Chapter 9
MAGGIE
My hands trembled as I lowered the visor and swiped on mascara. I kept telling myself it was just normal pre-date jitters. This was normal, expected, but even I couldn’t convince myself that it was the truth.
Because every time I closed my eyes, it wasn’t Brody’s smile I saw, it was Hunter’s expression when I’d answered Blaire, when I said that I’d told Brody yes about tonight.
My hands slipped and smudged the mascara on my eyelid.
I stared at it for a beat like maybe I could will it away, like maybe I could will it all away.
My reflection looked back at me, hair too blonde, eyes too green.
I dabbed at the black smear with my thumb and I snapped the visor shut before I could talk myself out of tonight altogether.
I stepped out of my truck and straightened my dress as I took a deep breath of the evening air and made my way toward the restaurant entrance.
I straightened my shoulders the way my mom had taught me and stepped inside. The hostess saw me coming and sent me a smile.
“Evening, Maggie.”
“Evening, Catie. How are you?” I glanced around the restaurant and saw at least two dozen faces I recognized.
If anyone didn’t already know that I was out on a date with the new sheriff, they would know by morning.
“I’m good.” She nodded to the back of the restaurant. “Brody’s already here. He’s out on the patio.”
I managed a smile. “Thanks, Catie. I’ll find my own way.”
The restaurant was crowded, and I said hello to the locals as I slipped through the tables and out onto the back deck. Brody was sitting at a table in the far corner when I stepped outside, and the strung patio lights lit him up just enough that I could see his hand bouncing on his thigh.
He looked so handsome in his blue button-down that brought out the warmth in his eyes.
He spotted me and stood so quick his chair scraped against the concrete patio. The sound drew the attention of three nearby tables, but he didn’t look embarrassed. Instead, he grinned and rounded the table to pull out my chair.
“Hey,” he said softly, and his hand hovered against my lower back.
“Hi,” I said, lowering myself into the chair.
He released the chair slowly, his fingers brushing against my back, and I tried not to think about how different it felt from Hunter’s touch, how there was no static charge beneath my skin, just the soft pressure of a genuinely good man doing what he does.
He sat back down across from me, and a hush settled between us. He flashed me a smile, one that made it impossible not to meet his eyes.
“You look…” He paused. “…absolutely gorgeous.”
His eyes trailed from my face down to the edge of my sundress.
I managed a quiet “Thank you” as my stomach flipped, and I forced myself to meet his eyes. “You look handsome tonight.”
Brody’s smile was warm, and I wanted to let it melt everything inside me that felt restless. I fiddled with the edge of my dress while he watched me, and my nerves buzzed with a low, confused heat I wasn’t used to.
“Thank you,” he said as he shifted forward in his seat. “I hope this place is okay. Sutton told me it’s one of your favorites.”
“It is. I love it here,” I said as I nodded. “I haven’t been here in forever, honestly.”
His smile was effortless and unguarded. “Well, I’m glad you’re here now.”
I watched the way his eyes lingered on my face, and I understood why the whole town seemed to be talking about him.
It wasn’t just that he was handsome or new or unattached.
It was the way he looked at you, like everything else had gone quiet and you were the only thing still moving.
It was charming and a little intense, and I could feel warmth rising in my chest when our waiter arrived at our table.
“Good evening, you two.” Betty cocked her hip against the edge of the table. “How are y’all doing tonight?”
Brody looked up at her with an easy smile. “Pretty damn good. Yourself?”
“Oh, I can’t complain, sugar.” Betty tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze sliding between us with open curiosity. “The good Lord let me wake up this morning, and now, I’ve got your handsome face to look at.”
I caught her eyes and she gave me a small, conspiratorial wink.
“Betty, you’re a shameless flirt.” I shook my head.
“Honey, how do you think I got my husband?” Her grin spread wide, red lipstick feathering at the corners of her lips.
Betty’s eyes sparkled with something wicked as she leaned forward, pressing a hand on the table, and pointing the other right at me. “Don’t let her fool you, Brody. This one could teach you a thing or two.”
Brody’s attention swung back to me, a low laugh catching in his throat. “That right?”
“Betty.” I gave her a look that she ignored completely.
“Mmhmm.” She turned back to Brody like I hadn’t said a word. “Sweet as pie behind that bakery counter, but you get her out to The Dusty Spur on a Friday night and she’ll outdrink half the cowboys in this town.”
“This is good information to have.” Brody’s eyes met mine and lingered there, a little mischief flickering behind his smile. “I’d hate to have to arrest her.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help my own smile. “Betty, you’re making me sound like a menace. I barely leave the bakery these days.”
“Right—” Betty’s gaze danced between the two of us. “—but you better get the handcuffs ready for when she does. Arrest or not.”
Hot embarrassment crawled up my neck as Brody cocked a brow at me, and I couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped me.
“I’ll get y’all a couple glasses of tea and let you all discuss that.” Betty pushed off the table, giving me another wink, and I swear if she wasn’t at least double my age, I would have killed her.
Brody’s laugh caught in his chest as he rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Thank you for the tip, Betty. I’ll see what I can do about staying handcuff-ready.”
He didn’t take his eyes off me as Betty walked away, and there was a glint of real mischief lurking just under the polite surface. He looked like the kind of man who could talk a girl into trouble but also manage to get her out of it.
“So, should I be worried about your wild side?” he teased. “I am a lawman, after all.”
“I’m not giving all of my secrets away,” I said, and Brody’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned. “You’ll just have to keep a close eye on me.”
He leaned in, elbows on the table. “That, I can do.” He said it like a promise, and I wished I could stop myself from running a tally of everything about Brody that was different from Hunter.
But even as he smiled at me, I was comparing the subtle flip of my stomach against the storm that raged through me when Hunter was around.
“So, what I’m learning is that you’re a bit of trouble, huh?” Brody asked, a playful challenge in his voice.
“I am not.” I shook my head. “But even if I were, I wouldn’t be telling the sheriff about it.”
“What if I promise to let you off with a warning?” He laughed softly, and I couldn’t help but notice how effortless and genuine the sound was.
“Maybe.” I shrugged, feeling the nerves start to loosen their grip.
Maybe it was the way his steady gaze lingered on me or the way he looked like he’d rather be here than anywhere else, but I felt myself settle in the chair as he asked me questions that I hadn’t been asked in a long time as our drinks arrived then our food.
He asked me what I wanted for the bakery, if I loved what I did, and whether I missed Alabama.
That last one was a lot harder to answer.
I picked at my napkin and stared out across the little patio. The honest answer was yes, but not in the way he probably meant.
“I think I miss what I thought Alabama was supposed to be,” I said quietly. “I do get homesick, but I’m not really sure what I’m homesick for.”
Brody’s gaze was steady as he listened to me, but he didn’t pry. He just waited, and his patience rattled me a little.
“That probably doesn’t make sense,” I added as I moved food around my plate.
“It makes perfect sense,” he said. “Sometimes, where you come from isn’t the same as where you belong. I know that’s true for me and Sutton. Most of the time, it’s the people who make a place home, and those people don’t have to be the family you were born into.”
Unbidden thoughts of Hunter flashed in my mind, and I tried to force them away.
“Part of me always figured I’d end up back there eventually,” I confessed.
“My sister and I had all these big plans to leave and never look back, but I had this feeling deep down that I’d go back anyway.
And then Ella actually did. She wanted to go home, and she wanted me to come with her.
” I paused. “I just couldn’t make myself do it. ”
I looked up and found him watching me. Something in the quiet between us made my throat tighten around everything I couldn’t say.
Maybe I should have gone back with Ella, should have followed her south, and never looked back.
But I couldn’t go, not when this was the first place that had ever felt like it was mine.
Not with Darlin’ Delights stenciled in pink paint on the sign out front of my bakery or with every corner of that little kitchen full of me—my fingerprints, my sweat, my stubborn streak working into the dough and flour.
I had built a life here, brick by brick, and still, if you peeled it all back, all you would see was the ache that started it all.
An ache that was shaped like a man who only ever looked at me when he thought no one else was looking, a man who never asked me to stay, a man who knew how reckless this would be. And he was right. The way I wanted Hunter was the most reckless thing I’d ever done.
And it wasn’t just Ella’s feelings I was gambling with, wasn’t just the risk of her finding out and hating me for it. It was everything I’d built. The bakery, this little life, all of it.
Ella’s name sat right beside mine on the mortgage. She was my cosigner on this life we’d planned together, and she could pull the floor out from under me if she ever wanted to.
Brody’s fork hovered in midair, as if he’d forgotten it in his hand. The muscles along his forearm flexed with the smallest movement. “Does she come back often? Your sister, I mean.”
I looked at him for a moment, and then down at my glass of tea and the lemon wedge floating inside.
“No.” I shook my head. “She hasn’t been back since she left.”
Brody nodded, the set of his jaw softening as he leaned back, letting the evening air settle around him. The patio string lights threw a buttery gold across his face and hands as he set his fork down and linked his fingers together against his stomach.
“That must be hard, though. I know how complicated family can be.” His voice was gentle, and it made me want to tell him the truth.
That Ella had left because of a man, and I stayed because of him.
Instead, I forced a smile. “What about you?”
Brody’s mouth twitched, but it was only a fraction of the easy smile he’d given earlier. “What about me?”
“You said that it’s been just you and Sutton for a long time.” I hesitated. “You don’t have any other family?”
He ran his hands down his thighs, adjusting himself in his seat. “Not anymore,” he said after a beat. “Our dad was never in the picture, and our mom died when I was a senior in high school.”
“Shit,” I said before I could think better of it, and he actually laughed.
“Yeah. That about sums it up.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it.
Brody looked down at his hands for a moment, then up at me with a shrug.
“It was a long time ago. Sutton and I—we figured things out. I always tried to keep it steady for her, you know?” He took a sip of his drink.
“But I’m sure there’s a therapist somewhere who’d say we both have lingering issues. ”
I wondered how many times he’d rehearsed this story, how many variations of it existed for strangers in different towns, for coworkers on slow shifts, or for women across dinner tables.
“What made you decide on Willow Grove?” I asked, and he seemed to consider my question.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything, and the hum of the patio drifted around us.
“Honestly?” He shrugged, slow and thoughtful, like he wasn’t in a hurry to impress me with a perfect answer, and I liked that about him.
“Small towns can be hard. Everyone knows you, knows your history, and for some people that can be comforting. But for me and Sutton…” He trailed off like he was weighing his honesty.
“We just needed somewhere to start over, and when I got the call that Willow Grove was looking for a new sheriff, something about it just felt different, you know?”
I nodded. I didn’t know what Willow Grove had meant for him and Sutton, but I knew what it had meant for me. I knew what it felt like to need a place that had never seen the worst of you.
“Yeah. I do.”
“For what it’s worth, Maggie—” Brody’s eyes dropped to my mouth for just a moment before finding mine again. “—I’m really glad you stayed.”
His words caught me off guard and stirred something raw in my chest. Hunter had never once said anything like that to me. With him, it was a hundred small gestures that added up to something neither of us would name.
I looked up at Brody, but still, Hunter was all I could see.
It felt almost criminal, sitting across from a man as good as Brody and wanting someone else so badly it made my hands shake under the table.
I watched the hope in his eyes, the steady way he listened, and shame crawled cold beneath my skin.
He deserved more than this. More than a counterfeit smile, more than a girl still burning for the wrong man.
I pressed my palms together and tried to hold myself steady, praying he couldn’t see the guilt stamped on my face.
“I am too.”