Page 63 of Shot to the Hart

Don’t be like that KJ. She meant nothing, you’re everything.

I laugh, actually cackling at that message, showing it to Maverick with tears in my eyes.

“What a tool,” he mutters. “KJ?”

“Kodi James, and a nickname I never asked for. I prefer Darlin’.” I smile up at Maverick and he pulls me in for a quick kiss before I decide Andy isn’t worth it anymore. Everything I need is right here in this house, so I block his number and let the memory of Andy drift away. A weight lifted off my shoulder that I didn’t even realize I was carrying around.

35

MAVERICK

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

My blood is thrumming with anticipation. I’ve been away from my girls for two weeks; it’s getting closer to the playoffs, and the Manta Rays have been bringing home win after win. My flight just landed and I can’t wait to get home to my girls. My. Girls. Not just my daughter, but Kodi too. She sent me pictures of her and Bella around town; they grabbed dinner with my dad and Kodi’s mom one night and had a living room sleepover with Kodi’s friends another. “Excuse me. Coming through. Thank you.” I shove my way through the people exiting the plane and through the ones waiting to board, trying to get to my suitcase and car as fast as possible.

As I’m approaching the car, my phone is buzzing with a call from Carolina, a number I don’t have saved. “Hello.”

“Maverick?” I instantly recognize the voice from the other end of the phone, there’s no way. Not now. Not after I’ve finally let myself move on and have fallen for this wildly perfect woman. I’m imagining the voice I hear on the other end. “Lily?”

I’m shaking my head trying to rid myself of the shock of the call I’m receiving right now, this can’t be real life. I’m just tired and delirious. “Can you meet me somewhere?”

“You’re in Tampa?”

“Yes, I just want to talk, Mav.” How am I supposed to trust that? It’s been years, she didn’t even call when she left. She’s just popping up to have a friendly chat. That can’t be true. She wants something, money before she signs the papers, or maybe she’s found a workaround to where she can take our daughter, which is why she never sent the papers back, or another chance with me. No, she can’t have any of that.

I need to get to my car, I can’t fall apart in the airport parking lot where there are eyes everywhere.

Once the door to my Bronco is closed, I realize that I am about to agree to meet with a woman I haven’t seen in three years and every emotion that I felt when Lily left Bella and I suddenly hits me like a tidal wave. The abandonment, the fear, the anger, the sadness, the regret, all wash over me, my head barely staying above water. Bella’s soft cries from that night crash in with the waves, the panic that overtook me as I ran through the house looking for the woman who didn't want me. . .or her daughter.

“I’ll text you a place and time.” I quickly hang up the phone, jumping into my car and dialing my dad from bluetooth.

“Hey son! Great?—”

“Dad.” My throat constricts and my heart is racing.

“What's wrong?” My dad’s voice is calm but barely holding it together, kind of like the day he called to tell us Mom had passed.

“Lily called.” Letting my head rest against the steering wheel, tapping my fingers anxiously against my legs. Attempting to keep my breath in check.

“Wh. . .What?” he sputters.

“She’s in town. She. . .” I’m beginning to gulp in breaths. “She wants to talk. It’s happening, Dad. She’s going to try and take her from me.” My hands and forehead are clammy, I can’t breathe. I want to scream and cry and punch something all at the same time. The logical part of my brain is telling me that I know she can’t do that, but the illogical part has taken over, every synapse in my brain screaming that this is the moment I’ve been dreading since she walked out of our lives.

“Maverick,” my dad’s voice booms from the other end of the phone. “Take a breath son, I can hear you struggling.”

In.One. Two. Three.Out.One. Two. Three.I repeat this cycle five times before my heart rate is back to a semi-normal pace.

“I don’t know what to do, Dad.”

“Son, go home. Talk to Kodi, plan a time without Bella to meet Lily, call your lawyers. Figure out what she wants and then go from there.”

Oh no, I have to tell Kodi.

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll keep you updated.” I hang up the phone and drive. I don’t know how or when I got home, driving on autopilot. My brain is everywhere but on my drive from the airport to the house.

The front door opens before I have the chance to put in the key and when I see Kodi’s smiling face waiting for me, I can’t do anything except pull her into me, wrapping my arms around her in a vise grip. My knees want to buckle beneath me and tears I had been holding back fall freely down my cheeks. Kodi’s hand rubs soothing circles on my back.

“Mav, hey, talk to me. What happened?” She steps back a little, lifting my head with her hands so she can see my face, wiping at my tears.

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