I don’t even waste a second before pressing my lips to hers. The contact is harsh with the quickness that I move to erase the space between us. Everything that just happened in there vanishes. I feel her wet tears move between our faces and I move my hands to the back of her neck, pulling her closer. I take a deep pull of air through my nose, our closed mouths still pressed tightly together, and with her words banging around my body, I feel like I might add some fuckin’ tears of my own.
We’re both breathing heavily when I pull back. Moving my hands, I clear the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. “You’re going to give me all of you?” I breathe.
She opens her mouth, my eyes moving to watch her lips open. “I . . .” she begins, but stops and closes her mouth, getting me to unglue my attention from them and back to her blue gaze. “Yes.” She clears her throat. “Yes, Maverick. I’m going to give you all of me.”
We don’t look away from each other, what just happened inside only adding to this moment so we’re both feeling nothing but raw emotion. With a kiss to the tip of her nose, I release my hold on her and back up.
“Let’s go home then, darlin’.”
Her smile wobbles and her gaze brightens, all the clouds that had started to brew inside of them while in the restaurant clear. I shut her door, and with my heart about to race out of my chest, I round the truck and climb in. She reaches out this time, grabbing my hand, and we jump back on the road . . . headed home.
24
LEIGHTON
“Head Over Boots” by Jon Pardi
How did I just go from devastated to on top of the world in just a blink of my eye?
After hearing those girls talk about how they couldn’t believe that the famous Maverick Davis, rodeo star, was with such trailer trash and they would make sure and give him what he really wants, I was blown away. I thought that taking the high road when I walked out of the stall, letting them see that I was in there and overheard them, would be the end of it. Sure, they hurt me with their words, but I was more upset with myself that I allowed them to get a reaction out of me.
By the time I got back to the table, I still couldn’t shake what I had overheard. I looked across the busy restaurant at the handsome man who had brought me there and thought, what is he doing with me? He could have anyone. It was only natural to feel a bit of insecurity after the things they had been saying. I hated putting a damper on our night with the path my mind had taken. I had almost been able to shake off their words, doing my best to move on and put it behind me.
That was, until I heard them laughing behind me.
I should have known better than to think those dark thoughts. There is no room for the bullshit they actually made me think about myself when I have a man like Maverick at my side. His words to them, both of them, filled my heart full to bursting. The venomous tone that he took left no room for argument, not even from me.
I knew before he had even tossed his cash on the table that I had to tell him I loved him. I had to get the words that I meant with every fiber of my being out—the ones that I’ve always felt for him. It wasn’t just him standing up for me back there. He indisputably did, but the way in which he did not only proved to those women that his heart only beats for one person—he showed me too. He single-handedly erased the pain he had formed when he turned his back on us years ago and in turn filled it with the new memory of him creating and solidifying a bond I know will never be broken.
As simple as that.
This is our time, finally, and I wasn’t going to waste another second of it.
My princess always wears boots. His words echo through my mind, and I feel myself smiling at them all over again.
I take another peek at him, the darkness in the truck giving me only a shadow of his large frame, but I can see his face clearly in my mind. The way that he looked at me when I started to tell him that I loved him, that expression was something love stories are written about. His eyes burned bright, for me, and the fierce power of adoration within them whipped around us like a physical touch. I have never seen him look so vulnerable. He left no room for doubt to linger. That look obliterated it wholly.
For the thousandth time in the past thirty minutes of our drive I open my mouth to say those words again, but I snap my lips shut before I can get them out. Part of me, the selfish and needy part, wants to wait in the hopes that he will beat me to it. However, that part will never win. I won’t let it.
I think back to everything he’s told me about his life growing up. How that ache his parents had created with their selfishness had forced him to leave when he wanted to stay. To wait for us. He spent his whole life not believing in love, and I’ll be damned if I let him go another day without feeling it and knowing it was given to him freely.
“You’re thinkin’ pretty loud over there,” he jokes, giving me back the words I had spoken to him earlier in the night.
I hum my acknowledgment and grin, knowing he can’t see it, but enjoying the easy banter that had returned after the tumultuous end to our date.
“We’re almost home,” he continues.
“I like hearing you say that, cowboy.” Oh, boy, do I ever.
“I know, darlin’. You made that pretty clear earlier.”
“And you?” I ask, leaving the question hanging in the air between us.
He’s quiet for a while, the hum of his tires just barely audible over the beat of my heart. I know I’m pushing hard, but I wasn’t kidding when I told him I didn’t want him to stay on the Davis ranch. Not now, not ever. The second the thought of him under my roof took root, I knew with crystal clear certainty that was where he belonged.
“I can honestly tell you, Leighton, that there isn’t anywhere else I would rather be. That is a fact I guarantee to you will never change.”
“That’s good,” I breathe lamely.
He snickers low and deep. I reach out, content with the silence, and lace our fingers together, wishing the big console separating us was gone so I could feel him against me.
Soon, I think.
Very soon.
Maverick’s phone had started to ring about ten minutes from the house. He looked at the display, but put it back in the cup holder between us, taking the hand he had let go back within his grasp. It hadn’t even stopped ringing a full minute before his phone was once again going off. He gives me a squeeze and then let go of my hand again, checking the display, but continuing to ignore it.
“Do you need to get that?” I ask, looking down at the phone’s display.
“He can wait.”
“It seems pretty important,” I drone when it starts ringing for the third time and the same man’s name showing on the screen. “I don’t know who Trey is, but it seems like he really needs to talk to you.”
“Not as important as what’s about to happen, Leigh. I don’t want to take any more time than what it took to get here. Not when I’m this close. He can wait.”
I feel my brows pull in, confused at the last bit. “This close? This close to what?” I question, thinking he means our approach to the house.