CHAPTER EIGHT
1399 Words
Maverick
"I'm not going back.”
“Honey, you made a commitment,” Cassidy said. “You have to go back.”
My parents had reluctantly convinced me to go home with them after Lily had fallen asleep on my lap and didn’t appear to be waking up anytime soon. I’d carried her up to bed and tucked her in, kissing her gently before letting my mom drag me out of Lily’s room.
Payton took over with Lily but only after hugging me tightly. “For the record, I objected to her not telling you,” she whispered.
“I appreciate that, Payton. But from now on, no more secrets.”
She smiled. “I can do that, honey.”
“Thanks.”
I walked home with my parents, and now, we were sitting in the kitchen, an argument in full swing.
“Dad, back me up,” I begged.
Ace raised his hands. “I think you should go back.”
“What? Why?” I snapped.
“Because you need to tell your coach face-to-face that you can’t play football for his team this year.”
Cassidy gasped. “Carter!”
“Babe, don’t. You can’t be surprised I’d take this tack. If I’d had any say in you not leavin’ me back in the day, you don’t think I would have taken it?”
My parents had known each other since they were in grade school, but in high school, a pretty significant misunderstanding led to them going their separate ways for over six years. Once they reconnected, Dad was determined not to let Mom get away again.
Dad squeezed my shoulder. “You want me to come with you, I will.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Cassidy groaned. “You’re going to lose your scholarship.”
“If I lose Lily in order to keep the scholarship, it’ll be worth nothing, Mom. But if I keep Lily and lose the scholarship, I’m willing to take that trade.” I reached over and took my mom’s hand. “She’s everything to me. Look at Uncle Aidan. He changed his whole major and went to vet school two years after he could have. If I put off college for a little while, it’s not the end of the world. Losing time with Lily, though, would be.”
Dad stepped behind Mom, laying his hands on her shoulders, and she looked up at him. “Why did we raise such a mature and grounded young man? Right now, I’d settle for a Mama’s boy.”
“Maverick?” Tillie called.
“Yeah?”
“Can you help me get to the next level, please?”
“Sure, sis, hang on a sec.” I rose to my feet, leaning down to kiss my mother’s cheek. “I love her, Mom. Just as much as Dad loves you. So I’m gonna go back, pack up my stuff, and move home until she’s cured.”
She sighed. “Okay, honey.”
“And Dad?”
“Yeah, bud?”
“I need you to shave my head.”
My mom groaned. “Not your hair, too.”
My dad smiled. “Yeah, bud, I’ll shave your head.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Mav?” Cassidy grabbed my arm. “If there was anyone on the planet worthy of you, it’s Lily. I’m so proud of you, honey.”
I saw the sheen of tears in her eyes and knew they weren’t tears for my hair. She loved Lily almost as much as I did. “Thanks, Mom.”
“But she loves your hair as much as I do.”
I laughed, kissed her again, and headed into the game room to help my sister. I’d let my dad deal with my mother’s obsession with my hair.
* * *
Lily
The next three years were a blur of doctor visits, chemo treatments, and touch-and-go moments of will it or won’t it return. I felt like my knowledge of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets grew to a level I neither desired nor required. However, it did give me a sudden passion to be a nurse, which had never been on the radar before.
Maverick gave up his scholarship to Notre Dame. He’d gone with his dad to the coach in Indiana and explained what was going on, and they’d been really understanding. What I hadn’t expected was that he’d come home without hair.
“Not growing it back until you can grow yours, baby doll. We’re in this together.”
Even though I wasn’t happy he’d shaved off all of his glorious hair (and kept it short despite my pleas for him to grow it back), I’d thrown myself into his arms and kissed him until we both weren’t able to breathe... something we wouldn’t get to do much over the next year as my immune system would go from bad to worse at times. But the second I was allowed out of the “germ-free bubble,” I was on him like a stripper on a freshly cleaned pole. Seriously, I don’t know how we didn’t get pregnant (I didn’t give him a whole lot of time to get a condom on)... or get caught by my dad, but Maverick got pretty creative with date nights, often booking a hotel so we could have alone time. I referred to myself as his high-priced hooker for an evening romp in the sheets—he wasn’t amused. I was, though, which meant I took the joke as far as he’d let me.
Maverick had taken the rest of the year off to go through the worst of the chemo with me, but then when the fall semester came around, I was better, so he was ready to start again. Because cancer sucks, and there’s no real logic to it, Maverick decided to go back to his second-choice school, Oregon State, and see if he could salvage anything there. It was only his second choice because we’d both really wanted to go away... have some time together without the influence of our families and out of the reach of the Dogs. But life kind of kiboshed that, so he reached out to OSU, and they gave him a chance to play for them.
He’d decided to follow in his uncle’s footsteps and become a vet, although he was doing a small animal major. Knight had focused on large animals, due to his horse obsession. One of the great things about the Dogs—and the Quinns in general—was that they took care of their own. And since Knight owned a large veterinary practice, he was able to offer Maverick an internship after he graduated. It was a win-win.
I was dancing again, which meant ballet consumed a lot of my time but less than before. I realized that even though I loved dancing, it was no longer more important than most things in my life. Other than Maverick, I had always put dancing before friends, my parents, my brothers, everyone. Now, I was much more balanced.
Once I had salvaged my relationship with Maverick, I finally felt like my life was back on track. Auntie Kayla was convinced that part of the reason I was healing so beautifully was that I’d done what I should have done at the beginning... let Maverick love me through the cancer. I’m sure she was right, but I still appreciated the fact she only ‘told me so’ once, dropping any future reference to the subject.
My parents insisted I live at home, and quite frankly, I was okay with that for the moment. I loved my family, and never having been particularly independent, I liked feeling protected and part of the “pack.”
Maverick also continued to live at home... he had no desire to live in a dorm situation again, and until he and I could “cohabitate,” he said he’d stay put.
Admittedly, though, I couldn’t wait until we could start our lives together fully. I desperately wanted to get him naked whenever I felt the desire (which was a lot lately), but when you’re separated by a two-story drop and a fence below, it kind of killed the mood.
Maverick promised he’d find a way, and I believed him... because he was Maverick Quinn.
- Writer
