Leah: Don't worry. I'm like a vault. And Leo tried to call you once again today.
My stupid, torturous heart ached at the mention of his name. He'd tried calling once the day of our fight, once again yesterday, and this made for a third time. What could he possibly want? To tell me again how ridiculous I was? I certainly didn't want to hear it, and I'm glad Leah had my phone to ignore him for me.
Me: Ignore him. Has my dad or Maggie tried calling?
Leah: Only Leo.
For some reason, that just plain pissed me the hell off.
Me: Okay. Thanks for everything and I'll text you again tomorrow.
Leah: No prob.
Tossing Leah's phone on the nightstand, I plopped down on the cozy hotel bed. I laughed because I swear Leo had the same exact bed and comforter in his room. That would be my luck, right? I'd only chosen to stay at a Maddox Hotel because I'd needed a little something familiar the last couple of days. As much as I loved Arizona, a small piece of me missed home. And let's face it, I'd never stayed in any other kind of hotel so my ingrained brand loyalty kept me glued here. But I was beginning to think that maybe it was a little too familiar. It was kind of hard to forget the asshole man I loved when I was sleeping in a copy of his bed.
You'll be able to let go in another couple of days, I assured myself. Despite the acidic feeling that was eating away at my insides, I hoped I'd be okay soon. I was strong and I didn't really need Leo or his fancy hotel to make it easier to adjust to a new city, but still...the comfort factor of this place was impossible to deny.
I grabbed the phone again from the nightstand. It was time to send a message to the one person I couldn't avoid texting any longer.
Me: Hey, Steph. This is Clara. Operation AZ in effect. I've been here two days now. I'm sorry it took me this long to text you. I'm good though. And it's perfect here.
A reply came instantly.
Steph: Yeah, I know. Guess who just walked into the bar with your sister?
CHAPTER 25
MAGGIE
There were no actual alligators at the Alligator Lounge. Go figure. I hadn't expected there to be any, but after the shock of going with Leo to Harry Winston, nothing would have surprised me today.
“Let me do the talking,” Leo insisted, pausing as we entered the bar. “You stand there and look pretty.”
“Hey now,” I said, pretending to be offended.
“You know what I mean. And if it comes to it...do your thing.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. This wasn't our first rodeo.
We ventured inside further. The place was slow since it was a Thursday afternoon, but it had to be one of the funkiest, coolest bars I'd ever been in. All I could think about was Dean and his bar restoration work. I wondered what kind of style he went for when making over places. Would he love this offbeat décor or would he find it tacky? An image of Dean swinging a hammer with his sculpted arms popped instantly into my head. Did he do most of the manual labor himself? With arms like his...surely he did. And if his arms looked that good, what did the rest of his body look like?
I gulped, heat zapping through my body as my imagination began to run wild. Then a second image trumped the first. One of me standing on Dean's coffee table, kissing him. Why, oh why, had I done that? No wonder he'd turned me down so effortlessly.
“—and when is she working again?” Leo was asking the bartender. I'd spaced out for a moment, but the edge in Leo's voice instantly snapped me back to reality. “Tonight? Tomorrow? Steph's friend is missing—the girl with the purple hair—and we could really use your help. I tried her apartment before coming here and her roommate seemed to think she'd be working.”
The bartender shot me a look. He was cute. Dark hair. Piercings. Sleeves of tattoos. “Look, man,” he said, his eyes shifting back to Leo. “I think you should leave. I can't give out personal information like that. Is there some sort of special place I can call for you?”
“What?” Leo asked, enraged.
I giggled. Ah, he thought I was Clara and that Leo needed to be institutionalized because of it. “He’s talking about my twin,” I told him, acting innocent. I fingered a strand of my hair, tilting my head and giving him a giant smile. “There are two of us, silly.”
“Oh,” the bartender said, smiling back at me. “Gotcha.”
Leo huffed, giving me a staged glare and then turning his evil stare at the guy. He could be incredibly fierce when he wanted to be, and if he ever looked at me like that I'd probably pee my pants. “Can you fucking help us or not?” he grunted.
“Not,” the guy said flatly.
Leo turned and left the bar in a huff. I had to give my friend credit. At least he didn't try to punch the guy in the face or anything. I mean, I kind of wanted to myself, but I put on my sweetest smile and inched closer to the bar. My arms hit the counter and I leaned over slightly, ensuring he'd get a good look down my shirt. “My sister can be quite unpredictable and she's gone missing. I'm sick with worry.” I lightly traced one hand over my collar bone. That poor sap, he was practically drooling on the counter. Wow, my boob-job was worth every penny. “And Stephany might be the only one who can—”
“Enough!” Out of nowhere, Stephany popped up from behind the bar. She smacked the starry-eyed bartender on the arm. “I can't listen to you two flirt another minute longer. Can't you see she's playing with you?”
The guy stared dumbfounded at me. “What?”
“Ugh!” Stephany groaned, before moving the partition to the bar and walking over to my side. “Where did Leo go?” she demanded.
I led her toward the door and she followed. We found Leo outside, leaning against the building's brick façade with his arms crossed. “Please tell me that worked, Mags.” He noticed Stephany with me and his hard expression softened. “Thank God. Were you inside the whole time?”
Stephany's cheeks went pink. “Yes, sorry.”
“She was hiding,” I blurted out.
Leo frowned. “Why?”
“Because I know where Clara is.” Stephany shifted from one foot to another, avoiding eye contact with both of us. “I might not agree with everything Clara does,” she continued, “but I'm not gonna tell you where she is either. I would never betray her trust like that...even if it was for her own good.”
“Okay then.” Leo shrugged. “You don't have to tell us anything. But Maggie and I did come all this way, so could you at least let her know we were here, that her whole family is worried, and that we all want her to come home? Not just me...well, maybe especially me...but could you please tell her that?”
I might be good at sweet-talking a cute guy from time to time, but—in the right circumstances—Leo could out-persuade me by miles. All he had to do was flip on the charm, pick up on a person's underlying emotions, and he could probably sell pornography to a nun. He'd inherited those skills from his father, so it surprised me that he wasn't using them right now. Why wasn’t he pressuring Stephany more? Weird too, because she struck me as someone who would crack easily.
Stephany nodded. “I'm sorry I can't help more.”
“We'll figure out another way to find her,” Leo said, giving Stephany an unexpected hug. “But Maggie and I have to go now or we'll miss our plane home.” Leo took my arm, pulling me quickly away from the girl and toward our waiting taxi. I was completely confused as to why we would just leave her when she obviously had all the answers.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. “We still have two hours before the flight.”
Leo left my question unanswered. Instead, he counted slowly under his breath as we walked away. One one-thousand, two one-thousand... Then, just as we reached the taxi and Leo reached five one-thousand, I heard footsteps racing down the sidewalk.
“Wait,” Stephany cried. “I'm coming with.”
“And they don't call me Leo Maddox for nothing,” he whispered.
THE PLANE RIDE HOME was dreadfully boring. Great-Grandma Bunny had met Leo at the airport, as promised, and she'd handed over Leo
's “special package.” Unfortunately, even though I thought I’d timed a trip to the bathroom just right, I hadn't escaped having to see the woman. She loved Leo to death, but pretty much despised the rest of the world. She'd pinched my butt—literally, pinched my butt—and told me I'd put on weight. Gee thanks, nice to see you too. Fortunately, we were able to catch an earlier flight home so I didn’t have to see her for long.
Now, here we were in Leo's car, driving the familiar route toward Blue Creek with the sun sinking low on the horizon, and no one had spoken in over an hour. Being the one stuck in the backseat, I felt a little carsick and my hair was windblown from Stephany's cracked widow. Leo knew better and had his up. But the worst part was the uncomfortable silence that dragged on and on. I decided I couldn't bear another nanosecond of it.
“Is it going to be okay that you're missing work?” I asked Stephany.
“I'll call in sick tomorrow at my internship,” she replied. “They're pretty laid back there, so I'm hoping it won't be a big deal. And I explained everything to Jesse, the bartender you were shamelessly flirting with in order to solicit information, and he agreed to cover my Saturday shift.”
“Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. He was cute, but I'd never date anyone with all those tattoos. Not my thing.”
The car fell back into awkward silence after that comment. Was that the wrong thing to say? The bartender had been cute—not Dean cute—but not repulsively ugly either.
Speaking of Dean… With nothing more to say, my thoughts had nowhere else to go but to him.
I'd been so quick to tell Leo that we should fight for the people we wanted, but what had I done? Nothing, that’s what. I'd followed Leo around the last couple of days like a lost puppy, trying to preoccupy my mind with other things. I guess rightfully so...it's not like I'd heard a single peep from Dean since I’d stood on his darn coffee table. But I'd let him disappear from my life once before—did I really want to let it happen again? Twice might kill me.
“When we get home,” I said, breaking the silence the second I’d made up my mind, “I need you to go somewhere with me as soon as we drop off Stephany at the house. I came with you on your crazy trip to New York and now I need you to do the same for me.”
“Okay,” Leo said without hesitation. “I can do that.”
For the rest of the car ride, I thought over exactly what I needed to tell Dean and the questions I still wanted him to answer for me. I fully prepared myself to be rejected again because things undoubtedly weren't going to end well for me. I guess the words ‘I can't’ still sat heavy on my heart.
When we reached Blue Creek, we dropped Stephany off at my house. She'd been there before and had met Dad a few times, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too awkward for her to be alone with him. Then Leo drove us over to one very rundown apartment complex.
“This is it?” Leo asked, taking in the dilapidated building. “Please tell me he does not live here.”
“It's not that bad.” But actually, it was pretty bad. The complex looked as if it had suffered through a zombie apocalypse. “Well...the inside's kind of nice,” I offered.
“Fine.” Leo cut the ignition to the car. “Go tell the bastard you're in love with him. Then you both can ride off into the sunset on white horses or some shit like that.”
“You think this is a mistake?” I asked anxiously. I trusted Leo’s opinion and he wasn’t exactly sounding sold on the idea of me being with Dean.
He shrugged. “I honestly don't know if we can trust him or not. Six years ago I would have said ‘go for it’ without hesitation. But now... I'm usually good at seeing through people's shit, but I can't tell with him and that pisses me off.”
“And that's why you're coming inside with me.”
He gave me a look.
“Remember New York? Now move it!” I said playfully, knowing that, despite his apparent hesitation, he wouldn’t miss this for the world.
Leo half-laughed, half-groaned. Then we both got out of the car and walked toward the breezeway that led to Dean’s front door. I clung fiercely to Leo's arm as we went because, truth be told, I could barely walk on my own. My nerves were shot, my breathing was a mess, and my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest.
“I've never seen you like this,” Leo told me as we reached the door. He knocked, a strange smile plastered to his face. “This is gonna be entertaining.”
I opened my mouth to tell him off, but my words were cut short when the apartment door swung open.
Oh. Lordy!
I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. Dean stood there, the water from a recent shower dripping deliciously down his face and bare chest, like he'd just stepped out of one of my wildest fantasies. He had a tiny pink towel, short enough to be Valerie's, wrapped tightly around his waist, barely covering up his goodies.
“What are you two doing here?” he asked, the annoyance in his voice clear. His eyes shifted from me to Leo and then back again. “This isn't something I need to see...and it's late.”
My gaze wouldn't budge from his naked chest. “Um? We...um.”
“Close your mouth, Mags,” Leo muttered, “before you start drooling.”
I swallowed hard. The words that wanted to come out—I love you despite everything—were stuck in my throat. Finally, I managed to peel my eyes off his body and blink them upward. Instantly, I snapped out of my lust-coma because the look on his normally easygoing face was way too harsh. Not just harsh but screaming mad. Because of me? But he was the one who'd—
“You can't keep showing up at my place,” Dean grunted. “Especially with Leo. It's messing with my head.”
“I’m messing with your head?” There was my voice. I found it and it came out as harsh as the look on his face. “What about you messing with my head? Acting like you care one minute and then telling me you can't the next. That's pretty much the very definition of messing with a person's head!”
Leo huffed. “He thinks you and I are together because we showed up here together. That's what he means by ‘messing with his head,’ Mags. Calm down.”
“So you're not together?” The anger mellowed in Dean's voice and something that sounded like hope replaced it very quickly.
“No,” Leo answered.
“Why are you here then?” Dean asked.
“Why do you think she's here? To wash your damn dishes?” Leo groaned and shoved past Dean, moving into his apartment. “I'll be on the couch. Where's the rugrat?”
“She's already in bed,” Dean whispered, paying little attention to Leo, his focus only on me. “Is that true? You're here for me?”
“Yes, Dean. I'm here for you. I only thought I—”
He unexpectedly grabbed my hand and yanked me outside into the breezeway, pulling the door closed behind us. “You called me Dean.”
“Sorry, it must have slipped out.”
A small, curious smile crept over his face. “And I'm guessing you being here also means that you don't love Leo.”
My heart started to pound even harder. “No, I definitely don't.”
“That—” He took a step closer to me, invading my space. “—is very good news.”
His hands moved to grip the sides of my neck. I sucked in a breath at his tender touch, a flame igniting inside my chest. It had been so many years since he'd touched me like this, but in that second, it felt like not a day had gone by.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“What I should have done the second you walked into my bar. You belong with me. Not Leo. Not Andrew. Only me.”
He drew me in close and kissed me—the way I was always supposed to be kissed. Slow and soft. Hot and sweet. Until I felt it in my toes. His arms moved to wrap around my waist and held me close to him.
He was right. All this time and all these years, as much as I’d tried to convince myself otherwise, my heart had always belonged with him. Nothing would ever change that. Unstoppable tears rolled down my cheeks. I broke away from him, sho
ving at his chest.
“What took you so long to come back to me?” I yelled. “You promised! You promised and I waited, but you never came. I missed you and all I wanted was to have you back.”
He took a couple of breaths, and even though I’d just shoved him, he caught my hand and pulled me back against him. The water from his shower had dried and the feel of his bare chest was warm and comforting. Maybe I wanted to stay mad at him, but being wrapped up in his arms felt too insanely good. I couldn't push him away a second time.
“I missed you too,” he whispered against the top of my head. “I missed you every single day, but I didn't come back because…well, for the longest time I had myself convinced that I wasn't good enough for you. I was embarrassed because I’d gotten a girl pregnant. I never told you, but I wasn't a virgin when we met. I knew you were…or I assumed you were, but we never discussed it. I got Valerie's mom pregnant before I even met you. My mom knew, but being her typical conniving self, she withheld that information until the worst possible moment. She told me in the car, seconds after we left your house and your family forever.”
“What?” I breathed into his chest.
“You had a perfect little future ahead of you. And I had nothing. I was no one. Just some kid who probably wouldn't amount to much, who had a con artist for a mother and a baby on the way. I couldn't ruin your life like that.”
“So, you decided everything for me? For us? And you couldn't even call to tell me what you had decided?”
“Yes.” He swallowed hard, resting his forehead against my forehead and staring down into my eyes. “And I've regretted it every day since. I love you, Maggie. And I came back to Blue Creek for you. If you want me to leave you alone forever, I will, but I had to come back. I had to see if I still had a chance.”
I stared up at him, my chest heaving and tears still blurring my vision. My insides were like lava mixed with goo. I wanted to scream and yell and break something. But all I managed to do was mutter, “I love you too. But don't you ever make a decision like that for me again.”
The biggest, most perfect smile filled his beautiful face. “Yes, ma'am,” he said, bringing his lips back to mine. He caught my legs and scooped me up against his chest. I wound my arms around his neck as he deepened our kiss, our tongues mingling, exploring, and demanding. His appearance might have changed drastically, but his touch and taste were just as I remembered. He didn't kiss like most boys—like he had a finish line he needed to cross. He kissed as if he meant to savor and worship me forever.
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