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Sabrina quickly bowed out with her kids, promising to call when Brett was up for a visit.
Jack stood in front of her, his back to his family, and for a few seconds, all Donovan could do was close her eyes and try to get her shit together.
“Hey,” Jack said softly, his hand sliding to her chin. “How’s the foot?”
She exhaled and opened her eyes. “Sabrina says it’s sprained. She left me this tenser bandage so…”
Jack scooped up the bandage and carefully, gently, wrapped her foot. She didn’t know her breath was held until she let it out in a big whoosh when he set her leg back down. She was still perched on the counter, trapped between Jack and his family.
“What happened to your face?”
That was Rick. He was a few inches to Jack’s left, and she saw the concern there.
“I’m fine, Maverick. It was stupid, really. I fell down this incline, and well, I’m lucky all I ended up with was a sprained ankle.”
“Lucky,” Rick muttered, his eyes on Jack. “Yeah, real lucky.”
Jack turned to his cousin. “If you got something to say Maverick, why the hell don’t you say it?”
“Boys,” Noah Simon said gruffly. “Enough.”
Jack glanced back at his father and sighed. “It’s been a tough couple of days.”
Noah nodded. “I’m sure it has. Why don’t I put a pot of coffee on and you can get...ah…Donovan can—“
“Dressed would be good,” his mother said coolly, rummaging in the pantry for the coffee. “I’ll make the coffee, Noah. Why don’t you take our things upstairs. Maverick you, too. I don’t like mess, and these suitcases are in the way.”
Donovan slid off the counter, shaking her head when Jack would have taken her hand. “I don’t need you to get dressed,” she said softly.
“No, but I don’t mind watching.”
Devil.
Donovan attempted a smile but just couldn’t quite get there. She avoided Maverick’s piercing gaze and walked with as much dignity as she could toward the stairs. By the time she reached them, her cheeks burned red, and she was glad no one could see her. The stupid T-shirt barely covered her ass and she tried to hold onto the railing, while tugging the shirt down as low as she could so that said ass wasn’t on display for Jack’s parents.
Though the thought of mooning his mother did bring a smile to her face, even if it was only for a second.
She had just stepped inside her bedroom when Maverick slid in behind her and closed the door shut.
“Rick, not now,” she said, walking across to her suitcase and rifling through it for something suitable. She hadn’t bothered to unpack and most of the stuff was wrinkled. She grabbed up a pale pink dress, but it was too short. It was longer than the goddamn T-shirt she was wearing, but still. Next she reached for a pair of jean cut offs. They’d do.
“Why the hell are you here, anyway?” she asked, scooping up a plain white T-shirt. She turned to Maverick, suddenly curious and on the heels of that thought, sort of nauseous.
Why were they all here?
“You went missing, Donnie. Did you forget that?”
“I…I was gone for a few hours.” Her mind, raced but she had nothing. She was tired, hungry as hell and pretty much sick of the drama that always seemed to attach itself to her life.
“It was a lot longer than a few hours. Jack called me yesterday. He was out of his mind, because no one could find you. He thought that maybe you’d called me. Maybe you’d flown home to LA.”
Donovan sat on the edge of her bed, her legs buckling. “He called you?”
“Damn right he did, and I told him that I hadn’t heard shit from you and that if one hair on your head was damaged, I was going to kick his ass from here to the moon and back.”
A wave of fatigue washed over her and the clothes she’d picked out fell through her fingers onto the floor. She felt like shit.
“Hey,” Maverick said, crossing the room to her side. “You okay?”
