Page 24 of The Maverick's Homecoming

Because, yeah, things got bad sometimes. But with a little heart, a lot of faith and the determination to start again and make it work this time, what had been broken could be made whole once more.

Eventually, as the amphitheater cleared out, she worked her way down to the base of the stage. She wasn’t there long before Finn came to get her.

She took his arm. “You were amazing.”

“You’re the amazing one.” His eyes were so soft. She thought of their teenage love, so sweet and true. No, it hadn’t lasted. But it had been beautiful all the same. “I’m real glad you’re here,” he said, his voice sandpaper-rough.

She almost went on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.

But she caught herself just in time. Her heartbeat roaring in her ears, she played it super casual. “So…time to schmooze?”

He nodded. “Stay close like you promised.”

“You got it. Let’s go.”

For the rest of the afternoon, she did just what Finn had asked of her. She stuck close by his side and looked at him with something that might have been a little too close to adoration—but only because he’d asked her to.

Or that’s what she told herself. Really, it was no hardship playing Finn’s adoring date. She liked being at his side.

They visited with their neighbors. And they laughed a lot.

They shared lunch. The Silver Spur Café had set up a booth. And in honor of the Dinosaur Center, the booth offered brontosaurus burgers. Kenzie and Finn each ordered one of those, with fries and icy, delicious stegosaurus shakes.

They joined Oscar and his dad, Jesse, at one of the picnic tables. Kenzie introduced Finn to Jesse. A few minutes later, Barrett and his fiancée, Nina Sanchez, joined them. Kenzie spotted her friend Lauren Dalton with her twin four-year-old daughters and waved them over.

Lauren and her girls joined the rest of them for a little while. But the cute redheaded twins didn’t care much for sitting quietly while the grown-ups talked.

“We’ll be back,” Lauren promised as she herded them off to get dino dirt cups, which were made with pudding, crushed cookies and candy “dinosaur” eggs. They returned a few minutes later and sat down again.

Kids from the team kept dropping by to talk to “Coach.” Finn was good with them, Kenzie thought. He listened when they spoke. His replies were thoughtful and kind…or lighthearted and sometimes funny, depending on the subject.

It would be so easy to imagine Finn as a dad. But Kenzie shook off that thought. Partly because it hurt to imagine the dad he might have been if their baby had survived. And also, well, it was one thing to like kids and know how to interact with them, but quite another to raise them.

And then she almost laughed…at herself. She was hardly an expert on parenting. How could she judge Finn’s fitness for fatherhood? Yeah, she had experience with children of all ages. For a couple of years she’d worked in a pediatrician’s office there in town, helping to treat kids from birth to age twenty-one. When the pediatrician closed her office and moved her practice to Billings, Kenzie had hired on at the high school. Now, she interacted with teenagers every day.

But that didn’t necessarily mean she would be a great mother when her own baby came. Time would tell about that. What she did know was that her little girl would grow up safe and secure in her mother’s love.

And as for Finn’s potential as a dad, who cared?

It wasn’t as if she was hoping to marry the guy or anything. That ship had sailed fifteen years ago.

Finn laughed at something Jesse Abernathy had said and then swiped a french fry off her plate.

She elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey. Get your own.”

He put on what she used to call his puppy-dog face, all sad and needy. “Ihadmy own but then I ate them all.”

“And in what way is this my problem?”

“Share, Kenzie.”

She snort-laughed at his pouty face. “You’re just looking for trouble.”

“I cannot deny it.” He leaned closer. “And at least you’re smiling now. You looked way too serious there for a minute. What were you thinking about, anyway?”

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I’ll never tell.”

Across the table, her friend Lauren was watching them. Kenzie met Lauren’s eyes and mouthed,What?