Page 27 of The One You Want

Chapter Seven

Maggie woke up with a pounding in her ears that matched her heartbeat. Thank god, the drapes were closed, the room dark, or the headache behind her eyes would make it impossible to see. Thankfully, she fondly remembered last night.

She loved spending time with her fiancé and with Rose.

Her fiancé. She said the words to herself one more time. They were getting married exactly a week from today. Soon. A wave of butterflies took flight in her stomach. Excitement mixed with nerves.

She couldn’t believe she’d found the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The thought made her happy and apprehensive at the same time.

What if she was wrong?

What if it didn’t work out?

What if it did?Her heart overrode those doubts because she wanted to get married and have a family just like the one she grew up in.

Marc wanted that, too. He couldn’t wait for them to start.

Unlike Joel, who broke things off with her when she’d madeit clear she wanted to be a mother more than anything. He’d made it clear he liked things just the way they were between them, just the two of them. He didn’t want to have children at all.

She’d thought he was the one, too, and she’d been devastated when they’d broken up.

It had been a hard few months, and then she’d met Marc in the grocery store. He was there buying flowers for his aunt’s birthday and asked her opinion. She’d picked out a bundle of beautiful pink roses surrounding tall stalks of white snapdragons. She’d commented that the bottle of prosecco he’d already chosen was her favorite.

She liked his smile and his charm, and she liked that picking something his aunt would really love mattered to him. He’d asked her out right then and there, saying he’d love to share a bottle of prosecco over dinner.

She’d accepted, thinking dipping her toe back into the dating pool with a family-oriented guy like Marc, who was also gorgeous, was a good start to putting herself out there again. She also liked that he made no attempt to be coy about how into her he was. He told her that if she said no, he’d be devastated.

She liked him immediately.

He’d called the next day with the details for their evening out that night.

They met at the restaurant because, though she was intrigued by him, she wasn’t fool enough to give out her address without at least getting to know him better. At that point, allshe knew was that he had an aunt with great taste in sparkling wine.

That night, he’d made her feel like the only woman in the room. They talked about their disastrous dating lives and how they were both looking for something more. She’d been open about the fact she wanted a family. He’d expressed how much he wanted to settle down with a wife and kids.

It all seemed so perfect and right that all thoughts that he’d be her rebound guy turned into his being her forever man.

She tried not to jump in with both feet, but found he pulled her in right along with him.

And now they were actually tying the knot in just days.

She smiled at the ceiling and turned her head toward Marc’s side of the bed, but didn’t find him lying next to her. He sat on the edge, staring at his phone.

He never seemed to be far from it for long these days.

She felt bad he couldn’t step away from work even for a few days without them constantly contacting him.

She felt a little rough this morning, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make Marc’s morning a little brighter. She slid up behind him, draped her arm over one shoulder and rested her chin on the other, catching a glimpse of his phone before he startled and dropped it on the floor.

“Babe. Seriously, don’t sneak up on me like that.”

She giggled. “I thought you’d sense me coming up behind you.”

Apparently he’d been so engrossed in the text messages, he hadn’t felt the bed dip behind him.

“Who are you texting?” She tried to keep her voice light and undemanding, but she didn’t like the way the text she’d seen made her feel jealous and suspicious.

We should meet.