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Lily
Two weeks later...
“I CAN’T TELL him,” I argued.
“Why not?” Mom asked.
“Because he’ll give up everything he’s worked for in order to be with me during chemo!” I snapped. “And what if I die? He’ll have wasted his whole fucking life for no reason!”
Tears streamed down Mom’s face. My aunt Kayla (Dad’s sister), dropped her head in her hands and swore. Luckily, this argument was happening while Dad was at Church. No one knew about my diagnosis outside of the four of us and Macey... not even my brothers. Chemo started in two weeks, so we’d have to tell them then, but for now, I wanted it kept secret until I could figure out how to handle the Maverick situation.
“Don’t do something this dumb,” Kayla said. “You’ll regret it.”
“Kay, I have to,” I said. I felt sick. The thought of going through chemo without Maverick almost broke me, but the thought of him giving up everything to be by my side gave me a deeper resolve. Whether or not my life was over, I refused to subject him to that uncertainty.
“I get that you feel that way, honey,” Mom whispered. “But I don’t think you need to go to that extreme.”
“I think I do,” I countered.
“This is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever have to deal with, honey,” Mom said. “He’ll want to be there for you... you’ll want him there for you.”
“Mama, he’ll stop his whole life for me. You know he will. I just can’t let him do that.” I bit my lip. “I have to break up with him.”
“That boy is gonna lose his fucking mind,” Kayla ground out.
Mom shook her head. “I wish I could give you some sage advice and make all of this better. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Kayla just groaned.
“When he comes home, he’ll want to see me,” I continued. “I’ll probably be bald, or look like some kind of ugly molting bird, which will give away the fact that I’m dying, and then he’s going to freak out and be the good guy and quit college in order to be with his dying girlfriend. No. If I dump him—really break his heart—then he’ll move on, play harder than he’s ever played, get drafted for the NFL, win a hundred Super Bowls, and be happy.”
“I thought he wanted to be a vet,” Kayla argued.
“If he makes it to the NFL, he won’t need to be a vet,” I snapped.
Mom burst into tears and shook her head. “Okay, first, you’re not going to die, and I swear to God, if you say that in front of your dad, I will slap you! Second, I think you’re overestimating Maverick’s ability to overcome a broken heart. Third, if you say you’re going to die one more time, I’m going to go postal on your ass.”
I sighed and pulled her in for a hug. “I’m sorry.”
She held me tight. “You’re forgiven.”
“I have to do this, Mom.”
“What about Poppy?” Kayla challenged.
Poppy was my closest friend next to Maverick. She was also our neighbor, and her dad was a Dog, so that could pose a problem. “She and Maverick don’t talk, so it’s not like he’ll find out from her, and as long as Dad doesn’t say anything to Hatch and you don’t say anything to Maisie, I think we can keep the secret. Poppy won’t rat me out, Mom.”
Mom let out a resigned sigh. “Honey, we’ll support you in whatever you need. But I’m going on record to say I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Me too,” Kayla said.
“Noted.” I brushed away my own tears and nodded. “But I have to protect him. I love him too much to let him throw everything away.”
Mom raised her hands in surrender, and then she and Kayla left me alone. I mapped out my plan for Operation Save Maverick’s Future, and after calming myself and putting on a little makeup, I powered up Skype and made a call.
* * *
Maverick
I had just stepped out of the shower when the Skype call sounded. I grinned. God, I missed my girl. I sat in front of my laptop and answered. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey.”
I frowned. Lily didn’t look happy. “What’s wrong?”
“I have something to tell you and... well, I...”
“Just tell me, baby.”
“I’ve kind of met someone,” Lily said.
“Yeah? Made a new friend?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve met a guy. Someone I’m really attracted to. He asked me out, and I kind of want to go, but I didn’t want to cheat, so I...”
My heart raced. “You want my fucking permission to go out with another guy?”
“Well, no. I’m thinking that if I’m feeling this way about someone else, you and I should probably break up.”
“Who the fuck is he?”
“You don’t know him.”
“What’s his fucking name, Lil?”
“Brad,” she whispered. “He just transferred into my school, and we’ve been talking.”
I dragged my hands down my face. She was messing with me. I forced a laugh. “Nice one, Lil. Stop messing around.”
“Maverick, I’m really sorry. Seriously. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I really hope you’ll understand.” She wiped tears away from her cheeks. “I need to go help Mom with dinner. Please don’t hate me,” she begged and hung up.
I sat staring at my screen for several minutes, my stomach churning, and my heart shattering. I couldn’t wrap my brain around any of it. We had plans. There was no way in hell some asshat named Brad was gonna mess up those plans. I grabbed my phone and called the only person I knew I could talk to about it.
“Hey, buddy,” my dad said after one ring.
“Hey, Dad.”
Carter ‘Ace’ Quinn wasn’t my biological father. Ace and Hawk were officers in the Dogs of Fire MC, and Ace had adopted me when he’d married my mom, Cassidy.
“You doin’ okay?”
“Lily just dumped me.”
“What the fuck?” my dad retorted. “Hold on. Gonna go somewhere away from the kids.”
I had a younger brother, Liam, and younger sister, Tillie. Liam was almost ten, and Tillie was almost eight.
“Okay, tell me everything.”
I filled my father in on the conversation and tried my best to keep it together.
“I’ll talk to Hawk,” my dad said.
“Dad, I’m not some twelve-year-old girl who needs my daddy to fix this.”
My dad sighed. “Still your dad, bud. Kinda feel the need to.”
“I know, but I’m going to let this ride out for a week or two. Lily’s smart. She’s probably just missing me and having a moment of insanity. Let her go out with this Brad pussy. She’ll figure out who the real man is and come crawling back.”
“I’ll talk to your mom. See if she can find out what’s going on.”
“Do not get Mom involved,” I insisted. “Not yet, anyway.”
My dad chuckled. “Okay, bud. Got your back.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
We chatted a bit about football and classes and then hung up. I felt better and was ready to wait out Lily and whatever emotional crisis she was dealing with... well, I was ready for about a day. But when she changed her social media status and started posting pics of her kissing some asshole who wasn’t me, I was no longer Zen.
I was enraged. I forced aside my pain and anguish and focused on the pure, unadulterated hatred I felt, which served me well on the field. Not so much in my interpersonal relationships, but by the time I was due to return home for Thanksgiving, I didn’t really give a fuck about anyone, or anything, anymore.
