Chapter 5 – One month later #2
James smirked and tossed his chin up. “So this is the famous Maggie?” His voice was deep but soft. His smirk grew into a full-blown smile. “Who you’ve been talking about all summer.”
Griffin’s cheeks turned red. “Seriously, bro?”
I made myself laugh, made myself forget the fact that 167 was none other than Bowen Dupree…who I’d heard Griffin rag on all summer. It actually bothered me that Griffin hardly said a nice thing about him. But now, I had to wonder if Griffin wasn’t spot on.
“All summer, huh?” I teased, playing my role perfectly.
Griffin blushed harder. But then he slid his arm around my waist and whispered, “Hope that doesn’t freak you out.”
I smiled. “Not even a little.”
“Gotta keep him humble.” James gestured to the girl next to him. “This is my girlfriend, Sage.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said.
“Nice to meet you both,” I said.
Griffin’s dad walked over and held his hand out for a shake. Again, the knife twisted. He had kind eyes. 167’s eyes. Actually, 167 had his eyes. Bowen. His name is Bowen. “I’m Silas. Nice to meet you, Maggie.”
“You too.”
He gestured at the table in the dining area of the great room. “Shall we?”
It was set with darling floral blue and white dinner plates that I recognized as Pioneer Woman brand from Walmart. I’d eyed them myself. Honestly, I’d expected Williams Sonoma or something from Crate and Barrel. But I loved that this branch of the Duprees hadn’t let money go to their heads.
Just as we got situated, the front screen door creaked open. My stomach wrenched hard. If Sophie was away at camp, who was that? I vaguely remembered Griffin mentioning that his grandma lived on the next hill over—but she’d recently begun dating a man and usually had dinner with him.
Griff stiffened, hands clenched on the table.
Lemon smiled, eyes excited. “Oh, good. Bowen made it.”
The air in my lungs crystallized, making it impossible to exhale. Maybe there was a minuscule chance that I was wrong. Maybe 167 was just a doppelg?nger for James and Silas. Maybe Bowen would walk in and it wouldn’t be him at all.
But I knew the truth.
I glanced around, looking for a way to escape without anyone noticing. I’d just race to my car, hightail it out of here, and keep driving right past the Seddledowne County line. Then I’d change my name and number and go do charity work in a third-world country for the rest of my life.
You can’t ditch! That’s what he did, and you’re better than that.
“Did you tell him?” Griffin asked his mom, each word laced with accusation.
I went rigid, shocked at his tone.
“Griff,” Silas said, like he was acting crazy. “He lives here. Of course, he’s invited to dinner.”
Griffin huffed.
“He’s invited to every meal if he wants.” Lemon’s tone matched her husband’s. But then her expression softened. “Just like you.” She tilted her head and gave him a look that said, Be chill.
“Bowen, we’re in here!” Silas called.
In the living room, on the other side of the wall, a female whispered something, followed by a giggle.
James groaned. “He brought Nova?” he said in a secretive hush.
I tensed even more. I vaguely remembered Griffin saying Bowen had an on-again, off-again thing going with Nova Fairchild—the actress who played Raven Nightshade’s niece in the Spy vs Sigh movies, produced by Clean Slate Productions, his aunt and uncle’s company.
According to Griff, Nova wasn’t her real name though.
Her real name was Rachel Smith. She hated how plain it was and she wouldn’t let anyone call her that. Not even her parents.
Griffin relaxed. “I didn’t know they were back together,” he whispered.
“Last weekend, apparently.” Lemon pasted on a smile. She seemed like the kind of woman who never said an unkind thing about another female, and I couldn’t tell how she felt about Nova.
“I wish they’d just stay off,” James said.
Sage patted him lightly on the chest, shushing him.
Bowen’s quiet approach echoed through the walls, every step a countdown. When he sauntered in, every head turned—including mine. My chest cinched tight, my breath stuck somewhere between inhale and disbelief.
It was him.
And he was just as cute as I remembered.
His swim trunks, still damp, hung off his hips. His fitted T-shirt stretched across his muscled chest. With his hair down, it brushed the tops of his shoulders. He shoved it back off his face and my stomach took a traitorous dip.
Nova was right behind him. She was exactly the kind of girl I would’ve expected him to be with.
Thin, gorgeous, shiny black hair that was wet from being in the water.
She was way prettier than me. Her royal blue crop top showed off three inches of very tanned, very toned abs.
She hung on Bowen’s arm so tightly that they almost looked like conjoined twins.
I’d never felt more foolish in my entire life.
On our date, I’d gotten so swept up in him, so hypnotized by his charming smile and almost-translucent eyes, that I’d nearly done irreversible damage to my belly button after one hour together. Now, I was sitting at his family’s dinner table, the biggest sucker ever played.
I wished I had a time turner. I would take it all back. The glances, the flirting, the entire date that now felt like one big joke.
Right then, that deceitful warm feeling that said, ‘he’s the one,’ had the audacity to reignite. Which confirmed what I’d suspected. That feeling was not from my mom. It was all in my head. Or my hormones, more likely.
“There he is,” James said happily.
“Hey, Bowen,” Sage said softly. “Hey, Nova.”
“Hi.” Nova giggled, and it was so bubbly I wondered if she was high.
“’Sup,” Bowen said coolly, but hearing his voice again lit me on fire—from the apples of my cheeks, all the way to the tips of my toes.
His brows flicked up, lips curved in an almost-smile as he held Nova’s hand, leading her to the table.
“Hey, Mama.” He paused to drop a kiss on the top of Lemon’s head, and it almost did me in.
I had to bear down, wrapping my legs around the feet of my chair, trying to get my body under control.
Then, to put the nail in the coffin, he pulled Nova’s chair out and helped her scoot in. Griffin muttered a swear word like he was personally offended at that show of chivalry, probably because he hadn’t done the same for me.
Bowen lowered into the seat across from mine, and my ridiculous, insubordinate eyes wouldn’t look away.
He hadn’t noticed me yet, but I prayed that when he did, he’d do better than I was doing right now.
He pulled his hair back into his man bun, and I got a familiar whiff of his aftershave—warm and woodsy, like he’d just stepped out of a cabin on the Blue Ridge.
Nova eyed me curiously. I forced a smile. She smiled back.
Finally, with his hair fixed, Bowen looked at me. Correction: he looked through me. Like I was no one and nothing, and we’d never met.
It felt like he’d hit me with a two-by-four. Again.
He tossed his chin up at Griffin. “Who’s this?”
“This is Maggie, my girlfriend,” Griffin said possessively.
I almost choked on my spit. I’d never agreed to be his girlfriend.
I’d said, ‘Let’s see how things go.’ But it was clear he was marking his territory.
Which was weird since Bowen had a girlfriend of his own.
Griffin gestured between us. “Maggie, this is Bowen. Bowen, Maggie. And this is Bowen’s girlfriend, Nova. ”
Bowen reached across the table to give me a fist bump like he would a buddy in a locker room. “Nice to meet you.”
Our eyes connected, and he held my gaze, expressionless. Like our date had never happened and like seeing me now did nothing for him.
I bumped him back, my gaze dropping to my plate. “You too.”
“Are we ready then?” Silas asked.
Heads bowed and eyes closed. But Bowen’s stayed open, and as Silas blessed the food, he held my gaze, a severe warning in his expression.
I was not to let his family know we’d met before.
As Silas blessed the fields of their farm, each person at the table, and all their extended family, Bowen didn’t look away, didn’t blink.
I rolled my eyes, working with all my might to keep my breathing in check.
But I could feel him watching me all the way to ‘amen.’
The moment grace ended, it was a feeding frenzy—as if these grown men thought this might be the last plate of food they ever got. They scooped, speared, and ladled so fast it made this only child’s head spin.
I snagged some grilled asparagus—nerves taut, appetite shot—and nearly launched into a nervous fit about asparagusic acid, the sulfur compound that makes your pee smell weird.
That’s what I did when I was anxious—told nerdy facts about things most people couldn’t care less about. But I managed to keep it to myself.
“So Maggie,” Silas started, as he dished some pasta primavera onto his plate. “Griffin says you’re a junior at UVA.”
“Oh.” Nova’s eyes lit up. “Bowen will be—”
“An architecture major at the community college in Honeyville,” Bowen inserted.
The Duprees looked at each other like they were confused. Everyone but Griff, whose eyes were cold and hard.
Nova’s brow furrowed. “But what about—”
Bowen shut her up with a peck on the lips. “You thought wrong.”
My stomach twisted.
“Bowen?” Lemon said. “What is—”
“We’ll talk about it later.” Bowen’s brows flicked up, ending the conversation.
I had no idea what was going on, and truth be told, I was two seconds away from crawling under the table. But like my dad always said, there’s no shortcut through awkward. You just have to ride it out.
So, I faced Griffin’s dad, who was still awaiting a response, and said, “Yes, sir. I’m a junior. Pre-med.”
“Oh, she says sir.” Lemon laughed. “I like it.” She pointed her fork at me. “Don’t let me hear ma’am coming out of your mouth though. It always makes me feel like an old lady.”
I gave her a brief smile. “I’ll try to remember that.”
“What kind of doctor do you want to be?” Sage asked, voice soft.
I turned to look at her, hands trembling in my lap. She was pretty in a quiet, I’ve never worn mascara in my life, kind of way. Dark blond hair, big, innocent blue eyes. I loved that James was head over heels for a girl who wouldn’t know what to do in Sephora.
“I’m debating between a thoracic surgeon and a hematologist-oncologist,” I said confidently. “I’ll be able to make a final decision when I get into my fourth year of med school.”
Bowen leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. “So, you’re basing your life’s work on how much you’ll make, not what you’re passionate about.”
I blinked, shocked.
Griffin snorted. “Wow.”
“Bowen,” Silas said, giving him a look. “This is one of those times when you don’t say exactly what pops into your head.”
Bowen shrugged. “I mean, she picked the two kinds of doctors that make the most money. It’s like she looked at the chart and said, ‘Oh, okay then. I’ll do that or that. No idea what they do, but I want to be rich so…”
I stared at him as if we’d entered the Twilight Zone. This was not the guy I’d gone out with. At all. Did he have multiple personality disorder? Schizophrenia? Was he jealous that I was with Griffin?
Don’t flatter yourself. If he wanted you, he wouldn’t have dipped the minute you turned your back.
“Uh.” I tucked my bangs behind my ears. “Actually, the highest paid doctors are neurosurgeons and thoracic surgeons. Not hematologist-oncologists.” I looked him right in his annoyingly beautiful eyes and very calmly and carefully said, “I think it’s kind of presumptuous of you to assume you know why I’m interested in those two fields, since we just met.
But I’m happy to tell you if you’d like. ”
He patted his mouth, like he was already bored with this conversation.
“I’d like to hear,” Sage said.
“Me too.” Griffin squeezed my thigh. Because he already knew what I was going to say.
But I looked directly at Bowen so he’d know I wasn’t intimidated.
“Maybe I chose those two types of doctors because the year I turned sixteen, instead of getting a license or shopping for prom dresses, I held my mom’s hand as she finally succumbed to the leukemia she’d been battling for four years.
Super fun watching your mom drown from the inside because her blood turned to sludge—so thick with cancer cells her lungs couldn’t do their job. ”
The room was uncomfortably quiet. Nova whimpered, and the sound felt sharper than it should have. Bowen was stiff, eyes hooded, ashamed. But he didn’t apologize.
Could I have sugarcoated it? Sure. But it hadn’t been sugarcoated for me and my dad. It had been our stark, devastating reality—and it was the reason why I was so focused on cancer and everything chest and lung related.
I exhaled, releasing some of my nerves. “Or maybe, it’s because when they said we’d exhausted all of our treatment options, and there was nothing left to do, I watched my dad sob with his head in my mom’s lap.
It was the first time in their marriage, he couldn’t fix what was wrong, and now he was going to have to say goodbye to the love of his life.
” Bowen’s cheeks looked hot but I couldn’t care.
“So maybe I want to be a thoracic surgeon or hematologist-oncologist so I can save another teenage girl from losing her mom the way I lost mine.” I shrugged one shoulder and glanced at Sage.
“But, like I said, I’ll know more in my fourth year. ”
My words hung in the air for a moment.
Griffin squeezed my leg and gave me a proud smile.
“Bro.” James broke the silence. “You got cooked.”
“Whatever.” Bowen went back to stabbing his mashed potatoes like the details of my mom’s death were completely forgettable.
Then, to twist the knife a little more, he leaned over, kissed Nova again, and whispered loudly, “I don’t know if I’ve told you lately, but you have the best legs I’ve ever seen. ”
My eyes burned and my chest ached.
But I would not let myself cry. My mom’s death deserved my tears.
All the friends I’d had to hug goodbye every time we moved on to our next tour deserved my tears.
When my dad’s best friend was killed in action.
The time we lost our house in a flood and all our pictures with it.
Last year, when my Bichon Frise, Zsa Zsa, who’d been a gift from my mom on my sixth birthday, passed over the rainbow bridge.
But Bowen Dupree?
Nope.
I glanced at Griffin and made a decision to be grateful.
Because I’d learned something tonight. Serendipity was a real thing, and it had saved me from the wrong Dupree and pointed me toward the right one.
I don’t know who I went out with at Sole Mates—but the guy who won me over then was not the one sitting across the table from me now. This guy?
Might have the best face I’d ever seen but he needed a muzzle for that mouth.