Page 2 of Maverick

“Like I’ve been kicked to the ground. Why are you guys still here? I thought for sure that you’d be bored to death watching me sleep.” Mr. Strong said that he was enjoying the quiet, and Jenson said he’d been able to get a bit of work done. “What day is it?”

Mr. Strong got up to leave, and she was worried about that. She liked the other man, had always liked him but she was very intimidated by him. Just as much as she was his entire family. With the exception of Jenson. They really had been friends for a very long time.

“You’ve been here for a little over a week now. Counting the emergency room where you spent three days. Your head wound isn’t healing like they had hoped it would, and they took you into surgery the day before yesterday.” Jenson moved closer to the bed so that she could see him better. “How many times did he hit you, Gracie? And when was the last time?”

“If you remember, it wasn’t him on the recent beating. Plus, you know my story, Jenson. I have a shitty life.” He nodded and asked her when the last time she had seen her uncle. “If I’ve been in here that long, then it’s been about two weeks. He caught me off guard coming out of the grocery store a couple of days before that. Why?” Her uncle Bradon Shipley hated her with a passion. He had since the day she’d been born. For reasons that she couldn’t understand.

“You have a concussion. Not to mention a nice deep wound on the top of your head that no one noticed until now. You should also be aware that Jade ordered a body scan for you, and they found your broken ribs. Six total that aren’t from the last time. You have a fractured femur that hasn’t been taken care of, as well as two fingers that have been broken. How are you even getting around?” She asked him what else. “What else? Are you expecting more?”

“I always expect the worse. You know that.” He nodded, and she had to look away. “Why are you hanging around here? I’m serious, Jenson, you should go home and make babies or something. Getting laid will help you be in a great mood.” He told her that he had a son now and was taking care of him better than she was taking care of herself. “I’m fine. I swear. So long as I’m diligent and watch out for him anyway.”

“Where is Danny?” She hurt then. The mere mention of his name would send her into a spiral. She told him that Bradon had killed him last month. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. I know how much you loved that dog.”

“He was my best friend when you had to go away.” He told her how sorry he was. “It’s all right, Jenson. He was a good dog and kept me aware of my surroundings, too. I miss him every day.”

Danny had been her support dog for more years than she could remember. The poor old thing had been getting old, and it broke her heart when he was murdered. Even if she thought of how he’d been killed, it would make her want to go out and find Bradon and give the same to him. However, she never saw him until it was too late for her to react.

“I’ve come to a decision for you. I know that it’s going to piss you off, but I’m taking you home with me when you get out of here. As I said to you—you might not remember—Jade is a medical physician and can keep you from hurting while you recuperate. And I think you need that more than anything right now.” She didn’t say anything knowing that he’d just piss her off arguing about it. “Also, your boss? Mr. Gardener? He’s been arrested too. I told you that I pressed charges for you, but Marty came to the station with the recording of the two of you in the lunch room and into the hallway leading to the doors. I hadn’t realized that he’d demanded that you work another shift when you’d been working twenty-four already.”

“I needed the money.” He asked her what she had needed money for that badly if she was going to be working all the time. “Because if I don’t have money on me when Bradon comes after me, he hurts me worse.”

“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.” She told him not to call her honey. “I will call you what I want. And you’re going to behave yourself, too.”

She was hurting too much to argue with him. Not that it wouldn’t do her any good. Arguing with him had never gotten her anywhere, but she was happy that he told her to rest after the nurse came in and gave her some more medication. Whatever they were giving her, she was sure that it was costing more than she made in all the hours that she worked. And right now, she thought it was well worth it.

~*~

Maverick decided that he loved living in a house. He’d been staying at a rental house while he’d been away for the past seven months, going to college as a refresher for the family. While he was happy to be home, he didn’t care for the condo that he was living in anymore. It was too small, too tight—too everything. But he didn’t have time to go and look at places today or, for that matter, the rest of the week. He wanted to catch up with his family and meet the new additions, too. Picking up his phone when it rang, he did want to talk to his dad today.

“You can’t be seriously thinking of giving up your condo life.” Maverick had to smile, loving how his dad answered the phone like they’d been talking for an hour already. He asked him why he’d say that. “You’ve been living in that same place for all your adult life. I believe you still have the same furniture you had when you moved in at eighteen, son.”

He looked at his furniture and told his dad that he was probably right. “I do have a new mattress, however. It’s still in my old bed frame, but it’s a different mattress. And I think that I might have new silverware too. The last set I had was some of yours and Mom’s old stuff that I took with me.”

“Yes, with the strange swirly design on the bottom of it. I remember that. I think there wasn’t even a full set of them when you took them.” He said that he’d only had one fork when he’d finally gotten rid of them. “What am I going to do with you, son? You’re the financier with our money and you won’t spend a dime unless you absolutely have to. I’m surprised at times that you don’t have any new clothing in your closet. You do buy new underwear on occasion, don’t you?”

He didn’t tell his dad that he still had some of the clothing that he had in high school and college. In particular he still had his tee shirts from the chess team as well as his football jacket that he’d gotten himself his senior year. He was sure if he looked, he’d still have the long socks that he wore with his uniform. But he did have new underwear. His mom still bought them for him when she was out. Maverick knew that he’d never live it down if he told anyone that.

“Did you hear that there is an estate auction tomorrow? I’m going to go with Barton and his son, Sherm. You’ve no idea how much I love saying that. When are you going to have me saying that about you, Maverick? Just putting it out there for you.” He told his dad that he’d only been back for one day to give him some time. “All right. You know that I’m only teasing you a bit, don’t you? But anyway, if you’re looking for a house, there is one at this auction. I’ve done the specs on it. It’ll need some loving and some repair work, I would say, too, a major update on the kitchen, but it’s a well-built house with a lot of potential. I thought about getting it for the foundation, but I’m sort of intimidated by the amount of land that comes with it. Also, it has a lot of bedrooms.”

“How many bedrooms? And are you expecting me to fill them anytime soon?” His dad laughed, just what he wanted him to do. “I’ll go. If for no other reason than to hang out with you and Barton. I’ve missed you guys.”

“Your mom is going to have you and the others over for dinner. She told you, didn’t she?” He told him that she had and had said to him that she’d be making all his favorites. “Oh great. Then, I’ll be getting a few favorites of my own. All right. I’ll pick you up in the morning. Unless you want to drive. I don’t mind either way, but we’ll be bringing Warren with me. Warren Dutch. He’s Toria’s father and grandda to Sherm. You heard about his other daughter, didn’t you?”

“Only what I was able to catch up on with the news last night. She’s a character, isn’t she? I mean, the fact that she tried to get her nephew and sister killed off is enough for me to be glad that I wasn’t around when she was.” Dad told him that she was saying that it wasn’t her fault. “Don’t they all say that? I mean, come on. You told a lie so that they’d react. She got that and more for her lies.”

He and his dad talked a little more, setting up a time for in the morning as well as what he had to give them in the way of information that he’d gotten taken care of while away. After hanging up, he sat down on his couch and decided that it, too, had to go. It had lost all its cushiony in it about ten years ago. Now, it was like sitting on a steel frame and nothing more.

Pulling up on his phone where the auction was being held, he was excited to see that it wasn’t too far away. About three miles from where he lived now. Which, by his estimations, it would be about eight miles closer to his parents and the rest of the family. Calling Barton, telling him there was a preview going on now about the house he was going to tomorrow, they decided to head there now and see if they could scope out some information before the morning. Even Dad, being at Barton’s house then said he’d like to do that.

The drive was made longer because of the road work that was going on. That was another thing that he’d not missed while being gone was how much traffic there was to deal with. The little college town that he was in didn’t have much in the way of places to look around in nor did it have but one stop light. He supposed that he’d have to get used to driving around again.

The house was situated about a thousand feet from the street that went by it. Driving up the long drive, he was unhappy with the amount of people who had the same thoughts as he had but it was all right. The house wasn’t being looked at as much as the things that were strewn out all over the front lawn, ready for a sale tomorrow.

“It’s a lot bigger than I thought.” Maverick told his dad that he thought it was, too. “My goodness, it looks great from the outside, but I told you, the land had me a bit off it.”

He asked the people there where the auctioneer was and they pointed to a woman directing where to put boxes. He could tell that she was stressed, so he was as polite as he could be when asking her about the house and the specs on it.

“I have the ones that came with the announcement of the sale. But do you have anything more detailed?” Dad showed her what he had, and she was nodding without giving the papers much of a look over.