Page 17 of Seeking Vengeance
“Nicki.”
“Hmm, pretty. Is that short for Nicole? Nicolette?”
Sean frowned. “Not sure.”
Maggie waved it off. “Doesn’t matter. Where did you meet her?”
“The garage actually.”
“Car trouble? That’s what brought Taryn into town, right?” Maggie sharply sucked in a breath. “Another kick,” she explained when Sean looked at her suspiciously.
“Yes to Taryn, but no to Nicki. She’s visiting her brother, Nick. He works for me.”
“Nick and Nicki?”
“Yeah.” Sean smiled. “Twins.”
“You’ve got something in common with her already then, huh?” She shifted on her seat. “So, I’m guessing she’s gorgeous. Probably a perfect size six.” She ruefully looked down at her big belly.
“She is beautiful. Sexy as hell too. Full of fire.” He paused, a frown tugging his lips downward. “She’s working up at Angels while she’s in town.”
“No wonder she caught your eye. I hear Callaghan men really go for exotic dancers,” she joked, reminding Sean of how she and Michael had met when she danced at Ian’s bachelor party as a favor to a friend.
“She’s something else. I’ve never met anyone like her. I want to throttle her and kiss her at the same time. And when the other guys were watching her dance? I wanted to kill every one of them. That’s not like me, Mags.”
Maggie looked at him thoughtfully. “Michael told me once that something just clicked inside him when we met. That everything changed. Maybe that’s what’s happening to you too.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. One second, everything was fine, life as usual. The next? Hell, it was like a grenade had gone off. No, make that three grenades. One in my head, one in my chest, and one in my pants.”
“And what about her? Does she feel the same way about you, do you think?”
That was what he loved about Maggie. No smart-ass comments, no words of doom or salvation. Just acceptance and genuine interest. He couldn’t conceive of talking to anyone else about this. His brother Michael was a smart—and very fortunate—man to have her.
He thought about her question as he chewed a few more cookies, washing them down with a healthy swig of milk. Ah, whole milk. He knew she kept it around just for him and his brothers. She only drank soy herself. Maggie was the best.
He filled her in on the little bit he knew, leaving out the explicit details, but it was enough that she got the idea.
Maggie blew out a breath and seemed to relax a little, and then she looked at her watch. “Sounds like the real thing to me, Sean. You owe it to yourself to at least find out.”
He nodded. “Except I think she despises me.” He probably shouldn’t have grinned when he said it, butdamn, he liked the fire in her eyes and the way she challenged him.
Nicki Milligan was definitely a woman who would keep him on his toes.
“There’s a fine line between love and hate. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s probably scared stiff.”
“Yeah?” Fear was definitely not the first thing that had jumped into his mind. Lust, maybe. Anger, probably. Defiance, absolutely.
“Yeah. I felt exactly like that around Michael when I first met him. Still do sometimes. When it hits you, it hits hard, and”—she paused briefly—“you just don’t know if you can handle it.” She clenched her teeth and sucked in a breath.
“Mags?”
Sean reached out to her, and she latched on to his hand as if it were a lifeline.
His eyes widened as the realization hit him. “Oh fuck, you’re in labor, aren’t you?”
She nodded, breathing through the pain.
“Maggie, we gotta call Mick.”
