Page 149 of Keeping Score

“Take it from a girl who’s seen the two of you together. It’s not over for her.”

I stared at her, half wanting to believe what she was saying, while at the same time not daring to hope it might be true. This was exactly why I was leaving. I couldn’t live the rest of my life half-starved on hopes that might never come true.

No. I needed a fresh start. A clean slate. I had no choice but to leave.

“What about you?” I deflected. “I don’t believe you’ve actually been pining away for me all these years.”

She rolled her eyes, but it didn’t escape my notice when an unmistakable blush rose to her cheeks.

“Ah, there’s someone, isn’t there?” I poked her side.

“No.” She said, too quickly. “I mean, maybe.” She sighed. “I mean, no. Nothing that’ll ever go anywhere.”

“And why not?”

She paused, looking as if she were debating holding it in or letting it all fly out. Predictably, Abbey chose the latter. Or rather, it chose her. I laughed to myself. She’d never been any good at keeping her own secrets. She wore her heart on her sleeve, no matter the cost.

“Because it’s Matt,” she said quickly, “and anytime anything ever got close to happening, he said he couldn’t because he didn’t want to betray you like that.”

“What?” I asked, dumbfounded. “All this time you’ve been crushing on Matt—wait, Matt T. or Matt C.?”

She scrunched up her nose in disgust. “Who do you think?”

I thought about it for a moment, and finally said, “Matt T.” simultaneously with Abbey.

We both erupted into laughter, before a look of guilt passed over her features.

“You don’t hate me for it, do you? I know he’s your friend.”

“What? No. Of course not. I only hate that the both of you have waited so long on my account.”

“So, you’re really okay with it?” she said hopefully.

“Of course I am. You guys never needed my permission.”

“It’s just that, well, we care about you, Brody,” she said, staring at me. “I know you’ve been gone for years, but that doesn’t mean we love you any less.”

“We’re getting old as shit, huh?” I said, feeling all those years that came upon far more suddenly than I ever would’ve thought.

“I guess that means we can’t afford to be wasting any more time, huh?”

“And what does that mean?”

“It means,” she said pointedly, “if you know who you want to be with… then go get her. Can you really tell me it’s over?”

I stared at her, not knowing what to say.

Of course it wasn’t over with Maggie. But that was exactly the problem.

I didn’t know if it ever could be.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Maggie

It didn’t make sense to be so nervous. I’d done this hundreds of times—thousands, even, for God’s sake. It was my career. My passion.

And Mr. Reilly had everything to back us up. The paystubs, the character references, the proof of secure living arrangements.