Chapter 13
thirteen
. . .
Dermot
“Dr. Aldridge, you mean to tell me all we needed to do was lure you out with a pretty girl and you’d grace us with your presence?” says Old Man Harrison, who is currently leaning against the skating rental cottage with his arm around Jessie Bryne.
“I almost don’t believe my eyes. Twice in one weekend? I usually have to fake an illness to see you!” exclaims Jessie Bryne, the monarch of Bryne’s Seasonal Stylings. Her words, not mine.
“Pa, leave him be,” Beau Harrison says, handing me the two pairs of skates I ordered for Maggie and me. “Hey there, Margaret.”
Beside me, Maggie makes a face. “Don’t Margaret me, Beau Harrison!”
He just laughs as Old Man Harrison says, “Make sure only to call her that when you’re cross with her. She don’t like it much.”
That has all of us chuckling softly as Maggie gives the old man a dark look. “That’s fine, Jimmy Dean Sausage—er, I mean Jimmy Dean Harrison.”
Old Man Harrison finds that even more hilarious and cackles as Jessie grins widely at us. “You know she’s trouble, right?”
“I am well aware, ma’am,” I say as Maggie winks at me. “Is Margaret your real name?”
“No. I don’t know why he does that. He’s weird.”
“Fine, I’ll call you Maeve Lane instead,” Beau calls to her, and she sticks out her tongue.
“And I’ll call you squishy butt!”
Beau goes white, glaring at the spitfire beside me. “Truce?”
“Truce,” she agrees, and I’m enjoying it all. I soak in how easily Maggie goes with the flow. She gives just as much as she gets. While everyone says hi to me first, it’s Maggie they interact with.
“Does your daddy know you are gallivanting around town with the town doctor?” Old Man Harrison asks, and Beau lets out a long sigh.
“Pa, she’s a grown woman!”
“Is your ass still chapped she didn’t choose you?” his grandpa throws back, and if looks could kill…
Beau glares, shaking his head before setting Maggie with a look. “You’re on your own.”
Maggie blows out a breath. “Wow, Beau. I turn you down once, and you throw me to the wolves.”
Beau only waves his hand as he goes toward the rink, laughter following him.
I look back at Maggie, and her laughs are like sunshine.
Warm and beautiful. It’s another pleasant day, the sun bright in the sky, the birds singing, and Promise Pond is full of townsfolk and tourists.
I would usually be in my house with a book, but when the prettiest girl in town asks me to go ice skating, I’d be an idiot to say no.
I’ve done that for a year. It’s time for me to be smart when it comes to Maggie Welch.
Because she’s captured me fully.
She’s bundled up once more, but this time in my clothes. She’s wearing my brown jacket with my knit hat and bright-pink gloves that belong to her. She has her own pair of fleece-lined overalls and a bright-pink scarf. Her face is tinged pink from the chill, but she’s still eager to skate.
To be with me.
Fuck me.
“He asked her to hang a lock,” Old Man Harrison tells me conspiratorially, and while jealousy burns in my chest, it’s my hand Maggie is holding. “She turned him down pretty quickly, but it was probably because he asked Sadie and Willa too.”
“Wow, he was making it a family affair?” I tease, and Harrison nods.
“Listen, I raised him right,” he says with a hearty laugh. “Now, don’t forget the lock engravers are out today, so you don’t want to miss your chance before Valentine’s Day, son.”
His whole face crinkles when he winks at me, and I feel my heart kick up.
“Jimmy Dean, why are you harassing him? Leave him be,” Maggie throws at the old man, but he just waves her off.
“A girl like you deserves a lock,” is all he says before he shrugs. “It’s the ultimate promise—you know this.”
She rolls her eyes and then pulls me to a bench to put on our skates, Kip waiting patiently at my side.
Since I’ve never skated, she helps me with mine, making sure they’re good and tight before she does her own.
Meanwhile, I’m completely overthinking everything that old man said.
I also thought the lock thing was dumb, but what if it means something to Maggie?
Damn it.
Of course it does. It was her parents who started the tradition, and yet I’m over here giving her everything but the romantic notion of a lock on a gate with our names on it.
Fuck me. I am dropping the ball once more when it comes to her.
When she stands, I look up to ask if she wants to do it.
But I pause. Should I just get a lock, or will it seem like I am only doing it because of what the old guy said?
Shit, am I only doing it because of him?
I look up into her gorgeous face, the sun shining on her cheeks and catching her left eye just right to make it sparkle.
No. I want to give this girl everything and then some.
A lock, my left arm, my book collection, my heart.
Everything.
Forever.
Before I can ask her to go get a lock with me, her name is yelled. Rather aggressively. Maggie smirks at a woman who is her height with blond hair and bright-blue eyes. It’s her sister. Not sure which one, but one of them, for sure. “Hey, Sadie! It’s rather cold for you out here.”
Sadie gives her sister a blank look, cuddling deeper into her jacket as she blows out a breath. “Since the Valentine’s Day festival is coming up, I have to make sure everyone is still doing their part.”
Maggie snorts. “You could text.”
Sadie’s bored look gets even more bored, if that makes sense. She looks absolutely put out to the point that I kind of want to laugh. “I wanted to, but Dad informed me I have to do it in person to keep the tradition alive.”
Maggie grins then holds out her hands to me like she’s presenting me to the world. “You haven’t met Dermot yet. Dermot, this is my older sister Sadie.”
“Charmed,” is all the older sister says.
Maggie rolls her eyes. “My sister doesn’t do well in the cold. Excuse her.”
Sadie looks back at me. “I’m also mad you’re the reason that Galentine’s got canceled.”
I want to laugh, but I’m worried she may claw my eyes out. Instead, I grin up at Maggie. “Did it?”
She waves me off. “I told you I wasn’t sure yet,” she says to her sister.
Sadie isn’t impressed. “I know he hasn’t asked, but he has hearts in his eyes and is ten seconds from tattooing your name across his chest.”
Now I laugh.
’Cause she’s not wrong.
“So, trust, I’m right to assume,” Sadie says on an exhale.
“Now remember, your thirty-minute spot is from one thirty to two. I know you said tongue was out of the question, but may I remind you that the money we make from this is going to provide a new art room to the high school? And if I can get some old dude to give you a hundred bucks for some tongue action, I feel you should take one for the team.”
I choke on my spit. I stand, towering over them both as Maggie sputters her answer. “I totally forgot I said I’d do that.”
Yeah, I don’t like any of this.
Maggie’s cheeks turn red, and I know it’s not from the cold. I’ve never felt this burning feeling in my chest before. I don’t do jealousy. I’ve never had a reason to be jealous, but right now, I feel it tenfold.
Fuck, call me the Hulk because I’m turning green as hell. “It’s flu season,” I blurt out. “Is kissing necessary?”
Sadie gives me a look. “It’s Valentine’s Day. Kissing is literally part of the day.”
“But she could get sick.”
“So we’ll pump her full of some Emergen-C to help her immune system. This is a big moneymaker for the festival.”
I blink. I don’t want Maggie kissing anyone. At all.
Ever.
“How much are you thinking she’ll bring in?”
Sadie looks up at me, and I see the gleam in her eyes.
This is about to cost me a fortune. “Have you seen her? She’s a hot commodity.
We already have a sign-up list.” She turns her phone to face me, and no shit, there are over fifty guys on the list—and eight girls.
“It costs $20 for a peck on the cheek, $50 for on the lips, and it’s supposed to be $100 for some tongue, but my sister is being difficult. ”
“Sadie—”
Maggie is getting flustered, but I can’t even think.
My ears are burning, my chest hurts, and everything feels a little woozy.
I look at Maggie, and her frantic eyes meet mine.
This may make me look really pathetic, but I can’t help myself.
“Would you be okay if I paid for your whole time slot to have all your kisses to myself?”
Maggie’s mouth parts. “What?”
I step in closer. “I don’t want to share your lips with anyone. Hell, I get jealous of Kip when he gets a kiss. I will go out of my mind watching other people kiss my woman.”
“Your woman?” Maggie’s lips curve.
“Mine,” I say, cuddling her closer. She comes willingly, her arms snaking up my chest and around my neck.
I hold her tightly to me as our gazes lock, and the whole world disappears but her.
“I know it’s hot in books when guys do something crazy without thought, and I want to do just that, but I also want you to have the choice.
If you want to kiss a bunch of people, I’ll suck it up.
But each time someone gets the feel of your lips, I’ll die a bit inside.
” I admit, and I know this is the moment she tells me I’m needy.
But am I? I mean, who is really okay with the person they’re falling for kissing other people?
But she doesn’t know that.
Because I haven’t told her what I want.
Before she can say anything, I say, “You haven’t promised me anything. I haven’t even asked you to be my woman, but I want you to be.” I sigh deeply. “I need you to be, because I really, really like you.”
“I like you too,” she says softly.
“No,” I say on a deep sigh. “I’m falling for you, Maggie Welch.” Her eyes widen, a little gasp coming from her lips. “And I know that’s a lot right now, that this is new, but I’ve been waiting for you my whole life, and I won’t keep these feelings locked in.”
“Don’t,” is all she says, her gaze burning into mine. “Don’t keep anything locked in. I want to know it all.”
I bring her in closer, my whole body aflame for this woman. I go to slant my lips over hers, but Sadie sighs. “So, I can send the invoice to your email address on your website?”
“Yes,” I say, holding Maggie’s gaze. “Or just send me the donation link, and I’ll deposit ten grand.”
Maggie’s eyes widen. “That’s too much.”
“I’d buy the whole fucking program for the school, Maggie, as long as your lips belong to me.”
“Great. I’ll send the link,” Sadie says, but I’m not truly listening to her.
I’m lost in Maggie’s gaze.
Maggie leans into me, her lips brushing against mine. “They’re yours.”
I glide my nose along hers, breathing in her air as I exhale. “Be mine, Maggie Welch.”
“I already am.”