Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
MAGNOLIA
The fact that I’d fallen asleep on a slab of marble, traffic blaring on the next street over, still not knowing if James was going to live or die, only proved how exhausted I was.
But the subconscious is a funny thing because my eyes flew open when I heard a familiar pair of footsteps coming my way. I sat up with a jerk, heart exploding in my chest. I glanced to my right, sure this anxiety was the result of a nightmare.
Nope.
It really was Griffin. Coming up the sidewalk, hands shoved in his pockets, he tossed his chin up like we were buddies. Huh?
I gazed beyond him…to Bowen, leaning against the trunk of a tree, eyes hooded, posture stiff. My heart stuttered at the sight of him, unsure if he was angry or just hurt. The two of them, here together? Meant he’d told Griff about me. Today. With everything going on with James.
This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
Bowen tilted his head, eyes drilling into me, and I swear I could read his thoughts. Really, Magnolia? You thought you could get rid of me with that weak breakup text?
Griffin dropped onto the bench three feet away from me. “Hey, Maggie.”
“Hi?” I waited for him to say something more—to bless me out for cheating on him.
Or cuss me out for going after Bowen now.
I wouldn’t blame him. Clearly, I had the world’s worst timing.
But he just leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, watching a couple of birds hopping around in the grass, like he was perfectly comfortable being here with me. “How’s James?” I asked.
“Alive. But…” His head dropped, staring at the ground. “So busted up, it doesn’t even look like him.”
I sagged with relief. “He made it through, though.”
He glanced over, eyes red and exhausted. “He did. Thank God.”
“Is he awake?”
He shook his head. “No. They’re keeping him in a coma until tomorrow morning. They want to give him some time to heal before he learns about Sa…” He inhaled and forced her name out, “Sage.”
“Griff,” I said softly. I didn’t know what else to say.
He turned to face me. “How’ve you been?”
“Good?”
“You’re good. It’s okay to say it.” He chuckled. “You’re probably wondering why I’m talking to you instead of Bowen.”
I didn’t answer, afraid it was a trap.
“It’s okay.” He smiled, and it was kind of spectacular. But he’d always had a nice smile. “I know you two have been going out. A lot.”
“He told you?” I asked, more surprised by the second.
“Yes—and he also told me it was too bad if I didn’t like it because he was choosing you.
” He huffed, but there was a touch of amusement in his words.
“But I already knew.” He held up his phone, and there was my last known location, right here at the Whispering Wall.
Cash’s location was underneath mine. Followed by Bowen’s.
“You never deleted me?” I asked, mouth hanging open.
“Don’t worry.” He smirked. “I haven’t been stalking you for two years.
I stopped checking locations the day I left Virginia.
But as soon as I saw Liam’s boomerang,” he muttered.
“I knew that was it. No way was Bowen going to let Liam have you. I was right. An hour later, yours and Bowen’s dots were right on top of each other, like you were making a baby. ”
A snort shot out of my nose. “Uh, definitely not. I told him to talk to the hand, right there in the belly of the Costco inflatable Neuschwanstein.”
His eyes sparkled. “Your German is still impressive.”
“My nightmares are all in German, so it’s kind of embedded in my long-term.”
He laughed but it died quickly. “Bowen told me. About everything. Including seeing…Selene…at the movie theater.” I could tell it hurt to talk about her.
I pressed a hand to my forehead. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
His eyebrow raised in a slow arch. “For the same reason that you never told me you went on a date with Bowen and he ditched while you were in the bathroom.”
I sat back, face hot. Bowen really had told him everything.
“What Selene did was humiliating,” Griffin said. "For both me and Bowen, and I never wanted you to know because I felt inferior to him. I always did anyway, but she made it a hundred times worse.”
“He idolizes you.”
Griffin huffed. “I have no idea why.”
“You’re his big brother.”
“I’ve also been a complete jackass.” He clasped his hands together, staring at them. “Like if there was a World’s Worst Brother award, I would’ve won it six years straight.”
“Griff—”
“Let me say this before I lose my nerve.” He flexed his hands.
“I hurt him over and over, punishing him for what she did. And what’s worse is that I used you to do it.
” I wanted to tell him it wasn’t true, but he’d asked me to let him finish, so I sat there, waiting.
“I used you, Maggie, and it’s disgusting. ”
“How?” I was the one who’d kissed Bowen and broken Griffin’s heart.
"I knew you two liked each other,” he admitted. “From the very beginning. I could tell.”
I pressed my hands to my cheeks, feeling stripped bare. “Was I that transparent?”
“Yes.” He chuckled. “And so was he.”
But it wasn’t that simple. “I did like him. But I liked you too. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I know,” he said bitterly. “But you liked him more. Just like every other girl I’d ever been into. So freaking annoying,” he muttered. “There’s just something about him that makes girls go crazy.”
It was true. So true, it made me nauseous. Would I have to bat women away everywhere we went for the rest of our lives?
“You don’t need to worry,” Griffin said. “He’s immune to it. I actually think he finds it obnoxious.” His eyes smoldered on his brother’s behalf. “You are the only woman I’ve ever seen him this crazy about.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, shifting on my feet, suddenly very aware of myself.
“Please. He drew pictures of you. Plural. And gave them to you anonymously. For years. He never draws for anyone except my mom—and only when she begs or guilts him into it. And he pierced his eyebrow for you, knowing full well our dad was going to lose his mind—which he did, by the way. And he kissed you at the Spartan Race, in front of everyone. He loathes cheaters. And PDA. It disgusts him.”
My gaze skittered to Bowen under the tree. He was chewing his bottom lip into a twist, arms folded across his chest, watching us nervously.
“Really? He hates PDA?” I asked. “I didn’t know that.”
“Exactly.” Griffin tossed his hands out.
“You wouldn’t—because he loses all rational thought whenever you’re around.
” He glanced over his shoulder at Bowen.
“We need to wrap this up before he upchucks his pancakes.” He huffed out a laugh.
“I mean, look at him. He’s pitiful without you and he’s only a hundred feet away. ”
My hands twisted around each other. “So you’re okay that Bowen and I are a couple?”
His head bobbed side to side. “I will be. It’s not that hard when I live across the country. I hardly think about it, no offense.”
“I’m glad.” It was a complete understatement. Some girls might love the idea of their ex lying in a dark room, still depressed about ‘the one that got away’ two years later. Not me. I really did want the best for Griff. "You’re happy in Arizona?”
“I am happy.” His eyes danced, and his mouth turned up at the corners like he knew a secret. “Really happy.”
“So you’re never moving back?” I asked, knowing Lemon would be gutted if it were true.
“Definitely not. I love it out there. No bugs, no humidity—” He stopped mid-sentence and checked his phone. “Oh, Mom’s itching for us to get back.” He slapped his thighs and looked at me. “Are we good?”
My stomach relaxed. “Yes, Griff. We’re good.” I opened my arms, hoping for a hug.
He wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tight.
Bowen’s expression turned baleful and he strode toward us.
I stifled a giggle. “Oh, he doesn’t like this.”
“Told you he hates PDA.” He stood and propped his hands on his hips, laughing as Bowen walked up.
“Hands off my woman,” Bowen growled as soon as we were in earshot.
Griffin lifted his hands and took a giant step away from me. “Don’t get twitchy. We all know I was the detour and you’re the destination. Aight?”
Bowen’s glare sharpened. “And don’t you forget it.” But there was a warmth in the way they were looking at each other that finally felt like the way things always should’ve been.
Bowen’s gaze shifted to me, smoldering, like he needed to be alone with me. Now.
Griffin winked. “Meet you back at the car.” Then he sauntered off, seeming perfectly fine. It was amazing what a year in the hot Arizona sun could do to heal a broken heart, I guess.
Bowen and I held back, eyes coming together, only to skitter to Griff’s retreating figure, then find each other again. But when the shadow of Newcomb Hall finally swallowed Griff, the leash on my heart snapped.
Bowen and I crashed into each other, tangled in a lung-crushing hug.
His hands smoothed over my hair, my back, my waist, as if checking me for injuries. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. I told you I was choosing you. Didn’t you believe me?”
I trapped his handsome face in my hands. “Yes. But I was afraid if—”
“No buts,” he scolded. “It’s you and me from now on. No matter what. No more sacrificing our happiness for the happiness of others. Nothing gets in our way ever again. Nothing.” That disclaimer sounded all-encompassing, negating any reasons that may ever arise in the future. “Got it?”
I nodded, completely overwhelmed. It was the love I’d always wanted, from the man I’d always wanted it from. “Got it.” And then my hands were in his hair, tugging him closer, pulling his mouth to mine. When our lips met, the rush of peace I’d wanted to feel finally arrived.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that Bowen and I found our way back to each other in the end. My mom was the world’s best promise keeper and the ultimate believer in second, third, and 647th chances. I could no longer deny that nothing about Bowen and me was a coincidence.
A botched first date turns into his brother asking me out.
My car breaks down, I'm hypothermic, and Bowen, of all people, rides up on his chariot—hunter green, Land Cruiser edition—to save me.
We draw matching cards, forcing us to be Spartan Race partners.
Scalpel to the hand, fake dating for the win, Charlie suckers me to Clean Slate.
It was all there, undeniably simple, and unmistakably clear.
Mom or God—probably both—shoved Bowen and me together over and over and over…
Making sure there was no way we got it wrong in the end.
A car horn honked in the distance—Bowen’s car horn. He smiled against my mouth. “Griffin.” But he kept kissing me anyway, taking his time.
Griffin honked again.
“James,” I said.
“James would want me to stay right here,” he murmured. “I promise.”
I giggled as his thumbs massaged the space below my ears, his tongue tracing over my top lip.
But when Griffin lay on the horn for a solid twenty seconds, Bowen groaned, “Fine.” He pecked me on the lips again. “Wah-hoo-wah,” he murmured, his eyes darting over my face like I was a priceless work of art.
I smiled, running a finger over his piercing scar. “I love you too.”
As we strolled hand in hand down the sidewalk on the campus of our alma mater, I glanced up at the cloudless sky and whispered a reverent, “Thank you.”