Chapter Twenty-Nine
“So, let me get this straight. Natalie was the one attacking your shop because she hates you for dating Colton, who is her ex, but he’s totally in love with you. And now you’re moving in with him, but you didn’t say ‘I love you’ back?” Lizzy spouted off the facts like a bullet point list.
A large sigh escaped Maggie’s lips. “I wanted to, but I just couldn’t get the words out.”
“I’m going to start calling you Chicken Little.”
Her grip tightened on the phone. “Don’t you dare.”
“I think it’s clever. You’re only five three, and you don’t even have the balls to say ‘I love you’ to a man who protected you, poured his heart out, and basically worships the ground you walk on.” Her friend paused before adding. “Which he should do, by the way.”
“I don’t have balls at all, Lizzy.” But her friend was right. She was being a coward by not responding to Colton’s declaration. There was still a tiny part of her too afraid to believe it.
“Fine, ovaries then. They’re way tougher anyway. Considering what we go through every month.”
She couldn’t hold in the laughter at her friend’s apt analogy. “Be serious.”
A shuffle came over the phone, sounding much like an ice cream carton being placed on a table. Uh oh, Lizzy was putting down her food. Things were about to get real.
“Okay, you want my honest opinion?”
That’s what best friends were for.
“I think you love this guy, but you’re too scared to say it out loud because that makes it real.”
Duh, she figured that out all herself.
“You’ve been hurt by almost every guy who’s ever been in your life, starting with your dad and ending with Miles. This Colton guy sounds like the real deal. He loves you, which makes him smart, and he’s been good to you. Right?”
She thought over the last few weeks. The cabin, her gas leak, the many times he came rushing to her side. Then there was all the encouragement and support he had given her. He believed in her. Always told her how amazing he found her. Last, but definitely not least, the sex. No. Scratch that. The love making. Because that’s what it was. Every time he touched her, she could feel Colton’s love pouring out of his body into hers. Even in the simplest of kisses, it was there.
“He’s been more than good to me.” A warmth spread over her, and her lips tilted in a smile. “I’ve never felt more loved in my life.” She let out a long groan. “So, why can’t I just say it?”
“That you love him, too?”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re scared that the moment you admit your feelings, this whole thing will come crashing down on you.”
Leave it to Lizzy to hit the nail on the head.
“If you don’t say it, you can pretend it’s not real. But sweetie, it is real. Even I can see how much you love this guy, and I’m a thousand miles away. Now, put on your big girl panties, stop being such a chicken, and tell the poor cowboy you love him.”
A snort of laughter burst out of her. “That easy is it?”
“That easy.”
Her best friend made it sound so simple, but…
“What if you’re wrong? What if he stops loving me?”
“First of all, I’m never wrong.”
She could almost see her friend ticking off points on her fingers.
“Second, not loving you is impossible. And finally, Maggie, there are no guarantees in life. Sometimes, you just gotta grab the bull by the horns and go for it.”
“Grab the bull by the horns?”
“Hey, you’re in Podunk Town. I thought the analogy would fit.”
She chuckled, but her friend was right. Time to stop being scared of what might happen and just go for it. She’d already agreed to move in and keep seeing Colton, how much more was she risking by saying she loved him?
Just my entire heart.
“It’s Peak Town. And…you’re right.”
Her friend yelped in victory. “Duh, didn’t I just tell you I’m always right?”
She started to laugh when a sound at the back door caught her attention. Was someone trying to get in? Only she and Jamie had a key for the store. Had Jamie forgotten something in the shop? No, she’d been off today.
“Maggie? Are you still there?”
“Hang on a second.”
She rose from her chair. There was definitely someone coming in the back door.
“Jamie, is that you?”
The sound of a key turning the lock tumblers echoed in the quiet air. The doorknob moved. She could hear Lizzy calling her name through the phone at her ear. A familiar person stepped though the back door, but it wasn’t her young employee.
“What are you doing here? How did you get a key?”
“Maggie! Answer me!”
Lizzy’s voice screamed through the phone, but she couldn’t respond. Fear had frozen her vocal chords when a large, very lethal looking, gun pointed right at her.
“Hang up the phone and toss it to me now, or I use this gun to make your insides, outsides.”
Ignoring her best friend’s frantic screams over the phone, Maggie pressed the end button on her cell and tossed it to the deceivingly sweet looking, older woman standing in front of her.