She turned her back on him and stomped out of the room without once looking back. But why should she? She’d made her point.
His arms felt empty without her in them. His body was on fire and slowly cooling now that Maggie was gone. Damn it, he hated the cold. He wanted the heat. He wanted her. And he always would. She was right. They couldn’t live together as friends. So what did that leave them?
They had a past.
They might have a future.
All it would cost him was his pride.
Ten
“Y ou’re as stubborn as he is, I swear.” Mrs. Carey gave her soup pot a stir, then fisted her hands at her hips. “That poor baby is going to have a head like a rock thanks to his parents.”
Maggie sat at the kitchen table, drinking tea she didn’t want and staring through the window at Justice as he carried Jonas around the ranch yard. Spring sunshine fell out of a perfect sky. Angel and Spike were racing in circles, making Jonas laugh with delight, and the wide grin on Justice’s face stole her breath away.
Yet here she sat in the kitchen. It was a bright, cheery room, with dozens of cabinets, miles of countertop and the comforting scent of homemade soup bubbling on the stove. But Maggie didn’t feel comforted. More like…disconnected.
At the end of a very long week, she felt as though she were walking a tightwire fifty feet off the ground with no net beneath her. Days crawled past and she and Justice might as well have been living in separate homes. She hadn’t touched him in days, though she’d dreamed about him every night. Thought about him every waking moment.
And still there didn’t seem to be an answer.
“What am I supposed to do?” Maggie asked with a shake of her head. “He wants us to be friends.”
Mrs. Carey snorted. “Anyone can see you two weren’t destined for friendship.”
Smiling wryly, Maggie said, “I agree, but what if that’s all that’s left to us?”
Mrs. Carey walked to the table, sat down opposite her and folded her hands neatly on top of a brick-red placemat. Staring Maggie in the eyes, she asked bluntly, “If all that’s left is friendship, why does the air sizzle when the two of you are together?”
Maggie laughed. “Excuse me?”
“Do I look like I’m a hundred and fifty years old?” Mrs. Carey snorted again and clucked her tongue. “Because I’m not. And anyone with half an eye could have seen the way you two were around each other the past couple of weeks. I nearly caught fire myself, just watching the two of you look at each other.”
No point in denying the truth, Maggie thought. So she didn’t try. “Not lately, though.”
“No,” Mrs. Carey allowed. “What I’ve got to wonder is why? What changed?”
“What hasn’t?” Reaching for a cookie from the plate in the center of the table, Maggie took a bite, chewed, then swallowed. “He wants Jonas, but he hasn’t said he wants me.”
“Pfft.” The older woman waved away that statement with one dismissive hand. “You know he does.”
“What I know and what I need to hear are two different things,” Maggie said, letting her gaze slide once again to the two most important men in her life. She looked out the window just in time to see Justice plant a kiss on Jonas’s forehead.
Her heart melted. She’d wished for this for so long, that Justice would know and love his son, and now it was happening. The only problem was that she should have been more specific in her wishes. She should have hoped that the three of them would find one another.
“Maggie, you more than anybody know that Justice doesn’t always say what he’s feeling,” Mrs. Carey said softly, drawing her gaze away from the window. “You love him. I can see it in you.”
“Yeah, I love him,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t change anything.”
The other woman laughed. “Oh, honey. It changes everything. With love, anything’s possible. You just can’t give up.”
“I’m not the one giving up,” she retorted, defending herself. “Justice is the one who won’t budge.”
“Hmm…”
“What’s that mean?”
“Nothing at all,” Mrs. Carey said with a sigh. “Just seems to me that people as stubborn as you and Justice have an obligation to the world to stick together. Spare two other people from having to put up with either of you.”
She had to laugh. One thing about Justice’s housekeeper, you never had to wonder what she was thinking.
“Now, why don’t you go outside and join your men?”
She wanted to. She really did. But things were so strained between Justice and her at the moment that she wasn’t at all sure she’d be welcomed. Besides, now that Justice was almost back to full strength, she’d be leaving soon and taking Jonas with her, no matter what the baby’s father thought about it. So why not let the two of them have some time together while they could?
But, oh, the thought of leaving the ranch again, leaving Justice again, was killing her. And the fear that he might make good on his promise and try to take her son was chilling. Pain was gathering on the near horizon, and she knew that when it finally caught up to her, it was going to be soul crushing.
“No,” Maggie said, standing up slowly. It was time she started getting used to the fact that she wasn’t going to be with Justice. Brace for the coming pain as best she could. “I think I’ll go upstairs, take a long bath and start getting ready for tonight.”
Mrs. Carey nodded. “It’s good that you’re going with him.”
Maybe it was, Maggie thought, but maybe it would turn out to be an exercise in torture for both of them. She’d agreed days ago to attend the Feed the Hungry charity dance with Justice.
Feed the Hungry was a local foundation the King Ranch donated hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to in order to stock local food banks. Maggie had even helped plan the event when she and Justice were still together. So attending with him had seemed like a good idea when he’d first broached the subject.
But now…she wasn’t so sure. Looking down at the woman still seated at the table, she asked, “Are you certain you don’t mind babysitting while we go? Because if you do, I can stay home and—”
“It’s a joy to watch that baby, and you well know it,” Mrs. Carey told her with a smile. “So if you’re thinking of chickening out at the last minute, you can’t use me as an excuse.”