CHAPTER 87
maverick
Idelegated—much to Roxy’s surprise. Instead of burying my time under a pile of jobs and trying to keep up with everything on my own, I passed a good chunk of them off to Devon and Zach. It made sense, really. They were more than capable, and it freed me up to focus on the work out at Harley’s farm.
Which, if I were being honest with myself, I’d started spending more and more time at.
Even when Harley wasn’t in the barn—and that was most days—I didn’t mind the quiet.
I didn’t mind it because I knew I was doing something to help him.
And on the days he did happen to show up, I found myself lingering longer than necessary.
I stretched out conversations that probably didn’t need to last as long as they did.
And it wasn’t like he was quick to disengage me either.
I savored those moments more than I should have, all things considered, but I refused to overthink that part. I was happy. That was the simplest truth of it. There was no storm of emotions brewing under the surface, no old wounds reopening themselves.
Harley was a puzzle to figure out—one made of old pieces that were familiar and of new pieces. Every time we talked, it felt like I was discovering another part of the person he’d become. It was an exciting adventure that broke up my daily routine. I liked it.
“All right,” Roxy said loudly as she waltzed into my office. Duke’s head popped up from his spot on his dog bed—yeah, I kept one in the corner for him—while I didn’t bother to glance up. “I need to know about this farm job.”
She stood in the doorway, keeping an eye on the front door in case we had a walk-in. No matter how many times I told her that she didn’t need to, she always did.
“What do you want to know?” I asked. I knew exactly what she wanted to know, but I was humoring her.
“You locked the file, you shit head,” she replied.
“That I did.” It was a ridiculous thing—I knew that—but in true family fashion, Roxy and the rest of her family had given me shit after Millie told them I went to breakfast with Harley. If she knew I was spending all that time at his farm, I was fairly certain she’d have a lot to say about it.
While Roxy didn’t know the extent of my history with Harley, she was there when Millie and James helped me put myself back together.
She knew the man had emotionally destroyed me.
That would be more than enough for her to go feral on him.
I didn’t want to fight my best friend over someone I couldn’t easily explain to her.
“But why? Tell me!”
“There’s nothing to tell. I have a client—”
“That you’re obsessed with.”
“I’m not obsessed!” I scoffed. “You just don’t need to know everything.”
“That is the biggest load of bullshit ever, and you know it. I want to know, Maverick! I want to—”
The bell over our front door jingled, cutting her off. I frowned. Who the hell was walking into my goddamn business? We never had walk-ins, and I knew where all my employees were.
“Hi, I was looking for Maverick.” Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Harley showing up during this exact conversation was karma at its finest. “I have property surveys for him.”
“Oh, this makes so much more sense now,” Roxy said, looking directly at me. That glare made me grimace.
‘Sorry.’ I mouthed.
“He’s in here,” she told Harley and gestured him into my office. “I’ll just be at my desk, wallowing in the sea of lies of betrayal laid forth by my boss.”
She ducked out of the way and disappeared as Harley walked in. The flannel was back, which made me smile. He bounced back and forth between the same flannel and an expensive beige cardigan the same way he bounced between wearing contacts or wearing glasses.
“Is she okay?” Harley asked quietly, glancing back out the door.
“Yeah, she’s fine. She’s just dramatic,” I dismissed. I motioned for him to give me the roll of surveys.
“I have someone coming out to mark the lines near the back section we talked about.”
“Good.” I unrolled the paper he gave me just enough to give it a quick once-over, making sure it had everything I needed. “These will work. Do you need it done right away?”
“No. I’d like the barn finished first, mostly to just compartmentalize the projects.” Of course, he did. It was a very Harley thing to want.
“That’s usually how I work,” I told him. I set the roll aside and leaned back in my seat. “I can’t tell you exactly when, but I’ll make it a priority as much as I can. Next week, our Halloween community program launches, so things get kind of busy around here.”
“Halloween? Isn’t it a little early for Halloween?” Harley asked as he leaned back on the arm of the other chair in my office. Duke took the opportunity to bombard him with a demand for pets. “It’s September.”
“People are crazy about Halloween,” I muttered.
That was the understatement of the century.
Growing up, I hadn’t noticed how intense some people got about their Halloween decorations.
Now, I was all too aware of how people decorated their yards, and I had more than a few opinions about how some chose to decorate.
“I run a community program for Halloween. For the price of a donation they can afford to the food bank, we’ll come in and put up your Halloween decorations.
It’s actually wildly successful, but it’s all volunteer hours, so I carry the brunt of the hours.
But I have a good group of people out there, so they help as much as they can. ”
“Do you help them take everything down?” he replied, and I laughed.
“When they repeat their donation for their holiday decorations, and we take all their Halloween stuff down before we do their lights. And yes, we take them down in January.”
“I like that. If you need any help, I don’t mind helping.”
“Harley.” I chuckled. “I remember how bad you are with a hammer in your hand.”
“I’ve improved!” he exclaimed, making me laugh harder. “Okay, maybe I haven’t, but I can swim! So that makes up for it!”
“It doesn’t!” I laughed harder. “I mean, it’s good that you can—don’t get me wrong. That’s a very valuable skill to have in a lake town! But that doesn’t do you any damn good if someone hands you a hammer.”
“I can hang a picture—not straight probably, but still,” he retorted.
“You know what? I’ll take it. I’ll put you on a ladder with a hammer, and it’ll be fine.” My cheeks hurt from laughing so much, but I couldn’t help it. And from how he grinned right back at me, he felt it too.
The minute Harley left, Roxy was right back through my door with a look that made me cringe.
“You,” she began as she shut my door, “like him. You like him like him.”
“I don’t like him like him!” I snapped as I did my best to be quiet. I didn’t need to be the center of anyone’s gossip in my own office.
“Yes, you do!”
“No, I don’t!”
“You locked his file!”
“I didn’t want you to know about him!”
“Because you like him!” Roxy said. “It’s been a few weeks, Maverick! Weeks! You know, I thought maybe you were going through a sexual crisis—like maybe you were less gay than you thought.”
“Please,” I scoffed.
“But Harley?” she continued, ignoring me. “Harley, Mav? And the way you two were laughing? You like him!”
“I don’t like him!” I repeated. “He’s a friend.”
“Maverick.”
“Don’t do that. Just don’t.” I switched off my computer and got to my feet. “I’m fine, Rox. Seriously. I can’t explain it in a way that you’ll understand, but I’m fine. Harley’s fine. We’re fine.”
“Oh, honey, you’ve got it bad,” she commented.
“I do not.” I didn’t.
I kept that thought on repeat as I packed up my stuff to head and finish up my appointments for the day. I didn’t have it bad. And I certainly didn’t feel anything for Harley.