Dream Maker

by Kristen Ashley

  Then Mag spoke.

  “Not that I wanted this to happen, maybe not ever, but definitely not now,” he started. “Nik, this is Evan, we’re seein’ each other and it’s serious. Evie, honey, this is Nikki. My ex.”

  We’re seein’ each other and it’s serious.

  Evie, honey…

  We’re seein’ each other and it’s serious.

  Evie, honey…

  It’s serious.

  With these words clamoring gleefully in my head, I forced my body to move, but I’d been so motionless, it jolted when I did. I still carried on, covering the distance between us with my hand raised.

  Mechanically, she took it.

  I gave her a little squeeze, let go, and mumbled what was part truth, part lie, “Um, this is awkward and I’m sorry about that, but, erm, nice to meet you,” all while she gazed at me with a mixture of incredulity and pain.

  Mag didn’t help either of those when he positioned himself by my side and slid an arm around my shoulders.

  He didn’t go for the gusto, curling my front to his side and rubbing it in.

  But he did make a point.

  “I’m fine,” he told Nikki. “I don’t know who told you, but they shouldn’t have.”

  As he spoke, her eyes drifted up at him, hazy and wounded.

  “Why not?” she asked quietly.

  He did not say it was no longer her business.

  He said, “But when you found out, you should have called.”

  “I…this…I…” She shook her head, her long, golden hair brushing this way and that on her shoulders.

  She was out of it, unable to process the situation she was in, and my heart went out to her.

  She then seemed to focus, but it was on Mag’s condo.

  And as she looked around, something came over her.

  When it did, she said quietly, “Even this is temporary. It isn’t even really yours.”

  “Nik—” Mag began in a tone that shared he clearly understood these odd words.

  She turned her attention to him, and she was herself again, the woman who walked in with a purpose, feeling she had every right to be there.

  Oh man.

  “You should be resting,” she declared then her eyes came to me. “He should be resting.”

  “I—”

  I didn’t get any further than Mag had.

  “Don’t let him give you any of that ‘I have a high threshold for pain’ garbage.”

  Uh-oh.

  Someone was pissing on her patch with her I know how he’s playing this, because, you see, I know him through and through, including how to deal with him, so let me instruct you for the time you have with him before I take over again bullshit.

  The “take over again” part being something she thought she was going to do when she showed at the door five minutes ago.

  That was when I felt something come over me.

  “Pain is pain,” she went on.

  I stood there, silent.

  She continued with her lesson.

  “So, you really shouldn’t let him hand you any of his commando crap.”

  “Nik—” Mag tried again.

  Her eyes shot right to him. “Has she been struck mute?”

  Uh-oh.

  I felt it happening.

  Now something had come over Mag.

  Time for me to intervene.

  “Uh, just to say, Nikki?” I called, and she looked to me. “Danny’s the one who sustained the injury. He knows how it feels. He also knows where his pain pills are. I’ve told him to rest, repeatedly. If he refuses to do that, he’s a grown man, it’s his choice.”

  But something else came over her the second I started speaking.

  And it was back to wounded when her gaze shifted to Mag.

  “Danny?” she whispered.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “Okay—” I started.

  “Danny?” she shrieked so loud, I winced.

  Good God.

  “Nik—” Mag began yet again.

  “Fuck you!” she shouted.

  Oh boy.

  “We’re not doin’ this,” Mag growled.

  “Danny? Danny?” She mocked then tossed a hand my way. “You let some woman you’ve known, what? A day? You let her call you Danny?”

  It was a guess, but I figured he hadn’t let Nikki call him that.

  “Let’s go back to the beginning of this visit where I said now’s not a good time,” Mag stated. “And just to add, with this shit, it’s never a good time.”

  She turned to me.

  Oh boy!

  “Just so you know, we were together a long time. We talked about marriage. Kids. And between us breaking up and you, there’ve been about a hundred other yous,” she shared.

  I was really glad I knew that already or that would have been a blow.

  Something she intended.

  Jeez.

  Seemed like Mag’s ex was kind of a bitch.

  That was when Mag curled my front to his side and bit out, “Nik, stop it.”

  She didn’t take her eyes from me.

  “So, just sayin’, those hundred yous have yet to replace me.”

  “I have a feeling that’s changing as we speak,” I muttered.

  “You’d be wrong,” she snapped.

  “Just to make shit clear,” Mag said, and I looked up at him to see, surprisingly, he was addressing me, “me and Nik, we didn’t break up. She dumped me.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, not super sure why he was making that point.

  I turned my attention back to her, seeing as she turned her attention back to Mag to declare, “I did not dump you. I left and told you when you got yourself sorted to come back.”

  “No, you didn’t leave. You kicked my ass out and told me not to come back until I made the changes in my life that you required,” he returned.

  All right.

  Damn.

  Just…

  Damn.

  He was holding me, but I’d seen enough of them, what with my mom and Rob going at each other all the time.

  I knew what a lovers’ quarrel looked like.

  And this conversation had suddenly morphed into that.

  I didn’t like it when Mom and Rob did it.

  But I really didn’t feel like being an innocent bystander during one that involved a guy I was falling for and had a strong suspicion I could spend the rest of my life with.

  I started to shift away to give them some privacy and at the same time reevaluate my own circumstances, which might require me buying stock in Kleenex before I moved in with Tex, but I got nowhere as Mag’s arm around my shoulders clamped so hard, a smidge harder and there’d be pain.

  “Mag, it’s for our future,” she retorted.

  “Nik, honest to fuck, can you be standing right there lookin’ at me as I am right now and think we have a future?” Mag returned.

  “It’s for the best,” she shot back.

  “It was for your best,” he volleyed.

  “It’s for our best,” she rejoined.

  God.

  I really did not want to be standing right here.

  “I was done havin’ this conversation months ago, I can say without doubt I’m seriously done havin’ it now,” he told her.

  “It isn’t done until it’s done,” she stated.

  “By that you mean, it isn’t done until you get what you want,” he translated.

  I wondered if I closed my eyes, held my breath and concentrated hard enough, if I’d become invisible so I could spirit away.

  Second choice, spontaneously combust.

  “By that I mean, we aren’t done,” she fired back.

  Oh God.

  I looked to the floor and kept my eyes there, especially after I felt Mag go completely still.

  I knew what that meant.

  And as it meant what it meant, why wouldn’t he let me go?

  I wouldn’t make a fuss.

  I wouldn’t cause a scene.
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br />   Okay, so, he was the nicest guy I’d ever met, he was great in bed, he was funny, he thought I was pretty, he liked John Wick and Metallica, and he took a bullet for me.

  All huge positives in brand-new boyfriend material.

  So, sure, we’d known each other all of five days, but I still knew I’d grieve his loss longer and harder than I did my ex-boyfriend who’d been in my life over two years.

  But he’d loved this woman. He’d wanted a life with her.

  So, if that would make him happy, and he had a shot at getting that back, I wasn’t going to insert myself into that.

  I was, however, definitely buying stock in Kleenex.

  “Nik, fuck, I…” Mag started quietly.

  I tried to carefully pull away.

  He held tight.

  Why wouldn’t he let me go?

  “That’s why you’re here,” he kept talking quietly. “Whoever told you I got injured told you about Evie.”

  She did not confirm this.

  Though I’d figured that out around the pissing-on-her-patch part of the conversation.

  He continued speaking.

  “Babe, we’re done. It doesn’t matter what got us there, it’s over. I’ve moved on.”

  I stopped pulling and blinked at the floor.

  “Mag—” she began.

  “Don’t,” he cautioned.

  “You’ve said that before,” she told him.

  Hmm.

  “I haven’t.”

  Hmm!

  “Well, you have said you’re not someone to quit on something you believe in,” she retorted.

  I figured that was the truth.

  “Nik, really, don’t. Let’s end this here.”

  Okay, now I didn’t want to be standing there for a different reason.

  “Mag—”

  “Honestly, what’s done is done. You should move on too,” he advised.

  She shared her own advice.

  “Well, then I should warn you, if I do, I won’t be available when you come crawling back.”

  “Okay,” Mag stated, but it wasn’t in agreement to what she’d said. I could tell he was gearing up to deliver more, and his tone was strange.

  So strange, I tipped my head back to look up at him.

  And I saw from his profile his expression was also strange.

  There was pain.

  Not pain pain.

  The kind you get when you really didn’t want to say something that was going to hurt somebody, but you didn’t have a choice.

  This being why he’d swayed from the door.

  He knew there was a possibility she’d see me, and he’d eventually be pressed into the position he was in right now.

  This made me ridiculously happy at the same time my heart was now going out to Mag.

  I opened my mouth to offer my own advice, that being leave what he was about to say unsaid, invite her departure again, and let his future actions speak his words.

  But I didn’t get out even his name.

  “I didn’t want you in here because Evie’s been having a rough go of it lately. I didn’t want her to put up with whatever was gonna happen with you, but you took that choice away, operating under some assumption I’m seein’ I gotta disabuse you of.”

  Oh no.

  Totally time again to intervene.

  I pressed my hand to his stomach and said urgently, “Danny.”

  “She made me dinner the other night, Nik, bacon cheeseburgers, and when she came out of the fridge with the shit to cook, I knew I was gonna marry her.”

  Uh.

  Say…

  What?

  My mouth had dropped open, I just couldn’t close it.

  He looked down at me, and when he did, he appeared uncomfortable, even awkward, it was insanely adorable, then he looked back at Nikki and when he spoke again his voice was gentle.

  “I’m sorry. When we talked about that when we were together, marriage, kids, I’m seein’ now, they were just the logical next steps. You’re a good woman, we had good times, a lot of them, and we just had a lot of time in. It was what we were supposed to do. I got caught up in that. Don’t get me wrong, you meant somethin’ to me, Nik. You meant a lot. Not havin’ you hurt like fuck, you meant that much. I just didn’t get what I was supposed to feel until I saw Evie with an armful of meat.”

  Many women would prefer this epiphany to happen when the sun was shining on her face or the wind was blowing through her hair.

  But I’d totally take it happening for Mag when I was carrying an armful of meat.

  He looked down at me again, still awkward, still adorable, and muttered, “Too soon, I know, it just had to be said.”

  “Not too soon,” I whispered, pressing close to him.

  His eyes moved over my face, the awkwardness faded, and his lips hitched.

  “So,” Nikki broke into our moment, “I see you finally let it overpower you.”

  We both looked to her, and she, regrettably, continued speaking.

  “I didn’t want to say anything,” she said to Mag, not nicely, which meant she hadn’t actually misinterpreted the things with her next words she wanted us to think she’d fake-misinterpreted. And she proved this when she said to me, “I thought it was rude. But I obviously don’t have to tell you, what with your face like that, his temper is off the charts.”

  She…

  Did not.

  “Evie,” Mag called.

  She…

  Really…

  Did not.

  Mag’s hold on me got tighter.

  “Evie,” he repeated.

  “Are you insinuating that Danny did this to me?” I asked quietly.

  “Evie,” Mag said again.

  “In an effort to drive a wedge between us, are you honestly implying Danny would take his hands to me?” I kept at her.

  “Baby,” Mag muttered.

  But Nikki just ticked her head to the side in one of those bitch moves that always happened prior to what was about to happen, happened.

  And then that happened.

  I tore from Mag’s hold and went after her, nails bared.

  There wasn’t a lot of space between me and my target, and she was stunned immobile at my actions, so my chances at taking her down were significantly increased, but I forgot how fast Mag moved.

  Thus, I didn’t manage to get at her because Mag’s arm hooked around my belly and he dragged me back three steps, those being Mag’s steps, which were about five of mine.

  Unable to instigate a smackdown catfight, I bit at her, “You should be ashamed.”

  “I’m feeling a lot right now, but shame isn’t part of that,” she retorted.

  “This doesn’t surprise me because, from the minute you pushed in here when Danny didn’t want you to, to now, you’ve displayed nothing but spoiled, selfish tendencies. Then again, you dumping him because he wouldn’t come to heel, I should have already known that.”

  “He’s got issues,” she hissed. “I was trying to help him with his issues.”

  “It work for you, helping him with those by breaking his heart?” I returned.

  Her torso shot straight.

  “Evie,” Mag said in my ear. “Stand down, baby.”

  “So…what? You two have been together how long? Days? Weeks? And you’ve got all the answers?” she asked me.

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “I have none. Zero. Zip. Though I know one of them is not walking away.”

  Her head jerked like I’d slapped her.

  I didn’t care.

  Because she wasn’t kind of a bitch.

  She was a bitch.

  “And another,” I carried on, “is not trying to force him to be someone he’s not.”

  “Evie, baby, honey, stand down,” Mag urged in my ear.

  He’d delivered his double-barreled endearment, so although it was hard, I clamped my mouth shut.

  “Nik—” he began, but she lifted a hand, shaking her head.

  “Yeah. Yes. I get it, Mag
. I got it the minute I heard her call you Danny.”

  And without another word, she turned to the door, opened it, and disappeared behind it.

  We both stood, Mag’s arm still around me, presumably staring at the door (it was presumably only on Mag’s part because I couldn’t see him, I was staring at the door) and we did this for a long time.

  Then the realization dawned on me that for the first time in my life I’d gone on physical attack against another human being, which was mortifying.

  It was also why I pulled from his arm, took several steps away, turning to face him, but staring at his feet while I tucked hair behind my ear and babbled.

  “Well, that was an interesting afternoon’s diversion. But I think now I’m willing to go to the grocery store because we definitely need more cinnamon marshmallow clusters after that.”

  And ribeyes and the makings for loaded baked potatoes, because if I could make this man think he wanted to marry me over hamburgers, I was totally broiling him a steak.

  “Babe,” he called.

  I lifted my eyes to his.

  “No pressure,” he said softly. “After what I just said. It’s just, you’re, well…Evan…” He cleared his throat. “You’re just the shit.”

  “You’re more the shit,” I told him.

  He grinned and his discomfort started to melt away. “I didn’t invent cinnamon marshmallow clusters.”

  “Well, I didn’t forgive you in less than twenty-four hours for saying douchey things to me.”

  “I didn’t charge your ex, going for blood.”

  “I didn’t take a bullet then arrange a commando rescue.”

  His grin got bigger and he slightly lifted up his sling. “I’m seeing a variety of pluses for this wound. First, you keep climbing on top, and second, I can drag it out for years, squeezing it for all its worth.”

  “I like the top.”

  His expression changed and so did his voice when he shared, “Baby, when I’m fighting fit, you’ll beg for the bottom.”

  I shivered.

  Mag didn’t miss it.

  The hot look in his eyes could melt steel.

  Even so, I shivered again, and my nipples got so hard, they ached.

  “You really should rest that arm,” I whispered.

  “Later.”

  “Danny—”

  “Evie, either get in my bed or I’m gonna carry you there. What’s it gonna be?”

  We stared at each other.

  He got fed up with it first and took a step toward me.

  So, I turned and dashed around the island.