Jordyn slowly turned to gawk at him. ‘You live under a rock?’ She seemed to remember who she was talking to and added, ‘You know what, never mind.’
‘She’s only liketheHollywood golden girl right now!’ Deb exclaimed. ‘Oh my God!’ She clapped her hands together excitedly. Stopped almost immediately. ‘Wait. You said she wasassaulted?’
Sierra held up both hands. ‘I don’t know the details. But she’s coming here to take some time off,which means,’ she said, looking pointedly at Deb, ‘no fawning, no gawking, no harassing for pictures or autographs. As far as we are concerned, she is just another guest, paying to stay at our luxury resort.’ She zeroed in on Mav. ‘I asked her to arrive around two-thirty so she could check in discreetly. She already signed the liability waiver via email, but if you could check her in, show her around?’
Mav nodded.
‘That’s it for today,’ Sierra said, ending the meeting. As people started filtering out of her office, she called after them, ‘Please read the notes on each guest! Jordyn! David Morgan is allergic to peanuts!’
‘Got it!’ Jordyn called back before disappearing down the hall.
Benji was last to leave, and it was only when he already had one foot out of the door that Sierra snapped, ‘You don’t want to discuss the wranglers?’
Benji stopped in the doorway. He turned slowly. He searched Sierra’s face for a long moment, but when his look was met with cold, unflinching resistance, he turned to Mav. ‘Let me know about the wranglers.’
Mav nodded. He waited for Benji’s footsteps to sound down the hall before standing and closing the door.
This time, when he took his seat, Sierra dropped her head into her hands. ‘I know,’ she murmured. ‘You don’t have to tell me. I know. I’ll try harder.’
There were so many things he wanted to say, so many things she needed to hear. Only, when faced with the burden of it, Mav couldn’t bring himself to open the conversation. His own guilt weighed his tongue down, stopping those particular words in his throat. ‘It’s not a bad idea to bring the wranglers in,’ he said instead. ‘If this woman—’
‘Do you really not know who Nina Keller is?’ Sierra asked, her frustration as clear as her desire to change the subject.
‘Does it matter?’ Mav countered.
She ignored his question. ‘Escaping Juárez?Killer Mistress?The Dogs of Despair?’
‘Movies?’ he guessed.
‘Very good, Mav,’ she replied sarcastically.
‘Sierra, the last movie I watched wasBarbie. It wastwo hourslong. And Poppy didn’t even understand most of it. She just liked the songs and colours. So, unless this Nina Keller played Barbie—’
‘Oh my God, you don’t even know who Margot Robbie is.’ She looked genuinely devastated.
‘… Barbie?’
Sierra let her head fall back on a groan. ‘I worry about you. Truly.’
Maverick pushed to his feet, Sierra’s neat notes and the NDAs rolled in his hands. ‘I’m going to ask Benji not to come to the meetings anymore,’ he said, redirecting them momentarily. ‘I think the distance will be good for you both.’
‘It’s been eight months.’ Her eyes glassed over instantly. ‘Time isn’t going to fix anything. Just leave it alone.’
Mav didn’t walk around her desk and hug her as he might have once, knowing Sierra wouldn’t have welcomed it. She wanted – needed – to pretend that everything was fine. But pretending only got a person so far. Sierra was a dam wall in a flood; she was just waiting to break.
Still, because he would always be on her side, he asked, ‘Do you want me to tell him to leave?’
‘No. I wouldn’t do that. To him. Or to you.’
‘I would understand. Shit, so would he.’ But his heart broke for her. For both of them. Sierra might have been his little sister, but Benji was his brother in every way that counted.
He and Benji had been best friends since first grade. They’d laughed together, cried together, bled together. A decade ago, when Maverick had decided to diversify the ranch after his parents’ death, it had been Benji who had come back to help him build. When his ex, Shannon, had left him with a newborn, it had been Benji who had been the first to come and help, even though he’d known as much about babies as Mav had – zero.
So, while Mav’s loyalty belonged to his sister, his heart had torn equally in two when they had broken up.
‘Was there anything else?’ Sierra asked, but she turned back to her computer and began clacking away without waiting for a reply.
Anything else?Mav thought. There waseverythingelse. But one glance at his sister’s rigid posture and tightly composed face had him replying, ‘No. Nothing else. I’ll see you at home later.’
