Page 31 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

Plus, the place was mine. That made the head spinning more than worth it.

“This is it.” I opened the door and waved for Maggie to precede me, stepping aside so she could go in. “I turned the second bedroom into a home office, so unfortunately, there’s no guest room. I do have a nice couch, though.”

Maggie wandered in and looked around as I put our things down by the door and shut it behind us. For a second, I thought she might insult my pride and joy, but as I watched her take in the living room, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the kitchen, and the furniture I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time choosing, she didn’t seem too disappointed by her temporary digs.

“It’s nice.” She smiled at me over her shoulder, walking farther inside toward the open-concept living space. “This is much better than I was expecting. Honestly.”

“Thank you.”

She sent me another smile, following when I waved toward the hallway. After showing her the bedroom and the home office, I turned to tell her I’d grab some pillows for the couch, but she walked straight past me into my bedroom, shut the door behind her, and not even a full minute later, I heard the shower running.

Wow. She’s made herself at home real fast, hasn’t she?

I sighed, but I could handle a woman helping herself to my shower. What I couldn’t handle was letting Holden deal with my clients for even another minute longer, so I pulled my spare key out of the drawer where I kept it in my kitchen and dropped it on the counter. Then I headed back to my bedroom door.

“I left a key on the kitchen island for you,” I called, but it was more of a courtesy at this point. If she didn’t hear me, then so be it. I’d more than done my part with this girl and it wasn’t like she’d given me time to tell her I had to get to work before she’d invaded my bedroom. “I’ll be back later. Probably much later, but there’s food in the freezer!”

With that, I figured I’d done what I could, so I took off to the small but mighty New York branch of Thayer Steelworks. Before I’d taken a desk there, the office had mostly handled logistics, acting as a local hub for shipping, distribution, and the occasional meeting when one of the others had flown in from Chicago, but a bit of the finance operations had moved there after I’d taken up residence.

Weaving my way around pedestrians and glorious civilization on the sidewalk after I left my apartment building, I put in a call to Marcus. He answered almost immediately, the tension in his voice wound so tight that it sounded like he was minutes away from a stroke.

“Thayer,” he said curtly. “Please tell me you have good news. Please.”

“She’s back,” I replied. “Well, she’s in New York, but she’s currently taking over my apartment. She refused to let me take her home.”

He paused. “Yeah, okay. Thanks man, I’ll come get her.”

I almost wished him luck, but instead, I just said goodbye and hung up. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that Marcus would soon learn for himself that one needed superpowers to make his sister do anything she didn’t want to.

As I went to shove my phone back into my pocket, I realized there was one more call I had to make. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to make it.

Daniel was closer in age to Isaac than me, and by the time I’d been old enough to hang with the older kids, us Thayer boys had already been shoved out of the social circles we’d grown up in. All of which meant that while I knew him, I honestly didn’t know him that well.

It probably wasn’t my place to let him know his bride was back in the same zip code, but on the other hand, everything I remembered and knew about him was good. Plus, Daniel lived here in New York. He worked here, and since he’d gotten left at the altar—whether he’d wanted to be standing there or not—he deserved to know that there had been progress.

For some reason, I felt like he should hear it from me rather than being left to read about it in a tabloid if she was spotted on the streets or to learn about it through the furious grapevine of the upper crust.

Finally, my internal debate came to an end and I made the call. On the fifth ring, just as I was about to hang up, Daniel suddenly answered. “Ryan, is that you?”

“How did you know?”

“Somehow, I still have your number,” he said absently. “Is this about Maggie?”

“Yeah, she’s back in the city.”

Complete silence met my statement and I frowned, wondering if the call had dropped, but when I pulled my phone away from my ear to check if he was still there, he finally spoke. “Is her family aware?”

“Yes, they are. I called Marcus just a minute ago.”

“Okay.”

I waited for him to say something else. Anything else. I expected relief or at the very least concern for her safety or location, but I got nothing.

“Thanks for letting me know, Ryan,” he said after another brief pause. “I appreciate the call.”

He hung up without another word and I shook my head and shoved my phone back into my pocket. That was weird. I swear, I’ve been happier than that to get the call that my dry cleaning is ready.

Either way, I tried to put the conversation out of my mind as I pushed through the revolving glass doors of Thayer’s New York branch. It was time to forget about the Pembrokes, the Hawthornes, the wedding, and even my own mother.