Page 95 of Rival Hearts

“Your dad died. You get a pass. Maybe a few of them.” I laid back and drew her into my side. She curled around, her head on my shoulder, her hand over my heart. “Can I come to the funeral with you tomorrow?”

Her lips skimmed my chest. “Yes.” She took a deep breath that gave me pause.

“If you don’t tell me what’s still eating you, Trent will give us Communication 101 lessons.”

“What textbook?” Maggie murmured. The movement of her lips across my skin caused a shiver to run through me.

“His brain.”

Maggie giggled and shifted closer, stretching one leg across me. I let the silence seep over us while I waited for her to find the words. “Do you want the LA job?”

I rubbed her back in slow circles and considered tiptoeing around the topic. But I remembered Jim’s words about communication and facing the hard conversations head-on. I remembered what I vowed about my relationship with Maggie from now on. “I do. I want the job.”

“What would that mean for you and me? I get that you love me, and I love you. But we both love our jobs. And I love this town.”

“Long-distance?” I held my breath.

“For how long?”

“Six months to a year.” I rubbed my forehead and then jumped into the hard bit. “Possibly longer. Possibly until I have enough clout to use the studio I built here or get offered opportunities in New York.”

Maggie drew figure eights on my chest. “Six months to a year.”

“Possibly longer.” I didn’t want to hide the reality. In six months, if the role looked like it would be more than a year, I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t committed to her.

“What does that look like to you? How would we do that?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. A lot of time on fucking airplanes, I think.” Nothing about the distance appealed to me. But if Maggie wouldn’t leave Little Falls for more than a vacation, I would take what I could get. “Long weekends, vacation time, meeting in the middle for a few hours, whatever we have to do to make it work.”

“You’d do all that?”

“If you say you won’t, I’m turning down the job.”

“I don’t want you to say no because of me.”

I tipped her face up so our gazes locked. “If there’s a choice, I choose you. I mean that with all my heart.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. “When do you have to tell him?”

“I already turned it down, but Jack said I could still change my mind until Monday. He wasn’t going to tell anyone until Monday.” The timing couldn’t be worse. Jim’s funeral was tomorrow, and then I had to call Jack on Monday to tell him to move forward with negotiations or bow out. When I’d called Jack on Friday to turn down the job, Jack had extended the deadline to Monday so I could “have the weekend to be completely sure.” I’d been prepared to turn down the job, and I’d do it again on Monday if she didn’t think we could make long-distance work.

“Take the job.”

“Maggie.” I let frustration leak into my voice. I didn’t want to go back down a road of miscommunication or one of us trying to do what was best for the other instead of what was best for us both.

“We’ll figure it out together, okay? My brain doesn’t want to do it right now. Feels too hard. But if you say yes to the producing job, I’m not going to bail on you, on us.” She crawled along me until we were face-to-face. “Say ‘yes.’”

A slow grin spread across my face. Was it possible I’d get Maggie and the job? What else could we agree on? “You wanna say ‘yes’ too?” I rolled us so I had her pinned to the bed, and I settled between her legs. “Join my team?”

She framed my face with her hands. “You mean,myteam, right?”

I brushed my lips against hers. “Our team. I’ll be part of your mayoral team when you win, and you can be part of my songwriting team. My muse is the most important aspect.” I watched her face as she processed my comment.

“Our teams, then,” she whispered. “I love you, Grady.”

When the words circled around us for the second time, I wondered if I’d ever get tired of hearing them.

Months ago, when I’d returned to Little Falls, I’d done so many things wrong. Made so many mistakes. But they’d led us here, somehow. Looking down at her, I tried to solidify this moment, make it one I’d never forget. I’d gotten lucky.

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