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Mav leans close to whisper in my ear, “Are people exchanging money?”
“Yep. Welcome to Winter Falls. We claim to be famous for being carbon neutral when in actuality we should be famous for the amount of betting going on in town. Gamblers Anonymous would have a field day here.”
“Juniper!” The diner owner, Gracious, bounds out of the kitchen and engulfs me in a hug. She sways me back and forth. “Thank you for coming to the diner as your first couple outing.”
I groan. “How much did you win?”
“I’ll never tell.” She winks before turning to Mav. “Welcome home, Rickie.”
His eyes bug out when she tackles him with a hug. He pats her back. Geez. He reminds me of my sister, Lilac, when she receives public affection. I grab his hand and draw him away.
“Let’s get a booth.”
Once we’re seated at the table furthest from the door, Mav takes a breath. “Is everyone going to call me Rickie now?”
“You don’t like having a nickname?”
He shrugs and glances away. “I don’t know. I’ve never had one before. My parents always just called me Maverick.”
Sage peers around the back of our booth. “You can’t expect us to call you Maverick when the tourists are in town.”
Gracious arrives and slaps two menus down on the table. “Leave ‘em be, Sage.”
“I wasn’t the one who tackled him when he walked through the door,” Sage mumbles before returning her attention to her own table.
“Now, I don’t have any of that fancy oat milk or caramel stuff for your coffee, but I can—”
“Normal coffee’s fine,” Mav cuts her off to say.
“And I don’t need to ask Juniper Berry what kind of coffee she wants,” she says as she pours two cups for us.
“Hot and strong is all I need,” I murmur before taking a sip.
“I’ll let you have some time to—”
Gracious’ words are cut off by a scream. An honest to goodness scream. I pull out my phone intent on calling Lyric to ask him to come to the diner while I search the room for the source of the emergency. My gaze catches on a group of teenagers standing in the doorway of the diner.
“He’s here! It’s Maverick Langston!”
They rush into the diner before anyone can stop them.
“I knew I recognized the falls on his Insta post.”
“It’s a good thing your parents dragged you to this Podunk town for vacation last year.”
“You should have believed me when I told you the waterfall was in Winter Falls. We could have been here last night instead of traipsing all over Colorado.”
“It wasn’t all over Colorado.”
They stop chattering once they reach our table.
“Hi, Maverick,” the first girl breathes out and bats her eyelashes at him.
I giggle and expect Mav to laugh as well, but he flashes her his Hollywood smile instead.
“What can I do for you ladies today?”
“Can I get a selfie with you?”
