Mercy (Somerset University #3) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,46
thrills.”
Aiden bore my speech—nodding along with his lips pushed out. “Then why”—he leaned in until our noses brushed—“does he keep coming back to us?”
Because he’s going to find out what the fuck you’re really about, Aiden Connelly.
My jaw clenched tight, keeping that thought inside. Too late. It should’ve held back the rest of what I said too. Acting like we had no reason to be here would give Aiden license not to invite us back.
“Because he enjoys a good game of poker,” I finally said. “Also, I think you have him intrigued with your question game. Why throw that in?” I waved the book between us. “Is it one of the rules?”
“It’s a rule that members have to stretch themselves in every way. That includes intellectually. I told Maverick this the other night. You should stand by your beliefs so strongly, you’d hang everything on them. Anything less is bullshit.”
“Why—”
The door creaked open. Maverick encompassed the entrance, taking in the scant distance between us. “Everything okay, Val?”
“Everything’s fine. Aiden gifted me with some light reading. I know what I’ll be doing tonight.”
“Wait till you get to chapter three,” Aiden said. “It’s a page-turner.” He pushed off the rail, loping for the other door, and letting himself inside. “Game starts in ten, Rick.”
Maverick closed it behind him. “Sure you’re okay?”
“I am. Why?”
He gathered me in his arms, resting my head on his chest, and rubbed soothing hands on my back. “You were making your I’m-inches-away-from-throwing-you-off-this-balcony face.”
“That’s my normal face around Aiden. He threw some garbage at me, saying he kept me in the dark because I didn’t ask. Not to mention Kendra, Eve, Teagan, and Sabrina pulling the same excuse. I became president to find out what’s going on in my house and put a stop to it.” I snaked my arms around his waist, holding him tight. “So naïve. Everyone’s keeping secrets, Maverick. I never knew where to begin.”
“Do you want to blow this off? Forget Aiden. I’ll call us a car and we’ll be home in thirty minutes with people who aren’t so duplicitous that we question their real motive when they claim they have to leave to take a shit.”
A laugh burst out of me. “I’d love to choose option A. But we came here for a reason, and if this book doesn’t tell me what I want to know, Aiden will give me the rest.” I kissed the skin peeking from his shirt. “Instead, distract me with sweet things for the next five minutes, and then let’s go inside and play duplicitous shit with the best of them.”
“Hmm. Adam’s going to love his new puppy.” He chuckled. “The kid has us wrapped. He knew we’d give in and let him keep one. Or three.”
“He is scarily hard to say no to, and Pepper’s big brown eyes don’t help.”
“I’m going to my parent’s house tomorrow. Dad wants a picture of the pups to scope out their newest addition. Mom wants another swing at convincing me to move home.”
I shook my head, smiling. “I love Selah for how much she loves you. Twenty-one years old and you’re still her baby boy.”
“It’s Mariana and Alison’s fault. They didn’t leave home until they were twenty-three and twenty-five.”
Mariana and Alison were Maverick’s older sisters. Both of them intelligent, funny, independent women who took me out for girls’ night whenever they were in town. And both enjoyed their high-class luxury life in Evergreen Estates until marriage, kids, and new jobs took them away. They were in no kind of rush to leave home and Selah didn’t complain.
“My mom wasn’t properly prepared for her baby to leave the nest at eighteen. On top of that, she still sees my living at Ryder’s house like one long extended sleepover. Back to when we were kids.”
The slow, gentle circles on my back seeped tension from my bones. Waves crashed against the shore, singing a persistent lullaby that drew my eyes shut.
I loved this place. Cherished the memories I created here.
Making love with Jaxson for the first time.
Capturing the moment Adam saw his first jellyfish on camera.
Burying Ryder in the sand.
Kissing Maverick under the stars.
We weren’t having an extended sleepover. We were a family.
“I see why she’d think that,” I said. “Doesn’t really feel like you’ve left when you’re a few streets over. I’ve thought about what it’d be like to get our own place after college.”
“Is that something you want?”
“If life takes us somewhere else, then I’d go happily. But somewhere along the way a miracle