CHAPTER 85
harley
And what I’m going to do…” I clicked my tongue as I flipped back and forth between two pieces of paper in the file I was working out of.
Silas King was a new business owner who should’ve waited another year or so before starting.
He didn’t have a plan, and he didn’t have direction.
He just wanted to run a business. That wasn’t a great foundation at all.
“All right, what I’m going to do is go through everything you sent me.
What I do is break everything down by where your weak spots are, where you can improve what’s already in place, and give some suggestions for ways you can grow your business. ”
“Do you have good recommendations for insurance people?” Mr. King asked.
“I will include some options for you as well,” I said. “I can make it the first thing I do and get that back to you. That way, if you want my insight, we can go over them together.”
“Yeah, I’d appreciate that.”
“All right, I’ll get you a few options by the end of the day Monday,” I told him. I didn’t work on the weekends, and there was no way I’d get everything done before the day was over.
“Thanks, Harley.”
He hung up without any other pretense, which didn’t bother me. At least not today. Today, I was a little too distracted to do my job.
Breakfast with Maverick had my head all over the place.
I’d expected it to be awkward and uncomfortable.
I hadn’t expected how easy it would be to fall right back into comfortable conversation with him.
It had felt almost natural—like all the crap between us had fallen away to something softer and smoother.
I kept replaying the little moments from the morning in my head. The way he laughed, the way he smiled at his jokes, the instinctive way he reached for Duke every so often.
And the way he looked at me? That stirred up old things inside me. Spending time with Maverick like this had nudged something awake inside me. The same thing I’d packed away because I had Aria to think about.
There had always been a connection between us—something intense and undeniable.
With every version of our messy relationship, that connection deepened.
Even now, after seven years of silence with the belief that we’d never see each other again, the connection hadn’t waned.
Sure, it had changed, but it hadn’t waned.
I could feel it in my chest, a calm and steady thrum of something powerful. It was terrifying and dangerous. I couldn’t afford to get attached to Maverick again. Our lives were on different paths, and time had proven that we didn’t work.
And yet, I found myself wandering through social media and searching for his name.
He didn’t have a personal account, but his business had one.
He appeared in every few posts, whether candidly or posed.
I scrolled through month after month, absorbing each picture of Maverick along the way.
Him dressed up as Santa at some community event with a smile too big for his face.
Him trick-or-treating with Roxy and his nephew—I stared a little longer at that one as I tried to get a feel for the kid my daughter had adopted as her new best friend.
Him and Duke on the beach. Him working on a car with a woman named Nyla.
The list went on and on. I scrolled back years, just trying to get a sense of who he’d become. The longer I looked, the more I came to the conclusion that healing looked good on him. And with every post, that smile of his dug its hooks a little deeper in my heart.
A knock on my office door startled me out of my contemplation.
“Come in,” I called out as I set my phone aside. The door cracked slightly, and Holly popped her head in. I smiled and asked, “You good?”
“Oh, yeah,” she replied. “I rocked my orientation, which is really to say I read all the required documents and cried a little when I logged in to look at my tuition bill.”
“You do realize I’m not letting you pay for that, right?”
“I’m not asking you to do that.” She pushed the door open wider and leaned against the frame. “You’ve been more than generous, Harley.”
“I know you’re not,” I said, “but you’re family, Holly.”
What I didn’t say was that I had more money than I knew what to do with.
When I sold my family’s company, the buyout was more than I could fathom.
With smart financial decisions, my great-great-great-grandkids would still be set for life.
There was no reason for Holly to stress about a college bill, especially not after everything she’d done to help me.
“Just send me an email with what you need to cover everything,” I continued. “And I do mean everything, Holly. Books, backpack, whatever.”
“I haven’t used a backpack in forever!” She laughed. “Well, thank you.”
“Any time.”
“Do you need anything from me today? If not, I was thinking of driving to the city for the weekend,” Holly said. “But if you need me, I can stay.”
“Could you stay until I have to get Aria from school?” I asked. “I’d like to have you come with me. They need your information and license on file for you to be approved to pick her up. You can leave right after.”
“I can do that,” she replied with an easy smile. “Do you need anything else?”
“No, I’m good. When do you start classes?”
“Next week, but I’m only taking a few classes.”
“Okay.” I drummed my fingers on the desk as I glanced at my calendar. “Let me get you my schedule for the next two weeks. I don’t have too much going on, but we can come up with a plan for when I need you and when I’ll make sure Aria leaves you alone.”
“Oh, you don’t want her learning economics this young?” she teased.
“Who knows? Maybe that’s what will help her learn to read,” I murmured. Reading was our biggest issue. She was a little young—I knew that—but while all kids had their own learning curve, she was struggling more than expected. “I’ll get everything to you shortly.”
“Okay. Did the repair guy come out?”
“Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “He’s starting on the barn tomorrow. And eventually he’ll fix the fence. I have to get down to the courthouse for a property survey.”
Honestly, I was grateful he was coming on a Saturday when I’d be busy with Aria because I wouldn’t overthink the fact that Maverick was right there. I wasn’t ready to deal with the weird, convoluted feelings unfolding inside me.