Page 34

In the front room, Pops is sitting at his desk, his head bent over a large stack of papers.

“Hey, Pops.”

His head rises slowly and meets my eyes.

“Seventy-two percent,” he says, holding up a single sheet of paper.

I let out the breath I’ve been holding. “Yes, sir,” I confirm.

Pops’s gray hair doesn’t move when he shakes his head and motions to the chairs in front of him. “Have a seat, boy, and don’t be rude, introduce your friend.”

I tug Ainsley behind me and we both sit. “Pops, this is Ainsley, my . . .” I look at Ainsley, watching the curious expression on her face. Dammit. Fine. “My friend and roommate.”

There, that’s all the truth I can force out for now.

Ainsley’s mouth ticks up into a big ass grin. I finally admitted we are friends—friends who like the taste of each other.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ainsley,” Pops says, bringing the focus back to my dire situation. “I’d like to say Maverick has told me all about you, but I’ve recently found out he likes keeping things from me.”

Ugh. That stings.

“I planned to tell you.” I sigh, raking a hand through my hair.

“When?” He probes, all seriously. “After you graduated and took over my company?”

I can feel my explanations dying a slow death. “You’ve been recovering.” It’s not a good excuse, but it is the truth. “I was just trying to help. Laraunt quit out of nowhere and you were losing money.”

The old man’s mouth quirks. “Apparently. Tell me, boy, how did you find out about Laraunt’s departure anyhow?”

I bite my lip—damn, I wish I had a cigarette to chew on. “I might have gotten ahold of the password to your files, including your email.” I cringe. Please don’t ask me why. I was a different person back then .

“Why didn’t you just ask me for them?”

Fuck. I breathe out a heavy sigh. “I lost some money a couple of years back . . .” I don’t need to add that it was playing poker.

He knows. You don’t become good unless you experience every aspect of the game, including losing everything.

“I borrowed a little money.” I hold my hands out pleading. “And I paid it back with interest.”

A smirk is still on Pops’s face. What the hell? “How much interest?”

I rear back, confused. “Five percent.”

Pops huffs. “I would have made you pay eight.”

I shift in my seat. “Eight was too much given the fair market value at the time,” I retort, a little snippy. I didn’t shortchange him, except, maybe, borrowing the money without his permission.

“Anyway,” I add, redirecting. “I had been depositing the money”—I don’t add that I slowly put the money back over time, while forging the records.

I feel like that’s not relevant at the moment.

The point is, the money was repaid in full from a new client (aka me)—“and I saw the email Laraunt sent to you, resigning.” I shrug a shoulder.

“At the time, you were in the rehab hospital and I didn’t want to worry you. ”

He nods. “So you just decided to keep running my company on your own as Laraunt?”

“It sounds a little shady when you say it like that,” I agree. “But I only had our family’s best interest at heart. I swear.”

Pops grins and hands me the piece of paper he was looking at. “Did you know that in the past year, since Laraunt quit, my company has grown seventy-two percent?”

I look at the graph and nod. “Yes, sir. I know.”

“Did you also know it’s the most growth this company has seen in one year since before you boys moved in with me?”

I can feel Ainsley’s eyes on me.

“No, sir. I didn’t know that. I just wanted to do a good job.” He couldn’t afford to lose any money. He and my brother needed it. Not to mention the faith his clients had in him .

He motions for the graph back. “You did more than just a good job, son. You did magnificently well. Although I could wring your neck for keeping this from me, I’m very proud of you.”

I swallow thickly. I didn’t expect his praise.

“Just one thing, though,” he adds. “How have you managed to run this company and go to class?”

I toss the entire deck of cards into the passenger seat. “Find a marker and start writing on them.”

Ainsley cocks her head to the side. “All of them?”

I buckle my seat belt and start the car. “All of them. That’s the third time you’ve ratted me out. I don’t take being tattled on lightly.”

She rolls her eyes and swipes the cards off onto the floorboard and buckles in. “Please. Your pops was going to find out eventually about the ER visit. You’re still on his insurance,” she argues.

“I was handling it. I didn’t file it on his health insurance.” I don’t have all these favors for the fuck of it.

She shrugs, grinning at me as if she enjoyed the lashing I received about the ER visit and the heart issues.

She and Cooper disappeared into the kitchen, supposedly making everyone food—though I didn’t get any—while Pops made me sign in to my healthcare portal and show him my medical records.

He then proceeded to growl out a lot of, “I should kick your ass,” comments before finally telling me that this will not happen again.

My heart sank when he informed me that he will be hiring someone to replace me within the company.

“Whatever, he was just concerned about you. I don’t know why you’re in such a shitty mood anyway.” She messes with the radio, knowing it will get on my nerves. “Didn’t you walk out of there a CEO?” Her brows arch, daring me to deny it.

“When I graduate,” I correct her .

“Which is in, like, two months.”

She’s bouncy and all excited over the news.

Don’t get me wrong, I am too, but until I graduate, Pops is hiring someone to help me out so I can stop ditching classes and actually finish on my own.

I was half excited at the accolades and the support to take over the company upon graduation and half disappointed that he was requiring me to finish.

It seems pointless to have a framed piece of stock paper when I’ve already proven I can handle the company without a degree.

I get it, though, it’s important to my pops for his kids to graduate. So, I swallowed the argument and thanked him for not kicking my ass like he probably wanted to.

“Either way, it’s soon,” she adds. “Now you’ll have time to focus on school and playing poker if you want. You don’t have to go around capturing all those souls.”

I reach over and try grabbing for the tanned skin exposed from her shorts. “There you go again with all that soul stealing. I’ve told you, I don’t need to steal them.” I grin. “They beg”—I pitch my voice like she did when she first stood at my door—“for me to take them.”

“Haha. You think you’re so funny.”

I cut her a disproving look. I know I’m funny.

“Whatever,” she waves me off. “I’ll agree you’re a little bit funny. You’ve had a bad day—no reason to kick you while you’re down.”

This girl.

“So do you want to stop at Crush It on our way home and work out some of that tension?”

I scoff. The only tension I plan on working out with her involves her naked body. “I thought we could try something different.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh! My! God!”

I can’t stop the smile that comes over me. She’s so excited.

“Maverick! ”

I scrub a hand over my lips. “It’s sea lions you love, right?”

She swats me on the arm as her eyes water. “Why are you the sweetest asshole ever?”

I shake my head at the confused trainer. Through Sebastian, and a mutual favor, I was able to secure Ainsley a behind the scenes tour at our local aquarium. The animal she’s seeing . . . you guessed it. Her beloved sea lions.

“You ready to go in?”

She nods, swiping the tears away. “Am I really going to get to pet one?” Her gaze volleys from me to Matt, the sea lion trainer.

“You can pet them all if you would like,” Matt says, holding the door open.

Ainsley sucks in a breath and looks at me. Her face is flushed and full of anticipation. “I don’t care how many IOUs this will cost me, this is the best day ever!” She wraps her arms around me and squeezes. “Thank you.”

I welcome the heat of her body and hold her tight, breaking all my fucking rules today. “This isn’t a favor.”

She pulls her head back, shocked. “Then what is it?”

I shrug in her arms. I’m not any good at being myself. It feels off. But she deserves the truth, even if it embarrasses me. “A gift. I wanted to make you happy.”