Page 160 of Keeping Score

“Don’t get all emotional, Brody,” Liam said. “We’ll come to Michigan all the time, and we can kick the puck around on some little pond out there.”

I laughed, preparing to tell him the news, when Cassie blinked up at me in tears.

“So, I guess you’re leaving now?” Cassie blinked, teary-eyed up at me.

Liam wrapped an arm around her for support.

“Well, actually—” I said, grinning, “I—”

“Brody!”

I spun, and there was Maggie like a figment of my imagination, running toward me breathless and excited.

“Maggie?” I said, but she was already running onto the ice, slowing considerably as she realized that, though she was a mastermind in heels, they weren’t exactly ideal for walking on ice.

“Mags, don’t you dare break your neck on this ice or I’ll kill you.”

I ran forward, holding her up as she started to ramble.

“Thank God I’m not too late,” she told me, steadying herself with a tight grip on my arms. “I drove like a maniac all the way here—”

“How many times have I told you not to speed?” I scolded. “Jesus, Maggie. You gotta be careful.”

“I’ve never gotten a ticket.”

“I’m not worried about a ticket, I’m worried about you crashing your car.”

“The car’s insured.”

“Again, not about the car.” I shook my head in disbelief. “About bodily damage to you.”

“Never mind that!” she said, excitedly. “I had to come see you before you left for Michigan because—”

“About Michigan—” I started.

“No!” she said. “Please, let me go first. Please.”

My lips went thin and I nodded at her to continue.

“You can’t leave. You can’t go to Michigan, and you can’t go be with someone else,” she started, shocking every last thought out of my head.

“Not even some beautiful ex that you clearly have a ton of history with and is probably a lot more emotionally stable than me.”

“Maggie,” I shook my head, about to tell her everything, but she kept going. An unstoppable force that never failed to leave me reeling.

“I’m working on everything. I know I have issues. But the thing is, I love you, Brody—I love you. And I know I’ve been crazy lately, and I get caught up with work, and I make messes wherever I go—but I love you so much, and I couldn’t let you go without at least trying.”

“Maggie,” I tried again, but still she wasn’t done.

“And if you’re dead set on moving to Michigan, then I’m coming with you!” she told me firmly, eyes blazing with that stubbornness I loved so much. “And you know what, even if you don’t want me to, I’ll still come, and I’ll wait until I can prove to you that we should be together. Because I’m willing to wait as long as it takes, because we belong together and that’s what you do when you love someone as much as I love you.”

“Will you let me go now?”

She nodded, entire body stiffening as if bracing for impact. Slowly, and reluctantly, her arms dropped from around me and she took a step back, forcing herself to meet my gaze.

There was something there. Fear, maybe. Certainly something she’d never let me see before.

“Maggie, listen when I say this. I don’t care that you get caught up with work, because I love how you lose track of time when you’re determined to see something through. I don’t mind cleaning up your messes because I love seeing traces of you in every room I enter. And I don’t care about how much history I have with someone else, because the only person I ever wanted a future with is you.”