by Opal Carew
Mimi answered the door in a flowing caftan that had been chic in the 80s. She pulled off the red and green, as she did all her clothes, with her accessories. Bangles clanged and shimmered as she embraced Maggie in a big hug. Mimi tugged her inside, where she saw Ron and Justin, Ron’s new boyfriend, sitting by the fire.
Maggie wondered how Mimi would fare when Justin turned into a permanent fixture in Ron’s life. Mimi and Ron had been together for nearly thirty years, almost all of Shelby’s life. The pair were inseparable, but it looked as if Justin might be the one man who could pry Ron away. Maggie liked him. The guy had a great job—he owned the architectural firm where Shane worked—a nice personality, and looks, which obviously suited Ron. All that, and Mimi hadn’t scared him away yet.
“Hey, Maggie.” Ron stood and crossed the room to hug her. Justin did the same.
“You guys look great.” They wore matching grins. Such a handsome couple.
“Yes, isn’t it disgusting?” Mimi put a hand around Maggie’s shoulders. “That they look perfect paired together just makes it worse.”
“Too true, darling.” Ron winked.
Maggie chuckle and handed Mimi a large bag holding their gifts. “No opening these until tomorrow. And Justin, my gift to you is a massage from Shelby. Sorry, but she refused to give me the gift certificates when I asked.”
Mimi nodded. “Girl is head over heels for her new fiancé.” She grinned. “We’re going to have gorgeous grandbabies.”
Ron and Justin nodded, and Ron said to his boyfriend, “I cannot believe you never tried to put a move on Shane. He’s so cute.”
“True.” Justin moved back into the living room. “He’s also my employee, and he’s straight.”
Ron sighed and joined him on the couch before the fire. “Isn’t he great?” Ron asked Mimi as he hugged Justin. “So dreamy to have a man with principles.”
Mimi made a face at the pair. “You know, not all of us are in love.”
“Really?” Ron’s purr alerted Maggie.
“What’s going on?” Please don’t let them have discovered Mac and me. Not yet. They’ll interfere and ruin everything.
“Well, honey, I’ve seen our Mimi with a handsome stranger. One that looks a lot your arrogant boss.”
“Arrogant, so not Kim.” She played along. “You must mean Mac’s uncle, Ian.”
“Handsome?” Justin asked.
“Don’t worry, baby. You’re much better looking. Ian looks like a brute. Too many muscles. Just the way Mimi likes them,” Ron added.
“Oh shut up.” Mimi flushed.
The woman never turned red. All three of them stared at her in shock. Maggie might have worried Mimi was plotting about Maggie’s love life, but that blush sealed it.
“You have a boyfriend!” Maggie hooted.
She, Justin and Ron teased Mimi until the woman relented and told them about the new man in her life. Ian Jameson—who would be joining them tonight. With his nephew.
Maggie’s mouth went dry. She and Mac hadn’t been together around other people who really knew them. Those at the gym had seen them working together, but she and Mac hadn’t been in an intimate setting together. Could she look at him without mooning? Mac said she wore her emotions on her sleeve. Did she really? Or was it that he knew her so well?
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.” Mimi danced out of the room.
“Maggie, some wine?” Ron asked.
“Yeah. A big glass,” she muttered.
Justin grinned. “You know, Ron warned me, but I really like Mimi.”
“We all do. It’s just hard to take too much of her at one time,” Maggie teased. “She and Ron adopted me years ago. They’re good people.”
Justin looked at Ron, and she could see the love on his face. “Yes, they are.”
Maggie was struck with a fierce longing, a need to feel and see that kind of emotion for someone special. Not a friend or relative, but a lover who would view her the same way. She had a bad feeling she’d lost her heart to Mac. But could he ever feel the same way about her? She’d never had permanence with anyone but Trevor, and he was barely around.
As if she’d thought him into existence, her brother appeared out of the blue.
“Trevor?”
“Surprise.” Mimi clapped.
“Hey, short stuff. Did you miss me?”
Overcome with emotion, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tight. What a very merry Christmas.
Mac entered Mimi’s house behind his uncle, only to slam into Ian’s back. “Why’d you stop?”
“Uh, sorry.” Ian didn’t move though, so Mac pushed him aside to shut the door behind him.
He turned around and stopped short. “Who the fuck is that?”
He must have said it louder than he’d anticipated, because the room came to a standstill.
The big blond guy holding a clingy Maggie spun on his heel and gave Mac a glare. He stood as tall as Mac and had a build that suggested he did something physical. Mac didn’t care about his size. The bastard was holding Maggie way too tightly.
She saw Mac and grinned through tears. Tears?
Concerned, he stepped forward. “Maggie?”
“Mac, this is Trevor.”
The name didn’t register for a moment, and then he noticed the same blue eyes and blond hair on the guy. Familiar facial features that on Maggie were breathtaking, on her brother looked ruggedly handsome. Though Mac wouldn’t be caught dead describing him as such.
Mac moved to greet him. “Oh right, the brother.” He put his hand out, and Trevor gripped it hard. Mac didn’t flinch, and Trevor let go.
“Name’s Trevor Doran.”
“Mac Jameson.” He couldn’t help looking down at Maggie. Thank God, those weren’t tears of sorrow but joy. “So your brother’s in town?” Though glad for her, he felt disappointed too. He’d hoped to spend his free time with her through the holiday.
“I know. Isn’t it great? He surprised me.”
Trevor smiled down at her, and Mac found himself liking the man.
“Great that you could come back in time for Christmas. I know Maggie misses you.”
The room grew quiet, and he glanced back to see his uncle and Mimi exchanging a glance.
“What?” He realized what he’d said and how it must sound. Like the truth, that he and Maggie talked about more than work. “I don’t just order Maggie around the gym. We talk some.” And fuck like a pair made for each other.
“Right. Well, don’t just stand there gaping. Mimi, introduce us to your tall, dark and handsome beau.” Ron nodded to Ian.
While Maggie disentangled herself from her brother, Mac turned to regard his uncle—Mimi’s beau? The man had his poker face on, and Mac steeled himself for some unpleasant fallout. He’d never liked that look on his uncle’s face, the one that spoke of trouble soon to follow.
Justin tapped Mac on the shoulder. “Beer?” He held out a cold bottle.
“Thanks.” Mac took a long drag, waiting.
“Hell.” Ian wrapped an arm around Mimi and smiled.
Mac stared in shock. He noticed Maggie’s jaw drop as well. Good to know Mac wasn’t the only one surprised.
“Ian and I are dating,” Mimi announced.
“That’s, uh, that’s great?” Maggie offered.
“So you think you can put up with her?” Trevor asked and laughed.
“Trevor, really.” Mimi sniffed. “Ian’s a perfect gentleman.”
Mac coughed. “Wait. My uncle? A gentleman?”
“Shut up, Top.” Ian kissed Mimi on the cheek. “This dear girl is precious to me.”
“Oh God.” Mac didn’t know if he could handle all the drama that came with Shane’s future mother-in-law. He liked Mimi, but from what he’d heard, dealing with her on a daily basis would drive him nuts. Hell, even Maggie had admitted the same.
“Top?” Maggie squeezed next to him. She looked so damn beautiful wearing a soft red sweater and black slacks. S
he’d clipped her hair up in a comb that left strands to tickle the neck of her sweater, which hid the love bites he’d left the last time they’d played.
He smiled and met her grin, knowing she’d guessed the direction of his thoughts, because she tugged on the high neck. Before he could answer, Trevor did for him.
“Top is a nickname for a Master Sergeant in the Marine Corps.” Trevor came to stand next to Maggie and assessed him. “You look military.”
“Yeah.” Mac gave Trevor a long look and met the hard glint in his eyes. “So do you.”
Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and studied her brother. “Not my brother,” Maggie said as if she didn’t believe that for a second. She gave Trevor a fake smile. “He’s an investment banker. I mean, does this big ape look like he could handle danger in foreign countries? Are those the hands of a man used to handling a weapon or a keyboard?” It was obvious to Maggie, apparently, that her brother worked at a dangerous job.
Trevor’s backpedalling would have been funny if Mac hadn’t sensed Maggie’s anger.
“Now Maggie. You know I got these calluses from lifting weights. I’m an investment banker who happens to do work occasionally for Uncle Sam. Government contracts, honey. That’s it.”
“Really?” Mac had felt the hard skin on the man’s trigger finger and middle finger, the callous at the V of his hand, where he no doubt often held a pistol.
“Really,” Trevor said with a hard growl.
“Now, now. It’s Christmas.” Ron tugged them into the living room. “Sit and be merry before I get unpleasant.”
“You’d better do it.” Justin downed his beer. “The man doesn’t look it, but he can get pretty ugly if he doesn’t get his way.”
Ron flashed a brilliant smile. “True. Mimi, drag in your new man and tell us all about him. How did you two meet, and how long has this been going on?”
Mac crossed his arms over his chest. Just what he’d like to know.
His uncle answered all of Ron’s questions easily. Too easily. Mac had that itch that had always forewarned him of danger. He had a feeling his uncle and Mimi coming together had more to do with him and Maggie than them coupling up.
But to his bemusement, he didn’t think he minded. The panic he should have felt over the pair trying to fix him and Maggie up didn’t appear. He knew Mimi had plans for Maggie, the same way she’d once had plans for Shelby. And Shelby now had a fiancé. Shane, his good buddy, was totally in love with her.
At the thought, he met Maggie’s gaze. Those sky-blue eyes sucked him in and refused to let go. Man, he liked just looking at her. Seeing her laugh or smile, watching her go toe-to-toe with some asshole while she dressed him down. She’d somehow burrowed under his skin and into his heart without him realizing she’d been on her way there.
“Hey, jarhead, you want to help me grab something from my car?” Trevor asked, staring from him to Maggie with suspicion.
“Sure. Why not?”
Maggie, he liked. The brother? He didn’t yet know. “Be right back,” he told his uncle, who waved him away and continued waxing quixotic about his destined first meeting with Mimi at the gym.
Once outside in the cold wind, he and Trevor stood behind a black SUV. Mac sighed. “Well?”
“What’s with you and my sister?”
“What’s it to you?”
Trevor stared at him. “You dating?”
“Again, what’s it to you? She’s a big girl, and you’re never around to protect her, so what do you care?”
Trevor scowled. “I have a job.”
“Yeah? So do I. It’s not the one I want, but it’s helping my uncle out, so what the hell, I do it.”
Trevor said nothing for a moment. “She seems happy. Mimi tells me she’s doing well, working at a gallery and your gym, apparently.” Trevor widened his stance and crossed his arms. The ass acted as if he didn’t feel the cold.
Mac, on the other hand, felt every bit of it. His knee ached, and he wanted nothing more than to go back inside and be with Maggie. But if her big brother wanted a confrontation, so be it. He waited.
“Well?”
“Well what?” Mac asked.
“Are you taking advantage of her or what?”
Mac had to laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You do know your sister, don’t you? Maggie works for me because she wants to, not because she has to. The woman wraps every guy she knows around her finger by batting those big, baby-blue eyes.” He scoffed, but inside, he knew she’d already done the same to him. She’d entrusted him with her secrets, with her desires. His little sub owned his heart, as much as he wished it weren’t so.
The truth about sunk him to his knees.
“You have a point.” Trevor studied him. “I don’t like being away from her so much, but it’s what I do.”
“And it’s dangerous.” Mac didn’t need to ask specifics. He could read the truth in Trevor’s frame, his stance, the way he measured everything around him as if prepared to defend himself. “She loves you, you know. All that sappy orphan crap makes her worry about you even if she won’t say it.”
Trevor grinned, and it made the guy look even more like Maggie. “Orphan crap?” He laughed. “You say that to my sister?”
“Sure. I’m not going to pity her because she had a rough childhood. You want my opinion, it gave her a leg up. That woman is mean.”
Trevor’s grin widened. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she?”
“She gives me shit all the time.” Mac smiled thinking about it. “She’s always telling me what to do, and I’m the boss. You’d think because she’s little that she’d be easier to work around, but she’s not.”
He paused in thought, wishing he felt better about loving her. The dreaded L word.
What if she ditched him too? He didn’t have the best track record when it came to women. First his mother, then Julie. Now he felt himself loving again for the first time in years. What would stop her from ripping out his heart and stomping on it?
“No, she’s not easy to deal with,” Trevor said quietly.
Mac didn’t know what had happened, but her brother put out his hand.
“Sorry,” Trevor apologized. “I’m protective and it seems I don’t need to be. Truce?”
“Ah, sure.” Mac shook his hand, and this time there was no contest, just a meeting of two men who wanted the best for Maggie.
“Let’s go back in and see if we can rattle your uncle. The man wants to date Mimi. He’s gotta have brass balls, I tell you.”
Mac chuckled. “He was Corps too.”
“Yeah? Figures. He’ll need to be strong to handle her.” Trevor walked with him back to the house. “Some women are like that. Make you work for them, but there’s that payoff at the end.”
“Payoff?”
Trevor smiled sadly, and just that quickly, the sorrow vanished. “When they say I love you and mean it, you know you’ve struck gold.” Trevor punched him in the arm. “So don’t blow it, jarhead. Or after Maggie’s through gelding you, I’ll take a shot at making your life miserable.”
“Oh yeah. You’re definitely related.” Mac followed him inside and joined in the laughter and joy of the holiday.
But as he smiled with the others, his gaze continued to meet Maggie’s.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d made a mistake by not pulling back when he’d had the chance. Now, he knew, it was too late. He’d fallen in love.
Chapter Thirteen
Maggie couldn’t believe her brother had shown up on Christmas Eve. As if Santa himself had heard her wishes and made them come true, she was fortunate enough to spend the evening with her family and friends. And Mac, the man who’d come to mean so much to her.
She took Trevor home with her and spent the night on her couch, forcing his big body into her bed, where he’d fit. She hadn’t had more than a brief moment to wish Mac a merry Christmas before she and Trevor had left Mimi’s. With everyone seeming to watch her and Mac like a hawk, they’d had little inte
raction together.
But wow, when he’d grazed her hand or nudged her thigh with his on the couch, she’d thought she’d go up in flames. After being with him and making love, the days spent without him next to her felt like months. She felt stupid for such a reaction, especially since two days apart was nothing. Still, the sense of loss persisted. She fell asleep wondering if he missed her as much as she missed him.
Christmas came all too soon, and her brother woke her with a steaming mug of coffee.
“Oh, it truly is Christmas. I don’t have to make the stuff myself.”
He grinned and waved it under her nose. “Merry Christmas, Maggie. I missed you.”
Her eyes filled, and she sat up and hugged him tight.
“Easy. I don’t want to accidentally give you third degree burns and have to explain myself to your bruiser of a boss.” He watched her face and sighed. “So, short stuff, want to tell me about the guy with muscles on top of muscles who watched you like a kid eyeing a stick of candy all night long?”
She flushed, secretly pleased Mac had paid her the attention. “He’s, um, my boss.”
“I know. He said you’re mean.”
She frowned. “I am not. He said that?”
Trevor nodded. “Yep. Said you’re not easy to work around. I think he likes you. How do you feel about him?”
I’m afraid I love him. She swallowed hard. “He’s okay, I guess. Now can I have that coffee?” He handed it to her, and she took it with thanks. “Just the way I like it, light and sweet.”
“Unlike your boyfriend,” Trevor muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh hell. He watched you the way a hungry dog eyes a bone. He had to have made a move on you already. You’re cute, and he’s the type.”
“I know you’re not acting all protective over me within twenty-four hours of you being home. On Christmas.”
Trevor groaned and sat on the table across from her. “I love you, Maggie. I missed you a lot this last trip.” He paused. “I’ve decided I need a change. I’m moving back here.”