Page 7 of Falling for the Maverick

She tossed and turned restlessly. It wasn’t until the sky started brightening with the dawn of another day that she was able to fall asleep from exhaustion.

Chapter Three

“I thought you would’ve been up hours ago,” Patty Corey said to Michelle when she entered the kitchen.

“Good morning, Mom.”

Patty pointed to the clock on the microwave. “It’s afternoon, sweetie.”

Michelle popped a coffee pod into the single serve coffee maker. “You’re right. Good afternoon, then.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes,” Michelle confirmed as she waited for the coffee to brew. “It just took me forever to fall asleep.”

“There was a lot going on last night with the double weddings.”

Michelle wanted to tell her mother there was more than a lot going on in her head, thoughts that despite her being exhausted had kept her from falling asleep. She couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas Brandt. “Thankfully everything went off okay, and you don’t have to worry about doing this again until Tristan or Aaron decide to get married.”

Patty raised an eyebrow. “Why are you leaving yourself out of that equation?”

Michelle, staring at her mom, knew exactly what she would look like in another thirty years. No one would ever mistake them for anything other than mother and daughter. Even after giving birth to five children, Patty was still slender, and the envy of her friends.

“Because I’m willing to bet that they will marry before I will.” She wanted to marry, but sometime in the future.

A hint of a smile curved the corners of Patty’s mouth. “If I were you, I wouldn’t put any money on that.”

“What are you trying to say, Mom?” Michelle asked. Her query had a hint of defensiveness.

“That little performance you and Lucas Brandt put on last night had everyone talking about another Corey-­Brandt wedding in the near future.” Patty paused, grinning. “Not that I would mind becoming mother of the bride.”

“Wishful thinking,” Michelle drawled. Then she told her mother about Lucas rescuing her from the lecherous man on the dance floor. “Lucas saw what he was doing and stopped him.”

“So, he became your knight in shining armor who rescued the fair maiden from the knave.”

Throwing back her head, Michelle laughed until her eyes filled with tears. “Mom, you have to stop with the fairy tales.”

“Can I help it that I’m living a fairy-tale life with my prince?”

“What I probably need to do is move out of this castle so you and Dad can live out your fantasies without my occasional interference.” There had been a few times when she’d come into the kitchen or the family room to find her parents in an enthusiastic embrace.

“You told me you like living here and that you don’t want your own cabin on the ranch like your brothers.”

“Unlike my brothers, I don’t entertain company at night.”

Patty rested an elbow on the granite countertop. “I’m not saying you should entertain men at night, but don’t you think it’s time for you to begin dating again?”

Michelle huffed. Her mother was at it again. She’d lost count of the number of times Patty talked about introducing her to young men supposedly interested in her. “I don’t have a timeline for when I want to begin dating. And I’m not going out with a man just because I have nothing else to do and want to pass the time.”

“I’m not trying to put any pressure on you, sweetie, but you are spending much too much time alone.”

Rather than enlighten her mom that she’d increased the number of days she volunteered at Little Cowpokes Daycare Center from two to three days, Michelle poured a splash of cream in her coffee and took a sip. When she wasn’t at the daycare center, she could be found in the stables where she groomed horses before turning them out to graze and then spent time with the cats and dogs who made the stables their home. She cared for the strays until they were old enough to be adopted.

“I have a few chores to catch up on, then I’m going to spend the rest of the day making fall decorations for the daycare’s windows,” she said after a comfortable silence.

Patty slipped off the stool and opened the refrigerator. “I know you like volunteering at the daycare center, but have you given any thought about applying for a teaching position at the local public school?”

“I have,” Michelle admitted. She missed being a classroom teacher, but interacting with the preschoolers at Little Cowpokes had filled that void. “Maybe I’ll submit an application for the next school year.”