Page 70 of Devoted Enough

“Don’t you have to feed your child or something?” I said as I looked over to see Maverick cutting up the lasagna for Maggie, who was shoveling it into her mouth with her little fork as fast as she could.

“Mav has it covered,” Lily stated with a shit-eating grin.

“Hasn’t that young lady had a crush on you since middle school?” Dad asked before taking a bite of his food.

“Yes, she has,” Lily stated as if she would remember anything from when I was in middle school.

Before I could utter a word, Lily added, “And Nate has done everything he could to push her away.”

“Thank you, Lily, for adding your two cents…again,” I stated dryly.

“What did you do to the poor girl?” my mother asked.

“I wasn’t trying to be mean to her, but keeping her at a distance was easier.”

Maverick looked up at me. “The old ‘if I don’t have to see her, I won’t be reminded of how I feel about her’trick.”

All eyes turned to him. He shrugged. “I felt that way about Lily.”

Lily smiled and reached across the table to take his hand. “I love you.”

He returned her smile with a wide grin. “I love you more.”

“Ugh, seriously?” I said as I shoved a piece of garlic bread into my mouth.

My father laughed. “It’s hard sometimes to listen to your heart. Especially when you feel something for someone you’ve never felt before. It’s scary.”

Everyone at the table nodded. Maggie joined in when she saw everyone else doing it, and I nearly started to laugh.

“Yes, a part of me was afraid of my feelings for Haven. Happy now, Lily? But there was more to the story.”

“Like what?” Lily asked.

I looked around at the four of them; correction, five since Maggie was looking at me as well. “Something in Haven’s past hurt her badly and I was afraid that I would hurt her too. Don’t ask me why, I just thought it would be better to be friends. But every time I was near her…I felt something more than friendship. So it was always easier to stay away.”

This time, it was my father who stated, “Yes, the old ‘I’d rather keep them as friends’logic.”

Turning to my father, I asked, “Did you do that to Mom?”

My mother and father exchanged a look before Dad focused on me. “I will admit I was afraid of my feelings for your mother only because I had never felt like that before her. It can be a very powerful emotion. I think it’s that fear of rejection or ruining something that keeps them somewhat close to you that you don’t want to risk. But you can’t have them too close, or then your feelings get muddled.”

Maverick nodded in agreement. “Then you think about how you’re not good enough for them, and that plays with your head.”

I slowly nodded. I had felt all of those things when it came to Haven.

“But the idea of them with someone else nearly drives you mad,” I softly said.

My father and Maverick both said, “Yes.”

“I will never understand men,” my mother stated before drinking her water. “Never.”

“Same,” Lily agreed with a smile in her daughter’s direction.

“What made you decide that it was worth giving a relationship a shot, Nate?”

“I couldn’t fight my feelings for her anymore. The bad part of it all is that Haven thought what happened to her in her past was the reason I was pushing her away. That was the worst part.”

Lily wore a concerned expression. “What happened to her, Nate?”

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