Page 92 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Annoyed Rebel was quite the sight. She glared at him, standing closer to Lucky as if she’d be expected to choose a side.
“Uncle Maverick?” Beanie chewed on her ragged cuticles.
Maverick gently guided her to stop, holding her hands. “Yes, my Beanie Baby.”
She giggled. “Can Rebel stay at my house tonight? My dad will say yes.”
“Do you want to do that?”
Rebel nodded. “Jinx wants to sleep over too.”
“Ah, so it’s a slumber party,” he said. “Where’s Uncle Max?”
“I’ll go get him.” Beanie ran off with Rebel following.
“That’s nice.” Lucky asked, “Does that happen often?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “I think they made a plan. They’re trying to trick one of us into saying yes to use as proof that it’s okay, so we’ll all say yes. Notice how Rebel said Jinx wants to sleep over, not that she is.”
“And ‘my dad will say yes.’ Genius—not a single lie in sight.”
“They’re very good, but I’m better.” He smirked. “I’m actually really happy they all get along so well. I love it.”
Silvia said Maverick stopped coming around them, long enough for it to have a significant impact on her. He must’ve kept Rebel away too—she was only a year older than Beanie.
“Silvia told me you moved out and didn’t come back for a while. Why did you leave them?”
“My parents. I got tired of being criticized all the time.Nothing I did was good enough for them,” he said. “So, I packed my stuff, took my baby with me, and left.”
“But you went back.”
“I don’t think I planned to stay away forever. I didn’t have much of a plan at all, to be honest.”
Five hundred dollars. He’d said he started writing because he needed a second job that wouldn’t force him to sacrifice spending time with Rebel. His family obviously had money and loved him. If he asked, they would’ve helped—with strings attached. That must’ve been so hard on him. She wanted to ask what happened to Rebecca but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Max arrived, looking very much like Maverick’s double except noticeably older. His hair had begun to go gray at the temples and in his full beard. “You need me to watch Rebel for the night?”
“No, they’re trying to have a slumber party. You’re the dad of choice.”
“It’s ’cause of the dog.” He turned to Lucky. “I got my kids a puppy for their birthday. They’re obsessed with it.” Beanie and Jeremy were his fraternal nine-year-old twins.
Maverick added, “Rebel was distraught for a week that I wouldn’t get her a pet too.”
“I’m fine with it if you are,” Max said. “Pick her up around eleven tomorrow? Will that work?”
“Fine with me. Thanks, man.”
Once they were alone again, Lucky traced a delicate line down Maverick’s neck to the middle of his back. She kissed his shoulder before resting her chin on it.
“What about you?” he asked.
“Hmm?”
“Do you want to have a slumber party too? I had a sudden opening in my schedule tonight.”
“I don’t think I’m supposed to.”
They held each other’s gaze.
