I try to get my pants on, but the leg gets bunched. I stumble, trip, and fall on my bed. “Crap.” The temptation to crawl under the covers is overwhelming. I’m so angry, and I don’t know exactly who I’m mad at the most. Cash, Brad, or myself for being such a fool on many, many fronts.
My cell rings, and I grab it from the bedside table. “Hello.”
“What’s shakin’ bacon?”
Maggie’s over-the-top optimism isn’t what I need right now. Well, I probably do need it, but I don’t want it.
“Your new lease of life is showing.”
“I can’t help it. It’s great to be alive.” Her laughter rings through the line, and it makes my heart happy.
“Okay, you’re allowed to be obnoxiously chipper, but nobody else.”
“Wow, who peed in your post-toasties?”
I push myself to a sitting position against the headboard. “How long do you have?”
“For you? All day.” I hear one of her two kids yell for her in the background. “Hang on. Reese, stop breathing your sister’s air. Hadley, stop looking at your brother. Now y’all get ready for school.”
I put the phone on speaker and get my jeans turned the right way, then slip them up my legs.
“Sorry about that,” Maggie says. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”
“I had another run-in with Cash.” I slip my feet into my boots and stand.
“It’s barely seven in the morning. Did he call last night?” I hear the eyebrow waggle in her voice.
“No, I saw him.”
“He came to your house?”
“No, he stayed at the big house last night, and I saw him when I went to use the shower over there.”
“Why did he stay at the house?”
Good question. I hadn’t thought to ask. “I have no idea. Between trying to figure out how to save the rec center, our naked encounter, and figuring out what his angle is, I didn’t ask.”
“Whoa, sister, back it up.”
“What?”
“Your naked encounter?” She whispers the words. The kids must be around. “That statement demands explanation. We’ll get back to why you think he’s working an angle in a minute.”
“I’d gotten out of the shower and was in my towel when he walked into the bathroom. After a moment of shock and some witty banter on my part, we tried to pass each other, got tripped up, and he had to catch me before we fell. Just my luck that the towel came loose.”
“So, you were naked?” Again with the whispering.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re the luckiest beech around.”
I laugh at her use of beech instead of bitch. She never curses, so she’s developed her own set of curse words. “I’m not a lucky beech.”
“Oh, yes, you are. How was it?”
“Maggie. All he did was hold me so I didn’t fall. Then I apologized for insulting his manhood, see witty banter above, he put me down with his eyes averted, and that was it. Nothing happened.” Unless you count the fact that I nearly combusted from the feel of his muscles against my skin. Good Lord, but the man is built, even if he is an arrogant asshat.
“Then you must be dead.”
I laugh. “I’m not dead. I’m just not interested.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m not.”
“Whatever you say. Now tell me why you think he’s got an angle he’s trying to work.”
That is the tricky part. “He said he wanted to make things right, and he apologized for what happened with the grant.”
“That rotten Buster Brown.”
“Whoa, watch your language, young lady.”
“Ha-ha. You’re hilarious. I want to know why what he said set you off.”
“Because I know he doesn’t think I’m smart enough to do my job here at the house, let alone do what’s necessary to save the rec center.”
“Did he say that? I will cut off his dilly dangles if he said that to you.”
I laugh, I can’t help it. “Is that a new one?”
“Yeah. I made it up the other night.”
“Well, put away your dull kitchen knife, crazy. He said he didn’t have a lot of confidence that I could do the job, but I know it’s because he doubts my intelligence.”
“It doesn’t help that somewhere deep inside, you doubt your own intellect.”
“I don’t.” But there’s no real conviction behind it because I’m afraid she might be right.
“Mm-hmm.” I can tell she doesn’t believe me either. “It seems to me that if he can apologize, then you can accept it. Plus, you might owe him the teeniest apology too.”
“What?”
“You did assume the worst of him and rally the town against him.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “I did not. He did