Goliath walked over to her with his eyebrows furrowed with concern and gave her a light kiss on her forehead. “She’ll have them in the morning. Now, why don’t you go rest for a bit while we get dinner ready? You look exhausted.”
“Okay. I could use a little break. Just call me when it’s ready,” she told him. Before she turned to leave, she reached up and kissed him on the lips.
I felt a twinge of jealousy as I watched them together. They had it all… they were a family and John Warren was the one that brought them together. I wondered if Maverick felt the same way. Did it hurt him to see them together, to see the family that he didn’t have?
I leaned over to him and said, “Hey.”
“Hey. How did things go today?” he asked.
“I had a great time, but I’m sure you already knew that, since you were there the whole time,” I answered.
“Just keeping an eye on things,” he said, sounding almost defensive.
“You should’ve spent some time with John Warren or Gavin. You didn’t have to spend the day watching over me. It’s not like anyone would follow us all the way to Tennessee.”
“Not taking any chances,” he said as he handed John Warren his sippy cup. I’ll admit it. I liked that, even with everything that was going on in his life, he was still there looking out for me.
“So… did everything go okay this morning?” I was almost afraid to ask. Lily told me about the DNA test, and I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about me knowing.
“Not much to it,” he mumbled. His shoulders grew tense, obviously not wanting to talk about it.
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll go call Cassidy and check in. I know she’ll be worried. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
“Take your time. It’s going to take them awhile to get dinner ready,” he explained.
When I got up from the table, a part of me wished he had asked me to stay. I wanted him to talk to me about what was going on in his head, but he still wasn’t ready to let me in. I wondered if I would ever be able to get through that wall he’d put up. It scared me to think that I might never get past it.
On the way to get my phone, I heard a huge ruckus coming from one of the bedrooms. I couldn’t really tell what was going on, but someone was obviously upset. Curiosity got the best of me, so I peeked my head inside the doorway and found three men sitting on a sofa, shouting curses at the television screen. They each had a video game controller in their hand, and the sounds of gunfire exploded around the room.
One of them jumped up and shouted, “Come on, Levi! Don’t go out in the open like that. That’s a dumbass move!”
“Shut the fuck up, man. I got this,” he said, defending himself. None of them seemed to notice when I stepped into the room.
They continued to shout back and forth while each of them tried to defeat their opponent. The game was really heating up when one of their phones chimed with a text message. The man looked down at his phone and said, “I gotta run.”
“What the hell, Conner? We’re in the middle of a death match.”
“Duty calls. We’ll get ’em next time,” he told him as he tossed his controller down on the sofa and headed for the door. When he finally noticed me standing there, his eyes roamed up and down my body. With his eyebrow arched high, he gave me a mischievous grin. I rolled my eyes and walked past him, heading for the sofa.
“Mind if I play?” I asked them, walking over and picking up the controller.
Without even asking who I was or what I was doing there, one of them asked, “You know how to play?” The minute he looked at me, I knew he was Gavin. I’d know those eyes anywhere. His hair was lighter and he wasn’t as filled out as Maverick, but there was no doubt that he was Maverick’s brother.
“Yeah… I’ve played a time or two,” I said confidently, sitting down beside him.
“Well, let’s see what you’ve got, sweet thang,” Gavin smirked as his focus returned to the game.
It had been awhile since I had played, but I managed to hold my own. Before long, we were all shouting and screaming at each other like we’d been playing together for years. We tried our best to take down the enemy, and I was doing really well. Every time I got a good shot, Gavin and Levi would both cheer me on. I was having a blast. My kills were really adding up, and I’d only died twice, when I felt Maverick’s presence enter the room.
None of us even acknowledged that he had walked up, there was no time. We were all too engrossed in the game to even speak to him. After a few minutes, with his eyes still trained on the TV, Gavin said, “Good to see you, man. Your friend here is an amazing shot.”
“Is that right?” Maverick asked, looking over to me smiling.
“Yep,” Gavin said. He nudged me with his elbow and continued, “I might have just found the perfect woman. She’s beautiful and knows how to quick scope a sniper rifle.”
The second the words left Gavin’s mouth, Maverick’s smile vanished. “Dinner’s ready,” he snapped, sounding almost pissed.