Maverick

We stepped into the building and the whole place erupted. Trey and Aaron lapped it up; the cheers, the attention. But I wasn’t in the mood. It had been two long assed weeks. Four games in nine days, not to mention the SAT, and our regional game over the weekend had been brutal. We’d trailed for the first three quarters, only to pull back a lucky couple of shots in the fourth. My brain was Jell-O and every muscle in my body ached, the burn deep and relentless.

But it was more than that.

It was Lo.

She was buried so fucking deep, and I’d hardly laid eyes on her since Trey’s party. Since the night she walked away from me. Sure, she was there when it mattered—to wish me luck before the SAT and again, before the team left for our game at Long Beach State—but she wasn’t present. She didn’t brush her fingers against mine to reassure us both that we were okay, and her eyes didn’t sparkle their usual fire. The distance between us felt more than ever and I didn’t know how to fix it. 

A couple of guys pounced on me, desperate for details of the game, but I hooked an arm around Luke’s neck dragging him into the conversation, creating a buffer. A diversion so I could slip away and head to my locker. But I hadn’t made it ten steps when someone stepped in front of me.

“I’m trying to figure out what your game is.” JB eyed me suspiciously and my spine straightened. Everyone was gathered around the team, listening to Trey relive the moment I sank the ball to take us to the State Championship. It had been a long time coming and, if we won, would be the highlight of my career so far. 

And I wanted it. 

Fuck, did I want it.

The need to win coursed through me. But with this shit with my dad and Caitlin and the hard-eyed guy standing in front of me… I wanted it to stop.

The pressure... 

The expectation...

The responsibility.

I wanted one second to catch my breath, and I knew the only person who could make that happen was the one person I couldn’t run to. Not yet, at least.

“If you have something to say, say it, or else get the fuck out of my way.” I raised my brow, the thin thread of control inside me one sharp yank away from snapping.

JB stepped forward, putting us shoulder to shoulder and leaned down. “You think you’re so slick, walking around the place like you can do no fucking wrong. I don’t know what game you’re playing but leave my sister out of it.”

My lips mashed together, fists balled at my sides, as he shouldered past me, and I forced the simmering anger down, counting down from ten. On zero, I sucked in a sharp breath and kept on walking. 

He didn’t know.

He couldn’t.

Yet, he knew something. In the end, we weren’t that different, him and me. We both looked out for our own. Protected what was ours. But where Caitlin was concerned, he had no fucking clue. She was the one with the power in this situation. With her sharp claws and vicious smile. Caitlin was an actress, the best of her kind, and she had the men in her family wrapped around her little finger. And because I couldn’t come clean and tell him the truth, I had to accept I was the bad guy in his eyes.

I probably always would be. 

“There you are.” Her voice sent me on high alert. Not here. Not now. I traded my books and closed my locker, turning slowly. “Caitlin.”

“Congratulations, Rick. I didn’t get to say it after the game. Or at the party.”

Because I’d avoided her like the plague; slipping out unnoticed, I'd gone home.

“I guess this means we’ll be travelling to Sacramento together over the weekend?” 

“I’ll be with the team, Caitlin. You know that.” My eyes darted around her, praying Lo didn’t choose this exact moment to walk into school. 

“No, silly. I mean we’ll be there. Together. A whole weekend away. We should—”

“Prince, where the hell did you get to?” Luke shot me a questioning look and relief washed over me. Caitlin immediately backed up at the arrival of the guys, eyes darting between us like a skittish animal. She knew the guys didn’t like her much. Not after witnessing how she used her relationship with me last year to her advantage.

“I guess we’ll talk later.” Her lips tugged up in a suggestive smile and then she was gone, swallowed by the morning crowd. 

I tipped my head back against the locker bank and let out a long breath. 

“She’s so hot for you, Pri—”

My eyes snapped to Trey’s, and he swallowed whatever bullshit was about to come from his mouth. I knew how it looked to them. On the one hand, I had them looking out for Lo and on the other, I was spending time with Caitlin. 

It didn’t look good.

But it’s all they were getting, all they could know, for now.

“Come on, class calls.” Luke tipped his head in the direction we needed. But when I pushed off the lockers, my heart almost exploded out of my chest. Lo was there.

Right. Fucking. There. 

I hadn’t seen her across the hallway, shielded by a group of kids. But there she was. Eyes narrowed on me. On where Caitlin had stood only seconds earlier. And I knew she’d seen us. 

Luke called my name again, and I grumbled, “Coming.” But I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I couldn’t stop silently asking her to stay with me. To ride this thing out to the end. To make her see what she just witnessed meant nothing. That it was all part of the game. 

A show. 

Lo broke away first, and fuck, if it didn’t hurt, and all I could do was watch as she caught up to Laurie and Autumn and disappeared around the corner.

I pulled out my cell phone.

 

Maverick: I love you. 

 

I waited... and waited. But she didn’t reply. 

~

The week dragged. Each day the weight on my shoulders seemed to intensify until I felt like I would crumple under the pressure. Like there was no way I’d be able to drag my sorry ass out of bed the next morning.

But I did.

I needed to do something. To feel like I was in control. Before Lo, I would have stepped into the ring. Expended all the energy flowing through me on beating some faceless guy into a bloody pulp. 

“You have that look,” Stone bounded into the kitchen and eyed me knowingly.

“What look?”

“The one where you’re five seconds from doing something really fucking stupid.”

“She’s killing me.” I dragged a hand down my face, scrubbing my jaw.

There. I’d said it.

My stepbrother paused, the cereal box mid-tilt. “She’s killing you?” His eyebrows quirked up. “Well, now you know how she feels.”

“Fuck you.”

“Nice, real nice, Prince. Lash out at the one person who gives a shit whether the two of you make it through this or not.”

“Through what?” Summer came into the room and when neither of us answered she glanced from him to me and back again. “Fine. Cut the youngest sibling out again. I’m so sick of your bullshit. First you call things off with Lo and now you’re hanging around Caitlin again. Who are you right now?” She grabbed an apple and stormed out.

“When did baby sis get all grown up?” he said, craning his head around the door to watch Summer’s disappearing form. 

“It was bound to happen one day,” I grumbled, trying to push her words out of my mind, and he laughed, spluttering a mouthful of Rice Krispies at me. 

“You’re a pig.”

“But you love me.” He flashed me a wide grin. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Plan?”

“You’re slow this morning, Prince. You’d better play better than this on Saturday or you’ll be coming home a loser. And no one likes a loser.” His eyebrows danced, and I wanted nothing more than to reach over and rip them from his face. 

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my temples and then an idea hit me. “She should come.”

Confusion flashed in his eyes. “Hmm, not quite what I meant.”

“No, this is perfect. Lo should come to Sacramento. You’ll all be there, and I need her there. It’s the perfect cover and after the game we can hang out, just the two of us.”

“The whole team, Caitlin, and her little dog too?”

Shit. He had a point. But it could work. We could steal some time together. Somehow. Someway.

“Rick, think this through, man. I know you mean well, but I don’t know if that’s going to work.”

It would.

Because it had to.

“What will work?” Macey breezed into the room and the temperature dropped a few degrees. She was still freezing me out and it had only gotten worse since she asked me about Caitlin and I shut her out. But it was the only way to protect her—to keep her out of our father’s claws. The less she knew, the better.

For everyone.

“Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head with, sis.” Kyle grinned, but Macey’s eyes narrowed with a look that would leave most guys shaking in their boots.

“Bite me, bro.”

“Someone’s delightful this morning,” he mumbled, shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

Macey leaned back against the counter. “Well, what do you expect when I have to live with you two?”

“Hmm, Mace.” Kyle jabbed the spoon at her. “Rick kind of moved into the pool house or did you miss that memo?”

“Jerk.”

“Bitch,” he coughed.

Her hard eyes settled on me, daring me to intervene, but I didn’t. “You,” she hissed. “Ready to tell me the truth?”

I rolled my lips together and stared back at her.

“Fine. I’m out of here.”

“Always a pleasure, Mace. Always a ple—”

“Stone,” I barked, levelling him with the same look I’d just subjected Macey too. “She’s just pissed at me.”

“Because you’re shutting her out.”

It wasn’t a question.

“It’s for her own good.”

“Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that.” He went back to his cereal and I let out a frustrated sigh.

I knew Macey would come around when she finally learned the truth. I only hoped it would all be worth it.

~

“Are you nervous?” Lo glanced up at me from the bed as I threw another jersey into my duffel bag.

I raised my eyebrow at her and smirked. “You have seen me play, right?”

She balled up her paper and launched it at me. I ducked, and it bounced off the wall behind me. 

“You’re so arrogant.”

“And you’re stubborn,” I shot back. “Come. It’s two nights, max. It’s the biggest game of my career. I need you there.”

“Maverick,” she shifted onto her ass and crossed her legs in front of her. My eyes slid over her tank, the curve of her chest and heat speared through me.

“You need to pack.”

“I can do it later.” I stalked toward her.

“No, you need to be at school in an hour.”

“They’ll wait.” If Lo refused to come, I’d need something to get me by. Forty-eight hours without holding her, touching her... it would seem like a lifetime. 

Lo scooched up the bed, pressing her back into the headboard. “I can’t. I have a thing.”

“A thing? You have a thing? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Actually.” She sat taller. “I’m not. Laurie is—”

“You’re blowing me off for Laurie?”

Irritation flashed over her face and she rolled her eyes. “I am not blowing you off for anyone. But I don’t find the idea of being there as Lo, your cousin, all that exciting.”

Ouch.

“You wouldn’t be there as only my—”

“Yes, I would. And it’s okay, Maverick. It’s just how it has to be for now, I get it. But don’t ask me to do this… to be there… with her.”

“Fine.” I turned my back on her, giving myself a second. Unwilling to let her see my disappointment, the frustration pinching my brows. I got it, I did. And maybe it was unfair to ask her to do it. To come and be there in the crowd: watching me, supporting me. But this was the biggest game of my life and she wasn’t going to be there.

She was choosing not to be there.

And despite my head knowing why, my heart had a real fucking hard time accepting it.