Maggie never asked to be famous. She never set out to fall in love with a rock star… or someone so like her dad. Someone who’d bring so much drama into herlife.
“They’re not gonna hate you,” I said, slowly, thinking it through. “The fans loveKatie.”
“Sure. A lot of them do. But I’m not Katie and you’re not Jesse, and you really don’t know how they’re going toreact.”
“You’re right. I don’t know. And I’m sure Katie’s had her share of hate mail, so to speak. I don’t exactly see that keeping her and Jesse apart, though. I’d dare any chick to say an unkind word about Katie, see how hereacts.”
“I know you’d stand up for me, Zane, if you could. But that’s not the entire picture.” Maggie came over and sat down beside me on the couch. “You know, my mom used to get letters, over the years, from fans of my dad. Total strangers who admired her for mothering his child, or who condemned her for mothering his child. People who’d made up all these grand fantasies about her in their heads that weren’t even true. She wrote back to almost all of them. I could never do that. I don’t want a bunch of strangers weighing in on my life. I know you welcome it, that you like being the center of attention. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You thrive on it. I definitely don’t. It’s just one of the things about us that’s at odds, that we like about each other anyway, right? But you’re not always going to be there to make the Dallases of the world apologize tome.”
“Yeah,” I told her. “I will. That’s what a marriageis.”
Maggie’s eyes softened as she stared at me. “Zane…”
“You keep telling me I don’t know what marriage is or I don’t know what love is, Maggie. But IknowI love you. And the thought of anyone hurting you makes me want to grab the nearest gun and startshooting.”
She just stared atme.
“Your dad never even tried to protect you or your mom, Maggs. Your mom should never have had to read those letters alone. She wouldn’t have had to face that shit alone if Dizzy had ever cared for either of you the way he shouldhave.”
Shenodded.
“You feelthat?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I feelthat.”
“Good. I feel it too, Maggie. It kills me that you’ve gone through what he’s put you through. I’m not gonna stand by and let anyone hurt you. I don’t care who knows I love you. I don’t care who knows I’m married to you. If anyone’s got a problem with it, I don’t give a fuck. I haven’t talked to anyone about the wedding or that gossip article since you took off to see Dizzy. I haven’t even talked to Brody. Because you asked me not to, and you trusted me not to. But I’m not gonna keep my mouth shut forever. People have been asking me about it all day, and I’m not gonna deny that we had a wedding when they keep asking me. It’s fuckingtrue.”
Her expression darkened. It was still a sticky point with her, and the girl wasn’t giving up on it easily. “But it’s not up to you to decide that,Zane.”
“I’m not gonna lie about it, Maggie. Let people say what they’re gonna say about us. They’re gonna do it anyway. I’m not gonna let that control ourlives.”
“It’s not a lie. We just need to decidewhatwe want to say publicly, andwhen.”
“It is a lie if I say anything other than the truth. They’ve already printed the truth. It’s already outthere.”
“But we need to discuss it first,” she said, gettingfrustrated.
“What’s to discuss? It’strue. We gotmarried.”
“We did,” she said, her gray eyes on mine, steady. “And if you really want us to have a marriage, you can’t make decisions about this kind of thing without me. We’re in thistogether,right?”
I swiped my hand over my face. “You know what? You’reright.”
She stared at me and blinked, like a little gray-eyed owl. “Excuseme?”
“You heard me.You’re right.You’re usuallyright.”
Maggie actually looked stunned at those words out of my mouth. But fuck it; I thought she was right most of thetime.
“Iam?”
“You’re right about most things, Maggie. But honestly, if you want my opinion, I really don’t think you should’ve run off to talk to your dad today. What did that getyou?”
“Nothing,” sheadmitted.
“Right. It got you sweet fuck-all, because that’s all the man has to give. If you ask me, you should’ve stayed right here, with me, so we could deal with this shittogether.”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “You’re right about that. I see that now.” She sighed. “Does it make me the world’s worst idiot because I actually hoped he’d care that I wasupset?”
