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“I bet it won’t be as hard as you might think, brother.” Andrew opened the door, smiling. “Go get her.”
Dragging a hand through his hair, he went back inside, squeezing his brother’s shoulder as he passed. The second he stepped foot in the crowded ballroom, women his mother had “personally invited” converged on him, like ants fighting over the last crumb at a picnic. They were wasting their time. He wasn’t interested.
Not unless one of them was Maggie.
“I got you a whiskey,” a blonde said.
“Can we dance?” a brunette asked. “I love this song.”
He tugged on his bowtie and scanned the crowd, looking for the coat check area. “I’m sorry, but I—” He cut off mid-sentence, because he caught a flash of midnight blue. Midnight blue that looked an awful lot like… “Maggie.”
It was her. It had to be.
She had her back to him, but he’d recognize her anywhere. And she was wearing his dress. The one he’d bought for her to wear tonight. Her hair was swept up, and tendrils slipped out in artful disarray. She looked hauntingly beautiful.
And he missed her so damn much.
“Maggie,” he repeated, unable to believe she was here, in the same room as him. “Maggie.”
“No. My name’s Julia.” A woman reached up and rested her hand on his arm. “Julia Edgerton.”
“Let go of me.” He shrugged her off, his focus locked on to that flash of blue in the distance. “I have to go.”
Ignoring the horrified gasp behind him, he fought his way through the crowd as the clock struck twelve behind him. It was officially Christmas. He elbowed his way toward the vision in blue, his heart pounding so hard it was all he heard. Halfway across the floor, she turned.
He hadn’t imagined it. She was there. Standing across the room from him.
“My Maggie,” he breathed again, smiling.
As if by magnetism, her gaze latched on to his. Her lips quirked into a tiny smile, and she started across the floor, too. Benjamin sped up his steps, because now that she’d seen him, and he’d seen her, he knew what this meant.
She’d come home.
They met in the middle of the floor, and the crowd parted for them, like they sensed something huge was happening here. A
nd it was. If she’d come back to him, he was never letting her go again. He caught her hands in his. “You’re here. You came home to me.”
She turned her face up to him, all bright smiles and shining gray eyes with blue specks. “Did you ever think I wouldn’t?”
“Well…yeah.” He let out a laugh. “After you sent me home alone, I kind of did.”
She laughed, too. “Fair enough. I shouldn’t have sent you away. I lied. I hadn’t listened to those messages.”
“Oh.” He paused, running his thumb over the back of her knuckles. It felt as if it had been years since he’d been able to touch her, and he’d been starving for it. Having her in his arms made the earth stop trembling, and it was as if he’d never let her go in the first place. All the fear, pain, and hurt faded away. “Are you still mad at me?”
She shook her head once. “Nope.”
“Good.” He stepped closer. “Can you forgive me for being an asshole that day? I’d just found out I lost everything—which was a lie, but I’ll get to that later. And you were leaving, and I thought it was because—”
She pressed two fingers against his lips. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but yes. I forgive you. Do you forgive me for believing your mother’s lies in the first place, and for not telling you the whole story when you came to see me?”
“Maggie…” He hauled her into his arms and hugged her so tight she squealed. “What do you think?”
“I think you should kiss me,” she whispered.
Relief and desire surged through him, warring with one another for control. “Darling? I thought you’d never ask.”
The second his lips touched hers, the past week and a half faded away. She’d never left, and he’d never lost her, and they were happy. He fisted the soft fabric of her dress, inhaled deeply, and forced himself to step back when all he wanted was to pull her closer. But not here, where they couldn’t finish what they started. Once he started…
