Dirty Maverick (The Maxwell Family)

by Alycia Taylor

  “If I want to?” I clarified.

  “Yes.”

  “I doubt that’s going to happen, but okay, I promise.”

  “I have a hard time with people thinking it’s okay to just walk away. I guess because of my mom…”

  She put her fork down and wiped her lips. Her pretty face looked so sad when she mentioned her mom. I’d never asked about her. I figured she’d tell me when she was ready. She seemed like she needed to talk about it now.

  “What happened to your mom?” I asked her.

  “Nothing…as far as I know. When I was little, she cheated on my dad. She never told him; instead she just packed her things one day and left him…and me, a note.”

  “She ended her marriage…and walked out on her daughter in a note?”

  “Yeah, classy, right? I always thought she was such a coward after that. I hated her. That was twelve years ago and I still hate her. It doesn’t matter though, it’s not like I ever saw her again or ever will. She thought a man was more important than me or my dad. My dad never got over her and that makes me even angrier. He’s been single ever since. I know that he’s afraid of getting hurt again. I hate that he’s not living his life because of her.” Suddenly everything her father had told me made perfect sense. Alexa’s mom had ripped out his heart and he expected that I would do the same thing to his daughter. Shit!

  “That explains a lot,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have to tell you something, Alexa.”

  “Uh oh,” she said, “Sounds ominous.”

  “It is, kind of,” I said. I put my own fork down and said, “The reason I was so moody those days you asked me about was because I was trying to push you away.”

  She furrowed her brow and looked confused. “But you said you didn’t want to stop seeing me.”

  “I said I wanted you. I did and I do…but your dad told me that I should leave you alone. He’s afraid that I’m going to hurt you.”

  “What? My dad said that? He told you to leave me alone?” I suddenly began to regret that I told her. She looked really upset. What if she got pissed at me again? I should learn to keep my big mouth shut.

  “He was just worried about you. He wasn’t mean about it or anything. He’s afraid I’m going to hurt you…He said I hurt you already and I was afraid he was right.”

  “When did you see my dad?”

  “I went by your house the morning after you left here and told me you needed space…”

  “I was at the mall. He encouraged me to go and spend some time on me. What did you come by for?” she asked.

  “To tell you that I wanted you and I wanted to make this work.”

  “And he invited you in?”

  “Kind of,” I told her. “He said, ‘Come in’ and ‘Sit’. He expressed his sympathy about my sister again and then he said what he had to say about you and me. He said that you were miserable and I should leave you alone. He said I wasn’t good for you and I wasn’t helping you get over your grief.”

  “He makes me so mad when he does this!”

  “He’s done it before?” I know it’s silly but that made me feel a little better. I could tell myself that maybe it wasn’t just me.

  “He’s done it my whole life. I rarely dated at all in high school because when I did, he’d pull them aside at some point and tell them pretty much what he told you. Then he would point out all of their flaws to me every time he and I talked. He’s so messed up emotionally from my mother leaving that he can’t see that everyone is not a cheater and an abandon-er like her. I’m sorry, Ian.”

  Whew, she wasn’t mad at me at least. I didn’t like seeing her so upset with her dad though. I hated to be the cause of that. “Don’t be sorry. It’s really okay…now. I know his reason behind it and you and I are going to be okay…right?”

  She got up and came over to me. She sat herself down on my lap and kissed me. She tasted like teriyaki and ginger. “Right,” she said. She curled up against me and I held her like that. I didn’t envy her dad the conversation I was pretty sure she intended to have with him when she got home. But selfishly, right now, I was content.

  BEST FRIEND’S BROTHER #5

  Chapter One

  Alexa

  Ian and I finished dinner which was really good. I was impressed with him.

  “So you taught yourself how to cook, really?”

  “Really. I read a cook-book or two…”

  I laughed, “You read a cook book?”

  “Yeah. What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing, it’s just the way you said that. It was like you actually sat down and read the cookbook.”

  “I did.”

  “The whole thing? I mean…you know that most people just take the recipes out…”

  “Go ahead and make fun of me. But, if you just take all the recipes out, you don’t learn how to glaze and douse and fricassee.”

  I had tears in my eyes by the time I stopped laughing. He was so different than I ever would have imagined he would be when I first met him…in a good way.

  I helped him clean up the kitchen and once I got past the cookbook thing I asked him, “Do you read a lot?”

  He nodded. “I missed out on a lot by not finishing school, or going to college. I read every chance I get. Come here, I want to show you something.”

  I followed him through the living room and down the short hall that led to his bedroom. He opened the doors there to what I assume was supposed to be a linen closet. The entire thing was filled with books. I stood there looking at them with awe. “Have you read all of these?”

  “Yep.” I looked at the bindings. There were cookbooks and auto books and home DIY books. There were books about nutrition and exercise and human anatomy. There were books about animals and motorcycles…it went on and on. This guy had to be a freaking genius. I was a little bit intimidated.

  “Wow, this is…you’re…”

  “Weird?” he said with a grin.

  I hugged him. “No, not at all. You’re amazing.” I think he may have blushed just a little bit. He closed the doors and led me back into the living room. He put on a movie and we cuddled up on the couch. As we watched the previews and waited for the movie to start, my mind drifted again back to Dad. I just couldn’t believe he’d told Ian to stay away from me. I’m a grown woman. What makes him think that’s okay?

  “Hey babe, are you okay?” Ian asked me.

  “What?”

  “I asked if you were okay. You’re about a million miles away. What’s on your mind? You do think I’m weird, don’t you? It’s like high school all over again,” he said, half-jokingly.

  “I still think you’re amazing,” I told him. “If those high school girls thought you were weird, it was definitely their loss. I was just thinking about Dad again.” Ian was lying back on the couch with his legs across my lap. He sat up and put his arm around me.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry. I feel so embarrassed that my father sat you down like you were a thirteen year old kid and told you to leave his daughter alone. I’m surprised he didn’t take his gun out and clean it while he was talking to you.”

  “He has a gun?”

  I laughed, Ian really looked worried. “I don’t know,” I told him. “It was a joke, sort of. It’s not really funny. It pisses me off.”

  “Well then, that’s what I’m sorry for. I shouldn’t have told you. I don’t want to cause problems between you and your dad.”

  “You didn’t, Ian. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Ian made a face and I said, “What?”

  “I kind of promised him I would stay away from you so he didn’t expect you to find out.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have done that,” I told him. “I mean, I’m glad you told me…thank you, but I wish you would have stood up to him and then maybe he’d stop this nonsense.” Ian smiled and I said, “What?”

  “You’ve obviously never been a guy
and been put in the position of having a face to face with Dad. It makes the toughest guys balls shrivel up. Think about it…if this was just some other guy, you could tell him to mind his own business and then if he chose not to, you could kick his ass, right?” I nodded and he said, “But this is your dad. No matter how much you disagree with his methods when push comes to shove in the long run, you’re gonna stick by him, right?” I nodded again and he said, “It’s kind of a lose/lose position I’m put it. Besides, I don’t have that much experience with dads.”

  “Because you didn’t date much in high school?”

  “Because I’m not really a guy who “dates,” at all. I “hang out” with girls or I…”

  “Have sex with them?” He had the decency to look abashed as he said, “Yeah, that. But I don’t usually meet Dad. So, it’s nerve-wracking and I didn’t want to do anything to make you hate me.”

  I nodded. He was right, I hadn’t thought about it like that. “He shouldn’t have put you in that position. I’m really sorry. He’s so messed up over my mom. It’s been so many years and he’s still just sitting there, letting her ruin his life. It drives me crazy. It drives me crazier because he honestly believes that he’s helping me by keeping men away from me. I can’t believe that he thinks I’d be better off alone forever than to have to experience a heart ache or two in my lifetime. I’d so much rather end up with a broken heart. That’s no way to live.”

  “You’re right. Have you told him that?”

  “More than once,” I said. “But, I was in high school at the time and technically he had the right to tell me who I could and couldn’t date at that point. Now, I’m a grown woman though and he doesn’t have that right. So, I think maybe it’s time for another talk.”

  “I guess I shouldn’t expect to be invited to any family dinners any time soon, huh?”

  I laughed again. “We might need to give it a cooling off period,” I told him. He grabbed me around the waist then and pulled me down next to him on the couch. “Oh my God!” I said, looking at the television.

  “What?”

  “Back to the Future, really?”

  “You don’t like it?”

  I laughed. “You really are a nerd aren’t you?”

  “Fine,” he said, “I’ll change it. Or we could play a video game…or have sex…”

  I giggled. “No more sex! You perv, you’re killing me!”

  “Right, because I’m the one who got in the shower with you all naked and sexy.”

  “Did I do that?” He tickled me and said, “Yeah, so just give up the innocent routine.”

  “Okay, you’re not the perv, I am. But I do think I need a “cooling off” period. Which movie would we be watching?”

  “I have a lot of porn…I hear you perverts like that sort of thing.”

  I threw a pillow at him. “Try again.”

  “Star Wars?”

  I laughed. “Anything made in this century…that’s not porn?”

  “Oh! I just bought the new Hunger games.”

  “That’ll work. You have popcorn?”

  “Check the cabinet under the microwave,” he said. He got the movie ready while I went in and did that. I found a few packages of microwave popcorn and stuck one in. While it popped, I walked over to the refrigerator and looked at the pictures stuck there underneath beer and UFC magnets. There was one of a much younger and thinner Ian in a suit. His arm was around a pretty blonde haired girl in a dress suited for a prom. In the bottom right corner it said, “Winter Wonderland 2007,” he would have been a sophomore. That was the year he got into trouble with the steroids. It made me wonder what was so special about the girl that he kept her picture on his refrigerator seven years later. “What ya looking at?” His voice startled me. I turned around and he was leaning in the doorway. He looked so damned hot in just his shorts. I was no wonder I was turning into a pervert.

  “Just looking at your pictures,” I said. He came over and glanced at the fridge like he hadn’t seen them before himself. He pointed at one of him and Emma on the beach. He couldn’t have been more than seven and Emma was about four. They were super cute and since they were wearing beanies and you couldn’t see her hair, they almost looked like twins.

  “That was our first trip to the beach. That was taken before Emma ran into the ocean and my mother screamed bloody murder while my dad fished her out.” He was smiling at the memory, but his eyes looked sad.

  “When was this?” I asked, pointing at the picture of him and the girl.

  “Winter formal, sophomore year,” he said.

  “Is she someone special?” I asked him. The microwave dinged and he avoided my question by taking out the bag and dumping the popcorn into a bowl.

  “Grab us some waters and let’s go back in the living room. I’ll tell you why I keep the picture.”

  I got the water and followed him in. We sat back down on the couch and he handed me the bowl. I took a handful and popped a couple in my mouth and waited. Finally, he said, “The picture being on the fridge is not about her. I mean, she was a nice girl…my first real girlfriend….”

  “What’s her name?”

  He laughed. “Whitney, but it’s really not about her.”

  “I believe you. I as just curious what her name was. She’s pretty.”

  “Yeah, she is. I saw her about three months ago, I guess. I ran into her at the store. She has a baby and another one on the way. She married the guy she started dating after we broke up. She seems happy, so that’s good. But, the picture is about me…and that year…and all the things that changed after that.”

  I took a drink of my water and said, “Tell me about it.”

  Chapter Two

  Alexa

  “I told you I was on the wrestling team. I was really good, but no matter what I did, it didn’t seem like I could put on any bulk. The other guys were always bigger than me. Then one day, Whitney and I were hanging out at her house and her older brother came in. He’d been away at college. She introduced me to this guy that looked like the Incredible Hulk. After he left the room I asked her if he was always a big guy. She said he was kind of skinny in high school. She showed me a picture and he’d been even skinnier than me.”

  “He was using steroids?”

  “Yeah, but she didn’t seem to know that and I didn’t know yet. He was home for spring break, so I spent as much time at her house as I could. I kept bugging him about his work-outs and his diet and one day before he left to go back to school he finally said, “Kid, you’re not going to get a body like this just eating a high protein diet and working out. I take a lot of supplements.” I was relentless and he finally let me buy a few doses of his stack and he showed me how to order my own online. They were legal steroids and I always took them by mouth. But I was under eighteen so it was illegal for me to order them and there were rules through the school about not using them…legal or not. It would be like taking your mom’s Xanax. The prescription is legal, but if it showed up in your pee, since it isn’t your prescription, you’d be in trouble.”

  “So it showed up in your pee?” I asked him.

  “Eventually. But first, my teammates were noticing my weight gain and how I was finally able to build muscle. They asked me about it and since I still thought I was all that, I told them. They all started ordering it. A parent from a different school saw how different we looked from the year before and raised his suspicions. The school gave in and tested us and “Boom,” I was caught “cheating.” My whole life changed after that. I was a good student and my parents had high hopes for me going to college. I’d actually gotten noticed by MIT and they were talking full-ride. I was pretty smart in some ways. Pretty stupid in others. I keep that picture up to remind me of the “good Ian.” That was actually Emma’s idea too. She told me to find a picture from the last time I really felt good about myself. That was it.”

  “You were just a kid. You couldn’t have really known what the fallout would be.”

  “No, I didn’t
, really. It was probably a year later before I finally decided to get my shit together. I got arrested for shoplifting, the cops brought me home drunk from more than one party…I gave my parents hell for that entire year…and they never gave up on me. I’m lucky as hell to have them.”

  “You are,” I said, “But you know what I think?”

  “What?”

  “I think they’re lucky to have you too. Especially now. You take such good care of them.”

  “I don’t really do anything….”

  “I saw the chalkboard. I tasted the cookies. I see the look in your mother’s eyes when she talks about you. You’re doing a great job and it has to be so hard because you’re dealing with your own grief at the same time. I think you’re pretty amazing, and thank you for telling me about all of this.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “It’s nice to know someone thinks I’m amazing.”

  He looked like he was joking. I wanted him to know how serious I was. I leaned in and put my mouth close to his and said, “I’m serious, you’re amazing. I like this, you sharing with me. Please don’t think you have to hold things back or lie to me, okay?”

  He kissed me softly on the lips. He tasted like butter and salt. “Okay, baby. No lies. I promise. But now you have to tell me something about you that I don’t know.”

  I kissed him again and said, “How about I do that next time? I really should head home. I want to catch Dad before he goes to bed so we can talk.”

  Ian made a wince face. “Are you going to yell at him?”

  “No,” I told him with a smile. “But I am going to be firm. It’s high time he realized I’m a grown-up.”

  Ian raked his eyes over me so slowly that I actually shuddered. “Yes you are,” he said with a grin.

  It took me another fifteen minutes to convince him to let me up so I could get dressed. Once I was dressed I brushed my hair and touched up my make-up enough that it didn’t look like I’d been having wild sex all day. I got another long, deep, hot kiss before I left and when we broke it I said, “I know that we have gotten off to a really rough start, but I would love it if this works out for us. I have so much fun hanging out with you.”