Page 100 of Brandt's Rule
“Choosing the winners of each match! How does she do that?” Maverik asked. Then he focused on Brandt. “What’d you do? What am I helping Brandt do?” Maverik asked, looking from Valerie to Brandt and back.
“Tempest is gone. She thinks Brandt cheated. At least that’s what we think,” Delilah said, then she looked at Avaleigh. “Make sure you bring double the slimy peas and crunchy things. Kaid was so upset he only got one serving last year.”
“Consider it done,” Avaleigh said.
“What the hell have you done?” Maverik asked, a complete lack of patience lacing in his voice.
“I need to find Tempest. Will you take me to Tempest?”
“No! Hell no! You already screwed that up, not that I know where to find her anyway!” Maverik half-shouted.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Well, that’s not entirely true. He’s got very little common-sense when it comes to his mate apparently. But he didn’t cheat,” Daisy said.
“Thanks, Daisy. Appreciate it,” Brandt snapped. Then he looked at Maverik. “Uncle Maverik! Please!”
“I don’t know where she is! I ain’t never been to her house. Her town, nothing.”
“You do know where the little store is that you first saw Tempest in. It’s on the outskirts of the community her people live in,” Valerie said.
“That was so long ago, it probably isn’t even still there,” Maverik said.
“Tell me how to get there. Please. I’m begging you, please,” Brandt said.
Maverik looked at Brandt, sighed deeply, then walked over to the refrigerator. “I need a beer. This is gonna take a while,” Maverik grumbled, digging through the food crammed into the fridge. “Oh, pie!”
“Do not eat my pies. They’re for Christmas!” Delilah ordered.
“Christmas is in three days!”
“Exactly, and I’m not making more.”
“Can I have a beer at least?” he asked.
“Yes. You can have a beer. But don’t eat anything.”
“You used to love me,” Maverik grumbled, taking a beer out before closing the door and twisting the top off before going to shoo Valerie out of her seat so he could sit and then pull her down to sit on his lap. “Alright. Tell me what you did,” he said, closing his eyes and resting his head against his mate while Brandt explained all over again, with help from the women, what he’d done — and not done, and what they feared Tempest might think.
Chapter 21
“Tempest, I think you should consider all the possibilities,” Lily said.
Tempest was lying in her bed, wrapped up in her childhood comforter doing her best to hold her emotions in check.
“I know you heard me,” Lily said.
“I know what I saw,” Tempest answered.
“No, you know what you think you saw.”
Tempest turned over, tossing her comforter off her upper body and glaring at her mother. “Are you telling me I shouldn’t trust what I saw with my own eyes?” she asked disbelievingly.
“No. I’m telling you that though you are very capable in many areas, more than capable even, in others you are still so very naive, my love.”
“I am not stupid, mother!” Tempest bit out.
“No, you’re not. But you’re trusting, and you have a soft heart, and a history of having trouble fitting in socially, so you might tend to be a little defensive and misread a situation or two. You don’t have a lot of experience with the opposite sex, Tempest. But I’m also not telling you you’re wrong. I’m just asking you to consider all the possibilities. All of them. And one of them is that you could have been wrong about what you think you saw.”