Page 21 of Alistair

“You’re welcome.”

She put the moose on the coffee table and folded the paper sack and tissue paper. He couldn’t quite place it, but something was off about her behavior. She was smiling and seemed genuinely pleased with his little gift, but her eyes were troubled and there were small lines at the corners that looked like stress.

“Maggie, are you okay?”

Her brows lifted. “Of course. Are you ready to go?”

He could feel her unhappiness suddenly, like an echo in his heart that pulled at his emotions and made him want to wrap her up in a big hug and fix whatever was going on.

“Maggie,” he said gently. “I can tell something’s wrong. If you want to tell me to go to hell and drop it, I will, but you can talk to me. Did I do something wrong?”

Her eyes softened, the green going luminous with emotion. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s…something happenedwith my family and my sister’s wedding. I was trying not to look upset.”

He stared at her for a long moment and then pulled her against him in a hug. She fit perfectly against him, and her sweet scent rolled over him.

She curled her hands into his shirt and shivered.

“You don’t have to hide whatever you’re feeling from me,” he murmured. “If you want to talk, I’ve got two good ears.”

She didn’t say anything for a bit, she just stood in his embrace with her hands twisted in his shirt, until she finally said, “You could really tell something was wrong?”

“Sure.” He wished he could explain that his elephant was already in tune with her emotions and that even though they weren’t mated, they were soulmates and already connected on some levels. Instead, he said, “Your eyes are very expressive.” She tilted her head to look at him and he ran his thumb across her soft cheek. “Plus, I could kind of justfeellike something was off, like you weren’t happy.”

“Can we…talk for a bit?”

“Of course.”

They sat on the couch together, leaning against the plush cushions and facing each other. She twisted her fingers together, clenching and unclenching them, and then she told him what had happened at her parents’ home with her sister and the wedding.

While she’d told him about her cheating ex and had told him how her family treated her, he was genuinely shocked that her family had thought so little about her feelings and hadn’t sided with her in the first place.

He took one of her hands and linked their fingers. “I’m really fucking sorry, Maggie. About all of it. You’re too precious to be treated like garbage, not just by your ex but your family too.”

“Thank you,” she said, her eyes shining with the tears she’d shed as she spilled her heart to him.

“Where did they leave things with you?”

“Well,” she said, sniffling, “I got a message from Penny that she wasn’t going to disinvite him, but that I could if I wanted. Which I don’t. I blocked him when we broke up and I have zero interest in reconnecting. I’m not even sure why he’d still want to come. He and Brian are work acquaintances, but I don’t think Brian really even likes him that much anyway. The whole thing is strange.”

“He might be looking to rekindle things with you?”

Over his elephant’s tusks!

“That’s kind of what I think. Or that he believes I want him there. He’s an egotistical asshole and doesn’t think he ever did anything wrong. He’s not at the table I’m sitting at anymore, and Penny expects me to be pleasant and not cause any problems. LikeI’mthe one she needs to worry about.” Maggie rolled her eyes. She sighed and leaned her head against the couch, giving his hand a squeeze. “I want to ask you something, but I don’t want you to think it’s a knee-jerk reaction.”

“Sure.”

“Would you be my plus-one to my sister’s wedding? I did tell her that it was my invitation to give away, not for them to bully me into letting him sit with me, and she agreed. I know it’s weird and kind of fast. I mean, you’d be meeting my family. Myentirefamily. And we’ve only been out on one date.”

She spoke in a rush, her cheeks flushing and her eyes wide and filled with hope.

As if he would disappoint her.

“I’d love to.”

Her brows rose again. “You would?”

“Of course. When you told me last night about the wedding, I wanted to ask if I could escort you, but I thought you might feelit was too soon for that kind of thing. So this is really what I was hoping for anyway, so long as you’re okay with it.”

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