Lost Rider(14)

“Holy shit,” I gasp in the silence around us after the door shuts.

“I really can’t believe he didn’t recognize you, Leigh. Hell’s bells, that was intense.”

“It’s been a long time, Q. I’ve changed a lot since he last saw me.”

“You were at the rodeo in Vegas not even two years ago.”

I laugh. “Quinn, you know damn well that I went out of my way for him not to see me.”

She was silent for a while, probably trying to remember that night. “You skipped the bar after, didn’t you? Shit, Leigh! You’ve always skipped goin’ out with us after every rodeo, haven’t you.”

“Ding, ding, ding,” I sarcastically tell her.

“How did I not notice that before now? My lord, Leigh. I know you didn’t come to many with us, but now that I’m thinking back, you really did vanish any time we went to see Mav.”

“Because I didn’t want you to. It’s not a big deal, Q. I’ve only been to a few and it was easier for me to beg off than make you guys suffer through the awkwardness that would follow if I tagged along. You didn’t get enough time together as it was and there was no way I was going to take away from that. Judging by how all this just went down, it would have ruined the time you did have together for sure anyway.”

I look out the window as Chris Stapleton’s voice sings through the speakers and see Maverick and Clay in a heated discussion. I can’t hear them, not since Quinn turned the truck on while we wait, but when Maverick’s head snaps up to look in my direction, I know Clay just spilled the beans.

Yeah, it sure does looks like Maverick Davis has come home.

“Shit,” I whisper.





5


MAVERICK


“Nobody to Blame” by Chris Stapleton



“You’re a goddamn asshole, Mav, you know that? First you’re late when you knew Quinn wanted you—no, needed you—here with her. Now you’re showin’ your ass when you have no right.”

“Show my ass? You’re the one having your newest piece sitting front row and center with my family. Looked like Quinn didn’t need me one second, brother.”

“Goddamn, Mav!” he exclaims and steps closer into my space. “Could you be a bigger fool?”

“Excuse me? You’ve got that tramp up there with my family, dressed like some two-bit whore, in a church, no less. She’s probably got nothing but dollar signs in her eyes now that the old man’s kicked the bucket. I wouldn’t be shocked if she starts baiting you for a ring after the will is read. Make sure and get a real good prenup, Clay.”

I need a drink. I can’t control my words if I tried. Too much shit swirling around in my head long before I even rolled over the town line, especially after everything that happened in Vegas. When you add that on top of why I even came home, yeah—I definitely need a drink. Just being back in Pine Oak is making me feel like I’m going insane. A caged animal desperate to break free of its confines. I know I’m being a prick, but I can’t seem to make my mouth stop spewing shit.

Clay let out a low growl. “If I didn’t think it would upset the girls, I would beat your fuckin’ head in for that.”

I cross my arms over my chest and stand to my full six-foot-four-inch height and hold his heated gaze.

“Your intimidation bullshit won’t work on me,” Clay heatedly says with a dry laugh as he walks closer. “Let me help you out here, little brother, since as you’ve been gone a lot has changed around here. A lot. That woman you seem so sure in your judgment over there is the furthest thing to a whore you could find. She’s the one that’s been by our side daily. When Quinn and I had to leave Pops alone after his first stroke, she was the one that stuck around to make sure he was okay. Closed down her bakery for hours while she sat there and read to the old man.” He takes a deep breath, letting it out in a rush. “She was the one that dug her knees into the hardwood for forty-five minutes and did CPR on him even though she probably knew he was well past the point of help. She did that until someone found them. Too afraid to stop her compressions and run for a phone to actually call for help because she refused to give up hope that she could do somethin’. Forty-five minutes she never once gave up. Sat there until her knees were bruised tryin’ in vain to save him.”

“You left her there with him? Damn, Clay . . . for all you know she could have been fuckin’ her way to his money the second you turned you back.”

“I should fuckin’ deck you,” he says, seething. “I really fuckin’ should.”