He probably should’ve accepted it at that, but something made him push. “And then?”
She swallowed thickly. “And then . . . we’ll see if . . . if you think you can forgive me and . . .” She gave a little, uncertain shrug. “. . . whether you maybe want to try again.”
He cupped her face as triumph surged through him and then he leaned down so he could look at her eye to eye. “I want.”
Her eyes went glassy as she whispered, “You do? After everything? Because I wouldn’t blame you—”
“I. Fucking. Want.” He didn’t try to restrain a bit of the fierceness roughening up his voice. He wanted her to know it. To believe it. To feel it down deep. “You. Us. A future. Our history, even the fucked-up parts. All of it. Understand?”
“Yes,” she said on a fast nod, her eyes suddenly brimming with unshed tears.
He caught the wetness with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, baby. And don’t think you’re the only one who has things to apologize for. Because I told you I have regrets, too.”
“God, Mav—”
“Alexa?” her mother called from the living room. “Are you ready to go?”
Looking into Alexa’s eyes, Maverick loved the hope and affection he saw there. “We’ll finish this another time.”
“Okay,” she said. And then she pushed up on her tiptoes and threw her arms around him, holding him so tight he could barely breathe. So much unspoken emotion rolled off of her, and it fucking slayed him.
And made him feel hopeful for the first time in a long damn time.
Alexa was going to be his again. Sooner or fucking later. And nothing was going to keep them apart this time.
CHAPTER 23
Want to help me give the cat a bath?” Alexa asked, her face playfully hopeful. Wearing a long black shirt of his, her hair still mussed from sleep, she looked beautiful standing barefoot in the sunlight spilling into his kitchen the next morning.
Leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee in hand, Maverick smirked. “If that’s code for getting between your legs, sign me up.”
Throwing her head back, Alexa laughed out loud. “Like we need special code for that.”
He grinned around another sip. “Good to know.”
She rolled her eyes, but it was clear she was enjoying the conversation every bit as much as him. And he was glad after the day she’d had yesterday. After seemingly doing so well at her new place, her mother had fallen into another round of tears when they took her home. They’d ended up being there until nearly nine o’clock, and Alexa had been exhausted by the time they got back here.
“I mean, the actual cat,” Alexa said, her eyebrow arched. “Not the pussy. Maybe later, though . . .”
Maverick had to adjust himself. “You say shit like that you give me ideas of what to do with that mouth.”
Laughing, she disappeared down the hall. The water came on in the bathroom. And then he heard the low murmur of her talking to Lucy. And it occurred to him how much he liked not being here alone. He loved the sounds of Alexa moving around his house. He loved seeing her things sitting with his on the counter. He loved her weird sweater-wearing cat greeting them at the door or jumping up in the bed when they woke up. And it made him realize how much he’d changed in the past five years. How much he valued things now that he’d never thought all that important before—big things like commitment and small things like the sounds of companionship.
Curious, he wandered down the hallway to find Alexa kneeling next to the tub, the cat in her arms, the skull sweater discarded on the counter. Lucy wasn’t bolting but she also wasn’t looking thrilled with the plan. “She likes baths?”
Alexa chuckled. “She likes it once she’s in, but she always gets tense before.”
“And why exactly are you torturing—I mean, bathing Lucy?”
Smiling up at him, Alexa shook her head. “Being hairless means her body has no way to absorb the oil from her skin or from when she grooms herself, so she has to be washed pretty regularly. It’s worth it for how awesome she is, though. Plus, she’s so cute when she plays in the water that I can barely stand it.” She pressed her face to the cat’s. “You ready, baby?” She leaned over the tub and slowly lowered Lucy in, her arms still cradling the thin, little body as it submerged.
The cat scrambled for a moment, and Maverick prepared to try to block her if she made a break for it, but Alexa just held her there until the animal visibly relaxed.
As he watched, Lucy pushed out of Al’s hold and walked a circle through the tub’s water. “I thought cats weren’t supposed to like water?”
Alexa chuckled. “Just wait.”
“For what?” he asked, just as Lucy plopped down on her butt, sat up, and pawed at the top of the water like she was playing the drums. Ten seconds, twenty, thirty, she pawed and pawed, sending up little splashes and shaking her head when they hit her in the face. Grinning, he crouched beside the tub. Alexa met his gaze for a moment, and the happiness in her eyes as she looked at him reached all the way inside him. And grasped hold.
Lucy paced the tub again, stopping to bat at the faucet, the wall-mounted soap dish, and the shower curtain. Alexa grabbed a bag at her side that Mav hadn’t noticed and handed it to him. “Line these up on the edge.”
He reached inside and found a rubber ducky, a plastic dog, a squeaky mouse that made Lucy turn and look, and a couple of other small toys. “You have bath toys for your cat?” he asked with an arched brow.
“She’s my baby,” she said, laughing.
One by one, he lined them up as Lucy watched. For a moment, the cat just looked at them. And then she attacked, batting them into the water one at a time like a slugger aiming for the back wall, until they were all floating in the water. And then she pounced on them there again and again.
Maverick couldn’t help but chuckle. Because Attack Cat was pretty awesome.
Alexa fished them out once more and together they lined them up. Lucy took them all down a second time until they were both laughing at her antics.
“This is fucking hilarious,” Maverick said, gathering the toys and lining them up again.
Lucy didn’t wait. She swung for the rubber ducky, knocking it out of the tub and into Maverick’s lap.
“This is the coolest cat that ever lived,” he said, grinning like an idiot as he replaced the duck on the tub’s edge.
“See? I told you.” Alexa grinned as Lucy knocked the toy into the water and pounced on it, sending up a big spray of water that got both of them. Alexa let out a little shriek, a belly laugh spilling out of her.
Finally, Al actually got down to the business of washing Lucy, and then she was scooping the cat out and wrapping her in a big towel. “Will you hold her while I do her ears and nails?”