“With age comes wisdom,” she explained, as the man handed her the toy. “My sister got a couple of dogs a few years back and she asked me to dog sit one week when her family went on vacation. The things were holy terrors, destroying everything in their path. Plus, they’re both some kind of bloodhound and they slobber constantly. Absolutely disgusting.” She shuddered in revulsion. “I decided after that if I ever adopted an animal, it would be a cat. They clean themselves and don’t require a human to follow them with a damn mop twenty-four seven.”
Maverick nodded as the two of them walked away from the tent and back toward the row of food trucks. “Makes sense. So, you don’t have any pets?”
“No. No pets.” Gigi had been allergic to cats and deathly afraid of dogs, after being attacked by one when she was a kid. Ella had given some thought to adopting a cat lately, but with so many things in her life uncertain, she hadn’t felt as if she was in the right position to do so. “How about you? Dog or cat?”
“I think I’d like either, but I don’t have any pets. A pregnant stray cat wandered onto the farm a while back and half thefamily claimed one of the kittens after she had her litter. The kittens are pretty damn cute, so I’m probably leaning that way these days.”
Ella suspected Edith and Manny were probably wondering where she was, but the foolish part of her still hung up on her first love was dragging out this time with Maverick as long as she could. Even if she was walking a tightrope in terms of finding polite, superficial conversation.
“So what’s the verdict? Still thinking fries?” he asked.
“Yep. They look the best to me.”
Maverick walked with her to the food truck selling the fries, surprising her when he got in line as well. “I’ll wait with you.”
“Not hungry?” she asked.
He grinned. “I’d just finished scarfing down one of those gyros when I spotted you.”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “Now, you’re making me think I picked wrong.”
Maverick shook his head. “Have the fries now and then get the gyro later. Best thing about events like this is the eating with reckless abandon.”
Ella snorted. “You sound like Manny Millholland.”
Maverick chuckled. “That guy sure does love his food.”
They took another step forward as the line progressed, and while Maverick hadn’t touched her yet, just his near proximity had all her girlie bits waking up and taking notice.
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she felt as giddy as she had that first day in the hall when Maverick stopped to help her pick up her books.
“Are the rest of your family here?” she asked.
“Oh yeah,” Maverick said. “We never miss the Fourth of July celebration. Back in the day, this event was less fair and more community picnic. My parents met at that picnic.”
She smiled. “I didn’t know that. That’s sweet.”
“Yep. Dad fell pretty fast and hard for my mom, swears he knew by the end of that picnic that she was the one he was going to marry.”
Ella’s first thought was “like father, like son,” but hell would freeze over before she’d say those words out loud. They were having a good time, and she didn’t want to say anything that might ruin it. Regardless, she couldn’t help but recall how Maverick had walked her to science class that first day, declaring with great confidence that she was his girl.
Even now, just the thought of him saying those words warmed her all the way to the core. Because he’d proven over the course of the next eight months that he meant them. That to him, she was someone special.
For a girl who’d had to earn love—through good behavior, silence, and obeying an unending list of rules—Maverick’s unconditional affection had felt like an incredible gift.
Once they reached the head of the line, Maverick ordered her a large cup of fries. She tried to hand him money, but he shook his head. “My treat. As long as you share.”
She giggled, agreeing to his terms before thanking him. She took the cup to a table set off to the side with a half dozen bottles of malt vinegar and several shakers of salt, pouring both liberally on top.
“They smell wonderful,” she said, drawing in a deep breath of the salt and vinegar, potatoes and oil.
Maverick agreed. “They really do. I think you picked right.”
They both reached into the cup at the same time, their fingers brushing. Ella quickly withdrew her hand, feeling as if she’d received an electric shock, overwhelmed by that same shiver she’d felt fifteen years earlier, when Maverick handed over her books in the school hallway. She couldn’t quite express what the sensation was…but it was powerful, almost an awakening. As if something that had been out of whack had finally reset itself.
Maverick’s reaction matched hers, his easygoing expression morphing into something darker as his brows furrowed, his jaw tightened.
Dark was the wrong word, because what she saw wasn’t scary, it was…