“She comes by it honestly. It’s nothing my mother hasn’t said a thousand times.”
He didn’t even know how to respond to that. Their food came and luckily, he was able to joke, tease and coax her into a better mood and they ended up enjoying their dinner.
“Let’s go, gorgeous. I can’t wait to get you out on that floor and show you off.”
She snorted, following him outside into the fresh, Janie-free air. Truthfully, she hadn’t felt this good in a long time. She’d never stood up to Janie like that before. She knew she’d hear from her mother about it, but it was worth it to see Janie’s face scrunch up like she’d sucked a lemon when Kyle sent her packing. Maggie hoped she got wrinkles from it.
The Honky Tonk was packed. Wednesday nights were buck beer and two-dollar well-drinks night. Cheap booze was always an incentive to get out and dance and listen to music. She and Kyle had a beer and a shot and hit the dance floor. He was really a good dancer and despite the height difference, they seemed to fit well together. He twirled her gracefully and even managed to sneak in a few quick kisses while they were dancing.
After six songs he pleaded exhaustion and dragged her to a table. Matt and Marc were there with some friends who all greeted them happily as they came over to join them.
Matt reached out and pulled a corkscrew curl straight and let go, watching it spring back into place. “I’ve wanted to do that since fourth grade,” he said, laughing.
“I know, it’s the bane of my existence. It’s why I wear it in a bun so much.”
“Bane? My God why? Your hair is fabulous. I know women who go to the salon to get expensive perms and still can’t get hair like yours.” To underline his point, he pulled another curl with apparent delight.
Maggie grinned at him and Kyle slapped Marc’s hand when he reached over to try it. “Hands off,” he growled.
Maggie was stunned. He actually acted jealous.
“Hi, Kyle, let’s dance.” Lyndsay Cole sidled up to him, stopping just short of rubbing against him like a cat in heat.
Maggie shot her a look of annoyed anger. It was obvious that Kyle was there with her. Hell, he was sitting with her chair between his thighs, holding one of her hands.
“Lyndsay, do you know Maggie?” Kyle asked smoothly, moving away from her touch and even closer to Maggie.
Lyndsay looked over at Maggie for a quarter of a second and back to Kyle. “Yeah. So anyway, how about that dance?”
“Lyndsay, I’m here with Maggie. I’m with Maggie. She’s my only dance partner.”
“Her?”
Annoyed, Kyle sighed. What was with the women of this town anyway? He was beginning to get a very good understanding of Maggie’s inferiority issues. He realized he had to find ways of working through them with her. “Of course her. Who else?” He turned his back to Lyndsay and kissed the nape of Maggie’s neck but he felt her stiffness. “Darlin’, shall we dance?”
“You know, I’m tired. I think I’d like to go home.” Her voice was so small, it squeezed his heart.
He turned her face to his gently. “Don’t let her get to you.” He said it in no more than a murmur.
“I’m not. I really am tired,” she lied. She realized then that it would be like this every time they went out. He’d gone out with a lot of women, all of them pretty and popular like Lyndsay and Jane Marie. Maggie was so far out of their league that she’d never find a way to fit into his life.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Maggie, don’t run off on me.” He meant more than just her wanting to leave the Tonk. “We’re having a good time. My brothers and friends are all happy to see you—to see us. To hell with what people like your sister and Lyndsay think.” He could see she was skittish, probably thinking up reasons why they couldn’t be a couple and he wasn’t about to let that happen.
Standing up he grinned down at her. “Come on, it’s a slow number, at least dance close with me before we go.” He put on his best little boy pleading face and she relented, holding out her hand for him to take.
Once on the floor he pulled her tightly against his body. Head resting on his chest, his heart beat for her. The citrusy scent of her hair wafted into his face, teasing his senses. Her body fit against his, soft against hard. His arms tightened around her and he smiled against the top of her head. It would take some work to get past her defenses but he knew she’d be worth it. He could kick Shane’s ass for making things even worse. But then again, if Shane hadn’t been such a fool, Maggie would be in his arms now instead of Kyle’s.
The slow song faded and a fast number came on. Smoothly, Kyle kept his hold on her, easing her into a faster dance. Maggie hesitated a moment but relented and let him keep her on the floor.
“You’re smooth, Chase.” Her smirk of amusement made him chuckle and twirl her into a dip. He laid a series of kisses down her neck while he had her extended over his arm and delighted in her laugh.
“It’s all been practice for the time when I had you to work on.”
Grinning, she looked into his face. “Lord, you are so full of it.” He righted her and clutched his heart in mock dismay.
Laughing, they walked back to their table where, thankfully, Lyndsay had left. “I really should be getting home. I have to be at school by nine tomorrow morning.”
“Oh all right. I’ll take you home but only if you promise to come to my house for dinner on Friday night. That is after your drink with the girls and my pitcher and pool with my brothers. I wouldn’t want you to flout tradition, after all. We can leave from The Pumphouse for my house at eight thirty. That should be enough time for me to trounce them all at pool and for you to gossip with Liv and Dee.”
“Oh all right,” she said with mock annoyance, echoing his earlier words, but it was ruined by the grin she couldn’t suppress. He made her happy.
“Good answer, now your carriage awaits, princess,” he said, bowing.
“Night, Maggie,” Matt said, kissing her cheek.
“Night, guys.” She waved at them. Marc stood up to give her a kiss too but she saw Kyle raise an eyebrow at him. Marc burst out laughing and blew her one instead.
“What was that all about?” she asked him as he drove her home.
“Marc’s a skirt chaser, he likes your skirt.”
“If you say so. I’ll remind you that I’ve lived in this town my entire life and the only Chase brother who’s ever really spoken to me before two months ago was Matt.”
“Hey! I’ve talked to you here and there.”
“Excuse me, miss, you dropped your book, doesn’t count. We’re from totally different worlds, Kyle. Surely you can see that.”
“What I can see is that in high school—back ten years ago for me and what, eight for you? What I can see is that we ran in different crowds but heck, I was two years ahead of you anyway. You went to college right away and then grad school. I started my own landscaping business. If you’d yelled at my brother before that night I’d have surely noticed you. Okay, so I didn’t really notice you before that night but once I did—once I got to know you a bit—I saw what I’d been missing.”
She sighed, putting her forehead against the window.
“Maggie, stop trying so hard to find things wrong with being with me. I know you’re skittish after Alex and then dumbass Shane, but I’m not them. Let me show you that.”
She turned to him, giving him a small smile. “I’ll try.”
He took her hand and kissed the knuckles. “Good.”
When they got back to her house she sat bolt upright. “What the hell?” She yanked open her door before the car had even come to a full stop, heading toward her front porch at a dead run.
“Wait! Damn it, Maggie, wait!” Kyle yelled as he put the car in park and jumped out to catch her and grab her arm.
She stared at the broken front window and “WHORE” written in red paint across
her front door. “Who would do something like this?” Her voice was a taut whisper.
Kyle held her tightly against him. With his free hand, he pulled his cell phone out and called Shane who agreed to rush over immediately. But not before admonishing them not to go inside.
“Sweetheart, let’s sit in the car out of the wind until Shane gets here,” he said softly. With gentle hands, he guided her back down the driveway to his car, holding her while they waited for Shane.
“Jesus, Maggie, I’m sorry.” Shane arrived shortly and walked up to her front door, surveying the damage with a wince. Another officer was there with him and appeared to set about looking for clues or evidence or whatever cops did.
“We’re going to talk to your neighbors to see if anyone saw anything. Right now, I want to go into the house to make sure it’s clear, all right?” She nodded, handing him her keys and his eyes tangled on Kyle’s arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Maggie, why don’t you stay with me tonight? I have a guest room and I’m near the high school. Your windows are broken out, it’s not safe.” Kyle brushed his lips over her temple.
Before she could say anything, Matt and Marc pulled up. Throwing the car into park, they rushed to where she and Kyle were standing. “Oh shit, Maggie! Are you all right?” Matt looked agog at the door and what was written on it.
“Alex,” she said in a hoarse whisper.
Shane came back out of her house and spoke to the other officer before coming back to them. “Maggie, it’s clear inside. There’s no one there. There’s a brick on your floor. It’s probably what they used to break out your window. It landed on your coffee table so the glass there is broken, too. Matt, can you and Marc get those windows boarded up?”
“You bet,” Marc said.
“There’s wood in my garage from when I was drywalling.” Her voice was flat, emotionless, as she struggled to process it all.
Matt squeezed her arm and he and Marc walked past her and toward the garage. Before too long, they were hammering boards over the broken-out window.
“Maggie, you think Alex did this?” Kyle asked.
“He called me a whore at The Pumphouse that night and he went off on Liv once at the market, saying the same thing. I’ve never been called a whore in my whole life other than by him.” Tears rolled down her face, she bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.
“I’ll go and check him out, ask him a few questions. Listen, can you stay with someone tonight? Even with the windows boarded up it isn’t as safe as it could be.” Concern was clear on Shane’s face.
“She’s going to stay with me,” Kyle informed him.
“No. I’m not leaving. I will not let this chase me out of my own home,” she said angrily before walking past them both and into her house.
Kyle looked at her, annoyed, and Shane glowered. “You need to convince her to leave.” Shane’s voice was gruff.
She returned with a bucket of cleaning solvent and a big scrubbing sponge. She dragged on rubber gloves and set to scrubbing the horrible word off her door.
“Not gonna happen,” Kyle said in an undertone. “Find who did this, Shane. We can’t let her be terrorized like this.”
“I will. If it’s Parsons I’m gonna stomp him.”
“Don’t. Don’t get fired. Arrest him, then I’ll stomp him later.”
Shane laughed with cruel promise and walked back up to the porch where she had succeeded in removing the W and most of the H. “Maggie, please call me. Any time day or night if you need anything.” He lowered his voice. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk but please trust me to protect you right now. Let me be your friend as well as the sheriff, all right?”
She nodded her head, not taking her attention from the scrubbing. “Thank you, Shane.”
“Why don’t you let Matt and I do that, sweetheart? We’ve finished with your windows. Go on inside so that you can call the glass shop. They can get out here first thing to replace them.” Marc gently took the gloves off her hands and put them on his own and took the sponge. “Go on, baby.” And she nodded.
“Thank you.”
Kyle squeezed Shane’s arm and followed Maggie into the house. “Maggie? If you won’t stay at my house, let me stay here. I promise my intentions are purely to help, no ulterior motives. Please? I’ll be worried about you if you stay here alone.”
Before she could answer, Polly Chase came through the door and pulled Maggie into her arms. Even at eleven on a Wednesday night, her hair was in its usual bouffant and her spiky heels were on those tiny feet. “Honey, you’re coming over to my house right now. No arguments!”
Maggie looked at all of them—Shane talking to her neighbors across the street, Matt and Marc who had just finished scrubbing her front door and had boarded her windows, Kyle who stood there looking worried for her and now Polly. In the last half an hour she’d gotten more comfort and love from the Chase family than she’d had from her own over her entire life. It hit her like a blow to the chest and she began to sob in earnest.
Polly smoothed a hand over her hair, crooning motherly soft words. Kyle looked worried and helpless. His mother locked eyes with him. “Kyle, go upstairs and pack a bag for Margaret.”
“I can’t impose on you,” Maggie choked out, shaking her head. “I’ll be all right.” She’d always been. She’d taken care of herself most of her life.
“Kyle, do as I say. Margaret, you aren’t imposing. I’m a mother, it’s my job. Let me help, sugar. Let us help.” She didn’t ask if Maggie wanted to stay with her parents. Polly had seen the way Cecelia Wright treated her youngest daughter and the father seemed pretty disinterested. She knew that Maggie had no one to help her other than her girlfriends and the Chases. “On second thought, Kyle, come take over for me. I’ll go grab some clothes for Maggie. Goodness knows what you’d pick for the girl to wear to work tomorrow.”
Kyle looked at his mother thankfully and pulled Maggie into his arms, rocking her slightly while his mother click-clacked up the stairs.
“It’s the last door on the left,” Maggie called out.
“You see how useless it is to oppose her will?” Kyle asked with a smile on his face and was relieved to see Maggie smile back at him. “Resistance is futile, Maggie. My mother is tougher than any Borg.”
Polly came back downstairs and led them all out the door. “Kyle, why don’t you drive Maggie over to our house? I’ll meet you all there.”
Kyle nodded and helped Maggie into his car. He watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye on the way to his parents’ house. “I won’t ask if you’re all right, I can see how not all right you are. I know my family is a bit overwhelming but we mean well. Let us in, let us help.”
“I...” don’t know how. “I’ll do my best,” she said instead.
He pulled up in front of the house and helped Maggie inside. “Come on, baby. I’ll get you settled in the guest room. Which by the way, is my old room.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively and she allowed herself a laugh.
He put her overnight bag on the bed. “Why don’t you take a shower and get changed? Come down afterward. There’ll be hot cocoa and there’s no saying no. My mother will only come and drag you down.”
She nodded and walked into the bathroom at the end of the hall, a dazed look on her face. He stayed there in the doorway until he heard the shower turn on.
* * *
“Did you tell her to come down for cocoa?” Polly asked as he entered the kitchen, throwing himself in a chair with a heavy sigh. He watched his mother rattling around starting to heat the milk and took comfort from it.
Kyle grinned at Matt and Marc, already sitting at the table. “Yes, Momma. She’s taking a shower first. I told her to come down and that you wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Standing quickly, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. “Thanks for taking her in. She needed a momma tonight. I d
on’t think the one she has fits the bill.”
“Cecelia Wright is a cold fish to that girl. I never understood it,” Polly said with heat.
Shane walked in as Maggie came down the stairs wearing sweats and a T-shirt. Polly saw her bare feet. “Oh no! Honey, I forgot to get you some slippers. Matthew, go and get her a pair of socks to keep her feet warm.”
“It’s okay, I’m fine.” Maggie held out a hand to stay Matt.
Matt just laughed at her and jogged out of the room. He returned in less than two minutes. “Here, sugar, put ’em on or she’ll do it for you.”
“Thanks.” Maggie looked up at Shane as she pulled the socks on. “Well? Any news?”
“We’ve arrested Alex Parsons. He had a bucket of red paint sitting on his back steps. The fool still had it under his fingernails.”
Nausea roiled through her and she felt light-headed in disbelief of the situation. “Why? I only went out with him three times! We never got more serious than a kiss. I don’t understand why he hates me so much.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s hate. It gets worse.”
Kyle moved his chair closer to Maggie’s, reaching out to grab her hand.
Maggie paled. “What?”
Shane sighed. “He had pictures of you. Hundreds of pictures of you. Some of them were taken of you at the school, working in your yard, some were of you in the house. And there are ones he clearly used a telephoto lens with. You’re, um, naked in some.”
She put her head down on the table, rage, shame, and mortification fought within her. She wasn’t sure she could even begin to process it all right then. “I’ve seen him in my neighborhood a lot. I just tried to ignore him.”
“He had some of your stuff too, Maggie. He must have broken into your house to get it.”
“Stuff? What stuff?” She looked up at him.
“Um.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Underwear, bras, nightgowns.”
She groaned. It just kept getting worse. “He snatched my panties? Naked pictures of me? The whole town is going to hear about this. I’m going to have to move.”