Prologue
Past And Present
Zora
I used to believe in fate.The kind of fate that made your skin tingle when someone’s eyes found yours across a crowded room, the kind that whispered in your ear that love was meant to be messy and wild and untamable.And back then, when I was just a girl too young to know better, I believed that Maverick Hall was my fate.
He was everything I wasn’t.Reckless where I was careful, unpredictable where I was steady, wild where I craved roots.He burned through life like a fire you couldn’t contain, and I—God help me—I wanted nothing more than to be consumed by him.
And for a while, I was.
He was my first everything.First kiss, first lover, first heartbreak.The boy who pressed promises into my skin and left me believing that he saw me, truly saw me, in a way no one else did.He was the reason my heart raced every time a motorcycle thundered down Main Street, the reason I snuck out of my bedroom window more times than I could count, the reason my body still remembers the ache of wanting someone you know you shouldn’t.
But then he left.
No goodbye.No explanation.Just a duffel bag, an empty driveway, and silence where his laughter used to be.
And I was left holding more than just broken memories.I was holding the secret of what he’d left behind inside me.
Ivy.
The day I found out I was pregnant, my world both shattered and rebuilt itself in the same breath.I was terrified, yes.I was young, abandoned, and staring down the reality of raising a child on my own.But the second I heard her heartbeat, the second I felt the flutter of life inside me, I knew I’d burn down the world for her if I had to.She was mine.Ours.Even if he never knew.
I told myself it was better that way.Maverick was a storm that never settled, a man who would have resented the chains of responsibility.I convinced myself I was protecting Ivy from disappointment, from the cycle of leaving that ran in his blood.It was easier to tell myself that than to admit the truth ...I was afraid.Afraid he wouldn’t want her.Afraid he’d break her the way he broke me.
So, I raised her alone.
Now she’s five.Bright as sunshine and sharp as a tack, with stormy gray eyes that mirror his and a smile that undoes me every time.She is the best parts of him and all the parts of me I’m proud of, rolled into one tiny body that somehow carries the weight of my whole world.
She doesn’t know who he is.To her, it’s just me.Mom.And lately ...sometimes Ethan.
Ethan is everything Maverick never was.Solid.Reliable.The kind of man who builds rather than burns.He owns a hardware store in the next town over, the kind of place that smells like sawdust and fresh paint, where he knows every customer by name.He doesn’t sweep me off my feet with chaos, he steadies me with his calm.He shows up when he says he will.He buys Ivy little Lego sets she insists she can build all by herself, and he doesn’t flinch when she chatters about everything under the sun.
He is safe.
And safe is what I’ve been craving for years.
But here’s the thing no one tells you about safe: it doesn’t make your heart race.It doesn’t make your skin buzz or your stomach flip just because someone brushed their hand against yours.It doesn’t feel like fire.It feels like shelter.And after years of drowning, shelter has been enough to keep me happy.
Until today.
Until the moment I walked into House of Ink and saw Maverick Hall leaning against the counter like he belonged there.
House of Ink.That shop has become more than just a tattoo studio—it’s family, community, a sanctuary for people like me who needed a fresh start.Laine and Alistair built something incredible here, and Skye’s relentless energy and genius with social media turned it into a phenomenon.Everyone in town knows about it, and people drive for hours just to get inked by one of the guys.I’ve been part of it too, in my own way, photographing their work, helping build their online portfolio, capturing the moments when art and skin become one.
That shop saved me more than once.It gave me work when I needed it, friends when I was drowning in loneliness, and a sense of belonging I thought I’d lost forever.
And now Maverick is part of it.Standing in my safe haven like he belongs.
The second I saw him, every wall I’ve spent years building cracked.He’s older now, rougher around the edges, with ink winding up his arms and a darkness in his eyes that wasn’t there before.But he’s still him.Still the boy who made me believe in forever.Still the man who left without knowing he’d taken pieces of me with him.
And God help me, my heart still recognized him.
I wanted to hate him.To tell him to turn around and keep walking.To remind him that I’ve survived without him, that I don’t need him, that Ivy doesn’t need him.
But when his eyes met mine, the air shifted.My body betrayed me.And all I could think was,what if?
What if he knows?What if he doesn’t?What if the truth blows apart everything?
