“Is she always like that?”
Will began turning knobs on the grill. “In the beginning of their marriage? Maybe not. At this point, it’s pretty hard to remember how things used to be. All I know is that in the past year or so, she’s been worse than ever. Honestly, I don’t know how he can live with her. Whatever happens between them, though, we’ve got his back.”
She’d seen that—the way the men had surrounded Evan, making it clear that they were there if he needed them.
“We’ve all known each other a long time,” he told her. “Matt and Evan were ten. Daniel, Sebastian, and I a year older. Some bullies were picking on Matt.” He shrugged. “Something had to be done.”
Harper glanced at the huge muscles in Matt’s arms as he chased down Sebastian in the big pool. “Matt needed help?”
Will grinned. “He was a scrawny kid.”
She had a hard time picturing it. “So you rescued him.”
An expression she couldn’t quite read flashed across his face, but he wasn’t smiling anymore as he said, “Evan ran for the principal.”
“Smart boy.”
“That’s why he’s the money man.” But his face darkened even further. “We all eventually ended up living with Daniel’s parents. Susan and Bob raised us.”
“All of you?” Wonder laced her voice.
“It wasn’t a great neighborhood. Things happened.”
His answer was so understated, his features so expressionless, that she felt a little hitch in her chest. She wanted to ask what things, but at the same time, she didn’t want to make a mistake by pushing too hard. Not when Will had just revealed more to her about his past than he had at any time in all the weeks she’d known him.
“So we stuck together.” He blew out a hard breath, and then the cocky grin was back. She’d never been happier to see it. “The Mavericks.”
They weren’t brothers, not by blood the way she and Jeremy were. Yet she knew they would do anything for each other.
Meeting them shed new light on Will. He’d once said his word was his bond, that he always kept his promises. Seeing him with his closest friends showed her that it was no boast or throwaway phrase. He’d clearly been through hard times with these men, and he was there for them no matter what. Just the way he’d been there for Jeremy time and time again.
And though she kept trying to tell herself that this thing between them was just a casual thrill ride, she couldn’t help but hope that he’d be there for her, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“So,” Susan mused on the phone, “I hear things are progressing nicely with you and your new lady.” She’d waited a couple of days after the Memorial Day barbecue to call him, but Will had guessed it was coming after every one of the other Mavericks had already weighed in on the subject of Harper.
Evan had called Will first to apologize again for his wife’s snapping at Harper and Jeremy. He’d made an excuse about a migraine that Will wasn’t buying, but he’d forced himself to let it go. Evan ended the call by telling Will not to screw things up with Harper. Matt was next on the horn to say that Noah kept talking about the pretty lady who had played with him in the pool. The boy had been terribly sad to learn she couldn’t be their new nanny because she already had an important job. Then Sebastian claimed he still couldn’t get over Will finally dating a woman with looks and brains. And finally Daniel had called to say, “You look happy, Will. I like her.” Which said it all.
In his high-rise office, Will swiveled his chair to face the San Francisco Bay glittering in the sun. “Who called you this time?”
Susan laughed. That’s what he loved best about her: her laughter. She’d never yelled at any of them. Even when he’d been a complete shit, Susan would give him a long look and ask, “Do you really think that was the right thing to do?” As if she’d known that he hadn’t been thinking, he’d just been doing, reacting, acting out in the wrong way. Somehow Susan always managed to forgive him anyway.
“They all told me,” she said.
“They’re a bunch of freaking busybodies,” he grumbled, though it amused him that men in their mid-thirties would rush to their mom with gossipy tidbits.
“How else am I going to be updated? You don’t tell me anything unless I drag it out of you.”
This was true. He’d talked to Susan several times since Harper and Jeremy had first come to his garage and work had begun on the Maserati, and yet he’d managed to avoid answering nearly all of her questions after that first call.
“You’ve never introduced your brothers to a woman before,” Susan observed. “They say she’s lovely.”
“She is,” he said softly.
“And they all really like her brother, too.”
“Jeremy’s a great kid.”
“We’d love to meet them both. I hope someday you’ll bring them to the house.”
The Mavericks had planned to buy the Spencers property out in one of the exclusive Chicago suburbs, but Susan and Bob had wanted an average home in an average neighborhood, nothing ostentatious. All they required was something large enough to house all their grandchildren and pseudo-grandchildren. Unfortunately, to date, the Mavericks had done a piss-poor job of filling up those extra rooms, and Daniel’s younger sister Lyssa wasn’t even close to starting a family.
But Will could easily imagine Harper and Jeremy and a white Christmas in Chicago. Susan would adore them both. She’d fill up the fridge and freezer with baked goods because Jeremy was “a growing boy.” And they would both love Susan, too.