“Don’t apologize,” Josh said. “We like who we like. I think you’re nice, both to look at and to talk to, but I’m not looking to be a rebound or a quick hookup. I’m also not looking to mess with what you have.”
“You’re a good guy,” Maggie said.
Josh turned his attention back to the movie.
Maggie realized she hadn’t even considered Dean. He was the obvious person Cal had been referring to when he’d told his friend she was seeing someone. But what she’d said to Josh had been one hundred percent the truth. She was attracted to Mac. She was interested in Mac. She was pretty sure Mac was into her too, but something was getting in his way. Maggie had seen the heat in his eyes, felt the strength of his body against hers. She’d also seen him pull back each time they’d gotten close.
There were two options available. Maggie could either deny her attraction to Mac and focus her energy on finding another man she wanted to kiss and touch, or she could make the first unambiguous move and show Mac what she wanted, letting him decide whether to meet her halfway. Mac was a grumpy introvert, but he was respectful to a fault. If he thought she wasn’t interested in anything physical with him, then he’d hold himself back. In his room they’d barely touched, though his small grazes were electric. Maggie thought Mac had felt it, too, but when she’d mentioned both Dean and the men in the living room, he’d shut down so fast it made her dizzy. Was that what made him angry?
If they’d had an intense moment, and Mac had mentioned other women, she would have gotten mad, too. He should have said something. Although, had the roles been reversed, she wouldn’t have said anything either. She would have panicked, her brain shutting down her logic and reasoning skills until nothing but a sweating mess of thrumming nerves remained.
Maggie didn’t think she was in love with Mac—she’d thought she was in love before, and she had been wrong—but she liked him a lot and she wanted to explore their chemistry. After the movie, she’d hunt him down and lay all her cards out on the table. And if she chickened out and kept her cards hidden, she could pretend she was there to return his sweater.
The credits scrolled across the scene and Maggie stood, ready to excuse herself from the living room.
“You okay?” Audrey stirred in Cal’s lap.
“I have to get something.” Maggie pointed towards the kitchen.
“You’re going to miss the cut scene.” Ryan shook his red hair out of his eyes. He paired that statement with a boyish grin. “Don’t you want to see the teaser forThe Avengers?”
“Does the teaser matter if we’re just going to start the next movie?” Ted nudged his friend with his shoulder.
“Start the next one without me.” Maggie took a step towards the kitchen entryway and the stairs to the second floor. Audrey was watching her, a smile playing with the corners of her full mouth.
“Take all the time you need, Maggie.” Cal winked his left eye, a lazy blink she almost missed. “We’ll get the next one started.”
Maggie’s cheeks heated with her blush. She was sure Cal was onto her mission, possibly Audrey, too. Maybe this was a good thing. Hopefully, they’d keep anyone from interrupting.
Maggie hit every creaky stair on her way to the second floor. Mac’s door was closed—no surprise there. She raised her hand to knock, sucking in a fortifying breath as her fist hit the dark wood. The breath froze in her lungs as Mac pulled the door open, his body back-lit by the lamp next to his bed. She couldn’t see much of his face, not with the shadows covering him from forehead to chin, but she noticed the way his hand fisted against his doorjamb as he stared, Maggie assumed, down at her.
“Maggie.” His voice was gravelly and low, thrumming over her ears and along her skin. “What’s wrong?”
He reached out and placed his calloused hands on each of her shoulders, moving him into the light from the hall. Maggie watched as his eyes skipped from her face down to her feet.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Maggie said.
Mac continued to check her over with his eyes.
“I’m okay.” She reached out and cupped his cheeks. He snapped his gaze to hers and Maggie dropped her hands. “Everything’s okay,”
Mac let his hands fall from her shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest. She always forgot just how wide Mac’s chest was. With his muscled arms banded across his front, the solid wall of his body drew her eyes in and wouldn’t let go. Only a foot separated them, his heat rolling over her like a crashing wave.
Yeah, the chemistry was there. It may have taken Maggie longer than it should have to recognize it, but now that she had, she was one hundred and ten percent on board with exploring everything with Mac.
“What do you need?”
You, Maggie wanted to say, but he looked rattled, enough to close the door in her face again. She smiled instead. “I thought you might want to come down and join us for the next movie.”
Maggie didn’t think it was possible, but Mac’s glower deepened.
“I’m good,” he said. “You have enough people to entertain.”
And there it was. Mac never said no to her, but something about movie night, about Cal’s friends, was bothering him enough to turn her down. It was there in the flash of temper behind his eyes and the grind of his teeth. It was there in the way his gaze dipped to her mouth before his frown deepened. Maggie’s heart raced at breakneck speed.
“I’d rather spend time with you.”
Mac’s eyes slammed into hers and her breath suspended in her lungs. He seemed closer than he had been a minute before, his arms falling away from his chest to hang at his sides. Maggie looked down to see his fists clenching and unclenching before she looked back up into his handsome face. She took a step forward, close enough that the very edge of her—his—sweater brushed the folds in his shirt.