Karly said, “Yeah, sure,” to the empty car, imagining what the conversation would’ve been like had she just said those two stupid words after Maverick had asked her if she’d like to go out with him sometime.
“I mean, yes,” she said. There were so many ways to say it, and yet she’d stood there and said nothing. He hadn’t looked like he cared the slightest bit, and though she’d only met him officially yesterday, she knew he had to feel something. He just pretended like he didn’t.
Karly understood that on a deep level. So deep, she didn’t want to go down inside that cesspool.
“I might have to check my schedule,” she said as she turned onto the lane where all the Addlers lived. She drove past her house and down three more to Liam’s and Serenity’s. The woman sat on the front steps, her baby swaddled up in blankets while Navy ran around on the front lawn.
Serenity wore a pretty smile on her face, and she glanced up as Karly pulled into the driveway. She flew from the car, scooping her daughter into her arms and hugging her tight. She smelled like cherries and chocolate, and Karly never wanted to leave again.
“Hey, baby,” she said to Navy. “Were you good for Aunt Serenity?”
She babbled something that wasn’t in English, and Karly hugged Serenity around the kids too. “Thank you so much.” She sighed like last night was the worst ordeal of her life.
“Liam said not to come in today. He said you don’t need to until after the new year.”
“All right.” Relief hit her, and she wanted nothing more than to step into another hot shower and lay down in bed as the hours passed.
“So, where did you stay last night?” Serenity asked.
“Oh, my car broke down at the convenience store,” she said, making her voice full of frustration and annoyance. “So I hiked down the road to this motorcycle shop. One of the guys there helped me.”
“You stayed with a man?” The incredulity in Serenity’s voice could’ve called dogs to the front door. She opened it and went inside the cabin, Karly following her. She set Navy on the floor, and the little girl ran toward the back of the house and the kitchen.
“Yes,” Karly said, deciding to just tell Serenity the truth. “I mean, sort of. He lived above the shop, and his place was huge. Like, I mean, huge. It took up the entire floor above the store and the mechanic shop. Probably six thousand feet.”
“So it wasn’t tight quarters. All awkward or anything.”
“I mean, he caught me snooping in his fridge.” She shrugged like it had been no big deal.
Serenity let a moment go by, and then she giggled. Karly laughed too, and it felt so great. So, so great. Something shifted in her, and for the first time since Derrick’s death, she thought she might be able to be happy again someday.
“And he asked me out,” she said casually, as if she got asked out every day.
Serenity sucked in a breath and passed the baby to Karly so she could stand up and get the remote control. “You’re kidding. The biker guy? What did you say?”
“It’s the same man I walked down the aisle with yesterday,” she said. “You know? Declan’s friend.”
“Oh, right,” Serenity said. “What did you say?”
Karly sighed. “I didn’t say anything. Then his phone rang, and he went to get it, and then he fixed my car, and yeah.” Another sigh. “I didn’t say anything.” She gazed down into Thea’s sleeping face, so much love filling her. She’d wanted to be a mother for as long as she could remember, and though she and Derrick had been married for five years, she’d only been able to get pregnant once.
“She’s so beautiful,” she murmured.
Serenity flipped on the TV and gently took Thea from Karly. She settled her into a bassinet at the end of the couch and sighed as she sat back down. “She had a rough night.”
“I’m going,” Karly said, interpreting the mommy-language she’d used before too. “Thank you so much again, Serenity. I’ll send you some money when I get home.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she said, her eyes already closed.
Karly ignored her and called for Navy to come. In the end, she had to go down the hall to the art nook and get her daughter. She cried as they left, and Karly felt even more helpless and like a bigger failure as she walked out the front door.
After all, Navy wanted to stay with Serenity more than she wanted to go with her own mom. She couldn’t help thinking that she already needed another hour to herself as she buckled the sobbing child into the backseat and walked around the front of the car.
“You can do this,” she whispered to herself before she got behind the wheel. “Baby,” she said, buckling her own seatbelt. “You want some pancakes? Pancakes?”
Navy quieted, and she nodded. Karly smiled at her. “All right. Pancakes.” Hopefully, there would never be something in Karly’s life that carbs couldn’t solve.
A week later, Karly drove slowly down the road that would take her past her beloved convenience store—and past Ruby’s.
Navy was asleep in the backseat, as driving in the car always conked the child out when she was being difficult about bedtime. The clock on Karly’s dash read a few minutes before midnight, and while the lights on the red letters of Ruby’s name were bright, the inside of the storefront looked dark.
At least a dozen motorcycles were parked on the west side of the building, so Karly knew there were people inside. She also knew she couldn’t leave her sleeping infant in the car and go into this particular building uninvited, especially at this time of night. She wasn’t even sure why she was here. She had Maverick’s number in her phone, and she could use it if she wanted to.
She did want to. She just didn’t know how. Or what to say.
She circled the building, flipping around to go back toward the convenience store. Pausing at the corner of the building just far enough forward so she could see the motorcycles, she glanced back toward them again.
And then the man that had been swirling in her mind for eight days appeared, coming through the back door and moving past the bikes parked there, that gorgeous German shepherd trotting out after him.
Karly flipped off her headlights, her pulse beating out a loud rhythm in her ears. King went over to a patch of grass across the parking lot and started sniffing around while Maverick crossed the asphalt too. He stood with his hands in his jacket pockets, his shoulders emanating power as he waited for his dog to take care of his business.
Then they started down the road together, King always right at Maverick’s side, despite the lack of a leash.
Karly didn’t dare move, as she’d have to drive right by Maverick and his dog, and he’d surely recognize her car. Wouldn’t he?
“Of course,” she muttered to herself, another phrase she could’ve used last week in his kitchen.
When he’d disappeared down the road, she turned on her headlights and stole away from the building. She passed the convenience store, ready to head home and carefully lay Navy in her crib so they both could get some good sleep.
Maverick stepped into the road in front of her, his frame boxy and rigid, almost like he was bracing for her to hit him. King joined him, the animal’s jowls moving like the dog was barking.
Thankfully, Karly wasn’t driving very fast, and she was able to stop in plenty of time. Maverick was almost to her window before she even had the vehicle all the way still. He bent down and peered through her window, his face a hard mask that sent fear through her as quickly as a bullet.
His eyes softened the teensiest bit, and he glanced in the backseat too before miming for her to roll down the window.
She did, because she’d already been caught.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice low. He looked behind her, and then down the street in front of her. Trees bordered both sides that way, and no cars were coming.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “My baby wouldn’t go to sleep, and the car ride soothes her. I just…ended up here.”
“It’s not safe for you to be here,” he said.
“Not safe?” She’d felt perfectly safe last week. Warm even. Invited. It had been wonderful to be taken care of again, and Karly had always wanted a man to dote on her. Make her feel pretty.
He sighed, obviously at war with himself. He focused on the ground, and she wished he’d just say what was on his mind. He’d been able to in the kitchen last weekend.
“I want to go out with you,” she blurted.
After what felt like a very long time, Maverick lifted his eyes to hers, and she finally found a spark in them. Some indication that this man felt something.
“Come back to the loft,” he said. “I’ll open the back bay for you. It’s really not safe for anyone to see your car here.” With that, he walked away.
Karly had no idea what to do. If it wasn’t safe, shouldn’t she just go home? She watched him walk away from the car, his back straight, that dog obediently at his side.
And she didn’t want to go home.
Ten minutes later, Navy was asleep in the same bedroom where Karly had stayed several nights ago, and Maverick had a fresh pot of coffee going in the kitchen. Karly felt like she was walking on eggshells on top of very thin ice as she closed the door on her sleeping daughter and tiptoed down the hall toward the man she’d just admitted to liking.
“Tell me why it’s not safe,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. Now that she was here, she wished she’d have dressed better for the midnight drive to settle Navy to sleep. As it was, she wore a pair of pajama pants and a sweatshirt that hung off her shoulder. It had been Derrick’s and was one of the few items of his she didn’t leave in the box in the closet.
“Was your grandfather ever in a motorcycle club?” he asked, and Karly froze. She hadn’t been expecting him to ask that.
“I have no idea,” she said. “I can’t imagine he would’ve been. He tended to the orchards forever before passing them to my dad. He calls the trees children without names.”
Maverick nodded. “I think he was a Hawk. Their club is farther north than here, just across the lake to the west.”
“So what if he was?” she asked. “It would’ve had to have been a long time ago. I don’t remember it at all, and my mother has never mentioned it.” She would flip out, as Karly’s mother was nothing if not prim and proper and always ready to entertain.
“The Hawks and the Sentinels don’t mix,” Maverick said simply.
“I…I don’t even know what that means.”
Maverick came around the bar, and she realized he’d been using it as a shield between them. And now he’d removed it. He reached out and touched her face. Karly tried very hard not to lean into his touch, but it had been so long since she’d had the tender touch of a man in her life.
Maverick tucked her hair behind her ear, his voice low and husky when he said, “Once a Hawk, always a Hawk.”
“But I’m not a Hawk,” she said.
“It would be very dangerous for us to be together,” he whispered, his lips dropping to her temple. Heat exploded through her, and Karly stood very still, trying to absorb her emotions, the way this man made her feel alive, and his words.
His lips traced a path down her cheek to her jaw. “If your granddad was a Hawk, they consider you one too. If you or your family needed help, they’d come if you asked them to.” He pressed his mouth to her throat.
“We’ve been in trouble,” she said, her words made mostly of air. “All of my siblings have at least.”
“Mm,” he said, still working his magic against the tender skin along the side of her throat. “Did you ask them to come?”
“I didn’t know we could. I don’t think anyone knew that.”
Maverick pulled back. “I haven’t been able to find out if he really was a Hawk, but they’re watching me now. Their Vice saw me help you fix your car, and he’s claimed you.”
Karly’s eyebrows went up as a healthy dose of indignation moved through her. “Claimed me?” And she had no idea what a Vice was.
Maverick nodded, very serious indeed. “That’s how motorcycle clubs work, honey. If you’re in theirs, you can’t be mine.”
Be his. Karly couldn’t believe it, but she actually liked the sound of that. “Even if I don’t want to be in theirs?”
“Even if.”
Frustration welled in Karly, and she finally lifted her arms and put them on his shoulders. He steadied her with his hands on her waist and they swayed like they were dancing at their high school prom. Karly’s emotions popped through her, excitement racing down her spine and up her arms. She felt tingles in her toes and fingertips, and she couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips.
“So what do we do?” she asked, laying her cheek against his shoulder.
“We need to find out for sure if your grandfather was a Hawk,” he murmured. “Then we have to be very careful who sees us together.”
“Which was why I had to pull into the bay.”
“Mm hmm,” he said. “And why you can’t leave until morning.”
She straightened, alarm pulling through her. “What?”
“Bikers are out at night, Karly. It’s not safe.” His bright blue eyes blazed at her, and she absolutely believed him.
“And what if my grandfather was a Hawk, and I still wanted…to go out with you?”
“Oh, we won’t be going out,” he said, a playful smile barely curving that strong mouth. “We’d have to stay in.”
“Keep it secret,” she whispered, thinking of all her siblings who’d had secret relationships over the past couple of years. The idea thrilled her, and she shivered.
Maverick pulled her closer, the warmth from his body seeping into hers along every point. “That’s right, sweetheart. You’d be my secret girlfriend.”