Chapter 30
maverick
Iam not looking forward to telling Aria about Wes and Celine.
This is going to be a clusterfuck.
I amble up to the paddock, where the trailers are lined up like warhorses, gleaming and ready.
I spot Tomas near the hitch on the second trailer, tightening something down.
He looks up when he sees me.
“She’s by the first trailer,” he says, not needing to ask why I’m there. “But I’ll tell you straight, Mav—she’s in a mood. Been like a damn ghost all afternoon. Snappin’ and silent, like someone set her soul on fire.”
“Thanks,” I say, jaw tight.
“Just…don’t make it worse.” Tomas pats the metal rim.
I find her crouched near the wheel well, checking the bolts, her fingers moving like she’s been doing this her whole life.
Dust smudges her cheek, and her braid’s starting to fray. She looks like she’s running on instinct alone.
“Aria,” I say quietly.
She doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t look up. “I’m busy.”
I frown. Something is wrong. “Darlin’—”
“Oh, stop with that.” She throws the wrench she’s holding on the ground with force.
She stands and looks at me. Her eyes are tired. Wounded.
I move to touch her cheek, but she shifts, glares.
“What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Her chest heaves. “You know, this morning I came by Kincaid Farms to…doesn’t matter why I came. It’s what I found there that’s—”
“You saw Celine?” My heart begins to beat fast. She heard me talk to her sister, that’s the only reason why the eyes that usually look at me with affection are spitting fire.
“Yeah, and I heard how you’re waitin’ for me to fail.” She’s angry and hurt. She’s seething.
“Aria, you need to hear me out on this.”
“Why?” She flings her hands up in the air. “You’re just like them. Like Hudson and…actually, you’re worse. You behaved like you were…like we were….” Her voice trails off, thinned by unspoken pain.
“What do you think you heard when I talked to Celine?” I tilt my head, hating how crushed she looks.
“Think?” She huffs out a harsh laugh. “You were telling her that your plan all along has been to see me fumble the ball, and the only reason you’re helpin’ me is so that people don’t think you’re the one sabotaging Longhorn.”
I hold her gaze. “You believe that.”
“Of course, I do. I heard you say it.”
“Don’t listen to what you heard,” I say huskily. “Listen to what you know. To what you felt.” I step closer, until I’m in her space.
She swallows hard. “She says she’s in love with you. She had her arms around you and you—”
“Why do you think I’d do that?”
“Because you’re an asshole, that’s why.” There are tears in her eyes. She’s angry and tired and beautiful. And she’s mine.
“First things first, Tate probably recommended Wes because Celine asked him to.”
Her expression flickers—confusion, hope, fear. “What?” She looks around. “Is that why he’s gone missin’?”
“She probably warned him or some such thing. I don’t know.”
Aria is a smart woman, and I see the wheels turn in her head. “Are you tellin’ me that what you said to her was to stop the sabotage?”
“Yes. To give you time to get your herd to Gunnison. To give Hugh time to get proof against her and Hudson.”
She opens her mouth and then closes it.
“I don’t believe you,” she whispers, but the force with which she’d been angry earlier is now gone. She’s not sure of my guilt anymore. But she’s not certain about my innocence either, my feelings for her.
A part of me is injured by her lack of trust. But a larger part of me understands. Aria has never had anyone on her side. The one time she thought she did and accepted it, she was betrayed.
Now, she thinks history is repeating itself.
“I said what I needed to protect you. I need her to think I’m still on her side. I don’t know if I convinced her or…she knows and is regrouping.”
She looks down at the ground for a long moment and then at me. “Wes has been fuckin’ with the ranch.”
“Yeah. That’s my guess.”
Her brows knit in irritation. “Damn. I knew Tate always had a thing for her, but I didn’t think he’d actually do somethin’ like this on purpose.”
“I told Hugh what’s goin’ on. He’s got people lookin’ for Wes.”
Her expression twists in puzzlement. She holds up a hand. “What do you mean, Hugh knows? How the hell does he know? I haven’t gone to him.”
“I have.”
Her brows go up. “And you didn’t bother to tell me?”
“I went to him before the tractor was sugared ‘cause I felt somethin’ was off. Didn’t want to worry you without any fuckin’ evidence. You already had enough things to be stressed about, darlin’.”
My concern for her doesn’t have a soothing effect on her. She snarls, giving me a look that could’ve curdled milk.
“What else have you been doin’ without tellin’ me?”
“For fuck’s sake, Aria.” My voice roughens, frustration laces my words. “You think I’d fix your fences, chase your cattle, help your vet, hold you when you couldn’t even lift your head…if I didn’t love you?”
She flinches like the word hit a bruise.
I reach out but don’t touch. “Aria, look into your heart. What does it tell you?
She exhales sharply and shakes her head. “I heard you, Maverick. And…it....”
I lift her chin with a finger, so she’s forced to look at me. “I love you.”
She sags a little in relief.
“Do you believe me?”
Her head moves slowly somewhere between a nod and a shake, somewhere between acceptance and denial. “You know, Celine mocked me, said, ‘Did I really think you’d be interested in me?’ I sassed her and I….” She trails off.
I remember what Celine said to me. “You told her that I’m sleepin’ in your bed.”
“Yeah.”
“I am in your bed, your life, with you.” I cup her cheek. “Tell me you know that. Tell me you know what’s in my heart.”
She looks into my eyes, letting me see how vulnerable she is. My heart goes out to her. So many people have trampled over this woman, and now she’s waiting for me to do the same.
“I’m scared,” she whispers.
“I know,” I say gently. “But scared doesn’t mean what we have isn’t real.”
Her eyes go stormy. Ah, there is the passion and the fire. “Do you have any idea what it feels like? To fall in love with someone and wonder if it’s all another lie? I’ve been here before, Maverick. Last time I left, but this time....”
“Yeah?” I challenge her.
“Not gonna leave.”
“Good girl. And?” I coax.
She licks her lips, her need to be safe is waging a war against her love for me, her need to trust me. “And…not gonna let her take you from me.”
My heart expands with pride.
“I don’t want you to leave. Ever. And I sure as hell am not someone Celine or anyone else can take from you.”
She bites her lip. “I don’t know how to be this person. The one who stays. The one who believes.”
“You’re already her.” I kiss her tremulous lips, soft, easy, no tongue, just comfort. “You came back to this ranch, didn’t you? You stayed even when no one believed you could do it. You fought. You bled for this land. You love with your whole damn heart, Aria. That’s not weakness. That’s courage.”
A tear slips down her cheek.
I brush it away.
“I’m not asking you to pretend the past didn’t happen.” I kiss her forehead. “I’m asking you to give the present a chance. Give us a chance.”
She hesitates, then asks, “Did you ever love Celine?”
“No.” I shake my head, sure and steady. “We were friends—no more. What I feel for you is like nothin’ I’ve ever known. And yeah, it scares me, too.”
She lets out a shaky laugh. “I hate that this feels like a leap off a cliff.”
“Then we jump together,” I murmur.
There’s a long, weighted silence. It’s the quiet that only exists between two people deciding the course of their whole damn lives.
Then, as if making a decision, Aria reaches out and takes my hand. Her grip is sure.
“I believe you,” she says softly. “But…I may fly off the handle from time to time. This time, I had good reason. And…who knows if I will the next time. Then, what?”
I shrug. “Then we talk and clear the air.”
“That easy?”
I smirk. “Darlin’, nothin’ about bein’ in love is easy, yeah? But we have all the time in the world to get to know each other better, understand one another, and trust fully.”
“This is happenin’ really fast.”
She’s still unsure, and for the first time, I see the difference in our ages.
She doesn’t know how rare what we have is—how fragile, how precious. She’s never really been in love. Not the kind that makes you reach for more than survival, the kind that makes you want to be better because someone sees the best in you.
I doubt what she had with Hudson was that. It was a child’s affection.
But what we have now is different. It’s messy and hard and full of sharp edges.
But it is real, and I’d rather have one day of that than a lifetime of anything less.
But I love her enough to wait and let her wrestle with her fear and her pride and whatever ghosts still whisper lies in her ear.
Her shoulders sag, relief mixed with exhaustion. And I know this isn’t the end of her hurt—but it is the beginning of her healing.
I pull her into my arms. She doesn’t resist. She leans into me like she needs it. I hold her because I need to.
“I was wonderin’, darlin’, if you’ll let me sleep in your bed tonight.”
She laughs. “Yeah.” She nuzzles my chest. “I need your help tomorrow anyway.” Then she giggles. “And it’ll burn Celine’s ass. Too bad she and Hudson left for Aspen.”
Thinking of Celine makes bile churn inside me. Monsters come in all shapes and forms, I know that, but when they’re family, the hurt is deeper.
So, tonight, we’ll hold each other close.
Tomorrow, we’ll haul cattle to Gunnison.
And the day after, we’ll deal with Celine.