Her head was down when Polly set the drinks onto the table. She looked up—but the beginnings of her thanks died on her lips when she saw Ethan, Connor, and Joel.
“Sorry,” Polly mouthed.
Maggie stared up at Ethan, pretty sure she looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Hi. I, uh, didn’t know you guys were here.” The lie fell out of her mouth. But what was the alternative?I saw you and your girlfriend getting close at the bar and it was both nauseating and a bit like a blow to the midsection.
“Luckily, I saw Polly and where there’s a Polly, there’s often a Maggie.” His smile was devastatingly handsome, and he stood so close she could smell his familiar sandalwood scent.
“Yeah, lucky.” She lifted her whiskey sour and drained half the glass.
“You’re a beer drinker?” Joel asked Polly, grabbing a handful of nuts from the bowl on the table.
She raised a brow. “Surprised?”
“A little.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
One side of his mouth lifted. “Maybe.”
She rolled her eyes before looking at the nuts in his hand. “You know people use the bathroom, don’t wash their hands, then rifle through those things?”
“I thought they tasted a bit smoky.”
The horrified look on Polly’s face almost made Maggie laugh, but then Ethan stepped closer, head lowering to her ear. “You look beautiful.”
A warm sensation bloomed in her belly. She wasn’t good at believing people when they said that, but with Ethan, she could be convinced. “Thank you. You look nice too.”
He wore a tight navy shirt, the material stretched around his chest and arms like a second skin.
When he touched the small of her back, she almost jumped out of her skin.
“I’ve missed you the last few days,” he whispered.
Her mouth dried. The kind of dry where she wasn’t sure she could make words work, because her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“Is it okay that I’m touching you?” he asked.
“What about?—”
She stopped when she noticed a man and woman rise from a booth not too far from her table. A familiar woman. “Lilith?” Her aunt wore a tight red dress that made her look ten years younger, and when she wobbled in her heels, Maggie straightened. “Is she drunk?”
Lilith wobbled again, and the guy slid his arm around her waist. Then Lilith looked up and directly at their table.
Maggie’s stomach dropped. She wasn’t sure why until Lilith headed their way.
“Maggie, I didn’t expect to see you here.” She did a once-over of Maggie’s jeans and top.
The old Maggie would have wanted to cover herself. Either that or shut herself in a room where no one could see her. “Well, we’re both in Deep River. We’re going to see each other a bit.”
“Hm.”
The old familiar sound was both disapproving and unnerving.
“Are you okay?” She wasn’t sure why she was asking. She shouldn’t care. Lilith had never cared about her.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Maggie shot a glance to the guy beside Lilith before looking back at her aunt. “It looks like you’ve had a couple of drinks.”
