Chapter 28
Sydney
I'm married. I can’t believe I'm actually married to the man of my dreams!
When I asked Judge Jefferson if we could get married today, I wasn’t sure he’d say yes. He was surprisingly excited to do it. He said we deserved some happiness in our lives and Maverick and I seemed to truly love each other.
Now, we need to break the news to the kids. I know they’ll be happy about the marriage, but I'm not sure if they’ll be upset they weren’t around for the wedding.
“What the…” Colt scowls at one of the houses on our way home and slowly pulls his SUV over to the curb. “You have got to be kidding me!”
He scrambles to unbuckle his seatbelt without looking away from whatever caught his attention. He doesn’t even bother to turn off his car as he slams his door shut and stomps around to the other side.
“Oh, jeez. This is going to be good.” Maverick chuckles and opens our door so he can see what’s going on. I don’t hesitate to follow him.
“What are you doing, Mr. Raven?” Colt folds his arms over his chest and stares at the old man who just launched a roll of toilet paper fifteen feet into the air to cover one of his trees.
“Colton!” He turns around, shock written all over his face. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it a little early for you to be making your way around town?” He glances at his watch and frowns.
“Well, I think you forgot about daylights savings. We jumped forward an hour yesterday. So, it’s nine-thirty, not eight-thirty. But the real question is, what are you doing with the toilet paper?”
“Oh, I was going to call you about the teepeeing, but I wanted to get a head start on cleaning it all up.” His cheeks heat, knowing he got caught. “I don’t know how this hooligan keeps getting away with this! You have to do something, Colton!”
“Cut the crap! I can’t believe you’ve been teepeeing your own house! How long has this been going on? Have any teenagers done this, or was it you all along?” Colt narrows his eyes, watching Mr. Raven's every move.
I can’t help but giggle. He’s such a sweet man. Even his prank on Colt is harmless. He’s the one who has to clean up the mess every month and he’s the one paying for the toilet paper. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Tucker or Maverick funded some of it. Anything to mess with Colt.
“I seem to remember a certain sheriff teepeeing my house one Halloween.” Mr. Raven arches a brow at Colt.
“That was over a decade ago!” Colt throws his hands up in the air and lets them drop down to his sides again.
“Well, when you became the sheriff, it seemed like a good way to get back at you. I drove you crazy for over five years with my prank.” Mr. Raven smiles proudly.
“I can’t believe you!” Colt huffs. I don’t think he’s mad, I think he’s putting on a show for the old man. “If someone ever teepees your house for real, don’t call me. I'm not coming to deal with it.”
He stomps back to his car and gets in, waiting impatiently for us to follow him. Maverick says something to Mr. Raven that has him laughing before he leads me back to Colt’s SUV.
“Are you mad?” I ask as soon as we pull away from Mr. Raven's house.
I watch as the crease in his brown and the frown on his face instantly vanish as soon as we’re far enough away from the house.
“Mad? No. That was a pretty decent prank. I can’t believe he’s been doing this himself for years. Do you know how much money he probably wasted on toilet paper? Plus, the jokes on him. He had to clean it up every month.” Colt chuckles.
“Well, he didn’t always do it. He used to pay Tucker and I to teepee the house.” Maverick chuckles when Colt’s eyes snap to his.
“Excuse me?”
“Since he retired, he’s been doing it himself because he’s bored. He doesn’t mind cleaning up the toilet paper. He checks the weather first to make sure there won't be any bad weather. How did you not realize his house only gets teepeed when the weather is nice and there’s no snow?”
Colt’s quiet the rest of the drive and when we pull up in front of the house, he doesn’t say a word to us. I think he’s a little hurt his friends helped trick him, but I know it won't last long. Knowing Colt, he’ll think of some way to get back to them.
We wave goodbye and shut the door to the house when Colt’s car is out of sight. Maverick takes a seat on the couch and pats the spot next to him.
“I was thinking on our way home,” he begins. I can see the wheels in his head turning and I wonder what that’s all about.
“Ok?”
“Peck and Sophia are moving in a few weeks. What if we help them and visit Mulberry Lane? We can help them get settled in and have a wedding celebration while we’re there.
That way you can have both of your brothers there for it.
I think the kids have spring break right around that time, and even if they didn’t, I'm sure Skylar would figure it out.”
“You’d do that? Don’t you want to do something here so Colt and Tucker can be there?”
“Well, I don’t think it would be that difficult to convince Colt and Zoey to travel to Mulberry Lane for a weekend. I'm sure we could get Tucker and Skylar to come too. And if they can’t, we can do something another time with them. I'm not worried about it.”
“You’re perfect, you know that, right?” I blink back tears. I don’t know what I did to deserve this man, but I’ll never take him for granted.
“Nah, baby. I'm just putting you first and you don’t know what to do with that.” He leans in and brushes a soft kiss across my lips.
“Do we tell the kids?”
“That’s up to you. I was kind of hoping by waiting until Peck moves, maybe we’ll have the adoption papers by then and we could surprise them with those.”
“They’d love that,” I whisper. “I think we should tell them we got married though. It might help them. Peck said they were really anxious when he took them to school today and they didn’t know what was going on.
I think they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I think they’re terrified you’re going to leave one day. ”
“I'm happy to put their minds at ease then.”
Maverick and I work the entire day to unpack boxes around the house. Since we didn’t bring any furniture, there isn’t as much to do as there could be, but it’s still a lot. We take a short break for lunch, but other than that, we’ve been working all day.
Peck was kind enough to pick up the kids from school and drop them off at home even though he’s on duty. That’s one of the benefits of living in such a small town.
The kids race inside the house and drop their things in the mudroom before coming to find us in our bedroom.
“Is everything ok?” Danny’s eyes frantically search my face. My heart breaks for him. A boy at his age shouldn’t worry about everything being ok at home.
“Let’s go out to the living room.” Maverick helps me off the floor before leading all of us into the living room.
The kids are an anxious mess and I can only imagine the things going through their heads. I’m hoping once we tell them, their anxieties will melt away.
We take a seat on the couch and Maverick tugs both of the kids onto his lap. Danny already has tears gathering in his eyes and Bree looks like it won't be long before she’s following in his footsteps.
“Hey, why are you so upset?” Maverick tugs them closer.
“Because you’re going to leave! You don’t want us, just like Rob didn’t.” Danny buries his face in Maverick’s chest and his body shakes with his sobs.
“I don’t want you to leave, Maverick!” Bree flings her body into his and wraps her arms around his neck.
I pinch my lips together as my own tears gather. I didn’t realize they were feeling this uneasy about everything. I hate how they’re questioning Maverick’s position in their lives.
“Maverick isn’t Rob. We all need to remember that,” I try my hardest to reassure them, but I feel like my words are falling on deaf ears.
“Mom and I wanted to talk to you about something. Today, we went to the courthouse to get some things settled with Rob. It’s over and done with. He’s not allowed to come near any of us and he can’t talk to you at all.”
“It’s not like he tried to speak to us before this.” Danny pulls away and swipes at the tears that are still trickling down his cheeks.
“You’re right, he didn’t. He wasn’t a good father at all,” I voice what we’re all thinking but the kids are always hesitant to say. For so long I tried to make sure they respected a man who didn’t deserve it. “You won't need to see him again unless you want to.”
“I don’t. We have Maverick now, we don’t need him.” Bree clings to him even tighter.
“While we were at the courthouse, Mom and I decided to get married.” Maverick pauses and I watch as both of the kids turn their gazes on me. There’s so much hope swimming in their eyes. They want this to be true so badly, but I don’t think they believe it.
“Really?” Danny whispers.
“Yes. We wanted to make things official. We love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together. I was hoping it might ease some of your worries about this being temporary.” I run a hand up and down Danny’s back, trying to sooth him.
“You really want us?” Danny turns his attention back to Maverick and the tears come once again.
“Of course I want you. You two are the best. My love for you has nothing to do with my love for Mom. I would’ve loved you even if she refused to marry me. Even if we had broken up, I would’ve made sure I could still spend time with you.”
“But you got married without us?” Bree arches a brow.
“Legally? Yes, but I think we’ll have something small when we go to Mulberry Lane in a few weeks.”
“What? Really?” Danny leaps off of Maverick’s lap and is smiling from ear to ear.
“Yeah, we thought we could spend a week or two visiting Wyatt and Charlie, while helping Sophia and Peck get settled in their new house. We’ll probably have to stay at a nearby hotel though. We also need to check with Peck and Sophia to make sure that’s ok.” I wince.
“I already texted Peck, sweetheart. He loves the idea.” Maverick reaches for my hand and intertwines our fingers. He’s always one step ahead of me and thinking of all the things I didn’t.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. Now, I think we should go out for dinner to celebrate our new family.”
“Wait… This means you’re our step-dad now, right?” Danny’s gaze snaps to us.
“Yeah, but I’d rather if you just called me Dad.” Maverick grins.