Chapter 18
THE WINDOW
ZEKE
The next two days passed by in a blur. Maggie and I never discussed her revelation from the bathroom, and even I knew enough about women to realize that it wasn’t a subject to broach unless Maggie herself brought it up.
She continued to wear makeup as we worked in the shop and kept her hair perfectly curled in a ponytail.
Sadness clawed at me every time I thought of how Maggie saw herself.
I truly couldn’t imagine a more perfect woman, so I hadn’t the foggiest idea how she pictured herself as any less than that.
I vowed that even if it took the rest of my life, I would convince her to see herself the way I saw her—the most exquisite woman on the planet.
I only returned to the barracks to sleep for a few hours and shower before going back to River’s Run.
Thanks to Marla’s formidable list of contacts—and probably her terrifying demeanor, if we’re being honest—things were moving pretty quickly at her bakery.
I knew how to lay flooring thanks to one of the remodels I’d done with Leggett on his lake house in Michigan, so Marla went to one of the big box stores out in Savannah and picked out a black and white tile pattern that could be delivered right away.
Maggie wanted me to teach her, but we both grew frustrated when I couldn’t find the right words to express what I meant in a way that she understood, so she quickly settled on sitting next to me and handing me tools as I went.
Harry came back and we built out the frame for the new walls that needed to be added to separate the kitchen space.
Marla set Maggie to work on demolishing the bathroom so that a bigger one could take its place.
Oddly enough, the task seemed to really suit Maggie as she had a huge smile on her face after she saw the wreckage at her feet.
I found myself constantly smiling to the point where my cheeks hurt.
Nothing in the Army ever left me with a feeling as fulfilled as it did to see something emerge from my own two hands.
I certainly never received praise from a commanding officer like I did from Marla, Maggie, and even Harry, who seemed impressed with my knowledge of tools and basic craftsmanship.
He offered me a business card and said if I ever wanted to help him out with handyman work on the weekends, he would gladly accept the support.
When Monday night rolled around and I faced the prospect of going back to the barracks to start another dreary week of drills and training, the same monotonous routine as always, I found myself digging in my heels.
I didn’t want to go back to it. Not when I could share a cup of coffee with Maggie every morning, who, so far, joined me first thing in the kitchen every day still fresh faced and glowing from her morning shower.
Only after we finished a cup of coffee and a light breakfast would she go and put on makeup.
To my unknowledgeable eye, it almost looked like she wore less makeup than before, too.
Her face appeared softer…although it might have simply been the smile that never left her face either.
Being in Maggie’s presence had to be comparable to Icarus’ flight to the sun.
A warm glow that spread from the inside out until the very thought of turning away crusted you with ice.
I loved being around her. Especially when I managed to make her laugh.
Every time the high pitched squeal rang out through the shop Marla’s whole face lit up, and she flashed me a look of gratitude.
I didn’t quite know what to make of it, but I was also too chicken shit to ask.
Late Monday night, long after Marla had gone up to bed and I should have been on my way back to the barracks, Maggie and I sat on the floor, our backs to the wall and legs stretched out between us.
Once Marla’s stern supervision left us, we abandoned cleaning up in favor of swapping stories of our childhoods.
It turned out that Maggie moved around a lot as a child, too, and knew what it meant to not have a lot of friends.
“Yeah, none of the kids in my neighborhood ever really wanted to play with me. They were too scared of Leggett. He can be a bit of an asshole,” I offered.
I drew a line around the edge of the tile with my finger, hardly daring to look up lest I see Maggie’s wild eyes fill with sadness at my pathetic backstory.
“I still don’t understand,” she replied, crossing one leg over the other and flexing her toes. “Is Leggett your dad? Why do you call him by his last name?”
I shrugged. “That’s a military thing. Everybody calls everybody by their last name because that’s what’s on all of our gear and uniforms.”
“Okay, but it sounds like you grew up with him,” challenged Maggie. “I don’t understand how you’re related.”
This was a part of my past I never had to explain. Everyone in the Army simply accepted that Leggett was my mentor and took a vested interest in my future. It wasn’t uncommon.
But I wanted Maggie to know the real me. Even the sad parts of my past that I never got to share with anyone else.
“A very sweet woman and her husband adopted me when I was six. She died unexpectedly shortly after the adoption was finalized. Leggett was there, after that.” It wasn’t the entire truth and I held my breath as I waited for Maggie to fill in the gaps.
A thoughtful expression crossed her face, but she didn’t press. Instead, her hand found its way in mine again, and she began examining the scarred knuckles. “You look like you’ve been in a lot of fights,” Maggie commented playfully.
I shook my head. “Nope. I just work out a lot. Sometimes it helps.”
“Helps what?”
“Keep all the fear at bay.”
Maggie nodded. “You’ve been deployed already, right?”
“Yep. And Leggett will probably send me back to Afghanistan if I don’t get back to the barracks soon. We have a ruck march at 0500 tomorrow morning.” A heavy sigh escaped as I gloomily prepared myself for leaving Maggie’s sun.
To my surprise, she leaned over and placed a feather-light kiss on my cheek. “I can’t wait to see you again.” Her breathy voice matched the flush in her cheeks. My dick stood at attention.
Gently, I brushed a stray curl behind her ear, getting lost in her eyes. I could drown in them. This had to be crazy, right? For two people to be so drawn to one another the way I seemed to be to Maggie. Did these kind of connections exist in real life?
Only half an inch, at most, separated my mouth from hers. One good exhale was all it would take to bridge the gap. Rather than let myself overthink it, I leaned down, my lips barely dusting hers when the sound of shattering glass reverberated through the room.
I jumped to my feet in a flash as the loud rev of an engine echoed from outside. Someone had thrown a large rock through one of the windows. The street was far too dark to see who was behind the wheel or make out anything distinguishable as the car sped away.
Maggie remained seated, but had turned a sickly shade of green. Her gaze zeroed in on the rock that narrowly avoided hitting her outstretched feet.
“I can’t believe someone just did that!” I yelled. River’s Run seemed like a quiet town from everything I’d seen. Everyone I’d met had a lot of respect for Marla, too, which made the vandalism all the more unsettling. “You better go up and let Marla know what happened.”
“What about you?” Maggie’s eyes finally darted up to my face, anxiety and something akin to guilt crossing her features. She stood up and I noticed a slight tremble to her movements.
“I’m gonna use some of the cardboard from all the flooring boxes to cover up the window,” I explained. “If Marla already has insurance on the place, it should be covered. We should probably call the police, too, so we can make a report.”
“NO!” Maggie’s shout held an inch of hysteria to it. “Sheriff Hillsborough won’t be able to do anything about it anyway. We didn’t see who did it.”
Was she serious? Some asshole just broke one of Marla’s windows on the shop we’d spent the better part of the weekend working on. Maggie wanted to let it go?
“I guess we’ll leave it up to Marla,” I suggested. “It’s her place, after all.”
Maggie nodded slowly, eyes fixating on the rock again. “I’ll go wake her up…” Her voice trailed off in uncertainty as she hastily left through the front door.
Her behavior continued to make my anxiety run on high alert as we relayed everything to Marla, then again to Sheriff Hillsborough, a burly curmudgeon, if such a person existed outside of a Dickens novel.
He kept shooting skeptical glances Maggie’s way, questioning her over and over again about whether or not she had any idea who might’ve thrown a rock through the window.
The sheriff’s attitude towards me was that of a total dismissal until Marla identified me as a sergeant in the Army.
I recognized the look he gave as he sized me up…
a man in uniform judging me as competition rather than an ally.
Like we both didn’t live to serve and protect.
“Sir, it was too dark to see anything,” I ground out again through clenched teeth. Why was he grilling Maggie so hard on this?
Sheriff Hillsborough merely adjusted the toothpick stuck between his teeth in reply.
“Can I stop by first thing tomorrow morning and pick up that report?” Marla asked. “I’m sure the insurance company will want it.”
He nodded, his cunning eyes softening. “That’ll be just fine, Miss Marla. Have a good evening, y’all.” Snapping another photo of the damaged window again, he sauntered off towards his vehicle.
“Well isn’t this just like a fly in the ice cream!” Marla sputtered. “I can’t believe someone in River’s Run would break my window!”
Indeed, in the short time I’d spent in town, everyone seemed to revere Marla.
Nearly everyone we had encountered on the street made it a point to tell her how much they were looking forward to her grand opening.
She certainly wasn’t someone I would turn into an enemy. Marla’s words had venom in them.
“Why don’t the two of you get up to bed? I’ll clean up down here,” I offered.
A jolt of pride shot through me when I noticed how Marla’s shoulders sagged with relief.
“That would be a huge help. Thank you, Hayes.” Marla clapped me on the elbow with as much fondness as I’d ever seen. “I don’t know what we’d do without you these past few days.”
Maggie’s arms hugged her waist as she flashed a tight smile to both of us. “You go on up, Marla,” she said, “I’ll be right behind in a minute.”
Our friend’s rigid finger pointed in both our faces in warning. “No sex in the shop. That’s the very first rule!”
My face flamed. I would never be so disrespectful!
Judging by the bright red blooms spreading across Maggie’s cheeks, she felt the same. “Marla!”
The woman simply shook her head, mumbling something about “wild hormones” as she waved. Maggie bit her bottom lip to repress a laugh.
Seeing that tooth burrow into her soft mouth made me hyper aware of how much I wanted to do the same thing. All I could do was fixate on that very spot, imagining the ways in which Maggie’s whole body would press against mine. The way she felt in my arms. I suddenly needed that more than anything.
“Are you alright?” I asked in low voice.
Maggie’s eyes darted to mine, then dropped to the ground again, the same skittish behavior she showed the sheriff. “I’m fine. Do you need me down here to clean up?”
“Of course not. I want you upstairs, where it’s safe. But I need to know you’re good first.”
Like my hand had a mind of its own, I found it circling around her waist, drawing her hips against mine.
A faint buzzing sensation in the back of my head that I hadn’t noticed until then disappeared as soon as her body made contact.
I gently rubbed both of her arms and tried not to preen at the goosebumps that rose along her skin.
Knowing that I could have an effect on her the way she did on me sent a thrill down my spine.
“It’s gonna be hard not to see you tomorrow,” I admitted quietly.
Slowly her eyes found mine, shining with uncertainty and a faint trace of hope. “Really?” Her voice was a husky whisper that went straight to my dick.
I didn’t even trust myself to respond. My body resumed autopilot, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her lips.
At first Maggie resisted, as if too scared to believe I initiated something.
Even I was startled by my own lead. But as my fingers trailed upward to tangle themselves in her hair, Maggie’s body yielded to me, her mouth opening so that her tongue could sweep through mine.
I let her take control. I never wanted her to doubt that she was in charge; that we could go at any pace she felt comfortable.
Hell, whatever she wanted, Maggie Eaton could count me in.
I never wanted whatever this was to end.
She broke away abruptly, this time with stars in her eyes and the sweetest smile on her face. “You could break my heart, you know,” Maggie whispered.
“I would lay down my life for you before I ever let that happen,” I promised.