The silence fell between them, punctuated by the whir of the bean grinder and the hiss of the espresso machine.
“You need a new guy,” Audrey said, sipping the last of her tea. “One that makes your lady parts ache and tingle and burn.”
“That sounds like a problem I’d need to see my gynecologist for,” Maggie said. Audrey snorted into her tea.
The bell over the café door jangled and a group of two men and one woman entered the shop. From their table, Maggie couldn’t see their faces, but that didn’t stop the hitch in her chest or the way her heart pounded against her ribs. The man in the middle of the three had dark, tousled hair, the edges just brushing the collar of his gray sweater.
He’d pushed his sleeves up to his elbows, and Maggie felt her gaze drawn to the sinewy muscles cording his forearms. He’d shoved his hands into the front pockets of his blue jeans, and he was looking up at the chalkboard menu above the counter, but Maggie knew what those eyes looked like. She’d felt those eyes pour over her every time they were in the same space.
The woman with him said something, and Maggie felt her skin heat as his husky laugh seeped across the café and beaded over her skin like water. Her lips parted and Maggie let her tongue sweep out to wet them. Audrey’s words banged through her brain like a ping-pong ball made of lead. He wasn’t even looking at her yet, and she needed to be doused in a bucket of ice water. The woman, with her dark glossy waves and fitted pencil skirt, put her hand on his arm and Maggie felt her stomach turn over.
“I’ll have Cal invite some of his friends over. We’ll find you someone you have explosive chemistry with.” Audrey said. She pulled out her phone, fingers tapping away as she texted her boyfriend.
Maggie didn’t hear her friend over the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears. She nodded, no idea what she was agreeing to, and watched as Mac shrugged off the other woman’s touch. That movement settled the wild buzzing that had been thrumming beneath her breastbone. Audrey grinned into her cup of tea, but Maggie didn’t notice. Her focus was on the man at the coffee counter. He turned, dark eyes finding hers immediately. The corner of his mouth hitched up, and Maggie sucked in a quick breath. Mac didn’t look away.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Thedoorwasunlocked,so Maggie let herself into her friends’ living room. She didn’t see Audrey, but Cal sat on the overstuffed loveseat with three other men Maggie didn’t recognize. The oak coffee table overflowed with bowls of popcorn, chips, and pretzels. There were also a few smaller dip containers along with a bevy of glasses. Maggie raised her hand in greeting, and Cal raised his in return.
This was not the way movie nights typically started. Not with three strangers crashing the festivities. There was a vague memory of Audrey saying she’d invite some of Cal’s friends over for Maggie to meet pinging in her brain, but she’d vetoed that idea, right? She didn’t need a setup when she had Mac setting her on fire just by skipping through her brain. Although maybe she hadn’t shut this situation down because Mac had been skipping through her brain. Dammit.
“Audrey’s in the bathroom,” Cal said, clearly interpreting her panicked face. “But come meet the boys.”
Maggie forced a smile and walked around the back of the couch to see Cal’s friend’s head on. They were good looking—Audrey would have stressed the importance of chemistry and attraction to her boyfriend—and all three smiled at her. It was a little strange seeing them packed into the couch, but the social awkwardness put Maggie a little bit more at ease.
“Josh,” the dark-skinned man smiled, showing straight white teeth gleaming behind full lips.
“Ryan,” The man next to Josh had a smattering of freckles covering most of his pale face, each freckle the same copper as his hair.
“Ted,” the last man, sitting on the far side of Cal, had a familiar mop of dark hair and a beard that gave Maggie a double-take.
“Nice to meet everyone,” Maggie slipped her bag off her shoulder and propped it next to one of the squashy beanbag chairs Maggie knew came from the spare room turned study.
“You can sit here.” Cal stood up, leaving a spot between Ryan and Ted on the couch. “I’m going to snag Audrey, and we’ll take the loveseat.”
“It’s no problem,” Maggie eyed the size of the three men. “I can stick with the beanbag. It looks like you guys could use the extra elbow room.”
“I don’t mind a beanbag,” Josh said and stood up, too. His gray sweatpants hugged muscular thighs about the size of Maggie’s waist. “I can join you.”
“Okay,” Maggie gestured to the second, squashy chair.
The second beanbag chair was on the other side of the coffee table, so it wasn’t like they’d be touching. Then Josh hefted the bag up with one hand and shifted it closer to its twin.
“I’ll stick with you so you can tell me what’s going on in the movie. I’ll admit that I’ve never seenCaptain Americabefore, so I’ll need some help.”
“That’s sacrilege,” Maggie said, her mouth tipping up into a real smile. So far, no tingles and no heat for any of Cal’s friends, but they seemed nice enough. There were also worse ways to spend an afternoon than engrossed in the Marvel universe. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to plan sweet, slow revenge on Audrey. “I’m going to hit the bathroom before we start.” Maggie said.
“You can use the upstairs one,” Cal said. “Audrey was going to scrounge up snacks, so she’s probably still downstairs.”
The old Cape house had two bedrooms, one for Audrey and Cal and the other for Mac. Both were on the second floor, with a bathroom in the middle at the very top of the stairs. Maggie was just stepping onto the top stair when the bathroom door opened. She expected to see Audrey, but she came face to face with a glowering Mac.
On anyone else, the perpetual frown would have been intimidating as hell, but Maggie had seen the way Mac’s eyes glittered when he found something funny and the way the corner of his mouth tipped up into a smile. She wondered how many people had backed off when faced with Mac’s sparkling personality and how many stuck it out to see the heat and humor behind his dark eyes. His fiery gaze dropped from her face to her breasts and down to her hips before he looked away. It was enough for the tendrils of heat to form low in her belly and pulse outwards along her limbs.
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s movie night,” Maggie said. “Aren’t you coming down to join us?”
Maggie wanted Mac downstairs. She wasn’t interested in meeting or flirting with three new men, no matter how nice they probably were. Maggie wanted to sit and watch Captain America defeat the Nazis while the outside of her thigh pressed against Mac’s and they lobbed covert glances back and forth. She should have just told Audrey she was into Mac, but it felt weird admitting a crush on Audrey’s boyfriend’s brother, right after ending a fake relationship and admitting her previous love for Audrey’s brother.