Chapter 6 #2
Setting her down, Nick’s hands smoothed her dress back into place while shielding her with his body.
Taking several deep breaths, he strolled to the breakfast bar, arranging himself on the opposite side from where Jason was standing.
Looking into his son’s blazing eyes, Nick felt like a teenager caught red-handed and made a mental note to go lightly if and when the situation were reversed.
Glancing at Maggie was a mistake. The guilt on her face wasn’t reassuring, and he steeled himself for the angry words he knew were about to come.
Running a hand through his hair, he faced Jason.
Jason watched the two adults frozen in time. The tension in the room was incredible, but he was old enough to understand where at least some of it was coming from. Hey, he watched movies, and not all of them were ones his mother would approve of.
Straight-faced, he approached Nick at the bar and watched closely as he unconsciously slid a finger around the collar of his shirt.
Slowly taking an apple from the fruit bowl, Jason calmly tossed it into the air and caught it several times.
Finally, snatching it out of the air, he grinned and took a large bite.
“You guys should be more careful,” he said crunching happily. “I could have been one of the kids,” he added with a wink and left the room whistling.
Maggie’s breath came back in spurts and gulps.
She was shamed by what her son had witnessed with such apparent unconcern.
It wasn’t every day that his mother was just about having sex standing up in the kitchen.
She and Jim had never been especially affectionate in front of the kids, preferring to keep that side of their marriage private.
Surely, Jason had been shocked and mortified by her behavior.
Maggie searched around for her hair clip, purposely avoiding eye contact with Nick. Did he think she indulged in this sort of thing on a regular basis?
Nick said nothing after Jason left the room. The stern set of his jaw when Maggie finally glanced at him from under her lashes let her know, better than words, it was time to retreat.
“Well,” she breathed, smoothing her dress and straightening her hair. “I guess I’d better be going.”
“I don’t think so,” Nick responded sharply. Apparently being caught in such a compromising situation by his son hadn’t done anything to improve his mood. “Get upstairs and change your clothes.”
“What?” she asked incredulously.
“You heard what I said,” he stated very calmly for a man who stood like a mountain, arms crossed and feet planted firmly in her path. “But just on the chance that you didn’t get it the first time, I’ll repeat myself. Get upstairs and change. You’re not going anywhere tonight.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped open, and she snapped it shut just as quickly. Even for Nick, this was pretty high-handed.
“Exactly who do you think you’re talking too?” she demanded, her arms crossed, her toe tapping in agitation.
Nick approached slowly, his calm slipping with every step. He bent down until they were almost nose to nose. The fire in his blue eyes warned her, but it was not in her nature to back down, although she did take a step back.
“Lady, you wore that dress tonight looking for trouble, and you found it right in your own kitchen. I will not be a party to your little fling, and I certainly won’t babysit so you can enjoy it.
Now get yourself upstairs and change before I do something I’ll regret for all of thirty seconds, and you’ll regret every time you sit down for the next week,” he growled furiously.
Maggie gasped and jumped back, instinctively putting her hands behind her back to protect her already cringing butt.
“How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do,” she shouted, sorry that she’d started the whole thing. “Besides, you don’t understand. I wasn’t going to—”
“I understand a great deal more than you think,” Nick told her as he grabbed her arm and turned her towards the living room doorway. “I’m not about to sit back and allow you to make a fool of yourself,” he continued, giving her a sharp swat on her bottom to encourage her on her way.
Too late, she thought, but allow was the final straw.
Perversely, Maggie, who had not really wanted to go anywhere in the first place, found herself determined now and changed direction so fast that Nick lost her for a moment.
Snatching up her purse, she stalked toward the back door cursing the high heels that slowed her down.
For a large man, Nick moved surprisingly fast when he had to, and he was planted in the doorway before she even got close.
The look on his face was fierce, and she knew she’d never get past him.
They faced each other, neither giving an inch.
Maggie—determined to go on her imaginary date just to prove she could and Nick—equally determined to stop her.
Suddenly the whole thing struck Maggie as bizarrely funny.
Poor Nick was trying to save her virtue by forbidding her from doing something she had absolutely no intention of doing.
They’d been caught making out like a couple of sex-crazed teenagers by their son, and now she was fighting tooth and nail to do something she really didn’t want to do.
Maggie dropped her head into her hands and started to laugh.
The night had turned into a ridiculous fiasco, and it had all started with one little white lie, followed by another, and another.
Maggie decided right then that, while she might not tell Nick everything, she would try not to lie to him again.
Nick was not exactly pleased by the sudden turn of events.
“I see nothing funny in this, Maggie,” he told her firmly, definitely sounding more like her father every minute, which only made Maggie laugh harder.
By the time Nick lost his patience and threw Maggie over his shoulder, tears were streaming down her face and she was howling with laughter. Nick stomped out of the kitchen and across the living room, mumbling about hysterical females.
Two heads poked out of the den and watched open-mouthed. Caitlin, he noted had fallen asleep with the game paddle dangling from her fingers.
“Don’t be alarmed, guys,” Nick spoke reassuringly to the boys. “Your mother is having a little meltdown. She’ll be fine.”
Maggie saw them upside down and tried to push the tangled hair out of her eyes. She was still laughing. The boys grinned back and shrugged their shoulders.
Nick took the stairs two at a time and strode down the hall, setting Maggie on her feet outside of her bedroom.
“Stop it, Maggie,” he ordered. “There’s no need to get hysterical just because you didn’t get your own way.”
Maggie sagged against the wall and wiped the tears from her face. His superior attitude still had the power to annoy her, even though she brought this whole nightmare on herself. She pulled down her dress and tried to compose herself, feeling more foolish by the second.
“I’ll be giving Morrissey a call to let him know exactly what I think of him and his ways. What kind of man asks a woman out when he is getting married in a few weeks? I can’t believe the gall of that guy.”
Laughing suddenly seemed the farthest thing from her mind. Maggie knew she would have to confess her lie. It was entirely unfair to put poor Tim in the middle of this, and she’d never be able to look him or his new wife in the eye once they became aware of her deception.