Chapter 16
‘Please, Maverick. I promise you won’t regret it,’ Markus whined for the hundredth time during dinner on Thursday evening.
Models, reps from Western Wear, and Markus’s people had arrived in groups all throughout the day.
Although he had spent most of the afternoon walking around, scouting locations, and taking notes, Markus clearly wasn’t done.
‘You don’t have to do anything except go about your usual routine – wearing the clothes I tell you to.
And occasionally listening to some direction – turn this way, look that way, smoulder. ’
‘Smoulder?’ Maverick looked and sounded genuinely horrified. ‘Markus, I’ve told you, I’m not a model.’ He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, his food forgotten.
It was a gesture Nina had come to think of as defensive, as if he could use his arms to protect himself from whatever was making him anxious.
‘Neens, back me up,’ Markus demanded.
Maverick turned those blue eyes on her, silently begging.
‘It pays well,’ she offered cautiously, thinking it through. ‘If I did it with you, we could float all the rescue horse expenses for months.’
Markus gasped. ‘Wait, you’d do this? Why? You never agree to photoshoots!’
‘Because I can’t ask Maverick to do it if I’m not willing to do it, too,’ she replied, looking at Mav. ‘And I really want him to do it.’ There was more to it than that, but she couldn’t say aloud that she wanted something, some evidence, to commemorate her time at Hunt Ranch with him.
Mav looked only at her when he said, ‘My participation aside, I still think you should limit your interactions with them, try not to be seen.’
Nina settled for an easy truth. ‘Markus has had all the models sign NDAs already. And the photos won’t come out for months. By the time they do, I’ll be back in LA.’
Maverick didn’t comment on that. ‘I’ve seen some of the models who arrived today. They’re in their twenties. And models. I’m a forty-year-old rancher.’
‘Models are models,’ Markus countered, clearly having thought through his argument.
‘They can sell it, but anyone looking at those pictures will see the staging. You … You look like you belong here. So, while my models will sell Western Wear to people looking for top-of-the-line denim, people like your guests at Hunt Ranch, you’d sell it to people who know the lifestyle, people who do what you do. You’d be the face of the campaign.’
‘He’ll do it.’ This came from Sierra, who sat at the head of the table, sipping her red wine.
Maverick threw his hands up. ‘Seriously?’
The look of utter betrayal of his face made Nina smile – she couldn’t help it. But she stroked his thigh beneath the table, soothing him.
‘If he does it,’ Sierra continued without acknowledging Maverick, ‘we want “Maverick Hunt, Proprietor” on every one of his pictures.’
Maverick stared at her. ‘Sierra.’
‘Mav, I’m not an idiot. They’re paying us a fortune to be here.
They’re renting out every spare room we have for two nights.
And our name in a catalogue that sells high-end denim …
That advertising would typically cost me tens of thousands.
’ She threw back the last of her wine, stood and repeated, ‘He’ll do it. ’
Before she could walk away, Markus added, ‘You too, gorgeous.’
Sierra’s spine stiffened. She turned an incinerating glance on Markus. ‘Traitor.’
Maverick smirked. ‘Think of all the advertising dollars we’d save.’
Nina and Poppy looked back and forth between them like spectators at a tennis match.
‘Fine.’ Sierra tipped her chin up. ‘But I can only be available for two hours in the afternoon.’ When Maverick started to argue, she only talked over him. ‘You can get work done while they’re shooting. I can’t.’
‘I think two hours is great,’ Markus interceded.
As Sierra walked away, Markus turned those calculating eyes on Poppy.
‘No.’ It was, to everyone’s surprise, Nina who spoke up. ‘She’s too young, Markus.’
‘Some of the best start younger than her.’
‘And end up skipping childhood completely. No.’ She looked to Maverick for support.
‘I don’t like the idea of her face being plastered in magazines for thousands of strangers to see,’ he affirmed. ‘No.’
Nina was genuinely relieved. She had seen the life Poppy had.
The kid was sweet and kind and loving. She was so carefree.
And she was too young to understand what she’d be trading, too young to agree to something that momentous.
Because Markus was right. Poppy, with her long, chocolate-coloured hair, naturally golden skin, and oversized brown eyes could have been one of those kids.
Famous at five, floundering at fifteen, forgotten at forty.
Still, Markus knew when Nina meant no, and begrudgingly relented. ‘Fine.’
‘I also want a copy of the print you gave Nina for her birthday,’ Maverick added.
Markus’s eyes twinkled. ‘Deal. I—’
Whatever he’d been about to say was cut off by the doorbell. The ring pealed through the house, somehow sounding louder than usual due to the time of night.
Maverick frowned, clearly not expecting anyone. But he rose from the table and went to answer the door.
Nina heard the tinkling laugh first. It carried through the front of the house to the kitchen. ‘I wonder who that is?’
Next to her, Poppy looked up at her with big, sad eyes. ‘It’s Shannon.’
Nina didn’t question how Poppy could possibly know that. And she didn’t ask why Poppy called her own mother ‘Shannon’ instead of ‘Mom’. Turning to Markus, she said, ‘Shannon Carlyle? Is she contracted for this shoot?’
‘Yeah. Her agency contacted me unsolicited.’ Markus crinkled his nose.
‘She’s kinda old news, but I hate to say no.
Especially to someone who’s given her life to the business.
’ He looked back and forth between Nina, who looked as sick as she felt, and Poppy, who looked as if she might burst into tears. ‘Why?’
It was Poppy who said, ‘She’s my mom.’
Markus looked at Poppy with genuine surprise. ‘What?’
‘Shit.’ In her panic, Nina forgot to watch her mouth.
Poppy’s eyes welled with tears. She looked up at Nina, and though she didn’t say anything, the plea was obvious.
Nina didn’t think. She didn’t try and placate Poppy or tell her that her mom had the legal right to visit. She scooped the five-year-old off her chair and headed for the back door.
‘Where are you going?’ Markus hissed. ‘Don’t leave me. You know I get awkward in tense situations.’
‘Tell them we went to the barn to check on Barbie,’ she hissed back, and disappeared outside.
She didn’t stop, didn’t pause to think that she had no right to make decisions for a child that wasn’t hers. She only had to see those tears …
She wasn’t sure if it was just the shock of the moment, or confusion, or if Nina’s own panic had somehow transferred to Poppy, but the kid started crying genuine tears.
She flung her arms around Nina, buried her face against her neck, and sobbed with an abandon only children felt comfortable expressing.
Unsure of what to do, Nina hiked Poppy higher onto her hip as she walked. It was almost a mile to the barn, but she thought she could manage Poppy’s weight that far.
She used a tone she never knew she’d had, one that was soothing. ‘It’s okay, Poppy. We’re just going to take some time with the horses. We’re going to relax and maybe groom Zeph. How does that sound? And then tomorrow, when you feel better, we’ll say hi to your mom, okay?’
Poppy nodded against Nina’s neck, and even though she didn’t speak, she seemed to settle down a little. Her sobs quietened, then stopped altogether. But she didn’t loosen her arms around Nina’s neck or move her face away from where she’d hidden it.
Nina knew she’d overstepped. But she didn’t regret it, couldn’t regret it.
She understood what it was to see your mother coming and feel sick to the stomach.
She knew what it was to want to hide from the person who’d given you life.
And she couldn’t have just sat there while Poppy suffered all those sick, confused feelings.
And if anyone had anything to say to her … Well, then she’d deal with it.
Maverick could only stare at Shannon in shock as she threw her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth.
‘Hi, darlin’,’ she crooned, her high-pitched giggle zinging through the house.
‘Shannon.’ His voice could have frozen out a forest fire. The problem was, Shannon was pure ice already.
‘You look good, Mav,’ she said and turned those purposefully seductive brown eyes on him.
He didn’t feel the effect of them as he once – very foolishly and a long time ago – had. He asked, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m in the Western Wear shoot!’ She laughed and, uninvited, started walking through the house – the house that he had once offered her as a home. ‘I couldn’t believe it when the offer came up. I thought it would be fun to surprise you both.’
Maverick followed her like a mistrustful dog might follow a newcomer in his home. ‘You’re supposed to give notice of visitation, Shannon,’ he said, hating that Poppy would be caught off-guard.
‘Oh.’ She made a small sound of distress. ‘I didn’t think you’d mind, Mav.’
She entered the kitchen a moment before him.
Maverick braced, preparing for Poppy’s dread and anxiety, preparing for Nina’s uncertainty. Only, they weren’t there.
Markus sat alone at the table, drinking a glass of wine he’d topped to the brim. He smiled tightly. ‘Shannon? What on earth are you doing at the ranch house?’
‘Oh, Markus! It’s so great to finally meet you! I’ve been following your work for ages.’ Her eyes ran over him. ‘You look so fabulous!’ Going to him, she air-kissed both his cheeks. ‘I bet you didn’t know I used to live here,’ she said, laughing. ‘Poppy’s my baby.’
‘You’re a mother?’ The force of Markus’s surprise could have flattened a Coke can at ten feet.