The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(14)

Walker knew better than to react, but Maze couldn’t seem to help herself. For all she’d been through—and she’d been through a lot, through hell, even more so than him—she still wore her heart on her sleeve, which was maybe his favorite thing about her. She sucked in a breath, then seemed to realize that she’d given herself away with the sound, so she rolled her eyes.

“Nothing’s going on with me, but you’re right.” She jabbed her thumb in his direction. “He’s been annoying since he arrived.”

Walker laughed; he couldn’t help it. “You do know that you still wrinkle your nose when you lie, right?”

Maze rubbed her nose and glared at him.

“See, neither of you is denying it,” Caitlin said, hands on hips. “Something’s wrong. I don’t know what it is, but I want it fixed. Now. Before my wedding. You can consider it one of my wedding presents, but to be clear, I still want real presents.”

“This is ridiculous,” Maze said. “There’s nothing—”

“Maze, you can’t even look at him. And he hasn’t stopped looking at you.”

So much for being stoic and impenetrable. But she was right. He couldn’t stop looking at Maze. Mostly because he wanted to wrap his hands around her neck. Sometimes he also wanted to squeeze. But other times he just wanted to slide those hands north into her hair. Or south, to slowly peel her out of those sexy jeans and remind her why they’d been magic together the one time she’d let her walls down with him.

Since he couldn’t do any of that, he shook his head at Caitlin. “This weekend’s about you, not us.”

“That’s right,” Maze chimed in, backing him up. Which, for the record, she’d never done before. Typically, she’d argue with him even if he said the sky was blue. He was pretty sure she enjoyed it.

And once upon a time, he’d enjoyed it too.

A lot.

Maze hopped off the counter and headed to the door. “I’ll just go check on the others—oomph,” she said as she ran into Jace. Heather was right on his heels, holding Sammie.

Jace caught Maze and used the excuse to wrap his arms around her. Not surprising, since the guy was her boyfriend. But what was surprising was that Maze jumped, like she wasn’t used to being touched by him.

Interesting.

“Aw,” Heather said to Maze. “You two are a cute couple. Have you been together long?”

“A year,” Maze said, at the exact same time Jace said, “A week.”

Awkward silence.

“He means a year,” Maze said, her nose wrinkling.

Jace smiled easily. “Right. How time flies . . .”

Sammie let out a stream of cheerful baby garble, and Walker suddenly felt almost cheerful too. Because if Jace was really Maze’s boyfriend, Walker would eat his own shorts.

Dillon came into the kitchen, followed by a parade of Roly and Poly trotting along behind him, all three looking surprised to find the room full.

Roly and Poly immediately circled Sammie, sniffing at her—probably because she smelled like banana and had Cheerios stuck to her pants.

“What’s for dinner?” Dillon asked.

“Whatever you’re cooking yourself,” Walker said.

Dillon laughed. “Like Caitlin would let me cook in her kitchen.”

“Piz!” Sammie yelled.

Roly and Poly both squealed in terror, eyes bugging out as they turned tail and ran out of the room as fast as they could, which, due to the fact that they couldn’t get purchase on the linoleum floor with their paws, wasn’t all that fast. Roly—or was it Poly?—fell over like a tipped cow, legs straight up in the air.

Walker scooped up and righted the little guy and got a snort for a thank-you.

“She means pizza,” Heather translated for Sammie. “It’s the only food she approves of. Nobody judge me, all right? You’ll see when you have kids, this gig is not for the faint of heart.”

Dillon took in Sammie with her wild hair, banana-streaked face, and sticky hands and grimaced. Walker was surprised he didn’t go running out of the room like his “babies” had.

“You’re not going to have kids?” Heather asked Dillon.

“Of course we are,” Caitlin said. “We can’t wait. It’s on our life list.”

“Maybe just not any time soon,” Dillon said.

Caitlin blinked in surprise, and the silence fell as hard as Roly just had.

Heather turned awkwardly to Maze. “What about you and Jace?”

Maze looked like she might be allergic to the question, but Jace came through for her, giving an easy laugh as he gently squeezed her in a one-armed hug. “She’s shy about it because she’s been to one of my family dinners. Five siblings, lots of bickering. It’d send anyone running screaming into the night.”

The thing about getting to know someone when you were kids was that you got to know them on a level you couldn’t easily achieve as adults. Add in ugly childhoods and a shockingly traumatic event that forever changed your lives, and the connection deepened whether you liked it or not. Walker knew Maze. She was as tough as they came. Nothing scared her.

“I’m sorry,” Caitlin said, shaking her head. “But . . .” She looked at Dillon. “‘Not any time soon’?”