Maple point mavericks, p.23
Maple Point Mavericks, page 23
I don’t talk to Natalia for the rest of the time, but I do pick out a few things Ana likes. When we leave the store, she not only has her one of a kind dress but four more bags stuffed full of everything else she wanted.
“I still don’t like you paid for it all,” she tells me, sitting back against the front seat of my car.
“It’s your fucking birthday, stop being a whiny brat and say thank you,” I tell her.
She shakes her head but laughs. “I don’t think my parents have ever splurged that much on me at one store.”
“I’m not your parents,” I tell her, knowing she has no idea of what I do to make my own money.
“Clearly,” she says sarcastically. “I really would’ve been a little shit if you were.”
“You are a little shit already,” I tell her as I back out of the parking spot.
“You just like calling me names,” she says.
“No, you are a brat and it’s fine with me,” I tell her. “Because I know just how to stop you when you start taking it too far.”
“Really? You think you can fuck the brattiness out of me every time?” She asks.
I know she knows the answer to her question already, but I entertain it for fun. “There are a few other things I could do but first I’m taking you somewhere right now so no fucking fit throwing.”
“Where? I thought we were going back to the dorm to eat,” she says, looking confused.
“We can get food wherever you want, or we can get it where we’re going. Your parents are making a big dinner so it would be smart if we didn’t eat a lot beforehand,” I explain.
“I didn’t want anything big Enzo,” she complains.
“See? A brat,” I confirm again. “Just go with the flow, baby, and enjoy your day.”
She’s quiet for a long time and I have no idea what she’s thinking. The look on her face is so blank and she just watches the road ahead, but I don’t stare. I drive and pretend to have all my attention on the road.
“When you call me baby my chest tightens,” she starts, her hand moving to her chest slowly as she stares out the windshield. “I don’t like it, Enzo. It means you can hurt me. It means I can’t control how I feel about you no matter how you act or how mean you are and… and… I don’t know what this says about me. I’m starting to not care about what you do because no matter what it is, at the end of the day I at least get a part of you. I have your attention. This makes me feel so weak.”
I drive, processing her words and going over the ways I can respond to her. I don’t think words will help at this point. I know I broke her trust by not only fucking her best friend but so many other girls too. She told me she didn’t think my body count was very high, but to me, it’s far too many because every single one of them hurt her, and I can’t do anything to take it all back.
“I can’t say anything to you to make you believe I can change from who I’ve become in your absence. It will take my actions to make you believe me. I can and will show you. You may think I’m going to hurt you again but I promise I’m going to show you I won’t,” I tell her not taking my eyes off the road. “And you don’t have just a part of me.”
“I don’t like the control I hand over to you so easily.”
“Don’t lie to yourself, Ana,” I say before shaking my head and I stopping at a red light. I look at the gentle curve of her pursed lips as she waits for me to finish and it makes me want to pull over and fuck her face before she goes to get her facial. “You love the control I take from you.”
She looks at me quickly after I correct her, and I laugh at the face she makes. “You take from me?”
“Yes, I take what I want, and you like it,” I explain as she looks around the car. Anywhere but at me. “But it bothers you because you don’t want to accept I’ll do anything to make us work.”
“Why do I like it?” She asks, sounding so unsure.
“Because deep down you know going forward, I’ll always protect you. I won’t slip again, I promise,” I tell her simply. “So why not give me complete control?”
She nods slowly but doesn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive.
“Would you like anything to drink, Mr. Akardi?” The woman who works at the front desk of the salon I brought Ana to asks.
“I’m okay,” I tell her looking back at my phone.
I’ve been waiting for Analise to finish up for a while but as I watch her get her hair done and talk to the stylist her face is bright with happiness. Her smile is genuine, and her laugh is fucking contagious as she reacts to something another stylist says as they walk by.
“Tanner, don’t gas her up too much,” Ana’s hair stylist says to the guy who walked by. “She knows she’s beautiful, I’ve told her enough today.”
He laughs loudly and flicks her off. “I’ll always be here to tell people they’re fabulous!”
I’m still watching Ana, as they playfully argue, and when she looks over at me seeing I already have my eyes trained on her the smile is wearing lowers some but it’s still there. All I can imagine is her smile on a tiny little girl who looks just like her. I don’t know if I’ll be given another son or a daughter but I’m sure we’ll have at least one of each and I know my daughter will be beautiful just like her.
The raven curls, the bright smile with pouty little lips, and those dark eyes too. She’ll have all the best parts of both of us and I’ll love her so much.
My phone rings pulling me out of the thoughts of our future, and I look down to see Cash’s name.
“What’s up, brother?”
“Hey, we show up at six, right?” He asks. I can hear loud talking and music bumping behind his voice.
“Yes. Where the hell are you?” I ask, not remembering anything else being planned today.
“Ivy’s,” he tells me. “We wanted to take as few cars to Ana’s party as we could, so we all met up here.”
“Hey Lorenzo,” I hear Ivy says in the background. I roll my eyes.
Ivy and I have a complicated relationship and while I know she doesn’t like me, she knows her cousin won’t ever be ready to let me go.
And I for damn sure won’t let anyone else have her.
“Okay, after this I think I’m ready to go back to the dorms and take a nap before dinner with my parents. They’re always so much for me to process,” Ana says as I pull into the gravel road leading to the lighthouse.
“It’s still early. Are you sure you don’t want to go do anything else?” I ask her, doing my best to keep her as busy as I can so she doesn’t have the chance to ruin her surprise.
“Enzo…” she starts, giving me a serious look. “You’ve dropped literal bands on me, gotten my hair done, and then you got my make-up and my nails done. There is nothing left to do but recover.”
I laugh. “Come on, we can recover on the beach.”
“There’s a beach out here? I thought it was just rocks…” she says, getting out and looking around like it’s her first time here.
“On the right side of the bridge it’s pretty rocky, but I found a sandy beach beyond the trees to the left,” I explain.
She looks over at me as she closes the door, her eyes full of curiosity. “Like a real, real secret beach?
“Didn’t I tell you I’d buy you a secret beach one day or something?” I ask her, jogging her memory, I’m sure.
“Yeah,” she tells me, laughing. “You did. Finally make good on your promise?”
“Actually…”
“Lorenzo Akardi, you did not buy me a beach for my birthday,” she interrupts.
“I may have,” I tell her before walking away toward the trees separating us from the river’s shore. I don’t have to look back to know she’s not following. “Come on, Ana.”
I finally hear her feet shuffling and when I get to the scruffy grass before the trees, I turn my head to find her right behind me. I continue leading her to her very own beach and I can feel the excitement radiating off her.
“Enzo, there’s no way you bought this for me,” she says as the trees open to reveal a bright sandy beach completely empty for our enjoyment.
“I did. And the lighthouse too,” I tell her truthfully.
She walks up next to me where I’ve stopped and stands with her hands on her hips as she looks out at the river. The wind blows through her freshly done hair, and she looks so beautiful, the sun making her glow.
“I don’t know what to say…” she says trailing off as she watches a hawk fly over us. “Why did you do this?”
“Because I always make good on my promises,” I tell her.
“Did you buy it while I was in—”
“No,” I say, interrupting her. “I bought it the summer we left for vacation.”
“You were only sixteen, Enzo,” she says, grinning up at me.
“My dad co-signed,” I tell her.
“I thought The Brotherhood banned us from this place…”
“Which is another reason why I bought it,” I tell her with a smile of my own. “I cleared the purchase with the family but now they can’t tell me I can’t come here. It’s ours. I planned to have renovated the year I bought it but obviously, my plans went to shit.”
She steps forward and closes her eyes as the sun shines on her face and the wind blows all around us. I can’t take my eyes off her and I love how peaceful she looks. It’s like she’s truly enjoying this moment with me and there is nothing I could do to make me feel better than I do at this moment.
“I love you Enzo,” she says, her eyes still closed. “Thank you for today. For forcing me out of my bubble, spending way too much money on me, and most of all for not being a dick at all.”
She turns to look at me with that last one and her grin makes me smile too. It reminds me of how tired I am of fighting about everything with her and how I feel about our relationship. Remaining controlled and not letting her in is making it to where she feels like she can’t trust me. It all makes sense to me now and today I’m going to do everything I can to get her to believe I will make her happy in life.
“I’m still a dick, don’t worry,” I warn before taking a step toward the water and picking her hand up. “Come closer.”
“The water is freezing,” she protests.
“Yeah, I imagine so,” I say. “But we aren’t getting all the way in. Take your shoes off.”
She pulls her hand from mine and pops her Vans off each heel and sets them neatly in the sand before looking up at me.
“You have to take yours off too,” she tells me.
I look down at my shoes and shake my head. “I don’t—"
“Lorenzo. You bought me a fucking beach,” she scolds. “You have to put your feet in the cold ass water too, so the first time is with me. Or have you already put your feet in before?”
I shake my head again. “I haven’t.”
“Then stop being a punk and take your shoes off.”
“Fine. Only because it’s your birthday,” I tell her.
“You should give me whatever I want every day,” she tells me, walking closer to the freezing water.
October in New York is cold, and it won’t be long before the snow starts and the shores freeze. We have a month if we’re lucky, but I doubt we’ll get that much time at all. It’s been a cold last few months and this part of the river will be frozen soon. I’m glad the weather held off though.
I walk with her to the water and when it hits both of our feet Ana squeals and grips me while dancing around on her tippy toes.
“It’s so fucking cold,” she yelps, but she’s still smiling and seems happy.
I pick her up under her legs instead of letting her feet stay cold and walk back up the beach some. I hold her close to me, her warm pussy pressed into my tightly.
“It is cold, but now we can officially call it our beach.”
She nods and leans in to kiss me and I hold her close until I get to where we left our shoes. We leave them off as we walk back through the trees, the grass doing well to get most of the sand off our feet and when we get back to the car she tosses her shoes on the floorboard before getting in. I slide my feet back into my shoes and drive us to the dorms. She smiles the entire way but I can’t think of anything but the party, knowing how she’ll react once she realizes it’s not a small dinner we’re going to with her parents.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
LORENZO
We get a nap in before we get ready and even though I didn’t sleep a wink, I was happy to have her on my chest, breathing softly as she rested. I don’t know why she’s so tired, she used to be able to hang from dawn until dusk. Maybe the stress of everything is draining her too much and while she claims I can be the one to help her, I want to get her into therapy. The last thing I want is for her to kill herself because she’s got so much more of her life to live.
Her phone is on the side table on her side of the bed and when her alarm goes off, I can’t reach it without waking her.
“Baby it’s time to get up,” I say, rubbing her back before shaking her gently.
She stirs and pulls her head off my cheat slowly, the alarm still going off. With sleepy eyes she reaches for her phone and hits the stop button, silencing the annoying sound.
“Wow, I needed this nap,” she says before yawning and rolling away from me.
I watch her cross my room and head for the bathroom. My dick gets hard seeing her in a pair of my boxers, her ass filling them out perfectly.
I pick up her phone when it buzzes. Ivy’s name with a message is on the screen but I don’t know the code to unlock it.
“Ivy texted you,” I call out.
When she comes out, she goes to the bags we got today. “Unlock it and tell me what she said. She hasn’t even wished me a happy birthday so I’m choosing to be mad at her.”
I hide the smirk wanting to creep across my face and play into her feelings. Making them worse just for fun.
“Did y’all have a fight? I don’t know your code to see it.”
“Two three two two,” she tells me.
I punch it in and the message comes across the screen. It takes everything in me to not laugh as I read it.
“She says she wants her purple sweater because she’s going out tonight with the girls.”
Analise narrows her eyes. “She is going out tonight and didn’t even invite me?”
“Cash called and told me the guys weren’t doing anything today so it must be a girl thing,” I tell her.
“Wait, Cash remembers my birthday, right? You told him? Because he hasn’t texted me today either,” she says sounding exasperated. “It’s like I left, and everyone forgot about me.”
“Don’t be dramatic, no one forgot about you,” I assure her. “You always say no when they invite you places. When you do that enough, people just stop asking you to go places with them.”
“But Cash?”
“How does he know you want to talk to him, Ana?” I question. “You’ve barely hung out with him since you’ve been back. You’ve been a hermit, and no one knows what to do or say to get you back out of your shell. So they just let you be and hope you’ll be ready to hang out soon.”
“I came to Legend’s,” she defends.
“One time, baby,” I tell her. “How many times have the girls invited you out?”
“A lot,” she admits. “But they’re always inviting Olivia too, and I don’t want to be around her.”
“Have you said this to them?” I ask.
“I’m not asking them to choose Enzo. They all know, and they still choose to be her friend,” she explains. “I’m not going to do this dance with her. She knows some of my deepest secrets and she still did what she did.”
“So did I,” I reason. “You don’t hide from me.”
“Don’t bring our relationship into this,” she tells me, frowning. “I know you both made the decision, but you have no idea how much I talked about you as we grew up. She knew I wanted to marry you. She knew all the things I loved about you the most and as soon as I left, she just took my place.”
“She will never be you, Ana. She was a half-priced placeholder. I was…”
“I know, you were pissed and hurt, but it still stings,” she admits.
“I was stupid but I’m going to do everything in my power to make it up to you.”
She knows something is up as soon as we start to get closer to her parent’s house. The live music can be heard from their property and she’s on high alert. I know there’s only a matter of seconds before she gets curious enough to ask me.
The ride hasn’t been bad, we talked when we first got in the car, but I know she’s either gearing up to argue with her parents or she already suspects something is up.
“Enzo, please tell me I’m not about to walk into another surprise,” she begs. I stay quiet for a few seconds before she continues. “It should be inherently clear to everyone surprises are not my favorite things right now.”
“What could we have surprised you with?” I ask, trying to waste time until I get to their driveway.
“Please don’t let me walk in blind,” she says, her eyes pleading with me. “I won’t hide my emotions again if it’s thrown on me.”
“You would’ve never agreed,” I tell her honestly. “But you deserve everything coming to you.”
“Why should I be doing it if it’s something I’d never agree to?” she questions.
“Remember how we talked about the hermit being in the shell and all of that?” I remind her.
“So this is a fucking social event now, I’m assuming? Just tell me what to expect, Enzo,” she says again.
“It’s a surprise party,” I tell her ruining everything we’ve all worked so hard to conceal.
“With who? Just the kids from The Brotherhood?”
I shake my head.
“More?” she says, already sounding overwhelmed.
“A lot more,” I tell her, turning into the driveway.
The lights are brighter now but we can’t see anything through the trees. I look over at her as I move slowly through all the cars valet parked on the big grassy field in front of their house. Her eyes are wide as she glances all around.
