“Like hell you will. Someone’s followed you from LA. Someone’s entering your home, taking your things. What if they were still in there when you got home last night?”
Her face paled, and dammit, he didn’t want to scare her, but he also needed her to understand the gravity of this situation.
He stepped closer and touched her hips. “Maggie, come on. Let me look after you.”
From his peripheral vision, he saw Polly and Joel step away, giving them privacy.
Maggie shifted her gaze between his eyes. “I want to say yes, but we have a complicated past…and I want us to move in together because we want tobetogether, not because it’s necessary. Besides, I feel safe in Polly’s house right now.”
His instincts screamed to fight her on it. All he wanted to do was protect her. But he also couldn’t force it. He wasn’t her boyfriend. Not yet.
Like she could read his thoughts, she touched his chest. “If anything else happens, then yes, I’ll consider it. But right now, I’ll be more cautious.”
Cautiouswould be her moving in with him. “Fine. But I’m going to hold you to that. Any more signs of trouble and you’re with me.”
She nodded. “Thank you for getting me out of there.” Then she leaned her head on him, and he felt it. The softening of every tight muscle. The loosening of his chest.
This was where she belonged. Wheretheybelonged—together.
16
Maggie turned the high beams on as she drove down the empty street toward Deep River.
It was late. Later than she’d intended to leave her meeting in Bozeman. But it had been so productive she hadn’t been able to leave any earlier. Two hours of picking a business consultant’s brain and having her million and one questions answered.
Together, they’d refined a business plan, identified a niche—which would be adventure travel around the world—and come up with a launch plan.
And the best part was, this feltright. Like she was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Her experience and love for travel would come together, and she’d probably get a handful of customers from the platforms of followers she’d built. Her business would be one hundred percent online, so she could help people around the country while remaining in Deep River.
It was perfect. All of it.
Her phone rang, and she cringed when she saw who it was.
She hit the Bluetooth key on her wheel. “Polly?—”
“Where are you? It’s late.”
“I know. The meeting ran over but I’m almost back.”
“Good. I don’t like you being out there when you have a stalker.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I hate that term.”
“Yet stalkeristhe correct one. I’ve got chocolate chip ice cream andThelma and Louiseready to go.”
Maggie grinned. She’d watched that movie with Polly so many times she could probably recite it word for word.
The line crackled. “I don’t think I have much signal here. I’ll see you in ten.”
“Any longer and I’m calling the sheriff’s office. Wait, no, I’m calling Ethan.” More crackling over the line.
“I won’t be late.”
Polly said something else, but the line cut out.
She pressed her foot harder on the gas. She didnotwant her best friend calling Ethan. They’d been seeing each other here and there over the last week. Coffees at Bloom. Walks in the morning. He’d even come over and eaten pizza with her and Polly two nights ago. It all felt so…normal.
But he’d also been on edge. The first thing he asked her every time he saw her was whether anything else had gone missing. If there’d been any noises in Polly’s house. Anything strange he should know about.
