Some Like It Ruthless (A Temporary Engagement) (3 page)

He’d had someone once. He’d had someone who stood unflinching next to him when his fists were bloody and bruised. He’d had someone who fussed over him, who tried to knock some sense into him and prepare him for life in shark-infested waters.

And he’d never realized what he’d had until he’d thrown it away.

Twenty years ago

Cole had been too busy looking through his binoculars to hear her footsteps. When she nudged him with her shoe, he jumped and shrieked, spinning on his toes and raising his fists.

Maggie looked at his raised fists as if she’d never seen one pointed her direction before and said, “My daddy shoots trespassers.”

Cole puffed out his chest. “This is my land. This is Montgomery land.”

“It’s Caldwell land.”

He sneered. “Better check your map, baby.”

Even at ten-years-old, Maggie knew how to raise an eyebrow just so. It was nearly as fearsome as a pair of fists. “My daddy says any man calls me baby, I should kick him in the balls.”

Cole protected himself reflexively. “My daddy says your daddy is a bad loser. Empress.”

He would just file that no baby rule away for future thought. He wasn’t willing to test it again on Maggie.

Maggie took a step forward and shoved him. “I told you, don’t call me that.”

Cole raised his hands to shove Maggie back, then remembered. You didn’t shove a girl. You didn’t hit a girl. You didn’t call a girl baby.

There wasn’t all these rules in his before-life and it took effort to take a step back. He said, “My daddy says someone shoves you, they better expect a shove back.”

His father had never said anything like it. If Cole had to guess, his father would say if someone looked like they were going to shove you, you’d better shove first. And Cole had never in his life called Rich Montgomery daddy. But Maggie had a daddy. It only seemed fair that she think he had one too.

Maggie sniffed. “I guess we’re even then.”

“How you figure?”

“I should have kicked you and you should have shoved me.”

Cole thought about that for a few minutes, then decided Maggie probably knew what she was talking about. Maggie was pretty big on fair.

He finally nodded. “Even.”

“Daddy saw the reflection off your binoculars. You’ve got to remember to keep the sun behind you.”

Cole’s stomach dropped. He didn’t mind running into Maggie when he might or might not be on Montgomery land; he sure as hell did not want to run into her father.

He nodded again and before he could even think of anything to say she said, “Ginny says Martha says Gayle says she heard her brother talking about a fight Friday after school.”

“Michael and Jonah.”

They’d set it up with him like they were scheduling a piano lesson. He’d never get used to the
warnings
. How stupid do you have to be to tell your prey when you’re going to attack?

Maggie narrowed her eyes. Cole had known she wouldn’t like it.

He said, “I’ve told you. Two against is fine. I can take two sissy boys who’ve never been in a real fight before.”

“It’s not fair,” she said and Cole rolled his eyes.

“Two of them equals one of me. It’s fair.”

“What about three?”

“Depends on the three.” Cole puffed out his chest but it was wasted on her.

She said, “How will I know if three is too many?”

Cole had hated the first time Maggie had come to his rescue, especially since it had only been two boys swinging at him like they was swinging blind-folded at a piñata. But since then he’d realized there was an endless wave of them and only one of him.

Sometimes a man had to take help where he could get it.

And he knew exactly what his father would say about that.

But some days, most days, Cole liked Maggie better than his father, and she made a lot of sense when he was nursing a black eye, fat lip, and sore ribs.

Cole said, “Maybe we need a signal or something. But it can’t be too obvious.”

“Like you curled up in a ball on the ground?”

He narrowed his eyes. She was never going to let him forget that.

He said, “Sometime before that would probably be okay.”

Maggie smiled, her creepy eyes changing colors.

They gave her away when he was fighting. She
liked
watching him fight. Her eyes stayed that creepy greeny-blue for a long time after one of his fights. It didn’t matter if he won or lost. And while he liked it better when he won, losing wasn’t so bad either.

When he lost, Maggie stepped between him and his enemies. It was hard to feel like a loser when your enemy was the one cowering from a girl.

A girl with soft hands who rinsed blood away like his housekeeper washed the fine china.

A girl with soft hands who held an ice pack to his face like she was holding a day-old kitten.

A girl with soft hands and swirling eyes who should be his greatest enemy and instead was his only friend.

A girl with soft hands and a sharp voice that told him he was an idiot. Whether he won or lost.

Cole had never had a mother but he thought Maggie would one day make a pretty good one. Cole thought soft hands and a sharp voice was just what a mother was supposed to be like.

Two

Cole sat in the shade watching Maggie swimming back and forth, back and forth. She looked as if the weight of the world rested on her too skinny shoulders. She swam as if all her devils were chasing her.

He’d been out here for over an hour, waiting for her to get home. The housekeeper had taken one look at him and crossed herself. She’d repeated, “No, no, no, no,” and he’d held up a hand to forestall a complete meltdown.

“I’ll wait by the pool. Tell Maggie I’m here.”

The housekeeper had shrieked, “Madre de Dios! She no here!”

“I’ll wait.”

He’d half-believed Maggie had been inside the whole time, making him wait just a little bit longer than he’d made her wait. But one glance at her barely-hanging-in-there, faded black Speedo and he’d known Maggie didn’t have a clue he was here.

As soon as he’d been able to get away from work, he’d taken off after her, thinking he’d catch up to her somewhere on I-20.

He’d seen her push her fist into her belly before she’d slammed her car door shut and remembered his own ulcer. Seen her drive out of his parking lot in a Hyundai.
A Hyundai
.

It was stylish enough that maybe she could pretend she was driving it because she liked it, but he knew better.

Margaret Caldwell wouldn’t know what a Hyundai was unless she had to.

He’d remembered the stomach-eating acid of his own bankruptcy. Wide awake nights. The crushing failure. He wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy.

Which was why he was here.

He’d give her the time she needed, distract her with a good fight now and again, and redeem himself. She’d had her revenge on him, though she’d clearly not forgiven him. He wasn’t sure she ever would. He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to. But he needed to forgive himself, forgive the stupid shit that he’d been. Make up for hurting the one person who’d made life bearable.

Cole sat and watched Maggie swim until her strokes slowed, until her arms lost their controlled precision.

He stood and walked to the edge of the pool.

She jerked, her head whipping out of the water. She stared at him for a moment, her eyes wide, then she shouted, “Cole!”

She hit the water with her fist, spraying water onto his pants, and he grinned.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She hit the water again, spraying more water, and he shook his head, reaching for his buckle.

“If you’re going to get me all wet I might as well jump in and cool off.”

She watched him slide his zipper down with narrowed eyes. “How long have you been here?”

He glanced at his watch, then took it off. “About an hour and a half. With not even an offer of a drink.”

He pulled his shirt over his head, not missing her gaze sliding down his chest.

She said, “I’m surprised Rosa didn’t offer you the business end of a shotgun.”

He kicked off his shoes and socks, hooking his thumbs into his jeans. He looked at the house, noticing a crooked blind suddenly straighten.

“She’s not the same housekeeper who walked in on us, is she?”

“The same.”

“Well, that makes a little more sense. I thought she seemed unreasonably unwelcoming.”

He pushed his jeans down quickly and jumped into the water, the cold soaking into his white briefs.

Say what you would about breezy boxers, Cole liked the classics.

When he surfaced, Maggie was heading for the stairs. He swam after her, grabbing her ankle, the smooth skin sliding against his palm, and pulled her under. He kept a loose grip on her ankle, those damn shoes still swimming in his head, and towed her away from the stairs.

She kicked against his wrist with her free foot and he grabbed that one as well. He couldn’t help his grin at the thought that he’d gotten his hands on her ankles without going to his knees after all. She twisted under the water, spinning and ripping her ankles out of his hands.

She burst to the surface, slapping a wave of water into his face when his head followed hers.

He coughed as another wave caught him in the face and he turned away. “Truce, Maggie!”

He peeked at her and caught another faceful of water, but not before he saw her mouth fighting a smile.

He didn’t look at her again, just kept his face turned away and tried to see where she was out of the corner of his eye. “Better?”

She laughed. “A little.”

“Can I turn around now?”

“You can turn around.”

He started to turn, then stopped. “And you’re not going to try and drown me, right?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Cole folded his arms. “I want both your hands on the ledge where I can see them.”

“I want you out of my pool and your pants back on.”

“I could do that but then I won’t tell you why I’m here.”

“I know why you’re here.”

He turned toward her and said, “I doubt you’d be trying to drown me if–” and got a faceful of water.

He turned his back to her and pointed. “Hands on the ledge!”

She slowly floated to the edge of the pool, her smile wide enough to see out of the corner of his eye.

She grabbed the ledge behind her head, still facing him, letting her body float to the surface.

He turned towards her again, distracted by the sight of those long, long legs floating arm’s length away and missed the glint in her eye.

She started kicking fiercely, sending a tidal wave of water over his head. He bowed his head, hunching against the onslaught, and hoped she’d stop soon. He needed to remember the water was her home, not his. And like most legendary water-folk, she’d drown him for sport.

Her kicking legs finally slowed and then stopped, and he took a long, deep breath. “Done now?”

She smiled wide, her eyes a shade darker than the pool water. She laughed at him and he watched the shadows in her eyes fade.

She leaned her head back and looked up the sky. “I might be done now.”

“You make helping you very difficult.”

“I’m not selling the house, so you can take your help elsewhere.”

He grunted, floating towards her. “You know I want it. And I know they will pry it from your dead, cold hands.”

She stopped smiling completely. “They’ll pry it from my hands before then.”

“They probably will. But I won’t.”

She looked at him. “I can’t give you anything, Cole.”

“There’s one thing you can give me.”

She grimaced. “I already made that deal once. I’m not doing it again.”

“Not even to save your house?”

“No.”

Cole said, “Then good thing that’s not what I want.”

She looked at him trying not to look at her legs and said, “Uh-huh.”

His teeth flashed. “Okay, it’s not all I want.”

She raised her eyebrows in question, clearly believing there was nothing else she had to give him.

He floated in close, grabbing the ledge above her head and bending down to whisper in her ear.

“I want forgiveness, Maggie. Can you give me that?”

She blinked and her breath puffed against his face. “What do you want forgiveness for, Cole? For screwing me or for screwing our deal?”

“I’ll never be sorry for making that deal with you. We both knew what we were doing.”

“I didn’t know you never meant to go through with your end.”

“I
meant
to. I was going to work out a new payment schedule with his father. Give him more time, and then. . .”

Cole’s graduation present from his father had been a portfolio of loans. All the debts of one family piled together. Given to him by his father so he could “experience the rush of destroying those who would destroy you”. And then Maggie had come, willing to agree to anything to save that family.

Cole hadn’t need much persuading to take her up on the offer. He got Maggie naked and in his bed and a chance to stick it to his father.

Maggie said, “And then?”

“That little shit came with his father and sat there with that smirk on his face and all I could see was how you would sleep with me because you loved him that much. That pompous little shit with sun shining out his ass.”