“It’s one and the same,” Trevor argued.
“We both know that’s not true.”
“You don’t know.” Trevor stalked forward until he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Griffin. “You say you don’t want control, but everything has to be your way.”
“I’m listening to what Marcus tells me. He’s the CEO, Trevor.”
Trevor snorted. “A mistake on Mom’s part.”
“Did you stop by to gloat about my troubles with the historical society?” Griffin asked casually. “Or was there something else?”
At that moment another car came up the gravel drive that led to the barn. Trevor’s eyes narrowed at the sight of Maggie’s compact Volkswagen.
He let out a harsh breath. “Believe it or not, I stopped by to see if you wanted to head out on a bike ride for the day. My gear is at Mom’s, but I see you have plans.”
Unfamiliar guilt ripped through Griffin. Long mountain bike rides on the nearby trails had been one of the few ways he and Trevor had bonded when they were teens. He hadn’t returned to Stonecreek to make an enemy of his brother.
Trevor had hurt Maggie, but if he’d been a better man... Griffin didn’t want to think about that. “How about next weekend?” he suggested.
Trevor nodded. “Yeah, next weekend.”
He moved toward the Porsche just as Maggie stepped out of her car. “Hi, Trevor,” she said, and Griffin heard the slight tremble in her voice. “How are you?”
“Great,” Trevor answered coolly. “Never better. You?”
She shrugged. “It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I guess people only appreciate a runaway bride when Julia Roberts is playing the part.”
Griffin watched emotions play across his brother’s features—anger, resentment and then finally guilt. As if for a few moments Trevor had forgotten the reason Maggie walked away—the reason no one else knew and the fact that Trevor was to blame for it.
“I know it’s not fair,” Trevor offered.
“They’ll get over it eventually,” she told him, her hands gripping her keys so hard her knuckles had gone white. “I hope things won’t be weird between us forever. We’ve been friends a long time, you know?”
“You’re dating my brother,” Trevor said as if that explained everything.
“You kissed another woman the morning of our wedding.” Although Maggie’s voice was calm, it was clear from Trevor’s reaction that the words hit their mark.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and the flash of pain in Maggie’s gaze made an answering ache rise in Griffin’s chest.
“I wish you would have just told me you didn’t want to go through with it.”
“I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
One side of Maggie’s mouth curved. “I’m not spending time with Griffin to hurt you, Trev. We’ve made our choices and there are consequences for both of us.”
Trevor turned so his back was fully to Griffin. “I hate seeing the two of you together,” he said to Maggie. Although spoken softly, the words carried through the quiet morning.
Griffin’s gut twisted as she nodded. “I know, but you’ll get over it. We need you to be okay with this so that everyone else accepts it. You’ll do that for me. Right?”
Trevor didn’t answer for several moments and Griffin would have given anything to read his brother’s expression. “Yeah, I’ll get over it. We’re friends, Mags. No matter what.”
“I hope you two aren’t going to hug it out,” Griffin called, unable to stay silent any longer.
Trevor looked back over his shoulder. “It’s tempting just to see your reaction.”
“No, it’s not,” Maggie said, giving Trevor a playful slap on the arm.
“Have a good time today,” Trevor told Maggie, then inclined his head toward Griffin. “Both of you.”
He got in his car and backed down the driveway. Maggie waited until the Porsche disappeared down the hill before approaching Griffin. “I’m glad I had a chance to talk to him.”
“That was horrible.” Griffin ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sick of him playing the victim. I’d like to kick his—”
“No more about your brother.” Maggie lifted onto her toes and kissed him lightly. Griffin felt the tension knotted in his shoulders release as a result. “Are you ready for the best date of your life?”
“You’re confident,” he murmured. “I like it.”
She scrunched up her nose. “Fake it until you make it,” she admitted. “I’m actually nervous that you’ll be bored out of your mind.”
“Never with the two of us,” he assured her. There was more he wanted to say. His heart pounded against his ribs as he thought of how much Maggie had come to mean to him in such a short time. He’d never expected to feel this happy and content in Stonecreek, like he really belonged here.
So much of that had to do with the woman in front of him. She made everything better. But he couldn’t reveal the depth of his emotions so soon, especially when the dust had barely settled on his brother’s exit from the picture. He’d scare her off, and that was the last thing he wanted to do.
Her brows lowered as she gazed up at him. “Are you sure?” she asked quietly. “You seem different right now.”
“I’m good.” He picked up his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. “And once it’s just the two of us, I’ll be even better.”
Chapter Thirteen
The longer Maggie drove, the more her nerves took over. A few days ago the idea to surprise Griffin with a night away had seemed perfect, but now she worried that he’d find her plan boring and stupid.
“I forgot how gorgeous this part of the state is.” Griffin leaned forward to look out the front window at the old-growth forest, with branches forming an archway over the two-lane road they’d turned on about twenty minutes earlier. “But I’m curious as to what we’re doing out here.”
They’d driven south from Stonecreek to the Ore Creek Wilderness area, which was made up of dense forests, wide canyons and quirky spires of native rock formations.
She slowed as a mailbox came into view and she turned up a winding driveway. “We don’t have to stay down here,” she offered. “If you’d rather head to the city and do something more adventurous, that’s fine, too.”
“More adventurous than what?” he asked with a soft laugh. “Remember, I don’t know where we’re headed.”
“Here.” Maggie pointed to the rustic cabin situated in a clearing ahead of them. She pulled to a stop in the gravel driveway but left the car running. “The property belongs to the family of one of my college roommates. We used to come down here on weekends to chill. I called and asked her if I could use it for the night.” She gave him a hopeful smile. “I thought we could both use some time away.”
“Is that a lake in the back?”
Maggie nodded. “There’s a dock with canoes and hiking trails. They have twenty acres so the nearest neighbor is on the other side of the water. But there’s no internet or cell service. They don’t even have a TV, unless something’s changed from the last time I was here. Clearly, I was a loser even in college, because while other people were at frat parties or the bars, we’d come here and play Scrabble all weekend. You probably expected something exciting like skydiving or—”
“I love Scrabble,” Griffin said.
Maggie felt her smile widen. “No way. You’re saying that to make me feel better.”
“I once won with the word umiak.” He spelled out the letters for her and she laughed.
“That’s not a real word.”
“Look it up.” He arched a brow, looking wholly self-satisfied. “It’s an Eskimo canoe.”
“The former bad boy of Stonecreek is now a word nerd?” Delight rushed through her as pink tinged his cheeks. “You’re blushing.”
“I’m not blushing.” Griffin s
coffed. “I don’t blush.”
“But—”
He pressed one finger to her lips, the touch warm and gentle. “We had an unofficial Scrabble club at one of the bases. So I’m a manly man who happens to appreciate Scrabble strategy.” He leaned over the console and replaced his finger with his mouth, the kiss long and sweet like he had all the time in the world to savor her. Maybe not all the time, but all day and night, which, to Maggie, was a wonderful thing.
“It’s okay that my big surprise is a quiet night at a remote cabin?”
“Sweetheart,” he whispered against her lips, “the only person I want to see is you so this is perfect.”
She gave a little squeal of happiness. Now that she knew he was on board with her plan, Maggie couldn’t wait to show him around the property.
“What should we do first?” she asked, pulling the keys out of the ignition. “We could hike or take out the canoes. They keep fishing poles in the shed out back and there used to be a hammock between two fir trees overlooking the water.” She clapped her hands. “What are you most interested in?”
“You,” Griffin said, his voice a low rumble.
Her hands stilled as awareness tingled through her. “I’m still a loser even as a grown woman,” she said and sighed. “This is a romantic night away. I should be more interested in getting down and dirty than going fishing. I’m sorry.”
“No apologies,” he reminded her. “I want to do whatever makes you happy, although I’ll admit I’m plenty interested in down and dirty.”
“Me, too,” she said in a squeak of breath.
He raised a brow. “More important, I want to spend time with you. And I really want to watch you bait a hook.”
“I picked up a container of night crawlers.” She climbed out and gave him an exaggerated wink over the hood when he got out, too. “How’s that for down and dirty?”
“It’s about the sexiest fishing talk I’ve ever heard.”
“Then fishing is first on the agenda.”
They unloaded the back of her car, and she showed him around the cozy cabin, unchanged from the last time she’d visited.
The walls were paneled with rough pine, and the artwork consisted of photos of the nearby waterfalls or drawings of wildlife. She’d loved this place when she and her college roommate had stayed here, and her appreciation of it hadn’t waned.
“I never really took you for an outdoors woman,” Griffin said as he set down his duffel bag and her backpack onto the overstuffed couch.
“I wasn’t until I came here,” she told him. “That’s part of what makes it so special to me. My girlfriend lives in Bend now with a husband and two kids, and her parents have retired to Arizona but they still keep the place. She doesn’t make it here often, but she likes it to be in use.” She shrugged. “Everyone knows me in Stonecreek, so when I want to get away, I come here.”
“Did you bring Trevor?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted. “He was more a ‘getaway to the Four Seasons’ type of guy. No one knows about this place but you.”
“Not even your family?”
She shook her head. “It was easier to tell them I was going to visit my girlfriend and her family on the weekends I came here. They wouldn’t understand that I needed time alone.”
“I do.”
She smiled. “I know, but I’m happy to not be alone this weekend. I need to unpack the groceries before we head out. Will you grab the fishing poles from the shed and I’ll meet you down by the lake?”
Griffin studied her for several long moments. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“Thanks for being the kind of guy who can appreciate it.”
He grinned, then headed out the back. Maggie watched him walk toward the shed, the warm summer sun glinting off the glassy water of the lake. How had Griffin Stone become such an important part of her life so quickly? It was difficult to fathom, but there was no denying the hold he had on her heart.
It still worried her that she was headed toward heartbreak. Griffin hadn’t mentioned his plans beyond the completion of the tasting room. For all Maggie knew he’d finish the work and be on his way again. Her chest tightened at the thought, but she wasn’t ready to ask him outright.
Not today anyway. This was about a perfect getaway, and she was going to enjoy every second of it. She quickly unpacked the supplies, grabbed the box of worms and then followed the flagstone path that led to the lake.
Griffin met her there, a fishing pole in each hand, and for the next hour they fished and talked and enjoyed a beautiful summer day surrounded by nature.
“I give up,” he said after Maggie reeled in her eighth fish. “You can outfish me and you look a helluva lot sexier doing it.”
Maggie laughed as she tossed the cutthroat trout back into the water. The fish was immobile for a few seconds, then twisted and swam off to join his buddies in the depths of the lake. She wiped her hands on her jeans and made a face at Griffin. “There’s nothing sexy about fishing.”
“From where I’m standing there most certainly is,” he said, leaning his rod against a nearby tree. She handed him her pole, then he laced his fingers with hers and tugged her closer.
“I have fish guts on me.” Her words faded into a sigh as he claimed her mouth.
A few moments of kissing, and she was lost in a haze of desire. Griffin nuzzled her neck, and she bit back a moan. His arms twined around her waist, and one hand skimmed along her hip, lighting her skin on fire as it moved.
“Canoeing’s next on the list,” she said breathlessly, tugging away from his embrace. If he kept touching her like that she was going to rip off his T-shirt and shorts and have her merry way with him on the spot.
His chest rose and fell in uneven breaths, and it made her girlie parts want to break into a tap dance to think that he was as affected by her as she was by him.
“You’re definitely focused.” He scrubbed a hand along his jaw. “No wonder they elected you mayor. If you do your job with as much efficiency as you spend your downtime...”
She inclined her head, suddenly feeling far too serious. “I was elected because my grandmother told people to vote for me.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” Griffin said with a frown. “I’ve seen you in action, Maggie. I know how much you care about the community.”
“I was twenty-five during my first campaign. I had history in the town, but not much in the way of leadership experience. Grammy was determined that I’d be her successor. I didn’t even want to run at first. She convinced me I could do it because I’d have her to mentor me along the way.”
“Maybe that’s how it started...” Griffin took a step closer.
“Nepotism,” Maggie muttered. “It started as nepotism.”
“You got the votes and you’ve earned your place in the community. This next election is all you.”
She turned and looked out over the clear water. She didn’t want reality to intrude on their time in this magical place. It would be waiting for her when she returned to Stonecreek whether she liked it or not.
“I saw the canoe hanging in the shed,” Griffin said as if he understood she couldn’t talk any more about the election or real life.
They carried the canoe and two paddles to the water’s edge. Maggie took off her shoes and rolled up the cuffs of her jeans to her knees, then gasped as she waded into the cold water to climb into the front.
Griffin followed, and they paddled toward the center of the lake, the warm breeze blowing her hair as the water rippled around them.
“I love it here,” she whispered but caught herself before she added I love you out loud. She couldn’t love Griffin Stone. It was too soon. Heck, she and Trevor hadn’t said those words to each other until the night he’d asked her to marry him.
She hadn’t even realized she felt it until he’d slip
ped the ring onto her finger. Looking back now, the way she’d felt might have had more to do with expectations than emotions.
“Did you ever consider not returning to Stonecreek?” Griffin asked, and Maggie paused with her paddle dipped into the water.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, then out to the thick forest surrounding the lake. “No,” she answered. “It’s my home.”
“You can make a home wherever you are in the world,” he suggested gently. “Places where the past doesn’t weigh so heavily on your shoulders.”
“I suppose,” she agreed, “but I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Don’t you feel it now that you’re back? There’s something special about the town. It’s home.”
“You’re the thing that’s special to me,” Griffin offered.
Suddenly, a fish jumped out of the water, just in front of the boat. Maggie yelped as she released her paddle, watching as it floated just out of reach. “I wasn’t expecting that,” she said, leaning over the side to grab it.
“Wait,” Griffin warned. “You’ll tip us.”
“We’re fine,” she assured him. “The canoe is stable.”
“Maggie.”
“See.” Her fingers curved around the paddle’s handle, and she rested a hand on the canoe’s side as she lifted. She straightened and turned to Griffin, working to keep her feet balanced on either side of the floor of the boat. “You said it yourself—I’m outdoorsy. I’ll add more. I’m brave and strong and have no doubts about my ability to lead the town or...” She broke off as the canoe tipped precariously, then bent her knees and managed to maintain her balance.
“Sit down,” Griffin said with a grin. “Tell me more about how great you are back on dry land.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” She dipped her paddle in the water and flipped a spray of water at him. “I’m the boss of me,” she called out into the clear afternoon, laughing as the truth of the words spilled over her. She raised the paddle over her head and shouted, “I’m queen of my own world.”
Falling for the Wrong Brother Page 15