Page 13 of The Maverick’s Forever Home (Montana Mavericks: Behind Closed Doors #2)

“Okay. But Mom took forever getting ready this morning.” Cody shrugged. “Guess she wanted to look nice.”

Maggie was horrified by Cody’s words—so horrified she closed her eyes and wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Then she wouldn’t have to be embarrassed for the rest of the day.

“She wooks pretty.” Delilah took Maggie’s hand in hers. “Doesn’t she, Daddy?”

Maggie couldn’t breathe. She felt her cheeks go hot. This was a whole new level of embarrassment she’d have been fine to miss out on. Could this morning get any more mortifying?

“She does.” Braden’s voice was low and deliciously hoarse.

That did it. Maggie’s toes curled in her boots and her lungs drained of air. Today’s playdate was going to be a lot more challenging than she’d expected. He was making her feel all the feels. All the tingles. She couldn’t think straight.

Stop it . She shook her head. This wasn’t some rom-com and she was no pheromone-driven teenager.

Everything that happened was her choice.

A choice she’d already made—and would stick to.

No matter how dreamy or tempting or manly Braden Parker was, she wouldn’t waver.

She pushed off the hood of the car and straightened her shoulders. I can do this. I will do this.

* * *

Braden Parker had never been the sort of man to lose his head over a woman.

It wasn’t intentional, he’d just never met a woman that knocked him back on his heels and scrambled up his insides.

Maybe it was from growing up in a family that tended not to show or talk about their emotions.

Ever. Being stoic was sort of ingrained into him.

So whatever this was compressing the air from his lungs and making his chest heavy caught him entirely off guard.

“We goin’ hikin’ now?” Delilah was holding on to Maggie’s hand and swinging their arms back and forth.

“Yep.” The sooner they got moving, the sooner he could shake this weirdness off.

“Yay!” Delilah was hopping up and down again. “Cody! Cody! You ready?”

His little girl had been talking about Cody all morning.

As soon as she’d rolled out of bed, she’d been asking if it was time to go see Cody.

And Cody’s mom. It shouldn’t surprise him to see how easily his little girl took to Maggie.

She was so quick to love and accept others—he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or something he should worry about.

But the way Maggie was smiling down at his daughter told him, this time, he needn’t worry.

Watching the two of them triggered a whole new series of unfamiliar sensations that he wasn’t altogether happy about.

A hollowness in the pit of his stomach. Almost an ache.

For what, he didn’t know. And he couldn’t account for the continued pressure in his chest, either.

Even after he rolled his shoulders, the odd tension remained.

“Yeah. Grampa said there were bears.” Cody eyed the tree line and rubbed his hands together. “We gotta be real careful.”

Well, hell . His little girl was still missing flip-flops, sand and warm ocean breezes. The last thing his daughter needed was a run-in with a grizzly on their first hike in the woods.

“Bears?” Delilah kept right on swinging Maggie’s arm. “From a Godiwocks story book? Do they wike porridge?” She looked up at Maggie, all wide-eyed innocence.

Yeah, no. There was nothing cute and cuddly about a grizzly bear. But he didn’t want to scare her.

“More like the kind that’ll eat ya.” Cody announced this with glee.

Great . Not exactly what he’d have said to introduce Delilah to a non-storybook bear, but there was no going back.

And even though he wasn’t thrilled with Cody’s announcement, he found himself chuckling at the boy’s enthusiasm.

When he’d been that age, he and his brothers had traipsed off into the woods looking for bears.

He’d been young, stupid and fearless of injury or death. Just like Cody now.

“Eat me?” Delilah’s blue eyes were round as saucers.

“Cody.” Maggie’s tone could only be described as a “mom voice”—stern and full of reproach. It was impressive. “That’s not nice Actually, bears are omnivores.” Maggie wiggled Delilah’s arm. “So, technically, they might eat porridge—if they had the chance.”

“Omni-huh?” Delilah’s nose scrunched up.

“They eat pretty much everything.” Braden winked at his daughter.

“People, too,” Cody mumbled under his breath.

“ Oh , wike sharks?” Delilah nodded, understanding settling on her face. “Sharks eat everything.”

“Really?” Maggie asked. “That’s interesting.”

“The trail’s over this way.” Braden waved them to follow. He’d picked the easiest trail. If this was a colossal disaster, he’d rather not have to hike a couple of miles to get back to their cars. Plus, he didn’t know how tuckered out his daughter would get before they were done.

Delilah let go of Maggie and skipped past him. “Here?” She pointed.

“Yep. Right there.” He nodded. “Hold up and let’s stay together.”

Delilah pretended to freeze in place. “Wike this?” She barely moved her lips.

He gave her a thumbs-up and turned to see Cody bringing up the rear. He’d shoved his hands into his jacket and was dragging his feet. He waited until the boy was next to him to say, “I’ve got a jacket just like that.”

“Uncle Mike says they’re the best for ranchers.” Cody shrugged. “But I’m not always going to be a rancher.”

“Oh?” Braden matched his pace with the boy. “What are your plans?”

“I wanna be either a pilot or a bull rider or a paleontologist.” Cody glanced up at him. “Gramma doesn’t want me riding bulls, though. She’s a nurse. She says lots of bull riders get hurt.”

“That is true.” Braden had plenty of friends walking around with metal plates or screws in their body from some sort of rodeo accident. Rodeo wasn’t easy on the body, but it could be a hell of a lot of fun. “Guess being a paleontologist is a safer career—all the dinosaurs are dead.”

Cody was laughing so hard he snorted.

“Dino-what? What’s that, Daddy?” Delilah was skipping around him and Cody in a circle.

“Dino-saur.” Cody slowly enunciated the word.

“Dinosaur.” Cody sighed. “It means monster lizard.”

“Yeah, I can say that.” Delilah imitated Cody’s sigh to a tee. “So what are they?”

Braden saw the way Cody’s face lit up and knew his little girl was going to get an earful. He didn’t mind, though. Dinosaurs were a universal cool thing for all kids, so she should know about them. And he’d rather they were talking about dinosaurs than being eaten by bears.

“Dinosaurs are one of Cody’s favorite things. He knows more about them than anyone I know.” Maggie smiled at her son—who was beaming from her praise.

“I bet I wike ?em.” Delilah grabbed on to Cody’s arm. “Why do you wike them?”

“Why? It’s a lot, so listen real hard.” For the first time, Cody didn’t sound irritated by Delilah.

“’Kay, I’m wistening with both ears,” Delilah agreed.

There were times Delilah did or said something that caught him off guard—and utterly charmed him. This was one of those times.

Maggie stepped aside so the kids could go first on the trail and fell into step beside him. “Now she’s done it. Cody will talk about dinosaurs all day, every day.”

Braden didn’t look at her. He figured keeping his eyes on the path was the safest way to go. “Dinosaurs are cool.” Cool? Did he just use the word cool?

“If you tell Cody that, he’ll be your friend for life.” Maggie’s laughter was soft. “Or that you’re a fan of the Hawkins Sisters. Either way, you’d score big brownie points.”

“If you’re not a fan of the Hawkins Sisters, you’re not a real rodeo fan.” His gaze darted her way. Dammit. Nope . She was prettier than ever. He went back to staring at Cody’s and Delilah’s backs.

“That’s what I’ve heard. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a rodeo.” The hint of regret in her voice had him looking her way.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Was he allowed to ask about her? He knew this was supposed to be about the kids, but the kids were talking—probably about dinosaurs. It’d be more awkward for the two of them to follow along in silence, wouldn’t it?

“Work.” She reached up to tuck one of her wayward curls behind her ear.

“I travel a lot—well, I used to travel a lot for the International Health Initiative. They’d send me wherever a need was identified to help out women and children’s health.

Mostly developing or conflict riddled countries.

” Her green gaze bounced from him to Cody’s back.

“That sounds important.” And, likely, entailed a lot of work and stress. How did she manage that and Cody? But something had jumped out at him. “Past tense? Meaning you don’t anymore?”

“No.” She cleared her throat. “Not for a while, at least. It’s all sort of…up in the air.”

“I guess it’s nice to be home, though. It’s got to be hard traveling with Cody being the age he is.” Since he’d discovered he had a daughter, he rarely let her out of his sight. He couldn’t imagine leaving her for work.

“I love my job. I like helping people and…” She broke off. “It was hard—on him and on me. What about you, Braden?”

He liked it when she said his name. Dammit . “Work, you mean?” He waited for her to nod. “Family ranch.” He chuckled. “Nothing too fancy. About the only traveling I do is when it’s time to sell or buy livestock or ranching equipment.”

“Ranching isn’t easy. Cooper Ranch isn’t all that big, but it’s a lot of work for my dad and brother to manage. Not that they’d have it any other way.” She smiled up at him.

Braden tripped over his own foot—but caught himself. “Rock in the way,” he muttered. If Miles or Hayes had been there to see that, he’d never live it down. “That’s ranching for you. It gets in the blood. It’s not a job—”

“It’s a way of life.” Maggie shook her head but she was still smiling. “I grew up hearing that. Do you have siblings?”

If he kept admiring her smile, he’d trip again. He’d been lucky not to land on his face last time. Since he didn’t want to push his luck, he tore his gaze from hers. “Two brothers and a sister.”

“Right, you mentioned that at the school. Sorry.”

“No problem. And you have a brother?”

“Twin brother, actually.” She muttered something under her breath.

From the corner of his eye, he saw it. A flash of something on her face. It was that look that had him saying, “I didn’t catch that last part.”

“You weren’t supposed to.” She sighed and looked up at him. “Am I just fortunate or do all brothers like to pick and tease and be a pain in the rear?”

“Pretty sure that’s an unwritten universal law. My brothers like to give me grief on a daily basis.” It had only been a couple of days since his brothers had been grilling him about why he was humming. “Is Cody an only child?”

She nodded, her gaze shifting to her son’s back. “And Delilah?”

“Oh, yeah. I can’t imagine trying to do this with more than one.

” He was only slightly teasing. “Poor Delilah’s gotten a raw deal in the parenting department.

” He risked a glance at Maggie—to find her studying him.

But the moment her eyes locked with his, there was a shift.

Even the air around him seemed to change.

He didn’t know which way was up. His heart was hammering in his ears.

The pressure in his chest was damn near painful now.

And the hollow ache in his stomach was turning into something that felt an awful lot like want…

“I’m hungry,” Delilah announced.

“We brought plenty of snacks.” Maggie’s cheeks seemed redder—but she hurried forward before he could be certain. “There’s a clearing over there.” She pointed. “Will that work?”

It was when the four of them were sitting on rocks and enjoying snacks that Cody Cooper said, “You two should date.”

Braden inhaled part of the apple he’d been enjoying.

“Cody.” Maggie’s cheeks went fire-engine red before she reached over to pound on his back.

“Thank you,” Braden murmured, tugging at the collar of his shirt. Where the hell had that come from?

“What, Ma?” Cody nudged Delilah. “You make a good couple.”

“Uh-huh.” Delilah smiled sweetly. “Go. On a date.”

“Uncle Mike is dating someone and he’s happy.” Cody took a big bite of apple. “You guys could date and be happy, too.”

Braden was still coughing and trying to sort through what, exactly, was going on.

This conversation had come out of nowhere…

Hadn’t it? Was he missing something? Had Maggie…

No. He wasn’t going to read anything into this.

This was a kid being a kid. And, as kid-logic arguments went, Cody wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Cody, I’m not sure what’s gotten into you, but let’s talk about something else.” Maggie sounded downright desperate.

“What’s the matter, Ma? You tell me to tell the truth.” Cody was frowning now. “And I am.”

“No wying.” Delilah nodded. “Cuz wying is bad. Wight, Daddy?”

Well, hell . Braden could only answer one way.

“That’s right.” He understood where Cody was coming from, but there was a difference between telling the truth and sharing thoughts and opinions.

Cody was nine, so he hadn’t figured that out yet.

He was saying it like he saw it. And even though Braden didn’t know what to make of it, Cody and Delilah seemed to like the idea of them being a couple.

If their circumstances were different, then he’d probably have liked the idea of him and Maggie together, too. He’d have liked the idea a whole lot.