Page 22 of The Maverick’s Forever Home (Montana Mavericks: Behind Closed Doors #2)

“I hear the four of you had some excitement last weekend. Finding a mystery bone?” Rylee served herself another pancake.

“We did.” Delilah tugged on Cody’s arm. “Cody did. Tell Aunt Wylee, Cody.”

And Cody did. He didn’t spare a single detail, either, and while he rattled on Braden caught her eye.

He did that crooked smile thing that made her insides go warm and soft—a lot like she’d felt last night when they’d been huddled under a blanket together.

But, instead of replaying any one of the electrified moments they’d shared at the football game, she smiled back.

Smiling was a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Getting hot and bothered while having a family breakfast was not.

* * *

Braden needed to stop looking at Maggie—especially since his sister was keeping tabs on him.

It wasn’t intentional. All throughout their meal, she’d move or say something or breathe and he found himself turning her way.

When she smiled or laughed, he was smiling and laughing, too.

The connection was stronger now, for him, anyway.

Last night had shifted things for him and left him with a hell of a lot of questions.

The most important one: Had things changed for her?

“Wanna see the bone?” Delilah asked.

“You have it?” Rylee’s brows rose. “Here?”

“Cody wet me borrow it for show-an-tell.” His little girl grinned at Cody. “He is my friend. He shared with me.”

Cody smiled and nodded.

That smile and nod was a major step. It was the first time Cody indicated he wasn’t just tolerating Delilah, he might actually like her.

Braden wasn’t sure who was happier over the boy’s acknowledgment: Delilah or himself.

From the way his daughter was lit up like a Christmas tree, she probably was—but he was a close second.

“Come on.” Delilah ran around the table, grabbed Rylee’s arm and tugged. “It’s in my room.”

“Are you done?” Braden was impressed she’d eaten as much as she had, but if there was a chance she wanted more, he wasn’t going to clear her plate.

“I’m stuffed, Daddy.” She patted her tummy.

“Me, too. Let’s go, and you can show me this bone you two are so excited over.” Rylee let Delilah drag her out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Can I go, too, Ma?” Cody was already half on, half off his seat.

“If you’re done eating, sure.” Maggie barely got the words out before the boy was running after the other two. “Have fun.” She shrugged and started laughing. “He’s going to be so disappointed if that bone turns out to be something unexciting—like a giant moose or something.”

Damn, he loved hearing her laugh. And seeing her smile. “Things seem to be going well between the two of you. At least, I hope they are.” He waited for her to face him so he could get a feel for what she was thinking.

She stood but avoided his gaze. “Better, actually. He really enjoyed last night—and he was so worried about Delilah getting sick. It was sweet.” She started stacking up plates. “I think she’s starting to win him over.”

“You don’t need to clean up. You’re my guest.” He rose and took the plates from her. “I can do the dishes in a bit.”

She stared straight ahead, which meant she was staring at his chest. He wasn’t imagining how red her cheeks were—and getting redder by the second.

“Are we okay?” He swallowed. Something was off. He could feel it.

“Yes.” But her voice cracked. “Yes,” she said again, steadier this time.

He didn’t buy it. “You sure?” He took a deep breath. “I want us to be okay.”

Her gaze darted his way, then away. “I… We… Of course we are. We’re friends, Braden—”

“We are.” He set the plates on the table. “Last night I got the feeling that, maybe, there was more to it than friendship.” That got her looking at him. Finally.

For a long moment, she seemed to be searching his face—his eyes. Then, he thought she was going to say something. Instead, she groaned and shrugged.

“You can say it.” He hoped like hell she would.

“Braden…” She swallowed. “All of this is… I… I’m nervous.”

He could breathe a little easier now. There was a whole lot flitting through those green eyes of hers—like maybe she was struggling as much as he was. “Me, too.” He reached out to smooth a curl from her forehead—

She dodged his hand and stepped aside. “About messing things up. We both agreed to be friends. We both need friends—friends with kids, especially. Now Delilah and Cody are getting close. And that’s a good thing.

We shouldn’t jeopardize that. Or this…our friendship.

” Her gaze fell from his. “I think, maybe, it’s normal to have confusing feelings when you’re in the situation we’re in.

You know, on our own—a bit lonely. That’s why things got awkward last night.

Tense and, well, you know.” She shrugged.

“But we’re just friends. And we’ve agreed that’s what we both need. A friend.”

Well, hell . From the number of times she’d said the word friend , he got the message loud and clear. He didn’t agree with everything she said, but he’d follow her lead. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She reached around him and picked up the plates. “It seems like Delilah’s made a full recovery. I’m glad. I don’t think it was a stomach bug or it would have lasted longer. Did she eat anything weird? Maybe it was a reaction of some sort.” She set the plates on the counter.

Apparently, they were done talking about last night—done and moving on. “I don’t think so. Maybe the hot chocolate? Usually, she doesn’t like chocolate. But Cody was having some—”

“So she wanted some, too?” Maggie started scraping plates into the trash, once more avoiding eye contact with him.

“Pretty much.” He couldn’t be upset over this. They’d been clear from the beginning about the parameters of their relationship. He might want more but that was his problem. “I really can do the dishes, Maggie.” He stood beside her, taking each rinsed plate and putting it into the dishwasher.

“Teamwork.” When she looked up at him, there was a definite spark in her eyes. The longer their gazes held, the stronger the tension between them grew.

Braden was beyond confused. She’d just said what she wanted and he’d respect that, but…

if she was going to look at him this way, it wasn’t going to be easy.

Didn’t she know how tempting she was to him?

That, right now, he wanted to pull her close and kiss her lips?

The only thing stopping him was what she’d said to him not five minutes ago.

But what she’d said didn’t match up with the fire currently blazing in her eyes or the raspy waver of her breathing.

“Ma, phone.” Cody came running into the kitchen—effectively severing the connection between him and Maggie.

Braden gripped the kitchen counter and took several deep breaths. Whatever that was, it was over. Now that it wasn’t just the two of them anymore, he needed to get his head straight.

“Here.” Cody held out the phone to Maggie. “It’s Uncle Mike.”

Braden didn’t miss the way Cody was staring back and forth between the two of them.

“Thank you, hon.” Maggie took the phone, her voice pitched higher than normal when she said, “Mike? What’s up?”

Braden had never been sized up by a nine-year-old before. There was no other way to describe what Cody was doing. He stood, his arms crossed over his chest and his brow furrowed deep, and gave Braden a full head-to-toe assessment.

“I’m fine. We’re fine.” Maggie didn’t sound fine, she sounded nervous. “Oh, stop.” There was a pause. “We stopped by Delilah’s to give her the get-well present Cody got—” She sighed heavily. “You have way too much time on your hands.”

“Braden.” Cody waved him forward before whispering, “Can we have a man-to-man talk?”

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting but that was not it. He had to admire the boy’s confidence, though. And if Cody was coming to Braden to talk about something, he’d stop and give the boy his full attention. “Sure.” He paused. “The front porch work?”

“Yessir.” Cody nodded.

“Hold on, Mike. Cody…” Maggie stopped the two of them in their tracks. “We need to go. We promised your grandmother we’d stop by the store this morning. Remember?”

“Do we have to go now?” Cody glanced at him. “I sorta needed to talk to Braden about something.”

Braden couldn’t make out what Mike was saying, but it was so loud that Maggie held the phone away from her ear.

“For goodness’ sake, stop with the dramatics.” She shook her head. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t burst my eardrum, Mike. I’m hanging up now.” Maggie disconnected. “How about we plan a longer visit next time?”

“Okay.” But Cody did not look happy with this suggestion. “I’ll go say bye to Delilah.”

Maggie nodded. “I will, too.”

Braden wasn’t sure why Maggie was suddenly in such a hurry to leave, but she was. In under five minutes, she and Cody were waving goodbye out the window of their SUV and pulling away from the house.

“What did you do?” Rylee nudged him. “She practically ran out of here.”

Yeah, he’d noticed that, too. He was hoping his sister would have some sort of female intuition on all this. “What do you mean?” He tried to sound casual.

“I mean she was fine when we were all in the kitchen. Then you two are alone and…she’s not.” She turned to him, her brows high. “What did you do to her?”

“We talked. I didn’t do a thing.” But he had said a few things he probably shouldn’t have. Why had he gone and brought up last night? What was he hoping would happen? That she’d throw her arms around his neck and tell him she wanted to be more than friends?

Okay, that was exactly what he’d hoped would happen.

Dammit all.

Her using the word friend a hundred and fifty or so times, dodging his touch and avoiding eye contact was the exact opposite of what he wanted.

But then they’d started doing dishes and she’d been staring at him—staring at him and making him want to kiss her more than anything.

I’m a damn fool . He ran a hand over his face.

He was lonely. He was so lonely, he was seeing what he wanted to see—not what was.

This was all him. It was one hell of a deflating thought, but it was the truth.

Now all he had to do was come to terms with it.

“If you’re sticking around, Rylee, feel free to help me finish up the dishes. ”

Delilah skipped into the kitchen. “Can I color, pwease, Daddy?” She held out the gift bag from Cody, all smiles.

It was hard to stay glum with his daughter around. She was a walking, talking ray of sunshine, and he was so grateful for her. “You can.” He pulled one of the kitchen chairs out for her.

“Thank you.” She sat in the chair. “Want to color with me, Auntie Wylee?” She patted the chair next to her.

“Go on.” Braden nodded at his sister. “I got this.”

“I’m going to make a rea-l pretty picture for Cody.” Delilah pulled out the large box of crayons and coloring books. “Oh, wook.” She held up one book. “Dino-saw-r.” She beamed. “Dino-saurs coworing book.”

Braden grinned. “Figures.”

Thanks to Maggie, there wasn’t much to clean up. He was putting the last plate into the dishwasher when his sister asked, “Delly, is this the first time Cody and his mom have had breakfast with you?”

Real subtle .

“Yep. It was fun. Just wike when we went hiking and to the footbaw game.” Delilah paused. “Cody is the bestest.”

Braden started the dishwasher. “It was nice of him to bring you a present.” He joined them at the table and sorted through the coloring books. “Dinosaurs, princesses, horses and cowboys.”

“Yep.” Delilah nodded. “I’m drawing this for Maggie and then one for Cody.”

Braden eyed the pink and purple dots Delilah was adding to the Tyrannosaurus rex. Maggie wouldn’t mind the artistic license his little girl was taking with the colors. Cody, however, might not appreciate her take on the predator. “She’ll like it.”

Delilah nodded but didn’t look up from the coloring book. “Cody says we are gettin’ together soon so I gotta finish.”

This was news to him. He and Maggie hadn’t set any plans before they left.

“Oh, really? What are you going to do next time?” Rylee paused her coloring to glance his way. “Too bad it’s too early for the Pumpkin Spice Festival. A hayride can be fun. Snuggling up together to get warm. All cozy—even romantic.”

Braden ignored his sister’s teasing.

Romance wasn’t going to be a part of his relationship with Maggie.

It sucked, but it was a fact. His track record should be enough to remind him that he had no idea what he was doing when it came to women.

It’s just, damn, things with Maggie had been different.

He sighed. Because they were friends. He didn’t have a whole lot of female friends.

From now on, he was going to keep a firm rein on his emotions.

He’d use his head, not listen to his gut.

Maggie had told him what she wanted from him, so he’d give her what she wanted.

If she changed her mind—something he wasn’t going to count on—she’d have to make the first move.