CHAPTER 63
maverick
Why the hell does anyone want kids?” My head tilted slightly as I stared at the ridiculously graphic anatomical pregnant woman poster. “That baby is just so goddamn big to be coming out of something so… small.”
“It stretches,” Harley murmured from his spot next to me. His arms were crossed, his expression drawn and severe as he scrutinized the same poster.
“That can’t be pleasant,” I whispered.
“I’m pretty sure that’s why they get drugs,” he retorted.
“This is weird, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
We sat in the clinic’s waiting room while Roxy got checked out by a doctor.
As soon as I was sure that Aidan was gone, I went on a town-wide hunt to find Roxy.
I wasn’t about to let Aidan ruin that poor girl before she had a chance at life.
As expected, she was in panic mode, and she hadn’t talked to her family.
Aidan had told her that she had to get it taken care of and that he’d be back with money. What a fucking dick.
I didn’t have a clue what the hell I was doing, but taking her to the clinic seemed like a good start. At least then she could get an actual medical confirmation, other than five over-the-counter tests, and find out what her options were.
I’d called Harley to give him the simplified version of everything going on.
It was supposed to be my way of telling him I wouldn’t be around.
I hadn’t expected him to show up to sit with me.
I wanted to be touched by the gesture—and initially I was—but the overwhelmed expression on his face made me feel bad.
“You can go home,” I said quietly, and he glanced at me. “I appreciate the thought, but you don’t need to be a part of my family drama.”
“You mean like you’ve been a part of mine?” Harley replied.
“Fair.” He had a point. “Thank you.”
Thank you was such a flimsy set of words for him going out of his way to be here with me as I dealt with Aidan’s mess.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Drawing in a deep breath, I forced myself to look away from the poster as I stretched out my legs. We’d been sitting here forever, just waiting. I hated waiting. I hated not knowing what came next.
This wasn’t my mess—I knew that. No one would’ve blamed me for not getting involved, but I couldn’t shake the need to do something.
Anything. Aidan would be worse than our father.
No kid deserved someone like Aidan in their life.
And I knew Roxy had her whole family to support her, but I felt like I had to do something to help.
Maybe I was just trying to prove to her that there was hope her kid wouldn’t be a total deadbeat just because it was half a Fox. Or maybe I was just trying to prove that to myself.
“We should try to do something normal for once,” I commented, trying to keep out of my head.
“Like a date?” he asked.
“A date would be nice,” I agreed. “We’ve had a lot of non-dates.”
“We’ve had… a date thing…” He fumbled over his words in a way that made me smile. “I swear we’ve been on a date… we did breakfast and dirtbikes once.”
“Want to do breakfast and dirtbikes again?” I suggested with a grin.
“Let me take you to a nice dinner tonight, and I’ll say yes,” he replied.
“Are you negotiating a date with another date?” I demanded. I shifted in the chair to better stare at him. The smile he gave me wrapped around my heart, digging in. Fuck, I loved his smile. “Fine, two dates it is.”
“Two dates and a sleepover,” Harley corrected. I arched a brow, but he just shrugged. “If you stay the night, you won’t waste the gas on the back and forth. It just makes logical sense for you to stay with me.”
“Mmm,” I hummed, “logic, right.”
Before he could say anything more, the waiting room door opened, and Roxy walked out with a nurse. She carried a pile of pamphlets close to her chest, and her usual bubbly nature was heavily subdued. That didn’t bode well for anything.
I stood while Harley remained in his seat. Patience was a virtue because waiting to find out what direction this whole thing was going to take was a little bit like torture. And her pensive expression didn’t improve any as she joined us.
“Will you hate me if I say I want to keep this baby?” Roxy asked, her voice small. I wasn’t used to it. Usually, she was this loud, feral thing with no filter.
“Come here,” I said as I folded my arms around her shoulders and hugged her tight. “No one is going to hate you for keeping your baby.”
Except Aidan. But Aidan could go fuck himself. Hell would freeze over before I let him make her feel bad for making this choice.
Would it complicate things? Probably. Thankfully, her family were great people. There was no way she’d be doing this alone. I just had to figure out how I fit into that equation.
“Maverick,” she whispered into my chest, “I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this. I don’t have my insurance stuff, and I don’t want to call my parents…”
Shit. I should’ve thought about that.
“I’ll take care of it,” I replied. I didn’t have a clue how I was going to pay for it.
All the money I had was tied up in the house.
As she pulled away, I could tell she didn’t believe me.
My financial situation wasn’t exactly a secret.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and put on my most convincing smile possible.
“Don’t worry about it, Roxy. I’ll figure it—”
“I’ve got it,” Harley cut in.
“It’s fine.” I shook my head. I couldn’t let him take care of it—not for me.
“I’ve got it,” he repeated. He was on his feet and walking to the desk before I could stop him.
The steady assurance in his voice should’ve been calming, but all it did was grate uncomfortably on something I couldn’t quite put words to.
All I knew was her appointment and tests weren’t cheap. I couldn’t ask him to do this.
“Here.” I fished my keys out and handed them to Roxy. “Go get comfortable in the truck while we take care of this, okay?”
“Are you sure?” Roxy said.
“Trust me.” I gave her shoulders a light squeeze meant to comfort her, though I wasn’t sure it did the job.
Her expression was too conflicted, so I gently turned her around and gave her a nudge in the direction of the door.
As soon as she was gone, I approached the counter to stand next to him.
I drummed my fingers on the counter as I watched Harley hand cash over to the woman at the desk.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said softly.
“I know,” he replied.
“I could handle it.” I was lying.
“What’s the point in having money if I don’t take care of the people I love?” Harley countered. My heart did a funny little flip, and I did my best to play it off.
“You love Roxy?” I teased, trying to make a joke out of it.
“No, I love you.” He rotated as he leaned against the counter and pinned me with that intense stare of his.
I searched his pretty face for any sign of doubt in his expression.
There wasn’t any. That was almost scarier than the potential of questioning.
“And technically, this makes Roxy your family, so I’m just taking care of you and your family. ”
I didn’t want his money. I didn’t want to be some project to him, and I didn’t want to owe him.
“I don’t need your money, Harley.”
He said nothing as he accepted the receipt and pocketed it before I could take it from him. It was such a small gesture, but it irritated the hell out of me. Harley smiled at the woman, wished her a good day, and turned to leave.
“Are you coming?” His tone was ridiculously polite in an irksome kind of way. He didn’t even bother looking at me and just walked out of the waiting room.
The clinic was inside an office building. The foot traffic was light as I followed him to the main lobby. My discomfort festered quietly as I stared at his rigid shoulders. The growing silence didn’t take the edge off. It just made everything worse.
“Exactly how long do you plan to ignore me?” I demanded, making him pause. He turned and stared at me for a long moment, something inexplicable crossing his expression.
“Are you always going to fight the fact that I have money?” Harley asked softly.
“I’m not fighting you.” Okay, maybe I was a little bit. From the way he sighed, his frustration matched my own.
“I can’t help that I have money, Mav,” he continued. “We are both the products of our circumstances. My circumstances mean that I have… a lot of money.”
“I know.” I crossed my arms, my jaw ticking. This felt an awful lot like bragging. I was all too aware of the income gap between us. I didn’t need him reminding me.
“No, I don’t think you do,” he said. He stepped closer, his voice dropping significantly. “I have two bank accounts with more numbers than you can probably imagine, and I’m fortunate.”
“Yeah, this feels a lot like bragging,” I muttered. I didn’t want to know any of that. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t know what the point is of having this kind of money if I can’t do something good with it,” Harley admitted. “I don’t want fancy cars or clothes or…”
“You kind of wear fancy clothes, princess,” I pointed out when he faltered. A ghost of a smile turned the corner of his mouth, fading away almost as quickly as it appeared.
“I can’t make my money go away, Maverick,” he told me. “I don’t want you to hate me for it or… resent me for it.”
“I don’t…” The words got stuck in my throat.
Fuck. He waited, silently challenging me to tell him he was wrong.
The problem was that he wasn’t. I didn’t hate him or resent him personally, but I hated what money turned people into.
I’d seen it my whole life as I watched Aidan chase every last dollar he could find.
I saw it when his mother showed just how corrupt she and so many others were.
“Yeah,” Harley said when I didn’t continue. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the folded receipt and gave it to me. “So you can plan for next time. Goodbye, Maverick.”
I stared at him, stunned, and watched him leave. This goddamn man was actually leaving. And could I blame him? After all, he was right. He couldn’t change his circumstances.
And this was Harley. Harley wasn’t about to use his money to hurt anyone. Hell, he didn’t have to pay for Roxy’s appointment. He had no stake in this whatsoever. That was just him and his kindness.
Fuck, I was an idiot.
He made it to the door before I managed to pull my head out of my ass.
“That’s it?” I practically yelled as I chased after him. Heads turned, but I didn’t care about them. They didn’t matter; Harley did.
He stopped in the vestibule, and I let the doors shut behind us in an attempt at privacy. The sad expression on his face broke my heart a bit.
“I’m so tired of fighting, Mav,” Harley whispered. There was no hiding it in his worn-down expression. It was practically etched into every part of him at this point. “I don’t want to fight you, too.”
We’d come back to that later because I had questions. And I had worries. A lot of them.
“You’re right,” I said softly. “I do resent money.”
“I know—”
“I resent what money can turn people into. I resent what people do to get money. I resent a lot of things, but I don’t resent you with money,” I continued over him.
My thoughts were a little scrambled, but I needed to say everything before I stupidly talked myself out of it.
“I’m not good at this. Aidan was always an asshole about money and needing to take care of me. ”
“I’m sorry,” he replied.
“I don’t want your apology,” I snapped. I scrubbed my hands down my face and took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to let people take care of me. No one’s ever wanted to, at least not without strings attached.”
My chest ached with the admission. I was so tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop with people. And I hated how I was putting that on Harley. It wasn’t his fault that other people had fucked me over every chance they got.
“Here.” I held the receipt out to him as a pathetic sign of trust. “I just ask that sometimes you let me pay for things. You’re not the only one who likes to take care of the people you love.”
“I can do that,” Harley said as he took it.
“I’m sorry, I’m fucked up.”
“We’re both fucked up, Mav.” Stepping closer, his lips brushed against mine in a brief kiss. “It’s just who we are.”
He wasn’t wrong, but it also didn’t mean that I wanted to be.