CHAPTER 19 #3
I shook my head gently, feeling heat crawl up my neck, and she sighed before pulling me along behind her. We got to the tailgate, and I pulled one of my towels out of my bag and pressed it against my face.
Maggie pulled a large pink water cooler to the edge of the tailgate and poured herself a cup from the spigot. She dropped in a lime wedge before she took a long, dramatic sip. “This reminds me of spring break.”
I chuckled as she filled another cup and passed it to me. “That’s the great thing about margaritas. They’re perfect for every stage of your life.”
“Don’t I know it.” She pressed her cup against mine in a cheers, and we both drank before she turned, leaning back against the truck and looking out over the water.
She was quiet for a long moment before she tapped my elbow with her cup.
“No, really? How are you alive?” She nodded out to where I knew Colt still swam.
“I would have spontaneously combusted if someone looked at me like that.”
“Like what?” I asked, but I could still feel Colt like a live wire against my skin.
She cocked her head and fixed me with a look that made me giggle against my cup.
“Like you’re his dinner and he’s about to devour every inch of you.” She glanced back across the water, nodding toward Colt.
He stood with his hands raised protectively as Ruby wobbled on McCoy’s shoulders.
“You’re telling me you didn’t feel that?”
My cheeks flamed as I gulped down half my margarita. “I mean, it was—” I trailed off, searching for any words to help me describe what was happening between us. “That’s how he is. It’s just—Colt.”
Maggie snorted, nearly choking on her margarita. “I’ve known him for a few years now, and I have never seen Colt Calloway look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
I ran my tongue over my bottom lip, stealing another glance at him. “There’s nothing happening between us,” I lied. “The two of us are old history. If anything, I’m sure he’s just feeling nostalgic.”
She snorted again. “Honey, that wasn’t nostalgia. The man looked like he was ready to fuck you right here on this tailgate while we all watched, and I’m willing to bet it would have been one hell of a show.”
“Maggie!” I slapped a hand over her mouth. Why was she being so loud? “Colt and I are friends now,” I hissed, and she grinned beneath my hand. “Or at least we’re civil, friendly even,” I insisted, as if saying it aloud might make it true. “That’s it. He has Ruby. The ranch.”
“Oh, friendly. Right.” Maggie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a ‘friend’ who gets so hot for me, he has to throw us both in the lake to cool off. I swear y’all were like one minute away from taking someone’s eye out with his boner.”
“Please stop.” I buried my face in my hands, but she only laughed.
“How does it feel to be God’s favorite? If I had that cowboy looking at me like he was about to fuck me so good, I would beg him for it. I would have climbed him like a tree.”
“Will you be quiet?” I elbowed her in the ribs, but I couldn’t stop my laughter. “Ruby is, like, twenty feet away.”
“Oh, suddenly you’re worried about Ruby being here.” She held up her hands in a playful surrender, and I downed the rest of my margarita.
Colt and McCoy stood chest deep in the water, launching Ruby between them.
Each time she hit the water with a squeal and a splash, Colt’s shoulders shook with laughter.
McCoy threw her back in Colt’s direction, and he caught her easily before she went under.
He buried his face in her neck, blowing against her skin and giving little kisses, and something twisted in my chest.
What the hell was I doing?
“Shit. You really have it bad for him, don’t you?” Maggie said, but this time the playfulness in her voice was gone. She watched Colt, then her eyes flicked to me.
I wanted to deny it, to make a joke, but I couldn’t do it. Instead, I watched Colt and Ruby, the way his arms encircled her as if she were the most precious thing in the world, the way he seemed so unselfish in the way he loved her.
I once had that ease with him, and I hated myself for wanting it again.
“I don’t,” I started, but it came out as a whisper. “Colt and I were a long time ago,” I said, forcing myself to look at Maggie. “And he isn’t someone that you get over easily.”
Maggie reached out and squeezed my hand, her palm firm and warm against mine.
“Look,” she said, voice dropping. “I can mind my own business when I really have to, especially considering you’ve given me the bare minimum details.” She frowned, and I let out the smallest laugh. “But if you need to talk about it, you know I’m here, right?”
I nodded, grateful for her. “Sometimes I wish I could undo all of it. Go back, make a different choice, and see how it all plays out.”
Maggie grinned, but it was the sad kind. “I get that, I do.” She nodded. “But you can’t unscramble your eggs, babe. Best you can do is fry up something new and hope it doesn’t burn.”
I laughed, laughed from deep in my belly, and the knot in my chest loosened a little.
“Don’t worry, assholes. The party is finally here!” Hunter called out, his voice reaching us as he sauntered down the grassy slope toward the lake. A twelve-pack of beer dangled from his right hand while his left was wrapped around the hand of a very leggy brunette.
Maggie sucked in a sharp breath beside me, her plastic cup crinkling in her hold. Her eyes locked on Hunter for only a few seconds before sliding to the woman at his side, her expression morphing into something carefully blank.
Her nails tapped against the rim of her cup, so quickly and so at odds with the easy smile she forced onto her face.
I turned as she drained what remained of her drink in one swift motion and reached for the cooler.
“What about you?” I said low enough for only her to hear. “Are we ever going to talk about the fact that he’s your sister’s ex, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost every time he’s around?”
“Not today.” She shook her head as her gaze flicked back in his direction.
“Okay,” I said, passing her my empty cup. “Then let’s make another margarita.”