Page 92 of Teasing

“What did you do?” I laugh as we get out of the oversized SUV.

Maverick grins and takes my hand in his, then takes my mouth with his, and I sigh. “What can I say? I have an in with his favorite player. It’s not like I could come empty-handed. Now come on. Introduce me to your dad, baby.”

I called earlier to check on how he was doing today, and they told me it was a good day. My fingers are crossed that it stayed that way.

“Hey, Emmie. Your dad’s in his room,” the older woman behind the front desk tells me when I walk in. Then she looks at Maverick and lets her eyes trail over him. “And hello, Emmie’s friend. Aren’t you a tall drink of water?”

Maverick blushes, and I couldn’t stop my laugh if my life depended on it. “Come on, Cujo.”

I swallow my nerves as we come up to his door and turn to Mav. “Just go with whatever he says, okay?”

“I’ll follow your lead, Em. Whatever you need.”

“Thank you.” I take a deep breath and knock on the open door. “Daddy?”

“Is that my little rose?” Dad answers, and my heart sighs in relief.

Still a good day.

I tug Mav in behind me and move next to Dad’s bed as he coughs. He hasn’t felt great this week. “Hi, Daddy. I brought someone to meet you.”

“You brought a tank to meet me?” He smiles at Maverick, and I’m taken back to when I first met Mav and compared him to a tank myself. Like father, like daughter. “Do I know you?”

“No, sir.” Maverick offers him his hand to shake, and Dad’s wrinkled, weak hand lifts from the bed, and he forces it into Mav’s.

“Daddy, this is Maverick. My boyfriend.” I look at Maverick and laugh. He’s so much more than that, but how do you introduce the man you’re in love with to your father?

“Nice to meet you sir.”

Dad looks from Mav to me and smiles. “The tank’s got manners.”

“He does.” I smile and shake my head.

He has them when he needs them, but my face flushes, remembering the filthy words he was using this morning. I prefer them to his manners any day.

“Maverick plays for the Philadelphia Kings,” I tell him, hoping that might soften him a little, and my father’s entire face lights up.

“My boy plays for the Kings.”

I suck in a silent breath and slide my hand over his.

He remembered.

“So, tank. Any chance you know Sebastian Beneventi?”

“Cam,” I call out excitedly when we get home. “I know you’re here.”

I check the kitchen first, then the living room, where I find him half asleep on the couch and shake his big body. “What the fuck, Emmie?”

Maverick chuckles, and I throw an elbow into his stomach.

“Dad knew you were a King today,” I rush to tell him, trying to focus on the happy parts of our visit. “When I told him Mav was a King, he said his son was too. He was so proud, Cam.”

“Yeah, then he went on to make you sound like the second fucking coming, Monroe,” Maverick grumbles. Dad likes to brag. I don’t care. He was lucid, and he remembered.

“Don’t be salty that he was more interested in talking to you about your dad than about you.” I lift up on my toes and kiss his cheek.

“So it was a good day?” Camden asks and shuts off the TV.

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