“If you don’t want to answer, I understand,” Maverick said in response to her silent stare.
“Oh? No. Sorry. Lost in my head. I graduated from Harvard at seventeen,” she shared.
Maverick choked on his last swallow.
“Wait, what?” He coughed out.
Delilah laughed. “I finished Harvard Law school two years later. Took the Colorado bar exam and passed then I—”
“Slow down. Back the story up. I asked you about your husband? Did you graduate from Harvard at seventeen? How the hell is that possible?” Maverick demanded. Delilah found it hard to stop her laughter. The wine turned her chuckles to giggles. She had to correct her behavior quickly or come off as immature or a silly woman. It was hard. Maverick got up. He went to the fridge and got a bottle of water.
“Thank you,” she said and was quick to take a few sips before continuing. “My Mensa score is 160. Do you know what Mesa is?”
Maverick rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, of course, you do,” Queen winked. “My teacher told my parents I was ‘exceptionally gifted.’ My mom said she just thought I talked a lot.”
“Chatterbox?” Maverick teased.
“Yep. I started talking in complete sentences at one,” Delilah told him.
“You’re kidding? Right?” Maverick asked.
Delilah shook her head slowly. “My dad put me on video, recorded my every step. I can show you the tapes. Anyway, by the time I was twelve, I was pushed into high school. I was so advanced I passed all testing. I qualified for the Young Brilliant Minds Scholarship. YBMS is sponsored by the Montgomery charitable foundation here in Falcon Cove. I had my choice of MIT and Harvard. My mom wanted MIT, but my dad wanted a kid from Harvard. I think it was the first and only time he had a say in the matter. He’s a blue-collar kind of guy, sanitation. A principled man, but he’d never been further than New Mexico, Nebraska, or Kansas. He didn’t know much about either school, really. To him, Harvard sounded cooler. So the Montgomery’s gave me a financial reward for being so darn smart. The scholarship moved us from here to Cambridge at fourteen. The family all went so I could attend Harvard.”
“That had to be a crazy adjustment,” he said.
“My father got on with the sanitation company there with the help of the Montgomery family connections. They were so generous,” she said but didn’t disguise her bitterness over the uprooting of her happy family life in the Cove. She sipped her water and continued. “I finished at seventeen.”
“Wow. You are serious,” Maverick said.
Delilah nodded.
“I was always thrown into the world of high achievers. My husband was born to be a high achiever too. We met in Harvard’s library. I thought by coincidence, but I later found out differently. He sought me out. And like you, he could speak my language.”
“Like me?” Maverick frowned.
“I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just hard to meet people that understand me. Or try too. And you’re easy to talk to like he was. Anyways, Charles became my world, my hero, my God. And he told me I was the best thing that ever happened to him. I was only seventeen, so what did I know?” Delilah shrugged.
“Can I ask?”
She glanced at Maverick. “How old was he? Is that what you want to know?”
He nodded.
“Twenty-nine,” she said.
“Good grief,” Maverick frowned.
“His parents had been on him for years to marry. But he rejected all of their fix-up attempts. He said he was waiting for true love. When I turned eighteen, he announced that he had planned to marry their little charity project, muah!” She raised her arms in celebration. “A true to life Cinderella story.”
“More like Lolita,” Maverick mumbled in disgust.
“I knew my parents were happy to be returning to Falcon Cove. I always felt bad that we had to move because of me.”
“So, you lived happily ever after?” Maverick finished the story.
“Not really. Mother Abigail hated the idea of me marrying into her family. After I graduated from law school, I wanted to work as a civil rights attorney. Charles agreed the first year of our engagement before marriage that I should. Immediately I took some high profile cases. It wasn’t a problem for him or the Montgomerys until Tyson decided he wanted to get re-elected into the Senate. He had been elected before and lost his seat back in 2008 when Obama became President. Conservatives, not even black ones, were popular back then. So the family sat me down and informed me the Montgomery’s were conservatives, and if I wanted to be Charles’s wife, I would be a conservative too. I had to quit my job and open a law firm here in the Cove. With their backing and support, of course.”
“You went for that?” Maverick asked.
“I did,” she nodded. “The rest is what you see.”
Delilah shifted on the sofa. She laid Noah out across her lap. “I think I should go. It’s late, isn’t it?”
Maverick checked the time on his watch. “Wow. You’re right. It’s after midnight. Guess time got away from us. Sorry,” he apologized.
“Yea,” she agreed. “You should be tired from traveling to cooking and then entertaining Noah and me. I’ll let you get some rest.”
“It’s snowing out and freezing. This place is big enough for us. It has two bedrooms.”
“What are you saying?” Delilah frowned.
“Stay,” he asked.
“With you? No. I can’t stay the night.”
“It’s your home,” he chuckled. “Not inviting you to come to stay in my trailer in New York.”
Delilah smiled.
“It would be really cool for me if Noah woke up, and I was able to greet him,” Maverick explained. “You take the master bedroom. I’ll take the other room.”
Delilah’s gaze swept the cottage. She began to explain more of her history with the Montgomery’s, and Maverick listened. He feared he shared too much with her earlier, so hearing her talk about her issues gave him the trust and understanding he needed. She told him that Charles often visited the guesthouse to think and spend time alone from her and the family. Mother Abigail, Charles's mother, was a constant in their lives. There were times when Delilah missed her husband and would escape the house to visit him here. Delilah recalled the warm memories of their time playing chess in silent concentration or sleeping on the sofa with him as he read one of his favorite mystery novels. “I know Charles did terrible things, and our relationship wasn’t a healthy one. But there were good times between us.”
“I understand. Stay, Noah’s sleep,” Maverick reasoned.
“I don’t know,” she said and shyly looked away.
“I’m a police officer. To serve and protect, remember? It’s my oath. You’re safe,” he told her.
“You quit the force?” Delilah half-joked.
“The force lives on within me!” Maverick hit his chest with his hand. Delilah laughed and then covered her mouth. He waited for her to consider the sincerity in his offer. For a minute, he believed she’d reject him. After all, it was only the first day. This could be pushing his luck too far.
“I don’t mind. You’re right. It’s all mine now. We’ll take the master bedroom,” Delilah said. Maverick got up to his feet first. He took Noah from her gently and led the way to the master suite. The cottage was spacious for an extended stay with a master bedroom and a full bathroom and a walk-in closet. The spare bedroom was smaller. The second bathroom was outside of the room for general use. If he thought about it, the place was like the first apartment he had with Melissa in New York. Maverick placed Noah on the bed. Her son immediately spread his legs and arms, claiming half of it.