Chapter 25
Maggie pulled into the parking lot of Trap, a hum in her ears. It was this intoxicating mix of nerves and excitement that had been there since she’d made the decision to surprise Ethan tonight.
Polly was right. This would be good for her.
She’d walk into the bar, spend the night with Ethan, Jay, and the guys, and everything would feel normal.
There’d be no strange glances from Jay to Ethan.
No weird energy. Because that was all in her head.
And she wasn’t an insecure twenty-two-year-old anymore.
She was a confident woman who knew that Ethan loved her.
A part of her wanted to blame her aunt for her insecurities.
But it wasn’t her aunt’s fault. Not anymore.
She was an adult now. She’d had years to retrain her mind into understanding that it wasn’t always about being the prettiest or smartest woman in the room.
Confidence was a feeling. It lived inside a person, but only if you let it.
And she was choosing confidence. She was choosing to believe in her worth.
She stepped into the bar to find it so busy there was barely a path through.
Good God, this bar had a hold on this town.
She wove through the crowd.
“Maggie.”
She smiled up at the man beside her. “Hey, Connor.”
“I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”
“It was a last-minute decision. Have you seen Ethan?”
“I think he went to the bar.”
The crowd opened up, and at a first scan of the bar, she didn’t see him. She almost looked away. Then, two people in the corner caught her attention. Ethan and Jay. They stood close, and even though she couldn’t see the front of Ethan, she saw all of Jay. And the expression on her face…
It was longing and need and love.
“You should join them,” Connor said, although even he didn’t sound so confident.
“Yeah, I…”
Jay moved closer to Ethan. She said one more thing before she quickly stepped forward and kissed him.
Maggie’s stomach dropped to her feet.
She looked away as if that could somehow protect her. It didn’t. The sight of Jay’s lips on Ethan’s broke something inside her. Or maybe it reignited something. And all that voice in her head could whisper was, are you surprised?
She felt sick, and her throat was so tight she could barely breathe.
Connor touched her arm. “Maggie…”
She shoved through the crowd. She wasn’t sure how she made it out of the bar. Everything was a blur. The millions of people around her. The floor. The voices. She could barely see.
She stumbled outside, the cool air making the chill on her skin seep into her bones.
When she reached her car, she slid behind the wheel, but thick tears blocked her vision. She blinked them away as she pulled onto the road.
That scene—everything about it fed into her deeply rooted self-loathing. The part of her she’d tried so hard to heal. The one that still floated to the surface at the worst times. All that work she’d done to wipe away the feelings of not being enough, only to fold like a piece of paper.
Her cell rang from her pocket. She didn’t answer. She didn’t so much as look at the screen. Finally, it stopped, but a text immediately followed.
When she reached the house, her chest hurt. Her eyes stung. And there was an ache in her heart, one so similar to what she’d felt eleven years ago.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
Breathe, Maggie. You need to breathe.
Somehow, she forced herself up and out of the car. Her fingers shook as she slotted her key into the door. She stepped inside and closed it behind her before touching her temple to the wood. Fresh tears pushed at her eyelids, but she refused to let them fall.
In her bedroom at the end of the hall, she pulled her cell from her pocket and saw his name on the screen. Even that hurt.
He’d called and texted. She opened the message.
Ethan: I need you to call me, Maggie. It’s not what you think.
The sight of Jay lifting to her toes and kissing Ethan flashed in her mind again.
Jay kissing Ethan.
Something clicked inside her—the first flicker of sanity. Ethan hadn’t been touching Jay. And she hadn’t actually seen his face. Jay had been looking at him with love, but how had he looked at her? And what if Maggie hadn’t turned away? What would she have seen next?
Her finger hovered over his name to call him back—until she heard something in the other room.
She looked up at the closed bedroom door.
The creak of a floorboard echoed through the house.
She cracked the door open. “Polly?”
Silence.
With slow steps, she crept into the living room. “Polly? Are you home?”
She glanced around, but her gaze stopped on a photo frame that was face down.
Her heart lurched, all the fine hairs on her arms standing on end.
They’d been here. Her stalker had been here.
Or maybe they still were.
She stumbled back a step. A voice in her head told her, screamed at her, to call for help. To get out and not waste time touching the frame.
She wasn’t sure why she didn’t listen, maybe because her world was tilting and blurring and she didn’t have a tight enough grasp on control. She stepped forward and gripped the frame.
The photo wasn’t in the frame anymore. It had been taken out and torn. Her fingers trembled as she lifted the half that remained.
Polly. And the half that was missing was of her.
“What the—”
A floorboard groaned right behind her.
Before she could turn, pain seared her skull as the sound of smashing glass rang through the room. She dropped, her world going black.
Ethan gripped Jay’s arms and shoved her away. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her mouth opened and closed. “You didn’t feel it?”
“I’m with Maggie, Jay. I love Maggie!”
“You still love her? After all these years and everything she did to you?”
“Yes. How many times do I need to say it?”
Jay stumbled back. “But we get along so well, and we have such great chemistry, and she…she’s different from us. I thought—”
“No. Whatever you thought was wrong. I have always and will always love her. You can’t ever do that again.”
“I… I’ve got to go.” She turned and raced off.
Ethan turned back to the bar and scrubbed his hands over his face.
Goddammit. She’d kissed him. She’d fucking kissed him.
How? How had he been so blind when everyone else had seen it? His entire team. Even Maggie had warned him.
“What the hell was that?”
He looked at Connor. “I don’t know. Fuck, I don’t know!”
Connor’s frown deepened.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed on his friend, knowing Connor well enough to realize he had something to say. And whatever it was, it wasn’t good. “What?”
“Maggie was here.”
Air halted in his lungs. “Where?”
“She left. But she saw it.”
It. The kiss.
Connor’s words felt like a gut punch. Like someone had taken a fist and driven it so hard into his stomach that he almost keeled over. “Did she see me step away?”
“No.”
Fuck.
Ethan shot across the bar.
Maggie should know that he only loved her. But she had wounds. Wounds that were so deeply etched inside her that she could have misinterpreted everything. Read something into it that wasn’t there.
He sprinted outside and scanned the parking lot. He didn’t see her car. She was gone.
Shit. It was like he’d gone back in time, and he was at the damn bar in Coronado. Would she run from Deep River too? Disappear on him again?
No. History wasn’t going to repeat itself. He was going to talk to her. Explain things.
He pulled out his cell and tried her number. She didn’t answer.
Quickly, he sent her a text.
Ethan: I need you to call me, Maggie. It’s not what you think.
But he didn’t wait for a response. When he reached his truck, he slid behind the wheel and sped to Polly’s house.
Every minute that passed had the knot in his chest pulling tighter.
Eleven years ago, she hadn’t given him the chance to fight for them.
This time, things would be different. He was going to walk into that house and Maggie was going to hear him out.
She was the only woman he loved, the only woman he’d ever loved, and she’d realize that nothing and no one could ever threaten that.
He slammed his foot on the brakes outside Polly’s house.
Her car was in the drive. She was home. Thank God.
He raced out of the car and up the path, slamming his fist to the door.
“Maggie.”
Something sounded inside. Footsteps, but not moving toward the door.
He knocked again. “Maggie. Please. We need to talk about this. I’m not letting you disappear again.”
Silence now. No footsteps. No voices.
He tried her number again. She didn’t answer, but he heard her phone ringing from the other side of the door. She was in there. And she was close.
“Maggie, please.” One more second of silence, and he tried the door. Unlocked. “I’m coming in.”
He stepped inside the house. His heart stopped.
Maggie lay on her side in the living room, blood in her hair and shattered glass surrounding her.
No.
He sprinted over to her and dropped to her side to touch her neck.
Strong beats pulsed against his finger. Thank God! He scanned her body, looking for other injuries. As far as he could see, it was only her head.
He didn’t bother waiting for an ambulance, he scooped her up and raced to his truck.