“And that’s what unleashes Zen Maggie? I always thought it would be a combination of a head trauma, alcohol, and maybe a massage or a really great pair of shoes,” Dean said.
“It might have been the fluffernutter I packed her. I nailed the peanut butter ratio,” Silas told him.
“You’re ruining our very nice moment,” she warned before releasing them.
“Sorry,” they both said.
“Now I need to go deal with some things. I trust that you can entertain yourselves?”
“I’ve got an empire of Hot Landscaper Guy lovers to thrill with a behind-the-scenes interview on getting dirty with fertilizer on Insta,” Dean said grandly. He pointed at Silas. “And then I have a date with your brother.”
“I guess I have an asshole dog to wash,” Silas said, shoving his hands in his back pockets. Still feeling unnerved. Something had changed in Maggie, and he needed to figure out what exactly that meant. “I can pick up some groceries for dinner tonight, since we’re cooking,” he offered.
“Sounds great. See you later,” she said, rising on tiptoe to brush a distracted kiss over his cheek.
Silas washed the dog and managed to hose the worst of the mud off the cats as they sprinted by. Then he fixed the timing belt on the mower before talking Cody into driving him into town so he could keep an eye on the kid’s driving habits.
They picked up the groceries and swung by the hardware store before it closed to get Maggie a new drill bit to replace one she’d misplaced. And since they were there at the counter, Silas bought two little succulents in hammered-copper pots that would like the light in the kitchen and play off the range hood.
By the time they got back to the house, it was almost seven.
Cody took the groceries into the kitchen and started to unpack them with Dayana while Silas went in search of Maggie.
He found her—with Kevin and the kittens, of course—in her office, behind her laptop on the same paint-splattered worktable. She was wearing the noise-canceling headphones and peering intently at the screen.
Silas started to lean in, planning to snap her out of her trance with a kiss on her neck, when he read a few lines of the document she was looking at.
“Maggie, what the hell is this?”
She jumped and yanked the headphones off. “You scared the crap out of me,” she said, minimizing the document.
“Is that an offer from the Welcome Home Network?” he asked, his voice low and calmer than he felt.
Silas felt like he’d been sucker punched.
He’d just assumed that he’d win. That she would fall for him like he’d fallen for her. That they’d stay—preferably—or go together.
Yet here she was making plans for her future. Not theirs.
“They offered me my own show,” she said.
“When?”
“On Cody’s graduation day.”
Silas put his hands on his hips so he wouldn’t be tempted to strangle her. “You’ve been sitting on this offer for a month, and you didn’t think to mention it to me?”
“It was unexpected. I didn’t even know if it was something I’d be interested in,” she said. “It’s on the East Coast. At least two seasons.”
He looked at the whiteboard. Her timelines were to an end, and she’d filled the empty space with demographic stats on what looked like two towns.
He heard Keaton’s little feet making their way toward the kitchen.
“Where’s Sy?” Keaton sang.
His chest hurt. Physically hurt. She was weighing her options, and from the looks of the research, she wasn’t even considering what he thought was the best choice. Him.
Couldn’t she see they’d started to build something here? Something real. Something that felt right.
“So you’re deciding between another house or a show with a network?”
“Among other options,” she said vaguely.
He crossed his arms over the ache in his chest and stared her down.
“Just because I don’t want you making decisions for me doesn’t mean we’re not in a relationship,” she said, getting a bit of fire in her eyes.
“If the situations were reversed, I would have brought all of this to you. I would have asked you your opinion because you know what’s most important to me, Maggie?”
She remained silent.
“You. These aren’t just my decisions anymore. They’re our decisions.” It was coming out wrong. But he didn’t care. He needed to be part of the process, needed her to trust him to listen to her. But maybe that was asking for too much.