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“I’ll get it,” she says and sheepishly, I realize I left the door open.

After I’m behind the wheel, she bumps the side of my leg with the back of her hand, and I shrink close to my door like she was aiming for the good stuff.

“What’s wrong with you?” She’s looking at me and frowning. Her lips, those amazing, kissable lips are drawn into a thin line. Impatiently, she flips her hair back and it causes a whiff of her perfume to waft my way. I imagine burying my face in the side of her neck as she’s beneath me in bed.

“Mmm,” I didn’t mean to make the sound out loud.

“Maverick, what’s going on?”

Her eyes are wide and I’m like a fish on a hook. I don’t know how the fuck to free myself. “I want…you smell good,” I correct my scrambled words. Shit. I’d almost told her I wanted her.

“Oh. It’s my aunt’s perfume. I forgot to pack any.”

“That’s hot. It’s hot. Outside, I mean.” I swallow hard and figure I’d better not say anything else. So, I don’t. On the drive to my parents’ house, I grip the steering wheel tightly, imagining it’s my fingers holding my lips together so my wayward thoughts can’t escape.

I had assumed, arrogantly so it seems, that Tempest and I were nevers. Never gonna want her. Never gonna feel anything for her.

Now I know that’s not the case. I’m bewildered by how I feel. After all this time, my body springs it on me that not only do I want her, but my heart feels like an overripe banana? It’s not…could it be possible…that I like her?

I park in front of the house and shut off the truck. I glance at her. Blood roars in my ears.

“Beautiful place,” she says with a smile.

I want to memorize the sound of her voice. That smile.

“Maverick?”

“Uh…I designed it for them based on the house that used to sit on this land. Before their ancestors lost it to…” I fall silent. I don’t want to cast blame. I don’t want to draw a line between us, between our families anymore.

“About that,” she begins, but the porch light flicks on and cuts off what she was saying.

I get out and come around to her side of the truck because my granny is standing in the doorway watching and it’s got to look real. I take the cookie containers with one hand and reach for Tempest’s hand with the other.

She slides her hand into mine. Our palms press together. Now my heart is jackhammering against my ribcage.

I don’t know how I walked onto the porch and into the house like everything was normal.

My granny welcomes Tempest and so does my mother. My father doesn’t say a word, but I expected that. He’s not much of a talker.

“The scalloped potatoes are almost done,” my mother says to Tempest.

“And I whipped up the buttermilk biscuits you said you like,” Granny adds.

What the hell kind of alternate world have I walked into? My family went from asking me to stay away from “that family and them girls” to falling all over themselves just because I came up with a fake dating lie?

I find out what the alternate world is as soon as we sit to eat.

Before a bite is served, Granny holds up her hands. “I have an announcement,” she declares. “I think there’s been enough animosity between our families. Fate saw fit to bring these two together, so like it or not, we have no business standing in the way.”

My father nods.

I feel like an asshole for lying. For deceiving my family.

“We need to let the beginning of Maverick and Tempest be the end of the feud and start fresh,” Granny says, lifting up a glass of tea. “To better days between our families.”

“To better days,” my parents agree.

My grandmother’s lips tremble as she looks at Tempest.