Chapter Eight
She’d finished the papers by the end of the day and put them in her locked cabinet and went home. Only to find her father waiting for her on the porch.
“Daddy, what are you doing here?” she asked, unlocking the door and letting him inside. “I have a date, he’ll be here in half an hour.”
“Oh, honey, I failed you,” he said.
“Yes, you did,” she answered honestly. She gestured to the sofa and they both sat. “You see, I used to think that you did your best. That you tried to make up for how she was with our trips and the small indulgences you gave me but now I think that you just tried to duck your guilt. It’s not right, but it’s over.”
“I’d like to say that I had no idea that she was that bad or that she didn’t mean to be as harsh as she was but I’d be lying. I made bad choices. I loved your mother something fierce. I loved her beauty and I made a choice—her over you. It was wrong and that love I had for her has slowly tarnished and died over the years. I don’t even recognize myself anymore, Maggie. I used to be such a strong man. I used to be a leader. I’ve run our family business for my entire adult life! People look up to me, trust me to take care of them and their families and they shouldn’t because I couldn’t even take care of my own.”
She sighed. “Listen, Daddy, if anyone can trust you to take care of them, it’s your employees. You’ve always done right by them. As for what you’ve become as Cecelia Wright’s husband, I can’t say. That’s yours to deal with.”
“I’m filing for divorce, Maggie.”
Shock froze her in place. “What?”
“I stood there and watched your mother and sister castigate you in front of a room full of people. I said nothing. When I heard you say your mother told you she wished you were never born, I felt the last bit of love I had for her die. I failed you but I cannot stay with that woman another day. I’ve moved out. Edward Chase’s brother is handling the divorce. The papers have been served.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Just let me try and prove that from now on, I can be a better father. Let me take you to dinner. I know you can’t on Thanksgiving because you’ll be with the Chases. How about Friday?”
Words escaped her as she thought about it. She should kick him out and never speak to him again but she couldn’t. She loved him. The part of her that was the little lonely bookish girl whose daddy took her to Philadelphia for her birthday because she so loved history—that part of her wanted to recognize what a big step he was taking. “All right. Let’s do it early though. I have a longstanding thing with Liv and Dee and I meet them at seven every Friday night.”
He smiled and squeezed her hands. “Thank you so much, sweetheart. How about you and I meet up at El Cid at five?”
“All right. What are you going to do for Thanksgiving?”
“Darlin’, you’re such a sweet girl. Thank God you take after my mother. I’m going to your aunt Delia’s for the day. You enjoy your beau and his family. I’d like to get to know him better, he seems like he cares for you.”
“I do, Mr. Wright, and I worry that you might hurt Maggie.”
Maggie and her father turned to see Kyle walking into the room. He leaned down to kiss the top of her head and sat on the arm of the couch next to her. “I knocked but you didn’t hear me. I was worried so I let myself in,” he told her.
“Kyle, this is my daddy, Tom Wright. Daddy, this is Kyle Chase.”
Tom Wright stood and held his hand out to Kyle. “Young man, I’m here to beg my daughter to give me another chance to be a better father. I’ve left my wife. Your uncle has taken the case. I’m fortunate, because Maggie has agreed to let me try, starting with having dinner with me on Friday. Would you like to come as well?”
Kyle shook his hand and nodded solemnly. “I would, sir. If Maggie is willing to give you another chance, I can as well.”
“I’m staying with your aunt and uncle for a while, until I find a place. You call me there if you need me. I’ll see you on Friday.” He nodded and walked out.
“Are you all right?” Kyle sank down next to her on the couch.
“I think so. I’m just stunned. My father adored my mother, literally. He said that the way she acted Saturday killed the last bit of love he had for her. My mother is going to be insanely angry about this.”
“Who cares what your bitch of a mother thinks, sweetheart? Don’t give her the power to hurt you ever again.”
“I won’t. I’m done. Now, I need to change. I’m sorry that I’m not ready.” She jumped up and ran upstairs and changed quickly and came back down.
“You’re quick. I don’t have to ask if you’re hungry.” He grinned.
She socked him in the arm and he laughed, pushing her out the door and to his car.
* * *
After dinner, leaning against the car, Maggie smiled up at Kyle as he rubbed a wayward curl between his fingers. “By the way, one of my students said you were hot and gave me a way-to-go today.”
He chuckled. “That so? Well I’m glad we’re on the gossip circuit, it should stop anyone from trying to poach you.”
“Me? Okay, buster, if you say so.” She snorted and turned to kiss the fingers holding her hair. When she turned back to face him, his eyes had gone a much deeper shade of green, almost the color of pine trees. Her breath caught.
“Maggie, let’s go back to my house. Or your house, I don’t care which. I want to touch you, make love to you.”
She felt the heat pool in her belly and she nodded—rendered speechless by the want in his eyes.
They were closer to his house and so they went there. Once inside, he grabbed her hand, leading her to his room. Moving to him, she pressed her face into the flesh of his neck, his warmth and scent lulling her. He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, gently laying her down.
Quickly kicking off her sneakers and yanking her sweater off, she was unzipping her jeans when she looked up to see Kyle already naked and looking down at her with intense heat.
“Oh,” she whispered when he pinned her in his gaze.
He gently moved her hands and pulled the rest of her clothing off himself before lying down beside her. They both let out a gasp when bare skin caressed bare skin.
“You feel so damned good, Maggie. I’ve never wanted anything this much in my life,” he whispered as he strummed his fingers through her pussy, making her even wetter than she already was. “I feel that every damned time I touch you. Keep thinking that it has to mellow a bit but each time I see you, I want you so bad it hurts. And when my fingers or my cock finds your pussy, you’re ready for me, always so ready for me. It turns me on so much that you want me so badly.” His voice was hoarse.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She reached back for the box of condoms he’d put in the drawer underneath his bed and grabbed one.
“Stay there,” he murmured and she stopped, her head hanging off the bed. Pleasure rocked through her when his mouth reached the humid flesh of her pussy. Closing her eyes, her hands hung above her head, touching the carpet beneath the bed, still holding the condom.
The blood rushed to her head as the sensation built. His tongue speared into her and then up and around her clit. Over and over as his hands at her hips held her steady. She barely recognized the sounds coming from deep inside her as he slowly devastated her with his mouth, loved her. He built her up slowly and gave her no place to hide as the climax slammed into her.
He dragged her limp body back up onto the bed and took the condom from her hands. Dimly she heard it rip and her eyes opened in time to see him roll it on his cock.
“I need you, Red.” And without any delay, slid into her welcoming body and shuddered at the intensity of it. “Man oh man do you feel good,” he murmured, his lips against her neck.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she rolled her hips up to meet his thrusts. The heated flesh of her pussy parted around him and then grasped, pulling him back into her body just milliseconds after he’d pulled out. Each thrust into her body felt like homecoming.
He moaned her name and braced his weight on his elbows to look down into her face. She gazed back up at him, open, totally open. Nothing existed but the delicious friction of their joining, of her silky thighs cradling his hips, of her heels digging into the flesh of the small of his back. Her eyes deep and luminous—like amber in candlelight—held only him. In that moment Kyle realized he was no longer falling in love with Maggie, he was already there. She owned his heart.
At that realization he came, waves of pleasure rolled through him as he poured into her. He put his face into the crook of her neck and breathed her in. “I love you, Maggie,” he whispered as the last of his pleasure flagged and he slumped beside her.
She turned onto her side and peered into his face. “What did you just say?”
“I said I love you, Margaret Elizabeth Wright.” He looked into her eyes seriously.
“Oh, that’s what I thought you said,” she replied and then got silent.
“Is that all you have to say?” he demanded sulkily. He’d never said the words to a woman he wasn’t related to and she had nothing to say back?
“No.”
“What?” He knew he sounded sullen but he was worried.
Noticing her fine tremble, he felt bad for upsetting her. But then she finally spoke. “Oh God, I’m so glad. I love you, too. I was so scared that it was all just me.” The words came out in a gasp as if she’d been holding it inside desperately.
Relief flooded him as he hugged her close. “Thank God! I’ve never told a woman that before and here I was thinking that my first time out I’d totally bombed. God, Maggie, I love you so much it makes my chest hurt. I think about you all day and when you aren’t with me, all night. I can’t get enough of you. Not just the naked sweaty writhing you but the total package.”
“I thought I’d die after I left you last night. I just wanted to give you some space but then I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned all night long.”
“I told you I’d tell you if I needed space, Maggie. I need you, silly woman.”
She snuggled into his body and smiled against his flesh. “I actually should go home, I have no clothes here and I need to work tomorrow.”
“No way, Red. I’ll come with you and sleep at your place. I have a job at the Bluebird Inn, it’s closer to your house anyway. I’ve realized I hate sleeping without you. I love that little body tucked into mine. I tried putting a pillow there last night but it was no good.”
“It’s nice to know I’m better than a bag of feathers,” she commented dryly.
“Oh yeah,” he agreed and rolled out of bed to grab a change of clothes and some toiletries.
Maggie watched him gather his things with a smile. So damned handsome and he loved her. She sighed happily. “You know, you could bring an extra few changes of clothes and leave them at my place, just in case.”
He looked around at her. “Yeah? That would be all right?”
“More than all right,” she said and he came back over to her, dropping a kiss on her lips.
“Okay. You should do that too. I mean, bring some stuff over here.”
“I like the idea of my panties in your drawer and some of my clothes in your closet, just in case a skank like Lyndsay comes over.”
He rolled his eyes. “I told you, I rarely brought women over here, Red. But I like the idea of your panties in my drawer, too.”
“Better in yours than Alex’s,” she commented with a grin.
He looked at her askance and then laughed. “I’m glad you can laugh about it.”
“What else can I do? I’m all cried out. Anyway, you make me feel like laughing instead of crying.”
“Good. Now let’s get over to your place and I’ll make you moan instead.”
“You’ve got a deal!”
* * *
They promised to meet at the courthouse later that afternoon as they’d left the house.
When she got there, her nervousness abated when she saw Kyle and Edward waiting for her on the front steps. Waving, she climbed the stairs to meet them. Kyle stiffened up and a red flush broke over his face. Edward reached out to hold his arm, shaking his head once. Alarmed, Maggie turned around to see what he was so angry about and saw Alex walking up the steps behind them. His attorney put himself between them and Alex and ushered him inside.
“Kyle, cool down, boy, or I’ll make you wait out here. Maggie, darlin’, are you all right?”
Taking a deep breath to brace herself, she nodded. “Yes. Let’s go in, I’m ready.”
Kyle took her hand and they followed Edward into the courtroom where the rest of the Chases, Liv and Dee were already seated. Smiling at them all gratefully, she and Edward moved past them to a more forward row. Kyle stayed at her side, her hand still tucked in his even as they sat down. Shane came in through an interior door and sat down away from them all. Of course he was there as sheriff but he caught Maggie’s eye and smiled at her reassuringly.
The judge addressed the prosecutor and Alex’s attorney before approving the plea agreement. Alex asked permission to address Maggie and the judge looked at her. “Ms. Wright, do you assent to Mr. Parsons addressing you?”
She leaned over and asked Edward if it would affect the protection order, which the judge had just made permanent, and the no-contact order and he shook his head no.
“Yes, Your Honor, he may address me.”
Alex stood up and turned toward her and Kyle squeezed her hand.
“Maggie, I’m truly sorry for frightening you and for the damage I did to your home. I won’t bother you again. I’m getting help in my counseling and I hope that someday we can be friends again.” He sat down and looked at his attorney.
Maggie just sat there. Be friends with him? Was he out of his mind?
“Very well, is that everything?” the judge asked.
“No, Your Honor, there is the matter of the stolen property belonging to Ms. Wright, and the photographs and negatives that he agreed to turn over. We have not received these items.” Edward stood and addressed the judge, back straight, and Maggie felt in good hands.
The judge turned a steely gaze to Alex and his attorney. “Well?”
The attorney whispered to Alex, who began to argue with him. “Your Honor, Mr. Parsons has left these items at home and will forward them to Ms. Wright by the end of the week.”
“No!” Maggie said urgently to Edward. “I want those pictures and my underthings back today! He promised.”
“Your Honor, Mr. Parsons has known he had to turn over these items since he made this agreement last Thursday. My client is understandably upset. Not only has Mr. Parsons terrorized her and vandalized her home but he possesses intimate items belonging to her and has taken photographs of her, without her knowledge or permission. We are prepared to wait while a police officer escorts Mr. Parsons to his home to retrieve these items posthaste,” Edward said calmly but firmly.
The judge looked at Alex and then to Shane. “Sheriff Chase, can you or one of your men escort Mr. Parsons to his home to retrieve these items? Which, by the way—I have difficulty understanding why he was given them back after he was arrested to begin with?”
“Yes, Your Honor. I can send Officer Spence right now. The items were given back to Mr. Parsons by mistake, included in the inventory of his personal items when he was released from jail.”
“Do it then. Mr. Parsons. You have half an hour to produce each and every one of the items you agreed to in the plea agreement. If a single item is missing—a single photograph or negative—I will send you to jail for a week on contempt charges. Do I make myself clear? We will recess until two fifteen, at such time you had better be back here and in full compliance or I’ll toss your butt in jail.”
Alex nodded and Shane spoke quietly to his officer and he escorted Alex outside. Maggie shook with anger. When the judge walked out she turned to Edward. “He did that on purpose! He was going to try and get away with keeping all of that stuff. He’s not sorry at all.”
“I’m going to wring that bastard’s neck,” Kyle ground out.
Maggie put a restraining hand on his arm. “No. It’s what he wants. It’s better if we just get on with our lives and pretend he doesn’t exist.”
“Maggie’s right, Kyle. He’d press charges and you’d be the one in jail,” Matt said, having come to join them once the judge had left the courtroom.
“Then you all can protect Maggie.” Fury still coursed through him.
“I don’t need protection, Kyle, I need you. I don’t want him to win anything else. Please.”
Shane approached. “Hypothetically speaking and all, if I were, as the sheriff, to hear any threats against another citizen, I’d have to get involved.” He looked directly at Kyle. Kyle nodded at him quickly, scowling. “You did a good job, Maggie.”
“You sure did. You kept focused and remembered to address me instead of the court directly. The judge is on your side here,” Edward said, patting her shoulder.
They sat and waited for Alex to come back and twenty-eight minutes later he did, holding a large box that Shane took possession of. “Let me do the inventory, Maggie. You don’t need to see it.”
She rolled her eyes at him and grabbed the box. “No, let me.” She shooed them all away and asked to use the jury room. She wouldn’t give Alex the satisfaction of seeing her upset.
“Sweetheart, please let me come in and help you.” Kyle’s words were softly spoken as he brushed a lock of hair out of her face.
“No,” she whispered back, caressing his cheek. “I appreciate you wanting to be with me, I really do. But this is just too much for me to share with you. I plan to burn all of the pictures in my fireplace tonight but I want to make sure everything is here. I can’t wonder whether he’s got copies or not or I’ll go mad.”
Kyle nodded and kissed her forehead.
“Liv, Dee, can you help me please?” she asked and both women nodded and went with her into the jury room.
All of her underwear and other lingerie were there and they moved it with a pencil rather than touch it and put it back into the plastic bag. The pictures were deeply upsetting. She counted each one and then Dee and Liv matched with a negative. Maggie knew how bad it was when Liv didn’t even make a crack. She was horrified knowing her most intimate moments were most likely seen by half the police force. The other ones were just creepy, knowing that Alex had watched her do her laundry and go grocery shopping.
“They’re all here. Let’s go out and tell the judge.” She put the lid back on the box and her head up high and they all went back out where the judge was waiting.
“Is everything there to your satisfaction, Ms. Wright?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Mr. Parsons, if copies of any pictures you took of Ms. Wright show up, I’ll throw you in jail. You’re lucky that you haven’t had to beat off the concerned men of Ms. Wright’s life over this incident. I am going to be keeping an eye on you due to your prior history of harassing and stalking women. Keep your nose clean and keep away from Ms. Wright. Do I make myself clear? If she is somewhere that you come upon, it is up to you to leave. If she comes into a place you are, other than your workplace or your home, it is still up to you to leave.”
Alex nodded, keeping his eyes down.
“Then get out of my sight.” The judge banged his gavel and the doors were unlocked for the next case.
“I have to go back out to my job site, Red. Why don’t you go home with Momma? I’ll pick you up there when I’m done.”
“No, thank you. I need to get rid of all of these pictures and the other stuff. I can’t bear knowing it’s out there.”
“I don’t want you home alone.”
“Listen, I have to get back to my life. I can’t be afraid. I won’t be afraid of being in my own home.”
He sighed and kissed her gently. “I love you, Red. I’ll come by after work. Please lock your doors.”
“I love you, too. See you later, thanks for being here.”
She turned to the rest of her friends and family who were dumbstruck at hearing Kyle say he loved her.
Kyle laughed. “What’s the matter? You think she’s too good for me?”
“Hell yes,” Matt said and Marc laughed.
Polly started sniffling and gave Maggie a big hug. “Honey, you call if you need anything all right? You are a brave, strong girl.”
“I’ll have someone drive by every once in a while, Maggie, just to check,” Shane said. He patted her on the shoulder and she smiled back at everyone.
“Thanks, all. I’ll see you later.” She kissed Edward on the cheek and Kyle walked her to her car and watched her drive away.
Shane walked up behind him. “That should be me, but if it can’t be, I’m glad it’s you.”
“You don’t have the guts to let yourself love, Shane. You’d better find them or you’ll end up alone. I’m sorry, Shane. I love her and she’s mine. That you fucked up and she fell into my lap is a sad thing because I love you and you’re my brother and all. But man, a woman like her, she’s what I’ve been waiting for my entire life.” He turned and looked at his older brother. “Deal with it, Shane. I don’t want you to be alone. You deserve what I’ve got.” He squeezed his brother’s shoulder and walked away.
Maggie went home, took the box straight out to her back porch and loaded a pile of pictures into the fireplace and set them aflame. It took her the better part of an hour to get it all burned, including her beautiful lingerie, which she tossed in with a broken branch from the yard. She sat back and watched the flames of a regular fire that was incidental to the immolation of her nasty relationship with Alex Parsons.
Two hours later, she drank Jack Daniel’s straight out of the bottle as she looked up and saw Kyle standing at the back door.
“Hi,” he said quietly, fighting a smile.
She got up a bit unsteadily to unlock the door and let him in. “Hi.”
Taking the bottle from her hand he looked into her face and lost his battle to hide his grin. “Hmm, had a wee bit of whiskey I see.”
“Just a bit,” she said defensively but had to laugh when she heard how badly she slurred her words. ’Course once she started it was a bit hard to stop.
Continuing to grin, he led her to the couch and sat her down. “Feel any better?”
“I do now that you’re here.” Giggles finally dying, she climbed into his lap.
“Good answer, Red.” He sounded amused. He stroked a hand over her hair. “Let’s get something to eat, okay? Looks like you could use it.”
“Okay. Your mother came by earlier and brought me three casseroles. Want some chicken noodle casserole, ham casserole or tuna?”
“I knew she couldn’t stay away,” he said with a snort.
“She didn’t stay long. She just brought enough food to last me through a nuclear winter and left again. She’s a good person.”
“She likes you a whole lot.” Which was an understatement.
“The feeling is entirely mutual.” She stood up and held on to him as they walked into her kitchen and she put the casserole into the oven.
After eating a quiet dinner, they went up to bed. They didn’t make love, instead, Kyle held her tight against him and she slept, feeling safe and protected.