Page 55 of Maggie’s Match

Maggie assessed her cousin’s response, then shook her head. “No, I think she has this. Besides, it looks like Colton is eating crow.”

Just then the man reached out and tried to touch Becca’s arm, but her cousin jerked away.

“Yup, definitely going to be paying the rest of his life for this one. If he decides to stick around.” Rick went back to helping her clean up by folding up the tent, or trying to at any rate.

To both of their surprise, Colton rushed over and offered to help. Rick glanced over at Becca, who shrugged and walked away.

“Hey, man,” Colton said to Rick. “I wanted to apologize. I… I didn’t know what Royce and his uncle had planned. I haven’t seen him since that night at the Bullseye. Plus, I would have told you his name, who he was related to, but like I said, I thought everyone in town knew.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I should have said something sooner. Sorry, man.” He held out his hand, and Maggie smiled when Rick easily shook it.

“We’ve all done stupid shit in our lives,” Rick said.

“Yeah, well, I hope that’s all behind me.” He glanced over at Becca.

“You’ve got it bad for her, haven’t you?” Maggie asked.

Colton sighed. “Always have,” he admitted. “I just need to prove to her that I’m worth forgiving. That I’m not like… well.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“She’ll come around,” Rick said, glancing at Maggie. “If you do things right and it matters enough to you to stick around.”

“That’s the important part,” Maggie added with a wink, causing Rick to smile at her.

“Until then, I plan on doing all I can to prove that she matters to me,” Colton said, his eyes on Becca as she folded up the tables a few feet away. “She was my first love. Ever since she came back into town, I’ve been trying to get her to take a chance on me. I never expected Royce would screw that up for me.”

“You know, if you really want to show her that you’re for real…” Maggie started. “I hear you do some construction work on the side?” he tilted her head.

Colton nodded. “I do. I have my own business.” He glanced over at the building and back at Becca. “Do you think she’d want my help?”

“If it gets her out of doing most of the hard work herself, I think she’d allow it.” Maggie hooked her arm in his and walked towards the building.

“What do you need done?” he asked as he helped her up into the building.

While she relayed the list of things in her head, Colton took notes on his phone. When she mentioned that she and Becca were going to start painting the walls the following day, he agreed to meet them first thing in the morning with his spray painter and do the entire job himself.

Then she mentioned they had plans to separate the space and build a kitchen.

He frowned at her, then surprised her by saying. “How about I clear my schedule? Before we start painting, you can show me what you’ve come up with. Then we can build the walls and paint everything all at once.”

“You must really have something for Becca,” she said, leaning on the doorframe and looking at Colton.

“Like I said, she was my first. We’ve had this… on-and-off sort of thing since grade school.” He shrugged and walked over to the windows. They were still taped up from the move, but he glanced out of them. “Royce came into town a few months before she returned, and we started hanging out.” He turned towards her. “I’ve never had a lot of friends. I’m an only child and well…” He sighed. “I won’t bore you with the rest. I should have stopped hanging with him when I realized how big of an ass he was.”

“Like Rick said, we all make mistakes.”

“Yeah, but my mistake almost cost me the woman I love,” Colton replied. “Not to mention what he did to you.”

Maggie nodded, then said, “You haven’t heard the story of my relationship with Rick yet, have you?”

He shook his head and leaned on the windowsill.

For the next few minutes, she filled Colton in on her and Rick’s past. Colton seemed surprised. When she was done talking, he said, “I thought the two of you just got together, after… what Royce did to you.” He avoided her eyes. “I’m so sorry about that, by the way.” She gave him a quick nod, and he continued. “No way did I think that you’d been together that long.”

“Like I said, it’s been on and off. Rick kept leaving town,” she said with a smile.

“A mistake I’m no longer going to make,” Rick said from the doorway. Since there wasn’t a step or a deck out there yet, she could only see the top half of his body in the doorway. “So what’s the plan?” he asked, looking around the inside of the building.

While Maggie relayed her and Becca’s plans for the inside, Colton excused himself to go find Becca.

When she was done telling Rick all about her idea, they went and found the couple talking in Colton’s truck and suggested they head in to get some lunch.