With a fast beating heart, Maverick collapsed on her. He placed his face between the side of hers and the top of her shoulder. “I love you. I love you so much,” he said against her ear.
“I had it all planned. I wanted to apologize and say...” she panted.
“Don’t worry about it.” He lifted his face and looked into her eyes. “Don’t say anything.”
“Can I say one thing?” she asked. “It’s really important.”
He was still inside of her, buried deep. He could her heart beating against his chest. Could she feel his? If she could, she would know how fragile it was. She smiled. He braved the question and nodded that she could.
“I love you too, Maverick. I want to start over. Forgive the past and start over together, not just for Noah, but for me. I want this. I want to be in love again with you,” she confessed.
He let go of the deep breath he’d been holding and dropped his head in relief. She hugged him. “I need to clean myself up so we can have dinner. Okay?”
“Yes. Talk. Okay.” Maverick said and pulled away. Delilah escaped him and the sofa while holding up her dress to keep it from being soiled from his seed. He watched her disappear into the bathroom. Maverick put his hands to his face and steadied his breathing. He had lost many battles in life, but he felt like he was winning the war for the first time.
“SO YOU PUT A DEPOSIT down?” she asked with a tinge of disappointment she couldn’t conceal. She lay on Maverick's chest, naked. He lay with the pillows propping his head. After dinner and some wine, they went to his room, and he made love to her for as long as his and her body could stand it. He did everything she liked and a few things she didn’t know she wanted. Exploring sex with Maverick always felt like an adventure to her.
“Yep. The place is mine to build and do what I want. Got a contractor too. Closed today.”
“I kind of had another place in mind for you. Somewhere closer. Really close. So you, uhm, could be near Noah and me.”
Maverick chuckled. “It’s only six miles away from you. I’m still close.”
“But I want you to—”
He put a finger to her lips. “I plan to give you everything you want, Delilah. You’re my goddess. You know I can’t resist you. But this is different. This is mine. Trust me.”
She nodded, and he kissed her forehead.
“We should go slow,” he continued. “You were right at dinner. You need time to figure things out in your life. Your business, your reputation, all of it has been hurt since this all started. I’m okay with getting my own place and courting you.”
“Courting?” she groaned.
“Dates, dinner, dancing. Someday soon, this COVID business will end, and we will start again, right?” Maverick suggested. Delilah’s finger traced his nipple. She lay on him, trapped between his thighs, listening to his heartbeat. He ran his hand up and down her back and waited for her to speak.
“My world feels different, Maverick,” Delilah said.
“It is different,” he agreed.
“I feel different,” she said and looked up into his eyes.
“Good sex can do that to you,” Maverick smirked.
“I’m being serious!” she laughed.
“I know. I know.”
“I feel like the logical upright prima donna I was, was all fake. When I’m with you, I feel less pressure to be perfect. I’m kinda liking it,” Delilah said.
“Wow, I make you feel that bad?” he asked.
“You know what I mean. The old me would never consider this the imperfect life we can have. Where you work a garage and deal with your past, and I rebuild my life in a town that has tried to destroy me. I feel like things are as they should be.”
“I get that,” he agreed.
“I want you to come home. I want you to be there, with Noah and me. I want to stop feeling like I have something to prove. I just want to be myself with you again and again. Does that make sense?”
“It does. Can you trust me?” he asked. “After everything.”
She lifted her head. “Only if you stop hiding from who you were and what you were.”
Maverick frowned.
“Call that Chief Dailey you told me about and tell him you will testify, that you will do anything he needs to make things right. That you will face it. Protect your friend Javier. I know you want to.”
The comment struck him to his core. He couldn’t fathom an answer to what she was asking.
“Noah is your son. You’re going to be his hero. Look at my family and the secrets they kept. Look at all the secrets Charles kept. No more secrets, Maverick. We’ll get you a good attorney, and whatever it is we face, we’ll face it together.”
“I don’t know... this is complicated, Delilah,” Maverick started to sit up, but she pushed his chest to keep him still.
“I know it is. And it’s scary. It's you going against a system you belonged to. And it exposes us. I know the risks. What you feel is how I felt when I stood up to this town and owned my trauma. I want to confess to what we did to Mr. Collins in that well. What we saw, but it’s my confession alone. This is your way to be free of the guilt I can’t be. Think about it. If you don’t want to, I’ll support you just like you support me. But I think you do.”
Maverick let go a deep sigh.
She smiled. “My professional opinion is that your cooperation will go a long way.”
“The men I will indict were friends of mine, brothers,” he reasoned.
“But were they? Are they?” she asked. Delilah kissed his chest and then his neck as he embraced her again.
“Think about it,” she said and pulled away. After she collected her things, she went into the bathroom and left him lying there semi-erect with his thoughts. Dailey would throw him in a cage if he could with every cop that broke the code of law. But if he cooperated the right way, maybe it would be a way to put his past behind him and honor the team that lost so much because of him. The idea of being a good man, the one that Melissa told him he was and that Camilla believed he was, always tempted him. What he had learned through all of it was goodness required courage.
Delilah returned to the room, humming a song. Maverick watch her finish dressing with a smile.
“I’ll give you time to make up your mind. Oh, and I love you.”
Maverick laughed. “Yes, sweetheart, I love you too.”
DELILAH RETURNED HOME closer to nine and decided to visit her best friend instead of going into the house. When she knocked on the door, she could hear Goodiva’s laughter inside. She knocked again and waited. Maybe Queen was inside with her. A few minutes later, Goodiva arrived at the door smiling.
“Hi,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“For our nightly talks? You know I was coming over here.” Delilah walked inside.
Goodiva closed the door. “Queen said you made up with Maverick?”
“Huh? She did? I did not. Well, maybe I did. That’s up to Maverick. Is Queen here? I thought I heard you talking to her.” Delilah looked around. All she saw was Goodiva’s laptop on the recliner chair.
“No.”