I hated the way she made me feel. I hated how scared I was that I was already too far gone and one day I would fuck her up like I did Laney. Mostly, I hated myself that I was unable to walk away from her.

I punched the bag with every ounce of energy I had left. If I didn’t, I would’ve marched back upstairs and done something we both would’ve regretted. I was her employee. I wasn’t her friend or anything else my dick wanted me to be. I hit the bag one more time and hugged it when I was done. I wanted to drop, but if I did that, I wouldn’t have gotten back up.

I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Jesus Christ, Maggie.” I fought to catch my breath. “I could’ve knocked you out.” I bent over and tried again to control my breathing.

“I’m sorry. I thought you left. I didn’t expect to see you down here when I came down to use the restroom.”

“You think one little argument is going to get rid of me? I have a job to finish.”

She cast her eyes down to the floor and nodded. I kept saying the wrong things, but I couldn’t say anything else. I could only make her happy in the moment. She deserved to be happy forever.

“May I show you something?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

She motioned with her head for me to follow her. I struggled to get the gloves off and tossed them back to the bag when I finally managed it. I had to jog to catch up. I lost her for a moment, but she stuck her head out of the hallway I’d never been allowed down and motioned again for me to follow her.

She took the keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. Maybe she made some decisions about what to do with that side of the gym. I was excited to get started on it.

I took a few steps in and wasn’t prepared for what I saw when she turned the light on. There were boxes and totes everywhere. They seemed to be set in groups, but I wasn’t sure what the groups were.

“What is all this?”

“This is my father’s life. It’s everything that was in his house when he died. The breakables are in totes. Everything that isn’t fragile is in boxes.”

I looked at her and back to the boxes. “This is why you don’t want to touch this side. You don’t want to deal with his shit.”

“You’re right. I don’t. I can’t throw it out because I’m sure there are photos and other memories I’ll want to keep. I can’t go through them. I can’t face it.”

“My mom died and left a house full of shit to deal with. I understand not wanting to go through things. I didn’t really have to because I wasn’t home.”

“Where were you?”

“Away.” I walked through the piles of boxes, and some of them had writing on them. They stated what room they were from. It was apparent that she put the easier rooms at the front. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all toward the front of the room. It became more personal the deeper I went into the space. The bedroom, den, and office were all at the back.

In the far back corner was another pile of boxes that looked less organized. All of the boxes had one word written on them: Maggie.

“I don’t know how to go through someone else’s belongings. How do I throw their life away?” She closed her eyes and her chin quivered.

She never cried in front of me before, and I didn’t want her to start then. I walked over and placed my hands on her shoulders and rubbed down her arms.

“It will be hard, but I promise it will be okay.” I looked up to the ceiling when she buried her face in my chest and wrapped her arms around my waist. My first instinct was to push her away, but I slid my hands around her back and wrapped my arms around her. The last thing I wanted her to think was that she was alone.

“I know it isn’t easy, but keeping it here isn’t doing you any favors. You won’t be able to move on until you go through it and let it go. I’ll help you if you want.” I closed my eyes when the words left my lips. Why was I volunteering to help her? Wasn’t getting the gym ready help enough?

“You will?” She pulled back and looked up at me, leaving her hands on my hips. “It’s so overwhelming. I don’t know where to start.”

I brushed the hair away from her eyes and held her face. “We’ll start at the beginning.”

I held her gaze to make sure she understood I meant it. She held mine to see if she could believe me. For her sake, I hoped she could. I looked down to her lips and leaned forward. When I got a whiff of the beer she must have had upstairs again, I changed direction and whispered into her ear, “Did you ever pee yet?”

I couldn’t risk tasting beer at all, but tasting her for the first time and having beer interfere with that was a disaster waiting to happen. Even though I could feel she was easily something I could be addicted to, I wasn’t going to risk my sobriety by tasting beer on her sweet lips.

She burst out laughing and shoved me. “No, I haven’t peed yet.”

“Well, you’d better get to it.” I looked around the room again. “We can take a break from the physical labor and work on this tomorrow.” I looked back to her. “It’ll be good to get it behind you.”

She looked around me to the boxes that awaited her and took a deep breath. “You’re right. Tomorrow is the day I start to put my past behind me.” She looked at me and smiled. “At least what fits in boxes anyway.”

* * *

I tossed the last empty box from the dining room. “One room down.” That was an easy room. There wasn’t much in it. The boxes were only going to get harder for Maggie after that. She kept glancing at the ones in the back with each box we finished. I grabbed a kitchen box and took out my knife to cut the tape, but she stopped me.

“Wait.”

“You’re done after one room?”

She shook her head. “No, but it’s pointless to go through these boxes. I don’t have a real kitchen yet. I’ll just end up going through them again if I ever get a kitchen.”

I nodded and put the knife away. “Good point. I’m not sure you’ll ever really use these things anyway.”

“You don’t think I’ll get a kitchen?”

“Oh, you’ll have one. I don’t think you’ll ever use it. You don’t know how to cook.”

She took a wadded up ball of newspaper next to her from another box we emptied and threw it at me. “I know how to cook. I just don’t like to.”

She walked over to the living room boxes while I stacked the kitchen boxes to the side with the dining room stuff she decided to keep. “We can go through these because there are some ugly things in here I have no intention on keeping.”

“There’s no one else who might want some of this stuff?”

“Nope. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, and my dad was an only child, as well.”

I didn’t want to push for information, but I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to ask an innocent question. “What about your mom?”

“I suppose I could check with her, but I’m not sure any of this is hers.” She was quiet as she looked at the totes in front of her. I was surprised she decided to open up. “My mom left a long time ago. I’m not really sure any of this would’ve been there when she lived with us.”

“So, your parents divorced and you stayed with your dad?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” She grabbed a tote on top of a pile taller than her. She struggled with it.

“Wait.” I tried to stop her. “I’ll get the top ones.”

It was too late. The pile toppled over and she was in the path. She screamed and ducked, trying to cover her head as I ran for her, but she was knocked to the floor and buried before I could get to her.

“Maggie!” My heart sank as I saw her go down. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. I had to make sure she was okay.

It was quick but careful work as I tossed full totes off her. Some of them had opened and the contents spilled out, but I kicked the stuff to the side and pulled her from the mess. “Are you okay?”

I touched her head and ran my hands down her arms as she lay there stunned at what just happened. She was shaken but seemed fine. I didn’t see any blood, and she wasn’t crying out in pain.

“Do you hurt anywhere?” I was still checking her body with my hands.

“My pride.” She sat up and rubbed her arm where the top tote had fallen. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Brody. It smarts a little, but I feel far more stupid than pain.”

“I’m not sure what kind of company you hired to move this shit for you, but they never should’ve stacked them so high.”

“Come on. Come on.” She motioned with her hands for me to back up so she could stand. “This isn’t going to get this shit finished.”

“Let me handle the top boxes for a while.” I reached down and took her hands to pull her up. “At least until you grow another twelve inches.”

“Ha-ha, asshole.” She took one step and grabbed my shirt, burying her face in my chest. “Motherfucker.”

I placed my hands under her arms to keep her upright. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t stand on my left foot.”

I looked down and saw she was lifting it a couple of inches off the floor. “Okay, let’s take a look.” I pulled her away, bent down a little, and swept my arms under her to carry her out of the room.

“Where are you taking me?”

“The counter in your kitchen is the only thing I can think of. You really need to get chairs in here or in your apartment.”

I took her to the kitchen and set her on the counter. I placed my hand behind her leg and ran it down to her ankle as I lifted her foot. I wondered what that would’ve felt like without her jeans on. It wasn’t the time to get a hard-on. I cleared my throat and untied her shoe.

She grabbed my shoulders. “That hurts.”

“I’m trying to take your shoe off to look at it.”

“No, don’t.” She lay back on the counter and covered her eyes with her arm. “Fuck.”

“I have to take it off.”

“Do it, but just do it fast.”

I didn’t want to hurt her, but if her foot was hurting that much, I could only imagine that it was swelling, and it would’ve hurt her more to keep her shoe on. I grabbed the heel of the shoe with my fingers and slipped it off as easily as I could. She breathed a sigh of relief when the shoe slipped off.

I dropped the shoe to the floor and licked my lips when I touched her bare calf to slip my fingers into her sock. I wanted to run my fingers up higher and slip them into something else, but it wasn’t the time to think about that. I got back to the task at hand and slipped her sock off.

Her foot and ankle were swollen and had started to bruise. “It looks swollen. I think we need to get this checked out. Do you have a doctor?”

“No.” She covered her face with her hands and cried.

“Hey.” I pulled on her hands to make her sit up and stood in front of her. When she wouldn’t lower her hands, I separated her knees and pulled her to the edge of the counter and closer to me. “You’ll be fine. I don’t think anything is broken or it would’ve hurt the second it broke. I still think you need to get it checked out for a hairline fracture.”

She nodded but still wouldn’t lower her hands. I slipped my fingers into the palms of her hands and pulled them down. She was trying not to cry. She was always tough, but she didn’t need to be tough around me. I was strong enough for the both of us. We would make it through anything. A little setback like that wasn’t going to stop us from getting the gym finished.

I pulled her fingers up to my lips and kissed them. “We’ll still get this done.”

She wouldn’t open her eyes and look at me. “I’m not worried about the boxes.”

“I was talking about the gym. You pretty much sit and watch me work anyway, so there really won’t be much of a change.”

She opened her eyes, ready to yell her protest, but didn’t when she saw my smile. She sniffed and looked down, trying to stop the tears. “Well, someone needs to supervise this to make sure you do it right.”

I placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face to look into her eyes. I didn’t want her hiding from me, but I hated to see her cry. I slipped both hands on her face and wiped her cheeks with my thumbs.

“Please don’t cry. It will be okay. I promise.”

“Don’t cry?” We both startled and looked at Beverly in the doorway. “What the fuck did you do to her?”

“Nothing.” Maggie tried to push me to the side when Beverly charged our way, but I wouldn’t let her. I’d taken a bullet for someone before. I could handle taking a Beverly. Maggie yelled, “He’s helping me!”

“Helping you?” She looked at Maggie and stopped glaring at me. “You’re crying, and he’s helping you?”

She stuck her left leg out and pointed to her foot. “Yes, I was a klutz, and he’s helping me.”

She shoved me out of the way and placed her hand under Maggie’s calf to keep her leg up. “You need to keep it elevated. It’s only going to swell more if you leave it down like that. Now, which one of you is going to tell me the truth about how this happened?”

I put my hands up and backed away. “I’m going to go clean up the other room.”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Beverly pointed at me. “You’re staying right here where I can watch you until I hear what happened.” She looked at Maggie. “Start talking.”

“We were going through the boxes in storage—”

“Your dad’s boxes?”

“Yes.”

Beverly looked down at her foot again. “I said I would help you when you wanted to go through them.”

“I know, but I don’t want to take you away from the diner.”

“Keith and the girls can handle it.” She cleared her throat. “Keep going. How did you get hurt?”

“I reached for a tote on one of the tall piles, and they fell on top of me.”

“Did I not say when they stacked them in that room that it was too high? When are you going to listen to me?”

“I got it. I know they were too high, and I was too weak to get it right.”

I crossed my arms, pissed that she called herself weak. “You’re not too weak. You’re too short.”

“Look, the point is they fell on me, and now I have a busted foot.”

Beverly looked at it. “Do you know it’s busted?”

“Not officially, but I can’t have any weight on it.”

“We need to get you to the hospital.” Beverly looked at me.

I swallowed. I hadn’t been back to a hospital since the day I checked out. “I can help you get her to the car.”

“You did this to her, and you’re not taking her to the hospital?”

“He didn’t do this to me,” Maggie growled. “I’ll fucking take myself.”

“Baby, I’m taking you. I don’t understand why you were put on the counter instead of taken to the hospital immediately. When did this happen?”

“Just a few minutes before you came in.” Maggie looked at her. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“You missed lunch. It’s after two. I was going to remind you to eat.” She looked at me. “I’m going to pull my car around the front. Can you manage to get her to the car without hurting her more?”

“Bev! He did not hurt me.”

I never took my eyes off Beverly when I spoke. “She knows that. She wouldn’t leave me here with you if she didn’t. But, to answer your question, Beverly, I will carry her to the car.”

“You just won’t take her to seek medical help. Got it.”

I rubbed my chest when I thought about the hospital again. I couldn’t go back there. The noise and chaos of the emergency room had flooded my mind. I didn’t see Beverly walk out.