I love that I’m the expert on women all of a sudden. “What makes you think I know anything about being in a relationship? I’m the one you all keep threatening.” I pick up my guitar case to leave.
Rocco stands, towering over me and blocking me from the door. The man is a mountain. “We figured you’d know what to do, since you’re all sensitive and shit.”
I put the guitar case down again. “I do have three sisters. I know women.”
“Then you can help?” Ben asks.
I glance around the room at huge Rocco, football-hero-guy Ben, and Chase who looks like he could be a famous actor, and shake my head. “You guys are fucking pathetic.”
Chase scoffs and points down the hallway. “They’re unreasonable!”
All eyes on me, I pace. They watch me in silence, waiting. Just to be a dick, I stop walking then start again. Next time I stop, they’re looking at me like I’m ready to recite the winning lottery numbers for tonight’s drawing, their eyes wide and their focus on me.
I remember my romance novels and then I remember Tuck’s advice about Maggie. I look around the room and hold up a finger. “Here’s what we do.”
Rocco grits his teeth. Ben drops his head into his hands. Chase finally asks, “Well?”
I click my tongue and point at them. “We give them what they want.”
Maggie
The girls and I lie around the lounge deciding on our revenge. Megan and I are spread over the couch, head to feet, and Juliet and Pooja share a blanket on the recliner. While they talk about weekends away and road trips, I text my mother, feeling guilty that she was here and I ditched her.
Sorry I missed you. Paper’s going great. First draft almost done. Love you.
Then I text my little sister.
Keep mom away. A warning would have been appreciated.
Two seconds later, the phone chimes with Martha’s ringtone.
I didn’t know. She’s at a conference in NYC. Told me she’s going to try you again after her dinner.
I groan. “Did Win tell you guys my mom was here before? She’s coming back tonight.”
Meg rubs her temples. “You’re kidding, right? I don’t know if I can deal with her. Maybe if I try hard enough, I can disappear.”
“Thanks, roomie,” I say and give her the finger.
“What’s up with your mom?” Pooja asks.
“She hates men,” Meg answers. “All of them. She’s a hippie lesbian.”
“She’s not a lesbian. She just doesn’t need men in her life. She’s like missing hormones or something. Maybe her way is the right way.” I never thought about it before, but boy drama takes its toll on a girl. Not having that would be liberating. But then I think about my night with Dave and smile. Liberating, maybe, but boring too.
Juliet shifts on the recliner. “Hippie lesbian and hormone-free sounds like the way to go.”
“Hippies still have heartache. So do lesbians,” Pooja said.
Meg rubs her forehead. “Yeah, but they don’t have boyfriends who ditch you for VIP boxes at Yankee Stadium.”
“Hippie lesbians,” Juliet says. “Seriously girls, we need to rethink our options. I hate boys. What jerks. If we ever disappeared for a day and didn’t invite them to something fun, they’d be all whiny and moody. Guys are the worst.”
After a pause, a singsong voice behind me says, “Even me?”
Dave. I flip onto my belly so I can see the door, and my heart speeds up at the sight of him. He’s holding his guitar case. Meg nudges my butt with her foot.
“Not you,” I say, smiling at him. “You’re exempt.”
He walks over, all hot and smiley, and kneels next to me. “Hi, beautiful,” he whispers, and I melt. “Hi, ladies,” he says to the others.
They murmur “hellos” to him, but he’s focused on me. “How are you doing? How’s your paper coming?”
Someone sighs. Dave’s eyes are twinkly as he rubs the hair off my face.
I settle onto my side, resting my head on my hands. “It’s coming along.”
“I’m glad.” He lays his guitar case on the ground and unlatches it. “How about a song?”
“You’d play us a song?” Pooja asks.
“Absolutely.”
He pulls out his guitar. Meg taps me with her toes, and I glance at the girls swooning at my new boyfriend. He strums lightly and quietly, just playing, not singing.
There’s a quiet sigh around the room as we hush and listen. I get to have sex with him. His eyes move between his instrument and me. He reads romance novels for me. His lips hum along with his song. He feeds my squirrel. His fingers move smoothly over the strings. He stutters when he’s around me.
In all the novels I’ve read, I don’t think I’ve encountered a hero as perfect as Dave. Maybe he was a little jittery at first, but now that we’ve settled down, now that we’ve been close and he knows I’m his, I can’t imagine a better boyfriend. I’d even take Dave over Niall. Any day, hands down.
He looks only at me. When he’s done, he bends forward and kisses me on the nose. “What can I get you?”
“Just you.” I roll onto my belly, and he smiles, trailing his fingers down my spine.
“You have that already,” he says.
The girls collectively sigh. “You’re the best one,” Juliet says. “The rest of them are awful.”
As she’s about to start complaining, Chase walks in with an ice cream cake and four spoons. “What about the rest of us?” he asks. Ben holds a box of coffee in one hand and a plastic donut shop bag in the other. Rocco plops down a handful of magazines.
Juliet’s eyes pop, Pooja reaches for a magazine, and Ben kneels next to Dave on Meg’s side of the couch.
“You guys are the worst,” Pooja says, standing on the table to kiss Rocco. “But thank you for the loot.”
Rocco shrugs. “We’re sorry about yesterday.”
“Liars,” Juliet says. “It’s okay though because we’re planning our revenge. Girls weekend in Vegas is top of the list right now.”
Chase groans. “I hate this already.”
I smile at Dave as everyone couples off and chats among themselves. Ben drags Meg away to the cake. I have a feeling Dave had something to do with this display of kindness and regret from the guys.
Winston must be mistaken about him. Dave hasn’t lied to me yet and hasn’t done anything to make me feel the least bit uneasy. Maybe Suzi told Win about her fling with Dave, and he’s trying to protect me or use it to get me back. Still, I don’t want the cloud of Winston’s words hanging between us.
He strums the guitar, studying its strings. “Dave?”
“Hmm?” His eyes find mine.
I manage a weak grin. “Are you keeping secrets from me?”
He furrows his brow. “Secrets? You know all my secrets.”
I push my hair back over my shoulders and shift to an upright position, folding my legs under me. “Winston said you have secrets, and that you’re going to hurt me.”
His nostrils flare as he presses his lips together. He shakes his head slowly, every muscle in his face tenses. After a huff, he says, “I’m not. And I won’t. And I think I’ll go kick his ass now.”
“About that.” I bite my lip, not wanting to ask but knowing I have to. “He also said that you two had an… incident…yesterday morning?”
Without hesitation, he nods. “We did. I found him in the kitchen with Suzi talking shit about us, so I pinned him against a wall. Told him to leave you alone. That we were together. I didn’t hit him though, out of respect for you and your past with him.”
I exhale, and my shoulders sag. Thank God he didn’t hit him. Dave would have broken Win with one punch. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I came back to the room, and you were naked in my bed. Then we started doing things.” He leans over me and kisses my lips, not gently either. He takes my bottom lip between his and nibbles it.
If it’s a distraction technique, then color me distracted,
because I lose track of our conversation. “I like you,” I murmur into his mouth and wrap my arms around his neck. He places the guitar on the ground and rolls on top of me. Someone yells, “Get a room.” I take a hand off Dave’s back to give them the finger.
He snuggles next to me, sharing the couch. With my eyes on his, I touch his cheek. “I’m sorry I doubted you. Win gets under my skin.”
He turns and kisses my nose. “Winston has ulterior motives. He’ll do whatever he can to get me out of the picture.”
I lean my nose onto his. “I don’t want you out of the picture.”
“I’ll stay in the picture as long as you’ll have me.”
We kiss again, and then he leans up on his elbow. “Tuck wants to leave tonight.”
I pout. Dave told me about Tuck’s plan to win over the parents.
He rubs my nose with his. “Do you want to come with us? Meet the family? You’ve been skipping classes to finish your paper anyway. You can work at my house, and my mom will cook for us.”
I’m tempted. But as sweet and awesome as he is, I have to get this paper done, and I have to believe that I can let him go and he’ll come back. Whether it’s a trip to his parents for a few days or a summer on tour with his band. “I appreciate the offer, but I better stay here.”
He huffs. “But who will take care of you while I’m gone?”
My skin tingles under his touch as he runs his fingers over my arm. “I’ll have to take care of myself, I guess.” I kiss his cheek. “I hate that you have to go.”
He wraps his free arm around my waist and pulls me closer. “I hate to leave you now that I’m living the dream.” Our bodies line up. “Try to stay away from Winston, please? I’ll go nuts sitting at home kissing my father’s ass, thinking Win’s here kissing yours and trying to weasel his way back into your life with his nonsense.”
I wedge my leg between his and tuck my forehead under his chin. “No worries there. When do you get back?”
“Tuck thinks if we leave tonight, we can make good progress by Thursday. We have to get back into the city for practice for the gala, and our parents won’t want us missing too many classes anyway.”
I roll my eyes. “If they only knew.” Dave rarely goes to classes.
“No, no, no. I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m going to finish out this year strong, go to my classes, and actually study for finals. I want to impress my new nerdy girlfriend.”
I laugh. “You impress me in many ways, slacker boyfriend.” I kiss his lips with a loud slurp.
He touches my hair, pushing it back, as he studies my face. “Do you want to try Roberto’s Friday night, assuming your paper is done? I have to practice, but I’d like to take you to dinner. Go on a real date.”
With his question, heat travels straight from my heart, up my neck, to warm my cheeks. “You do?”
He smiles. “Of course. I know the first time I tried to bring you there was a mess. Literally.”
I giggle thinking about our cats and Dave jumping into the dumpster. “Best first date ever. I’m glad the kittens are safe and adopted. But I’d love to give a real date another try.”
Someone taps my shoulder. I roll over to Juliet, waving a spoon at me. “Cake’s going fast. You want some, Mags?”
I turn back to Dave. “Cake?”
Juliet shakes my shoulder. “No cake for him. The boys are leaving.”
Chase moves behind her and grabs her around the waist. “You’re kicking us out, gorgeous?”
She leans back, and he scoops a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Nodding, she murmurs, “Yep. We’re bonding and plotting revenge, remember? But we accept your apology, and we love you.”
“We love you too.” Rocco kisses Pooja’s cheek. “All of you. Even when we act like insensitive morons.”
Everyone looks so happy. Ben and Meg sit on the workout bench. Juliet and Chase are tangled up. Pooja sits on Rocco’s lap on the recliner. As fine as we are without the guys, we all seem better when we’re together.
“Aww. Let’s let them stay,” I whine. My ulterior motive is that I want to spend as much time with Dave as possible since I’ll barely see him between now and the gala.
Meg squeezes Ben. “Oh fine. Let them stay. This was a good team effort, guys.”
Dave picks up his guitar again. “How about a song?”
Everyone murmurs various affirmative sounds, and Dave starts strumming. When he looks up and meets my gaze, my head spins. I’m literally swooning at my new boyfriend. Suddenly, I’m the heroine of a romance novel—the happiest woman in the world.
Finally, I have a chance at the kind of love I’ve always wanted. The kind of love where I’m the center of his universe.
Chapter 19
Maggie
Later that night, my mother sits at my desk reading my paper on my laptop. She’s dressed in a suit from her conference—something about advancing the objectives of local farms in government. She had to make a speech. She looks more the eighties yuppie than her usual “hippie lesbian” self. Her dirty blonde hair is clipped back and her face, tan from her years of work on the farm, looks tired and too made up.
I text Martha.
Take Mary the crazy mother lode for some new suits. She looks like a bad eighties flick.
She sends me back the middle finger emoji.
Fuck you. I’m stuck with her baby goat for the next two weeks while she’s going to all these dumb conferences. I have no idea what I’m doing.
I text her back.
It’s called a kid, you moron. Just make sure it’s nursing, and the mom is grazing.
Mom looks up from the laptop. “It needs work, Maggie. I’d put some personalized examples in if you can find some. Stories from livestock breeders. You need to focus. Your punctuation is a disaster. When’s it due?”
“If I submit it within two weeks, I could move up the waitlist. It’s a long shot. The interns they picked have to decide if they’ll accept soon. They’ll probably all take it, right?” I’m hoping my mom will tell me I’m crazy—that a lot of them will back out.
She shrugs and pulls her hair into a low ponytail over her shoulder. “You never know. Someone may drop out. Get a better offer.”
I roll my eyes. “There are no better offers. Not for pre-vet students.”
“Maybe not,” she says, “but it never hurts to put yourself in the best position possible.”
She’s right, I know. She’s always right. She’s just so motivated and practical that it can get exhausting sometimes.
She stands and rubs my arm. “Aunt Flo?” I nod, and she cringes. “I can tell from your pallor. I’m sure that’s not helping with the paper. Did you run your diffuser last night?”
“Yes,” I lie.
When she puts her hands on her hips, I know I’m in trouble for something. “I ran into Winston earlier.”
“Ma,” I whine. “Not now.” I turn my back to her and fuss with the items on my dresser. I flip the Scrabble “U” in my fingers.
“He told me about this Dave guy upstairs. Says he’s not right for you.”
“Oh my God.” I squeeze my fists so hard that my fingertips go numb. I can’t believe Winston and my mother talk about my love life. I turn to face her and mimic her pose. “Well, what do you expect him to say? He’s my ex.”
“He’s also fairly reasonable, for a teenaged guy. I thought you were going to take a break from men for a while. Especially now with Olympia on the line.” Disappointment drips from her words. I almost feel bad. Almost.
“I was. But Dave… I don’t know. We clicked. I can handle a boyfriend and an internship, Mom. Why can’t I have it all?”
“Oh Maggie. It’s not about having it all. Nobody has it all at once anyway. You have to work hard for things. Now’s your time to do that.”
She’ll never understand me. Everything is about work to her.
She continues her rant. “Even though things with Win didn’t work out, that doesn’t mean you have to jump to the ne
xt guy.”
“It’s not like that.” I turn from her and move to my dresser, looking in the mirror and patting down my hair. Is it like that? “Dave’s a nice guy.” I say it to her and to remind myself.
“I’m sure he is. And I’m grateful he got you to the hospital with the bee sting.” She stands behind me and meets my gaze in the mirror.
“See! He’s awesome. I’m sure you would love him. Now can we please stop talking about this?”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now pack.”
I scrunch my face. “Pack?”
“Yes, pack. I’m bringing you home with me. You have to get this paper written, and I’m going to help you.” She moves around my room, grabbing my paper and notebooks and shoving things into my backpack.
I shake my head as fast as I can. “No way. I need to be by the library.”
“You have an online login.”
“I have classes. You can’t make me leave.” I sound like a baby, but when she treats me like one, I can’t help it.
“Magdalena! Win told me you weren’t going to your classes anyway. So pack a bag, or I’ll pack one for you.”
“But…” But I’m supposed to go to Roberto’s with Dave Friday night. I can’t tell her that. “No. I’m not going.”
She glares, tapping her foot at me.
It’s time for me to take a stand. “You can’t keep bossing me around. You have to learn to trust me to make my own decisions. I’m staying here, and I’m going to continue seeing Dave. I’ll email you the paper when it’s done for a final check. There is no reason for me to be home. You’re not even around with all the conferences. What are you going to do when I’m in Olympia and you can’t just drop by and boss me around?”
Her lips turn up into a smile. “I like that.”
“Why are you smiling, crazy lady?”
“That you said ‘when’ you go to Olympia. That’s the attitude I like to see from you.” I hold my breath as she studies me. “Fine. You can stay. I won’t force you home. And you’re right. I’ll only be there for a few days anyway between all these conferences. But you better not flake on this paper, Maggie. Boys, no boys, getting your period, whatever. I’m too busy to police you.”
She Wants It All: Book Three of the Sheridan Hall Series Page 19