CHAPTER TWENTY
MAVERICK
Present Day
I didn’t know who it would be, or what he’d look like, but I knew this day would come. I just didn’t think it’d come so soon, or that it would be him . But I guess it all checks out. Holly was the same age as Tara when I got my claws into her, and karma has always been a twisted bitch where I’m concerned.
“You’ll give Tara what she needs,” Shady parrots, rounding the bar. “Tara doesn’t need anything from you.”
To Capone’s credit, he ignores my brother, his gaze remaining locked on me.
“You said she could freeze her eggs before treatment begins, but her chances are greater if she has a donor.”
Tara’s face flashes before me, and I try to pull myself together. Every part of me wants to reject him. This isn’t any of his business. She’s my little girl, and it’s always been my job to protect her, and give her what she needs. But my hands are tied. The things she needs now, are things I can’t give her.
“That’s right,” I say hoarsely. “Considering her age, and the fact that she might not want to become a mother for another ten years or so, the doctor said she’d have a higher success rate at becoming pregnant one day if she implanted a fertilized embryo.”
Hawk appears behind Capone, but I keep my eyes pinned to the man sweating as he squares his shoulders. Capone has never claimed a woman in his life, and the way he’s looking at me feels a lot like that’s what this is.
But Tara isn’t someone that be claimed… she’s the little girl Holly put pink dresses on. It didn’t matter the style, some of them had glitter and bows, others were plain, but they all were paired with a leather jacket.
I still remember when she asked me how come her jacket didn’t have a patch like mine. She couldn’t have been more than five years old at the time, but even then, my little girl was so fucking perceptive.
The next day I took her jacket to the tailor and had them sew a patch to the front of the tiny jacket, one that read princess .
She jumped into my arms and hugged me so tightly. Cherished that thing until her mother and I divorced. Then it got shoved in a box with the rest of the childhood things Holly thought Tara would want to one day pass to her own daughter.
“In a game of numbers, I’m willing to help increase her odds. I’ll give Tara what she needs. Just tell me where to go and what to do.” He pauses, flinching slightly. “That didn’t come out right. “I mean, I know what I need to do… just set it up.”
I didn’t make a habit of thinking about my daughter becoming a mother. Holly did though?—
hence the box in the attic. But I think even she thought it would come in more traditional way. Not like this. Not where the guy who has an aversion to settling down suddenly has a change of heart and offers to be the father of my daughter’s future children.
“Why?” I ask, gritting my teeth. I know I’m just torturing myself by asking him that because I already know the answer. I knew it the other day when I let him into her hospital room.
“You know why,” he rasps.
My lip curls as I push off the stool and on wobbly legs rush for him, my eyes narrowing into tiny slits as they meet his gaze. He’s got two inches on me and uses them to stand tall and proud, making it clear that he’s taking a stance.
He’s not talking to me as a brother.
I’m not his president in this moment.
The patch that binds us is meaningless.
We’re two men who share a lot more in common than the club they swore they’d would die for.
We’re the two men that would tear our limbs from our bodies if it meant we could save the same girl.
Only I loved her first, and he’s still got to prove that he deserves to be the man who loves her last.
“This isn’t some way to shut your grandmother up,” I growl, poking a finger against his chest. “We’re talking about my daughter’s future, here. If Tara survives this, she is going to rely on those embryos to become a mother one day.”
I try to picture it in my head, but the whiskey swimming through me makes it difficult, and all I can see is the little with the pink dress, wheeling her little baby carriage into my chapel, asking me to watch her doll while she went to school.
Capone smacks my hand away from his chest, pulling me away from those thoughts.
“I know I’m a fucking joke around here, but I take serious offense to you thinking my offer is anything but sincere. It’s not every day a guy offers to jerk off in a cup so the girl he cares about can one day hold a baby of her own in her arms.”
I lose my cool and before I can stop myself, I rear my fist back and send it colliding into his jaw.
“You son of a bitch,” I roar. I go to hit him again but he’s younger…quicker. His reflexes a lot better. He steps to the left and I stumble forward.
“Fuck,” he mutters, reaching out his hand to help me balance myself. “I’m sorry, Mav?—”
My fist collides with cheek.
“I trusted you,” I slur. He was only supposed to be the roadblock I couldn’t be. He was supposed to buy me more time, not steal it away.
Rubbing his jaw, he meets my glare with one of my own. “Yeah, you did, and you should probably ask yourself why.”
It was a blatant error on my behalf. I’m not fucking blind. Tara is Holly’s twin. There was no way Capone could spend all that time with her and not fucking being attracted to her. But he’s ten years older than her, and he runs through women like he changes his fucking underwear.
Suddenly we’re surrounded by Mamba, Ghost, and Hawk, all of them ready to break up whatever this is. That doesn’t deter me though, and I go to swing again, but Capone’s hand wrap around my wrist.
“Would you fucking stop and just hear me out? It’s not what you think. I didn’t take advantage of Tara. The night she collapsed… that was the first time I kissed her. That’s all that happened and that’s all it’s going to be for a while.”
My eyes blow wide. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t really care what you believe, I care that you’re missing the point. You want to be mad at me for kissing her, fine, but save it for another time. Tara has cancer, and whether we like it or not, that changes things. Let me do this for her, Maverick.”
He has no idea what he’s asking of me. He won’t know until he has a child of his own. That’s why I feel the need to make things perfectly clear. Give him another perspective in case he one day wakes up and regrets everything he’s offering to do.
“What happens when she goes to use the embryos, Capone? Have you thought about that? What happens when her future husband decides he isn’t okay with his wife having another man’s baby? Sure, there’s always the chance he won’t mind at all. She might find a standup guy who is so in love with her—so committed to starting a family that he doesn’t care how it happens, so long as it does.”
After we divorced, Holly moved on and married Colt. He didn’t care that her ex-husband was still in love with her. He didn’t care that she had two kids. He loved her anyway, and he found a way to insert himself into her life. The man fell in love with my children, and he and Holly grew our family, by adding Theo to the mix. Colt is gone, and Theo is just as much my son as Shep is, but it killed me at first.
“You going to be okay with that? Can you tolerate watching another man raise your kid? Because at the end of the day, Tara’s child will have your DNA. Your fucking blood.”
He clenches his fists. “Are you baiting me? Is that what this is?”
“I’m just trying to give you a clear picture of all the possibilities. After all, we’re not talking about a piece of your fucking liver, here.”
“Bullshit, you’re baiting me, but I’ll take it.” He widens his stance, crossing his arms against his chest. “I would never offer to be a donor if I didn’t care for Tara. Now, you can take that however you like. I’m not going to tell you I love her, because I’m still working that out, and when I do, she deserves to hear those words before anyone else. However, I will say this, if Tara agrees to this, if she accepts me and what I’m offering, there won’t be another man raising her child. Tara’s future husband, and the father of her children is standing right in front of you.”
“Holy fuck,” Ghost mutters behind me.
“I’m not asking for your blessing Maverick. I’m not even asking you to understand, but I think deep down you do. I think you remember a time when you were just as tortured as I am now, trying to figure out how something so wrong can feel so right.”
“Capone, you might want to quit talking,” Shady advises.
“No,” he says defiantly, his eyes locked with mine. “I might not be who you ever wanted her to wind up with, but if you give me a shot, I might surprise you. I give you my word that I will stick by her side through this whole ordeal. I will never stand in her way or hold her back because I’m older than her. I will do nothing but support her in any way she needs. I will love her. And when she is ready to settle down, I’ll take her hand. Give her my name. I’ll make every fucking dream of hers come true.” He pulls in a ragged breath. “I can’t make the cancer go away. I can’t snap my fingers and make the pain disappear. I can’t do much of anything and that’s fucking killing me, Maverick. And the only other man who knows how that feels is you.”
I break our stare, my gaze falling to the Timberland boots on my feet.
When a man has a son, he automatically has a best friend. But when a man has a daughter, he holds his heart in his hands, knowing one day someone’s going to take it from him.
“You had to know she’d get under my skin and wedge her way into my soul. You knew it, and you still gave the order.”
My eyes flit back to him, my voice cracking as I say, “She’s everything to me.”
He nods. “I know.”
My vision blurs slightly and I’m hit with another memory, recalling the day she took her first steps. Holly held her little hands and guided her, then Tara’s eyes locked with mine, and she flashed that smile of hers.
I held my arms open wide and that’s all it took for her to release her mom’s hands. She took one wobbly step, then another until she walked right into my arms. I held her and swore I’d never let go.
I blink, bringing Capone into focus.
I didn’t know who it would be or what he’d look like, but now I do.