Page 74 of Coffee Shop Girl
Bethany murmured something after the initial credits flickered away to reveal a dark mountain scene. But her body relaxed before I could decipher it, and when I glanced down, she was fast asleep in my arms.
I held her more tightly and wondered if maybe freedom was overrated.
25
Bethany
My eyes flew open.
Breath held, I stared at a dark, unfamiliar ceiling with shadows moving across it. Outside, flashes of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the room. A roll of thunder reminded me of Maverick’s deep voice. Rain pattered gently against the windows, the drops tumbling over each other to slide down the glass.
A warm body stirred behind me. Maverick held me close to his chest, a protective arm around me so I wouldn’t fall off the couch. I closed my eyes, dimly remembering our conversation over pizza.
Recalling Maverick at dinner, at ease but still somehow on guard, sent flurries through me. He spoke with such certainty. Here was a man who knew exactly who he was and what he wanted. Unfortunately, he didn’t want a girlfriend with two kids and a shop.
Still, there was his arm around me. The warm caress of his breath on the back of my neck.
It impressed me—how he could figure out what he wanted and make a plan, and then let the plan unfold. Like successsoughthim out.
There was more at play here than just our simmering romantic tension or my desire to run my hands through his beard. The only thing I knew for certain was that Maverick would do what he wanted. He wasn’t the type to be swayed. In the end, he’d stay or he’d go.
With the undeniable warmth of him wrapped almost entirely around me, I snuggled deeper into his chest. While I had it, I would soak it up. His arms felt deeply personal, although nothing but uncertainty loomed ahead. My place in his world was about as stable as a fault line.
In that moment, I didn’t care.
I felt warm, safe, and comfortable. With my next breath, I slipped back into sleep, his name on my lips and a promise to remember the power of his touch forever.
* * *
“Are you and Mav dating?”
Lizbeth and I sat in the canoe on a calm lake, a hundred yards away from the shore where Ellie, Devin, and Maverick fished from a long dock. Every now and then, Maverick’s baritone laugh rolled over the water. Lizbeth slathered more sunscreen on her freckled shoulders and stared at Maverick from behind the aviator sunglasses I’d loaned her.
“Uh...”
“I have romance-dar. Whenever something romantic happens around me, I pick up on it like a satellite. I saw the way he was ogling you in the shop on Friday. Plus, you were wearing that really red lipstick, and you only do that when you’rereallyhappy. And while I can’t confirm it, I have my suspicions that you didn’t sleep at home on Friday night, because the bed was still made when we got back. You never make the bed.”
“Whoa. No snap judgments.”
She held up two hands. “No one said the wordsex,Bethany. Just sayin’.”
“Because there was none.”
She stared.
My response stalled in my throat, suspended like a rock. Maverick and I had made it abundantly clear that we weren’t dating, but that hadn’t stopped his hot look at me when he’d arrived. Or his intense study of my swimming suit.
How to explain that to Lizbeth when I wasn’t even sure I understood it?I’m crazy about him and want to date him with no hope of a future,didn’t sound great.
When Maverick showed up today, he’d laid a big, fat kiss on me while the girls were up in the car. I nearly lost all muscle control, which would have forced him to pick me up. Which, in hindsight, would have been great.
Missed opportunity.
“I know you have this whole back-and-forth thing going on,” she continued, “but I’m telling you, it’s getting old. Would you just admit it, already?”
“Not happening,” I muttered.
She flashed me an amused look.
