Chapter 4
HUNTER
She was going to be the death of me.
I watched Maggie throw back another shot of tequila, and the only thing keeping me in this booth was the fact that if I touched her now, I wasn’t sure I’d stop.
She tipped her head back before she slammed the empty shot glass on the table across from me. Her eyes were bright, wild, and full of liquor, and I had the urge to pin her in place and make her look at me for more than a damn second.
Because she’d barely looked at me once since we’d left that dance floor.
My jaw hurt from clenching, but I couldn’t help it. I watched her laugh at something Brody said, and he watched her so intently that I wanted to knock his teeth out.
Instead, I forced my fingers around my beer bottle and feigned like I wasn’t seconds away from losing my shit. She was giggling, lips pink and wet from the lime wedge she’d just sucked between her teeth.
But she wasn’t looking at me.
She was laughing into her drink like Brody Harding was the fucking funniest man on earth. Every time he leaned in, she smiled wider until her damn dimples appeared on her cheeks, and I just sat there and watched as she pretended I wasn’t even here.
But we both knew that she was just as aware of me as I was of her.
McCoy shot me a glance that managed to be both pitying and smug at the same time. A beer bottle dangled from his fingers as his gaze ping-ponged between me and Maggie.
“You know you’re a complete dumbass, right?” he muttered before taking a drink.
I said nothing as I watched Brody lean in close and say something to Maggie that got lost in the bar noise. She nodded before they both stood, and his fingers closed around hers.
The thud of my heartbeat drowned out everything else as I watched her blonde hair sway against her back while he led her toward the dance floor. His hand slid down to the small of her back, right where mine had been less than an hour ago.
She glanced back, only for a second, and her eyes locked with mine before she looked away.
“I don’t think I like the new sheriff,” I grumbled as I watched them find a spot on the dance floor.
There was a snort of laughter, and I turned to find Sutton’s eyes on me, one eyebrow raised. “That’s my brother you’re talking about.”
“Right. Shit.” I dragged my palm across the back of my neck as heat crawled up my skin. “My bad.”
“Don’t mind him, Sutton.” Blaire’s smile was sweet, but her eyes flashed with frustration. “Hunter just hates sharing his favorite toys, even when he likes to pretend that she isn’t his favorite.”
Her words stung more than they should have, and I gripped the neck of my beer and stared down at the rim. If I looked out at the dance floor, I wouldn’t be able to look at anything but her, and Blaire would know that she was right.
They’d all know that I’d never wanted anything the way I’d wanted Maggie.
I forced myself to take a drink, and like an idiot, I risked a glance at the dance floor. My gaze found her instantly, roaming over her purple dress that clung to her hips and rode high on her thighs.
Brody spun her under his arm, and she laughed, and I stopped breathing as Brody’s hand crept up her side, fingers splaying just beneath her ribs. I shifted in my seat as jealousy and something else ate at me, something more dangerous.
“Maggie can dance with whoever she wants to.” I cracked my neck and tried to act normal, but my leg bounced under the table. Every muscle in my body wanted to run, to fight, to fucking claim. “I think I’m going to head home.”
McCoy let out a low whistle. “Man, this is worse than I thought.” He reached for my forehead like he was checking for a fever, but I knocked his hand away.
“Fuck off.”
“I’m serious, though. Look around.” His eyes swept over the crowded bar. “There are so many beautiful women here tonight. Hell, look at Sutton.”
Sutton scoffed, but he kept going.
“You haven’t made a single move all night. Instead, you’ve been making eyes at Maggie, then sulking whenever she’s not looking at you.”
I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.” I didn’t need to look around the bar to know he was right.
“Keep telling yourself that.” McCoy turned to Blaire, gesturing with his beer bottle. “Tell him I’m right.”
Blaire winced as she nodded. “He’s not wrong. Colt and I were just saying the same thing.”
“Well, that’s fucking lovely,” I muttered as Colt appeared with a margarita and slid it in front of Blaire.
“So what exactly is going on between you two?” Sutton’s eyes tracked Maggie and her brother on the dance floor.
“Nothing is going on,” I lied.
“Please.” Blaire ran her tongue along the salted rim of her glass. “Hunter dated Maggie’s sister, but she cheated on him and moved back to Alabama. But this all happened before I came back to Tennessee.” She took a sip of her drink and stared me down. “He’s been pining after Maggie ever since.”
Sutton’s eyebrows shot up. “Damn. That’s a little fucked up. Isn’t it? Coming between two sisters.”
My chest tightened, blood pounding in my ears as they kept talking.
“Yeah,” I admitted, draining my beer in one long pull. “But I’m not pining after her. I just care about her.”
“Right.” Blaire raised an eyebrow, fanning herself dramatically with her hand. “You care for her so intensely sometimes I’m surprised I don’t get pregnant just off your sexual tension.”
“Blaire.” Colt laughed as he slid in the booth beside her.
“Tell me I’m wrong.” She leaned forward, eyes flashing with challenge. “I’ve never seen two people more desperate for each other.”
I snorted, my eyes darting between her and Colt. “That’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think?”
“We figured our shit out,” she fired back, arms folded across her chest. “Which is why I can say with confidence that what you need to do is man the fuck up and admit you have feelings for her.”
“And then what?” The words tore out of me like they’d been waiting years to escape.
My knuckles whitened around my beer bottle.
“Will she call up her sister or let her know that we’re dating?
Will she tell her parents?” My voice dropped to a rasp.
“Will I have to remind her every day that she’s not second to her sister because I was a fucking idiot who dated her sister when it should have always been her? ”
Blaire’s spine straightened, and I wished I could take every word back. But the truth was out there now, and there was no use in me trying to deny any of it.
“You never met Ella.” I looked away, then forced myself to meet her eyes. “You don’t know what she’s like. You don’t know how she is with Maggie.”
Blaire’s eyes narrowed. “How is she with Maggie?”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Ella’s like the fucking sun to her family, and everyone orbits around her.
And Maggie is…” I shook my head, struggling to find the words.
There was no way to describe how her family reduced her to nothing when all I could see was everything.
“Maggie’s just the shadow Ella casts. Always has been. ”
“I’m going to head home.” My stomach dropped at the sound of Maggie’s voice. It was too controlled, too even.
I looked up to find her standing at the end of the table with Brody, and the lightness I’d seen in her eyes only moments before was gone, replaced by something hard and cold and betrayed.
She wouldn’t look at me, wouldn’t even glance my way. “I’ve got a really busy day tomorrow.”
Fuck. How much of that had she heard?
“Okay.” Blaire’s gaze bounced between me and Maggie. “Hunter was just leaving too. Why don’t you let him drive you home?”
“No.” Maggie’s voice was tight and strained.
She grabbed her purse before she took a half step backward, her fingers curling around the strap until her knuckles whitened.
“I’m just going to walk. The bakery is less than half a block away.
” Her smile flashed too bright, too quick.
“Really. You don’t have to worry about me.
” Her gaze swept over the table, but she didn’t dare look at me.
“Sutton, I’m so glad you came out tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there.” Sutton saluted.
“I’ll see the rest of you later,” Maggie said, but still, she didn’t look at me.
Instead, she turned to Brody, and she gave him a smile that I fucking hated.
“Thank you for the dance,” she said softly, but her voice somehow cut through the bar noise straight to my gut.
“It was my pleasure,” he said with his hand lingering at her side. “I’ll text you?”
I hated how he touched her, hated how she leaned in to say something I couldn’t hear, and hated most of all the way she still didn’t look back at me even once.
She left quickly, and I watched her weave through the crowd with her head high and her legs steady despite all the tequila I’d seen her drink tonight.
The back of her dress dipped low and showed off the golden skin down her spine, and before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, tossing money on the table.
“What the hell are you doing?” Colt asked as I fished my truck keys out of my pocket.
“There’s no way in hell I’m letting her walk home alone.” I looked at him. “She’s as stubborn as a fucking mule, but she had too much to drink and it’s late.”
I barely remembered what anyone said after that. I just mumbled a half-assed good night before I shoved through the crowd.
The thick Tennessee night air hit me the moment the bar doors thudded shut behind me. The Dusty Spur’s neon sign glowed across the parking lot as I stalked after her, my mind buzzing with all the things I’d just said and the thousand things I should have said instead.
I couldn’t stop replaying it: every word, every look, every time Maggie’s gaze found mine when she was dancing with him.
I had no plan except to find her, to drive her home and make sure she got there safely, but even that felt like a lie. The real reason was tangled somewhere between my ribs, needy and desperate to see her even if all she wanted to do was punch me in the mouth.