Page 34 of Maverick
“Oh, right.” Not everything was about me. “Did you find any?”
“No, not yet.”
“Okay. Well, I should get back to Noodle.”
“Noodle’s fine. She’ll run back home when she’s had her fill. Come with me, I want to show you something.”
My eyes narrowed. “Is that a euphemism?”
Maverick laughed. “No, but it can be.”
I shrugged. Dad was asleep. Noodle was happy after being cooped up all day. I thought I wanted some time to think through everything that had happened, but thinking was overrated. Thinking never relaxed me in the way that being with Mav did.
“Lead the way.”
22
Maverick
Iwasn’t a stalker. Really, I wasn’t. But when Baller told me Kat stepped onto our side of the property line, I couldn’t stay away. And I did want to check if there’d been any cameras installed on our side. Besides the ones that we had installed, of course.
We had a chain-link fence surrounding the main compound and parking lot. We’d be idiots not to. But given that our property sat on thirty acres, we also weren’t interested in fencing in that entire area. Especially with Larry as our neighbor, we didn’t need to. We got along well, and he had his own defenses to keep any riffraff from coming in through his side. Although, we may have to rethink that now.
“Off trail? Oh, this is adventurous.”
When I’d sought her out, I hadn’t expected her to be in a crop top and mid-calf leggings, but I wasn’t complaining. In fact, it gave me an idea.
I nodded. “Thought you’d enjoy that, city girl.”
She smiled. “As long as we don’t get lost, I like the idea of going off the main path.”
I turned to look at her. “And how often do you do that?”
She sighed. “In my real life? Almost never. I keep things nice and orderly. I went to college, got a finance degree. Added a master’s degree because that’s what my adviser suggested. Got enough experience and certifications that I was able to land a CFO job with a medium-sized company, which I’ve been with for five years. I’ve got a few more to go until I’m qualified to make the leap as CFO to a larger company.”
“Sounds like a good path.”
“It was.” She shook her head. “It is. I’ve got my own place and my own money. I’ve got total control over my circumstances.”
Interesting.Must be a story there.
“Do you ever think of changing the plan?”
She shrugged. “It’s a good plan. No need to change if it’s working.”
“Good plans are also adaptable, are they not? Seems to me that sticking to a rigid plan could be as dangerous as having no plan at all. One little crack could blow it all to shit.”
She took a deep breath. “Yeah. But there’s comfort in sticking to what you know.”
I reached over and squeezed her hand. “But think of all things you could miss out on by not deviating every now and then.”
“Are you getting deep on me, Maverick?”
I pulled her close, drawing her face toward mine. “Deep in you, maybe.” I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers, gentle and firm. “Now, look up.”
“Look up?” She pulled her head back and stared into the sky. “Holy crap, is that a treehouse?”
I laughed. “Not exactly. It’s a deer stand. A couple of the guys like to hunt and installed it awhile back. Go ahead, climb on up.”I gestured toward the ladder that was drilled into the side of the tree.
