His hand comes up and he tips his hat back so that he can see me better, but I don’t give him a second to try to figure out what I’m talking about before I turn and walk over to Quinn.
“Come on, babe, let’s get back to the ranch so you can get changed. Clay?” I ask, holding out my hands to take the urn before moving with Quinn to the truck’s door. I open her door and wait for her to sit down in the front before handing the urn to her and shutting her door. I take a deep breath before moving to the back of the crew cab to open the back door. I look behind me, give Maverick one long, hard, hateful gaze before hiking my skirt up way past respectful levels, placing my heel on the running board and with a small leap, jump into the backseat, and slam the door behind me.
“Holy shit,” I gasp in the silence around us after the door shuts.
“I really can’t believe he didn’t recognize you, Leigh. Hell’s bells, that was intense.”
“It’s been a long time, Q. I’ve changed a lot since he last saw me.”
“You were at the rodeo in Vegas not even two years ago.”
I laugh. “Quinn, you know damn well that I went out of my way for him not to see me.”
She was silent for a while, probably trying to remember that night. “You skipped the bar after, didn’t you? Shit, Leigh! You’ve always skipped goin’ out with us after every rodeo, haven’t you.”
“Ding, ding, ding,” I sarcastically tell her.
“How did I not notice that before now? My lord, Leigh. I know you didn’t come to many with us, but now that I’m thinking back, you really did vanish any time we went to see Mav.”
“Because I didn’t want you to. It’s not a big deal, Q. I’ve only been to a few and it was easier for me to beg off than make you guys suffer through the awkwardness that would follow if I tagged along. You didn’t get enough time together as it was and there was no way I was going to take away from that. Judging by how all this just went down, it would have ruined the time you did have together for sure anyway.”
I look out the window as Chris Stapleton’s voice sings through the speakers and see Maverick and Clay in a heated discussion. I can’t hear them, not since Quinn turned the truck on while we wait, but when Maverick’s head snaps up to look in my direction, I know Clay just spilled the beans.
Yeah, it sure does looks like Maverick Davis has come home.
“Shit,” I whisper.
5
MAVERICK
“Nobody to Blame” by Chris Stapleton
“You’re a goddamn asshole, Mav, you know that? First you’re late when you knew Quinn wanted you—no, needed you—here with her. Now you’re showin’ your ass when you have no right.”
“Show my ass? You’re the one having your newest piece sitting front row and center with my family. Looked like Quinn didn’t need me one second, brother.”
“Goddamn, Mav!” he exclaims and steps closer into my space. “Could you be a bigger fool?”
“Excuse me? You’ve got that tramp up there with my family, dressed like some two-bit whore, in a church, no less. She’s probably got nothing but dollar signs in her eyes now that the old man’s kicked the bucket. I wouldn’t be shocked if she starts baiting you for a ring after the will is read. Make sure and get a real good prenup, Clay.”
I need a drink. I can’t control my words if I tried. Too much shit swirling around in my head long before I even rolled over the town line, especially after everything that happened in Vegas. When you add that on top of why I even came home, yeah—I definitely need a drink. Just being back in Pine Oak is making me feel like I’m going insane. A caged animal desperate to break free of its confines. I know I’m being a prick, but I can’t seem to make my mouth stop spewing shit.
Clay let out a low growl. “If I didn’t think it would upset the girls, I would beat your fuckin’ head in for that.”
I cross my arms over my chest and stand to my full six-foot-four-inch height and hold his heated gaze.
“Your intimidation bullshit won’t work on me,” Clay heatedly says with a dry laugh as he walks closer. “Let me help you out here, little brother, since as you’ve been gone a lot has changed around here. A lot. That woman you seem so sure in your judgment over there is the furthest thing to a whore you could find. She’s the one that’s been by our side daily. When Quinn and I had to leave Pops alone after his first stroke, she was the one that stuck around to make sure he was okay. Closed down her bakery for hours while she sat there and read to the old man.” He takes a deep breath, letting it out in a rush. “She was the one that dug her knees into the hardwood for forty-five minutes and did CPR on him even though she probably knew he was well past the point of help. She did that until someone found them. Too afraid to stop her compressions and run for a phone to actually call for help because she refused to give up hope that she could do somethin’. Forty-five minutes she never once gave up. Sat there until her knees were bruised tryin’ in vain to save him.”
“You left her there with him? Damn, Clay . . . for all you know she could have been fuckin’ her way to his money the second you turned you back.”
“I should fuckin’ deck you,” he says, seething. “I really fuckin’ should.”
“How well do you even know her? You haven’t said one word about having a new piece of ass so she must not have been in the picture long. Best I can tell, I’m not too far off the mark.”
“How well do I know her?” He laughs bitterly. “I’d say pretty well, considering she’s been Quinn’s best friend for twenty-six fuckin’ years. Why don’t you let that sink in, you fuckin’ asshole?”
My eyes leave his instantly and I look over to his truck, trying to see past the black tint that hides her from my view. No fucking way. It couldn’t be.
“Yeah . . . see you’re connecting the dots just fine now. Congratulations, Mav, not even back in town an hour and I’d say you’ve managed to hurt Quinn and give Leighton some more pain to add to the last dose you dished out. Shit, brother, it’s like you never left.”
He slaps my chest, shakes his head, and walks over to his truck. Before he rounds the bed, he looks back over and meets my stunned gaze. “You fucked up, but that doesn’t mean Quinn isn’t going to want you close. All she’s wanted since the day you fuckin’ left was for you to come home. Do what you need to in order to make it up to both of them.”
He doesn’t wait for a response. I look back at the darkened window when it rolls down a few inches. Clay reverses out of the parking spot, that crack in the window taunting me as it gets closer to where I’m standing, and right when he shifts into drive, one dainty as fuck hand comes out—middle finger pointed straight up and fuck me, I couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that shot out of my mouth.