Page 22 of Finding Forever

Disbelief kept me speechless and rooted to the spot. This woman talked like a horny teenager. And Chris seemed to be eating out of the palm of her hand. Of course he was. She had all the money, so in turn, she held all the power.

I couldn’t believe he was gullible enough to fall for her tricks. He was just a convenient distraction for her. She’d toss him aside when she got bored and met someone more interesting or hotter. If Maverick could get discarded, I don’t know why he thought he was immune.

Every muscle in my body was tense and vibrating with animosity by the time they finally made themselves scarce. I looked to Maverick to find that he’d been standing so unnaturally still that he had to have been feeling the same way I did.

I reached out and touched his arm, hoping to offer comfort, but my eyes were brought back to the retreating figures of the other halves of our kids’ lives. It dawned on me then that Chris would rather chase women all his days than to be there for his own son.

My heart broke at the thought of my son not having his father’s constant presence in his life. How had I chosen so horribly? That was the part that I hated most. I felt something hot hit my cheek and realized I was crying.

“Don’t waste your tears on them.” Maverick shifted beside me, his hand landing on my cheek as he brushed away my treacherous tears with the pad of his thumb. “They don’t deserve this much energy from you and you know it.” His tone was both gentle and commanding as he waited for me to gain my composure.

“They just make me so mad!” I finally said. My heart was breaking all over again for Mycah. He’d been tossed to the side like a faulty toy so his father could parade on the beach with a woman who clearly didn’t know what it meant to be a parent. I was starting to wonder if Chris had ever known.

“You may not believe this right now, but it all worked out for the better.”

Confusion knitted my brows together. “What do you mean?”

If there was a silver lining, I couldn’t see it, so I needed him to point it out to me.

Maverick moved closer and cupped my face. I swore I could see adoration swimming in his greenish eyes that gave me chills.

“If they weren’t such lousy parents, I never would have gotten the chance to spend so much time with you over the past couple of weeks.”

He had a point.

“What they did was inexcusable, that’s a fact. But because of them, someone as beautiful as you and smart as you agreed to a date with me. And I’m happy about that.”

I giggled at his optimistic view of things, chasing away the doubts I had over his true interest in me. It was something I was learning from him. To always take a moment and find the good in the bad. Even if it was something small. Maverick was a master at that. I suspected it was why he was successful in his career and other areas of his life. I would take a page of his book and start doing the same thing.

“As long as you remember to consider the kids in all of this.”

“I promise their well-being and happiness will always come first.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, I nodded and let him hug me tighter. His arms were my personal haven and I had no plans to leave anytime soon. In two short weeks, it felt as though my life had turned into a circus. I was juggling both parental roles, trying to keep Mycah happy and entertained, and trying to keep a handle on my emotions so he wouldn’t suspect anything was wrong.

It was all a balancing act and I honestly didn’t think I was doing a good job. But I had to remind myself of two important things: I had a phone full of pictures capturing Mycah’s joy while he made memories with Penny, and each night he’d eaten well and gone to bed with a smile on his face. That had to count for something.

At the end of the day, it may not have been the vacation we wanted, but maybe it was the vacation we needed.

Maverick

The weeks after vacation passed in a blur of meetings and client emergencies. A railway contract that had been running smoothly for weeks was suddenly halted when we ran into a supply chain issue. A contract that was set to finish ahead of schedule was now three weeks behind. Now, we were racing against a clock that had once been in our favor.

In the middle of all that, we’d landed a new subdivision contract that was running smoothly so far, thanks in large part to a lot of sleepless nights and a never-ending supply of coffee that my assistant liked to nag me about. If I wasn’t putting out a fire at work, I was busy getting Penny adjusted to a new school.

The two-week oasis I’d enjoyed in North Beach seemed worlds away by now. Because of my hectic schedule, my time with Gina was almost nonexistent. Something I was actively trying to wrack my brain to find a solution to. I wanted to see her. Sometimes I even felt like Ineededto see her. But time had other plans.

Luckily, Penny and Mycah were great friends or else I didn’t know if I would have had as many chances to see Gina without that common thread tying us together.

“You owe me a drink after making me suffer through that meeting,” Leon declared, his ebony hand slapping me on the shoulder as we exited the boardroom.

“You called the meeting, asshole,” I reminded him as my eyes narrowed. His waist length locs were gathered at his nape. Leon feigned ignorance and nodded.

“I did, huh?”

Not justifying his nonsense with a response, I started scrolling through the notifications on my phone. There were enough banners on my screen to make my head spin, but I homed in one in particular. It was from Gina.

“Sorry,” Leon said, unconvincingly. “I know you’d rather be somewhere with your new distraction.”

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