Page 78 of Pit Stop

Maverick stares at her for a long moment and then tells her what we both want. She scribbles it down on a pad of paper, rips it off, and places it on the counter behind her. A beefy man grabs it, and I can hear the murmur of his curse words.

He obviously doesn’t like his job. Neither does Maverick’s mom, it seems. But then again, maybe this is the only place that will employ her. She doesn’t seem that easy to work with. And I can’t ever imagine her in customer service.

“So, tell me how you two met. Isn’t that what parents are supposed to ask?”

“Yeah, Mom. It is.”

I push my glasses up my nose as Maverick sighs. “Skye is Forest’s brother.”

“Oh yeah, I remember Forest. Little punk. You two don’t look alike, I can tell you that much.”

“Yeah, I look like my mom,” I say, and Maverick’s mom eyes me.

“Probably for the best. Maverick always did like ’em pretty.”

I feel my cheeks flush as Maverick purses his lips.

“Anyway, there’s not much to tell. We dated for a while and then decided to mate.”

Well, that’s a lie, but I don’t call him on it. There’s a reason he didn’t say that he knotted me in a glory hole and then bit me all over during a heat, which resulted in our accidental bonding. I bet he doesn’t want her to know that.

“I never knew you dated anyone.” His mom turns her gaze toward me. “Maverick was a bit of a man-whore. Went through men and women at an alarming rate. I couldn’t keep up. Surprised he settled for someone like you.”

My hands clench on my thighs as I bite my tongue, hard. Gods, his mom is so fucking rude.

“I didn’t settle,” Maverick growls. “If anything, Skye settled for me. He could do so much better.”

“Well, isn’t that nice? But kid, omegas don’t have a choice. They have to find someone or they die. It’s how it works. You tell your brother about this?”

“No. I haven’t talked to him.”

“Should give him a call. He’d wanna hear about this from you.”

“Maybe.”

Before she can say anything else, the bell dings behind her, and she sighs, grabbing plates of food and walking toward a table on the opposite side of the diner.

“Shit. Sorry about her. This was a bad idea. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I feel the frustration swirling through him, and I reach out, touching his arm gently. “We don’t have to stay.”

“Yeah. Probably best if we left.”

But our food comes out just then, and we don’t get a chance to leave. His mom glowers at us, almost as if she heard us making plans to escape, the plates of food set down before us with a clatter.

“Know you wanna run off. You always do that. But before you go, did you know James got moved again?”

I don’t know who James is, but the way she speaks of him, I’m assuming this is Maverick’s brother.

“Where to?” Maverick asks as I take a bite of my burger. And for all the grouchiness behind the counter, the food is pretty damn good.

“To Fenton.”

“Shit. That’s max security.”

“I know. He stabbed a guy in his cell.”

“Shit, Mom.”

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