His grin softens, doesn’t quite reach his eyes, but it’s real. “Ice cream?”
My shoulders drop, the anger draining into exhaustion, and I swallow hard, blinking at him. “Yeah, quarterback, let’s get you some ice cream.”
maverick
. . .
One month later
Ihold grudges, and I’m not exactly proud of holding one over Amelia, but fuck, she hurt me.
Since my injury and retirement announcement, she’s been there for me every day since.
She hasn’t ran, and I know it's hard for her to do all this, so I admire her effort to grow and learn from her mistakes.
Amelia’s on the other end of the couch, curled up small, Rex purring in her lap as if he’s mocking me with how easily he steals her warmth. She hasn’t said a word in over an hour, just sitting there, stealing glances at me with her green eyes glinting in the TV light.
“You wrecked me, Amelia.”
The words rush out of me before I can stop them. Her head snaps up, eyes wide, her lips parting as if she’s about to defend herself.
“Mav—”
“No.” My voice is sharper than I intend, but I can’t let her cut me off this time. “I need you to hear me.”
I lean forward, elbows braced on my knees, my hands clenched into fists. “I bent over backwards for you. I gaveyou everything I had. My time, my home, my brothers, my entire damn life. I let you into parts of me I don’t reveal to anyone else. And when you looked at me and said it was fake, that it was all some deal—” My voice cracks, my vision blurs. “You gutted me, dollface. You fucking gutted me.”
Her eyes shimmer, her chin trembling. “I know,” she whispers. “I know, and I’m so sorry.”
“I wanted to believe you loved me,” I rasp, shaking my head. “But all I could hear was you calling it pretend.”
For a long moment, there’s nothing but the muffled commentary of the muted game highlights. My pulse thunders in my ears.
She swiftly moves, sliding down the couch and crawling across the cushion until she’s right in front of me, her knees brushing mine. Her hands lift, trembling, cupping my face as if I’m fragile, even though I’ve only ever been told to be unbreakable.
Her green eyes lock onto mine, fierce even through her tears. “It wasn’t pretend,” she whispers. “Not for me. I was terrified, Maverick. I was terrified of how much I felt for you. Jax made me believe love was just cruelty dressed up as devotion, and when you loved me so big, so loud, I panicked. I thought if I ruined it first, it wouldn’t hurt as bad when you left me.”
Her tears slide hot over my skin, dropping to my chest. “But you didn’t leave. You stayed. Even when I threw everything back in your face, you stayed. And I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserveyou.But I want to. God, I want to. Because I love you.” Her voice cracks, splintering apart. She presses her forehead against mine, whispering it again. “I love you, Maverick. I love you so much it terrifies me. And I’m done running from it. I’m done running from you.”
My whole body shudders. For a month, I’ve beenclutching my anger like armor, telling myself I needed space. But hearing her say that—raw, trembling, no walls left? I realize I forgave her the moment she walked into that hospital room and begged me to fight.
I grab her wrists, holding her hands against my face, my own tears spilling over. “You don’t know what that does to me,” I choke out. “Hearing you say that.” My forehead presses harder against hers, our breaths tangling. “I love you too, baby,” I whisper, steady this time, every ounce of truth in me poured into the words. “I’ve loved you since the second you walked into my life with that sharp mouth and those walls so high nobody else dared to climb them. And I’ll love you when you’re eighty and still scowling at me.”
She lets out a wet, broken laugh, her chest shaking against mine.
I hold her tighter, gripping her waist. “And listen to me, if you run again, I’ll find you. Doesn’t matter where, doesn’t matter how. I’ll find you in every lifetime, Amelia. You’ve been it for me since the first moment I laid my eyes on you. There’s no version of me that doesn’t end up with you.”
Her sob rips free as she clutches the back of my neck. “Maverick…”
“I mean it,” I rasp, my chest heaving, forehead pressed to hers. “You’re my forever. Football, fame, all of it—it doesn’t mean shit without you. You’re it. You’ve always been it.”
And when her mouth crashes into mine, I kiss her back with everything I have. After weeks of pain, a month of silence, and love I thought I’d lost—all of it surges between us.
For the first time since the hit, since the hospital, since she tore me open with her fear, I finally feel whole again.
Because she’s here.
I can’t stop touchingher.
