“Pa, she’s a grown woman!”
“Is your ass still chapped she didn’t choose you?” his grandpa throws back, and if looks could kill…
Beau glares, shaking his head before setting Maggie with a look. “You’re on your own.”
Maggie blows out a breath. “Wow, Beau. I turn you down once, and you throw me to the wolves.”
Beau only waves his hand as he goes toward the rink, laughter following him. I look back at Maggie, and her laughs are like sunshine. Warm and beautiful. It’s another pleasant day, the sun bright in the sky, the birds singing, and Promise Pond is full of townsfolk and tourists. I would usually be in my house with a book, but when the prettiest girl in town asks me to go ice skating, I’d be an idiot to say no.
I’ve done that for a year. It’s time for me to be smart when it comes to Maggie Welch.
Because she’s captured me fully.
She’s bundled up once more, but this time in my clothes. She’s wearing my brown jacket with my knit hat and bright-pink gloves that belong to her. She has her own pair of fleece-lined overalls and a bright-pink scarf. Her face is tinged pink from the chill, but she’s still eager to skate.
To be with me.
Fuck me.
“He asked her to hang a lock,” Old Man Harrison tells me conspiratorially, and while jealousy burns in my chest, it’s my hand Maggie is holding. “She turned him down pretty quickly, but it was probably because he asked Sadie and Willa too.”
“Wow, he was making it a family affair?” I tease, and Harrison nods.
“Listen, I raised him right,” he says with a hearty laugh. “Now, don’t forget the lock engravers are out today, so you don’t want to miss your chance before Valentine’s Day, son.”
His whole face crinkles when he winks at me, and I feel my heart kick up.
“Jimmy Dean, why are you harassing him? Leave him be,” Maggie throws at the old man, but he just waves her off.
“A girl like you deserves a lock,” is all he says before he shrugs. “It’s the ultimate promise—you know this.”
She rolls her eyes and then pulls me to a bench to put on our skates, Kip waiting patiently at my side. Since I’ve never skated, she helps me with mine, making sure they’re good and tight before she does her own. Meanwhile, I’m completely overthinking everything that old man said. I also thought the lock thing was dumb, but what if it means something to Maggie?
Damn it.
Of course it does. It was her parents who started the tradition, and yet I’m over here giving her everything but the romantic notion of a lock on a gate with our names on it.
Fuck me. I am dropping the ball once more when it comes to her.
When she stands, I look up to ask if she wants to do it. But I pause. Should I just get a lock, or will it seem like I am only doing it because of what the old guy said? Shit,amI only doing it because of him? I look up into her gorgeous face, the sun shining on her cheeks and catching her left eye just right to make it sparkle.
No. I want to give this girl everything and then some.
A lock, my left arm, my book collection, my heart.
Everything.
Forever.
Before I can ask her to go get a lock with me, her name is yelled. Rather aggressively. Maggie smirks at a woman who is her height with blond hair and bright-blue eyes. It’s her sister. Not sure which one, but one of them, for sure. “Hey, Sadie! It’s rather cold for you out here.”
Sadie gives her sister a blank look, cuddling deeper into her jacket as she blows out a breath. “Since the Valentine’s Day festival is coming up, I have to make sure everyone is still doing their part.”
Maggie snorts. “You could text.”
Sadie’s bored look gets even more bored, if that makes sense. She looks absolutely put out to the point that I kind of want to laugh. “I wanted to, but Dad informed me I have to do it in person to keep the tradition alive.”
Maggie grins then holds out her hands to me like she’s presenting me to the world. “You haven’t met Dermot yet. Dermot, this is my older sister Sadie.”
