“Rose didn’t do this! You did,” Maggie snapped.
Gray rubbed at his neck again. “I need to find her.” Gray couldn’t contain his worry or desperation.
Gray’s dad stepped in. “First we need to deal with the assault charges.”
“You bet your ass,” Marc sneered.
Marc’s father, Matt, stepped up to them. “Grady and I have spoken. Here’s what’s going to happen,son. If you’re pressing charges against her, then I’ve asked Grady to speak to Rose about filing charges against you.”
“I never touched her.”
Maggie tilted her head. “You forced a kiss on her. I saw it. Gray saw it.”
Marc glared at his father. “What the hell, Dad? You can’t seriously be siding with them.”
“Why would I side with you when you’ve lied to Maggie and have acted like a spoiled brat? I overheard your whole conversation. You set Rose up. You hurt her, your cousin, the woman you supposedly love. It is going to cost me a lot of money to reimburse her parents for the canceled wedding and your selfishness. And you expect me to trust you with my business when there are hundreds of people’s livelihoods at stake?” Matt shook his head. “I asked you to prove yourself, to build a life that had meaning and fulfilled you.”
“That’s what I did. You wanted me to settle down with a wife and kids. I met Maggie. She wanted that, too. We got along great. Everything should have gone according to plan, except Rose had to open her big mouth about me sleeping with her and cheating on my ex. Now Maggie thinks that’s all I am, a cheat.”
Maggie held her hands in fists at her sides. “I think you’re an asshole for not taking responsibility for your past and doing better now.”
“I didn’t cheat on you.”
“Well, not for lack of trying according to Andrea. A little less booze and you would have, happily.”
Gray turned to his dad. “Where did they take Rose?”
“I’m not dropping the charges,” Marc announced.
“Yes, you are, or this officer will arrest you for what you did to her. You’ll have to get yourself out of the mess, which will cost you a lot of money just to plea bargain it down to a fineor something because there’s no way Rose doesn’t tell the DA or judge what you did, and she’s a much more credible person than you,” his dad pointed out.
“I will defend her.” Grady eyed his nephew. “You’ve caused enough trouble. Drop this, or I’ll start digging for dirt to use against you like I do the other people I go up against.”
Marc glared at his uncle. “Why are you coming at me so hard?”
“Because you’ve always had it out for Gray, but this time you went too far. You didn’t just take some random thing he had and you wanted. You took away a woman who means something to him. A woman who so obviously loves him.”
Gray dropped his shoulders. “Where is she?”
Grady walked his son away from them.
Maggie turned to leave, too.
“Wait. Don’t go. Not like this,” Marc pleaded. “I do care about you. We can work this out.”
Maggie pressed her lips together and knew exactly what she’d known when she stood with him in the church in front of the priest for the rehearsal. He wasn’t the man she wanted standing beside her for the rest of her life.
She’d been afraid to speak up and say it out loud. She’d thought to get through dinner tonight and take the evening to really think about it because that kind of decision deserved concentrated consideration.
But Marc made the decision for her by showing her exactly who he was and what and who he cared about.
“I’m done. It’s over. I want to be a wife and mom, but mostof all I want to be loved like I matter more than anything else in my partner’s eyes. I want to be looked at the way Gray looks at Rose, and the way she looks back at him. That’s why this scheme of yours didn’t work. Everyone, including you, sees something special between them. I had that once. I know I can have it again.” Because Joel was waiting for her. Their love had always felt like a forever thing. And if he truly felt the same way, and he wanted the same things she wanted for their future, then she wanted to try again, because she wasn’t giving up on the kind of love she used to have with him. Never again.