“Damn it, Maggie!” He slammed on the brakes, threw the car into Park and jumped out, racing down the sidewalk to catch up to her. His leg ached like a son of a bitch, but he ignored the pulsing pain in his quest to catch the most infuriating woman he’d ever known. When he grabbed hold of her, he wasn’t even surprised to feel her turn into a hundred and twenty pounds of fighting fury.
“Let me go, you big bully!” She wrenched free from his grasp, and when his hand clutched at her forearm again, she swung one leg back to kick him in the shins. He dodged that move and still didn’t release her. “Don’t touch me. You humiliated me in front of the whole town—”
His eyes went wide. “I humiliated you?”
“You told the whole damn room we’ve been sleeping together.”
“And you told’em we’re married. Who cares?”
“I do, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“So, now whose pride is the problem?” That one question delivered in a quiet, reasonable tone did what all of his arguments hadn’t. They shut her up but fast, despite how resentful she looked about it.
“Fine. I’ll take the ride. But I’m not talking to you, Justice. Not tonight. Not ever.”
He smiled to himself as he led her back to the car. One thing in this world he was sure of. Maggie Ryan King wouldn’t be able to keep a vow of silence if her own life depended on it.
Eleven
B y the time they reached the ranch, Maggie’s temper had died into a slow burn. She could still see the shocked, delighted expressions on the faces of the people surrounding them at the ball. She just knew that by tomorrow the story was going to be all over the county.
And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. God, she felt like an idiot. She’d been harboring too many dreams about Justice, and seeing them shattered in an instant—in front of an audience—was just humiliating.
She had the door open and was jumping to the ground almost before the car had rolled to a stop.
“Damn it, Maggie! Wait a minute.”
She ignored him and marched toward the house. She’d had enough. All she wanted now was to go inside, hug her baby and go to bed. Then when she woke up, she’d pack and get the heck out of Justice’s house before he’d even had his morning coffee.
“Maggie, wait for me.”
She glanced over her shoulder and hesitated when she saw him limp slightly. But a moment later, she reminded herself that he didn’t want her help. He didn’t need a therapist. He didn’t need her.
Fumbling in her clutch purse for the front door key, she blew out a breath as Justice came up behind her, then reached past her to unlock the door and open it up.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hurried to the stairs, but his hand on her arm stopped her. “Maggie, at least talk to me.”
Turning her gaze up to his, she stared into those dark blue eyes and felt a sigh slide from her throat. “What’s left to say?”
“I’m so glad you’re home. I was just getting ready to call you!”
They both turned to look up at the head of the stairs, where Mrs. Carey stood, holding a fretful Jonas. Instantly, Maggie gathered the hem of her dress, hiked it above her knees and raced up the stairs. Justice was just a step or two behind her.
Scooping her son into her arms, Maggie cuddled him close and inhaled sharply. “He’s burning up!”
Justice came close, laid his hand on the back of Jonas’s neck and shot a look at Mrs. Carey. “How long?”
She wrung her hands together. “He’s been uneasy all night, but just in the past half hour or so, his fever’s climbed. I tried calling the doctor but couldn’t get him, so I was going to call you.”
“It’ll be fine, Mrs. Carey. Don’t worry.” He plucked Jonas from Maggie’s arms and held him close to his chest. With his free hand, he took Maggie’s and curled his fingers around hers. She immediately felt better, linked to his warmth and strength. When she looked up at him, she saw the calm, stoic expression she was used to.
Tonight, that was a comfort. She was so scared for Jonas that having Justice beside her, taking charge and looking confident, filled her with the same kind of certainty.
“We’ll take him to the E.R.,” Justice was saying, already starting down the stairs, taking Maggie with him.
“Don’t you want to at least change clothes first?” Mrs. Carey called after them.
“Nope.”
The emergency room in any city was a miserable place, Justice thought as he paced back and forth across the pale green linoleum. The smells, the sounds, the suffering, it all piled up on a person the minute he or she walked in the doors. They shouldn’t have to be there. Kids shouldn’t be allowed to get sick. There should be some sort of cosmic law against making a child who didn’t even understand what was happening to him feel so bad. If he had his way, he thought, glancing over his shoulder to where Maggie sat on a gurney cradling Jonas in her lap, he’d see to it that his son was never in a place like this one again.
Everything in Justice tightened as he realized that what he was feeling was sheer terror with a thick layer of helplessness. And that was new. Justice had never in his life faced a situation that he couldn’t fix—except for the time when Maggie had left him. Yet even then, he reminded himself, he could have stopped her if he’d let go of his own pride long enough to admit what was really important.
She’d been right, he realized. At the dance, when she’d accused him of letting their marriage dissolve because of his pride. But damn it, was a man supposed to lay down everything he was for the sake of the woman he loved?
Love.
That one word resonated inside him and seemed to echo over and over again. He loved her completely, desperately, and a life without her seemed like the worst kind of prison sentence.
His gaze fixed on Maggie now, he saw tears glimmering in her eyes. Saw her hand tremble as she stroked their son’s back. Then she lifted her gaze to his, and he read absolute trust in those pale blue depths. She was looking to him to fix this. To make it right. She was turning to him despite the hard words and the hurt feelings that lay between them. Justice felt a stir of something elemental inside, and as he held her gaze, he swore to himself that he wouldn’t let her down. And when this crisis with Jonas was past, he would do whatever he had to do to keep Maggie in his life.
As soon as they got Jonas taken care of and settled down in his own bed back at the ranch, he was going to tell her that he loved her. Tell her what she meant to him and how empty his life was without her—and his pride be damned.