Wouldn’t a normal person run away?So why couldn’t I?What was so wrong with me that I stayed? Every time I entertained the thought, the guilt and anxiety kicked in. They outweighed everything else. This was my family. This was what I was supposed to be.
The internal battle was brutal. It ate me up. I didn’t have the courage to pull the plug. Falling into the unknown terrified me. In its wake, a sense of hopelessness had taken root. It ate away at me, devouring the little parts of me I’d tried to save little by little.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I headed down to the beach and wandered along the lake toward our docks. Maverick was nowhere to be seen, making me frown.Damn it.Had he left because I took too long? I wouldn’t blame him.
I walked to the edge of the dock. We had two—one was for the two nicer boats my family used during the summers for entertaining, and the other was used for a little rowboat my father kept. He used to row out to the middle of the lake whenever he came home, which wasn’t often enough. The fact that it was still there surprised me because my mother hated that boat.
“Holy shit, you rich people talk way too damn much!”
The sudden and loud intrusion of Maverick’s voice in the dark scared the crap out of me. In the most unbecoming way possible, I yelped and stumbled backwards.And slipped right off the edge of the dock. I landed hard on my ass with a splash. The water was shallow, so it wasn’t like I’d drown, but wet and sandy wasn’t how I wanted to return home.
Maverick popped up inside the small boat, sitting upright and leaning over the side to stare at me. The goofy smile on his face took a tiny bit of the edge off.But only a tiny bit.
“You couldn’t have given me some kind of warning?” I demanded.
“Sorry.” He chuckled. “I didn’t think you’d fall in the water, princess.”
“It wasn’t like I meant to,” I told him while I climbed out. I shook out what I could and resigned to being wet and cold for the rest of the night because if I went in to change, I’d never escape again. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you.”
“Besides that.”
“What do you think about taking the boat out on the lake?” Maverick asked. My heart lodged in my throat. “I’ve never been on a boat before.”
“I can’t swim,” I said.
“Jesus fuck, princess!” His laughter was loud and uninhibited, but I got caught on how the boat rocked slightly as his weight shifted. “You went to fancy school, and you still can’t swim?”
“Swimming isn’t a college course,” I told him.
“I wouldn’t know,” he replied and offered me his hand. “Come on, princess. Live a little with me.”
“You’d better rescue my ass if we capsize,” I muttered, my fingers grasping his tightly. With my heart hammering wildly, I let him help me climb into the boat. Every little movement rocked the boat. It took every ounce of restraint I had to keep from scrambling right back out.
“We’re not going to capsize, you dramatic little shit,” Maverick retorted. As I settled in the absolute middle of the boat, he undid the rope holding us in place and made himself comfortable with two oars in his hands. The way he talked under his breath as he put them in the water to push away from the dock wasn’t convincing.
“Do you know how to row a boat?”
“Not a chance.” He grinned. “But I’m about to learn.”
“We’re going to die,” I said under my breath.
“Your confidence in me is overwhelming.”
“I do believe in you,” I replied. “But I also believe in logic. And logic says you can’t row a boat and I can’t swim, so clearly, this is about to be an adventure that ends in chaos.”
“Ah, but chaos is my middle name. Besides, it can’t bethathard.”
I fell silent as I watched him push us away from the dock and fuss with the oars, his words ringing in my ears.Chaos was his middle name.It was in that moment that I realized I didn’t know his middle name. It seemed like a thing I should’ve known.
“What is your middle name?” I asked quietly.
“I told you. It’s chaos.”
“Maverick.”
“It’s a dumb middle name.”
