“No husband and no children. Maybe one day.”She ignored the twinge in her heart as thoughts of Aiden once againintruded. She was here, with her grandmother, and she refused tolet his memory ruin it. Still, she found herself scratching at herarm as she told Marsha about her life.
Later, Marsha broke out photo albums andtreated Maggie to more pictures of Mindy as she progressed throughher life. By the time Maggie left, she had plans to return. Insteadof heading south right away, as she’d originally intended, shewould come here to spend some time with Marsha and get to know herbetter. She already liked her grandmother more than she’d allowedherself to hope she would.
She had no mother, but she may end up with agrandma. Maybe her journey would end here, and she would stay.Backing out of the driveway, she headed down the mountains. Maybeshe’d trade in city life for snow-capped mountains and rurallife.
She’d either go insane or discover she lovedit. Either way, she had no concrete plans for her future andnothing holding her back.
The tears sliding down her face surprisedher. She hadn’t realized she was crying until she felt one driponto her hand. She’d been so determined to leave everything behind,but the minute she did, there would be no chance of seeing Aidenagain.
You haven’t seen him in two weeks anyway,you idiot. He’s moving on, and so are you.
Maggie kept that thought firmly in my mindas the setting sun kissed the mountain peaks.
CHAPTER 46
Exhaustion clung to her as she trudged upthe steps to her apartment. Due to an accident on the highway, ithad taken her almost four hours to get home. It was only nine, butit felt like she’d been up for three days straight, and her backfelt like she’d lifted over fifty patients today.
Stepping off the final stair, she turned thecorner and froze. Her heart lurched in excitement when she spottedthe man leaning against the wall beside her door. She forgot allabout the unhappiness of these past two weeks as she prepared torace forward and throw herself into his arms.
Then, the man lifted his head and a set ofemerald instead of leaf-green eyes met hers. With a sinking heart,she absorbed more of the differences between him and Aiden. Thisman’s nose was different than Aiden’s, his hair longer and straightinstead of curly. His sweater stretched over his broad chest andclung to his thick biceps and forearms, but Aiden was more thicklymuscled.
No matter the differences between them, shecouldn’t deny she was staring at a member of Aiden’s family. Afterwhat Aiden had told her about his siblings, she suspected she knewwhich one it was too.
The question was, why was he here?
She hadn’t told anyone about what hadhappened with her foray into the vampire world, and she neverplanned to. He couldn’t be here because he’d heard rumors along thevampire grapevine that she’d talked and he’d come to silence her.Whatever had brought this vamp to her door, she suspected it wasn’tgood.
She touched the stake tucked into the innerpocket of her coat. Looking at him, she highly doubted she’d getthe chance to use it against him, but she’d make him regretattacking her if he tried to do so.
Pulling her keys from her pocket, she threwher shoulders back. She stood in the presence of another powerfulvampire, but she refused to be intimidated by him.
His emotionless gaze raked her from head totoe. “Maggie?” he inquired.
“Ethan, I assume,” she said as she strodeforward.
“Aiden told you about me?”
“He did.” She slid the key into thedeadbolt, half expecting him to grab her, but he didn’t try to stopher. “What are you doing here?”
“Can we talk?”
“We are talking,” she replied as sheunlocked the deadbolt and pushed her door open.
“Privately.”
She stepped into her apartment and stood inthe doorway, keeping it partially closed to block his view inside.She didn’t care if he saw her things, she needed a minute to calmher acute disappointment that Aiden hadn’t been waiting for her. Nomatter how often she told herself she was done with him, a burst ofexcitement had slammed into her when she first saw Ethan, beforeshe realized he wasn’t the vamp she loved.
Shit!
She’d been trying to deny it, but shecouldn’t anymore. Maybe they hadn’t known each other for long, butshe loved Aiden, and he’d crushed her heart.
Aiden had walked out of her life, so why didshe have to be reminded of him by being forced to deal with hisbrother? Was Ethan here because she’d been wrong and somethinghadhappened to Aiden? But why wouldn’t Ethan come to tellher that sooner? Surely Abby or Vicky would have informed him sheexisted and Aiden believed her to be his mate. Wouldn’t they?
Her skin itched all over, her blood feltlike sludge pumping through her veins as she took a deep breath andfocused on Ethan again.
“I won’t take much of your time,” he said,“and I won’t hurt you.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she retorted.
