Accidental Fiancé (Unintentionally Yours #5)

13. Maggie

Chapter 13

Maggie

I woke up alone in my room. We had agreed it would just be that one night, but I couldn’t keep my hands off of him after he started playing with my hair. It was one of my trigger spots, want and desire burning through me like a blaze when he touched me there.

I didn’t regret it. There was something about Julian that made me want him, and even though I had never thought of him that way back in high school, things were different now.

Hell, our chemistry alone might sell our story to his family.

I showered and dressed in my new clothes, and it felt like I was playing dress-up. The clothes I had picked out were what I imagined elegant, wealthy people would wear. Since I was trying to sell myself as his fiancée, I had to go big or go home. Some were comfortable, some were not, but I could survive if I picked up some of my own clothes from my place and incorporated them into my new stuff.

As it turned out, I was an early riser compared to Julian and Piper. I was up long before they were. That gave me enough time to bake a batch of fresh blueberry muffins. I also made some Irish soda bread for toast; in case they were savory breakfast people.

I had time left over to get a batch of cupcakes baked and cooling by the time Piper padded into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. “What smells so good?”

“I made some?—"

“What’s going on?” Julian asked, looking equally sleepy as he came in. He was already dressed for the day in a light gray button-down and charcoal trousers, his suit jacket over his arm.

“Um, well, when I don’t have anything else to do, I bake. Or when I’m stressed out, I bake. Or on a day that ends in y, I bake.” I shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

He smiled. “So what’d you make?”

I smiled back. “Blueberry muffins with streusel, Irish soda bread, and there’s a batch of cupcakes cooling that I’ll frost later.”

“Cupcakes?” Piper asked excitedly.

He winced ever so slightly. “For after school, Pip. Cupcakes are not a breakfast food.”

“What a terrible thing to say,” I countered. “But they’re not ready anyway so muffin or soda bread?”

“You put soda in bread?” Piper squeaked. “Eww.”

“Do you like toast?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Peanut butter? Jelly? Marshmallow crème?”

She frowned. “Marshmallow crème?”

I was aghast. “You have never given her toast with marshmallow crème?”

A low chuckle carried through him as he grabbed a muffin. “I do try to be a responsible parent, you know.”

“Well, since you have none here, I know where I’m going after I drop her off at Etta’s. First, my place for some tee shirts and leggings. Don’t make that face. I know we bought too many clothes yesterday, but sometimes, I need my cozies. And then the grocery store because your baking supplies are sorely lacking, sir.”

He passed me a credit card. “Anything you need, put it on there. I’m going to take this muffin to go. I’ll text you Etta’s address.” He kissed my cheek before realizing what he’d done. I could tell by the stunned look on his face and Piper’s giggle.

“Pop kissed you.”

I froze up.

His green eyes went wide but he forced a smile. “I kiss you before I leave, don’t I?” He kissed her on top of her head. “Thanks for the muffin. Gotta run!” He started for the door.

“That muffin has as much sugar as a cupcake by the way,” I called out after him. From around the corner, where Piper couldn’t see, he playfully flipped me off.

I sighed, wondering what the hell to think about all of it. But instead of having time to dwell, I had Piper on my hands. Just the two of us. Without any clue how to talk to a four-year-old and no one else around, I asked, “So, breakfast?”

“Peanut butter toast, please.”

“You got it, kiddo.” I set her up with a slice and one for myself. “You go to Etta’s for a while, and then what happens?” I probably should have asked Julian that before he left, but after that kiss, he nearly ran out the door. Not that I blamed him.

“Miss Carradine picks me up, and then we go swimming.”

A text from Julian lit my phone. The details of Piper’s usual day, along with addresses and scanned photo IDs of anyone involved. A good security measure, I supposed, though I had never considered what might be entailed in the daily life of a billionaire’s child. Was I part of her security team now?

Once we finished breakfast, Piper took me on a tour of her favorite parts of the mansion. Getting the Piper’s eye view of the place, I might have thought the mansion was a life support system for the pool because it was all she wanted to talk about. “…and this is where I do my flips. I can do three in a row. How many can you do?”

“I haven’t done flips in the water in a long time. But maybe this afternoon, I can try.”

“It’s okay if you’re scared. I was at first, too. But Miss Carradine will keep you safe. She was a limbic swimmer.”

“Do you mean Olympic?”

“That’s what I said.” She pointed out the slides—as if I couldn’t see them—and the hot tub, which she said was Julian’s favorite but it was too hot for her. The pool even had its own lazy river and wave maker. The place was her own little water park, so I didn’t blame her for wanting to stay there. But I had to insist that we get going, I didn’t want to be late the first day I was dropping her off. I wanted Etta to like me.

She didn’t.

I got Piper there on time and politely rang the bell to her Victorian-style home. The older woman gave me a stiff look when she answered the door. It might have been the over-starched clothes or the prim high collar on her blouse that caused it, but I doubted that. “And you are?”

“This is Maggie,” Piper introduced me. “My dad kisses her. She lives with us now.”

I could have died on the spot.

“It’s not what you think. Julian was just caught up in leaving for work. A kiss on the cheek as he’s leaving doesn’t… I mean, it’s not like… we’re not a thing. I’m just staying with him for a little while.” Why am I explaining myself to this woman? Stop talking . I smiled, silently praying to melt into the concrete porch.

A judgmental huff escaped the crone’s lips. “Very well, Piper. Come in.”

“Okay. Bye Maggie!” she said as she dashed past the old woman.

“Should I come in too?”

“Certainly not. Mr. Black has approved my facilities and my methods. I do not require the presence of his… friend .” She might as well have said floozy for all the distaste she threw on that word.

“Great. Bye, Piper,” I said before jogging to my rental car. There was no one to judge me in there.

With five hours Piper-free, I had time to run errands. I stopped by my place and packed more boxes to drop off at my storage rental. A couple more days like this, and I’d be all moved out before the end of the week, which was good since my landlord had prorated my rent weekly at a much steeper cost.

I had until Friday to get my things out or he’d charge me for another week, and I couldn’t afford that. But I also didn’t have enough time to box everything up before Piper was out of school, so I had to spread out the work for the next few days. Thankfully, it was going to be much easier with the rented SUV than my old coupe.

The majority of my entire apartment sat in my storage space, looking at me as I shut the door. Things didn’t have souls, obviously, but leaving my stuff behind felt oddly like I was abandoning it. I couldn’t tell Julian I was nearly living out of my storage unit—I saw the pity in his eyes when I mentioned I’d be living with my parents. If I told him the full scope of the situation, he would insist I stay with him until I got back on my feet.

And then where would we be?

After last night, I wasn’t sure. In fact, every time I thought about last night, my brain shorted out. It was hot and crazy to do that in the living room, but I couldn’t think straight when he touched me like that. Or whenever he was near me. Or whenever I thought about him.

A car blared its horn behind me.

Shit . Green light . I waved and said, “Sorry,” as if they could hear me before I hit the gas again. I had to do something about this situation with Julian, and since I was terrible with men, I decided to call in the big guns.

I went back to Julian’s, frosted the cupcakes, then drove downtown. It was a busy Monday, full of bustling streets and cool breezes, the most winter we’d likely get. The cacophony of downtown always made me feel claustrophobic as if those voices were pressing in on me. But when I pulled up to Nora’s law firm, that sensation disappeared.

Skinner and Associates was known for their brutal tactics, and the building was as harsh as their reputation. Angular and vaguely threatening, the concrete architecture of the Brutalism movement was why Nora wanted this building in particular. No one else liked it, so she bought the ugly thing as a statement. She knew the potential of making the opposition meet her in an ominous space would work to her advantage, and she was right.

That was Nora’s gift. She was always right.

The interior was modern, every area boasting personal touches because employees were encouraged to make each of their spaces their own. Nora might be a ballbuster, but she adored her employees and took great care of them.

When I walked in, the receptionist, Brandy, beamed at me. “Hi, Maggie. Do you have an appointment?”

“No, I was just?—"

“No problem. I’ll buzz you in.”

“Thanks.” It wasn’t two minutes before Nora emerged. “Hey, Nora.”

“Maggie!” She pulled me in for a tight hug. I never told her that her hugs hurt because she was a thin and bony beauty. Jerking her chin to my bag, she asked, “You brought cupcakes, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“Perfect.” She opened the bag and took two, then left the rest on Brandy’s desk. “Pass these out for everyone. Maggie, my office.” With that, she turned on her heel and plunged deep into the building.

I had to make an effort to keep up. Nora never slowed down for anything. Her blue pantsuit was an electric color that would have suited no one but her, given her fiery red pixie cut and pale white skin. Once we reached her office and she closed the door behind us, I said, “I might have made a mistake.”

“Sit. We will cupcake and chat while I wait for my next meeting to arrive. Coffee?”

“Yes, please,” I said enthusiastically as I plopped onto her office couch. It always surprised me that she hadn’t knocked down the wall between her office and the next one to give herself more space. But as she put it, she didn’t need a giant office to tell people she was in charge. They already knew.

The office was painted in varying shades of gray, white décor accents throughout. She kept the thermostat low but physically comfortable. After she delivered coffee and sat on the other end of the couch, she smirked at me as if she already knew about last night. “And what might that mistake be? Sleeping with your high school crush?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Okay, first of all, Julian is not my high school crush.”

“Oh, bullshit, doll. You had it bad for him back then.”

“I did not!”

“Really? What was all that hanging out, just you and him about?”

“I hung out with you all the time, too. Does that mean that you were also my high school crush?”

Her smirk sharpened as she lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, you weren’t. And neither was Julian. We were just friends.”

“Mm-hmm. And the reunion?”

“I owe you a shin kick for not being there. And maybe a tit punch.”

Nora snorted a laugh. “That’s fair. Chloe was in a foul mood after you two left, so nice work. But what happened after that?”

My whole body heated from the inside. “Stuff.”

“Yeah, I figured that out by the morning after call. But you’re not the type to just show up without an appointment. It’s one of my favorite things about you, not that you’re not welcome to do so when needed. Maggie, what else happened?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before explaining everything else that had happened since. “It feels like we’ve been on a dozen dates because we’ve spent so much time together in the past two and a half days. But also, because we did know each other back in the day, and now, after last night and this morning’s goodbye kiss, I don’t know what to think. Give me advice.”

“He’s a man. Run while you still can.” Her usual recommendation.

“Not helping. This isn’t a normal situation.”

“No, it isn’t. It’s much worse.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you like him.”

I started to deny it but I couldn’t. “It’s too soon for that.”

“And yet, here you are.”

I sipped my coffee, trying to think of a rebuttal. “Stop being right all the time.”

“It’s my curse.”