She licked her lips, showcasing a little unruly confidence. “You look worried.”
“A blind bet,” he said immediately, his voice dropping. “We each write down what we want. The other only finds out if they win.”
Magnolia laughed. “Done.”
“Damn, girl. You are confident.”
Magnolia stepped forward. She wasn’t sure if it was the shots of vodka causing that warm flush of rebellion, or the fact she genuinely wanted to rip that stupid reindeer sweater off his chest. Either way, she couldn’t stop herself. She liked this game. Teetering on the edge with him felt like falling. “I don’t lose.”
“I guess it’s only fair to warn you that I play dirty.” His chuckle was dark and rooted deep in his chest. “And I’ve been known to cheat.”
She traced the antlers of the drunk reindeer across his hard stomach. “Did your source show you the picture of what I do to cheaters?”
She’d dog piled both her sisters when she found out they were sneaking money out of the bank to finally beat her. Hair was pulled and lips were turned bloody. Her father had captured the scene mid-fight.
Austin smirked. “Oh. I’m counting on it.”
She was toe to toe with him now. The only thing separating their bodies was the game box Austin held at his waist. Magnolia stood on her tiptoes, raising herself to look him in the eye. “Let’s do this.”
***
Magnolia sat in the aisle on a blanket covered in a giant Rangers logo with the game board between them. She tucked the slip of white paper that held her prize request under the corner of the board on her side, and Austin held his safely in his back pocket.
Austin was losing. Badly.
In the last two hours, Magnolia managed to dominate the game board. Mordor. Mt. Doom. It all belonged to her, and she steadily drained Austin’s bank account like a gold digger on a shopping spree. His face contorted in angry concentration. He obviously didn’t like to lose either.
She could respect that, but it didn’t change the fact she would make him suffer. He rolled, his teeth tugging at the corner of his lip as the dice bounced across the board.
Five.
Five perfect little Hobbit hops to Mordor. Austin’s face fell. “Shit.”
Magnolia laughed. It was her maniacal, I-will-conquer-the-world-and-make-you-do-my-bidding laugh. “You’re running out of things to sell off to pay your debts.”
He raised his gaze to her.
Regular Austin was sultry. Angry Austin was something else. Something more dangerous and primal that made her want to do bad things. Things not meant to be done in a movie theater, especially with poor Mr. Tumnus in the background.
“I don’t surrender,” he said flatly.
“You’d rather embarrass yourself.” Magnolia nodded. Smug. “I get it. How much do you want for your last remaining properties so you can pretend I didn’t just slaughter you?”
His lips quivered. Then his eyes went to the white slip of paper next to her knee. He knew it was over. “What did you write down?”
Magnolia grinned. “Forfeit and find out.”
Austin studied the board. Concentrated. Suddenly she wanted to know what he’d written on his paper that he wanted so badly. “I’m growing old, Blakely.”
He pressed his lips together and growled. She didn’t care what was on his paper. She would win, and her prize would be him. Recognizing the inevitable, Austin huffed and threw the dice on the board. “Fine. You beat me.”
Her chest tightened. She wanted to throw the board over, down him on the blanket, and forget the eyes in the window.
Austin leaned back on his hands and huffed, oblivious to her reaction. “What kind of torture do you have in store for me?”
Torture? He didn’t understand torture. Him two feet away, his dark hair peeking out from under his hat, his nose scrunched up in bitter disappointment. That was torture. Magnolia slipped the piece of white paper out from under the corner of the board and set it between them.
Quirking a smile, Austin reached for it. The lights went out. The movie cut off with an abrupt buzz, and even the light in the projection room snapped out. Magnolia snatched the paper back and flipped around. The doors behind them burst open.
“Get your shit.” Henrik ran at a dead sprint down the aisle toward them. “Ferocia was spotted scanning the street half a block away.”
Austin grabbed the game behind her and shoved it into the bag. “How?”
“Who knows? Just get your stuff and let’s go!”
More people burst through the door, all carrying party supplies. “Back exit,” Samuel said, running up behind Magnolia. “C’mon, my car is in the alley.”
Magnolia grabbed the back of Austin’s shirt. He continued to frantically stuff random pieces of their game into the bag. He stopped. His hands clutched in her hair, urging her forward. She stepped into him. The fire and buzz between them was instantly visible. It wasn’t just her.
“Go with Sam.” His voice was barely audible.
The wild look that surely captured her eyes as she looked at him simply said no.
He closed his eyes in pain. It would hurt now, she realized. Leaving. Whether it was tonight, five months, or even a year from now. Leaving New York would leave a mark on her.
“I have to help lock up. Go with Sam for now.”
Magnolia’s eyes steeled on him and she methodically placed the piece of white paper in his pocket. She needed him to read it. He deserved to know.
Samuel pulled her away. He had to because she wouldn’t have moved otherwise. It already hurt to admit the truth to herself, and she hadn’t even let him read the paper yet.
Samuel guided her toward the back exit. Austin stood frozen behind her, the hand that cupped her neck still in midair like she might come back to him. She almost did. A heavy metal door clanged shut behind her, and the vision of him was gone. Just like that day in the parking lot, Magnolia found herself a little emptier without him.
Samuel pulled her down the alley, and someone behind her unlocked the waiting blacked out SUV with a keyless remote. Random people started piling into the car. She recognized most of them. Magnolia stopped at the door, realizing the back seat was full. Actually, it overflowed. At least six people were already shoved inside.
“Get in,” Samuel yelled from the driver’s seat. The headlights flashed on and the engine revved impatiently.
Before Magnolia could object, a pair of hands grabbed her hips. The next thing she knew, she was inside the car. The door slammed behind her. She pushed her long mane of hair away from her face to find herself straddled over the lap of a guy.
A stranger.
The car lurched forward and she knocked her forehead against his nose. He cursed. She eased back, looking apologetically at him, but his eyes weren’t on her face. The boy looked straight down at the cleavage, which in their current predicament was pressed suggestively up against his chest. His eyes slowly rose, and he smiled. No not a stranger. “Hello, Georgia.”
Starlight blue eyes, and precisely placed blond hair. It was Henrik’s little brother, Drew Rylander.
“Hey, Maggie,” Samuel called out from up front.
She didn’t respond. Instead she tilted her head to see Samuel’s face in the rearview mirror over her shoulder. Sam smiled. “Keep your hands off my boyfriend, eh?”
Boyfriend?
Magnolia turned back to Drew, who smiled ruefully at her now. “Congratulations,” Drew whispered. “You’ve just passed the final test.”
He must have read the question on her face, because Drew leaned up.
“He doesn’t tell just anyone about me. Especially a reporter.”
Someone next to her nudged her elbow, and she looked over to see it was Leila pinned against the seat next to her. She smiled too. “Welcome to the family.”
As they darted down back streets, giggling and sharing ridiculous stories from the night, Magnolia decided maybe losing the chance at that L.A. job might not be the end o
f the world. New York looked a little better every day.
Chapter Sixteen
AUSTIN’S FAMILY
Austin helped Henrik, Jiri, and Callen shut down the theater and clean up amid darkness in complete silence. Their source down the street, a waitress at a coffee shop, told Callen that Ferocia had given up and left, but they couldn’t take any chances.
It wasn’t like Ferocia to be out on the prowl. She had a fancy desk and a fleet of minions to do her dirty work, which apparently included a wig wearing klepto with a liking for antique cell phones. The thought still burned in his gut. It felt worse now that Magnolia had seen her. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Magnolia would think of him if she knew the truth, or worse, saw the photo the girl surely took with his phone.
She’d probably tell him he deserved it. She’d never talk to him again if that photo claimed the front page of The Whisperer, and he wouldn’t blame her. Magnolia wanted more than a small network. More than New York.
He tried so hard to impress her tonight, to show her he wasn’t some party boy looking for a good time—everything the photo would suggest about him if she saw it. In that brief moment, with the snow of the White Witch’s castle whirling behind her, Austin thought he saw something. Something he recognized, because he felt the same scary, awesome thing.
This thing between them wasn’t a game anymore. It wasn’t about a distraction. It was only about the prize at the end. And he wanted it. He wanted Magnolia Cross.
His hand absently felt for the crumbled piece of paper in his front pocket. He hadn’t read it yet. The words, no matter what they were, would be too intimate to be read in front of his friends. His face would show too much.
Henrik shoved the last of the folding tables into a closet and locked the door. He took off his hat and swiped sweat from his brow. “I just need to leave the keys behind the concessions counter, and we can go.”
Austin nodded, turning to follow Henrik back downstairs. Henrik eyed him as they jumped down the steps. “What’s up with you?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug.
Henrik’s eyes narrowed at him. “What was it you used to tell me? I know when my best friend is lying to me?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Henrik leaned over the long counter at the corner of the concession and dug out a black box where he stowed the keys. “You don’t have to. I saw you tonight.”
“Yeah, about that…enjoy your peepshow?”
Henrik slugged him on the shoulder. “We gave you privacy.” Then Henrik grinned at him. “Eventually.”
Austin tried to smile, but he couldn’t manage it. Ferocia was close. She’d asked that security guard for him by name. It was only a matter of time.
“What’s wrong?”
Nausea roared in his stomach, causing the guilt to bubble.
“I don’t know. I think things went well tonight. I feel like we connected. It just seems like I’m fighting a losing battle with her.” He paused and sighed because he knew it was true. “Magnolia doesn’t want to be in New York. I know you heard what Leila said that night at the art studio. If things go well for her, she’ll get a job offer across the country. If things don’t go well, and Ferocia ruins us both, she’ll hate me and I’ll lose her anyway.”
“Cross country relationships can work, and that stuff with your phone happened before you met her. She can’t hold that against you.”
“Would you want to be associated with a guy whose sexcapades made the front page of The Whisperer and ruined your career?”
Henrik smirked. “You say that like I haven’t already tried it.”
“Those pictures of you passed out on a bar before a playoff game are not the same.”
“She likes you, Austin.”
“And what if that isn’t enough?”
Henrik smiled back at him. Yes, now the truth was out for everyone to see. He liked Magnolia. He liked her so much that he wanted her to stay in Manhattan. Throw a parade, already.
Henrik opened the side door to the street. “Make it enough.”
Austin opened his mouth to respond, but he spotted a blacked out four-wheel drive truck barreling down the alley.
Callen. Austin shook his head. Cali was such a country boy. Could he be any less inconspicuous?
Jiri held the back door open as the truck came by, and he followed Henrik out the door into the back seat. Austin huddled low against the window as they weaved their way through the back streets. The paper burned a hole in his pocket. He couldn’t wait any longer. He pulled out the tiny note and opened it, leaning over to see the small writing under the light through the window.
Written below the tagline ‘I want’ in perfect spiraling letters was the words—‘a reason to stay.’
***
After dropping Jiri and Henrik off, Austin stood outside his apartment building with Callen. They’d been trying to track down Sam and Drew for over an hour. Austin reached for his cell phone that wasn’t there again. He wanted to call Magnolia. Text her. Tweet her. Something.
He needed her to know he wanted her to stay. He glared impatiently over at Callen. “It’s ringing,” he said, giving him a coy smile.
Callen called Sam to figure out where they went, or more importantly, where he’d taken Magnolia. Callen casually strolled off and started chatting like he wasn’t standing there waiting on him. Austin grabbed the back of his hood and jerked him back. “Where is she?”
Callen’s smile grew. “Upstairs.”
Relief washed over him. Samuel was a saint. Austin rushed inside and up the side staircase to his apartment. The elevator would take too long. He spotted Magnolia as soon as he opened the door. She sat crossed-legged in the middle of the hallway, her jacket and over-sized Christmas sweater folded in her lap, leaving her in just a black tank top. She tied her long hair into a lopsided ponytail, easily highlighting the string of diamond studs in her ear.
She smiled, not at him, but at his friends. Samuel and Drew were across from her. Drew had his cell phone out, showing her something that was apparently funny. They all laughed.
Magnolia fit. She belonged with them.
He didn’t know why it surprised him. Hadn’t he instantly been captured by her too? She laughed again, whispering something to Sam. A slow southern drawl formed around her words. Her guard was down. Then he noticed Sam’s hand on Drew’s thigh and realized what happened.
Magnolia didn’t just fit, she’d been inducted. She was one of them now.
Drew, glancing up and noticing him standing there, nudged her knee.
She sparkled. Magnolia was a shimmer amid the darkness that stalked him. He had to give her a reason to stay.
He walked down the hall and slid down the wall next to her. He scooted into her side and pulled her close, leaning over to see the goofy picture of himself Drew was showing her on his phone.
She looked up at him, the question in her eyes. He didn’t need to say it. The wild, surreal look on his face confirmed it. He read the note. He wanted that reason to be him.
It was selfish. He knew that. Asking her to stay in New York for him made him a horrible person. She belonged there, though, sitting in the hallway with his friends, laughing. There was something about her that mixed so perfectly with him. It made falling for her effortless.
He needed her to stay the same way he needed to put on skates every day. Now he just needed to figure out how to convince her without making the news.
Chapter Seventeen
MAGNOLIA’S GETAWAY
Austin was right. He knew how to avoid Ferocia. They were together every free night he had that next week without even a hint of a story in the news. Shadow games, he called it, trying to take the edge off the reality of it.
The first night, he snuck into her apartment with her favorite movie, Now and Then, and laughed at all the right parts. The second night, he invited her out to watch the Georgia bowl game with his friends at a bar specifically selected due to the high priced security guard.
The third night, he showed her the back entrance into Radio City Music Hall to watch The Rockettes.
It was painfully obvious what happened. Austin bought a new phone, and figured out how to search her social media profile. He practically went step by step down the list of her favorite things.
It was cute only because he thought it made him clever. And maybe it did. She waited for him every night with her heart in her throat. Sweaty palms and all. Would this be the night he finally kissed her? It was so adorable she could have been an after school sitcom.
She interviewed him too. It was an exclusive about his knee and how he was officially released to play again. It was all part of Austin’s grand scheme. The interview was easy and friendly, but professional. It drove Cressida mad. It would have driven her mad if she hadn’t been greeted with that hint of a smile just as the camera shut off. It was their little secret, even if it wasn’t a secret at all.
He’d been gone for three days, though, back to back games in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. It was Christmas Eve, and tomorrow they had plans to go ice skating at Central Park. Then, after their date, which better end in a freaking kiss of some sort, they were going to Christmas dinner at Henrik and Leila’s house. She still wasn’t sure how Austin was going to pull off the Central Park not-be-seen thing yet, but her faith in his media-skirting abilities had grown.
Magnolia snuggled deeper into her blankets, smiling in the darkness as she dozed off to sleep. She could see the lights blinking from the tiny Christmas tree down the hall, and smell the chocolate from the cookies Leila and Lucy dropped off that morning. It was perfect.
Then she remembered the stack of papers she’d shoved into the bottom drawer of her desk that afternoon. Mrs. Stamcose had given her the official application for the L.A. job. She wanted to give her time to prepare it, and fill it out with detail about her past internships. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her Christmas, though, and the more she sat at that desk and thought about it, it wasn’t how she wanted to spend any Christmas.
The Girl With Diamonds (Midtown Brotherhood Book 2) Page 13
