She shook her head. “No, you can teach him to change the oil and tires, all that kind of stuff. I could teach him and had planned on it, but now I won’t have to.” She beamed at me.

  “That’s fine with me.” Spending time with my son under the hood of a vehicle sounded like the best way to spend a day. “I’ll tell him tomorrow. But, there’s something else. I want to pay for their college educations.”

  Ava turned off the water and put both hands on the sink. “Their?”

  “Yes. Both of them.” Hailey was not my child, not biologically. But if I had my way—and Zephyr had his—she would be mine by marriage soon. And we could claim her in the way of the dragons to give her long life and elevated health if she chose that path.

  “Maverick.” Ava had her serious voice out as she dried her hands. “I have enough money put back for Hailey’s college education, and Maddox doesn’t want to go to college.”

  Well, that wasn’t good. “I want him to go to college.”

  She laughed. “Have you tried telling that kid to do what you want him to do rather than what he wants to do? He wants to work with his hands, be a carpenter.”

  Oh, damn. How had I not asked him that? “I’m an idiot,” I muttered. I returned to the table and sat down. Ava sat across from me. “I should’ve talked to him about what he wants for the future. I just assumed he’d go to school.”

  Carpentry was good, honest, skilled work. “But still, he’ll need more schooling, won’t he? Trade school? And maybe some business classes.”

  She nodded. “It would be best, yes.”

  “Then I’ll pay for that. Do you think he’d accept a little seed money to get his business off the ground?” I wanted to do anything I could.

  She laughed and took my hand. “Slow down. When the time comes, if all goes well between now and then, I’m sure he will.” Ava ran her thumb across my knuckles. “I have money for Hailey.”

  “Was it money from your ex-husband?” My face darkened, no matter how hard I tried to keep it neutral.

  “Not exactly. It’s the equivalent of what I earned at my corporate job the last year we were married. It was all I asked of him out of the marriage and all I got. We spent some of it moving, but there is enough to pay for four years of a reasonably priced school.”

  “I want to pay for it. Do whatever you want with that money but let me start her a college savings account.”

  Ava cocked her head at me. “Okay. But I want you to know that money never crossed my mind. Not asking for it. I know your family has plenty, but I never wanted to milk you for it.”

  I pulled her hand to my lips. “That wasn’t a consideration. I knew you wouldn’t.”

  She smiled, and it went straight to my groin. Going slow was going to be a strain to my libido, but I wanted to do this right.

  “Mom,” Hailey called. “I’m ready to be tucked in!”

  “I got it,” Maddox replied.

  “He tucks her in?” I asked. Most teenage boys wouldn’t have wanted to leave what they were doing to coddle their little sister.

  “He dotes on her. I’m so proud of him.” Ava’s eyes twinkled. “Come look.”

  She led the way up the stairs. I hadn’t seen the bedrooms in this cabin in nearly two decades and following her up took me to a place of deep nostalgia.

  She stepped quietly, so I did as well, trying not to let my boots make big clomping sounds on the hardwood floors.

  We peered into Hailey’s room to see Maddox leaned against the headboard of her small twin bed. Hailey laid half on him, half on the bed as he read to her out of a chapter book. He barely fit on her bed, but he was curled up so when she fell asleep, he could slide his arm out from under her and roll off the bed. He’d done this before.

  I put my arm around Ava and sucked in a deep breath, pushing the strong emotions down before my eyes welled up. This was what I’d missed. I didn’t want another moment away from these amazing kids and my mate. After eighteen years of missed memories, I would hold tight to the ones to come.

  We tiptoed away from Hailey’s room and back downstairs. Ava sat on the couch and patted the cushion beside her. “I want you to stay the night,” she said. “But I still want to take things slow.”

  I nodded. “I don’t have to sleep in bed with you,” I said. “But you’re reading my mind. I don’t want to miss any moments like that. I don’t want to leave.”

  My honesty touched a chord with her because she pulled me close and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “Then don’t.”

  17

  Ava

  A knock at the door jerked me out of my deep sleep. Maverick was already up and pulling his pants on. “It’s a female heartbeat.”

  “How can you tell the sex of a heartbeat?” I grumbled. Grabbing my phone from my bedside table, I saw we’d only been asleep for a few hours. It was a little after midnight, Saturday morning, or Friday night, depending on how I thought about it.

  He chuckled. “Dragon, remember? Female hearts and male hearts sound different.”

  “What about someone who’s trans?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  He paused as he yanked on his boots and the knock sounded again. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my robe. “I have no idea,” he said. “I’ve never tried to listen to the heartbeat of a trans person. Now I’m curious, but that would be the rudest thing ever to ask.”

  I chuckled. “You can’t know everything in life.”

  He beat me down the stairs, and after he opened the door, one of my favorite voices drifted up the stairs.

  “Damn, she wasn’t kidding. You are huge!”

  “Charlotte!” I flew down the stairs.

  Maverick had the good sense to jump out of the way as both Charlotte and I squealed and jumped up and down as we threw our arms around each other. “I’m so happy to see you,” I exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

  “I wanted to surprise you, so surprise!” I hugged her again. “You haven’t been calling as much as before, but now I see why.” She wiggled her eyebrows in Maverick’s direction as he grabbed Charlotte’s suitcases off of the front porch and peered out the door before closing and locking it.

  “I take it you’re Charlotte,” he said.

  She let go of me and threw her arms around Maverick. “And you’re Maverick! I’m so happy to meet you.” I felt bad that she thought she had to come visit because I’d dropped off the face of the earth for the last week. If I wasn’t working, I was spending time with Maverick and the kids. And I’d taken to working while he was at the station to maximize our time together.

  He hugged her awkwardly, with a scared look at me. “Nice to meet you, too.”

  In the week that he’d been staying with us, I’d told him all about Charlotte and our unusually close friendship.

  Maddox appeared at the top of the stairs with Hailey rubbing her eyes right behind him, wearing her flannel princess gown. “Oh, that explains the squeals,” Maddox said. “Hey, Aunt Charlie.”

  “Hey yourself, handsome.” Her eyes widened and she looked at Maverick, then back at Maddox. “It is uncanny.”

  Hailey waved. “Hey, Aunt Charlie.”

  “Pumpkin, you and your brother go back to bed,” I called up the stairs. “We’ll visit with Aunt Charlie in the morning.”

  She grabbed one of her suitcases. “Don’t mind me, I’ll find a room with an unmade bed and see you tomorrow. I’m exhausted.” I was glad the cabin was so large.

  “To the right,” Maverick said. I winked at him.

  “She’s a lively one,” he said, and I silently agreed. “Listen, I’ve been here a week, and I’m out of clothes.”

  I laughed and wrapped my arms around him. The first few nights, he’d stayed in the room that Charlotte headed to for now. Then, he’d moved into my bed, but we still hadn’t gone ‘all the way’—at my request. I wanted to go as slow as possible.

  “I’ll go home and do my laundry and let you and Charlotte have the day tomorrow. If you want, send the kids up. They can stay at the manor for the weekend. It’ll be a good time for me to look at the truck with Maddox.”

  I squeezed him tight. “You’re sweet, but we’ve got a date planned for tomorrow. I don’t want to cancel it.”

  “It’s okay. We can go on all the dates in the world now.” A week ago, when he’d first come to stay with us, he’d been desperate to stay and spend every waking moment with us, and still felt that way, I was sure. But he also knew I’d been missing my friend.

  “Come on, let’s go back to bed and you can go home in the morning.”

  “Sounds good to me.” We piled back under the covers. As excited as I was to have Charlotte in my home, I fell asleep easily, and when I woke the next morning, coffee smells pulled me from the bed. Maverick wasn’t in my room.

  Charlotte busied herself in the kitchen, making coffee and toast. “Hey, I’m making my famous breakfast.”

  “Burned toast and the best coffee ever?” I asked.

  “Bingo.” She set a plate of toast in front of me at the table and a huge cup of coffee sweetened exactly the way I liked it.

  “Hey,” I exclaimed. “You didn’t burn the toast.” I took a big bite and beamed at my friend. “Where’s Mav?”

  She laughed as she joined me at the table. “He stuck his head in the kitchen and said hello, and that he was clearing out for our weekend together.”

  “I think all the squealing scared him,” I joked.

  “Well, that’s okay. I want to get to know him, but I came to see you, not your new boy-toy.”

  Maddox and Hailey drifted in as Charlotte and I sat and gushed over the changes in my life. I made them breakfast and told Madd to get ready and head to the manor. I was pretty sure Maverick was going to give Maddox his truck today.

  “Hailey, do you want to spend the day at the manor with Nana or Maverick, depending on which of them are free?” She nodded eagerly. “Or would you like to go get mani-pedis with me and Charlie?”

  She squinted her eyes. “Nana. Sorry, Charlie.”

  Charlotte laughed. “It’s okay, sweets. I’ll see you later.”

  Hailey gave both of us a quick hug and went to get dressed to go spend time with her new Nana. “Maverick’s mom is Nana?” Charlotte asked.

  I explained how they’d all taken Hailey under their wing. “They treat her as if she’s a second child of Maverick’s that they didn’t know about. I’d sort of suspected they would, but they’ve blown my wildest dreams out of the water.” Then I told her about Maverick wanting to provide college funds for both kids.

  Charlotte whistled through her teeth, but we had to put our conversation on hold and see the kids out the back door.

  After they left, Charlotte and I drove into town then parked and walked around Main Street. The women here were polite, but none of them had ever been particularly welcoming to me. I was never the one invited to mom groups or backyard barbecues. I hadn’t been invited when I lived here before, and it hadn’t happened since I returned. To be fair, I hadn’t spent much time attempting to get to know any of the women, either. Things had been a whirlwind since I moved back.

  “How come people are staring?” Hailey whispered as we waited on our pedicure tubs to fill. The owner of the shop was in the back, getting all the supplies.

  “Because I’m Maverick’s...whatever we are, and they know it. The Kingston men are like Black Claw’s most eligible bachelors. Now that Jury is of age, he’ll start having to beat them off with a stick, too.”

  “Look out, Mama,” Charlotte said. “Maddox is next.”

  I dropped my voice as the manicurist came out. I didn’t know her from before, so at least she had no preconceived notions about me. “I’ll cut a bitch,” I said before she got close enough to hear me.

  Charlotte and I dissolved in giggles, bringing a smile to the older woman’s face. “Girls’ day?” she asked.

  We nodded through our laughter.

  “I’ve got something special for you, then.”

  Charlotte and I speculated what she could have for us but weren’t prepared for the mimosas she brought out. “Champagne and orange juice. If you haven’t tried it, you’ll never want to have a pedicure without it, trust me.” She handed us each a full champagne flute.

  I shrugged and smiled at Charlie, my best friend in the world. “Why not? We can make Maverick come pick us up.”

  After four mimosas each, I called my ‘boy-toy’, as Charlotte had dubbed him, with pretty pink fingernails. “I need a ride,” I said brightly. “Charlie and I had mimosas.”

  The line went silent for a few beats. “Hello?” I asked.

  I heard Maverick’s muffled voice. “Does your mom drink very often?”

  “No,” I said.

  “No,” Maddox said through the phone line. “Rarely, why?”

  Maverick told Maddox the predicament I was in.

  “Oh, yeah, she and Charlie get into trouble a lot.”

  Maverick returned to the line. “I’m elbow deep in grease. Where are you?”

  I looked around. “In front of the grocery store.”

  “Stay there.” He hung up.

  “Was he mad?” Charlotte asked. “It’s not like we’re drunk.” We weren’t, but driving wouldn’t be smart either.

  “I don’t think so. He’s not a man of many words,” I explained. “He’ll be along in a minute.”

  We sat on a bench right on Main Street, near the grocery store, and looked around. “I like it here,” I said. “In spite of the women being standoffish. I’ve never had a big group of girlfriends anyway.”

  Charlotte nodded. “I could see you settling down here.”

  I was about to ask her about her love life, which was generally in a shamble, when a Black Claw County cruiser pulled to a stop in front of us. Maverick’s dad stuck his head out the window. “I hear there are a couple of damsels in distress?”

  I threw my arms wide, aware I was being far more flamboyant than normal. “James!” I cried. “Our savior.”

  He got out of the cruiser with a twinkle in his eye. He shook his head at me, then tipped his hat to Charlotte. “Hello, ma’am.”

  Charlotte stood and smiled at him. “Good officer, care to give us a ride?”

  “I live to serve.” He took Charlotte’s elbow and walked her around the cruiser to the passenger seat. “Even ladies who get too tipsy at eleven in the morning.”

  “Is it still that early?” I gasped. “It’s not our fault. The new owner of the nail salon poured it down our throats.”

  James shook his head at me as he closed the cruiser door on Charlotte. “Ava, Laura is a lush, everybody in town knows that. She’d have you drinking at seven in the morning if she could get away with it. Tells people she doesn’t like to drink alone.”

  I frowned at the thought of the sweet lady being an alcoholic. She hadn’t seemed like it at all. “That’s sad.”

  He nodded and opened the back of the cruiser for me to slip in. “It is, but we all keep an eye on her. She’s as safe as she can be here in Black Claw. She was married to a distant cousin of ours before he died unexpectedly.” He gave me a significant look. That meant Laura had been a dragon’s wife. I wondered how he’d died. Dragons were supposed to live a long time, according to what Maverick had told Maddox. Maddox had been filling me in on everything he learned about his heritage.

  “Hey,” Charlotte cried out suddenly. “Can you swing into that gas station?”

  James slammed on the brakes, and I was thankful I’d put on my seatbelt. He pulled into the convenience store and Charlotte jumped out of the car.

  “What’s she after?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “No telling with her.”

  “Is it okay, you and her like this? Do you need anything?”

  “Oh, no, we don’t do stuff like this often.” It was nice having him worry over me.

  “You just tell me if you need anything. I’m here for you.” He nodded as if that settled the matter.

  I agreed but was saved from replying by her reappearance with a bag that was full of what looked like wine bottles.

  “I know you,” she said as she plopped into the front seat. “You don’t have any wine in the house, do you?”

  I burst out laughing as she showed me the selection of cheap gas station wine she’d bought. “I do, actually, but it’s red, and you don’t like red.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. That’s why I got you a red and me white.”

  James chuckled and took us to my cabin. “Ladies, enjoy your weekend. Try not to get stranded again.”

  I handed him my car keys. “Can you give those to Maddox and Maverick? They can go get it later tonight after they clean up.”

  “I’d love to.” He saluted Charlotte with a silly grin.

  “Damn,” she whispered as he backed away. His window was open, and knowing what I knew about Maverick’s family, I knew he could hear her. “Those Kingston men are all fine as hell, aren’t they?”

  I grinned at James’s car as it drove away. “Yes, they are.” James was gorgeous, though I didn’t have eyes for anyone but Maverick. Also, noticing his dad was hot was a little weird.

  We made a light lunch and opted to lay off the booze for a while, instead vegging out on one of our favorite romcoms and snacking for most of the afternoon.

  Toward dinnertime, Hailey called and asked to spend the night with Nana. I gave her permission, of course, then Charlotte and I ordered pizza, the only food that delivered in the tiny town.

  Maverick had texted a few times throughout the day to check on us, which had been sweet. I missed him, but not with the obsessive yearning I would’ve felt when we were kids. We’d truly been inseparable then.

  This felt healthier.

  “So, are you two an item or what?” Charlotte asked as we dished out the large pizza.

  I struggled with the cork on the wine and considered how to answer. “Yes, I think so.” I couldn’t exactly tell her we were fated to be together, and it was unlikely we’d ever want to be apart again.

  She took the bottle and finagled the mess I’d made of the cork, finally popping it out.

 

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