by Amber Nation
Up close, her ice blue eyes were vibrant and she had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her entire appearance screamed purity.
But her reaction didn’t sit well with me. Yes, she came off as shy but she was entirely too skittish. She reminded me of a frightened child with her wide eyes and scared expression, and she was physically shaking. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I would bet my beloved Camaro that she’d been hurt. No one was that jumpy without having a reason behind it.
My brain was telling me to stay away from her, but my heart and my dick were both telling me to pursue her full force. My dick was not one to be ignored, and following my heart was something that I didn’t do very often but should definitely start making it a priority.
I stalked my way back into the bookstore. Emmy was right, I had been extremely broody lately, and my job was weighing heavily on my mind. I was thirty years old and I should start making my own decisions and living my own life. I deserved happiness and that didn’t include never living in one place.
Seeing the concerned expression on Emmy’s face, I knew she was worried about Maggie. That was just the type of person that Emmalynne was. She would put all others before herself. Grady has had to talk to her several times pretty much making her put herself first for once, she was pregnant and deserved to be a little selfish every now and again, which was exactly why she had been taking more time off of work. Time for herself.
“Was she alright? Did I say something wrong?” Her bottom lip was trembling and she looked about ready to burst into tears at any moment, which wasn’t unheard of with Emmy.
“I’m not really sure, she said that she forgot that she had something to do,” I said while making my way towards the counter where Toby, Emmy, and now Miles were standing. I was sure Emmy could tell by my demeanor that I wasn’t exactly settled with that statement. Emmy and Grady knew me better than anyone else in this town, being they knew my true identity about my job. I could come to them any time without any bullshit.
“What all do you know about Maggie?” I directed my question towards Emmy, since she knew who she was.
“Maggie was here?” Miles interrupted with raised brows. He was a part-time employee who was in his last year of college. “She is so totally hot. Super shy and constantly has her eyes trained to the ground. But in the off chance she does make eyes contact with you, you feel like you are fucking, excuse me Emmy, frigging king.”
I totally understood where Miles was coming from, our eyes were locked on one another for several moments and sizzling chemistry traveled between us. It felt fucking amazing, but I didn’t really like the way Miles was talking about her. All of my protective instincts had been brought to the surface, I wanted to be the one to shield her from demons and whatever else would cause her turmoil.
“How do you know Maggie?” I bit out a little too harshly.
“Well, she comes into the store every so often, but I’m studying to be a phlebotomist, so I’ve been completing my internship at the hospital. She’s a trauma nurse, so I see her quite often whenever I go to the patient’s rooms to draw blood,” Miles answered.
The mention of blood had Toby swaying on his feet. He was extremely squeamish and evidently even the mere mention of blood triggered a reaction. This was why Toby was best suited being an accountant.
“What is her last name?” I asked.
“Um…it’s on the tip of my tongue,” Miles replied, as his brow wrinkled because he was deep in thought.
“Walker. I remember her telling me when I was in the hospital that her name was Maggie Walker,” Emmy cut in.
“That’s it! Walker,” Miles added, snapping his fingers.
My eyes shot straight to Miles and narrowed, “Walker??...Fuck!”
This could not be happening. I shot Emmy a pained look, one that only she would understand and got the hell out of there.
I rushed to my Camaro, threw open the door, folded myself inside, and began searching for my Declan Smith/Mason Walker case file. Of course the one fucking day I needed information from the contents of that file, I didn’t have it.
“Fuck,” I shouted again as I slammed my open palms against the top of my steering wheel.
I fished my phone out of my pants pocket and dialed our tech guy who was stationed at headquarters in Virginia.
“Hennings, what’s going on man?” Hunter Severin’s voice boomed through the phone. It was always so strange to see Severin in the control room at Quantico. For his size and build you’d think he would be one kickass Federal Agent. But alas, all six foot five and two hundred and fifty pounds of him stayed behind the scenes and handled all of the computer/technical garb and preferred it that way.
“Severin, I need you to pull up the file I’ve been working on with Smith and Walker. I need to know if it has Walker’s sister’s name in it.” I said through the phone.
“Sure, hold on just a sec.” I heard him hitting away at the keys on his computer no doubt looking for my requested information. Several long moments later he came back, “It says here that Mason Walker has a sister named Margaret Walker and goes by Maggie.”
“Fuck,” I clipped out yet again. “Thanks man,” and I quickly disconnected the call and threw my phone into the passenger seat of my car. I knew in the back of my mind that she was going to be his sister, but hearing it confirmed put me in one hell of a bad mood.
The object of my infatuation was, none other than, the sister of my assignment. I really didn’t need my head muddled by a woman, but especially not by a woman related to the criminal I was investigating.
Shit. Fuck. Damn.
So many different scenarios were running through my brain: she seemed shy but was that a front and she was really helping out her brother behind the curtains? Was she helping herself to illegal drug money? Was she an innocent in all of this? Her place was pretty nice, but then again she was a nurse and they had to make a pretty decent salary.
Rubbing circles on my temple, I felt the onslaught of a major headache forming and to top it all off I had to work later tonight at the bar. I needed to just keep away from Maggie, no matter how much that pained me to do so. Sure we had undeniable chemistry, but I needed to be focused on my assignment at hand first and foremost.
(Maggie)
I made it home, but my heart was still racing a mile a minute.
I had no idea how to decipher what just went on between Charlie and I. Being twenty-four years old and having zero experience, I was completely clueless.
So I decided on doing the next best thing, calling my bestie. Most girls have their girlfriends to chat and share advice with. I had Gio, which in my personal opinion, was the best of both worlds.
I met Giovanni Vincenzo in college and we became fast friends, both being social outcasts. Me, being shy and awkward, and Gio, not being true to himself and his identity.
Gio was all man, but he was also all gay. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone but me, which was a shame. He should embrace his sexuality in the open instead of hiding it. He needed a man to open his eyes and show him that it was alright to be gay.
I scrolled through my extremely limited contact list and clicked on a picture of Gio. In the photo he wasn’t looking at me mainly because he didn’t know I was taking it, but it was a beautiful picture of him, my absolute favorite.
Hearing the call go through, I placed my phone to my ear just as it connected.
“Mag Pie! How are you doing baby girl?” His deep, rumbling voice rang through the phone. He thought that it was fun to call me Mag Pie, I personally could do without the nickname. I’ve told him to stop several times, but it went in one ear and out the other.
“Hey Gio, I’m doing well, how about you?”
Gio was a personal trainer and was completely ripped, we are talking an eight pack with bulging arm and leg muscles. But not grotesquely bulked up. I definitely wouldn’t want to go in a head to head battle with him.
Being all about fitness, he was the one who first
got me into running, I was a pain in the ass at first, but now it was like a drug to me. If I didn’t get my fix of at least three runs in a week, I wasn’t a pleasant person to be around.
“Mags, don’t lie to me, I hear the sadness in your voice. If you can’t be truthful to me, then how are you going to unload all of the demons weighing you down?”
As per usual Gio was right. That was my favorite thing about him. He always knew the right thing to say to me no matter what the situation. So, I replayed all of the details pertaining to my afternoon encounter with Charlie.
“Girl, that boy sounds like he was seriously into you. No one macks on you like that unless he felt something towards you. What did you think of him?”
Well that was a loaded question if I ever heard one. What did I think of Charlie?
“He…honestly he scared the shit out of me. He invoked feelings that I’ve never felt before. You know I’m not good with that stuff. I could tell that he wanted to kiss me and I almost begged him to. But in the end it would’ve been stupid to do that, what on earth would he want with me? I’m naïve and inexperienced, both not very sought out qualities in a woman. A man like Charlie…” I paused with a sigh, “A man as beautiful as him, takes control of what he wants and in the end it isn’t going to be me. I’m not going to dwell on this and turn it into something that it’s not. I’m not going to get my hopes up. Love for me isn’t something that is going to be easily obtainable. It’s best for me to just keep dreaming about love because that’s as close to the real thing that I’ll ever get.”
“Mag Pie,” Gio cut in with a solemn tone in his voice.
“No Gio,” I interrupted, my voice now filled with pure raw emotion, and I was on the verge of tears, “I don’t want any pity or sympathy. I’ve accepted that this is what my life has boiled down to, I’m a twenty-four year old virgin who hasn’t even been kissed, held hands with a guy, or even been on a date. I’m unlovable, God chose me to be born into a loveless family with a loveless future. It’s ok. At one point, I thought that my brother loved me, but now that he’s turned into my father, that statement is null and void.”
“What the fuck did Mason do?”
So this brought me explaining what happened last night between my brother and me. It was best to get this all out now even if it sucked in the process. And it was helping, talking to Gio was therapeutic.
Going into detail about the milk incident, it finally dawned on me that I forgot to get the milk while I was out today. The interaction with Charlie caused it to totally slip my mind.
About that time, I heard the front door open.
Mason was home.
“Son of a biscuits.”
“What?” Gio inquired.
“I forgot the milk again and Mason just walked in the door. What if he gets pissed like he did last night?” I was beginning to panic and get a bit nervous. I didn’t know what to expect with Mason anymore.
“If you are in your room, run and lock your door. I’m already on my way there, but it’ll still take me another hour and a half at the most.”
I did as Gio said to and barely made it in time before Mason started furiously pounding on my bedroom door.
“Maggie, open the goddamn door!” he yelled, while he continuously wiggled the handle and pounded on the door.
I was physically shaking and fearful for my life. This brought back all the repressed memories from my childhood. Why did he have to turn into the one person that we loathed above anyone else?
“Mag Pie my phone is getting ready to die,” Gio breathed into the phone, “if he keeps it up and gets any worse call the cops, I will be there as soon as I can. And you are wrong, you are loveable because I love you baby girl.” And with his parting words the line disconnected.
I didn’t even have time to reflect over his admission because Mason was still at it. “Maggie, you’d better open this fucking door. How hard is it to go to the store and pick up some fucking milk? Are you doing this just to piss me off?”
I think he should direct his questions towards himself instead of me. He was the one who wanted the blasted milk, he could go pick it up his damn self.
I grabbed my iPod and slipped my ear buds into my ears, crawled to the top corner of my bed which was resting against the wall, pulled my knees to my chest wrapping my arms around them and turned my music up as loud as it would go so I could drown out the rest of the outside world. I listened to Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” and just let the words to the song filter into my brain.
I had already taken a one-way ticket out of Nowheresville to get away from my mother and my childhood home, if one could call that dilapidated mess a home. It was looking like I was going to have to buy another one-way ticket to get away from my brother. But this time I would leave the whole frigging state of Georgia behind.
In between songs I heard the doorbell ring, hopefully that was Gio. After taking out my ear buds, I immediately heard raised voices. One of them definitely being Gio, he was Italian so he had a hot headed temper and it was apparently flaring.
“Get the fuck out and leave her alone. She is your sister not your own personal punching bag. Your name isn’t on this lease and you are no longer welcome here, so leave!” I heard Gio yell as I slowly walked to my bedroom door. I was tempted to unlock my door and leave my room, but anything was possible when you had two hot blooded males wanting to rip each-others heads off. So I waited, albeit reluctantly.
Several long minutes later I heard the front door slam and a light knock on my bedroom door. “Mag Pie, it’s me, you can come out,” Gio said in a hushed tone.
Slowly turning the handle, I was a bit hesitant as I didn’t know what type of mess I’d walk into. I took a deep breath and pulled the door towards me. Gio stood in front of me and was a sight for sore eyes. He was absolutely gorgeous, not in a ruggedly handsome Charlie kind of way but in a pretty boy, took more time getting ready than I do kind of way.
“Gio,” I screeched as I leapt into his arms, wrapping my arms and legs tightly around him. It had been far too long since we’d seen each other, and here he dropped everything to come to my aide.
“Thank you so much for coming. And for the record, I love you too,” I said as I smacked a kiss on his lips. That, my friends, was the extent of my kissing capabilities. A peck on the lips of a gay man was all the action I’ve ever had, from another human being that is.
My B.O.B., battery operated boyfriend otherwise known as my vibrator, saw action quite a bit, after all I was twenty-four and I wasn’t a prude, I just didn’t have a plethora of men knocking my door down to get to me.
Scanning my eyes over his entire face, I noticed he had a cut on his eyebrow.
“Mason hit you?” I asked almost shocked at the lengths Mason had gone through. What in the world caused him to be like this?
“Yeah, he was able to get in one lucky shot. I wasn’t going to fight him, but he didn’t see reason and he threw the first punch, so I laid him out. He’s gone for now but I see him causing more problems for you in the future.”
“I’m thinking about moving,” I blurted out. I wasn’t one to make irrational decisions on the fly, but this idea seemed more appealing as the day progressed. “It would be out of state, someplace Mason won’t know where I’m at. I have nothing tying me to Brown County and nurses are always in demand,” I shrugged, “it’s just something to think about.”
“I don’t like the idea of you moving any further away from me, but you’ve got to do what’s best for you baby girl. Well, since I am here for the night we are going to do something to boost our spirits,” he placed me on my feet and snapped his fingers, “we are going to a bar!”
“Ugh,” I groaned, not even masking my distaste, “can’t we just stay in, watch a movie, and order takeout?”
I wasn’t in any kind of mood to go out amongst people especially drunk ones, but then again when was I ever in the mood to interact with people? Perhaps it would do me good to get out, I supposed it couldn�
�t hurt.
Looking up to Gio I said, “Let’s do it.”
The sides of his mouth drew up to form a small smile when he replied, “That’s my girl.”
Forty-five minutes later we were dressed and ready to go. Gio as per usual, was dressed to impress; he was wearing a pair of faded jeans, brown Dr. Martens, and a deep blue polo. The blue of his shirt looked amazing against his olive complexion. His dark mass of curly hair was styled to perfection as it curled around the nape of his neck. We were officially ready to go.
“Maggie, you look great. So where are we going?”
Walking out to my 2010 Honda Accord, which was another well-deserved splurge, I said, “We are going to the only bar in town, Emmy Lou’s. I’ve never been, of course, so hopefully it’ll be fun.
Parking my car in the well-lit gravel parking lot of Emmy Lou’s, my nerves were catching up with me. I twisted my hands around my steering wheel and began second guessing my decision to come here tonight. I was socially inept. I didn’t hang out amongst people, so this was so entirely out of the norm for me.
“Ready?” Gio asked, with his hand paused on the door handle.
Taking a deep breath, I gently nodded my head.
We each made our way to the front of my car and just stood there staring at the entrance. This may not seem like a big deal for most people, but for me it was huge, a turning point in my life, throwing my whole comfortable routine off balance.
Gio clasped my hand with his, without saying a word and we made our way into the bar.
The entire place was dimly lit with seating on the outer edges of the room only. The bar itself was in the shape of a rectangle and had an intricate liquor display case in the middle of it. There looked to be a makeshift dance floor and a booth set up with equipment on it which had a DJ posted behind. I’d heard of a few different bands playing here every weekend, but being it was only Wednesday, they weren’t scheduled.
“Let’s take a seat at the bar,” Gio said, while pointing to two empty seats.
It wasn’t too crowded tonight which made things good for my anxiety level.