Page 6 of How We End

No give me a day

Julian:

No one can know

Anders:

They won’t

CHAPTERTHREE

WYATT

October 10

“Are you booked tonight?”Maverick asked.

“No.What did you have in mind?”I asked as Maverick’s driver maneuvered around the crowds of pedestrians waiting for the water show.

“The owners of the Coyotes are coming in tonight.I’ve been asked to bring a few girls.”

“How many times do I need to remind you I’m not one of your girls?”I should have known there was a reason he had invited me to dinner on a Friday night.Thursdays were his night, and if dinner was involved, it was normally inside the Starlight Sands.Maverick had a very public life, including his marriage to Dana Westbrook.The Westbrooks were a prominent business family, and their son-in-law being seen with a hooker would be bad for their wholesome reputation.“And I don’t do athletes.”

“Why is that?”Maverick watched the crowd of people cross in front of the car through the front window.“We have a hockey, a football, and soon a baseball team.Think of all those rich men looking forcompanionship.”

“Companionship?You make me sound like a dog.”I flopped back into the seat.I was tired and not in the mood to deal with rich men looking to get their cocks wet.

“Not a dog but an escort.That is your job.Margo said you had another client retire.”Maverick tugged on the cuffs of his dress shirt as we got closer to the Sands.“Pull into the back,” he told the driver.

“Margo should keep her mouth shut.”Sometimes I forgot Margo wasn’t my friend; she was an employee of Maverick Sands.Anything I said could and would be used against me.

“She’s worried.And so am I.”

“Aren’t there some starving children you should be more worried about than me running out of people to fuck?”

“Dana worries about the starving children,” Maverick said.“He’s wrong.You know that, right?What Richard said, it’s not true.”

God, could Margo not keep her mouth shut about anything?I bet if I shit myself, she’d tell Maverick about that too.

“Wyatt.”Maverick touched my chin, and his eyes skated over my face.

I wondered if he was looking for proof that Richard had been right.I wondered if he hated that my face no longer held the roundness of my youth or the glow of hope.Life had cut that all away.

“Richard is intimidated by things that are naturally beautiful.He can’t hold it over your head if you’re already perfect.”He ran the back of his hand down my face.“That’s all it was.You are still so stunning.”

Maverick and I had a weird relationship.He was a client, and yet sometimes it felt like more.There were moments like these when there was no one around and he didn’t have to put on a show.When I actually believed that he saw me as more than the woman he screwed on Thursday.

Maverick slid a little closer.“I mean it.”He pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder.“Let me prove it to you.Come with me tonight.There won’t be a man in that room that will be able to keep his eyes off of you.”

And then reality burst that bubble.“I don’t do athletes.”I moved away from him.“Are we done here?”The Starlight Sands came into view, its gold and blue neon lights flashing.

“No.”He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue box.“Here.”

I took the small blue box that contained a diamond ring.“Does your wife know about this?”

“She picked it out.”He took the tiny platinum band with diamonds and slipped it on my little finger.“It’s been sixteen years,” he said, running his thumb over each of my knuckles.

“You kept track of that?”I had been fucking Maverick since I was nineteen.He had been my third client.