The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(33)

“I wasn’t—”

“Right. So that’s a gun in your shorts then?”

“Shit,” he muttered, getting into bed with her. “This is awkward.”

“It’s only awkward if it’s for me.”

He adjusted “it.” “Trust me, it’s not. You’re too mean.”

There was another knock and an accompanying teeny-tiny demanding voice. “Jace!”

Maze relaxed and smiled. “Sammie!” she called out, shoving Jace away from her. He was laughing so hard, he hit the floor. “Come on in, baby!”

The door opened. Sammie was bouncing up and down like the Energizer Bunny, but she wasn’t alone. Behind her was Heather in a matching pj set with little kitties on them. Her hair was wild, and a pillow crease ran across a cheek. She looked like she was twelve. “It’s a pajama party. Remember when we had those?”

Caitlin appeared next to her wearing a pretty silk robe and slippers, with perfect hair and . . .

“Are you wearing mascara already?” Maze asked in disbelief.

“Of course,” Caitlin said.

Maze laughed, but it dried up in her throat when she realized Walker was behind Cat, wearing his sweat bottoms from last night. He’d added a T-shirt from—she stopped breathing—the dive bar in Vegas where their problems had all begun.

They all came in. Walker eyed the pillow and blanket on the floor with Jace.

“Fell out of bed,” Jace said easily, and rose to his feet.

“With your blanket and pillows?” Heather asked.

“Yep.”

Maze slid her gaze to Jace’s boxer shorts as he got into bed next to her. Luckily, morning wood was no longer a problem. Good thing too, because before she knew it everyone was on the bed—except Walker. He walked slowly into the room, purposely eyeing the pillow and blanket on the floor before meeting Maze’s eyes.

Dammit.

She was now sandwiched in between Heather and Caitlin, with Jace at her feet and Sammie trying to climb on top of him, but for a second, all that craziness faded away. It was only her and Walker in the room, which both gave her a secret thrill and pissed her off.

“Up!” Sammie yelled at Walker.

“Yeah,” Heather said to him, patting a corner of Maze’s bed. “Up.”

“I’m good.” But he scooped up Sammie and, to her screaming delight, hung her upside down off the back of his shoulders. Then he playfully tossed her to the bed. She bounced and squealed and gave a sweet belly laugh. Caitlin leaned in to tickle her . . . and Sammie stopped laughing and gave her a deadpan look.

Walker laughed.

“It’s not funny! I want her to love me. I need her to love me.”

“She will,” Heather promised, ever the peacemaker. “Sammie, remember those brownies we make? Caitlin taught me how to make them. She also tells the best stories. I used to crawl into her bed at night when I got scared and she’d read to me. You like being read to.”

Sammie remained unconvinced.

“It’s okay,” Caitlin said with false cheer. “I guess I can’t be loved by everyone.”

Everyone but Maze laughed. She was just too aware of Walker standing bedside while Jace was actually in the bed and under the covers with her. Seriously, how did she manage to get herself into these situations? She sighed and forced herself to check into the conversation going on around her.

“I mean, I don’t get why wanting to be a mom with a simple job is so strange,” Cat was saying. “He has a life list, and children are on it.” She turned her head to look at Maze. “What do you think?”

She thought she was currently too busy having a freak-out to speak intelligently. But since Caitlin could spot a freak-out from ten miles away, she smiled and nodded. “You need to follow your dreams. You want to be a mom sooner than later.”

“But that’s not crazy, right? I’d make a good mom. I mean, I really think that raising kids, my own or otherwise, is the most important thing I’ll ever do. Like my parents did.”

“They were good at it,” Heather said. “And you would be too. We learned a lot from them, they’re amazing. I mean, I never thought I’d have a kid, but now I can’t imagine my life any other way.”

“But what if Dillon’s not on board?”

“Cat, you should do what you want,” Maze said.

“Yeah, that’s not exactly how healthy relationships work,” Caitlin said dryly. “Healthy relationships are about the three Cs.”

“Calamity, cluelessness, and catastrophe?” Maze asked.

Jace laughed, and she glared at him.

“Communication, commitment, and compromise,” Caitlin said.

“Well, compromise means he has to give something up as well,” Maze said.

Cat gave her a look. “I’m not sure you understand how these things go. I mean, you barely committed to keeping a plant alive for a week.”

Maze opened her mouth and then shut it. Because what Cat said was true.

“Not everyone’s known since they were a five-year-old what they wanted to be, Cat,” Walker said with a slight censure in his voice.

Surprised by his defense, Maze looked at him. He met her gaze—his unreadable, of course. But he knew her, maybe better than anyone. He certainly knew her better than she knew herself, or so it seemed at times. She had no idea what the hell she wanted out of her life, but she did know one thing for sure. “Very few people get a real shot at happiness,” she said carefully. “I just want to make sure you get a shot at yours.”