“What are you talking about, Maggie?” she asks, concern thick on her tone.
“I didn’t want to tell you,” Maggie says, “buttherealreason I didn’t walk in your wedding line that day is because Chad’s jerk of a best man compared me to the Bride of Frankenstein.”
Instantly, I picture the sassy woman in the massive neck brace who hobbled away after telling us off. I laugh out loud from the shock of it.
“Thatwasyou?”
“Yes,” she snaps.
Another laugh forms low in my chest. One of bafflement more than amusement, though it’s funny, too, if you think about it. “That ishilarious,” I say. “All this time, and we never knew.”
“I wouldn’t say it washilarious,” Maggie retorts. “In fact,youshould be embarrassed for how you treated me that day.” She’s practically yelling now.
I glance at Viv, Chad, and my brothers as they stand there, looking as stunned as I am.
“Iamembarrassed about how I treated her that day. I meanyou.I was going to apologize, but I couldn’t find you.”
“Did you honestly think I was going to stick around after that? I washumiliated.”
“Maggie,” Kirsten says, “maybe you and Braxton should take this into the other room.”
“No, it’s okay if everyone hears this,” Maggie says. “I mean, I had been to one wedding after the next, watching all my friends get married. And Viv had really talked you up. I was thinking that maybe I was finally going to meet my person. I’d shut out men before that, but I was opening myself up just in time, hoping that you might just be Mr. Right. And after the way you treated me, I shut down all over again.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re blamingmefor that now?”
“I can’t believe you’re rolling your eyes like that.Yes, I blame you for that. You were terrible to me.”
“I didn’t evenknowyou.” I take a step back and eye her up and down, wondering what sort of crazed universe we just walked into. But then it hits me—I know exactly what Maggie’s doing right now, and I’m not about to let her get away with it.
I square a hard look at her. “Have you forgotten that you’re not the only one who plays this game?”
“Game?” she shrieks.
I nod. “I have fears too, and I can blame things in my past and look for all sorts of reasons to back out of a relationship or refuse to look for love…” I walk closer to the counter, eyes fixed on her. “But what it all boils down to isourselves—no one else.”
“I’m not listening to any more of this.” Maggie backs away from the counter and tears out of the kitchen toward the front room.
“Maggie, wait!" I move to follow her out, but Beau puts an arm out to stay me.
“I’ll go with her,” Kirsten says, looking first at Beau and then at me. “She’ll be fine. She just needs a minute to cool down.”
I nod in response, but I’m not so sure shewillcome around.
I replay the way I expressed my love for her and her inability to return the sentiment. I was hurt, but I was also okay with it. I didn’t want Maggie to feel rushed.
Still, if she’s panicking, if she’s looking for a way out nowthat we’re getting in deep, this is just the sort of thing she’ll use to break things off.
Viv follows Kirsten without so much as a protest from anyone.
“Sorry, man,” Chad says over his shoulder as he follows his wife out—traitor.
My brothers surround me with somber faces and headshakes. They’ve been through this before. They’ve been through worse than this. They married who they thought was the love of their lives. They had children together, then were faced with their greatest fear—having it all fall apart.
Perhaps the timing of this isn’t so bad after all. If Maggie is destined to leave me sometime, maybe it’s better now than later. Perhaps my fears were doing me more good than I thought. It’s possible that people like Maggie and I are better off alone.
Braxton
I lift my arm to make the mug in my hand clank against those in the center of the table. I don’t drink often, and this stuff is hitting me hard. My head is woozy, my vision is fuzzy, and parts of my face feel numb.
