So chipper. Maggie wanted to pop her one. She had no idea what Amy looked like or acted like except for a phone call, Reggie’s memories, and Mack’s sheer dislike. At the moment, Maggie was siding with Mack. But hey, she could tolerate Reggie’s ex for one more day. According to Reggie, Amy and Rachel were to be leaving tomorrow—Saturday.
Yet none of that explained why he had been avoiding her.
She found out the next morning when Reggie showed up at her door to explain Amy would be staying another week.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Reggie was pissed. “Look, I can’t help that Amy needs to stay longer. But why won’t you talk to me?”
“Excuse me?”
Reggie had never been so uneasy about his relationship with Maggie. She seemed annoyed. No, hostile. And there he was, trapped in the middle of doing what was right with what was popular. His family was on his ass to get far away from Amy and her problems. Mack wasn’t talking to him, and Brad and Tex had expressed concern so gently, he wondered if they thought he’d lost his fucking mind. Maybe he had.
But Amy had sworn she needed just one more week to get herself together. And she’d been such a help, doing his laundry, making dinner. Listening as he complained about how everyone seemed against him lately.
“Maggie, we’ve been open and honest with each other from the beginning. Why are you avoiding me now?”
“Reggie, I don’t like to text you when you’re at work because I’m afraid I’ll interfere with your job. But I always answer you when you text me. I waited, but you hadn’t texted me in three days. I finally calledagainyesterday and left two messages. The last time I called you, I got Amy, who told me you were inthe shower.”
She tapped her foot.
He didn’t understand. “I didn’t get any calls. I might have been in the shower when you called yesterday, but so what? I worked out and needed to clean up. It’s not like she was in there with me.”Okay, bad joke.
Maggie was steaming. “How are you not seeing the clear manipulation here?” She bit her lip, took in a deep breath, then let it out. “No. I will be calm, collected.” She did her breathing thing again. And if Emily hadn’t been so close, in her room with Frank while her mom and Reggie had a grown-up talk, he would have gathered Maggie to him and made love to her.
It had been a week, and he missed her like crazy.
“Reggie, I’d like you to imagine that this situation was reversed. Pretend that instead of you and Amy, I’m living with Stephen for a week. Just the two of us. And you called to talk to me, but I never called you back. Three times. Oh, and he answered the phone when you called and told you I was in the shower. How do you think you’d feel?”
“I’d want to rip his nuts off,” came the immediate answer. He knew she had a right to be angry, but he still didn’t understand the misconnect. “Damn. I’m sorry, honey.” He shook his head. “I feel like I keep failing, and I’m only trying to help.”
“I know. But Reggie, you’re a grown man. A lot of what Amy has said doesn’t make sense. For one, I have a hard time accepting she has no one to help her but you. She left you a long time ago for her ex-husband. He’s not abusive or cruel, right?”
“No.”
“But he’s busy and working in Tacoma. And the family who absolutely loves Rachel kicked them both out? My bet is they wanted Rachel to stay and for Amy to leave. But Amy won’t leave without Rachel because Rachel is her way of getting around you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? You were going to kick her out until she asked Rachel how she felt about staying with you. You said it yourself. And I’m sorry, but the only way you didn’t get my messages is if someone deleted them from your phone. Why is she answering for you, anyway? Did she tell you I’d called?”
“Well, no. But she might have written it down and I missed it.”
“You said you didn’t call me because I’m avoiding you.”
He could see her growing more upset.
“You did.” Maggie was adamant.
“Did I?” He thought about it. “Actually, Rachel told me I had a message. She was playing with my phone. And she said some lady named Maggie told me not to call her for a while.”
“And you believed her without even talking to me about it.”
“I thought you were mad.”
She nodded. “Why would I be mad? Just because my boyfriend is living with his ex for the foreseeable future? Maybe because I’m not sure why he’s with me?”
“Hold on.” Where the hell had that come from? “I love you.”
