Maverick, as always, rejected even an inch of distance between them, so he reached for her legs, pulling them over his muscular thighs. She felt like she was on his lap, even though her ass was still on the couch cushion.
“I’m going to ask them to give it to us. For our home. I know it’s small and it needs a lot of work, but we can add on to it. Clear some of the trees closest, break down that wall,” he said, pointing to the rear wall. “We can expand the kitchen and living room, and I figure we’ll need at least two more bedrooms. Maybe three, depending on how many kids you want.”
Kids?
A house?
“Maverick—” she started, but he spoke over her, on a roll as he discussed his plans for their future.
“Not that we need to start our family right away. Of course, I was hoping we wouldn’t have to wait too long to get married. I know your dad is pretty religious, so he might insist on that before he’ll let us live together.”
Ella bit her lower lip, trying to hide the fact it was trembling because her vision of the future looked different. A lot different.
She wanted to go to college. Hadn’t she said that to him before? She racked her memory, trying to recall if she had.
“Once I graduate, I’ll be able to start working full time at the winery, so we won’t have to worry about money,” Maverick continued, going into so much detail about his plans for the house overhaul that her head started to spin.
Maverick sounded so sincere, so certain that this was all happening, that Ella didn’t know how to reply.
When he’d talked about them being together forever before, she’d sort of brushed it off as teenage dreams, the kind of stuff kids always say before they hit adulthood. Like all those eleven-year-old boys who were going to grow up and play in the NFL.
But Maverick seemed to have given this some real thought, right down to how he was going to renovate this cabin for their future family. And how he was going to earn all the money to support that family…just like her dad.
“We’re going to have an amazing life together, Ella. I can’t wait until you’re my wife. Mine. Forever.”
Ella swallowed hard, letting Maverick carry the conversation, even though she was no longer able to focus on the words.
She wasn’t going to end up like her mother. She wasn’t going to live her life according to what a man deemed best.
Maverick leaned toward her, kissing her softly.
She was head over heels in love with this sweet, sweet boy. And until ten minutes ago, that love had felt safe and wonderful and perfect.
But now, it was tinged with uncertainty.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured against her lips. “I love you.”
She smiled, kicking herself for her worries.
Because there was a very good chance Maverick was simply speaking his dreams aloud. And if not, she had an entire year to share her own with him.
Someday, they’d build their future together in a way that included both of their plans, but for today…
She glanced at the clock.
For today, she’d been gone too long. She needed to get back to the library.
Ella rubbedher eyes wearily as that memory faded, replaced with the recollection of the dinner she’d just left, regretful that their “someday” conversation had never happened.
That afternoon had been one of the last she’d spent with Maverick, her life imploding no more than a week later.
When she was seventeen, Maverick’s plans had scared her because she’d cast herself as her mother in their relationship, something that made sense, considering her parents’ was the only marriage she’d ever witnessed. Pop had died before she was born, so Ella hadn’t seen his and Gigi’s marriage, hadn’t had theirs to use in comparison, though given things Gigi had said, she suspected it was more like Rex and Claire’s than Mom and Dad’s.
Now, as she recalled the way Maverick’s parents were with each other, she wondered if she’d been wrong to be afraid of what he’d wanted. Because she could see that in the right relationship, with the right man, she could be exactly what she longed to be.
Herself.
Chapter Nine