God, wisdom please. It’s not supposed to be like this.
Maybe it was time to swear off all relationships.
The heavy knot in Maverick’s stomach tightened. He refused to tell Lia about his feelings and risk losing her friendship, but he couldn’t date Ophelia when his heart hurt over another woman.
Yep. Time to swear off women altogether. Definitely.
Maverick caught sight of his scowl in the mirror. Hm. He didn’t appear to be as crazy about that idea as he wanted to be.
Tension squeezed his chest, but he knew what to do. He didn’t like it, but the alternatives were all unthinkable. He needed to be able to live with himself at the end of the day.
Chapter 19
Lia sat in a corner of the lobby. She pulled the faux diamond headband out of her hair as she watched yet another couple pair off. Pink-shirted Rick was a no-show.
She closed her eyes and rubbed at the ball of stress in the middle of her forehead.
Agreeing to meet Rick had been a mistake. She should have listened to Maverick when he’d balked about signing up for Holy Hearts.
Instead, she was scheduled to make that all-important face-to-face connection with a man she’d only just started getting to know and like. Then last night she’d gone and leaned her head against the chest of her best friend, and the whole world had turned inside out and upside down.
Maverick would meet his mystery woman today, and Lia couldn’t intrude on that. She might be wrapped up in her own misery, but she didn’t want to ruin his special day in the process.
Maverick. Funny, funny Maverick.
Lia’s hand fisted around her headband, the stones cutting into her palm. She glanced down at it before staring vacantly across the lobby. Rick had asked her to wear a tiara, but when she’d searched for something graceful and elegant, all she’d found were big garish displays of cut glass. The headband suited her better. It was subtle, but if he really wanted to meet her, he’d find her.
Only, he hadn’t. Somewhere during her musings, the lobby had emptied out, and she was now alone.
So be it.
Lia stood, put the jeweled elastic headband back in its place, straightened her spine, and headed to the wide glass doors leading out to the hotel’s portico. Her hand was on the vertical brass handle of the door when the doorman opened it from the other side. She nodded to him and began to step through the marble entryway.
“Lia?”
She froze at the sound of the familiar voice. Great. Maverick wanted to introduce her to his mystery woman.
A broad smile plastered into place, Lia circled back toward the lobby.
A firing squad would be more fun than this.
She re-crossed the threshold back into the hotel before making eye contact with the conspicuously alone Maverick. “Where’s your date?”
His head tilted infinitesimally to the right as he stared at her. “I’m still working on that. What about your date? Rick, isn’t it?”
She shrugged and fought to keep her faux smile in place. “Guess he didn’t like what he saw. At least this way I don’t get stuck with the bill.”
“Speaking of… Thank you for saving me from the barracuda in the back. You’re going to let me repay you, aren’t you? Your car fund…”
She waved away his offer. “You’d have done the same for me.”
Maverick tapped a finger to the side of his head. “I like your headband. You weren’t wearing it backstage earlier. Was that for Rick?”
Lia tugged at the elastic and resisted the urge to yank it off and shove it in her purse. “He wanted a tiara, but this was the best I could do.”
“Tiara, huh? Sounds like he wanted you to feel like a princess.”
She snorted. “That only works if the prince shows up.”
Maverick’s gaze darted to her headband before returning to her face. “You’ve been seeing this Rick guy online for months. You first mentioned him not too long after…um…the one who cleaned his ears with a fork.”
“There was a Rick back then. It didn’t work out. He met someone else and got engaged before we ever had a chance. This is a new one. Guess I should scratch that name off my list. No more Ricks for me.”
Lia started to pull the headband from her hair when Maverick reached out and stilled her arm. “Leave it. You make it look good.”
She dropped her hand to her side. “You’re acting weird, Mav. What’s up?”
“I told you I hid my picture…?”
She nodded but didn’t speak. Maverick used to tell her that getting answers from her was harder than shelling pecans with bare hands. Why break tradition now?
“When did you hide yours?”
“After I… I decided to focus on meeting people who liked me for me, not for what I look like. If the people talking to me online were preoccupied with my appearance, then how could I leave that in my past? I wanted to be a healthier me – not so concerned about weight and stuff – so it made sense to block my picture.”
“And to date men who had theirs blocked, too?”
“Well, yeah. It was only fair.”
He tilted his head to the side. “You marked your profile as friends-only.”
She gave a slight nod. “That same day.”
“I’ve known you practically my whole life.” Maverick took a step back and inspected her.
A flush climbed Lia’s neck at the attention.
“All this time, and I never knew Lia was short for something else.”
“Now how on earth did you…” Her gaze snapped to his face. The light in his blue eyes flashed, and the world tilted on its axis. He wasn’t pushing her buttons or teasing her. So then, what…? “Maverick…?”
“My name’s on the distinctive side, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Lia nodded, hope fluttering in her chest.
“I signed up for Holy Hearts using a nickname.”
“Your nickname is Mav.”
“Well, sure, but that’s obvious too. I didn’t want people I worked with to be able to go online and find my dating profile.”
“You work with a bunch of men in the IT Department. Nobody would go looking for your profile.”
He shrugged. “It made sense at the time.”
The wings of hope beat faster. “So what nickname did you come up with?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “How did I never know your name is Ophelia?”
She resisted the urge to stomp her foot. “You’re not wearing a pink shirt. You have some explaining to do.”
Maverick threw back his head and laughed. “Did you not see me up there on that stage? That shirt couldn’t have gotten any pinker.”
Her laughter bubbled up. “She must have shopped a long time to find something so blinding.” Then she took a step closer to him. “You were supposed to wear a pink shirt here, in the lobby, to meet me. But…” She poked his chest. “You’re wearing black. What gives?”
He captured her hand in his own and held it to his chest. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go on a date with Ophelia when my heart beats for someone else.”
“I’m Ophelia.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I didn’t know that, now did I? Not when you first messaged me, and not in all the time since. Not until you turned around to face me with diamonds in your hair.”
“They’re not real diamonds.”
“Might as well be. You make them look like a million bucks.”
“You’re supposed to say I look like a million bucks.”
“Stop underestimating yourself. You look way better than that.”
Lia rested her other hand against Maverick’s black-clad chest. “I planned to dump Rick anyway, the louse.”
“You did?”
She kept her eyes trained on the buttons of his shirt. “A friend gave me a hug last night. My best friend in the whole world. And as quick as a flash of lightning, he stopped being my friend.”
His eyes widened, and their blue depths shimmered with…something. Joy?
Maybe with a touch of laughter. “He did?”
Lia gave a quick nod. “He became a man. A kind-hearted, God-fearing, sexy-as-all-get-out man, who held me after a bad day and who didn’t push me to talk about it. He’s nearly perfect. That is, if you can ignore his taste in swimwear.”
Maverick’s chest rumbled under her fingers. “I’ll take credit for giving you a hug, but Watts get all the credit for the swimwear.”
She glanced up, and her eyes got snagged on his. “What is Watts holding over you? You never told me.”
His gaze slid to the side. “Um… She put two-and-two together after her last visit. Figured out how I… She threatened to tell you how I felt if I didn’t wear what she brought.”
“You didn’t want me to know.”
Chapter 20
Maverick wanted to wrap his arms around Lia and pull her close. This thing budding between them was still delicate, though, and he couldn’t face the thought of crushing it. “You had Rick. I couldn’t take that away from you. I’m not heartless.”
She smoothed her hand over his thudding heart. “Far from it.”
“So where do we go from here?” Maverick lifted the hand he still held in his own and brought it to his lips. “I’m not sure I can go back to the way things were before.”
“I’m not sure I want to.” Lia stared into his eyes as if she was drinking in his very essence, and he didn’t mind one bit.
His gaze dropped to her mouth. He didn’t want to rush her, but…
“What attracted you to Ophelia, anyway?”
Maverick leaned back on his heels. “Honestly? Her name.”
Lia’s brow furrowed.
He shrugged. “Ophelia’s a unique name, and I figured if things went haywire, I could spin it into an entertaining story. I have this friend, see, and I like to tell her stories that make her laugh.”
“You’ve been sabotaging your dates to give me something to laugh about?”
“Not at first.” He ran a hand through his hair. The ground beneath his feet became ocean sand, shifting quicker than he could find his bearings. “At some point, I realized I didn’t really care about dating. You did, though, and I couldn’t let you go through it alone. I’d already had a couple of bad dates by then, so why not? That was around the time Sven-the-jerk came along and took you skiing.”
She winced.
“I couldn’t abandon you, so I embraced it. I decided to put our dare to good use.”
“What about all the women you dated? Their feelings were on the line.”
He shook his head. “I always made it clear. Friends only. Until Ophelia. There was something about her that made me wonder if we could be more. It pulled me in and stopped me from giving her the never-more-than-friends speech before our first meeting.”
“I felt that way about Rick, too. I… I had decided friends-only, but he was different. Every HeartGram he sent brought out laughter in me… and brought us closer together.”
Lia swayed ever-so-slightly, and Maverick took advantage of it. He leaned in until he felt her breath against his lips. This would be a moment they would both remember for years to come. They would retell this story to their grandchildren someday.
“Kiss her already!”
Maverick whipped his head around to look at their party crasher. “Watts, what are you doing here?”
“You think I came all this way just to bring you swim trunks, bro? I’m not leaving till you seal the deal.” With that, Watts crossed her arms and jutted one hip out in that annoying rebellious way she’d developed back in middle school.
Lia chuckled. “No pressure, right?”
Oh for the days when he could throttle his little sister and then pretend Ferris had done it. “I don’t think I can do it with Watts watching. Our first kiss should be special.”
Lia’s hazel eyes darkened for a second. But then she nodded, pulled her hand from his, and took a step back. “That makes sense. I think it’s only proper you wine me and dine me first anyway. In fact, now that I think about it, I have a kissing policy. No kissing on the first, second, or third date.” She tapped her high-heeled foot on the floor. “Yes, I think that’s correct. So I guess you’ll have to ask me out.”
If Watts were any closer — and if Wesley weren’t standing guard — Maverick would be more than half-tempted to go all linebacker on her. Or as linebacker as a computer geek could go.
He took a deep breath, then another. This situation required more than one. “Lia, would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner this evening at six? On a date?”
She tapped her chin. “What do you think, Watts? Do I have plans, or am I available?”
Wesley jumped into the conversation. “Oh, for the love of butterflies and unicorns, get it over with and put us all out of our misery!”
Maverick and Lia both swiveled their heads to look at the young couple. Watts shrugged. “He has five sisters and scads of nieces. You have to make allowances.”
With a shake of her head, Lia returned her attention to Maverick and nodded. “Alright. A date. Tonight. Our first date, by my count.”
“Don’t remind me. I have to wait through three of them before I can even think about kissing you.”
Lia turned her back to Maverick so fast that he had to take a step back to keep his balance. She waved across the lobby to where Watts and Wesley stood. “Thank you for the swimwear. You’re a good sister.”
Wesley snorted. “She figured the only way to force you two together was to cause maximum embarrassment in as public a way as possible.”
Maverick pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed to get Lia out of there before either Watts or Wesley said anything else.
Before he formulated a plan, though, Lia spun back toward him. Her balance had to be off, too, because she lurched into him.
He grabbed her close before she completely lost her footing.
Her mouth, mere millimeters from his chin, begged his attention. How mad would she be if he ignored her three date rule?
His decision hadn’t yet crystallized when her hazel eyes drifted closed.
He was only human. Surely she’d forgive him for breaking the rules this once.
Maverick stepped through that last tiny bit of distance and kissed the woman he loved, the woman who had been his best friend for more years than he could count, the woman whose hips swayed in the most distracting manner, the woman who held his heart and all his tomorrows in the palm of her hand.
Chapter 21
Lia’s heart sighed.
Then it took off racing in her chest like an out-of-control tambourine.
But she didn’t mind one bit.
She sank into Maverick’s kiss while she soaked up his love. He hadn’t said it yet, but it pulsed there between them.
Love.
It was a living thing, solid and strong. Years of friendship could do that, could give a relationship resilience and surety.
Lia inhaled the scent of Maverick’s cologne. Somehow, in the last twenty-four hours, the fragrance he wore had morphed from reasonably masculine to downright sexy. Now, in the light of day, it was even more nuanced. It smelled like tomorrow, like happily-ever-after.
Maverick pulled away before she was ready. “I hope you’ll forgive me.”
She ran her fingers along his jaw and up the side of his face. “For what?”
“Breaking the three date rule.”
Life would be so much fun with this man by her side. “I said no kissing on the first, second, or third date. I didn’t say anything about before… or after.”
His eyebrows shot up.
“Why do you think I faked a fall?”
Maverick looked from her to the floor where she’d magically tripped over nothing. “You faked it?”
“You were being too much of a gentleman. I figured that was the easiest way to land myself in your arms.”
He scratched his head. “That whole wave thing and talking to Watts across the lobby was part of a ploy?”
&nbs
p; She nodded, twirled around, and gave a pageant wave to where Watts and Wesley still stood on the other side of the lobby before giving her attention back to Maverick.
Maverick bent his arm and held his elbow out to her, a smile splitting his face.
Lia slipped her hand through the crook of his arm and leaned into his side as he led her toward the hotel’s entrance.
As the doorman opened the glass door for them, Maverick angled close and whispered in her ear. “I plan to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Lia’s heart thrilled at his words. All the bad dates, uncertainty, self-doubt, and yes, even the Network Elf, had all brought her here to this moment. “You should know I don’t accept marriage proposals on the first, second, or third date, either.”
Maverick examined his watch. “Hm. Looks like it’s half past four. That gives me over an hour before we’re officially on our first date.”
Oh yes. Life promised to be fun with this man, and she couldn’t wait for the adventure to begin.
About Heather Gray
Heather Gray loves coffee, God, her family, and laughter – not necessarily in that order! She writes approachable characters who, through the highs and lows of life, find a way to love God, embrace each day, and laugh out loud right along with her. Her books almost always include someone who’s infatuated with coffee, too. Some things just can’t be helped. Heather delights in creating characters who, like her, have their share of faults and foibles, characters who are flawed…but loved anyway.
Website: http://www.heathergraywriting.com
If you liked An Informal Date, then you’ll enjoy the 2016 Selah Award winning novella An Informal Christmas.
An Informal Christmas, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017L07I0G
Child Life Specialist Rylie Durham understands the pain of blaming God for a bruised heart. When Zach York comes along, she sees a kindred spirit in him. Rylie enlists Zach’s help with a pediatric Christmas formal and hopes to prove that, even when it’s painful, love is worth the risk.
Other Books by Heather Gray
Informal Romance (Contemporary Christian Romance)
An Informal Christmas
An Informal Arrangement
Love at First Laugh: Eight Romantic Novellas Filled with Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After Page 29
