Read Online The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) by Victoria Purman - Free Book Online

it was an enormous sacrifice—while Maggie had run some errands and shopped at the grocery store. When she’d come home, she’d found Evan eating lunch—another thing Cooper had taken care of—so she’d hit the computer for a couple of hours. She didn’t normally work on the weekends but, givenshe’d lost valuable time that week being with Cooper in hospital, she had to make up some hours for a couple of clients. Maggie liked to be diligent and hand in work on time. Her reputation was everything and, safe in the knowledge that Evan was completely enthralled with Cooper’s choice of entertainment, she burrowed herself away in her office slash bedroom and worked. And she worked carefully andfast. She’d had no other choice being a single mom who worked from home. On weekdays, once Evan was in school, she rarely stopped for lunch. She didn’t have the safety net of another income earner in the house so she worked. And then picked up Evan and came home and shrugged off her accountant persona and became his mom. It wasn’t the life she’d expected but she loved her son and she loved her lifewith him.
    Her phone rang. It was her mom. She loved her mom to bits, too. She leaned back in her chair and pressed her phone to her ear. ‘Hey there.’
    ‘Hello, darling. How’s everything there at General Hospital ?’
    Maggie laughed. ‘I take it you mean with my patient?’
    ‘Of course. Has he asked you to give him a sponge bath yet?’
    ‘Mom!’ Maggie spluttered and tried to hear the joke in the wordsbut her cheeks flamed. They wouldn’t normally redden after such a raucous comment from her mother—neither of them were prudish—but the thought of Cooper and a sponge bath made her think about him being naked and wet and then she had a flash of how it had felt to be in his arms, the warmth and the shock of how good it felt, the tremor of her heartbeat while she stood there barely dressed, with hiseyes on her breasts.
    Maggie pulled herself back from the memory. ‘What are you up to today?’
    ‘Well, I figured you might need a night off after looking after two boys for a couple of days. Would you like me to have Evan over here for a sleepover tonight? I thought I might make pizzas and then take him to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning. We could pick up some things for lunch and then comehome and share it all with you. How does that sound?’
    Maggie sighed with relief. ‘Oh, Mom, that sounds perfect.’
    ‘I’ll be round in an hour.’
    Maggie thanked her mother, ended the call and rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. Evan normally loved spending time with his grandma, and Serena made up for the fact that she was effectively his only grandparent by lavishing the little boy with attentionand affection. But things had changed in his world in the past couple of days and now Maggie wasn’t sure how Evan would take the news, given Cooper’s presence. Dragging her son away from his new sleepover friend might be harder than she imagined, but Maggie found her resolve. She needed to go to bed early and get the best night’s sleep she’d ever had, including a rare Sunday sleep-in. Tonight,she could make things easy for her and Cooper by ordering in some take out.
    It sounded like a plan.
    She went to the living room and waited until the end of the cartoon they were watching, then perched herself on one of the sofa’s over-stuffed arms. The credits rolled and Evan tugged on Cooper’s hand.
    ‘Cooper Cooper Cooper. Can we watch another one?’
    Cooper looked up at Maggie with raised eyebrows.

    ‘Actually, Evan,’ she began with her mom voice. ‘Grandma’s invited you over for pizza night and a sleepover. It’s been ages since you’ve seen Muffin and he really needs a hug from you.’ Muffin was Serena’s ginger cat. It was bribery, Maggie knew it, but she was a mom with a plan and sometimes had to use every tool in her tool box.
    Evan’s face fell. ‘But I don’t want to go to Grandma’s. I wantto