AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can vouch for that,” Justin said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, trying to take the focus off Maggie’s smell. He knew her well enough to know she was about ready to explode. But it was too late. She blocked out the conversation and comments, hoping Justin didn’t put his foot in his mouth again.
Finally, it was time to leave. Thankfully, Amber was going home with Grace, and Dave would pick her up from there. Reaching for her hand, Justin knew he was in hot water and would do anything to bridge the gap his big mouth had created. Maggie let him try using every bit of self-control she had not to yank her hand out of his.
They went to the corral and got their horses.
“We can go right to Bayou Cottage and unload the horses. Then we can take the trailer back to my dad’s place and pick up Brulee.”
“Sounds good,” Maggie said, leading Dale to the back of the trailer.
“You are going to be my horse if I have anything to say about it.” She smoothed his muzzle, and in return he did a little dance, making all the angst float away as she laughed, amused at Dale’s antics.
“I’ll take him for you,” Justin said, reaching for his reins.
Wonderful, glorious work. It prevented the discussion of anything untoward. She worked at cleaning up the mess the horses had made in the paddock while Justin got them secured in the trailer.
“We’re all set,” he said. “You ready?”
“I’m ready.”
She was ready to let go of annoyances and prayed Justin wouldn’t want to psychoanalyze Bubba’s faux pas. But no such luck.
“That Bubba is a piece of work.”
“Yep, he sure is.”
“You did a good job not playing into that.”
“What does that mean, exactly? What was I supposed to do? I still can’t believe he would say such a thing in a group. Let alone to me.”
“I’m sorry, honey. It made me think though.”
“Right,” she replied sharply. “And it made me think, too.”
“I’m not ready to have a kid. Not until we’re married, anyway. Would you consider going on the pill?”
“No, I would not. What I said during the meeting was true. You’re now in charge of birth control. I never want to think of it again.”
She could see the familiar tic in his jaw out of the corner of her eye.
“That means condoms.”
“That’s what it means.”
Doing a slow burn, Maggie did her best to control her angst, and he finally got it through his head that he needed to shut up. But he just couldn’t leave her in this state.
“Why are you so angry?”
Squinting her eyes at him, she wondered if he’d suddenly lost his ability to reason.
“Because I’m hurt and embarrassed. Grace and Amber heard you sayThank God, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.You could have saved it for when we were alone.”
“Maggie, I swear to you I was just teasing.”
“They didn’t know that, and neither did I. But now I know.”
He took her hand, and again, it took every ounce of self-control not to yank it away from him.
“Maggie, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”
