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The tightness in her chest, the ache in her heart…they told her a few things. But the biggest thing was real simple. Rick Simon was her guy. He was it.
And she didn’t know if that made her incredibly happy or incredibly sad. As she stood there with a big old lump in her throat, aware that four pairs of eyes were focused on her, she couldn’t help but think back to those stupid romance novels and all of those happily ever after’s.
Real life didn’t work that way. So why the hell was she hoping that hers would?
Chapter Twenty-three
By the time his aunt and uncle came down for breakfast, Teague had shut down. He ignored his parents, everyone in fact, and eventually left the kitchen and headed back up to his room.
Maverick could see the hurt in Eden and Noah’s eyes, but none of them seemed to know what to do about it. He got their concern—hell even though Teague was a grown man, he’d always be their kid. But he thought that maybe Teague would be better served dealing with this on his own. There were some hurts that needed time and distance.
Unfortunately that’s not the way the Simons worked.
In the end, Maverick decided not to get involved. Besides, what the hell did he know about being a parent?
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay with Connor?”
They’d just arrived in Fisherman’s Landing. Maverick nodded. “Absolutely.”
“You can call me if he starts, you know, getting weird—because it happens. He’s kind of like your cousin, Teague. He shuts down and it’s really hard to get through.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got him. We bonded over sausages this morning, rem
ember?”
“I don’t know….” Her voice trailed off as she glanced around him at her brother Connor. He saw the worry and man, he wanted to be the guy to make it go away.
“Hey, I know. Honestly, I’ve got this.” He reached through the open window of her truck and kissed her. And then whispered a few things in her ear. Dirty things. Hot things that he wanted to do to her when she got back from her garage.
“You’re the devil,” she said, breathless when she pulled away from him.
“I try.”
She nodded slowly, yelling a quick goodbye to her brother and after another small hesitation, she backed out of her driveway leaving him alone with Connor. It was Sunday and her garage was closed, but she had a few things to get done. With Davis off for several days, she was behind and Maverick thought he’d help out so he’d volunteered to come along and look after her brother.
That was after he’d volunteered to help out in her garage, but Charlie had been quick to knock that idea down. She’d said they’d never get anything done and—he grinned—she would have been right.
He turned and looked down at Connor. “Okay, so we’ll shovel out this walkway and then decide on a plan of action. Sound good?”
Connor didn’t say a word, but his eyes were bright and Maverick saw the interest there. “Where does your sister keep the shovels? In the shed?”
Something changed in the boy’s expression. It was subtle, but Maverick saw it. Connor shrugged and remained silent.
Worried that he’d somehow managed to screw things up minutes after Charlie had left, he nodded to the porch.
“Can you climb through this snowdrift and make it up there?” He’d look for the shovel, no use in dragging Connor down the driveway to the shed.
Maverick watched Connor struggle over the first large drift and with a chuckle, he helped the little guy over.
And felt like a king when he got a small smile in return.
He waited until Connor was up the steps and onto the porch and then strode to the shed. It wasn’t locked, but once he got inside, he quickly figured out why. The small building was empty. As in there were a few paint cans in the corner and not much else. He closed the door and headed back down the driveway, waving at a nosy neighbor across the street. He never saw curtains drawn back so quickly.
By the time he got back to the front of the house, Connor was halfway over the large drift and clutched in his hands were two shovels. One was big and one was just the right size for a ten year old.
“Guess those were on the porch,” he said, grabbing the large shovel from Connor. “What do you say we dig in and get this done?”
The two of them worked for well over an hour. The snowfall had been significant and by the time Maverick managed to get the walkway up to the house shoveled as well as the porch and the sidewalk, he’d worked up one hell of an appetite.
