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Her eyes slid from his and he reached for her, taking her chin firmly into his hands He needed to see her.
“I’m not here to talk about Donovan or the baby.”
“Why are you here?” she asked, the words so soft that he barely heard them.
He inched closer, so close that there was nowhere for her to look but into his eyes. He was still angry with her and he wasn’t about to play nice.
“I’m here, Charlie, because I love you and that voicemail you sent me really pissed me the fuck off.”
Her eyes widened.
“What did you say?”
“I said that I love you. Plain and simple. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t care really. All I know is that I’ve never met a woman like you, and I can’t think of a future without you and Connor in it.”
“But—“
“Let me finish.” His emotions were getting the better of him and Maverick took a moment. “I need for you to understand this so that if you decide that I’m not what you want, at least you know…”
“Know what?” she whispered.
“There is no one else for me.” He glanced up at the sky and then shrugged. “When I think about waking up tomorrow morning, it’s your face that I see. It’s your heart that I want to hear and it’s your touch that I want.” He dropped his hands and took a step back, suddenly unsure but filled with the need to get it all out.
“I love you and I want to make this work.”
“But what is this?” Her voice broke. “Rick, I…Connor’s been through so much. There are things that you don’t know.”
“Then tell me. I can’t make you believe in what we have until you give me the ammunition that I need.”
Tears seeped from the corners of her eyes and Maverick reached for her, wiping them away gently.
“Tell me,” he prodded.
She shuddered and, damn, but his heart turned over when she leaned into his palm.
“My dad died. You know that.” She blew out a long breath and shook her head. “This is hard.”
“I know, babe. I’m here for you.”
“What you don’t know and what a lot people don’t know is the circumstance. My father…he was depressed. Really depressed. I was at school and he was here with Connor and he just kind of lost himself. I knew he was drinking more than he should be and that he was having trouble sleeping. But I didn’t want to deal with it. I had a heavy course load and…”
She paused for a few moments and he said nothing. “I told myself that he’d be fine. I mean, he was my dad. He’d always been as strong as rock.”
She shuddered violently, and Rick wrapped his arms around her.
“He asked me to come home that last semester, but I told him that I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I was so focused on my studies and doing whatever it took to get out of this town.”
“One Sunday he went out to the shed. He’d been drinking and he grabbed his shotgun and…”
“Jesus,” Maverick murmured, pulling her in tighter as she began to cry. “Charlie, I’m so sorry.” He thought back to that conversation he’d had with Connor and his gut clenched at the thought.
“Connor found him. He was so young and small. The thought of him all by himself with my dad…it haunts me. He t thought that Dad was hurt, that he was sleeping. So he pulled a blanket over him and he stayed with Dad all night in that shed. It wasn’t until Dad didn’t show up to the garage and Davis swung by the house that he was discovered. But by then it was too late.”
Maverick closed his eyes. He didn’t know what to say.
“Connor was in that shed with his dead father for over twelve hours. He just shut down after it happened. I mean, who wouldn’t?”
“My little brother is everything t
