Chapter 39
RYAN
Grabbing a coffee in Central Park before going back to the office had seemed like a spectacularly good idea at the time.
Derek, one of the marketing guys from Chicago, and I were discussing a campaign Thayer Steelworks was launching to celebrate our partial merger with GlobalStar after a meeting with the New York firm responsible for designing said campaign.
I’d had to tag along to cover the financial implications of our contract with them, but I liked Derek. We got along well, so when he’d suggested grabbing a coffee so he could see a bit of the park while he was in the city, I’d wholeheartedly agreed.
Naturally, that was when it all went to shit.
We’d only just walked away from the coffee truck when I spotted an all-too familiar dog. I saw its head first, then the disproportionately big body it was attached to, then Maggie, and the sight of her damn near knocked the breath out of my lungs after so long.
She was dressed more like the New York version of her than the Massachusetts version, in light blue linen pants, a white button-down shirt, and a light blue, cropped jacket. Huge sunglasses covered her eyes, that dark blonde hair pulled up into a high, sleek ponytail, but it was definitely her.
I stopped walking so abruptly that Derek crashed into my shoulder, barely managing to keep hold of his coffee as he smacked into me. “Shit. Sorry. What the hell, man? Why’d you stop?”
“It can’t be. My luck cannot be that bad.”
“What?” He frowned. “What’s going on?”
I shook my head before turning to face him, drawing in a deep breath as I tried to shake it off. “It’s nothing. A simple case of mistaken interest.”
He laughed. “Almost like mistaken identity, huh? Yeah, I get it.”
As much I tried to keep moving, I kept Maggie and the puppy in my peripheral vision, which meant I saw the moment the dog spotted me. His ears went up and his tail started moving seconds before he started tugging her in my direction.
Maggie looked up, and although I couldn’t see her eyes, I could tell when she recognized me. Her chest caved and her spine went rigid, and for a completely irrational second, I forgot where I was, but then the dog lunged toward me.
“Oh, hell,” I muttered as the puppy took off, dragging Maggie behind him as he veered toward the bike path. As I watched, three cyclists practically flew around the corner, coming straight at them. “Maggie! Let go.”
“No!”
Fuck.
I spun and pushed my coffee into Derek’s hand before I took off toward them. “Maggie!”
Just as she stumbled off the curb, I caught the leash and wrapped my hand around it, hauling the puppy off the path with everything I had. He finally skidded to a stop and one of the cyclists swore at us as he passed, but Maggie landed against my chest, safe and unharmed.
I caught her without even thinking about it, grateful that the crisis had been averted, but before I could say a word, the puppy gave a little yelp and I glanced down at him. “It’s good to see you too, buddy.”
Letting go of the girl I shouldn’t have touched—even to save her life—I dropped into a crouch and scratched the back of his ears. “You have to be more careful than that, boy. Seriously.”
Maggie took a couple steps back like she was only now recovering from the shock. “Sorry about that. He’s stronger than I realized.”
“He does outweigh you,” I said as I pushed back to my feet. “Pretty soon, I think he’s going to be double your weight.”
She gave me a small smile. “Yeah, he’s growing fast.”
I glanced down at him again. “At this rate, he’s going to be even bigger than Brutus when he’s fully grown.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I might’ve bitten off more than I can chew with him, but it’s worth it. He’s a sweetheart.”
When I looked back up at her, she was rubbing her palm where the leash had probably burned it and I frowned, itching to grab her hand to check the injury for myself. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. He just got a little excited.”
The puppy sat between us with his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging. I shook my head at him. “You’re in trouble, boy.”
He gave another little yelp-like bark and Maggie smiled. “I think he misses you.”
“I think he’d miss anyone who gives him attention.”
“That’s not true.” She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head, and as soon as her actual eyes met mine, my heart stammered. It had been almost a month since I’d last seen her, but despite all the work I’d put into moving on, all I wanted to do right now was kiss her.
God, I’m so fucked.
As our eyes held, there were a hundred things I could have asked, but instead of going there, I inclined my chin toward the dog. “You need to use a stronger voice with him.”
She frowned. “What?”
“He’ll listen more if you use a stronger tone. Like, if you’re firmer. You might even be able to stop him from dragging you across the park again.”
Her lips pursed. “You didn’t even want him.”
I sighed but kept my voice light because there was no chance in hell I was going to say what I was actually thinking or even have her guess that I was thinking it at all. “You just need to tell him no, Mags. You’d be amazed what happens when you actually mean it.”
Just like with your own impulsive behavior and saying no when it really matters, like when you’re actually going through with a wedding to a man you don’t want to marry.
“I suppose you might be right.” She swallowed hard, looking at me for another moment before she gave me a very obviously forced smile. “How have you been, Ryan?”
It was such a simple question that I really should’ve been able to answer without skipping a beat, but instead, I just looked at her for a long time. I’ve been fine. Busy, tired, horny, and lonely, but dealing with it all.
When I didn’t answer, she seemed to understand I’d been worse than I was willing to admit and her smile, as tiny and forced as it had been, faded. “Yeah, I’ve been about the same.”
And therein lies the problem.
I knew exactly what would happen if we started talking.
We’d only make it worse. One of us would say something we couldn’t take back, then the other would retaliate, either with honesty or bitterness, and before we knew it, we’d either be bickering or kissing in Central Park while she was now, officially, engaged to someone else again.
I could already see the tears shining in her eyes and I hated it with a fiery passion because I knew she was trying to hold herself together and pretend that she was fine even though she wasn’t. We were both trying to pretend that this was normal, and it wasn’t.
It fucking sucked. All of it.
The puppy, however, still had an undeniable zest for life. Too busy staring into Maggie’s shining eyes to notice that something had captured his attention, I acted on pure instinct when he suddenly made a break for freedom, yanking the leash so hard that she stumbled sideways.
I caught her elbow, steadying her before gently taking the leash from her. “Perhaps we should split custody.”
Those hazel eyes flicked back up to mine, surprise cascading through them as she blinked hard. “I thought you didn’t want him.”
“I never said I didn’t want him. I just didn’t want to take him while we were still figuring things out.”
“Are they figured out now?” she asked quietly, still holding my gaze.
I looked back at her and thought about that wedding invitation, her and Daniel’s names entwined in that fancy, embossed lettering, and nodded. “Yeah. I, uh, I think they are.”
She blinked a few more times rapidly, like she couldn’t quite believe what I was saying. “Oh. Okay.”
“So we’ll split custody?” I asked after shifting my weight and adjusting my grip on the leash. “I’ll take him for the rest of the day and you can have him back tomorrow.”
She glanced down at him, sighing as she bent over to stroke his head. “I haven’t named him yet.”
My eyebrows inched up. “You haven’t? I thought you would’ve had a name picked out and ready to go the moment I brought him to you.”
She shrugged. “Well, I didn’t.”
“Should we name him now?” I asked, watching as the puppy sat down and glanced between us, his tail wagging with a steady thump against the sidewalk. “Or do you need more time to think about it?”
“Let’s both think about it,” she said after a beat, finally nodding and taking a step back. “Sharing custody is a good idea. He listens to you better than he does me. Maybe he’ll learn a thing or two while he’s in your care.”
“Alright, then.”
“I’ll pick him up tomorrow morning.”
I held out the leash. “Do you want to say goodbye?”
Instead of taking it, she dropped to her haunches and gave him a cuddle, murmuring something I couldn’t hear against his ear. Then she rose back to her feet and, without looking at me, turned and started walking away.
“Maggie?” I called after her, my brow furrowing as I watched her hurry in the complete opposite direction of where I’d come from.
She lifted one hand in a wave, still without looking back. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ryan. Have fun with him.”
She weaved her way between the other pedestrians in the park, her head bowed, and a few steps later, her shoulders hitched and it looked like she brought her hand to her face. I could’ve sworn she was wiping away tears and the realization nearly crushed me.
My chest hurt like I’d been trampled by a buffalo, my nostrils even flaring as I fought the urge to chase after her. But she wasn’t mine to chase anymore. Not that she’d ever really been mine, but at least I’d been the designated chaser at one point.
Since that wasn’t true anymore, I let her go. There was no point anyway. Even if I told her now that I hadn’t taken the money, it wouldn’t make a difference.
She was moving forward with the wedding, marrying Daniel, and taking the next step toward building a future with the kind of man she deserved.
It hurt knowing that wasn’t me, but come on.
This was Maggie Pembroke. She wouldn’t have sent out the invitations if she hadn’t been able to see herself being happy with him eventually.
All that meant was that I had to keep working toward moving on too, but first, I had to figure out what I was going to do with the puppy for the rest of the day. When I glanced back down at him, he was staring in the direction she’d disappeared with his head cocked, his tail no longer wagging.
“Don’t worry, boy. She’ll be back for you tomorrow.”
Derek appeared by my side, handing my coffee back over with a quizzical expression on his face as he glanced at the puppy. “Where did you suddenly get a dog?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Girlfriend?” he asked after a beat. “Or was she an ex?”
I shook my head slowly from one side to other and started forward, back to the office, with Derek on one side and the puppy on the other. “No, she’s not my girlfriend and she never has been. Like I said, it’s a long story.”
“Okay, bro,” he said a moment later. “I hear you, but, uh, what are you going to do with her dog when we get back to Thayer?”
I scoffed down a laugh. “I have absolutely no idea, but I’ll figure it out.”
That really was the family motto. It didn’t matter what happened or how well things seemed to be going. If you were a Thayer, eventually, you would always end up right back here. In a place where I’ll figure it out was the only true and acceptable answer.