by Ramona Gray
“Oh,” Maggie said.
“You’re from a bigger city, right?” Mia said.
Maggie nodded and Mia grinned at her. “You’ll get used to small town gossip.” She glanced at me. “So, I’m still not sure how you met Nana?”
“Oh, you can imagine that sweet Maggie didn’t want to exactly stay in another motel room after that dreadful incident, so Wyatt brought her to the guesthouse. Wasn’t that nice of him?” Nana said.
“Very nice.” Mia gave me a way too perceptive look. The two of us had been raised together by Nana after my parents died in a car accident and Mia’s mother abandoned her, and we were as close as siblings.
A hand tugged on my jeans and I looked down to see Phoebe standing next to me. She held her arms out. “Up, Wy-hat.”
“Phoebe, honey, don’t bother Wyatt,” Natalia said.
“Uh, it’s fine.” I bent and picked up Phoebe a bit gingerly before settling her in the crook of my arm.
She studied my face before turning to her mother and smiling. “I’m up, Mama.”
“I see that,” Natalia said. She gave me an apologetic look when Phoebe rubbed her small hand across the scruff on my jaw. “Sorry, she’s not usually this friendly with men.”
“It’s fine,” I repeated.
“Anyway,” Nana said. “I invited Maggie to have breakfast with me in the morning and we got along like a house on fire, didn’t we, dear heart?”
“We did,” Maggie said.
“Maggie mentioned she was looking for a job and I had just found out the day before that Rhonda over the diner was looking for someone after Mel up and quit on her.”
“She met a guy at the bar six months ago and moved to Europe with him last week,” Natalia said.
“So, I texted Rhonda and told her I was bringing Maggie over for an interview. Rhonda loved her and Maggie got the job on the spot. She started that very morning.” Nana smiled with satisfaction.
“Cool.” Mia handed her knitting to Nana. “It’s hopeless, Nana. If you couldn’t teach me to knit as a kid, it’s not gonna work now.”
“Oh hush, sweetheart, you can do it.” Nana took her knitting and examined it. “You just need to keep practicing.”
“Did you find a place to stay, Maggie?” Lily asked.
“Actually,” Maggie gave me a quick look, “I’m renting Martha’s guest house.”
My arm tightened around Phoebe and the little girl made a squeal of protest. “Too tight, Wy-hat.”
“Sorry, Phoebe.” I relaxed my grip and she studied me for a second before patting my face.
“That’s otay. Down, please.”
I set her down and she patted my cheek again before skipping over to Natalia. “Go home, Mama?”
Natalia nodded. “Yes, sweetpea. We should get going. Thank you, Martha, for the lesson.”
“You’re so welcome, honey. Does next Saturday work for everyone?” Nana asked.
“I’m working,” Mia said.
“Me too,” Isabelle replied.
Natalia helped Phoebe into her coat. “I’ll be working which means Maggie will be too. We get rotating weekends off at the diner.”
“All right, perhaps a weekday evening then,” Nana said. “Lily, don’t forget to text me your email address so I can add you to the group emails.”
“I will. Thank you, Martha.”
“You’re welcome, dearest.” Nana fixed her gaze on me. “Wyatt, could you please walk Maggie back to the guesthouse and fix the pantry door while you’re at it? Your tools are still on the back porch.”
“Yes, Nana,” I said. Holy hell, I had never loved my grandmother more than in this moment.
“Oh, um, he doesn’t have to fix it today,” Maggie said.
“I don’t mind,” I said quickly.
“He does,” Nana said. “You were just saying this morning that the door won’t open at all. It won’t take him long to fix it. Isn’t that right, Wyatt?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.
“Good. Go on then.”
Maggie started gathering up her knitting as Lily, Isabelle and Mia walked by me. Mia tapped me on the hip and muttered, “Wipe the drool off your face, horndog.”
I poked her in the butt, and she grinned at me before following Isabelle down the hallway.
“Bye, Wy-hat,” Phoebe said as she and Natalia walked past.
“Bye, Phoebe,” I replied. “Ready, Maggie?”
“Yes.” She followed me to the front door, slipping her feet into her boots.
“Where’s your jacket?”
“I left it at the guest house,” she said. “It’s not a long walk – oh, um, thank you.”
I had draped my jacket around her shoulders, and she smiled nervously as I opened the front door. “After you.”
I followed her to the guest house. “Where’s your car?”
“I parked it down the street.” Maggie unlocked the front door and stepped inside, holding the door for me.
She hung my jacket on the hook and gave me another nervous look. “You really don’t -”
“Excuse me.” I pushed past her and walked to the kitchen before she had the chance to kick me out. I studied the pantry door as Maggie joined me in the kitchen.
“Wyatt, maybe you should -”
“Why did you sneak out yesterday morning?” I turned to face her.
She stared at the floor. “I don’t – I mean, I was kind of embarrassed. Sleeping with someone I don’t know isn’t my…usual thing.”
“Yeah, that was kind of obvious,” I said.
Her face turned bright red and she hugged herself, her hands cupping her elbows.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”
“Because it wasn’t any of your business.”
“None of my business? Magnolia, you gave your virginity to me. Don’t you think I deserved to know beforehand?”
She scowled at me. “Don’t make it into a thing, Wyatt. Okay? It’s not a gift or something stupid like that. It’s just a thin little piece of flesh. It means nothing.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“You don’t know that,” she said.
I just stared at her and she sighed before squeezing her elbows. “Can we not talk about this?”
“Why did you give it to me?” I said. “Just tell me that.”
“Because I almost died,” she said angrily. “I almost died and I – I’m impulsive and don’t always think before I act and-and this is who I am. I do stupid things and don’t always make the most rational decisions.”
My blood ran cold and I couldn’t stop from moving forward and cupping her arms. “Do you regret what happened between us?”
She stared at the floor and dismay shot through me like a bullet. The idea that she regretted what happened between us made me feel sick to my stomach. I cupped her face and gently made her look at me. “Do you?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t regret what happened between us.”
“I’m sorry that I hurt you,” I said. “I swear, if I had known -”
“If you had known, you wouldn’t have had sex with me,” she said.
I hesitated and she sighed. “Which is why I didn’t tell you. I needed it that night, Wyatt. I needed to feel wanted and connected to someone and you were in the right place at the right time. But I’m sorry that I used you that way. It was a really shitty thing for me to do.”
“So, you only slept with me because I was convenient?” Christ, I sounded like a whiney ass baby, but I was stupidly hurt by what she’d said.
“Yes…no, I don’t know…” She gave me a look of confusion. “I don’t know anything anymore, okay? My life is so…it’s upside down and crazy, and I almost died two days ago.”
She looked close to tears and I immediately pulled her into my arms. “I’m sorry, baby. Don’t cry.”
She buried her face in my chest and I kissed the top of her head. “I feel terrible about hurting you.”
She raised her head. �
��Don’t. It wasn’t that painful and -”
I squeezed her waist. “Don’t lie to me, Magnolia.”
A cheeky sort of defiance crossed her face. “Why? Will you spank me if I do?”
Her voice had gone even lower and I knew the aching need in it wasn’t my imagination. My nostrils flared and lust immediately flooded through me. I wanted to rub my hardening dick against her. My own voice low, I said, “Does my girl want a spanking?”
She stared up at me, her eyes wide and her mouth trembling lightly. “I think, maybe, um…”
I leaned down and placed my mouth against her ear. “Lying will get you a spanking, Magnolia.”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Yes, I want a spanking.”
“Then come with me.” I took her hand and started toward the bedroom.
Before we even left the kitchen, she pulled her hand from mine and gave me a horrified look. “Oh my God, what -what am I doing?”
“It’s all right, baby,” I said. “We’ll start off slow and you’ll have a safe word.”
Her face went red. “No, I mean, I can’t – I can’t do this with you.”
“Why not?” I asked. “Give me the chance to make up for hurting you the last time.”
She licked her lips. “Uh, pretty sure that a spanking is gonna hurt.”
“You’re right, but it’ll be a sweet pain, I promise. And the sex will definitely not hurt. Let me show you.”
I reached for her hand again and she tucked both hands behind her back. “I can’t, Wyatt. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have – I mean, I don’t know what came over me just now, but I can’t sleep with you again.”
I swallowed down my disappointment. “Is it because I hurt you? Because I swear that -”
“It isn’t that,” she said.
“Then why -”
“I’m not staying,” she blurted out.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just working long enough to get some money saved up and then I’m moving on,” Maggie said. “So, sleeping with you, being with you – isn’t a good idea.”
“To where?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You said you’d be moving on… to where?”
“I don’t know yet. What does it matter?”
I’d been a cop long enough to recognize when someone was in trouble. “What or who are you running from, Maggie?”
All of the colour drained from her face and she gave me such a look of sheer terror that I wanted to pull her back into my arms. But when I reached for her, she staggered away, wetting her lips nervously.
“Baby, it’s okay. Tell me who you’re running from. Maybe I can help,” I said.
“I’m not running from anyone,” she said. “Can you please go, Wyatt? I’m tired and have a bit of a headache. I’d like to lie down.”
I didn’t want to leave her. The realization that I never wanted to leave her didn’t even freak me out that much. Although it probably fucking should have. But I couldn’t work up the energy to let it freak me out. I had no idea what it was about Magnolia Blossom, but from the minute I’d seen her, I’d known deep down that she was mine and I was hers.
Now, I just had to convince her. But today wasn’t the day. She needed some space.
“I’ll go,” I said. “But if you need anything at all, I want you to call me or text me.” I grabbed a pen from the magnetic cup on the fridge and pulled off a piece of paper from the pad sitting on the counter. I wrote my cell number on the paper and set it on the table. “This is my cell number. Put it in your phone. All right, baby?”
She nodded and I smiled at her. “I’ll come back another time to fix the pantry door.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
“Bye, Maggie.”
“Bye, Wyatt.”
Chapter Five
Maggie
“What’s up with you and Wyatt?”
I froze with my sandwich halfway to my mouth. “Nothing. What do you mean? Nothing’s up with us. Why? Did he say there was something up with us?”
Stuff that sandwich into your mouth before you make things worse.
I took a giant bite of my sandwich, giving Natalia what I hoped was a casual look as my cheeks bulged with bread.
“Oh, now I know there’s definitely something up with the two of you.”
“Thev’s noffing mup mith fuss.”
Natalia laughed. “Good God, you’re like Phoebe with a mouthful of food. Try that again.”
I chewed, swallowed, and repeated. “There’s nothing up with us.”
Natalia bit into her pear. “Oh yeah? So, he just comes into the diner every day and sits in your section because he likes the food here?”
“The food is good here,” I said.
“Yeah, but a guy who looks like Wyatt, doesn’t eat the food in this diner every day. Not with his body. I know it’s hard to tell when he’s wearing that thick police vest, but I’m pretty sure he’s got a smoking hot body.”
“He has a six pack,” I said and then froze again. “Shit.”
“A-ha! I knew it!”
“A-ha?” I said. “What are you – a cartoon villain?”
We were sitting in the quietest spot in the diner, a booth close to the kitchen that Rhonda kept reserved for staff when they were on their break. Natalia leaned over the table and stole a cracker from the container in front of me. “Don’t deflect. I know you and Wyatt had sex. Admit it.”
“Fine, yes we had sex.”
Natalia’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit. You did?”
“What? You knew we did, you just said so,” I said.
“I was lying,” Natalia said.
“Nat!” I threw another cracker at her and it was my turn for jaw dropping when Natalia caught it neatly in her mouth. “Holy shit. How did you do that?”
“I’m really good at using my mouth,” Natalia said and then laughed when I blushed. “So, give me all the details. He seems totally tough and kind of rough. Is he the exact opposite and all sweet tenderness in bed, or is he rough? Does he act like a cop when he’s banging? Ooh - did he handcuff you to the headboard?”
I dropped my sandwich to the table in front of me and wiped the crumbs from the hideous salmon-coloured uniform. “God, these uniforms are ugly.”
“Tell me about it,” Nat said. “Now, stop stalling.”
I had only known Nat for a week now, but already I loved her. She was funny and kind, and I’d been to her small apartment twice for dinner and to hang out with her and Phoebe. It was nice having a girlfriend again. Ruby had systematically cut me off from the few friends I had, doing it so slowly and insidiously that I hadn’t even realized until it was too late.
She’d insisted that she was the only one who understood me, the only one I needed in my life and, still grieving the death of my parents and drowning in work, I’d believed her.
“Maggie?” Natalia touched my hand. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I’m sorry, I’m being nosey and -”
“He is sort of rough in bed and I-I liked it. A lot. He doesn’t act like a cop, but he wants to be in charge. He didn’t handcuff me to the bed, but he did say he would spank me if I wasn’t a good girl. Which made me super turned on, and it’s super weird that I’m a grown-ass woman who wants to be spanked. Oh God, I said too much. Oh, and he also is really good at using his mouth, and I was a virgin and I had no idea that a man could do those types of things with his tongue, and now I think I might be addicted to oral sex with Officer Six Pack… and why am I still talking? Oh God, please make me stop talking.”
I stared wildly at Nat, a cracker in one hand and my embarrassment in the other.
“Okay,” Nat said slowly. “That’s… a lot to digest.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be,” Nat replied. “I asked.”
I took a deep breath as Natalia said, “We’ve got another half hour left on our lunch break. Do you want to tell me the whole story from th
e beginning or should I change the subject?”
I took another deep breath. “It all started the night I almost died.”
* * *
I parked my car next to Martha’s in the driveway and rubbed at the delicate skin under my eyes before grabbing my purse and opening the door. My feet hurt and my back ached and while I was extremely grateful to be working, the fact that I was working in a damn diner instead of as a lawyer, stung like a bitch.
It’s only temporary, Mags. Don’t worry about it. Just make some money, smile your stupid face off to get those tips, and then you can move on.
Right, move on. That’s what I needed to concentrate on. Not a certain dynamite hot police officer who sat in my section every day, looking and smelling delicious.
Girl, that ship has sailed. He doesn’t even flirt with you. He’s lost interest and it’s all your fault.
I ducked my head against the cold wind and hurried toward the guest house. I felt sick to my stomach and I wanted to pretend that inner Maggie didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, but I couldn’t. Wyatt was over me. If I wasn’t sure before, I was positive after the text that Martha sent me this afternoon.
Wyatt knew I was working today, he’d been in this morning for coffee and a stack of pancakes, but Martha’s text said he would be at the guest house fixing the pantry door this afternoon. If he wanted me, wouldn’t he have fixed the door when he knew I was at home? It was the perfect excuse to be around me.
He tried. You kicked him out, remember?
I winced and moved a little faster, trying not to slip in the snow. I’d actually felt a little better after spilling my guts to Nat during our lunch break, but the text from Martha had made me feel blue and disappointed. Which was stupid, because I had specifically told Nat it was for the best that I didn’t see him anymore.
I opened the door and slipped inside, hanging my jacket on the hook before dropping my purse and kicking off my shoes. I stood on one foot like a stork and rubbed the other, groaning loudly at the shooting pain up through my arches. God, I had to get better shoes. My feet were –
“Maggie?”
I screamed and jerked back, my heart fluttering like a panicked bird trapped in a room. I tripped over my boots and went sprawling, the skirt of my ugly uniform hiking up to nearly my crotch. I banged my head against the hardwood floors and groaned loudly, rubbing the back of my head as Wyatt’s face appeared in front of me.
