Page 13 of The Locksmith’s Promise (The Promise Duet #1)

Super-Imposed

M aggie

As soon as I woke up Sunday morning, I tapped out a text to Baxter.

Mags: Can we talk?

Not thirty seconds passed before he responded.

Bax: Of course. Do you want me to come over?

Mags: Can we go for a walk? Are you free now?

Bax: I’m at Miller’s. I’ll meet you at the entrance to our trail.

Our trail.

Our rock.

Our place.

Our past.

My failure.

I knew coming back to Moose Lake would stir up the past, both the good and the bad. I had hoped to connect with Baxter and maybe even facilitate a relationship between him and our son.

And while I’d be outright lying if I said I never imagined us playing happy family, I never dreamed it would be an actual possibility.

We walked in relative silence until we got to our rock. It shone silver with the sun glancing off its smooth surface. I hadn’t intended on heading there, but like I’d said before, where else would we go?

After boosting me up, Baxter leaped up behind me.

The wind rose and whipped my hair around my face. I tucked a runaway lock behind my ear and drew in a quivering breath.

“Are you cold? Or nervous?” he murmured, those dark eyes narrowing on my face.

I snorted. “Both.”

Shucking off his jacket, he wrapped it around me.

“Oh, no, you’ll be too cold-” I protested, but he cut me off.

Tugging the lapels, he pulled me close and tipped his forehead down to mine.

His skin warm against mine, his breath puffing over my mouth with his every sweet word, locked me in place.

“Maggie, please understand, I’d do anything for you. Let me keep you warm.”

I hesitated, not wanting to lead him on or take what I wouldn’t give back. But his coat smelled like him and carried the heat from his body, and I couldn’t resist.

Nodding slowly, I drew back, ripping my velcroed heart from his.

I rubbed my palm over my chest. “We have to establish some boundaries,” I blurted.

He nodded. “What do you need?”

To turn back time.

“We need to focus on how we’re going to co-parent Corwin as friends,” I stated firmly, fighting the wind for mastery over my hair. “We can’t entertain romantic ideas. We tried this once before and it ended in disaster.”

“Maggie,” he began.

I tipped my chin up and cursed the tears in my eyes. “Bax, I can’t afford another disaster.”

He regarded me steadily, then tucked his fingers into his jeans’ pockets. “If that’s what you want, I’ll abide by it until we find our equilibrium with Cor.”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t understand. You don’t know what it was like for me after I left. I was a mess,” I continued, words running out of my mouth like a runaway freight train. “I couldn’t breathe or function. I couldn’t get out of bed. I can’t go back to that place.”

“You won’t have to,” he stated. “You’ll never have to go to that place again. Not because of me.”

I wanted to believe him. If I didn’t have Corwin to consider, I might have even allowed myself to try again with Baxter.

I still loved him.

Seeing the gentle man he’d become, I loved him more.

And it terrified me.

I trembled. “Can we please just be friends?”

“Whatever you need.”

I searched his eyes. “That’s it?”

He nodded shortly. “That’s it? That’s everything. My entire mandate, purpose, goal, however you want to explain it. Whatever you need, I will deliver.”

My shoulders fell, in disappointment or relief, I couldn’t tell.

“On one condition.”

My eyes snapped back up to his.

He smoothed his big hands over my hair and gathered it into a ponytail at the back of my head.

My eyes fluttered shut as desire rolled through me.

My head fell back in his hands as he gripped my hair in his fist and cupped his other hand around my face.

When his thumb stroked my bottom lip, I trembled.

“One day, you let me explain.”

Lost in a haze of sensuality, it took a moment for his words to sink in.

I straightened and swallowed tightly.

Did I owe him that?

Maybe.

Did I want to hear it?

Maybe I needed to.

“Okay.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief he dipped his head to meet my eyes. “Thank you.”

On the way back, conversation came easy. Now that we’d established some boundaries, I felt free to relax in his presence.

Enjoy him, even.

And if I was the least bit disappointed in his easy acquiescence, it was easily buried.

As we exited the trail and spilled out onto the street, I tilted my head to the side. This new but old camaraderie was a welcome change from the anxiety that had dogged us since that first afternoon at Miller’s.

“What are you doing for the rest of the day?”

He sucked in a breath. “It’s moving day.”

My brows furrowed. “And that makes you nervous?”

Wincing a little, he admitted, “I’m moving in three doors down from you and Corwin.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. That was a little too close for comfort. How could I keep him at arm’s length if he was forever under my feet?

Not like there was much choice in Moose Lake.

“It’s not like you have a lot of options,” I answered.

He quirked a brow. “You want to help me move in?”

Shifting uneasily from one foot to the other, remembering the feel of his hands in my hair, I gave in to the temptation to spend more time with him. “Yeah, I can help. I’d like that.”

He brightened and grinned at me. “It won’t take long.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s what they all say.”

Forty-five minutes later, having laughed more than helped while Baxter put his bedframe together, we unearthed his new mattress from its plastic prison and set it on the frame.

I tilted my head to the side.

Beside me, his silence spoke volumes.

“I hope it gets bigger than that,” I muttered, then froze.

He snorted.

Giggles bubbled up in my tummy and boiled over. I slapped a hand over my mouth.

He chuckled and threw his arm around me. “You’re such a child.”

“Oh, yeah?” I challenged, my body coming alive under his touch. “What child would make a joke like that?”

“Fine,” he acquiesced. “You’re a twelve-year-old boy.”

My smile faltered.

Laughter burst from his throat. “Yeah, Maggie. That’s what’s coming for our sweet boy in two short years.”

I groaned and covered my eyes.

He grinned. “So, are you going to do the sex talk or am I?”

“I can’t even think about it,” I shuddered.

He shrugged. “It’s easy with boys: consent, cover, and clamp.”

I raised my eyebrows.

He leaned in. “In plainer language, you need clear consent before moving forward. Yes means yes, anything else means no. Cover your dick unless you want to be a father or deal with an STD. And clamp your big mouth shut to protect her reputation.”

“That’s it?”

“Can you think of anything else?”

I blinked at him. “Well, yeah. It would be good if he can find the clitoris.”

He gaped at me. “My Lord, woman, you can’t talk to him about that!”

“Why not?” I teased. “Isn’t female pleasure important?”

He raised two palms. “Okay, we’ll add one more element. Consent, Cover, Clit, Clamp.”

I held out my hand. “Deal.”

With a wide smile, he shook my hand.

It took a good tug to get it back.

And I didn’t hate that.

After toting a few more boxes up from his truck, we jogged down the stairs to the sidewalk, heading toward my apartment to meet up with Corwin.

I practically bounced along beside him, my heart light. “That was the easiest moving day I’ve ever experienced.”

He loped along beside me with his hands tucked into his front pockets.

It almost felt like old times.

“It’s not hard when you don’t have any furniture.” He smiled down at me, his eyes soft, before facing forward once more.

In a flash, his face fell, and his cheeks flushed red. Whatever caught his attention snuffed out the light in his eyes and left them dull and bleak.

“Are you okay?” I breathed.

Jaw tight, he nodded and lifted his hand in acknowledgement.

Following the line of his vision, I spied Jenny. Briskly spinning on her heel, her long, shapely legs carried her in the opposite direction.

The blood drained from my face and left me breathless.

A rapid-fire slideshow of the countless times I’d seen Jenny since I returned to Moose Lake flashed through my mind.

I’d seen Baxter even more.

But I’d yet to see them in the same frame at the same time.

That vision from the past whipped up crisp and clear as that morning I found them. Super-imposing over the present, it threw my body back in time.

“Oh, God,” I gasped as my knees gave out, reaching for the source of my misery for comfort in the midst of my panic.

“Maggie,” he exclaimed, eyes wide as he grasped me by my upper arms.

I stared into space, my breath coming in pants as the past, present, and future played out in front of me all at once.

The past where another woman lay wrapped around him in his bed.

The present where he was suddenly back in my life, breaking down walls I’d worked hard to raise.

A future where Baxter would one day move on.

Where another woman, maybe even Jenny, would be on his arm, wear his ring, bear his children.

And as the mother of his child, I’d have a front row seat to all of it.

“Oh, no,” I panted, bending at the waist to catch my breath.

“Maggie, Maggie, Maggie,” he chanted, pulling me up to rest on his chest. With one hand cupping the back of my head and the other wrapped around my back, he rocked us back and forth. “I’m so sorry, Maggie. I’m so fucking sorry.”

I tried to suck in a breath, but my heart had shattered, and those razor-sharp pieces had pierced my lungs.

The wind was too cold, the sun too hot, and the number of steps between me and the haven of my home stretched out endlessly in front of me.

I couldn’t get any air.

I pulled away, arching my neck back. “I can’t breathe!”

“Fuck,” he spat, grasping my upper arms and dipping his knees. “Look at me, baby.”

Eyes wild, I looked for my front door, my fingers digging into his biceps.

“Maggie,” he clipped, giving me a little shake. “Look at me.”

My panicked gaze found his wide eyes and locked on. “That’s it,” he urged. “Breathe with me, Maggie.”

His chest rose with his inhale.

Mimicking him, I earned his affirming nod.

“That’s right,” he praised. “I’m here. You’re here. It’s over. Now breathe out.”

Repeating the exercise, my breathing slowly returned to normal.

And shame stepped into the space panic left.

“No,” he snapped, pulling me close. “It’s not your fault, Maggie.”

Holding me tight, he tangled his hand in my hair as he promised, “I don’t remember that night, Maggie. I don’t remember a single thing about that night. I don’t know how it happened, but I swear to God, I belonged to you. I had no interest in her and no intention of ever being with anyone else.”

God help me, I believed him.

And I needed him.

My hands crawled around his back. Then I buried my face in his hard chest and clung to his solid frame, breathing easier when his arms tightened further around me, my name a whisper on his lips.

Caged in his embrace, I breathed him in, closed my eyes, and longed for the purifying heat of his naked skin against mine.

Smoothing his big hand over my head, his lips trailed kisses along my hairline. “My Maggie. My one and only. My anchor. My fucking everything,” he rumbled softly.

I melted against him and hugged him, soothing him with my hands. Holding him as tightly as he held me.

His chest rose and fell, and his body relaxed into mine.

A shaky breathy spilled from his lips.

“I’m so sorry, Maggie,” he whispered.

I nodded my acceptance and nestled impossibly closer. If I could have crawled inside him, I still wouldn’t have been close enough.

As much as I hated it, as much as I believed it made me all kinds of a fool, every steady beat of my heart proclaimed that I was exactly where I belonged.

And I wished, I wished with every little bit of my battered heart that I hadn’t given up on him ten years ago.

I splayed my hands over his back and hung on.

“So am I.”