Page 57 of Maverick
“Perfect,” he says.
And I think that it really is perfect. Because I want to be with him. All the time. Because I want to be in this moment. This glorious, naked moment with him.
And I won’t go putting any meaning into it. I won’t make it more than it is. I promise. I promise that to myself. Genuinely.
“I’m going down to the plumbing store later to have a chat with Sam. Do you want to come?”
He’s even taking me in public? I don’t question that, but it makes me giddy.
“Yeah. I’d love to.”
I never thought that I would make a strong statement about a plumbing store. But then, I didn’t expect to get tangled up in Maverick Quinn. And here we are.
Chapter Eleven
Maverick
I didn’t think this through. And now I’m driving into town with a woman in my truck. Something that hasn’t happened in all the years since Sadie’s death, because there hasn’t been another woman. I’m overcomplicating all of this. I can feel it. I also don’t know what to do to stop it. Because I don’t want Stella to feel used. That’s really important to me. She was brilliant this morning on Frank, and I know that she’s a rider. I know she is.
I don’t believe in all that signs and wonders stuff – mostly – but she starts to feel like one when I look at her on Frank. Like she’s someone that Sadie brought to me, even though I’m pretty sure Sadie wouldn’t bring someone to me in this fashion. I try to imagine it. I can’t. Which pisses me off. Because it seems like I should be able to imagine my wife’s face. What she might say about me finding a woman to ride her horse. And have sex with me.
I almost can. I can almost hear her voice. Almost make out the way that she would scrunch up her brow at me when she was annoyed. But only almost.
Time is such a bitch. She keeps on marching. Keeps moving.
And I really want it to stop. Sometimes I don’t want to keep healing. Because healing means putting distance between myself and Sadie, and I hate that.
It’s part of why I need to win the championship. Because it brings it around full circle. I can’t forget that’s the main thing that I’m doing this year. Not this.
It’s just these couple of months. Yeah. Maybe after this, I’ll let Stella take Frank back to Sonoma with her.
I don’t need to follow her all over the world.
The thing about this is, I’ve already shown her everything I am. Sex with her is the most uninhibited I’ve ever been. It shocks me, honestly. Because I was a ho in my past life, but that was all drunken bullshit blunted by alcohol. Then I was trying to be a good boy that I’m just not.
I’m not trying to be anything to Stella.
Whether that’s noble or not. It’s too late, honestly.
She’s seen who I am. And it made her come.
The thought makes my blood run a little bit hotter.
I’m not sure I should be taking her into town either way.
We pull into the parking lot, and I don’t say anything as we get out.
“Maverick!” Sam, the owner of the store, greets me as soon as I walk in. He’s always been nice to me. Even when I was a kid roaming around town, more likely to shoplift from any of these stores than buy from them, he was nice to me. I think because he knew that I was in a bad situation, and he didn’t want to make it worse by being mean to me. Nice of him, all things considered, because I was a little shit.
“Howdy, Sam. I’ve got a plumbing issue.”
“Yeah. I figured, or you wouldn’t be here. And who’s this?”
“This is Stella Lane. That’s actually the problem. She’s staying in the cottage on my property, working with one of myhorses. The pipe up in the attic got chewed by rats. Now I’ve got a leak, and I need to be able to order a new piece for the pipe, but it’s specific.”
I write down the type and dimensions for him. He takes it over to the computer and looks it up, but even though he seems to have accepted my explanation of Stella, he’s looking at her closely.
“So you’re a jockey?” he asks.
