22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Grady
M aggie had been avoiding me. At first, I’d figured she was embarrassed, and she’d get over it. Maybe she was busy between the pharmacy and her mayor duties? Watching her talk to some of the setup crew from across the stage, I realized I’d been fooling myself. She hadn’t looked at me once since I’d arrived. I’d crossed her line of sight several times since I’d started helping Trent organize the back of the stage, and you’d think I was invisible.
“Quit fucking slacking,” Trent muttered as he moved another prop into a box labeled with someone’s name back behind the stage. “And stop looking at her like that.”
“Looking at who? Like what?” I grabbed a stool and moved it to a far corner. Almost every man who’d agreed to strip wanted a prop of some sort or a costume, sometimes both. Locating and organizing each item into labeled boxes had been left to me and Trent. Costumes we couldn’t find were being pieced together by Tyler from his secondhand shop and his creative brain. With only one week to go, we needed to figure out what we still needed to track down.
“Maggie. Like she kicked your puppy.” Trent flipped a drumstick around his hand repeatedly and then dropped it into another box.
The analogy was pretty apt. I would probably feel bewildered and angry if she did that too. “She’s avoiding me.”
“I swear to God,” Trent said, anger tinging his voice. He threw a fake microphone into a box, and it bounced back out. “If you try anything—”
“Did you have feelings for her?” I asked in a burst of annoyance. “At least answer me that. This ex-boyfriend overly protective vibe doesn’t seem too legit from what she’s told me.” I crossed my arms and glared at Trent.
A hint of red bloomed on Trent’s cheeks. “You don’t know anything.”
“Then fucking tell me!” Even if Maggie believed she and Trent had been nothing, it didn’t mean my brother believed it.
“There are lots of women in Little Falls who’d be happy to look after you. Leave her be.”
“It’s not that simple.” I couldn’t do what Trent wanted. She was in my blood. Going a day without seeing her was torture. A week had passed since she’d slept in my bed. I walked past the pharmacy with the dogs daily, sometimes more than once, so I could look in the window, catch a glimpse of a white coat, auburn hair. I invented reasons to go into city hall in case she might be out of her office wandering around. All week, I’d been obsessed with the lingering smell on the pillow next to mine.
At some point, I might have been able to stop these feelings, but I was past the point of no return. There was no longer anything rational about how much I wanted Maggie Sullivan.
“Yeah, it is that simple. You turn to one of those clipboard women who follow you around town organizing all your campaign things, and you offer to screw them. Probably ninety percent of them would go for it. Those are good odds.” Trent frowned. “You don’t pay them, right? I don’t know how this political shit works. But I know you can get in trouble for fucking your employees. Maybe go to Utica instead and play some songs. Being that close to someone famous is like a panty remover, isn’t it?”
I gritted my teeth. Nothing Trent had said was wrong, exactly. Didn’t make me feel like a very good person. The guy Trent described wasn’t someone I wanted to be. I scooped up a clipboard from the pile of props between them. “Forget I asked.”
When I looked up, Trent was examining me, eyes narrowed. “Fuck me. You actually give a shit.” His jaw tensed. “Of all the women, why her?”
I decided it was probably time I told the truth, or at least some of it. “It’s been her for a while. I can’t help it. I tried. Believe me, I tried.”
Trent stared at me in silence for a beat, maybe gauging my sincerity. “I’m not saying shit until I get a chance to talk to Maggie.” He ran the palm of his hand over his shorn head. “I’m not convinced you deserve to know.”
“I let you down. I let Maggie down. I’m not going to do it again.”
“The song that got you all famous and rich really hurt her. I always felt like there was something I was missing. Why would someone like Maggie care if you got all the facts wrong?”
I couldn’t meet Trent’s gaze. With a flick of my wrist, I flipped the clipboard in my hands. Over my shoulder, I glimpsed Maggie, and that familiar ache rose to the surface.
“Unless there was something going on between you two I didn’t know about,” Trent said.
I focused on the pile of things between us. “We’d better get back to it.”
Trent’s hands landed on my chest, propelling me backward. “You fucking asshole.” He pushed me again, and I stumbled, but I didn’t fight back. If Trent hit me, I deserved the blow.
Maggie’s heels clicked along the wooden surface of the stage as Trent pushed me a third time.
“Tell me the truth. Be honest with me , Grady.”
“Trent!” Maggie stretched between us, arms out, as we eyed each other. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
Normally, Maggie stepping between me and Trent would have been amusing. Did she think she could stop us if we decided to go at it? I didn’t want her to get hurt, and I didn’t want her around if I admitted we’d slept together. She didn’t deserve Trent’s wrath or any embarrassment in front of the crew setting up. Trent glared at me, and I glared right back, willing him to look away first.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but the show is next week. I need both of you healthy and not in various shades of black and blue.” She looked between us. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“No.” My gaze bored into his brother. Trent’s protective instinct where Maggie was concerned had better extend to this moment too. I’d take a swing at him if he accused her of anything in front of other people.
“No,” Trent agreed. “Grady needs another job. I’ve got this one covered.” He stalked across the stage to the pile of items on the floor.
With a sigh, I started to walk away. She snagged my forearm and then released it as though the contact scalded her.
“Wait,” she said.
My heart rate wasn’t quite back to normal from my almost-confrontation with Trent, and her touch caused another spike. Maybe I should have told Trent everything, gotten it over with. Deep down, I knew now wasn’t the right time, especially if we were going to exchange more than words.
“What was that all about?”
I peered at her, trying to read her motives. “Have you been avoiding me?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “Forget it. Whatever is going on between you and him is none of my business.”
One of the stagehands wandered past and grinned at her, pausing beside us. “We’re still on for tomorrow night?”
She returned his smile, but it looked forced, as though she was gathering enthusiasm from down in her toes. “Looking forward to it.”
“I’ll have to think about what I can come up with to top our first date.” He winked and then continued past us.
Being punched in the kidney would have been better than hearing their exchange. “A date?”
“People do that.” She avoided eye contact. “They don’t just screw each other and walk away, leaving the other person to clean up the mess.”
“Oh.” My gut twisted. “So, you’re screwing him too. Good to know.” I cocked my head. “Probably more information than I needed, but the visual is crystal clear.” I circled the side of my head with my index finger. “I have a great imagination where you’re concerned. And some highlight reels to back that up.”
She shoved me. Hard. Or tried to. The look on her face told me she’d put all her weight behind it. But unlike Trent, she didn’t have much luck in making me move.
I leaned down, so my mouth almost touched her ear. “If you wanted to put your hands on me, I can think of better places for them.”
“You’re gross. You repulse me,” her voice cracked.
“Come on, Maggie. At least say something you believe.”
Meeting my gaze, she hissed, “I hate you.”
My stomach clenched at her words, but the tears brimming in her eyes evaporated any desire to fight. She stormed past me and down the stairs of the stage before I could collect myself.
When I turned to follow her, Trent called, “Leave her the fuck alone, Grady.”
But Trent didn’t stop me. Good enough. I wasn’t letting her flee from me, crying.
I’d made her cry. I’d made her fucking cry.
Rushing around the building, I searched the places being used for the concert. As a last resort, I put my ear to the door of the women’s bathroom. If she wasn’t in there, she’d gone home.
Propping it open with my foot, there was a line of stalls, sinks, and a counter in a dark gray. From the furthest stall, I heard a distinct sniff. “Maggie?”
“It’s the women’s bathroom.”
Grabbing the Cleaning in Progress sign from the back of the door, I stuck it on the front and let the door fall shut behind me.
Quickly, I scanned the other stalls for feet. We were alone. “I’m sorry, Maggie May. I was being an asshole, and I’m just… I’m sorry.”
“Go away. Just go away.”
Outside her locked stall, I leaned my shoulder against it. “Come out and talk to me.”
She sniffed, and her voice was thick when she said, “I have nothing to say to you.”
“You hate me, and you’re not going to talk to me?” A cold sweat broke out across my chest. How had we gone from her sleeping in my bed to this much anger when we hadn’t even spoken this week?
She’d gone on a fucking date.
I was in the twilight zone—the only logical explanation. What the hell had I done?
“Hate sums it up.” Her voice was garbled. Was she still crying? The toilet paper holder rumbled, and the sound of her blowing her nose echoed throughout the bathroom.
I almost fell into the stall when the lock snapped back, and she opened the door.
She tapped underneath her eyes with her fingertips as she strolled past me. Looking in the mirror, she pumped soap into her hands. As she washed them, I stood behind her, unsure in the face of her calm indifference.
“Why were you crying?” Our gazes met in the mirror.
“Because you were being an asshole. For some reason, there’s a tiny part of me that thought I might care for half a second. Turns out,” she said with a shrug, “I don’t.”
When she turned to leave, I stepped in front of her. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t look up and instead tried to step again.
I stepped with her. “I’m sorry.” The tightness in my chest was like a vice, reminding me how much I cared, how sorry I was. Whatever I’d done wrong, I wanted to put it right. I’d apologize a thousand times, a million times, as many times as it took to get her to look at me the way she had in my bed when she’d asked me to stay.
Her brown eyes scanned my face. “I don’t forgive you.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears.
Putting my hands under her armpits, I lifted her onto the counter and smoothed back her hair. Her gray skirt rode up her thighs. “I’m sorry.” I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. The apology wasn’t just for whatever I’d done this time—it was for everything I’d done in the past too.
She sighed, her eyes closed. “I don’t forgive you,” she whispered.
Cupping her face in my hands, I kissed her temple and murmured in her ear. “I’m sorry.” I was sorry for so many things. I wasn’t even sure I needed the truth anymore. If whatever had happened would rip us apart, I didn’t want to know any of it.
A tear slipped down her cheek, and I scooped it up with my thumb.
“I don’t want to feel this way anymore,” Maggie choked out.
“Me neither,” I admitted, kissing her cheek.
“Being around you hurts.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I found her earlobe with my lips, nibbling.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her hands sliding along my shoulders. Silence lapsed between us as I feathered kisses across her skin, reveling in the softness, letting me worship her.
“Did you sleep with Sabrina?”
Her words broke the bubble of longing encircling us. For a moment, I didn’t move, processing her words. Frowning, I rocked back on my heel, examining her face. She was serious. “No. Not since I’ve been back.”
“Why was she at your house?”
Grimacing, I hesitated and laced my fingers with Maggie’s, my thumb caressing the back of her hand. “I made a poor choice and let her spend the night.”
“But you didn’t sleep with her.”
I shook my head, meeting her gaze. “I slept beside her. We didn’t have sex.”
“Like with me.”
“Not even close. I wanted you there. I let her stay. Might not seem like a big difference, but it is.”
She searched my face, and I held her gaze each time our eyes made contact. “She came to my pharmacy for emergency contraceptive.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I shouldn’t have said that. What is wrong with me?”
“Emergency contraceptive?” With my fingers, I tucked stray strands of Maggie’s hair behind her ear. God, I wanted to kiss her. The kind of kiss which only led in one direction.
“That was unprofessional, I shouldn’t have—”
“Probably for the best. She doesn’t need more kids.” Her lips were a soft coral color. What would they taste like? Strawberry lip balm the last time.
She smacked me in the chest, forcing my gaze from her lips to her eyes. “She implied the pill was because of you , and I shouldn’t even be telling you this because it’s wrong, and I don’t know what’s gotten into me…”
My eyes widened, realization dawning. I framed Maggie’s face with my hands. “ That’s why you’re so upset?”
“She said you’d never gotten over her. You said that to her.”
“Over her ?” I scoffed. “I never said that. I wouldn’t have. It’s not true. I was over her probably even when I was with her in high school. Makes me sound like a shitty person. But that’s the truth.”
“So, you and her…”
“Aren’t together. We’re nothing. After she took your signs and lied to me, I talked to her and then stopped taking her calls. I haven’t spoken to her in weeks.” I drew her closer, and she went willingly, wrapping her arms around me. “Feel better?”
She nodded against my chest, and when she sniffed, I tipped her chin up. “You’re crying. You’re not feeling better.”
“I am.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears.
“Why the waterworks?” I passed her a tissue from the box on the counter and studied her.
“I hate that I care.”
“About me?”
“About any of this. I thought you were making a fool out of me.” Her voice hitched on the word fool, and she dabbed at her eyes.
“Hey.” I kissed her forehead. “Hey.”
More tears streaked down her face.
“The only thing I want to make you is happy. That’s it. Nothing else matters to me anymore.”
When she looked up, the last of my resolve crumbled and fell away. I couldn’t remember why being with her was a bad idea, why I’d ever wanted to be anywhere else. Her tear-stained cheeks tugged at the strings of my heart, strumming a song only she could play. Her fingertips grazed my cheek as though she was testing out the contact. Under her lashes, her dark eyes flicked to my lips, and it was all the invitation I needed. Lowering my head, my lips grazed hers, tentative at first, teasing. Would she kiss me back or slap me for trying?
But when I angled my head to deepen the kiss, she sighed into my mouth, and her fingers tangled into my hair, pulling me closer, deeper. I spanned her back with my arms, using my palm to draw her pelvis tight against mine. Then I slid my hand up her thigh, my fingertips just under the edge of her skirt.
Her back arched, and the kiss between us became more insistent, less controlled. Nothing else mattered but the feel of her pressed against me, her breasts skimming my chest, her fingers twisting in my hair, her tongue slipping in and out of my mouth in sync with my own.
I groaned and yanked her forward a little more, needing her to feel how much I wanted this, wanted her. I ached with wanting.
“Grady,” she gasped, breaking the kiss.
I found the hollow of her neck, grazed my teeth against her earlobe and discovered the most sensitive spots, the ones that made her wiggle against me. I could do this all day, touch her, kiss her, taste her. Exploring her was like arriving in a new country, and I wanted to light up all the paths, explore each one, map her body with my hands, then my tongue.
The door creaked. But I ignored the sound. Whoever it was would go away. We were busy. There was a sign on the door.
“I fucking knew you wouldn’t listen to me,” Trent said.
My pulse stuttered to a stop, and I broke off the kiss. I rested my head against hers for a beat, collecting myself, before turning to face Trent.
Fists clenched, Trent was inside the bathroom door, glaring at me, not acknowledging Maggie at all.
Brothers first .