I feel a tear roll down my cheek as Jake finishes off the song on his guitar before once again, we are met with applause and once again, I feel my cheeks flush.
Maverick stands again in applause, and I refuse to take my eyes away from him staying sat in my seat, no emotion being shown in my face, like an ultimate stare down between the pair of us.
Not through anger or heartache, but through sheer stubbornness, neither wanting to look away from the other first.
I feel my heart thump against my chest, alongside the muffle of noise in my ears, my breathing hollow and deep.
The lust that I still feel for this man coming through in the way that I’m looking at him, and the desire that oozes from his skin when he stares me down.
My pussy starts to throb at the way his piercing green eyes look from my face towards my tits that are slightly on show through the V-neck top I chose this morning.
Maverick bites his bottom lip before running his tongue over it and my pussy becomes wetter as themoments drag on. The only thing between us being a fire pit and a shit ton of unanswered questions and devastation.
I squirm in my seat but refused to back down on the staring competition we have unknowingly started. Little arms wrap around my neck in a tight squeeze, pulling my thoughts away from the hold that this man clearly has over me still, as I look down at Ellie who’s squealing in my ears at my performance, I finally break my hold with Maverick to grip her tightly back and a heartfelt grin spread across my cheeks.
“Mama, that was amazing!” Ellie squeals from in between my arms.
“Thanks, baby-girl.” I reply, pulling her back into the nape of my neck.
Releasing her from my grip, I hear Jake strum into another song and my heart leaps at the tune. The fresh liquor running through my veins I take Ellie’s hand and twirl her around.Blake Shelton vs Post Malone’s – Pour me a drinkflies through the air, Jake singing as Luke bang’s his drum sticks on the table next to him.
Twirling Ellie around, Iris and Hope get up to join us when I hear the familiar sound that I’d spent years trying to block from my mind.
Maverick’s singing alongside his brother, and I stop dead in my tracks again.
Ellie notices of course, and she stops dancing with me, halting her pair of Stetsons to one spot, cheeks spread wide at her uncle and his brother singing.
The boys finish up their song and Colter shouts a loud “Yee-haw!”, banging his foot alongside Luke to make the rhythm as loud as we could.
Funny part is, my brother could play. Growing up he always had a guitar in his hand alongside Maverick, but as the years went on, I saw him pick it up less and less, hardly ever now days.
He pretty much stopped the day Maverick left.
“Turns out, you ain’t bad, Mr Maverick,” Ellie shouts from where she stands and we all give each other a knowing look, before bursting into fits of laughter at my girls comment.
“You tell him, Ellie-Belly,” Iris manages out with a hiccup, leaning onto Hope’s shoulder, clearly far too drunk to keep herself up-right. I laugh at her, and the state that we all decide to get ourselves into whenever the opportunity arises.
Because we do, at any opportunity.
I look back at my mom and dad who are laughing at ourstupid antics, alongside Aunt Kay and Rhett.
I throw out my best drunken smile towards the four of them, before throwing my hands in the air at the next song that Jake decides to grace us with.
Billy Currington – We are tonightstarts to play and I decide to sing along with Jake to this one; it’s one of my favourites after all.
Hearing my voice alongside his own, Jake stands from the tree stump he took solace on when we came over here earlier and bops his shoulders along to the melody, strumming his hand down the guitar.
Shaking my ass, I lean onto his shoulder and belt the song out with everything that I have, a smile never leaving my face. As the instrumental starts, I pull my arms up and do a terrible impression of an air guitar; but I don’t care.
I hear Maverick on the other side of me, singing along and when I look in his direction, he’s up from his seat and spinning my daughter around in circles and on impact, I lose my footing and fall straight onto my ass, still breathless from the dancing and from the man who’s spinning my nine-year-old around. The same one he didn’t even know existed a few days ago.
Jake cuts the guitar and looks at me with panic, holding his hand out to mine. Maverick rushes down to my side like he used to when we werekids. I look at the brothers and pull my head laughing at my stupidity.
“I’m fine, y’all, stop fussing!” I say, swatting both hands away before pulling myself back on my feet. “Two left feet, I tripped,” I say, laughing at myself, trying to style out the real reason why I fell flat on my ass.
Pulling myself onto my knees and back standing upright from my fall, I dust myself down, making sure my top is firmly secured over my stomach.
I catch Jake and Maverick giving each other a look, but I brush it off almost immediately as I did falling straight onto my ass.
