“Maverick?”
He followed her voice to the back of the house and found her standing in his bedroom doorway. She’d changed into a light green tank top and a pair of beat-up jeans that framed her curves perfectly, and put up her wavy brown hair into a ponytail. Standing there in bare feet, the threads of the frayed denim just touching the floor, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen.
“I can’t believe it,” she said, peering inside the room.
Lucy was curled up asleep on his pillow. “Why not?”
Alexa’s eyes stayed on her cat. “Because Lucy was terrified of Grant. Wouldn’t go near him. Bolted out of any room he came into. The only exception was at night. She slept under my side of the bed to be near me.” Al finally met his gaze. “I thought she had a problem with men.”
Mav smirked, even though the awe in Alexa’s tone was doing shit to his chest again. “Only the assholes, apparently.”
She burst out laughing. “Only the assholes.”
A meow rang out from the bed, where Lucy was engaged in a long, exaggerated stretch.
“Hey, baby,” Alexa said, crossing the room. “What . . . what are you wearing?”
Grinning, Maverick waited.
“Oh my God.” She laughed and scooped the cat into her arms. “You bought her a sweater?”
He finally let his laughter loose. “I made her a badass.” The sweater covered the cat’s thin body from neck to back legs and was black with white skulls and crossbones.
Alexa kissed the cat’s head, and Maverick could hear Lucy purring from several feet away. “She didn’t mind you putting it on?” More of that awe.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying that she loved it,” he said, moving closer and holding his hand out for the cat. Lucy forced her head against his palm. “But we made friends. Plus, um, I might’ve bribed her with treats.”
Chuckling, Alexa shook her head. “I’m sorry I missed that.” Lucy hopped out of her arms. Alexa’s expression slowly changed and sadness filled her hazel eyes. “I’m sorry . . . for so much.”
The word stirred up all kinds of things inside him, but Maverick just shook his head. “You’re all about the future now.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
His cell buzzed in his pocket. Looking at the screen, he found a text from Bunny.
You coming to dinner tonight?
He hadn’t planned to, not with Alexa here, but it wasn’t often that his mother asked that outright. Which had him feeling like she wanted him there at the clubhouse. Rodeo had confided that she still didn’t feel entirely comfortable being there.
“Everything okay?” Alexa asked.
He shrugged. “Mom. Asking if I was coming up to the clubhouse for dinner. She’s, uh, she’s still having a hard time.”
“I’m sorry, Maverick. I can’t believe everything that happened to her. You should go.”
“You, uh, you wanna come?” he asked.
“Oh. Uh. Really?”
“Is that a no?” he asked with a frown. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted her to agree until she’d answered.
“Not a no,” she said. “More of a ‘are you sure.’ I remember how Dare looked at me when I was there a couple of weeks ago. I know after everything that happened between us that he’s not my biggest fan.” She hugged herself. “I don’t blame him for that. Just stating the facts.”
“My cousin’s a pain in the ass,” he said. He couldn’t deny her words, so there was no point doing so. It wasn’t that Dare didn’t like Alexa; he didn’t like the way things had gone down between them five years before. But that wasn’t any of Dare’s business, and he’d get over it in five seconds if Maverick wanted him to.
“No, your cousin’s loyal,” Alexa said. The characterization earned her some points in Maverick’s book, not that she needed them. Just that he respected the hell out of her saying something nice about someone he cared about. And it was true, too.
“Come,” he said.
Her eyes rose to his, and a beautiful blush bloomed across her cheeks. What the hell? And then he thought about his choice of words.
Come.
A slow smile slid onto his face, and he dragged his knuckles down her cheek. “Come,” he said again, just to see if the blush would deepen. It did.
On a laugh, she knocked his hand away. “Now who’s being an asshole? Lucy’s going to take her sweater off.” She pushed by him, and it felt a whole helluva lot like she was running from the innuendo, which kinda made him want to keep teasing.
“So are you coming yet?” he asked, laughter in his voice now. He was cracking himself up.
“Oh my God,” she said as she went into her room up the hall.
“You know you want to,” he said as he leaned in her door. He found her unzipping a suitcase full of shoes.
“You want me to come?” she asked, smiling up at him as she slid on a pair of sandals.