Page 48 of No Way Home
“Be brave,” I said as she typed a response.
Magnolia
I think that would upset Griffin, and I’m trying really hard not to do that. I just wanted you to know that I liked your piercing—sorry, I didn’t say anything earlier.
I knew exactly why she hadn’t said anything earlier. Griffin would’ve lost it.
Magnolia
G’night Bowen.
I fell back against my pillow and exhaled. Well, at least she liked the piercing. Maybe I’d keep it after all.
Chapter Fifteen
MAGNOLIA
RACE DAY
I flipped my blinker,waiting behind a line of cars to turn into the venue parking lot—which looked like a random field on somebody’s farm. Bowen and Griffin had both invited me to ride with them. I’d kindly turned each of them down.
Truth was, I needed space. Lots and lots of space. From Bowen, whose every glance set my pulse racing and my stomach twisting, and whose mere presence made me ache for things I wasn’t supposed to. And from Griffin, whose constant brooding was basically a neon sign pointing me straight back to Bowen.
I had no idea how I was supposed to spend the entire day with Bowen sans Griffin, and keep my bottled-up feelings from exploding. I checked my phone, trying to settle my nerves.
Abilene
After you have the prize money in your hot little hands, break up with Griff and confess your undying love to Bowen.
“Not helping.”
First of all, that’s terrible. And second, even if it weren’t (IT IS), there’s no way I break up with my boyfriend and live happily ever after with his brother. Come back to reality, Abs.
Abilene
Create your own HEA, Maggie. You and Bowen. Forget everyone else.
I don’t even know if Bowen likes me anymore. Besides, he’s been a really good friend lately. I’d like to preserve the progress we’ve made.
Abilene
I think you’re forgetting that Bowen turned his face into a tackle box for you.
Forget? It wasallI’d thought of since the minute I saw him with that stupid-hot piece of metal through his eyebrow. I was like a girl in a Regency romance, perpetually tucked in a meadow with her parasol and puffed sleeves, daisy petals scattered in her lap.He loves me.He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not.
“Daisies,” I huffed to myself. At Sole Mates, Bowen had left me the second he realized I was Griffin’s Maggie. That’s how loyal he was. Whether or not Griff deserved it.
If I confessed my feelings—hypothetically speaking, of course, because I wouldnever—and Bowen rejected me? My heart would give out on the spot, and they’d have to bury me right in this field. My headstone would read:
Here lies Magnolia Wren Hollis
She hoped it was love.
It wasn’t.
May she (never) rest in peace.
I fake-cried to stop myself from real-crying.
