Maverick (The Family Simon 3)

He sat up a little straighter. Shit. He knew what she was getting at.

“I’m on the pill, so you know we don’t need to worry about, well, you know.”

He wove his fingers through her long and hair and tugged so that she was forced to look up at him. “Okay.”

“And I just had a physical so…” God, she was cute when she blushed.

“I’m good,” Rick said. “I mean, I’m clean if you’re worried about that sort of thing. I haven’t had sex without a condom since I was a horny teenager.”

She bit her bottom lip and stifled a giggle and he couldn’t help himself. Rick bent forward and kissed her, loving how she melted into him.

“Have you talked to your brother today? How’s Teague doing?”

Maverick exhaled and relaxed a bit. “Cooper called me just before you got back from the garage. A couple hours after we left, a car showed up and Teague took off for parts unknown.”

“What?”

“He told my aunt and uncle that coming out here was a mistake. Said he needed to be alone to work through some things and that was that.”

“Your aunt Eden must have been so upset.”

“They’ve dealt with a lot in their day, but this is different. Teague is their son and they know he’s hurting. Hell, I can see how screwed up he is. But maybe he does need to do this on his own. Work things out however he needs to without his parents looking over his shoulder.”

“Promise me something?”

“Anything.” He glanced down at her, surprised at the sadness in her eyes. “Hey, he’ll be fine. No worries.”

“I’m sure he will, but life has a way of throwing us curveballs, you know? And sometimes we tell ourselves that a person will be okay because it makes it easier for us to get on with our lives.”

Maverick had a feeling that Charlie was talking about someone or something else entirely. But who?

Did he ask? Were they there yet?

Charlie groaned. “Here I go again, getting all serious. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for saying how you feel.”

She turned out the light and settled back against him.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked softly.

“I thought I’d stay here and work. Maybe meet you for lunch?”

A heartbeat passed.

“I like the sound of that.”

Maverick held Charlie close, inhaling her scent. He was content and warm and not surprisingly, happy.

And for now, his world was about as perfect as it could be.

Chapter Twenty-six

By Tuesday Davis was back from the dead so to speak, which meant that by Thursday the workload at Charlie’s garage was back to normal. In fact, they were so caught up that Davis started working on the Shelby.

The body needed a lot of work and they were bringing in a specialist for it, while Davis would work on the interior. Charlie let him have at it. She’d already taken stock of the engine and other components under the hood, and Rick’s brother had authorized them to spend whatever it took to get the car back to mint condition.

Things were good. Rick spent his days at her place writing music and his nights in her bed. He was the guy every girl should have, but that didn’t mean he was easy by any means. He could be arrogant and opinionated, but then again, so could Charlie. She’d lost count of the arguments they’d had over things as trivial as foreign cars versus domestic (She was all about domestic; he of course was not).