"I'd rather just stick with you," he told her, not budging from his position in the doorway.
"You can't be back in the ER," she pointed out, wanting to get out of the room, which seemed to be getting smaller and smaller by the second, but not wanting to brush by him.
"I'm a patient," he pointed out.
Blowing out a breath, she finally decided she needed out of the room. He still didn't move when she reached him, and she had no choice but to squeeze by him. At the last second, he shifted, and her entire body slid along his for a few seconds as she stepped through the doorway.
Looking up, she saw the spark in his eyes that told her he was very aware of what he was doing, and though Lindsey was about the least violent person in the universe, she had a strong urge to smack the look off his face.
She just moved forward instead, with him closely on her heels. Lindsey didn't fail to notice the look of her female peers as the two of them moved back to the nurses station. He leaned against the counter, engaging a few of the staff members in conversation as she finished up her paperwork for the day and then clocked out.
Taking longer than necessary didn't seem to bother Maverick in the least. When she was all out of procrastination excuses, she sighed as she looked back up at the man only to find his intense eyes gazing directly at her.
"I'm ready," she said before looking back down.
"Perfect. I'm starving," he said, stepping right up to her side as she made her way to the break room.
"I'm going to grab my stuff and then take you directly home," she said firmly. If he thought they were stopping for food, he was crazy.
"Oh, I'm not going home. Coop said I could crash at his house a few days. Doc said I can't drive on the pain meds."
Lindsey didn't say a word as he followed her into the break room where she grabbed her jacket and purse. Her teeth were clenched as he walked from the hospital with her, not seeming to be under the influence of pain meds at all by his confident gait.
She really didn't like the idea of him staying with Cooper. That was far too close to Lindsey's temporary home for her liking. Just knowing he was sleeping up at the main house was going to make it difficult for her to get any rest at all.
Maverick tried engaging her in small talk on the drive home, but she gave him terse answers that didn't aid in the conversation at all. Her rudeness didn't diminish his good mood in the least.
The man was unshakeable.
When she drove past the gate at Cooper's, she pulled up to the main house, but Mav just shook his head.
"Go ahead and park at the cottage. I'll walk up," he told her.
"That's okay. Why don't you get out here?" she urged.
"Nah, it's a beautiful day and it's not far at all."
He didn't budge from his seat, and Lindsey knew it was useless to continue the argument. With another long-suffering sigh, she backed out and then went around the house and down the short drive to the cottage, where she parked.
Lindsey was out of the car quickly, but still, Maverick was by her side almost instantly. She was ninety-nine percent sure the man wasn't on any pain meds. He was moving far too stealthily.
"Okay, I'll talk to you later," she told him pointedly as she began moving to her cottage, where she planned on locking the door behind her.
"I need to talk to you about something before I head up to the house," he said, striding easily alongside her.
"I'm really tired, Mav. I've had a long day," she told him.
Most people wouldn't push the issue. Mav certainly wasn't most people.
"Then we can sit," he said, grabbing her key right from her hand and moving to her front door. He had it unlocked and open before she could even blink. Then, without waiting for an invite, he stepped inside and moved to the kitchen.
Of course he knew her cottage well. It was owned by his brother, and he'd stayed in it many times.
"Good. Fresh lemonade," he said as he pulled out the pitcher from the fridge. "I need to get something in my stomach. Those meds are starting to mess with my system," he pointed out.
The nurse in Lindsey took over. Though she wanted to literally kick him in the butt all the way out her front door, she found herself pulling out sandwich fixings and setting them on the counter instead.
He poured them each a glass of lemonade, taking those and a bag of chips out to her small patio where she had a table with an umbrella set up. She was finished with the sandwiches when he got back, and he grabbed his, then waited for her to grab her own. They walked outside together and took a seat.
"I love this view," he said as he leaned back, picking up his sandwich and sighing after taking a bite.
Lindsey gazed out at the water as she slowly ate her own food, trying to maintain her irritation with this insistent man, but finding it difficult to do. He was just always so dang happy and confident that to be in a bad mood with him around was nearly impossible.
"What do we need to talk about, Mav?" she asked. The sooner he got it out of the way, the better off she would be.
"You know I run a charity for veterans with PTSD, right?" he said.
His question startled her. It hadn't been at all what she'd been expecting him to say.
"Yes," she said with hesitation. She wasn't sure where this was going.
"My chair had an emergency and had to leave."
She waited, but he was quiet.
"I don't understand where you're going with this," she said.
"I need someone to help organize the big fund-raiser coming up in a couple months. We earn most of our funding at this one event."
Lindsey looked at him in horror. He couldn't possibly be thinking of her to take over chairing the event. She knew nothing about fund-raisers. Besides, she could barely make it to work and back, let alone talk to the myriad people she would need to speak with in order to make this event happen. She'd been to one of his fund-raisers and it had been huge, with thousands of people there-very influential people-and a party that could rival a red-carpet event. There was no way she could pull that off.
"I don't have any suggestions on who to recommend to you," she finally said, carefully measuring her words.
"I already have someone in mind," he told her with a wink.
"Then why are you talking to me about it?" she said, a bit of venom in her tone.
"Come on, Lins. You know you'd be perfect. You won't be alone. I'll be there every step of the way."
She was sure that he meant those words to be reassuring, but they had the complete opposite effect. She was back into her fight or flight mode, and every instinct in her body was telling her to run as far away from this man as possible.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to decline," she firmly told him.
He gave her that signature smile that made her grateful she was already sitting down. She had to get away from him, and she had to do it fast.
Maverick finished up his sandwich and then stood up.
"I'll give you time to think about it. Don't worry, though. I'll be around for a while so we can talk and talk and talk."
She now knew for sure that he was threatening her. Was he going to just keep on bugging her until she went insane? That might be his newest strategy.
"I'm working, Mav. I really don't have time to do a charity," she said, not wanting to admit to him how much panic the idea brought her.
"You're back to work part time, only two days a week right now. And I'm out of work until this arm is all better," he said.
How in the world did he know her schedule? He was much more aware of what was going on in her life than she was comfortable with him knowing.
"I'm going to get out of here. Think about it."
With that, he turned and strode off, not bothering to go back inside the cabin, just taking off down the trail that would lead him up to the main house. Lindsey wanted to chase him down until he was convinced she wasn't helping him with the dang charity, but she knew it would be a losing battle again.
The man was stronger than her. That was for dang sure. She decided her best and only option was avoidance. Even with him staying so close to her, she could avoid him. She was very good at that.
Grabbing their dishes, Lindsey took them inside, then shut and locked her back door. Next, she went and checked that the front was securely chained. She loved sitting outside in the afternoons and evenings, but not on this day.
No. She was in full-on evacuation mode right now.
Maverick was just too dangerous and smart for her to win any battle. Retreat was the only option.
CHAPTER SIX
The next day at work, Lindsey was dragging. She'd been right. Sleep hadn't come easy to her knowing how close Maverick was to her place. And then she'd woken up too many times when she had finally managed to shut her mind off long enough to catch a bit of rest.
So when she rolled into the hospital, at what felt like far too early an hour, she had hoped the other staff members wouldn't comment on the dark circles beneath her eyes. Of course, they were sort of used to those, since she'd sported them for months after the attack.