Page 160 of Creeping Beautiful

“What home?” I’m angry and it’s not easy to hide. “Because you sure as hell didn’t bring her here.”

“My house in Baton Rouge.”

I suck in a deep breath. Still holding tight to Indie.

“You had no right.” I’m so fuckin’ pissed.

Donovan walks over to Maggie and bends down. “Hey there, Mags. Do you remember me? I’m Donovan.”

But Adam and I are still having a conversation and Indie is too shocked to move out of my embrace.

“I had every right, McKay. She tried to kill us.”

“Adam.” Donovan stands back up. “We’re not gonna have this conversation in front of Maggie.”

Adam is still looking at me. “Maggie already knows. I told her everything on the way over here.”

He told her everything. A six-year-old girl. I want to grab him by the neck and shake some sense into this man. Because I see what he’s doing. I know what he’s done.

Indie made a choice last night and she chose me. And Adam has been keeping Maggie secret all this time. Secret from me, not Indie.

Me.

Because he knew if Indie came back and blamed him, he has this little surprise in his pocket to get back in her good graces.

Never mind that I already talked sense into her. Never mind that I already smoothed it over. Never mind that I had his back from day one.

And maybe that makes me sound callous. I am happy she’s alive. I’m… fucking thrilled that she’s alive. But this feels a whole like we just started a new game of Let’s-Pretend-That-Didn’t-Happen.

“Maggie?” Indie finally speaks and pulls me out of my heated thoughts. “Is that really you?”

Maggie looks up at Adam and he nods. “Go ahead. You know who she is.”

Maggie leaps. Like a fuckin’ gazelle. And two seconds later she is huggin’ her mama. Indie is crying. Hard. Like… I have never seen Indie cry like this before. And pretty soon my eyes are tearing up too.

Even Donovan is crying. Hell, even Adam is crying.

When we lock eyes again my anger subsides a little.

He is not a bad man. He can’t help who he is any more than the rest of us.

We are just… liars.

“I just needed to keep her safe, McKay. We all stretch the truth for the same reason, don’t we?”

His Southern accent, which is almost always mostly hidden—like it’s a secret that confirms who he really is underneath—comes pouring out of his mouth with his words.

“We lie to keep each other safe, right? Even you do it, McKay. Even you had to make choices that day, remember? That’s all this was about. Nothing else. Just that.” Adam swipes a tear off his cheek. And then he narrows his eyes at me. “You understand, right?”

And then I get it.

Because I do understand.

And he knows why I understand.

We are playing a brand-new game.

And that game isn’t called Let’s-Pretend-That-Didn’t-Happen.