Jonathan practically bit his tongue in two he was so pissed. Mags called a “friend” to help her when she’d been hurt. Mags’ “friend” took her to the hospital. Mags stayed at a “friend’s” house last night. Mags was staying at a “friend’s” house for an indeterminate amount of time.
He wondered if the “friend” would be at the charity event that night. It was ridiculous to be angry with Margaret for having friends outside of their group or even a boyfriend, especially when he’d never given her any reason not to.
It was childish. He knew it was. He sighed and leaned his head against the headrest.
“Listen, Jon, far be it from me to give out relationship advice, but I think you need to admit that you have feelings for Mags, and you do feel something. Lie to yourself, but don’t try to bullshit me. I don’t think you’ve liked any of the women you’ve taken out since secondary school. It’s like you’re waiting for something or someone else.”
Daniel emphasized “someone,” and maybe he was right. And maybe he was just a prick who’d been satisfied knowing Mags had crushed on him for years. Knowing she felt something more than friendship for him had been enough.
But she’d taken away the “something more,” and he wasn’t handling it well. He’d never felt so undeserving of Mags’ affection. When had he become such a prick?
She thought their New Year’s Eve kiss had meant nothing to him, when the frightening reality was that it had meanteverything. If he were honest, he hadn’t had a moment like that with a woman since that night. Mags had shaken him that night, turned him inside out.
He hurt her that night. The horror of it was that he’d done it purposefully and had kept doing it with every woman he’d forced her to endure.
Had she given up on him? Did he want her to finally let him go?
No.
He unclenched his fingers from around his phone and pulled up his contacts. She answered on the first ring.
“Hey, babe,” the woman purred.
“Sheri. Tonight’s off. Sorry about the late notice.” He hung up before she asked any questions, foolish or otherwise.
Daniel opened his mouth, but Jonathan quickly cut him off. “Don’t.”
twelve
MAGS
Mags sighedthe minute the gallery came into view, and her ribs screamed in protest. Oh well. All’s well that ends well. Eze clearing her work schedule was a huge overstepping blessing. She was giddy to spend the rest of the day working on her second paid piece and sketching the fan design for Eze’s mother.
Speaking of her rescuer, she hadn’t seen him since the night before, when he “laid down the law,” so to speak. He was busy at Trinity and picking up the slack at the chippers.
He laughed when she asked him if their boss would get someone to help clean all the fish. “Margaret,” he chuckled, “I’ve worked at half speed since you took an interest in filleting. The faster my hands work, the more I can immerse myself in equations, but I’ve learned to do my thinking at the slower pace.”
He’d still been chuckling when he excused himself at her bedroom door.Ass.Just because he was kind of like her hero now, didn’t mean she wasn’t plotting payback for the razzing.
Mags paused at the top of the stairs and felt her breakfast begin to make a second appearance. A small, headless bird lay still with its blood congealing around the gray feathers.
“Christ!” She screeched and slammed a hand over her beating heart, quickly moaning at the pain she’d inadvertently caused her bruised body.
The bird’s head was leaning against her door, its small black eyes frozen and watching. “My God,” she mumbled. Eze or Abeo must have let in a cat that, unfortunately, liked to eat its snacks outside her door.
She looked around the stairwell, the door, and finally to the window high above, the only source of natural light. It had to be a cat getting in. They were clever and resourceful. It probably sneaked out the moment it heard a human.
Stepping over the head, she let herself in and grabbed several paper towels, making quick work of scooping up the cat’s interrupted meal and placing it in a garbage bag to toss in a bin on her way to Eze’s. She’d be damned if she buried every damn thing the cat dragged in.
As she washed up, she decided she really needed to tell the gallery manager that they might have a gap somewhere in their exterior. They wouldn’t want to take any chances that a cat or any other animal could gain access to the gallery proper.
Finally seated at her desk, her hands froze above the desk's whitewashed planks. A few things were out of order. The hair on the back of her neck rose.
Her scissors were on the windowsill. She could maybe believe she’d been in a hurry and placed them wrong, but several of her embroidery threads were out of their color codes.
Now that, she would never have done in a hurry or not. Her eyes slowly traveled around the small room, landing on the partially opened door of the space’s only closet, and then it hither. Eze had been there, and he’d been in a hurry. He might have looked at her sewing things out of curiosity.
It seemed out of character for him not to put her things back the exact way he’d found them, but then, he was emotional at the time.
