CHAPTER 46 Maverick Jennings
Mr. Dalton’s Office
I guess Jack was too busy to send his minions today, so I’m waiting outside his office after practice on Wednesday evening.
It’s been a long day.
I’m tired since I’ve been getting up early every morning to visit the shelter.
It’s the only thing that helps ease the ache. Petting dogs. Who would’ve thought?
Wednesday is the day I push the hardest in practice.
It may be midweek, but it’s the furthest practice day away from gameday, so it gives my body a few days of recovery to push the hardest and be ready to go on Sunday.
Each day after today gets the littlest bit easier until we hit Sunday and it’s time to take the field.
Coming off our bye week, today was harder than usual. I didn’t exactly rest last week, but I didn’t have daily practice and drills to keep me on my toes. I’m ready to go home and rest up so I can get here and get back at it in the morning.
My focus is here now. Again. Right where it should be.
It’s on the game. I’m not running around doing stupid things because of the constant threat that my job could be at stake with Jack overseeing my progress.
I still haven’t heard from the DA, and I could be in legal trouble.
I’m doing everything I can to stay under the radar.
And truth be told, I don’t want to do anything. I just want to be alone. I just want to sit in the dark and stare out the window at the blinking lights of the Strip as I imagine people having fun and living life and not feeling like everything’s been ripped out from under them.
But instead, I’m here at Jack’s office, waiting for some unknown fate that’s more than likely going to put me in an even worse mood.
“Mr. Dalton will see you now,” Lily says, and she nods to the closed door.
I glance up at her, and she nods.
“You can go in.” She offers a small smile, and it’s a little weird that I’m opening the door on my own to his office—something I’ve never done before.
And when I open the door, I’m floored at what’s behind it.
A red slip dress. A black jacket. Black heels. Red lipstick. The gorgeous, smart, capable, strong woman who makes my heart beat harder, faster, stronger. The woman who makes my spine race and my cock harden.
The woman I’m so goddamn in love with that it physically feels like a blow to my guts just seeing her standing in front of me and knowing I can’t go to her and take her in my arms.
The woman who owns me.
I press my lips together and nod a polite greeting at Everleigh without words, and I turn my attention to Jack. He nods at Everleigh, so I turn back to her, a little confused as to why she’d be here.
She draws in a breath. “I chose wrong,” she says simply. She wrings her hands a little nervously, and I have the sudden urge to walk over and take her hands in mine.
I don’t. I stay still as she continues talking.
“I’m here to make it right, Maverick. I’ve decided to launch my own brand consultation company and have applied for a business license here in Vegas, and I’m here to offer you my services if you’ll give me another chance.
This is just you and me, not your boss hiring a babysitter for you, but me wanting to finish the job I started with the man I love with my whole heart. ”
My jaw slackens as I’m not quite sure what to say.
Jack pipes in then. “And I’ve hired Ever-Brand to help with a community project that I’d like to start here within the team.
I want to create a peer mentorship program for athletes dealing with loss or other struggles, and my goal is to create a mirror of the program within the community, perhaps connected to the new foundation you’re building.
” Jack walks over to me and claps a hand on my shoulder.
“You don’t owe anyone your story, but you can leave a big impact on this team if you allow your brothers to see your struggles and how they too can rise from the ashes.
And if we can reach young athletes in this community who are struggling, imagine the legacy you can leave behind.
” He pauses, and I’m about to say something…
but I’m not sure what. “Excuse me a moment, I need a word with Lily.” He walks through it and closes it behind him, sealing Everleigh and me into privacy.
I turn to look at her, and her eyes are hopeful as she looks at me.
“I’m sorry, Maverick,” she whispers. Tears shine in her eyes.
“I should’ve chosen you from the start. If you need to give my father’s name, do it.
If it’ll save you an ounce of trouble, do it.
Even if it won’t…call the DA and do it. You have my full, unequivocal support, and you should have had it all along.
I know that now. I’ve been so miserable without you, and I’m here to fight for you.
To fight for us. I need you to know that you will always come first for me. ”
“But I didn’t,” I say quietly.
“You did. You always did. I just felt pushed into an impossible corner, and I went with my brain instead of my heart. But my heart? She chose you. She will always choose you, and it took me a little time to get my brain to understand that, but we’re all in alignment now.”
“Those sound like a bunch of fancy brand strategist words,” I say.
She laughs a little nervously, but her face is serious. “Please tell me you’ll give me a chance.”
“As my brand strategist?” I ask.
“Ideally both as your brand strategist and as your girlfriend, but I’ll take what I can get.”
My brows might just fly off my forehead. “Girlfriend? We never used that word before.”
“We never defined what we were before, Maverick,” she points out. “But we were definitely something. We never defined when it was over, either, but the way I’ve felt sick over losing you for the last two weeks has told me how very much I need you in my life.”
“Maybe we don’t need a definition.”
“Is that a yes?” she asks, the hope in her voice killing what little defense I have left in me.
I don’t want to give her a hard time, but something in me can’t quite help it. Maybe it’s the fact that we started out as enemies, and somehow she was able to get through to me enough to thaw me out. She warmed me up and made me feel things I hadn’t felt in years—maybe ever.
“I don’t think I’m boyfriend material.”
“You’re not,” she says, shaking her head. She takes a step toward me, narrowing the wide gap between us. “You’re intolerable, and you’re grouchy almost all the time. You push everyone away, I’ve seen you smile maybe once the entire time I’ve known you, and sometimes you can be kind of mean.”
My jaw slackens. This isn’t exactly what I was expecting from her big Hail Mary to win me back.
She narrows the gap more with another step. She’s a few feet away now, within my reach.
“But you’ve also somehow captured my heart.
It beats for you, Maverick, and I’m not sure why.
I know inside of you is a kind soul who’s been beat down by situations out of his control.
I know deep down that you care more than you possibly can show, that you have so much love to give, that you’re great with kids and dogs, that you’re deeply passionate about the things that mean the most to you, and that you’re not only hot as fuck, you really, really know what you’re doing in bed. ”
She takes that final step, and she tentatively rests her hands on my biceps.
“So you don’t think you’re boyfriend material? It’s okay. We don’t have to use that word. But whatever label we give or don’t give it, you own me, Maverick Jennings, and I will choose you every single day if you’ll let me.”
The truth is that I’ve been miserable without her, too. I missed her, and just being in the same room with her again is warming me from the inside in a way my cold heart has been missing since she left. It’s falling over me, that wave of emotion that I’ve been pushing out with her gone.
I want to be with her. I don’t want to play games. I want a life with her. I want to feel things. I want to feel joy again.
I never thought I wanted to be a husband again after the horrific way my first marriage went, but with Everleigh, it feels like anything is possible.
I twist my lips, quiet a few beats before I say, “You think I’m mean?”
Her lips quirk up into a smile. “I said sometimes you can be kind of mean. Just…aggressive, I guess.”
I frown a little, and then I reach around her waist and haul her to me. “I’ll show you just how aggressive I can be when I get you naked.”
Her breath hitches, and her eyes are on mine. She looks almost nervous. “You mean…right here in Mr. Dalton’s office? Now?”
I can’t help it. I smile. I grin. It’s wide, and it’s just for her. Only for her. “I don’t think my boss’s office is the ideal place for makeup sex, do you?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Who said anything about makeup sex?” she asks, her voice sassy. “I was just offering you my services.”
A little chuckle erupts out of me, and I realize this is happiness. True happiness. Joy. It’s that concept I was missing, and it’s back with her here. “Services? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
Her eyes search mine as she cracks a smile. “Oh, shut up and kiss me already, would you?”
I’m hit with her beauty as she stands here in my arms, her hands resting on my biceps, her eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiles at me.
Who am I to deny her what she wants?
My mouth crashes down to hers, and her hands move to tangle in my hair as our tongues dance together to make up for lost time.
I missed this woman. God, did I miss her, and holding her here as we kiss reminds me just how much I need her in my life.
My first love story didn’t have a happy ending. But I think this is the one that’s going to last the rest of our lives.