15. Maggie
FIFTEEN
MAGGIE
It's been a couple of crazy days so far, but when I see Duke the next morning, he looks like he's been awake for most of the night. His usual teasing is gone too, making it hard to know what to do.
Then again, I've been a grump to him for over a week and he's been nothing but sunshine. Maybe I need to work on that.
"Good morning," I say, giving him a small smile. "How was your night?"
He shakes his head and lifts a paper cup to his mouth, taking a sip. My gaze follows the movements and I'm surprised at how much I want to kiss those lips right now.
Whoa, let's take a step back, Maggie. Don't get ahead of yourself. Or, not ahead because I don't need to go out with Duke Jacobson. And I most certainly won’t be kissing him.
“It was rough.”
I expected him to say something else, but he goes back to sipping from the cup.
“Any particular reason it was rough?” I ask.
Our friendly dog decides that’s the perfect moment to appear, walking through my legs. I try to keep my balance, but end up falling forward, right onto Duke’s lap. I freeze for several moments, trying to register what just happened.
Then my brain restarts and I push off of Duke’s very firm chest. “Sorry about that,” I say, trying to think of anything but the muscles I can see stretching the hems of his sleeves.
He gives me a weird look, like I have something on my face before saying, “It’s all good. Looks like Champ here was excited to see us again.”
“Did you find the owner?” I ask. Not that I should be this invested, but it’s the distraction I need..
He shook his head. “No one claimed him. Maybe I should take him to the vet clinic and see if he’s got a chip of some sort to tell us all that information.”
“W-why would you do that? Are you wanting to keep him?”
The dog sits next to Duke and closes its eyes when Duke rubs between the ears. I don’t think I’ve ever been jealous of a dog, but that’s what’s happening right now. Maybe I need to go to a spa or something to relax. All of this weird energy going through me has my brain spinning scenarios that shouldn’t happen. Ever.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”
Our phones ping and I open the app to see the next assignment.
"Today you'll need to recreate a famous photo. Head over to Josie's Photo Lounge to see your options."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Duke says, perking up a bit. "She's got a ton of dress-up stuff so we might not need to hunt anything down. Save time for you to get back to The Candy Jar."
It's nice that he's trying to be considerate about my time, but he looks like he's lost something. Maybe things at work aren’t going well?
He starts walking down the boardwalk that winds closer to the far end of the shops, over by the bakery.
"Did something happen to you last night?" I ask, having to jog a couple of steps to keep up with his longer strides.
He grunts and says, "Family happened."
I mull that over, knowing just how much family can play against a mood. My biggest question is if I can handle him like this for our tasks.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, softly.
"No," he says, flatly. I'm hoping we can make it through all this scavenger hunt stuff and then get back to my day. But from his flat tone, I’m now invested.
"You know what?" Duke says, turning toward me. "It's lame that people can comment on a relationship status or a major life decision and just think that they're completely right."
I pause, not sure where this is going. Apparently he did want to talk about it.
"My family wasn't behind me when we started The Candy Jar."
"Are they now?" he asks.
Shaking my head, I say, "It's only been a couple of months, but they think I should've stayed in Virginia and worked at the same accounting firm my dad owns."
"So how did you get past the part where you went against their wishes?"
I blink a few times, trying to figure out what he means. "Do you mean my thoughts and emotions?"
He nods. "How do you let it not bug you?"
"My parents understand that I need to grow up and make my own decisions. It took them some time to come around, but they finally understood that I was going to pursue this and see where it went." Are they happy about it? No. I’m pretty sure that they’re just waiting for the store to fail so they can convince me to come back to Annandale.
Duke is silent for a few moments and nods.
It’s so weird that he isn’t leading out the conversation like always. "What about you? Are your parents against you doing the timeshares?"
I shouldn't feel so triumphant to have a few other people on my side of this issue, but I can't help it.
"Relationships, my career. They mean well, I'm just sick of them getting all over me about things I'm working through."
"What made you go into timeshares?" I ask, curious if it's just a money grabbing scheme to him.
"I heard about it from someone when I was at my last job. There are benefits and trip rewards when I get high enough in the company. Traveling is the thing I want to do the most right now, and not having to pay an arm and a leg sounds like a great plan."
"But don't you have to buy a bunch of points to do that? Or hit a certain target of sales?"
He nods. "I just set up the presentation appointments and then work a deal for people to do some of the cool activities nearby. Eventually, sales would contribute to it. If I can keep going. It's a goal. If I have something set, a great reward, I'm motivated to hit it."
"And your past jobs?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"No motivation."
"What happens if you stall out in this one? Maybe you don't get a promotion you were hoping for?"
"Why you gotta ask me questions like that?" Duke says, laughing. I must've struck a chord because he puts his hands over his face and shakes his head.
Trying not to smile at being able to read him for once, I say, "This must've been what your family was talking about?"
He nods and removes his hands, showing me his dark blue eyes. A girl could get lost in those.
But not me. I shake my head, trying to focus on the conversation. Maybe we needed to walk inside Josie's place and get the photo taken.
“My mom likes to talk about the two things she thinks I haven't fulfilled. My potential as a father and my potential as a provider.”
"Wow, she went right for the paternal rights, huh?" My parents ask me if I'm dating someone all the time, but they know better than to jump to the guilt about needing to be grandparents.
"Yep. She means well and I love my mother. But there's a lot to unpack there. How old were your parents when they got married?"
The question sets me on my heels because I'm not sure what he's trying to point out.
"My dad was twenty-three and my mom was twenty."
He shakes his head. "Babies. They were practically babies then."
"I have to disagree. I think they were fairly mature." Then again, that didn’t last to keep them together longer than seven years.
"Do you know what I was doing at twenty-three?" Duke asks. When I shake my head, he says, "I was trying to do a flight course with Coop so I could be a pilot."
"Do you still have your license?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "I never finished."
"What other jobs have you held?"
"How much time do you have?" Duke asks before laughing.
"So, you're having a hard time finding a career. Have you done the tests that tell you what you’re most likely to do?"
"Like answer a bunch of vague questions and we'll tell you exactly what to do with your life? Yep."
I smile at him and say, "What do they tell you?"
"The problem is that I took too many. Now there are conflicting options of what they say I should be and I can't narrow them down."
"Have you actually spent time in each of the disciplines?" I ask, suddenly feeling like this is a problem we should be able to get to the bottom of quickly.
"One of them. But I'm not a good surf coach. Just ask King. We tried that one about six years ago when I was home from college."
I'd almost forgotten he'd gone to college. "What did you major in? Please tell me you finished school."
"That I did. I have a degree in finance."
"Well there's still hope for you. I'm sure there are plenty of careers that deal with finance."
He frowns, raising one eyebrow. "In Willow Cove? Not likely."
"What's keeping you here then? You could go anywhere and come back to visit whenever you want."
His expression changes from playful to serious right before we walk into the photography shop.
“Should we go in?”
I don't know why he looks so relieved to not be talking about this anymore, but I'll have to revisit it later. The more I can help solve his problems, the less I have to worry about my feelings shifting for him.