Maverick: A Small Town Romance (North Ridge Book 2)

by Karina Halle

This man—Maverick—is built like a fucking bear.

I could climb his whole damn body like Mount Everest and there’s more than enough tempting places to hold base camp for a few days.

The last thing I need is to be attracted to my boss. Even though, let’s face it, I fucking am. Especially when he rolls up the sleeves of his navy-blue sweater and I see the dark swathes of intricate tattoos on his strong forearms. My panties melt a little bit more.

“But,” he adds, “there’s no way she would have slept with you, brother.” “And what makes you say that?” “I don’t know, she seems kind of smart.” “Fuck off.”

“As long as I have you thinking,” she says,

I nod, happy to do what I’m told.

“You should be scared,” he says again, voice low and grave. “It’s healthy. It protects you. But you have to let it in and you have to deal with it head on. I know this is a lot and I know you’re just getting back in the game. So the fear is only natural. But don’t push it away. Don’t think you can outrun it. Fear will always find you. Better you find it first.”

But mainly, my relief is selfish. I still have what it takes. Losing Levi didn’t break me.

The kind of loneliness that hurts, like something cold and hard and dark is dissolving inside you like a bath bomb. It’s a chill in your soul, the type that only a strong embrace can get rid of. Sometimes, I just want to be held.

“We all get the blues, baby,” she says, voice husky. “Like you say about fear, the blues will find you. It’s better you go and find it first.”

Now my grandfather is laughing. “Rules? Rules? Oh, John boy, you have never been one to follow rules. And you’ve been better off for it.”

“You know I’ll let you do anything,” I tell him.

This beast of a man brought to his knees.

I want him to be my shelter through any storm. A shelter for my heart. But I’m in love with this man. And who is going to save me from that?

“Because you’re so unapologetically you. You don’t give a fuck.”

She’s every unexplored mountain, every wild river, every storm that catches you by surprise. She’s a force of nature.

You’re seeing some part of their life that no one else ever will.”

“Love is chaos.” I give her an odd look. But she’s right. Love is chaos. I think I might be falling in love with Riley and I’ve never felt more turbulent in all my life.

grab his arm and pull him back but he’s basically a tank and I can’t stop him.

But closure doesn’t mean a door closing on pain. You can have peace and pain at once. The heart can weather any storm.

“The one thing we can’t buy, can’t find, can’t…rescue, is time. Take it from me. Time is an unstoppable force, moving us all toward the same end. Sometimes that end happens for some sooner than it happens for others. Sometimes others are left behind. But we, as those who still experience time, we have a duty to those who have gone. We have to use every second we have. Life is too fucking short to feel guilty. We all feel it, and sometimes we deserve it, but acknowledge it and move on. Don’t let it hold you back. Don’t sacrifice the time you have left. It’s a gift that so many don’t have. Believe me. It’s all going to be over before you know it.”

“I didn’t do good. You call that good? I was practically drowning and you waltzed in there and fished me out like a bear with a salmon.”