Closest To My Heart

Chapter Thirteen

At ten o'clock, Maggie finally gave up on Sean coming home and switched off the television, the streetlight glow from outside casting silvery shadows on the wall opposite the windows. She padded to her room and switched on the bedside lamp, then propped a pillow up against the headboard and settled in to do some light reading.

Ten minutes later, she was still staring through the same page while thoughts of her brother's pronouncement played out in a continuous loop in her head. There was no doubt that Sean was a ladies' man. He had a string of past girlfriends to prove it, although most of them had stayed on as friends even after the inevitable break-ups had occurred. And the break-ups were inevitable, because Sean wasn't the type to stay settled for long. He was a free spirit and a bit of a lothario, but that had never stopped the girls—and later, women—from becoming involved with him. Sean had never suffered from a shortage of female admirers because, despite his devil-may-care attitude, he was the consummate gentleman. He respected women, he worshipped women, he lusted after women... but love? Never once had he professed to be 'In Love' with a woman, so how would he even know? What if he was wrong?

But what if he's not? Maggie hedged, and then resumed her resistance. No, it's too soon. I jumped in almost that quickly with Kevin, and look how that turned out!

Kevin. Maggie's mind flashed back to a day nearly four years before, when she'd told Sean that she was moving in with Kevin. The conversation had ended much the same, but in reverse, with Maggie storming out and refusing to speak to her brother for days. Sean had never taken a liking to Kevin, claiming that he was just using Maggie to get in good with their father in hopes of securing himself a shot at making partner one day. At the time, she'd written her brother's suspicions off as unsubstantiated nonsense, but who could say for sure? It did seem awfully convenient that her problems with Kevin had cropped up right around the time that Maggie's father had taken early retirement, and now that Kevin had the partnership pretty much in the bag, well... look where she'd ended up. But the part that bothered her most was that she wasn't really all that upset about it anymore. Oh sure, she was worried about supporting herself, about her parents' reaction to the news, about Kevin's family's reaction, about her unfilled dreams of being a bride before the age of thirty... but Kevin? The truth was, she didn't really miss him all that much. Maybe, in her own way, she'd been using him as well...

Maggie's ears perked up at the sound of a key in the lock, and she sat up straighter at the familiar hinge squeak that signaled the opening of the front door.

"Sean?"

"Sorry, just me," Tag said, poking his head in around the corner. "Still not home, huh?"

Maggie deflated and sank back against the headboard. "No. He stormed out of here not long after you left, and I haven't heard from him since."

Tag leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms, and Maggie couldn't help but notice the way his t-shirt stretched across the solid width of his shoulders.

"Well, you did kind of burst his bubble," he reminded her.

"I know," she acknowledged with remorse. "I just don't want him to get hurt, that's all."

"Well, you know what they say," Tag shrugged. "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

"Shakespeare?" Maggie guessed.

"Tennyson."

"Ah," Maggie said, and then eyed him curiously. "I didn't take you for a poetry guy."