The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(70)

Cat and Heather were gawking at her. Then Heather raised her hand.

Maze groaned. “What?”

“Can you repeat that?”

“Please don’t make me say it again.”

“You and Walker . . .” Cat said. “Together. In Vegas. Without me.”

Maze had to laugh. “I’m giving you my biggest, darkest secret and all you want to talk about is the fact that we did something without you?”

Cat winced. “Okay, that came out wrong.”

“Uh-huh, let’s just say the princess tiara isn’t just a prop.”

Their resident princess had the good grace to look embarrassed. “Okay, whatever. I’m selfish. But you don’t get to stop the story there.”

Maze knew it wouldn’t be that easy. “What else do you want to know?”

“Only everything.”

“It was my twenty-first birthday.”

“Right,” Caitlin said. “I remember that. I wanted to take you out and you said you had something you couldn’t get out of.”

“Yes, Vegas was that something. And I lied, okay? Obviously, I could’ve gotten out of it if I’d wanted to. And if foresight was as good as hindsight, I would’ve gotten out of it. Anyway, he flew me to Vegas to celebrate.”

“Romantic,” Heather said with a sigh.

“Wait,” Cat said. “You and Walker were seeing each other back then?”

“No,” Maze said. “We weren’t at all actually, but we both knew that there was something there and had been for a while.” If she was being honest, it’d always been there. “We’d been ignoring it. But what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” She shrugged. “Seemed worth it at the time. End of story time. Your turn, Heather. Truth or dare?”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on just a minute, missy,” Cat said. “There’s totally more. It’s all over your face.”

Maze tried a light, casual smile. Not easy when she was at least half drunk. Maybe all the way drunk if she considered the fact that she’d actually spilled the beans about Walker. “So . . . it turns out that the bar we were at was serving free mai tais.”

“Uh-huh. And what did drunk Maze and Walker do?” Heather asked, emptying the last of the pitcher into their glasses for another round.

Maze’s stomach tightened because she was about to lie her ass off—by omission. “We woke up the next morning and knew it was a mistake, the end.”

Cat’s hand hit the table hard enough to make the drinks all jump. “Oh my God!” She held out a hand to Heather. “Pay up.”

“What? Why?” Maze asked.

“Because I just realized I was right,” Caitlin said. “All those years ago, I told Heather I thought you two had gone together to Vegas.”

“Wait,” Maze said slowly. “You . . . knew?”

Cat nodded. “Guessed. Walker had let me know he was going to be out of town for a few days. Then you posted a pic of yourself in a casino.”

“Okay,” Maze said. “But that didn’t mean we were together.”

“In your pic you were wearing a plaid button-down around your waist.”

Heather nodded sagely. “Walker’s. That’s when I knew that one plus one equaled sex.”

“Wait. So you guys bet on me?” Maze asked.

Cat’s hand covered hers. “It’s a compliment. I love how you live your life balls out. Well, minus the balls. You know what I mean. Every adventure I’ve had has been thanks to you. Jumping off the bluffs into the lake. Camping in the haunted parts of the woods. That weekend we spent in San Francisco at my first Octoberfest.”

Maze snorted. “You twisted your ankle jumping off the bluffs, you got poison ivy when we camped, and in San Francisco, you almost got mugged.”

“But I didn’t! You clocked the would-be mugger right in the face with your purse.”

“I was too young for those adventures,” Heather said with a laugh. “But you always made it up to me, Maze. You’d make me forts with every spare sheet and blanket in the house and hang out with me for hours, pretending we were stuck on a raft or alone on a mountaintop, no rules. I’ve always thought you were the bravest, most badass chick I’d ever met. Still do.”

Maze stared at them, saw the utterly genuine honesty in their faces, and relaxed a little. “Sorry. I guess I feel touchy about all the mistakes I’ve made.”

“Whatever mistakes you’ve made, I’ve made more, I can promise you.” Heather smiled. “And to be honest, regarding Vegas, I actually thought you and Walker would come home married. Because that’s where my young, embarrassingly romantic, and still-unjaded-in-spite-of-everything mind went. And it’s why I owe Cat the money, because I thought there’d be no way you’d fall for each other, go to Vegas, and not get married.”

“And I said that you might be impulsive, but you’d never do anything that stupid,” Cat said.

Maze took a big gulp of her drink. “You’d be surprised.” She set her glass down. “Also, it gets worse. If all that isn’t stupid enough for you, I’m pretty sure I am falling for him.”

Cat’s and Heather’s mouths were both hanging open again, and Maze pushed her glass away.