Page 89 of Next in Line
He nods stoically and kisses me on the lips quickly. “I can take it. Your crazy dream talk is one of the things I love about you, sparky.”
A squeal of excitement shoots through my entire core as I roll onto my back and gaze up at the ceiling. “Oh my heck, you’re giving me full rein. I hope you’re prepared.”
He kisses my shoulder. “Bring it.”
I swallow hard and frown as I think for a moment. “Okay, here’s the love story of Maggie and Sam. So I’m going to move to Boulder, obviously. You have Tire Depot and plans with Miles to expand the business, and even though I want to strangle Kate a couple of times a day, she’s actually one of my favorite people in life…so Boulder is going to be our home.”
“I like the start of this,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m going to meet your mom at Sunday brunch, and she is going to love me.”
“Full of yourself, are ya?” he asks, pinning me with surprised eyes.
“Duh!” I exclaim, flicking my hands out in front of me. “She’s going to see me as the light to your dark, the sweet to your salty. All my goodness has completely brightened your soul.”
“Mmm, I agree,” he murmurs, reaching over and squeezing my breast.
I shove him off. “I’m musing here. This is our fairy-tale future, and I can’t lose focus.”
“Sorry,” he says, sliding his hand down to wrap around my waist.
“Your nieces and nephews will love me because I’ll read stories to them. But your sisters will be a little hateful because I’m taking you away from them. Eventually, they’ll warm to me, especially when we have kids because they’ll love seeing their little brother become a daddy.”
“Kids?” Sam asks, and I look over to see a surprised look on his face.
“I was thinking two?” I state it in a question but then wave him off because these are my dreams, not his. “However, I could see us having a surprise third baby when our youngest is like ten years old because you’re such a horn ball, and you’ll refuse to get a vasectomy.”
This makes Sam bark out a laugh. “God, your mind is incredible.” He pulls me to him and kisses my temple.
“I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet,” I reply, elbowing him softly. “We’re going to have a boat. A pontoon boat for the family where all the grandkids will fit and take the most epic fishing trips ever.”
I look over and see warmth and affection in Sam’s eyes that nearly takes my breath away. I expected shock and judgment, laughter, and loads of teasing. The worst-case scenario would be fear-stricken regret. What I didn’t expect was to be looking into the eyes of a man who’s just discovered the meaning of life, and I’m the one who showed it to him.
Without a response, Sam pulls me to him, our naked bodies flush as he kisses me with so much tenderness, my eyes sting behind my closed lids. This is a dream come true reaction. This is the reaction that makes me feel like I really can be my truest self with this man, and he will accept me—crazy, optimistic love stories and all.
We pull apart breathless, and I touch my fingers to his wrist. “How’s your pulse? You sure you’re not getting cold feet?” I slide my feet over and curl them around his legs.
“I promise you, Maggie. I am toasty warm,” he says, his voice low as he hits me with that adorable smile that he fails to hide every single time.
I grin against his lips. “So does this mean I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and find you gone?”
“No way,” he replies and gets a serious look on his face. “I love our fictional story, and I hope it comes true.”
Hook, Line, And Sinker
A Few Months Later
“Hey, Marv…how does one become a master baiter?” Maggie asks, pushing her sleeves up before she sweeps a net into a basin of fresh minnows.
I look over at Marv standing beside Maggie behind the live bait counter with a clipboard in his hand. “What’s that you’re saying?”
Maggie transports the bouncing minnows into her customer’s minnow bucket. “I was getting bait for a guy in here the other day, and he said I looked like a great master baiter. I said, I’ve only been working here a couple of months, and I didn’t even know being a master baiter was a thing.”
The male customer standing in front of Maggie looks over at me with wide eyes that I return because seriously…what the hell?
Marv’s face twists up in confusion. “I’ve heard of promaster fishermen. But not master baiters. Surely, I’m a master baiter. I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
My hand flies up to cover my mouth as a sputter of laughter lands on my palm. The customer crosses his arms to stare at the floor and conceal his reaction to Maggie and Marv’s conversation.
