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I smiled. “Yeah. And dinner at my family’s house on Wednesday?”

Her lips parted. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “They’ll be excited to see you again.” I took her in a hug, linking my hands behind her round backside.

She tilted her chin back, giving me a chance to kiss her plush lips.

“You know,” I said against her lips, “you could just come home with me.”

Laughing, she said, “I have work tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll see you next Tuesday,” I replied.

She gave me a confused look. “And this Tuesday, right?”

“Yeah, but ‘see you this Tuesday’ doesn’t spell CUNT when you write it out.”

She rolled her eyes at me, shoving my shoulder. “Get out of here.”

I chuckled, leaning in to give her one long, heated kiss. Because I never knew which one would be my last, so I was going to savor every single one.

When we broke apart, her cheeks were flushed and my breaths came hard. I wanted to take her right now, because one night with her would never be enough. But I knew we both had things to think about.

“Coop,” I called. “You ready?”

“No,” he yelled back from Cam’s room.

“I’m leaving.”

Cam yelled, “I’ll give him a ride!”

Mags and I shared a smile. “Things are changing, aren’t they?” she asked.

“They always do.”

* * *

I meantto go back to my place. I did. But I found myself parked in front of Maggie’s childhood home instead. I knew the way there like the back of my hand, having spent most of junior and senior year there when we were dating, watching movies with her and her dad, helping her dad with projects out in the backyard, doing life together.

Now I was nothing but an unwelcome stranger on his doorstep, but I knew Maggie meant it when she said she couldn’t choose between us. I would make sure it didn’t come to that.

I got out of my truck and walked up the sidewalk to the faded yellow front door. I pressed the bell and held my hat in my hands, hoping like hell he wouldn’t slam the door in my face.

When the door drew back and he saw me, he rocked back on his heels like he’d seen something repulsive. His smooth-shaven lip curled. “Shit, what are you doing here?”

I frowned. “Gabe, can’t we talk man-to-man?”

He lifted his Gibson Trucking hat and ran his hand through thinning salt-and-pepper hair. “Like we did when you promised me you’d never break my daughter’s heart?”

I held out my hands. “I know I fucked up, but I’m not giving up on your daughter. And I don’t want her to have to choose between you and me. She’ll choose you, but she’ll hate you for it.”

Gabe grimaced, his blue eyes so much like Mags’s, seeming heavy. “Fine. We’ll go out back and talk.”

I nodded, my chest feeling heavy, like I’d won some kind of easy victory at the first line of battle, but knowing the hardest part was yet to come. I walked into his house, and seeing it all took me back to the time when Mags and I dated.

The same couch in the living room where we spent hours watching movies, sneaking kisses when her dad wasn’t in the room.

Her bedroom, where we had sex the first time. Her dad was at work and we both called in to school, pretending to be our parents and saying we were sick. We’d spent the entire day in her bed, exploring each other’s bodies, trying to make each other feel good with no clue what we were doing.