Chapter 24 The Joy
THE JOY
MAGGIE
“Celeste, I am telling you,” I swore, “I’ve never felt like this before!”
I sat at the counter of The Comfy Cushion, waiting for the salads and sandwiches I ordered for Zeke and me.
Marla flat out refused to eat at the diner ever again after the way Desiree fired her.
Celeste never once charged us for anything we ate, so it wasn’t like we were lining Desiree’s pockets, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.
I wasn’t going to turn down free food either.
My bestie rolled her eyes as she wiped down the counter behind the dining ledge. “Maybe if I hadn’t heard you say the same thing about every single guy since the day I met you,” she teased.
“No, this is different!” I huffed in frustration. There wasn’t really a solid explanation for why things were different with Zeke. I could simply feel it. “Even Marla said so!”
That made her pause in cleaning. “Really?” she asked skeptically.
I nodded. “Yep. Told me that I better keep him because happiness looks good on me.”
“Happiness looks good on everybody!” Celeste said with a laugh. “But you definitely deserve to be happy, so if Hayes does that for you, then I’m all for it.”
The smile hadn’t left my face since Marla pointed it out to me.
Zeke hadn’t thrown in the towel after I made my ugly confession.
He still wanted to be with me, and made it a point to tell Marla, then Harry, as soon as we got back from Savannah.
All of my insecurities disappeared the moment I heard him claim me like that.
Now I just wanted to give into the bubbly joy that filtered out through my broken cracks.
“Just…make sure you take the time to get to know him,” Celeste cautioned. The sadness in her voice reminded me of the pain from seeing all Wesley’s modeling shots earlier at Madden Markets. Celeste and I had known Wes…and he still wound up breaking her heart.
But the happiness and hope blooming in my heart wouldn’t hear it. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth knowing I was grabbing food to take home to him.
Home…maybe being with Zeke Hayes is what a home is supposed to feel like.
“I’ll be fine,” I promised her. “I really think this is different, Cee. He’s not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”
Celeste gave me one of her rare smiles. “Then I’m happy for you. Certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s damn good looking!”
“Right?!” I laughed.
She reached across the counter to squeeze my hand. “Whatever you do, don’t let your mother ruin this for you, okay?”
And like a storm cloud covering the sun, there went all the giddiness boiling up inside of me.
If Diana saw that I had a hot, young soldier on my arm, she would turn into a jealous snake, and try to ruin it for me.
Hadn’t she already said that she now saw me more as “competition” than “child”?
In the past few days of staying with Marla, my guards had gone down enough that any time I saw Diana, I experienced the shame and guilt all over again.
“I won’t let her,” I assured Celeste, while deep down I knew that wasn’t something I had in me to promise.
Celeste handed over the takeout bags with a hug and a promise to stop by soon with Iris, and I walked slowly back to Marla’s shop.
Doubt crept back in along the way. Maybe things with Zeke weren’t as special and wonderful as I believed.
I always had a flair for the dramatics; it wouldn’t be out of character for me to overinflate feelings for a guy—hell, I once thought Spencer was the hottest dude around!
If I followed in Diana’s footsteps, I would only end up hurting Zeke.
We might turn into my parents. He might go off and find a whole new family after I broke his heart.
The very thought of him meeting someone new hit me like a blow to the head. I stopped and tipped against the brick siding of an empty shop, leaning my hands down on my knees to catch my breath.
A few minutes went by before I sensed Zeke, like I had somehow sent a telepathic message directing him right to me. He didn’t say anything, just squatted down so that he could look up into my eyes.
“Whose ass do I need to kick, Trouble?” he asked gently.
It eased the tension along my spine enough to make me laugh and stand upright. “I thought men only said shit like that in romance books?”
“Guess we’re writing our own love story.
” He grinned, wrapping an arm around my waist to draw me closer.
I immediately yielded to him, twining both arms around his neck and inhaling deeply.
The faint smell of cedarwood and vanilla hit my nose.
It was comforting, as were the feel of his arms around my back. Zeke hugged like he truly meant it.
He drew back enough to place a light kiss on my forehead and brush the stray curls from my face. “You were taking a while, so I came to find you. Figured you and Celeste got so caught up with girl talk that you’d still be at The Comfy Cushion.”
I mean, he wasn’t that far off. Celeste just didn’t have time for that kind of gab fest anymore.
“Sort of. She just said somethings that got me thinking. I guess I got lost in my own head.”
Zeke nodded. “I get that. I do that, too. Anything you wanna share so you can find your way out?” He reached down and picked up both of the takeout bags, moving them both to the right, and pulling me to his left.
We strolled at a leisurely pace, our hands clasped, as I contemplated how much I wanted to tell him.
Was nine hours of dating too soon to reveal how fucked up my family made me?
“I don’t want to be like my parents,” I finally said. “You and me—I wanna do this right. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”
We were almost to Marla’s door before Zeke answered. “The thing is, you probably will. And I’ll hurt your feelings, too, at some point. I don’t really know what I’m doing either. I think the important part is that we figure it out together, right?”
He turned to face me fully and my breath caught in my throat.
In the fading sunset, with orange and pink and a haze of blue crisscrossing the sky, Zeke had never looked so handsome.
The light gave his tan skin a glow and a day’s worth of stubble already lined his jaw.
His earnest blue eyes held mine as he waited for my answer.
“We’ll probably get more things wrong than right,” I hedged. The fear still whispered in my ear, wondering where the similarities between myself and Diana ended.
Zeke agreed, “Of course we will, but I’ve got all the time in the world. I’m not going anywhere. Just promise me that if I do something wrong or you’re upset, that you’ll tell me. The rest we can make up as we go along.”
I wanted to be as sure of myself as Zeke someday. So far, he always knew what to say to make me feel better.
“C’mon, let’s go eat. I’m sure Marla’s on the phone with the sheriff to look for us at this point.”