Fly With Me | ✓

07.1

Everleigh was nothing if not the most stubborn person known to mankind. So, when she saw a shirt that would guarantee to give her mother a heart attack if she wore it to Christmas dinner, Everleigh vowed to wear it for the rest of December.

Which subsequently meant that she ended up in Vegas, waiting for Kingston Maverick at a restaurant that probably shouldn't have let her in, with a shirt that said there's some Ho's in this house with a cartoon Santa on it.

It was worse that she was somehow more embarrassed to be sitting alone than she was to be wearing a Christmas shirt on New Year's Eve.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." A sprinting Maverick slid into the chair across from Everleigh with enough speed that he almost slid off the other side onto the floor. He used the table to catch himself, but nearly sent it toppling with him until Everleigh pressed her hands to the top and kept it steady. All he'd managed in the end was to nearly fling his hearing aid across the floor, but even that managed to dangle from his ear and hold on. Maverick grinned sheepishly as he put the hearing aid back in properly. He pushed his glasses up his nose with his pinkie finger. "I was late for my flight."

Everleigh rolled her eyes. Almost playfully, still semi-annoyed. "Course you were."

"I really did try. Got stuck in traffic this time."

"It's fine."

"Not really."

"How was the flight?"

"Didn't like the attendants as much as the flight to Australia."

Everleigh shook her head—mostly at the fact she'd laughed.

"How'd your final exam go?"

"I passed the class. That's what matters."

"Congratulations."

"Are you saying congratulations because you mean it or because you're relieved I'm not going to hold a fail over your head?"

"Both," Maverick said. "Mostly proud of you, though."

"Kinda takes away from it when you say both." Everleigh wrinkled her nose. At least she was used to playing second fiddle—Florence had made sure of that one.

Maverick looked at the time on his—Everleigh's—phone instead of replying to her. Everleigh fought the urge to take it from him and leave. "We gotta go."

"You just got here." Everleigh hated how desperate that sounded. Maybe she didn't want to spend New Year's alone like she'd thought. The thought of friendship was comforting.

"I said we gotta go. You're not getting rid of me yet, Everleigh Meadowlark." Maverick waved her phone around, holding it away from her. "I still have your phone."

"What? No." Everleigh held her hand out. "Give it back, please."

Maverick held it farther away.

Everleigh raised an eyebrow. "You know I'm taller than you, right? And thus—" She went to lean across the table when Maverick threw his arm back further, nearly taking out a tray of water glasses a waiter had been holding. He apologized before Everleigh glared at him. "—my arms are longer than yours."

"Consider tonight a late birthday present."

"You already got me a birthday present."