Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“I don’t know about ready,” I answer after a few seconds. “It’s kind of scary and sad. And I feel…”
“Helpless?” Mr. Bell offers, understanding and compassion mixing in his eyes.
“Yeah, and I hate feeling helpless. I’m always in control. Ya know?”
“I know the feeling. For people like us, like Maverick, too, the worst thing you can do is put us in a situation where we have no control.”
He leans forward and covers my hand with his own.
“But it’s also the best thing for us, too. It teaches us a lot about life and about ourselves. Strength is not always control. Sometimes it’s surrender.”
“You mean like giving up?” Because that is a foreign concept to me.
“No, not giving up—accepting. Accepting that you can’t control a wave, so you ride it. You set aside the idea that things will go exactly as planned. In a situation like this, they never do.”
“But what is my plan for this? I don’t mean like legally or care or… I mean, how do I plan for the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through? How do you plan to lose someone this way?”
“The plan is love, Hendrix.” He pats my hand. “The plan is love. It’s the no matter how bad it gets or how much I want to run, I’ll stay kind of love. I’ve watched you over this last week, and have heard how you talk about your friends and the people in your life. You have the capacity for that.”
Tears prick my eyes and I blink furiously, determined not to let them fall. I’ve only known Maverick’s father for a week, and I’m already crying on his shoulder? What is it about the Bell men that makes me feel so vulnerable?
So safe?
“What’s going on?” Maverick asks, his shoulder leaned into the kitchen doorjamb. He flicks a frown between the two of us. “You okay, Gorgeous?”
I force a smile and keep blinking because if I actually cry, Maverick will try to comfort me and that’ll only make it worse.
“All good.” I stand and cross over to the counter and the foiled cake pan. “I made banana pudding. You want some?”
“Sure.” I feel his eyes boring into my back the whole time I scoop some for him into a bowl.
When I turn around, he’s sitting in my seat. I set the bowl in front of him and move to take one of the other chairs, but he grabs me around my waist and pulls me down to his lap.
“Mav,” I mumble into his neck, conscious of his father grinning at us. “Good grief.”
“Pop don’t care,” Maverick says, keeping one hand on my leg while he eats banana pudding with the other. “Damn, this is good. You been hiding your culinary skills in case I try to make you cook for me?”
I pull back and suck my teeth. “Boy, you already know better than to try to make me do anything.”
Mr. Bell howls and pats the table with his fist. “You got a real one, son.”
Maverick slides the spoon into his mouth, smiling and never looking away from me. “Oh, I know it.”
Having this much sexual tension with a man while you’re on his lap and his daddy’s watching proves to be too much, even for me, so I stand and carry my empty bowl to the sink.
“What you kids have planned for Hendrix’s last night?” Mr. Bell asks.
The smile that lingered on my lips melts. I’ve been dreading this all week: the last day. I fly to Charlotte tomorrow. And knowing what I’m leaving behind here sits just as heavily in my heart as not knowing what to expect at home. I turn to face them, leaning on the counter, and waiting for Maverick’s reply.
“I’m definitely not ready for Hen to leave,” Maverick says, recapturing my stare as soon as I turn around. “But she’s going where she’s supposed to be. I do have plans for our last night, though.”
“You do?” I glance down at my casual cotton shorts and tank top. “I don’t know if I feel like going out.”
“Just put on a pretty dress and trust me, okay?”
“Oh, shit.” Mr. Bell stands and walks his empty bowl over to the sink and sotto voces, “When he says trust him, that means don’t.”
Looking at the handsome man eating my banana pudding and winking at me, I can’t help but think he’s one of the few men in my life I actually do trust.
How the hell did that happen?
CHAPTER 38
MAVERICK
I’m glad you didn’t go all out for dinner,” Hendrix says wryly, leaning on the rail of the two-hundred-foot Galactica Star yacht.
I hand her a glass of wine and slip an arm around her waist. “Just a little something I’m thinking about buying. Consider it a test-drive.”
“Hmmm.” She watches me over the rim of her glass and sips. “You’ve fucked me on land and in the air. Now you just want this ass by sea.”