“Mav!” Stella gives him an exaggerated pout. “Are you calling me weird?”
“Oh...” He blinks twice and then nods slowly. “You’re big weird.”
Stella pretends to glare and then cracks up laughing. “Yeah, you’re right. I am.”
“What are y’all even doing? I thought we were playing hide and seek?”
“We were, but then I heard Orion’s voice and came to see what he was doing back already.”
Maverick scampers over to me and wraps his arms around my leg. “You wanna play, too, O? We can be a team.”
Man, this kid. He knows every right word to say. Honestly, at this point, I’m pretty sure Maverick Townsend could tell me to jump and my sad ass would ask him how high. He’s got me wrapped around his little finger and doesn’t even know it.
“Let’s do it!” I hold out my fist for him to bump.
“Fine,” Stella concedes. “But when we’re done, we talk.”
I grin down at my newly acquired teammate. “Let’s hide somewhere really good.”
“One… two… three…” Stella starts, but Maverick is already hauling me out the back door.
Hopefully the kid knows a spot she’ll never find us, because as much as I want to win over Frankie, I’m not sure I want my little sister to be the one coaching me to victory.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ORION
“Can we play again tomorrow, O?” Maverick asks, his eyes drooping. The kid will never admit it, but after an hour of hide and seek, dinner, and reading—he’s tired.
“Sure can.” I reach down and lift him into the air, tossing him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “If you take a quick shower and brush your teeth before bed.”
He wriggles and kicks and giggles, sounding more like a hyena than a little boy. Any other kid, and I would want to cover my ears, but with Mav? It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.
“But I don’t like showers!”
I toss him down onto the bed he shares with his mother—a fact I’m studiously trying to ignore—and press my fingers into his ribs.
“O!” he screeches, trying to get away. “Stop! It tickles.”
“Only way I’ll stop is if you take a shower.”
“Fine! Fine!” I release him and he sits up, his cheeks stained red from laughing. “But you gotta start the water. Mama or Stella usually does it so it won’t be too hot.”
“Grab your pajamas and I’ll handle it.”
We both go our separate ways—me to the bathroom and Mav to the closet—but once I’m standing in front of the shower, all I can wonder is how hot is too hot?
Am I going to fuck this up and burn him? He’d tell me if the water wasn’t right, right? God, who knew showers could cause so much anxiety?
“Maverick,” I call. “Come feel this.”
He runs in, sets a little bundle of clothes on the sink, and then sticks his index finger under the flow of water. “Too hot!”
“Feel it again,” I say, pulling the knob back a bit.
He shrieks. “Too cold!”
I nudge it forward. “Try it one more time, baby bear.”
“That’s just right, O.” He turns to me. “Who’s baby bear?”
“Like Goldilocks, you know?”
“Nope.” He tugs his shirt off. “Do I gotta wash my hair?”
“Yeah. Hair to toes, and everything in between.” I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I do. I can’t help it. He starts kicking off his pants and I take that as my cue to leave. “I’ll wait out in your room, okay?”
“Promise?”
“Yeah, Mav.” I step into the bedroom and pull the door shut behind me. “I promise.”
While he showers, I sink into the chair in the corner of the room and open Google Play on my phone. Once the app I need starts downloading, I toggle over to my work calendar. It’s a slow week at work, thanks to our supply truck getting delayed, but you won’t hear me complaining since it means I get to be here more.
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that repetition leads to mastery, so maybe if I keep showing up in Frankie’s life, she’ll let me in. Not really the same thing, but…close enough.
I know she’s into me—that much is clear. I just don’t know how to convince her to take a chance on me. But as far as she’s concerned, persistence may as well be my middle name, because I have no intentions of giving up.
Not on her—on them… Not now, not ever.
After about ten minutes, I stand and pad over to the bathroom. “You okay?”
The shower cuts off. “Yeah. Almost done.” His voice is tired. Maybe he’ll fall asleep fast.
“Brush your teeth.”
He groans, but then mumbles out an okay.
I turn to go back to the chair, but he stumbles back into the room before I can.
“Will you tell me a story?” he asks through a big yawn.
“Sure.” I pull back the covers and pat the mattress. “In you go.”
He climbs into the bed and snuggles into his fluffy pillow. “You lay, too?”