Chapter 9
MAISEY
This is normal. Totally, totally normal. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. That and I don’t need to stress eat about it.
It's been more than a week since we went fishing. Since Ewan asked me to be his. Since he almost kissed me on the boat. Which means it's been a little more than a week since he kissed me in the rain.
That seriously epic, straight out of the movies kiss.
And he hasn't kissed me since.
Which is totally normal, right?
We're taking it slow. We're figuring out what this is and who we are to each other again. Which is to be expected. It’s what we talked about.
I stab my fork into my piece of pie, harder than I should, the tines vibrating from hitting the plate underneath.
The clink catches not only me but also Dolly and Emily off guard, both of their heads snapping up to look at me across the table at Oh, My Lard!
—our friend Alice’s bakery. But I ignore them, too lost in my own thoughts to explain.
Because how do I explain how easily Ewan and I slipped back into being Ewan and Maisey—all our old habits and idiosyncrasies coming so naturally. We’re us again. And it feels good.
Actually, I take that back. It feels better than good. Feels better than it ever did before. Better than I could have ever imagined. Other than the fact that he hasn't kissed me again, which is making me a little…unsure.
I stab my pie again, this time scooping up the large bite and swallowing it without chewing.
“And just what did the chocolate Heath bar do to you?” Alice chides, cocking her hip to the side as she wanders over.
She looks me up and down, giving me the once-over, like she’s considering whether or not she can trust me with the rest of my snack. To be fair, that’s an honest question.
“Nothing,” I mumble, shoving more in my mouth.
See, not eating my feelings at all.
There’s no need to. We’re not teenagers. We’re adults, who are building a relationship with a solid foundation. One that doesn’t require that we jump into bed with each other.
Only I want to jump into bed with him.
The bell over the front door tinkles, an older couple I don’t recognize walking in. Alice gives me another look to tell me that she doesn’t believe me before turning to go take their order.
“Now that the cabinets are installed, and the trim is done, the Scarboroughs say that it shouldn’t be much longer. They think we should be able to start moving in within the next two weeks,” Dolly says, clearly mid-update.
I shake my head, trying to clear the cobwebs of my thoughts and pay attention to what my friend and cousin is saying.
“It’ll be so nice to finally be in our little white house!”
“I bet Gus will be glad to have you out too,” Emily jokes.
Dolly laughs. “Oh yeah. He and Margeaux put Jace on countdown. Once they’re married this fall, he’s out.”
“I’ve got ten bucks that says he drags his feet in finding a place so that he doesn’t have to move out,” Em chuckles.
“I told him my apartment was all his—’course that was before someone showed back up. Then again, that someone might be all moved into the second floor of the bank by this fall…”
Dolly’s playful and teasing tone barely registers over my thoughts, everything still sounding so far away. Like they’re underwater even though they’re barely three feet across the table.
All moved into the second floor of the bank…
ha! That’s a thought. While I’ve spent plenty of time over at Ewan’s new place—a beautiful apartment that is the entire second floor of the old Middle Georgia Bank and Trust building, bought and renovated by the Hayes family when that branch was closed after a merger—I’m a long, long way from moving in.
Hell, I’m a long way from spending the night.
The furthest I’ve gotten is some cuddles on the couch while ordering in a pizza and watching a movie.
Like a very respectable pair of high school freshmen.
“What’d I miss?” Rose Adler asks brightly as she slides into the seat next to me. No, not Adler—Adams. She got married over Christmas. To the guy she got snowed in with. Only Rose…
“We’re taking bets on how long until Maisey moves into the bank,” Em replies, not skipping a beat.
What? No, we’re not…
“Like actual bets? Money bets?” Rose clarifies. “If so, I’ve got twenty on the Fourth of July.”
Excuse you?!
Dolly must see the panic on my face, because she reaches across the table, taking my hand. “We’re kidding, Mais.”
Her voice is calm and even, but does little to assuage my internal panic. My worry that Ewan’s be mine wasn’t the ask that I thought it was.
“How long was it until Hux kissed you?”
I blurt out the question like a cat hacking up a hairball. The need to know burns inside me as if it’s going to eat me alive. Because somehow a little insight into the brain of one Hayes brother might shed some light into another.
Granted, of all the Hayes brothers, Hux and Ewan aren’t the most alike. Then again, they aren’t the most unalike either. Come to think of it, all six of them are pretty unique. So my logic might be flawed here.
“Kissed me? Or kissed me?” The waggle of her eyebrows doesn’t leave a whole lot up for interpretation as to her meaning for her second question.
“Regular, everyday, you’re my girlfriend, kissed you.” I toss in a little shrug of my right shoulder, trying to play it off.
It doesn’t work.
Anxiety rises up in me again, and I know that my friends see right through me. Because there is no way that it’s not written all over my face—Maisey is a lovesick wreck.
Stabbing at my pie again—this time breaking off a piece of the crust—I shovel it in like it’s my job. At the rate I’m going, a second piece is going to be needed. Stat.
“Things moving slower than you’d like?” Rose asks.
Sighing, I slouch back in my seat, trying to separate myself from my pie.
Eating my feelings is a seriously bad habit—a vice that I’ve always had and have leaned into more and more since I’ve been away and haven’t had the best support system around me—and I need to stop.
This is Hickory Hills. These are my girls. Those who listen and don’t judge.
“I dunno. I just…”
I just what? Want to discover if the taste of Ewan’s lips solves all of life’s unanswered questions? If the feel of his hands on my body fills the gaps and cracks that I feel deep in my soul? If being with him—in that way—will be what’s been missing this whole time?
Actually, yes. That is what I’m wondering.
“We’re Ewan and Maisey again, and it’s great. Better than great. We got it all out there and slipped back into being us again so easy. But you know what Ewan and Maisey never did?”
“Kissed?” Em offers up.
I point to her, signaling that she hit the answer square on the nose.
“Kissed. And we’ve had all these little moments since that would have been perfect.
Ones where I think he’s going to, because it’s like he starts to lean in and then he stops or something happens and we get interrupted by a fish or something and—”
“You got interrupted by a fish?” Alice asks, reappearing.
I nod, unable to help my smile thinking about the little guy and that perfect morning spent out on Silver Lake.
That was our only catch of the day, the sun rising shortly after and warming everything up.
But that didn’t matter. It was the first step in being us again.
The first step in patching up one of those cracks inside me.
“That’s the most Ewan thing I’ve ever heard,” Em says with a laugh.
“You could kiss him, you know,” Dolly sasses. “It’s no longer 1956, so you don’t have to wait for him to make the move.”
I stare back at my cousin, part of me wanting to smack the know-it-all, shit-eating grin right off her face, another part wanting to smack myself for not telling myself the same thing. Because I’m pretty sure that’s the advice I gave her about asking out a guy in college.
Actually, I know it is. And the growing smirk she’s wearing confirms it.
“And then, once you’ve put him in his place—or well, kissed him into place—you can drag him back to the bank and get what I know you really want,” she continues, giving me a knowing wink.
I swallow hard, my insides clenching at the thought of Ewan’s hands on me.
On the two of us tumbling into his apartment, mouths fused together, not watching where we’re going, knocking things over as we try to make it to the bedroom, a flurry of limbs trying to undress each other. Fuuuuuck…that’s exactly what I want.
Dolly leans forward, lowering her voice, her smile turning borderline evil. “And Mais, when you get what you want, don’t be quiet about it. Because I promise you, Ewan is dying to give Willa some payback.”
Errrr…what?!
“Oh, you just know Ewan’s got a secret dirty side to him,” Rose mutters, biting her lips, her own salacious grin appearing. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
“Know from experience there, Rose?” Alice quips, smacking her shoulder with the back of her hand.
“Sure do.”
The rest of the group laughs, but I barely register the humor, my mind still stuck on Dolly’s instructions. Don’t be quiet about what? And why is Ewan dying to give Willa payback? Payback for what? What is it that my friends know that I don’t?
“Expand and explain,” I say. “Payback for what?”
Shaking her head and laughing, Dolly sits back. “Go kiss your man.”
“You’re just going to hold this information hostage?”
She wouldn’t. Would she?
I glare at her across the table, the temptation to reach for the pie again growing by the second. Although this time it’s to throw at her. Because she would. She definitely would.
Worse, she is.
“C’mon, tell me.”
“When you woman up, I will.”
Uggggh….
As an only child, I never had to fight for the attention of my parents. However, with cousins like Dolly and Emily, plus their siblings, I certainly had all the push and pull that came with siblings. Even now though, I wouldn’t trade it.