Awkwardly, she made her way through the front door and then she walked the bags to the end of the driveway, her biceps burning. She set them down with a groan next to a row of other bags she’d brought out earlier. Catching her breath, she braced her hands on her bare knees and enjoyed the warm June breeze blowing across her neck. She’d been working for a little over three hours and she was beat.
She needed to get back into her routine of doing the elliptical a few times a week. Really, she had no excuse not to since Grant had a fully decked-out workout room in the basement. Well, no excuse except for the fact that her final project and all the last-minute wedding planning took up the time she might otherwise have devoted to the elliptical. Still, Alexa had a wedding dress to fit into in just two weeks. And Grant seemed to notice the minute her weight fluctuated more than a few pounds. Of course, she wasn’t sure she knew someone more fit than Grant, who ran on the treadmill and lifted weights almost every morning.
“How ’bout I give you a hand?” came a voice from behind her.
Alexa whirled, heart in her throat. “Oh my God, Maverick. Don’t sneak up on me.”
“I wasn’t sneaking,” he said, looking sexier than any man had a right to look in a pair of jeans, a white T-shirt, and his Ravens cut hanging on those broad shoulders. And here she was, sweaty, grimy from cleaning her mother’s house, and with her hair thrown up in a messy knot. Not that her appearance mattered, of course.
“Then where did you come from? Again?” She arched her brow and gave him a look. “I thought I said you shouldn’t be keeping an eye on me?” Though she didn’t manage to put the heat behind the words she probably should have.
“I have a problem with listening,” he said with a smirk.
“No kidding.” Alexa planted her hands on her hips.
“Besides, I like keeping my eyes on you,” he said with a wink. His gaze swept over her in a slow, satisfied up and down. Heat rose into Alexa’s cheeks, because he’d said the words jokingly but there was an intensity and a seriousness to his expression that made her think of dark rooms and frantic kisses and messed-up sheets. Molten-hot memories of the two of them together—memories she’d kept boxed up tight for the past five years—threatened to come roaring back.
She couldn’t let them, so she changed the subject. “Hey, how’s your mom? And Dare? I’m sorry I didn’t ask the other day. I didn’t know what’d happened.”
The amusement melted off Maverick’s rugged face. “Both doing better. They’ll be okay.”
Relief flooded through Alexa. “Oh, thank God. I was worried.”
Lips pressed into a tight line, Maverick nodded as his gaze drifted toward the house. “How’s your mom?”
“Oh. She’s . . .” Alexa shrugged. She couldn’t help but be struck by another comparison. Grant rarely asked after her mother, except to ask how long Alexa would be gone on Saturdays. “You know. Pretty much the same.” As much time as Maverick had spent with Tyler and her over the years, he would know what she meant. In that moment, Alexa realized Maverick was the only other person left who truly understood Cynthia Harmon’s problems—and what it took to deal with them.
“Yeah. So let me help.” The sincerity in those dark blue eyes reached inside her chest and played with long-buried needs and desires.
“Okay,” she found herself saying. She shook her head, confusion swamping her even as she went with it. “Yeah. Sure. Um.” She gestured toward the house. “Come say hi?”
Maverick smiled. And holy wow. It had been a long time since Alexa had seen him smile that way. It stole her breath. Because Maverick Rylan smiling was stunningly gorgeous. The smile brought out deep dimples on both sides of his mouth, and combined with the stubble covering his jaw and those blue, blue eyes—
“We going in?” he asked, one eyebrow cocked.
So busted. “Of course,” she said, hugging herself and looking down at the blacktop of the driveway as she led him toward the house. “When we get inside, let me give Mom a heads-up that you’re here in case she wants to put herself together a bit. Or something.”
“Sure,” Maverick said from beside her. Out of nowhere, Alexa was swimming in the most overwhelming sensation of déjà vu. How many times had Maverick come to visit her mother with Alexa? How many times had he helped drop off groceries or take out trash or sat and chatted with her mom while Alexa took care of something that otherwise would’ve caused her a lot of stress? Him being there was suddenly so familiar and so foreign—because it had been a long time since she’d felt like she had any companionship in dealing with her mom. Going all the way back to Tyler’s death.
A weird little knot of tension settled into Alexa’s gut.
She opened the front door and stepped inside, Maverick right behind her. She held out a hand to him and moved to the living room doorway. “I have a surprise for you,” she said to her mother. “Someone came to say hello.”
“Who?” Her mom ran her hands over her hair. “I look a mess, Alexa.”
“It’s just me, Mrs. H,” Maverick said.
“Oh!” Alexa hadn’t seen her mother’s face light up like that in a long time. “Oh, Maverick Rylan, you come in here and see me right now.”
Grinning, Maverick slid past where Alexa stood in the doorway. Though it was soft and quick, the slight brush of his body against hers flashed heat through Alexa’s body. Just that little touch. Just that promise of something more. And that knot in her belly got a lot bigger and a lot more uncomfortable. Because barely touching Maverick made her hot with want, but just last night she’d had to pep talk herself into keeping her promise to make her rushed morning up to Grant.
“Hi, Mrs. H,” Maverick said, crossing the room to her.
“Oh, Maverick. What a sight for sore eyes you are,” she said, standing up. She held her arms out to him, and Maverick didn’t hesitate for a second. He not only hugged her, but he lifted her off her feet, making her mother laugh like a girl. “Put me down before you break me,” she said, not meaning a word of it.
“It’s good to see you.” Maverick carefully put her back down. “How have you been?”
“Same old. You know.” Mom sat again. “You here to help Alexa straighten me out, then?” she asked with a sniff.
Maverick laughed. “I’m here to help Alexa with whatever she needs help with,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her. His expression revealed that he meant that in all kinds of ways Alexa didn’t want to think about. Shouldn’t think about. Since she was engaged to another man and all. And had given Maverick up long ago.
Regret crept across her skin in a shiver, but Alexa refused to give it a second thought. “Well, if you wouldn’t mind helping me in the kitchen, then?”
“You’re the boss,” he said.
“Ha. Says the man who doesn’t listen to me.” Alexa threaded her way through the room, glad that needing to be careful of her steps meant that she had a good reason not to make eye contact with Maverick.
“You be nice to him, Alexa,” her mother said.
“Yeah, be nice to me,” Mav whispered. The sexy bastard.