Page 46 of Rival Hearts

“I wish I’d known,” he said, reading my thoughts.

“Do you?” I whispered, my gaze straying to his lips. I wanted to forget about everything else and sink into the depths of this desire.

He cupped my cheek, and I leaned into his hand. “No, I’m glad I didn’t know. You were with Trent. I already feel shitty enough about what happened.”

The truth bubbled up my throat. I could confess, tell him what had really been going on. Embarrassing, but maybe that was better than this. The cost would be Trent’s trust, perhaps even our friendship.

And for what?

Sabrina’s voice calling him back to bed the other morning sprang up between us. He was toying with me, and I was letting him. Playing games.

Don’t be foolish.

Scanning his face one last time, I stepped back and picked up his sheet of scrawled notes. “I’ll grab my laptop, and we can chat about these people and what they do.”

“Are you ever going to tell me the truth, Maggie?”

Silence stretched between us while I considered ignoring his question. “I don’t know why it matters anymore.” I averted my eyes. “It was a long time ago. We aren’t the same people.” Taking a deep breath, I met his gaze.

“I betrayed my brother, and you act like what happened wasn’t a big deal. You said you’d help me get him back.” He sliced a frustrated hand through the air. “So, yeah, it matters. If the truth means I didn’t do what I think I did, then it matters. A hell of a lot.”

I searched his face, indecision warring in me. Perhaps I could tell him a little, enough to make him understand. I swallowed. “We had an agreement. We weren’t dating, not really. People thought we were. We let people believe that for a few reasons. But we were never dating.”

He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

“That’s not the whole truth, but I can’t give you more. I can’t betray his trust.”

“I saw you two—you kissed, you held hands. That’s not—it wasn’t fake.”

My palms were clammy. “When you decide to lie about something, you have to commit to the lie. It was important your mom thought we were dating.” I gave him a helpless look. “I can’t. God, Grady. He’d be so angry with me. I can’t say any more. If you want the rest, you ask him.”

“When we slept together—”

“I didn’t cheat on him. Not in the conventional sense, anyway.”

“But I didn’t know that…” He searched my face, his brown eyes assessing. “If we hadn’t gotten the call he’d been arrested, would you have told me everything?”

“Everything has never been mine to tell. Back then, I needed him, and he needed me.”

“Why?”

I gathered the papers and put his handwritten notes on top. “I’ll get Lila to connect with you about the rest of this list.”

“Tell me why, Maggie.”

Tears sprang to my eyes, but I kept my head down and continued tidying up. “If that was what was holding you back from being a real brother, you can rest assured he wouldn’t have cared.”

“Maggie.” His voice was pleading.

I swept away the tears trickling down my cheeks. “Lila will call you.” I opened the conference room door and retreated down the hall to my office.

As I set the stack of papers on my desk, my hands shook. I stared at them, wondering if I’d done the right thing.

Would that satisfy him, or would that small confession only make things worse?

Chapter Eighteen

Grady

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