Chapter 9
RYAN
Isat on the front porch in the rain, texting Holden about my current situation.
Me: Found her.
Three dots appeared almost immediately, his reply popping up a moment later.
Holden: And?
Me: She locked me out.
Holden: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ryan: If you really want to laugh, I left my car keys inside and it’s raining cats and fucking dogs. Ain’t life grand?
Holden: This keeps getting better.
I sighed. He wasn’t wrong. When I’d gotten here and actually found the secret cottage, I’d thought half the battle had already been won, but it hadn’t quite turned out that way.
I’d already messaged Marcus to let him know I’d found her, but now he would actually expect me to bring her home and that?
Well, it wasn’t likely to happen. Maggie wasn’t leaving. That much, I’d already established.
If I wanted her to get in the damn car, I was going to have to physically carry her out of that house. Obviously, I didn’t want to have to do that.
At this point, I honestly wasn’t even sure how I’d gotten here anymore.
Last week, I’d been dealing with acquisitions in New York and looking forward to the wedding being over so I could get back to my life without any wedding talk in it.
Being locked out of a secret family cottage in Massachusetts, soaked to the bone, while trying to convince a runaway bride to come out of hiding wasn’t in my job description.
If only I’d kept my damn keys in my pocket.
I could’ve been halfway back to the city by now, with Marcus on speaker, telling him that I couldn’t get through to his sister after all and that if they wanted her they could come get her their damn selves. None of this had a single thing to do with me, and yet, here I was.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and when I glanced at the screen, I hoped it was Marcus, but instead of it being her brother—the guy who actually had a stake in the outcome of this mission—it was mine. Clearly, making fun of me over text hadn’t been enough for Holden.
I slid my thumb across the screen and sighed as I leaned back against the wooden wall behind me. “Okay. Go on. Rub it in.”
“I plan to,” he said happily. “I’ve been laughing for the last five minutes. This is entertaining as hell.”
“Well, I’m glad someone is enjoying it, because it sure as hell ain’t me.”
He chuckled some more but then finally sighed. “How did you even end up in this mess, bro? I thought Mom just roped you into helping with the wedding. I didn’t realize that meant becoming an honorary member of the Pembroke family.”
I snorted. “I wish. At least I would’ve gotten something out of it, then.”
“So why are you there? You should’ve just told Marcus to go after her.”
“He didn’t think she’d listen to him, but I honestly don’t know why that became my problem,” I said, dropping my head back against the wood and closing my eyes.
“I know good press, though. Unfortunately, I know bad press better and Maggie only has a limited amount of time to smooth this over before the tabloids run wild.”
The Thayer name had been dragged through enough headlines in my lifetime that I knew exactly how quickly a story could turn. The longer she stayed gone, the worse it would get. Right now, people were talking about a postponed wedding, but by tomorrow, that could change.
She’d go from being the heiress who postponed her wedding when the guests were already seated to runaway bride, to homewrecker, and God only knew what else.
The speculation would run the gauntlet from affairs, to family feuds, to pregnancy, and if they could, they’d probably even pitch a murder in there somewhere.
The tabloids weren’t exactly known for their restraint.
“She needs to go home before this gets ugly,” Holden agreed, his own thoughts obviously having gone down the same path as mine. “Does she know that, though? Do you think she has any idea how bad it can get?”
“She thinks she knows.”
One of the curtains moved in the window, but I pretended not to notice. Just like I was pretending I hadn’t seen the tears or the panic in her eyes when I’d found her under that table.
That was why I’d told her to run, though. I knew what it felt like to feel trapped. Alone. I knew what it was like to have the burden on your shoulders to fight for the family name, the legacy, and to keep on keeping on no matter how you felt about it.
“Okay, so she thinks she knows, but she doesn’t really,” Holden said slowly. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the headlines and they’re okay for now, but the rumors are already starting. It won’t be long before one or more catches fire.”
“Yeah.”
“So maybe it’s time to change your approach. You know you don’t have time to fuck around, but she’s sick of people telling her what to do. It’s understandable, if a little naive under the circumstances.”
“It’s not naive, Holden. Unless someone has been through what we have, there’s no way for them to know how bad it can get or how fast. She probably thinks it’ll be a mean headline or two and then it’ll pass.”
“It won’t. We’re talking about the Pembrokes and Hawthornes here. Neither family is going to want to be seen as having lost the battle and they’ll keep fanning the flames themselves if that’s what it takes for them to not look weak.”
“I know, but at the same time, I can’t force Maggie to leave and she’s not going to do it willingly either.”
“So suck up to her,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If she’s not coming out because you’re ordering her to, stop ordering her to and actually try to think about it from her point of view.”
“That’s your advice?”
“I have more.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“Lucky for you, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll tell you without making you beg for it,” he said. “Be nice to her, Ryan. Right now, you’re a finance bro sitting on her grandfather’s porch in the rain, telling her she’s a liability who’s going to be in big, big trouble when she gets home.”
I groaned. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck.” Holden laughed. “Suck up to her. Otherwise, I guarantee you’re going to be sitting on that porch forever.”
I sighed. “She’s impossible. I’m trying to help her.”
“She’s a woman who just ran away from her wedding, which was arranged for her by people I’m sure also claimed to be helping her.”
“Yeah, but the difference is that I actually have helped her. Surely, she should trust me by this point.”
“Ryan, she’s scared. Try remembering that instead of trying to logic your way into that house, because that’s not going to work.”
“Yeah. Okay, I’ll try. Any other advice?”
“Yeah. Hurry the hell up. This is supposed to be my time off and our dear brothers are already making me jump in to cover for you.”
“You?” I grimaced. I did not need Holden making a mess of what I’d spent the last few years trying to build while I was stuck on a sodden porch. “Okay, I’ll be back soon.”
“Great, because I’m very close to starting to cry whenever Colin’s name pops up on my screen.”
“I’m coming. Just don’t touch anything.”
He laughed. “Let me tell you what. Because you’re doing someone else a favor, I’ll do one for you. I won’t touch any of your precious deals, but I can’t promise not to poke them a little just to make sure they’re solid.”
“Don’t you dare,” I muttered, then hung up on him and pushed to my feet, more determined than ever to get in that damn house.
Moving around to the front door, I rapped my knuckles against it, calling out to her when the knocking obviously didn’t work. “Maggie? I’m sorry, okay.”
I paused for a beat to listen, but there were no sounds coming from the other side yet. Crap. Okay, time to dig deeper.
“Look, I really am sorry I scared you earlier,” I said, leaning my forehead against the door.
“I honestly didn’t mean for that to happen.
There was no car out front and you weren’t inside when I got here, so I figured I’d stick around to see if you came back, but I wasn’t even sure if you had come to Deerfield. ”
“The door was unlocked, for God’s sake,” she snapped from inside. “Marcus obviously told you about this place, so you had to know the previous owner was dead. It’s not like he would’ve kept the place a secret his whole life and then just left it open for anyone to make themselves at home in.”
Well, at least she’s talking to me now.
“All of that is true. I should’ve known it was you, but I swear, I didn’t think I was going to scare you.”
“Is that it?”
“No.” I sighed. “I’m also sorry for telling you to get in the damn car. I was frustrated and I took it out on you.”
“I didn’t ask you to come here.”
“I know.”
The lock clicked and I took a step back from the door just as it swung open a few inches. Maggie’s face appeared in the crack, her eyes twinkling but her brow still furrowed. “You’re not bad at groveling.”
“Thank you. I’ve never had to do it before, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.”
She opened the door a little wider. “I’d give you a six out of ten for effort.”
“Only six?”
She finally let me in, smirking a little as she shut the door behind us. “Yep, and that’s being generous.”
I was dripping rainwater all over the floor, but I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the puddles I left in my wake as I moved into the house. Maggie drifted after me, her dark blonde hair now loose around her shoulders and a hoodie on over the t-shirt she’d been wearing earlier.
I’d never seen her dressed so casually before, but I liked this look on her. With her face bare of any makeup, her hair slightly messy, and in jeans, she looked like just another pretty girl instead of the untouchable heiress who always had all her shit together.