Page 80 of Maximus

“Who’s that?”

Eva’s eyes flared and she smiled. “It’s not a who, Jerry Maguire is a movie starring Tom Cruise.”

“Don’t have much time to watch movies, so unless shit’s blowing up, there’s a high speed chase, or my belly aches from laughing, I’m not wasting my time.”

“Oh, well, never mind, none of those things happen in Jerry Maguire.”

“What do you say, Eva? You wanna see where this thing between us takes us?”

“What about the boys?”

“What about them, baby?”

“They… us… we come as a package.”

I couldn’t stop my smile and her declaration. I also couldn’t figure out how to say what I needed to without sounding like I was trying to bullshit her.

“At the risk of revealing my mommy issues, I know better than most what it says about a woman by the way she treats her children. And the way you are with them tells me you’re someone I want to know, someone I want to be around. So, Eva, I know you come with them, and I can promise you what happens between us doesn’t touch them. Not in any negative way, though I don’t need to even say that to you because I know you’d kick my ass before that happened.”

“You never said, when you were younger, did you and your mom get away from your dad?”

“Nope. Black eyes, broken bones, fists, and fights I guess that was all she knew so she stayed and nothing was going to make her leave him. Not even when my bruises got bad enough my school could no longer ignore them and they called the authorities. Not even the police showin’ up at the house. Not even when the social worker sat my mother down and explained I was being removed from the house if my mother didn’t leave my father. When faced with losing her child to the foster care system or staying, she chose her abuser over her son.”

Eva’s face paled and softened—not in pity but understanding.

Yep, this was exactly what Declan was talking about. If I’d shared that with anyone else they would’ve felt sorry for me, but not Eva. She understood the hell I went through because she’d lived through her own.

“Did the social worker find you a good home?”

“Good?” I huffed. “If you equate not catching my old man’s fist but instead being used as a meal ticket by my aunt and uncle who basically ignored me but enjoyed the fuck out of the money my dad was ordered to pay, then yes, I found a good home.”

“That doesn’t sound good, honey,” Eva whispered, and I let the warmth of her voice wash over me before it settled in my chest where it burned. “Just to say, none of that sounds great, but I’d rather be ignored than hit.”

Yeah, Eva got it.

None of it was great. But only someone who’d lived in shit understood that sometimes you didn’t get great, you took what you could get, and made the moves you needed to make to get yourself out.

“That was the plus-side of living with the vultures,” I confirmed.

“I hope your arms are strong, Max,” Eva said in the same soft tone. “I don’t know how far I’ll be able to walk before you’ll have to carry me.”

Fuck. She was going to take a chance.

Now what?

I didn’t think it was the right time for jokes so I bit back a retort reminding her just how strong my arms were and tried to think of something to say—something that would solidify that she made the right choice. But I’d never done this before. I didn’t know how to do romance and heart-to-hearts.

I wanted to tell her my shoulders were broad and solid. I could carry her for miles and not break a sweat. But I didn’t think that was right, either.

So I settled for, “When you stumble, I promise to catch you.”

Chapter 23

If I had thought that last night after our talk Max was going to take me back to his room, where upon entering, he would strip me naked and commence preparing me for hours of mind-blowing sex—I would’ve been wrong.

Not that that’s what I was hoping for or anything.

What I had not expected was the slow tender kiss he gave me. I hadn’t been ready for his soft touches as his thumbs grazed my jaw when he’d held my face. And when he broke the kiss and his icy blue eyes held mine, I felt more exposed than I ever had in my life.