Chapter Twenty-Six
Brody
It didn’t make any sense.
One minute, Maggie was on the other side of the room, staring at me with rare vulnerability and wide, hopeful eyes.
This is it, I thought. Everything is going to be okay.
I had taken a step toward her, needing to be beside her. Needing everything to be fixed once and for all.
With everything happening at once, all I knew was a fluff of brown hair and a body colliding against mine.
Instinctively, I reached out to grab whatever had made impact with me, mind whirling as it tried to process how Maggie could’ve gotten over to me so quickly.
And then, lips were on mine—light and airy.
My stomach hardened like lead because they felt wrong. It took one second to realize these weren’t Maggie’s lips, soft and tasting like cocoa butter. And this wasn’t the way she felt against my chest.
The whole moment had lasted two seconds, maybe three, and then I was opening my eyes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on when I saw her.
My Maggie—not in my arms, but still several feet away where I’d last spotted her. Her green eyes frozen in heartbreak that I already knew would haunt me the rest of my life.
“Maggie?” I said, not sure if it was loud enough. Not sure if it even came out at all.
But she had already turned on her heel and ran.
“Maggie, wait!” Cassie said, running after her.
Needing to understand what was happening, I finally looked down at the imposter next to me, freezing when my brain finally made sense of the situation.
“Abbey?” I reeled back, dumbstruck and furious all at once.
“Hey.” She smiled up at me, as if she hadn’t just made the overstep of a lifetime. “I’ve missed you.”
In a daze, I stepped around her trying to get to Maggie, but she was already gone.
“What’s the matter?” Abbey frowned, her familiar voice sounding wildly out of place in its current setting. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Why are you here?” I asked, probably more harshly than she deserved, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
I’d known the girl since kindergarten, dated her all through high school and then some. She was as familiar to me as a memory from childhood, or a room in my parents’ house—but right now, I couldn’t see her as anything other than the obstacle standing between me and my girl.
“Tara invited me,” she said, brows furrowing in confusion. “She thought you might want to catch up.”
I spun toward my sister, finally registering what the hell was actually happening.
My sister was here. For the dinner we agreed on. Just like she told me she’d be. What she didn’t mention was the fact that she was dragging my ex-girlfriend across state lines to pay me a visit.
I didn’t blame Tara. Abbey and I had never been on bad terms, which I guess was why we’d always toed the line between friends and friends plus a little more, even after the breakup.
It had worked for us, for a while. It had been easy. I’d just been a kid, going off to college, taking comfort in what was familiar to me whenever the opportunity arose.
But we hadn’t been that way in a very long time, and damn if it wasn’t inconvenient timing for her to pop up now.
“I don’t have time—” I said, frantic with each passing moment. “I have to go get Maggie—”
“Maggie?” Abbey shot a look at Tara. “I thought you said they—”
“Broke up?” Tara finished. “They did.”
“First of all, we never clarified that,” I said. “Second, why are you spreading my business around to random people from high school?”
“Hey,” Abbey said, affronted.
“I’m not,” Tara countered. “I just wanted to cheer you up with some familiar faces.”
“Faces?” I asked. “As in, plural?”
“It was supposed to be a surprise.” Tara bit her lip. “But everyone’s here… Sean, Aiden, Matt.”
“Matt T. or Matt C.?” I asked, slightly interested.
“Both,” she said. “They’re all meeting us at the restaurant. They can’t wait to see you. I thought you’d be excited.”
Damn. My entire high school friend group. Tara had really pulled out the big guns, which led me to think my situation was more dire than I’d been willing to admit.
“What? Is this like an intervention?”
“No. It’s me bringing your friends to you because you can’t be bothered to visit home anymore.”
“I’m busy,” I told her.
And I was. It wasn’t an excuse. I had a life here, in Boston. I always made time for my family, but between hockey and media events and overall life, it wasn’t easy to just slip away to Michigan on a whim.
But I didn’t have time to defend any of that to her. I needed to find Maggie.
“I gotta—” I pointed vaguely toward the door she’d escaped through before stepping around my sister and Abbey to head toward it.
Before I even touched the handle, the door was opening and Liam was stepping through it, scowling down at me.
“I have to see Maggie,” I said, trying to step around him when he blocked my exit.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “She’s with Cassie. She won’t want to talk to you.”
“But—”
“Seriously, Brody, what the hell were you thinking? I know she caused this mess, but kissing a girl right in front of her? That’s shitty.”
“I did not kiss another girl,” I said, replaying the moment.
I hadn’t even known what was happening. All I’d been focused on was Maggie. She couldn’t seriously believe that had meant anything, could she?
She knew what she was to me. She knew what we were.
“Whatever.” He shrugged, halfway pissed at me but trying not to show it. “Let her cool off. You don’t know what she’s like when she gets like this.”
“No. Screw that,” I said. “Everyone keeps saying to give her space, but all that’s doing is pushing us farther apart. Maggie doesn’t need space. She needs me to be there.”
“Do what you want.” Liam held his hands up in defense. “I’m not getting involved.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said, pushing past him.
But when I got out of the family lounge and down the hallway that led to the rest of the Garden, I realized that I’d never find Maggie in this crowd. If she was even still in it.
I took my phone out, dialing her number frantically.
Went straight to voicemail. I called again, on the off chance it was an error. By the third attempt, I realized that Liam was right—there was no way Maggie was going to speak to me tonight.
Maybe it was for the best. She could have time to cool off. See the situation more clearly after the emotions died down. She knew I’d never touch another girl. She’d realize that.
Plus, I’d be an absolute asshole to blow off my friends after they’d come all this way to see me.
With a sigh, I walked back into the lounge with tail between my legs. Liam stared at me, eyes fixed on me with a look of I told you so.
“Don’t worry about her,” Liam said. “Cassie’s with her. Just go—hang out with your sister. The two of you can talk later.”
“Fine,” I bit out, storming over to him. “But when you see her, make sure she knows we’re having a conversation later. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Trust me, Brody.” He shook his head. “Everyone knows that.”