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PROLOGUE
Lily
A
BLOODY NOSE.
Never in my wildest thoughts could I
have ever imagined that something as simple as a bloody nose would be the
beginning of the end of “Liverick.” We were forever.
I had just started my senior year of
high school and my boyfriend, Maverick, was off fulfilling his first year of a
full-ride athletic scholarship playing football for Notre Dame. It was our
first time away from each other and we were miserable. But we’d concluded it
was just one year and then I’d join him the following year and we’d be back on
track. There was never any talk of me not
moving to Indiana to be close to him, even my parents were on board. If I
didn’t get in, then I’d go somewhere else close to Mav. After all, we’d been
together since I was five and he was six. This was it for us.
Well, until…
It was a Wednesday. It was raining and
school had sucked. Ballet, however, had almost made up for my crappy day, but I
was still late. I ran through the front door, yelling, “Hi, Mom, bus was late,
sorry, gotta Skype Mav,” and rushed up to my room, powering up my laptop. Our
black lab, Rex, followed, so I greeted him quickly, then I peeled off my wet
clothes and changed into dry pajamas while I tried to connect Skype.
Maverick answered on the second buzz.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hi, Möosh.”
He chuckled. I’d given Maverick that
nickname one night when we’d been out at Frenchman’s Bar, lying on a blanket
and making out like crazy. He was always saying the sweetest things and I
always found it funny how the men in my sphere of influence were the romantic
ones, while the women…not so much.
“You’re
so mushy,” I said, kissing him.
“It’s
because I love you.”
“So,
because I’m not as mushy, I don’t love you?” I challenged.
He
grinned, the crater on his left cheek melting me. Seriously, tall and muscular
with longish dark hair, blue eyes and dimples, Maverick Quinn was the hottest
guy on earth. He’d always reminded me a little of Superman. You’d never guess
he was the son of a bad ass Motorcycle Club member, being way more jock than biker…but
I suppose, you could say that about me as well. I was far more ballerina than
biker chick.
“Mom
and Dad are the same way,” he pointed out. “So are your parents.”
“This
is true.” I giggled as he squeezed me. “I do love how you get all mushy and then
you smoosh me, though. They just make out and play ass grab with each other.
It’s weird.” I craned my head to look up at him. “But you’re totally my moosh.”
Maverick
laughed. “What the hell?”
“I’m
over ‘babe’ and ‘honey’ and ‘sweetie.’ From this point on, you’re my moosh.”
“You
already picked ‘Liverick.’”
“Well,
we couldn’t be Maly…that’s just silly.”
He
shook his head. “Well, if I’m your moosh, I want something cool. Something with
umlauts in the spelling or some shit like that…like a bad European rock band.”
I
giggled. “Like m-ü-s-h?”
“Huh-uh.
I want m-ö-o-s-h. The second umlaut is silent.”
I laughed so hard, I snorted, which was always
Mav’s goal.
“How was dance?” he asked, bringing me
back to the present.
“It was really good, actually. Your
mom’s kicking my butt.”
“As she should.”
I sighed. “She wants me to do a showcase
for the Portland Dance Company.”
He leaned forward. “And what did you
say?”
Maverick knew how much I hated
attention…good or bad. I was naturally shy and tended to stay in the background
whenever possible. “I said I’d think about it.”
He gave me a gentle smile. “Just tell
her no, baby. She’ll understand.”
“Outside of the fact, there could be
scholarship money, I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
“Lil,” he said, his voice a gentle admonishment.
“You won’t hurt her feelings. She’s asked before, right?”
I nodded.
“She’ll get it, babycakes.”
“I’ll tell her tomorrow,” I promised.
“How’s practice going so far?”
“Easy. Which means the tough part’s
coming.” He shrugged. “I’m ready.”
“I know you are.” I sighed. “I miss
you.”
“I miss you, too. Less than six weeks
and I’ll be home for Thanksgiving.”
“I’m crossing the days off on my
calendar.”
“Me too, baby.” He leaned forward. “Lil,
your nose is bleeding.”
I touched my lip and my hand came away with
blood. “Oh, gross. Hold on.” I rushed into the bathroom attached to my bedroom
and grabbed a washcloth. Rex followed inside and sat beside me as I got the
cloth wet.
“Press it against your upper lip, just
under your nose,” Maverick directed from the computer. “Give it lots of
pressure.”
I kept my head tilted back slightly and
sat back down at my desk, peering at Maverick around the bloody washcloth. “So,
video sex probably wouldn’t be attractive right now, huh?”
Maverick laughed, shaking his head. “Lily!
If your dad heard you say that, he’d have my balls.”
I grinned. “He
doesn’t know about us…you know.”
“I’m sure he suspects.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t,” I countered in a
whisper. There’s no way my dad suspected we were doing the nasty, because if he
did, Maverick probably wouldn’t be able to walk, let alone play football.
Maverick and I
had waited a long time to have sex…well, a long time by teenage standards,
really. It was my seventeenth birthday and we’d been given permission to take
my dad’s boat out for the day alone, provided we were home in time for the big
blowout party my parents had planned.
The whole day
had been one of dreams. We’d made love, swam a little, made love some more.
After that, I found it difficult to keep my hands off of him. Everything with
Maverick was always perfect and I couldn’t wait until we could find time to be
together again.
Maverick smiled. “Well, I’m not telling
anyone.”
“Me neither.”
“How’s your nose?”
I pulled the washcloth away. “Seems
good. That was weird.”
“Probably allergies.”
I nodded. “Probably.”
“I have to go grab dinner with the guys.
I’ll text you later, okay?”
“Okay, Möosh,” I said, but it wasn’t
okay. I wanted to keep talking to him.
He smiled. “I miss you, too, babycakes.”
“I know.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I’ll text you before I fall asleep,” he
promised.
He hung up Skype and I headed
downstairs. Hunter, my eleven-year-old brother, was in the family room, playing
some Disney Infinity game with Cash my nine-year-old brother, so I patted their
heads (they did not like to be
interrupted during play time), and walked into the kitchen. Rex was attached to
my side, so I once again laid my hand on his head.
“Hi, Mom.”
Payton wasn’t my biological mom, but
she’d adopted me when she and my dad and had gotten married. She was my mom in
all the ways that counted, especially considering my bio mom was a druggy and
total waste of space.
“Hey, honey. How was school?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Um, totally sucky.”
“Because it’s school or for a specific
reason?” she asked, sliding something that looked a bit like a pie into the
oven.
“Because it’s school.”
“Sorry, babe.” She opened the fridge. “I
grabbed that cheese you like. Want some?”
I had a small obsession with cheese.
Okay, maybe not so small.
“Yes, please.”
She handed me the wedge.
“Thanks. Cass asked me to do that
showcase,” I said as I broke a piece of deliciousness off the triangle.
“I know. She told me,” Mom admitted.
“It’s five-thousand, baby girl.”
“No pressure,” I grumbled.
“I am sympathetic to your stage fright and
discomfort having people watch you, but if you can put that aside and are
chosen, it’s a nice chunk toward school.”
“What if I’m not chosen? Then I would
have done all of that for nothing.”
“Valid argument,” Mom conceded. “But,
the likelihood of you not being
chosen is pretty low.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all we ask. You know, the
collective ‘we.’ The mom and dad who work hard to pay for a great
education…those two. The ones who could use a five-thousand dollar break?”
I giggled. “I hear you.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Are you making a peach pie?” I asked,
changing the subject.
She grinned. “I am. Your dad requested
it.”
I clapped my hands. “I love your peach
pie.”
She chuckled. “So does your dad.”
“Okay, gross. I did not need to know that.”
“How’s Maverick?” Mom asked with a
chuckle.
I sighed. “Not here.”
“I’m sorry, honey. This has got to feel
like forever, huh?”
I nodded. This was something I loved
about my mom. She never minimized how I felt or told me things like, “It’s only
a year, or a few weeks, or whatever.” She let me cry on her shoulder and
validated every emotion, distracting me when things got really tough.
I heard her gasp and then a towel was
pressed against my face. “Your nose is bleeding,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, that happened when I was
talking to Mav,” I said. “It stopped for a bit. It’s probably just allergies.”
I held the towel against my lip again and waited.
“Maybe. I’m going to have Macey have a
look. If she thinks it’s allergies, then I won’t rush you to emergency wrapped
in bubble wrap.”
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help but
smile. Macey was Mom’s best friend and a registered nurse. She used to work in
the emergency room at the hospital, but had started working labor and delivery
part time after she had babies. Mom called her about everything more serious
than a hangnail. It was the running joke, but Macey was really good at her job
and could usually tell if an ailment was something minor, or if a doctor needed
to do tests, so everyone trusted her.
I heard the garage door go up and then
Dad walked in, throwing his leather jacket and cut in the closet. My dad, Alex
‘Hawk’ James, was Treasurer of the Dogs of Fire Motorcycle Club, and tonight
was their club meeting, which they referred to as “Church.”
“Hey, baby girl,” he said, and hugged me
as he walked into the kitchen, nodding toward the towel. “What’s up with that?”
“Hi, Daddy. Allergies I think.”
He released me and pulled Mom in for a
grosser than normal public display of affection which I avoided by turning
around and looking outside. So much for my opinion they didn’t smoosh. In my
need to avoid the PDA, I almost stepped on Rex who still hadn’t left my side. I
settled my hand on his head again as I kept pressure on my nose with the other.
“You call Mase?” Dad asked Mom.
“She’s coming over to borrow a dress, so
she can look at Lily then.”
“Gonna go say hi to the boys.”
“Okay, baby,” Mom said.
Dad headed out of the kitchen and I
faced Mom again. “What time’s Macey going to be here?”
“I think she and Dallas are swinging by
around nine.”
“Okay, I have some homework, so I’ll
work on that before dinner.”
“Sounds good.”
I made my way upstairs and started on my
homework. Dinner was pretty uneventful, the peach pie was divine, and then my
world imploded.
Macey didn’t think it was allergies.
Macey was right.
