Round Thirty-Three #3
“I don’t want to date her,” he grits out, his voice thick and gruff. “I keep telling you.”
“I’m actually starting to feel like a giant fraud,” I joke. Har-har-freakin’-har. “We’ve been at this a while now, and I haven’t found your match yet.”
“Magnolia—”
“I’m still hopeful.” I thrust the folded chair forward, forcing him to hold it instead of me.
“She’s super pretty, and she’s really, really nice.
She works in the banking sector and wears glasses sometimes, so she’s got that sexy secretary thing going for her.
I’m hosting another speed dating thing soon, which is what got us chatting about dating in the first place.
She was interested in signing up for the night, but I realized I had the perfect guy back here in Plainview just waiting to meet his match. ”
“I’m sorry for everything.” He tosses the chair aside and latches onto my hand before I can run away. Yanking me closer until my chest slams against his, he stares intently into my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Magnolia.”
“Billy—”
“I’m sorry I’m impatient. I’m intolerant. I’m grumpy.” He draws a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry for how I handled the Plan B stuff.”
Tears fill my eyes, burning and aching and just thick enough to make it hard to breathe.
“I know I was an asshole, but I swear, I never meant to be. I didn’t mean to pressure you or make you feel less than. I didn’t mean to make you feel like a liability or a bother or like you’d done anything wrong. You hadn’t. That was all me.”
“I think it’s great we know these things about ourselves now.
Before things went too far,” I rasp. “Before a relationship could develop.” My voice trembles and aches.
It shakes, just as surely as my soul shakes.
“It was fun, right?” I fake my fakest smile yet and try to convince him it’s real.
“We’re single, healthy, unattached adults, after all, and you were adamant from the outset you never wanted to find love.
Your goal was to get laid, and since I forbade you from doing that with the women I introduced you to, it makes complete sense we would eventually fall into bed together instead. ”
Or, well, a bathroom. And a porch.
Because we’re classy like that.
“You’ve done nothing wrong,” I add on a crackling exhale. “You never lied, and you haven’t led me on.”
“If that were the case, then why the hell are you always walking away?” he growls. “You’re always avoiding me. Constantly sneaking around outside your own home, because you don’t want to see me.”
“I’m not sneaking around.” Definitely sneaking around. “I’ve been busy with work, and you’re busy with your life. I haven’t seen the Smiths in days—” I hook a thumb over my shoulder. “I would never accuse them of avoiding me, though.”
“Magnolia—”
I drag my hand free of his grip, whimpering as he holds on until the very tips of my fingers.
“I don’t regret the things we did. But our relationship is supposed to be professional, which means I need to get back to that.
And it’s not like we’re getting any younger, ya know?
It’s time I find your match so I can put your file aside, and it’s…
” I pause and swallow. “It’s time I found mine, too. ”
His eyes flash with red-hot temper. With rage. “You looking?”
“Of course. Love is my entire personality, remember?” I swipe a discreet hand beneath my nose and mop up the mess my emotions leave me with. “This is the right thing to do.”
“The right thing?” he grits out.
“Yeah. Everything that happened twenty-five years ago left us with unsatiated curiosity. It made it impossible for either of us to move on in a healthy way. But now we’ve explored all that and worked it out of our systems.” I take a step back and tangle my fingers together.
“I’ll never regret the time we spent together.
Even if you were grumpy and intolerant the whole time,” I joke. Please laugh!
“So that’s it?” he growls. “You’re done with me?”
“I’m done with this.” I study the four feet of space between us. “We’re lucky, really.”
“Lucky?! How so?”
“We discovered our incompatibility early on. It means we got to enjoy each other, we could explore the things we’d spent our lives wondering about, I got to fall in love with your little boy, and you promised I could continue loving him even if this…” I gesture between us. “Didn’t work out.”
“Incompatible?” His nostrils flare with the fury he works so hard to lock inside. “How so?”
“We both know, Billy.” My voice breaks, crackling and dry.
“Let’s not torment each other by turning this into a fight.
Luciana is a really nice person, and it took a little convincing to get her to agree to Friday night, so I hope you’ll follow through and honor your commitments.
Allowing my unprofessionalism to get in the way would be a disservice to yourself and the future you could have with someone else. Someone really special.”
“You’re someone else.” He crosses the space I already put between us and grabs my hand. Jerking me back, he cups my face and holds me captive. “You’re special. And I don’t want to be done with us yet.”
“I’ve spent my whole life dreaming about love,” I whimper. “I made an entire career out of it. I’m not twenty-five anymore, and if I’m not careful, I might lose my chance altogether. It’s time I took my love life as seriously as I take everyone else’s.”
Headlights slowly make their way along our street.
I pray they keep going. I pray they drive straight past and not be the man I’m expecting. But my life has always been a little on the crappier side, and I suppose the universe isn’t done hurting us yet.
Stuart pulls into my driveway, his headlights flashing across the yard and highlighting Billy and me where we stand. Then his engine stops, and Billy’s eyes darken to narrowed slits.
“That serious, huh?” He releases my face and takes a step back, lowering his hands and glancing over his shoulder as his front door opens and Jeremy steps out.
“Don’t choose hastily just because you’re in a rush, Magnolia.
” He stops beside the folded chairs, sweeping them up with fast, violent snaps of his hands.
“Don’t settle just because you think a clock is ticking and your deadline is coming.
” He backs up and crosses into his yard, his eyes flittering to Stuart’s car and the door that closes with a slam.
“Text me the details for my date with Luciana.” He bundles both chairs in one hand and uses the other to scratch his jaw.
“I’d hate to represent Magnolia Sava poorly by turning up late.
Or worse,” he grits out. “Not turning up at all.”
“Maggie?” Stuart waits by his car, long legs covered in jeans, and his broad, muscular shoulders wrapped beneath a dark brown leather jacket. He hovers on the edge of my driveway, his six-and-a-half-foot frame unsure if he’s coming or going. “Did I come at a bad time, or…?”
“No.” I squeeze my eyes shut and take a single moment—two, three—to calm my racing heart. But when I open them again and peek into Billy’s yard, he’s already moving, tossing the chairs to the base of his porch, then he grabs Jeremy’s hand and ushers the boy inside.
Gone. Just like that.
Drawing a deep breath, I fill my lungs and paste on my most convincing smile, then I spin on my heels and pretend to be the professional I’m really not. “Sorry. That was my neighbor. Come on in.”
I cross my yard as fast as my cramping stomach allows, my heart thundering in my chest, which only makes everything down below feel so much worse. Still, I meet him at the bottom of my stairs and start up.
Please don’t be an axe murderer. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t be the reason Billy and Jeremy lose another woman to death.
“So, you’ve booked a restaurant and gotten everything ready for the big day?”
Chuckling under his breath, Stuart follows me through my front door and pulls it shut behind him. “This Friday, actually. Assuming things go well between you and me.”
“Of course.” I lead him into my kitchen and snag the little blue box from my counter.
Turning, I open it for his perusal and grin as his eyes grow wider.
“This was my grandmother’s ring. It’s a vintage oval-shaped trilogy.
Eighteen-karat yellow gold band, and three-carat diamonds.
My late grandfather gave this to her about fifty years ago. ”
He digs a hand into his pocket and comes back out again with a tiny magnifying glass-type contraption. “And you have the certification for it, right?”
“Yes. I took it in for valuation recently and had them sign authenticity certificates.”
Concerned, he lowers his hands just an inch and meets my eyes. “Do you have the original certificates, too?”
I set the box back on the counter and fold my hands together. “Yes, I have the original certificates, too. This ring is currently valued at almost sixty thousand dollars.”
And I found it… inside a teapot.
“Your soon-to-be fiancée will absolutely love it.”
“Why are you selling it?” He goes back to studying the diamond. “Shouldn’t you want to keep it in the family? Give it to your daughter someday?”
“I don’t have a daughter.” I swallow the croak in my throat. “And I’m doing everything I can to hold on to my grandmother’s house. Selling her ring seems like the better choice.”
“Yeah, well…” His lips curl into a wide grin. “Respectfully, Ms. Sava, your loss is my gain.” He offers the ring back and watches intently as I place it in its box. “There’s no way my girl would say no to that ring. It’s magnificent.”