Sierra came to him. She gave him a little shove, sending his chair wheeling. ‘Trust Nina not to hurt you. Trust her to know her own mind.’
He sighed. ‘I—’
‘You’re afraid.’
‘I’m afraid,’ he admitted slowly, and as much as he hated the words, it felt good to finally say them. ‘Shannon leaving hurt. But Nina leaving … it might kill me. And, worse, it might hurt Poppy.’ He ground his teeth together, bracing against the thought. ‘I don’t ever want my little girl to feel that pain, thatinadequacy.’
‘You’ve done a good job of keeping things quiet,’ Sierra argued. ‘Sure, Poppy will be sad if Nina does leave, but only because they’ve bonded some. She’s a child, Mav. In a week, she’d have moved on.’ She gave him one last poke. ‘Don’t be a coward. And stop using your daughter as an excuse for not taking the risk.’
Mav exhaled a huge breath. He wanted to tell Nina how he felt. He had fought the urge constantly because every time he considered just saying the words he remembered Shannon’s bitterness and her accusation that he’d pressured her. So, he’d held back.
But he hadn’t realized that keeping the words from her was a different kind of pressure, a weird bargain where he only took the risk after she’d agreed to stay. And maybe that wasn’t exactly fair either. Maybe the hardest part about trusting someone again wasn’t only trusting that they knew their own mind and heart but trusting that they loved you enough not to hurt you too.
‘I’m a coward,’ he admitted after a long pause. ‘But I have good reason to be.’
‘You do.’
‘And you’re a piece of work,’ he said.
‘But I have good reason to be.’
‘You do,’ he ceded.
‘Tell her.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll try.’ But as he opened the door to leave, he added, ‘Does this mean you’ll talk to Benji?’
Sierra snorted.
Maverick shook his head as he walked away. The two of them couldn’t go on like this, and as much as he hated to say goodbye to his best friend, maybe a little distance would help for a while. Give them both space to breathe before they circled back to each other. Because if there was one thing he knew about Benji and Sierra, it was that they circled back to one another eventually.
He was walking across the shaded parking lot, his thoughts spinning around his family, when he saw the lost guest. The man was tall and Hollywood handsome in a tailored suit. His blond hair was perfectly styled, his green eyes looking around in confusion.
‘Can I help you?’ Mav asked. ‘You look a bit lost.’
‘Oh, thank you! I’m actually looking for a friend of mine who’s staying here. Nina. Nina Keller.’
Mav’s spine tingled. ‘Oh. How do you know Ms Keller?’ he asked, deliberately keeping his voice casual.
‘I’m the producer on her new movie.Shadowlands.’ So saying, he pulled out his phone and flicked through his pictures until he came to a photo of him and Nina on set. He held it up for Mav to see.
Mav looked at the picture, noted that Nina looked happy and relaxed as she posed for the selfie. ‘Your name?’
‘Alexander Cane.’
Mav took out his own phone and called Nina. Three long, mournful rings sounded before it went to voicemail, so he hung up and typed the name into his web browser. IMDb was the first result that popped up. He saw Alexander’s picture, verified his information. ‘I’m heading to her now if you want to tag along.’
‘Where is she?’
Mav noted that the man – Alexander – skirted away from Shadow as the dog ambled over to greet him. He didn’t bother pointing out that she was friendly. He got the sense that Alexander Cane was more concerned about getting dog hair on his fancy suit than anything else.
‘She and her best friend are staying at the ranch house,’ he explained. ‘For privacy.’
The man’s eyes dimmed slightly. ‘Markus is here?’
Maverick wondered about that even as he relaxed. The man was obviously close to Nina if he knew who Markus was. ‘Yeah. He’s leaving this afternoon, but he comes out to visit on weekends.’
Maverick started in the direction of the Jeep. Whether the suit came or not, he needed to get home. He’d left Nina and Markus in charge of Poppy while he’d run through his Sunday tasks, and God knew his daughter was probably running them ragged.
