Chapter 27 INT. COLE’S HOUSE
Cole’s voice froze Maggie in the hallway leading to the open-concept kitchen / living room.
“I haven’t normally discussed my personal life with reporters,” he was saying. “But given the Boulevard Babble story, I know I have to.”
“Zoya Delgado, Tasha Russell, Rhiannon Simmons, Owen Roy, and Leanne Archer have all released statements disputing the story and standing behind you and Maggie.” Jack Davis’s voice sounded weird.
Maggie peeked around the corner. Cole was sitting on the couch with his laptop open on the coffee table. He was giving Jack an interview—an open-book, all-subjects-included interview, by the sounds of it—over Zoom.
He was doing it for her, even though he hated that stuff.
She folded back against the wall, smiling. She’d just taken one of his cars to drop Savannah at the airport, and the whole time she’d been driving back, she’d been impatient—more impatient than normal—with the traffic. She needed to see Cole.
It wasn’t that she had all the answers. But she had one of them.
“I appreciate the support of the cast of Waverley so much,” Cole said.
Their statements had been gushing and genuine, even Tasha’s, and she despised the press even more than Cole. When she’d read them, Maggie had almost cried again. Late yesterday, Boulevard Babble had deleted the story and published a terse retraction.
Cole’s lawyer must be very scary, and it turned out that was valuable in this business.
“The original story didn’t match with what I saw during the week I spent on set either,” Jack said. “I don’t think anyone could take it seriously. But now there are reports that you split with Drew Bowen because he gave those quotes to Babble in the first place.”
Maggie smacked her hand over her mouth to smother her gasp.
“For legal reasons, I can’t comment on who was responsible for the leak. But it’s important to me to clear things up, not only for my sake but also for Maggie’s.”
Last night, Cole had come back from his meeting with his team, and all he’d told her was that he’d found the culprit and that things were going to work out. Since they’d been having the conversation under their breaths in this exact spot while Savannah chilled in the kitchen, it had been a brief discussion, but that had been the gist. Then he’d been charming, if a bit distant, with Savannah, melting away after dinner so that they could have girl time.
And here he was, trying to save Maggie. Not knowing if she wanted to be with him or if she blamed him for all of it, but trying to save her anyhow. Because he loved her.
On Zoom, Jack asked, “And you and Maggie are ...?”
Cole wouldn’t confirm their relationship without Maggie telling him that it was okay to do so. Maggie knew that as surely as she knew the sun would rise in the east and set in the west. He thought this was his fault, and so he had to fix it.
Two careers had blown up in Maggie’s face. One had been absolutely not her fault. And the other ... had been a little her fault. But ultimately, she couldn’t change who she’d fallen for. And she couldn’t change the bad timing. She could decide if she wanted to rebuild her life with or without the man she loved. And having done it once without him, she knew that it would be better with him.
Infinitely better.
In the living room, Cole said, “I care about Maggie deeply. And I—”
When Maggie breezed in, he stopped talking and went statue still. Jack probably thought the internet had hiccuped.
Maggie sat next to Cole on the couch and waved at the camera. “Hey, Jack. It’s good to see you. I’m sorry to be late. I was taking a friend to the airport. I didn’t know Cole had scheduled this for now.” She linked her fingers with Cole’s and squeezed his hand.
It wasn’t that some magical rightness stole over her when she touched him again. But as he returned the gesture, she knew that whatever came next, she wouldn’t have to face it alone.
That was the thing about being in love: you had a person who was ready to slay dragons—or reveal his personal life to the press and unleash his scary lawyer on jerks—to take care of you.
She turned her attention toward the computer. It seemed right—perfect, actually—that Cole had put her pothos on the console table behind the couch. It was the only thing of Maggie’s in the house, and displaying it there was his way of saying I want you to put down roots here. No matter what else comes, I want you to stay.
“Cole and I are together,” she told Jack, and Cole’s fingers contracted, hard, around hers. “I know that people are curious about the timing, and I do want everyone to know it happened after filming. We both take our professional responsibilities very seriously. But that detail is all that I think we owe anyone.”
Jack bit his lip to keep from smiling. “Fair enough. And Tasha?”
“Tasha is one of my closest friends in the world, but we’ve never been romantically involved,” Cole said.
“Yeah, her email to me reads ‘If anyone watches Waverley and thinks Cole and I have chemistry, that’s because (1) we’re actors and (2) Maggie Niven is an incredible IC. Kissing Cole is about as exciting as folding my laundry.’ I skipped several words in there I won’t be able to put in my story about this conversation. It ends, ‘And FYI, the only man who could ever break my heart is my partner, Ryan Baris.’”
“Which Ryan would never do,” Maggie said. Wanting to change the subject, because honestly, they’d all given the press more than enough today, she asked, “So how’s Libby?”
Cole had been right the other day: if the press was going to gossip about actors’ love lives, turnabout was fair play. Besides, the thought of bubbly, Gen Z Libby with stodgy elder-millennial Jack was delightful.
That broke Jack’s control, and his grin popped out. “Making trouble. I’ve lost track of how many interviews she’s done the last few days.”
Because while Cole and Maggie had been wrapped up in this drama, Libby’s story about Vincent had been out there, steamrolling the entertainment media. Part of why they needed to get this wrapped up was to get the focus back where it belonged: on taking down that predator.
“She’s amazing,” Maggie said.
“Yeah,” Cole echoed, “she’s definitely worth holding on to.”
Maggie had a feeling that he wasn’t only talking to Jack and that he wasn’t only talking about Libby.
“I intend to,” Jack said. “Thanks for talking to me, you two.”
“Our pleasure.”
Maggie pushed Cole’s laptop closed and twisted to face Cole.
He was staring at her with a rapturous expression. “ Our pleasure?” he echoed.
“Yup.” Then she kissed him. Softly, then ... less softly. When his arms came around her and he half hauled her into his lap so that he could really, really kiss her, that was when the magical rightness stole in.
It made sense that Effie Deans had wrecked her life for the love of a roguish man. Maggie couldn’t blame her in the least.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his mouth between kisses. “Getting fired again, it was triggering for me, and I—”
He pulled back. “No, it’s okay. I understand. And I’m sorry. It was my freaking agent who caused the entire mess.”
“I can’t imagine how much that must have hurt.” What little she’d known about Drew, she hadn’t liked. But the guy being a little suspicious wasn’t the same as him actively hurting Cole.
“It did,” Cole admitted. “And even if he was trying to get me back in line, I cannot believe he included you in the mess. I’ll never forgive myself for what he did to you.”
There Cole went again, diving on any and all grenades that happened to bounce past him.
“ I forgive you. Actually I don’t think I even need to. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I’m just getting started. I’m going to have my lawyer reach out to the director of The Mid List . There must be something we can do, and—”
“No, I don’t want you to do that. The more I thought about it, the more I could see their position.” Maggie hadn’t messed up in the way that, say, Vincent Minna had. But given how delicate on-screen intimacy was, her conduct had to be above reproach. And some reproach wasn’t misplaced here. “I think it would be better for me to find something else to do.” The words made her stomach queasy, but Cole’s hold on her—firm and certain—meant she could face it. Maggie believed in herself and in her relationship with Cole strongly enough to know she could handle it.
But he was still fighting for her. “You know Zoya will still want you for season four of Waverley .”
“Except I don’t want to spend four months in Scotland next year.” Four months without Cole.
He watched her steadily, let what she wasn’t saying out loud soak in. “Is that why you told Jack we were together?”
“I told Jack we’re together because we are . And being with you—it means more to me than that career. I can start over. I’ve done it before, and if I need to, I’ll do it again after this. Reinvention doesn’t scare me. But a life without you, that does.”
Cole pressed his mouth to hers. It wasn’t a sweaty, grappling kiss but one of firm sweetness. The kind of kiss that sealed a vow. The kind that was a down payment on something.
Like maybe a life together.
He leaned his forehead against hers. “I was pretty freaked out the other day when you pulled away from me.”
“I’ll try not to do that again.” Hopefully they weren’t going to go through many more disasters like the one they’d just lived through. But if they did, she would try to handle it differently. “You deserve to have me reach for you, not to ... isolate.” Even if for a few hours there, moving into a blanket fort in the woods had seemed like the only option.
“If I had to choose between you hiding out in the guest room for a few days and you leaving me, I’ll take the isolating.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you. I honestly never even considered it.” She slid down until her head was resting on his shoulder. “I was feeling just so, so alone, and it took me a moment to realize that I have people.”
He began playing with a section of her hair that had escaped the bobby pins she’d fastened it back with. “And you’re gathering more all the time. Tasha is ready to hunt Drew down.”
Maggie scoffed. “Yeah, he’s toast.” She tipped her chin back so that she could look up at Cole. “But that’s enough about me. What about you? How are you doing?”
“I’m ... okay. Brett thinks we’ve reversed the damage, but I realized I may never get away from the himbo label. Falling for the intimacy coordinator, being betrayed by my agent—those sound like plotlines on Central Square .”
“In the last few days, I’ve seen you stand by your best friend against abuse in your industry. I’ve seen you deal with someone on your team who was lying to you and lashing out at you. I’ve seen you defend your girlfriend, giving up pieces of yourself to do it. If those are the actions of a himbo, then himbos seem pretty awesome to me.”
“I just want to feel ... grown up. And I thought I’d finally gotten there.”
“You are there. You’ve dealt with all of these messes calmly and maturely and beautifully—while I was breaking down, by the way. That’s pretty damn grown up. Time and again, I’ve seen you do the right thing, even when it was hard. Even when it wasn’t what you wanted to do. You are a good man, Cole James. The best man. Loving you is an honor.”
Cole’s smile then was boyish. It wasn’t Cody’s smile or Geordie’s smile. It wasn’t the mask he used for fans or for the press. It was real, and it was hers.
Theirs.
“You’d never settle, Maggie. Not ever. And so, you loving me, you wanting to be with me above, like, your job—a job you were so great at—makes me feel worthwhile. Even if no one else can see it, winning you makes me feel like I’ve redeemed myself. Washed the past off. You asked me once when I could stop atoning, and it’s now.”
“And now for my next trick, I’m going to help you see that you don’t need me to feel that way about yourself.”
“But I get you as a bonus, right?”
“You bet.”