Chapter 8 #2
“Well, someone has to do it,” she fired back as she leaned forward and braced her elbows on the table. “Did you see how dumb your brother was with Blaire? You Calloway boys ain’t got a lick of sense.”
“Really, June?” Colt put his hand over his heart. “I thought you loved me.”
June snorted. “Loving you ain’t got a damn thing to do with whether or not you can use your brain. If women waited around for men with sense, the human race would’ve died out centuries ago.”
June had this way of seeing right through us, calling out our shit with a look that should’ve made us hate her, but instead, it somehow made me love her more.
“Preach, June,” Maggie said as she emerged onto the back deck carrying a pitcher of tea in one hand and a basket of food in the other. She set both down on the table and took a seat beside June. “Not sure what prompted this conversation, but men are truly the dumbest.”
She hadn’t looked at me until that moment, and when she did, her eyes locked with mine for one breathless second before she looked away. I watched her throat work as she swallowed, but she didn’t turn back to face me.
“I don’t know, Mags.” McCoy grinned at her as he took the seat on her other side. “Maybe you just haven’t tried a real man before.”
Maggie’s laugh was genuine as she turned to him. “And you’re a ‘real man’?”
He leaned toward her with a wink like the cocky asshole he was, but Maggie arched a perfect brow and crossed her arms.
“I’d show you a real good time. You know I would, Mags.”
His words crawled right under my skin, and I didn’t give myself a second to think.
“Maggie, did Mom need any more help carrying things out?” My voice came out a little rough, but no one seemed to notice except Maggie, whose eyes snapped back to mine.
She blinked and her lips twitched like she knew exactly what I was thinking, but before she could answer me, my mama stepped out onto the porch carrying a platter filled with her fried chicken.
“All right, dinner’s ready!” she announced, and I moved to grab the tray before she could set it down.
I set it at the center of the table as my dad followed her outside. Blaire strolled out right behind him with Ruby perched on her hip. Blaire discreetly reached for my dad’s hand, wrapping hers around his now shaky one, and she smiled up at him as she walked with him to the head of the table.
Dad lowered himself into the chair he’d occupied for every family dinner of my life. The man whose laugh had once filled every corner of our home seemed to sag as he settled in, and I noticed the tremor in his hands had worsened since last week’s family dinner.
But he was still the rock of this family. He was the same stubborn, fiercely loyal man who’d sacrifice anything for his kids, who’d built this entire life for us piece by piece. Watching illness and age slowly erode him felt like watching the foundation of my world crack.
As everyone shuffled around to claim their seat, the air on the back deck grew dense with the sound of laughter, the scrape of chairs, and the clatter of serving spoons.
Ruby wriggled out of Blaire’s arms and beelined for my dad’s lap, where she bounced and pointed at every dish, telling him exactly what she wanted on her plate.
Dad handed Ruby a steaming biscuit while Colt prepared the rest of her plate. He repositioned Ruby on his knee and smiled, the hard lines around his mouth softening in a way I’d only ever seen happen around his granddaughter.
I took my seat across from Maggie, and I pretended not to notice when my foot knocked into hers under the table.
I glanced up in time to see a flush crawl up her cheeks, but she didn’t pull away.
Her calf brushed against mine as I stretched my leg out a bit more, and maybe I should’ve shifted and given her some space, but I didn’t.
The food went around the table, and everyone fell into a rhythm as we passed things down and laughter swelled around us.
My mama’s voice cut through the laughter. “Maggie, honey, have you heard from your folks lately?”
Maggie’s leg went rigid against mine, and I watched her fingers tighten around her glass before setting it down carefully. “My mom checks in every couple weeks or so,” she said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Everyone doing all right?” Mama asked, helping herself to some of June and Blaire’s jam and slathering it on her biscuit.
“They’re fine.” Maggie nodded once. “Ella just got engaged, actually.”
The words barely left her lips before silence fell over the table, but Maggie didn’t flinch, not even when she had every eye on her. I could feel their eyes on me too, shifting back and forth between us, as I took another bite of chicken and tried to ignore them.
“Well, isn’t that big news,” my mama said after a moment, her voice bright but gentle. “I bet she’s so happy.”
Maggie smiled, but I was close enough that I could see her pulse flutter in her throat. “I think so, and honestly, that’s all that matters.”
I pressed my leg more firmly against hers under the table, a move that was hidden from everyone else but felt like lightning between us.
Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, pupils dilating slightly, and for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
The corner of her mouth twitched almost imperceptibly before she looked away, but her leg remained pressed against mine, neither of us willing to break the contact.
My heartbeat skittered beneath my ribs at the warmth where her calf met mine, and I knew better than to crave this so badly.
A simple touch of her leg against mine while surrounded by my family shouldn’t feel this intimate, this stolen.
Yet here I was, stepping over boundaries, ignoring every warning bell in my head that screamed this was dangerous territory.
Mama leaned forward, her smile gentle as she looked at Maggie. “I’d say they’re missing you something fierce back home. I know I sure would be.” Her eyes held that mix of tenderness and concern she typically reserved for her own children.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Dad muttered, wiping a smudge of food from Ruby’s chin with his thumb. “Maggie’s got me so damn spoiled on desserts, I don’t know what I’d do.” He winked at Maggie. “This old man’s gotten used to the sweet things in life.”
“Oh Lord.” My mama rolled her eyes. “All you’ve ever known is sweet things in life.”
“Don’t I know it.” He arched a brow at her, and I swear, my mama blushed.
“See, McCoy,” June said as she jabbed her fork between my mom and dad. “What did I tell you earlier about never being too old for a little afternoon delight?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Why do you think they had Hunter install that grab bar in the shower last month? Safety, my ass.”
McCoy choked on his sweet tea as Colt muttered something under his breath that sounded like a curse. Maggie’s shoulders shook with silent laughter while Blaire covered her mouth as a giggle escaped.
“June, I swear I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth next.” I shook my head and ran my hand over my jaw. “No one here wants to think about my parents’ sex life.”
June raised her glass in a mock toast. “At least your parents are still getting some.” Her eyes glinted with trouble as my mama groaned.
“Speaking of which...” She leaned forward, voice dropping as she looked at Maggie.
“Word around town is our Maggie here and that new handsome sheriff were looking mighty friendly down by the water earlier.”
A bolt of heat shot through my chest, and I couldn’t stop myself from looking up at Maggie, even though I knew everyone could see the jealousy twisting under my skin.
My jaw ticked, but I kept my mouth shut as I watched a flush climb up Maggie’s neck as her eyes found Blaire across the table. “Seems like the rumor mill’s working overtime considering everyone who was at the lake earlier is sitting right here.”
Blaire’s hands shot up defensively. “Don’t look at me!”
“Ruby’s our little informant,” June said with a wave of her hand. “She told me you were two-timing her uncle Hunter with ‘the man with big muscles.’”
“Ruby!” Maggie’s eyes widened at my niece. “You really are a busybody.”
I sipped my tea and averted my gaze, working to keep my expression neutral when I felt anything but. “I told y’all.”
“Besides,” Maggie added, her voice carefully measured, “you can’t two-time someone when there’s nothing going on in the first place. Your uncle Hunter is my friend.”
I stared at her across the table, my jaw locked so tight I could feel my pulse throbbing in my temples.
Maybe no one else noticed the way my fingers curled around my fork until my knuckles blanched or how I couldn’t seem to find my own breath, but I felt every inch of the distance she’d just put between us.
I wanted to grab her wrist, pull her across the table, and let everyone see what I’d been trying to deny for years.
But I didn’t move. Not a goddamn inch.
“Okay, well, since we’re on the subject, what were you and the sheriff talking about for so long?” Blaire grinned, and I just sat there with every muscle in my damn body rigid as I waited for her answer.
Maggie’s cheeks flushed crimson as she lifted her tea to her lips, her eyes fixed on the rim of her glass instead of meeting mine. “Brody,” she corrected.
Blaire just shrugged, undeterred. “Don’t dodge. He was out in the lake talking to you for a good twenty minutes.”
“He just asked me out to dinner, that’s all,” Maggie said hesitantly as her leg slid away from mine with excruciating slowness.
She swallowed hard enough for me to track the movement down her throat, and her eyes darted to me for the briefest moment before she looked away.
June leaned in. “Well? What did you tell him?”
“I told him I’d go.”
When Maggie finally looked at me, I caught something raw in her eyes before she blinked it away. But what right did I have to that look? To anything from her?
She could go to dinner with the whole damn sheriff’s department if she wanted. I was the one who kept drawing lines in the sand, only to cross them myself.
I wanted to fucking ruin her for anyone else, but instead, I let her sit there and talk about dinner with Brody Harding like it wasn’t gutting me.
“Well, look at you,” Blaire said, grinning. “That man hasn’t been in town more than a couple weeks, and he’s already falling for you.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “No one is falling for me.”
But fuck, she couldn’t have been more wrong.