.

“Do you think you should encourage that?”

Riley Jo picks up her drink and sips. “I ain’t gonna tell my baby girl she can’t have dreams.”

I get that. Our mama did nothing but crush ours.

“And who knows,” she shrugged. “The way he fusses on her, they might get married.”

We both laugh and then stop when we hear a high-pitched cry.

Riley Jo shoots up off her chair, almost dropping her glass. Gracie has fallen over and is now flat on her face. However, before my sister makes it off the porch. There to pick her up, is Wyatt.

Just like that, all worry and fear lifts and sweeps away with the warm breeze.

Riley Jo doesn’t sit back down, but lifts a hand, pointing. “And look how protective of her he is. No wonder she wants to marry him.”

Watching them, he brushes the hair from her reddened face and presses a kiss to her forehead and Gracie stops crying.

My sister puts down her drink and skips down the steps and makes her way over to her daughter.

My gaze swings back to my husbands and as if they know I’m watching, both heads turn and they start to make their way toward me.

“All good?” I ask them as Jackson dips his head and kisses me before setting Delilah in my arms.

“Perfect baby.” He sits next to me and Logan kisses the top of my head and takes the seat on the other side.

“You feein’ okay, sweetheart?” I know they both worry about me having another difficult pregnancy and Logan worries a little more than most.

But as long as the outcome is good. I don’t care.

“I’m good,” I say, sighing out.

Life is great. Better than great.

Our ranch is thriving, and my family is happy and healthy. We have an unbreakable bond, and it shines in the eyes of the men by my side.

Love.

The most powerful force in the universe and I was lucky to not just have one amazing man who loves me...but two.

The End

~ ~ ~

AN: Now I know some of you will be thinking, those Stantons got away with murder, well, I need them around for future stories and for those who might be yelling, what happened to Casey!? Well, she's getting her own little story because I'll be damned if she doesn't get a happy ending! And did you see what I did above... Yeah, you can already see the next generation of Lockwood stories... kicking off with Gracie’s story. And it means I get to write more Adam and Riley Jo! But in the meantime, Chris's story is up next... and yeah, I'm a sucker for age-gap, so I will crack on in a few days uploading that story, although it's not finished, but I'm nearly there!