“No one. Especially not you.”
He staggers back, dramatically, like I just punched him. His hands going to his heart playfully, and I forget every ounce of my embarrassment I had felt earlier now that I’m faced with a playful Maverick Davis. He continues to sway on his feet before leaning back against the wall behind him. Has there ever been a time, even when we were young and carefree, that I had ever seen him this lighthearted? No, I’m pretty sure I haven’t, because this is something I never would have forgotten.
“Say it isn’t so, darlin’,” he wheezes after he finishes his dramatic fall against the wall, eyes crinkled at the side and a wide smile on his face. “You wound me.”
“Holy shit,” Quinn whispers behind me.
Jana giggles.
I just stand there, mouth hanging wide, feeling like something in my chest had shifted with this sight of him. His elated grin doesn’t leave his face when he stands to his full height and walks back over to me.
“Hey,” he says with a wink, reaching out with two fingers to close my slack jaw, his grin growing knowingly.
“Hey,” I parrot lamely in response, still feeling winded.
“Miss me?”
I laugh, the sound coming out more like a wheeze. “I just saw you not even a half hour ago.”
“Well, I missed you.”
“Oh, my God, Jana,” I hear Quinn sputter. I’m sure she thought it was said low and for her ears only but nothing about Quinn is soft; it comes out just as if she were yelling it. That girl doesn’t have a subtle bone in her body.
“I see it, sweetheart,” Jana says with a sniffle.
Those two are all it takes for me to snap out of whatever spell playful Maverick had me entranced with. I roll my eyes teasingly at him and watch as his smile grows.
“What are you doing here? I thought I was meeting you at two over at the diner.”
“You are. I just had something come up that I didn’t want to do without you.”
“Uh,” I lament. “Okay?”
He looks over my shoulder at the girls behind me and tips his hat before grabbing my hand and leading me to the office. He doesn’t shut the door, so if privacy was something he wanted by moving us here, he won’t get it. Not when I can hear them both rushing around the kitchen to get closer. Thank God we don’t open for another hour; judging by the sounds they’re making, I’m going to have a mess to clean up, and if I know Jana, she wouldn’t leave her post outside this door until she had all the juicy details her heart could handle.
“You know they’re going to stand there like the busybodies they are and listen to whatever it is you dragged me in here for, right?”
He chuckles. “Reckoned as much.” He turns back and shuts the door softly before returning to my side. “I should have known. Now we have our privacy from their ears and eyes. Which is good because I didn’t really feel like kissin’ you the way I want to in front of my baby sister.”
Oh. Wow.
His pulls me into his arms, his butt resting against my desk, and kisses the strength right out of my legs. When he pulls back, I have to take a moment to get my brain to turn back on. If he hadn’t been holding on to me, I would have melted into a puddle.
“Remember those calls I got last night?” he asks in a low tone. Even though the door is shut and I know we can’t be heard, he obviously isn’t taking any chances. My mind is still knocked drunk by his mouth, so I have to take a second to process his question.
“Uh,” I hedge, trying to clear my mind in order to think back to anything that happened last night outside of him and me between the sheets. Or in the shower. Or against the door.
He groans, clearly reading my face. “Right, you’ll remember if you think what happened before all that,” he jokes. “The calls I got when we were on our way home? Those were from Trey. He left a message, one I got this mornin’. I listened to it when I got in the truck, but decided to come here instead of headin’ over for that duffel bag. Wanted to call him back with you.”
“Okay?” I drag the word out, confused why he would need me to be with him to call some man back.
“Darlin’, Trey was one of the best trainers when I was ridin’. Not only that, but he’s my biological father’s brother. We got close and he was able to give me parts of his brother that I can’t ever get back now that he’s gone. He’s a big part of my life, Leigh. Trey’s still there, but he was callin’ because he was offerin’ me a spot to train next to him on the circuit.”
My eyes widen, what he’s telling me registering and wiping that love-drunk feeling right out of my mind. Words escape me. He had opened up to me the other night about his biological father not being alive anymore. He never got a chance to know him so he hadn’t felt like it was a big deal. I’ve worried since about how he was coping with never having a chance to know that part of him, but with this new knowledge about an uncle, I feel as if maybe he has been able to know that part of him. Not directly, but clearly this Trey means a great deal to him. I want to be excited that he got that offer, especially since it means he’s close to that part of his family, and it clearly shows that the men he had traveled and lived with for so long know he’s an asset to the sport even if he isn’t riding anymore. I want to be supportive if this is something he wants. But I would be lying, because just the thought of him leaving fills me with dread.
He kisses my forehead, looking down at me knowingly, with love in his eyes. “It’s okay to not be happy about that call, Leighton. Don’t hide what you’re feelin’.”
I try to choose my words carefully before I speak. “You know I only want what is best for you. I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t fill my belly with lead thinkin’ that you got an offer that could pull you away from me, though. I just want you to be happy, honey, and if goin’ to your uncle is what you need, I’ll support that.”
He reaches out, not lifting his bottom off my desk, and grabs both of my hands, pulling me between his spread legs. “I came here after hearin’ his message because when I call him back, I want it to be with you. I’m gonna have him in my life regardless. I knew what I would tell him before I got here, but I wanted to do this with you. Together, darlin’.”
He doesn’t wait for me to speak. He shifts, dropping one of my hands to pull his phone from his back pocket. I watch, my heart in my throat, while he presses the screen a few times before ringing fills the silence around us. He keeps hold of the phone but doesn’t let go of my other hand, his thumb continuing to caress it soothingly.
“Well, I’ll be!” the disembodied voice booms through the speaker after the click of the call connecting. Maverick’s shoulders shake as he turns the volume down on his phone’s speaker. “About time your sorry fuckin’ ass learned how to return a call.”