CHAPTER 21
"Thanks for letting us stay here. I didn't want to involve my father in this mess. I would have turned to Em, but she lives with Severide now and he's too close to Matt to be impartial. He'd be at my doorstep within an hour of him finding out I was here," I said. Finn and I had taken up residence in one of the bedrooms of Jace's suite at The Langham for the last couple of nights.
"You're welcome, Cook. You can stay as long as you want.".
"Thanks. I'll have to go back home after work tomorrow. I need to get more clothes for me and Finn," I said.
"I'm having some stuff sent over today...a crib for Finn, a baby monitor, diapers, toys and some clothes for both of you. That way, you won't have to go back to the house."
"You don't have to do that, cowboy," I said.
"It's already done. My people are on it." I suddenly remembered what it meant to have the last name of Walker. Doors opened for you that wouldn't for an ordinary man. That surname carried weight no matter what part of the country you were standing in.
"I can't stay here forever, you know. At some point, I'll have to figure things out."
"OK, but let me take care of you while you're figurin'," he said, tucking my hair behind my left ear.
"I'm grateful for your help, I really am...but I'm not that same young college girl that you met in Cancun. My fingerprints are all over the back of forty now. I've learned to take care of myself."
"I ain't questionin' that. I know full well what you're capable of. I only want to help you."
"How can you help me with this? Ultimately, this is between me and Matthew."
"Fuck Matthew Casey! He's hurt you, Cook...not once but twice. Come back to Texas with me, baby. I would never hurt you the way he has."
"I can't do that." I said, flatly.
"Why not? You loved me once. We were amazin' together, Cook. We could have that again."
"Even if I decided to leave Matt permanently and go to Texas, I could never leave Finn. Surely, you must know that."
"I wasn't proposin' that you leave him, Madeleine."
"I can't take Matt's son away from him either, Jace...no matter what he's done to me. He may have failed me as a husband, but he's a good father."
"Do you still love him?" His question caught me completely off guard. I hadn't let myself think too hard about my feelings for Matt over the last several days. Jace asking set the wheels in motion and if I had to give him an answer, I was inclined to say yes, but I couldn't make my mouth form the word.
"I'm not in the right frame of mind to answer that right now," I said, wiping away a few tears.
"Will you stay here? In Chicago, I mean."
"My whole life is here, Jace...with or without Matt. My job, my father, my friends...everything."
"Then I'll move here. I can't lose you again, Cookie...not twice in the same lifetime."
"We both know you don't belong in Chicago, cowboy."
"Baby, I belong wherever you are."