Page 23 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

Her eyes flicked back to mine. “Daniel didn’t want to be there either?”

I shrugged. “I can’t be a hundred percent sure. He didn’t say anything about it, but I think he was uncomfortable, too. Maybe not for the same reasons you were, but he didn’t exactly look like it was the best day of his life.”

She stared at the floor for a beat. “I’m still not going back, Ryan.”

“Yeah, I figured, but you should know what you’re in for if you don’t.”

“Marcus will fix it.” She glanced up at me again. “He always swoops in and fixes everything.”

I couldn’t stop the short clip of dry laughter that shot out of me. “Be realistic, Maggie. Your brother can’t fix this.”

“He’s the Pembroke heir. Damage control is his domain.”

“That doesn’t mean he has a magic wand.”

“He’ll figure something out.”

“There’s nothing to figure out if you’re not there, Maggie. Marcus has a lot riding on this arrangement in terms of your family’s public image and honestly? You owe Daniel a massive apology.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t owe him anything.”

“He didn’t choose this either,” I said. “You could’ve at least given him a heads-up about how you were feeling.”

“Why? He looked fine with everything.”

“Because he was fulfilling a duty to his family, Maggie,” I said, the words coming out a little harsher now. My voice dropped several octaves as I looked back at her. “Are you honestly going to stand there and tell me you’re washing your hands of all this? Marcus will fix it. Daniel was fine. And you’re what? Innocent?”

“I didn’t have a choice, Ryan.” Her features hardened. “I’m not going back to beg for the forgiveness of a man I never said yes to or for permission from my family to make my own choices.”

“Then I’m done,” I said, making my decision right there on the spot. “I’ve had it with all this. I was trying to help you, but I’m not your errand boy. This isn’t even any of my business but I’ve been dragged into it anyway. Constantly. But I’ve had enough. Good luck, Maggie. Seriously, you’re going to need it.”

I marched back to the front door and snatched my car keys up from the table, turning to the door just as the lights flickered. Maggie looked up just as they flickered again, and the next thing I knew, everything went black.

“Oh, come on,” I muttered.

Thunder rolled somewhere in the distance, and a second later, rain started hammering against the windows again. I dropped my head back and cursed but opened the door anyway and strode out onto the porch.

A power outage wasn’t going to change my mind.

“What’s happening?” Maggie asked, her voice so close that she’d obviously followed me out. “You can’t still be leaving.”

“I am.” At least, I was until I looked down the long driveway and realized a huge tree had fallen across it, taking down part of the fence with it.

Fuck. Maybe I’m not.

Leaving had just become significantly more complicated, and until I could get someone out here to come move that tree, I wasn’t going to be able to go anywhere unless I did it on foot. And even then, I would have to come back at some point for my car.

So for now, I was stuck. With Maggie Pembroke, the runaway bride, in a secret cottage no one knew about, in the middle of a storm and a power outage, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about any of it.

CHAPTER 10

MAGGIE

Ryan could make macaroni and cheese from a box. He was also cooking it over a woodstove that’d been smoking so much earlier that the neighbors had probably thought the house was on fire.

I blinked hard as I tried to make sense of it all. I mean, just… how?

“You fixed the stove,” I said finally, standing with my hip propped against the counter in the small kitchen as I watched him stir the mixture in a pot. “What is your deal, Ryan? How do you know how to do all this?”