Page 87 of Keeping Score

“Of course not.”

“Well, what about your brother?”

“He’s still not speaking to me.”

“What about Cassie?”

“I can’t talk to her. She’s going to be on Liam’s side.”

“Maggie,” Linda took a breath. “It sounds like you self-isolated from every single person in your life.”

“If they loved me, they would reach out. Wouldn’t they?”

“You tell people you want space, and they’re going to give it to you.”

“I didn’t say I wanted space,” I said, irritated.

“Actions can speak just as loud as words, Maggie. I think your loved ones know you well enough to understand when you need some time.”

But I didn’t want time. I didn’t want space.

I just wanted to be loved.

But somehow, whenever I tried to ask for it, all I did was make the people around me hurt.

“I need—” I said, sucking in a breath as I felt tears sting my eyes. “I just need—”

“What do you need, Maggie?” Linda asked, as if she actually cared.

Not just because I was her client. But because I was a person.

I exhaled, letting out a shaky breath as I admitted the one recurring thought that screamed louder than the rest.

“I just need to be fixed.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Brody

Ihoped I wouldn’t get thrown in jail for this.

But honestly, a night in a cell might be the exact thing I needed to clear my head. Get some peace of mind.

I couldn’t stand spending another night in Liam and Cassie’s guest room. Not when I knew I was supposed to be home with Maggie.

In fact, I’d been pathetically chained to my phone waiting for the text to come in from her telling me to come home.

What I got instead was a whole lot of silence.

And coming from Maggie, silence was a very, very bad thing.

Which led me to my last desperate attempt at reconciliation with her. A face-to-face conversation.

I wasn’t going to bombard her before work, and I definitely wasn’t going to show up at our apartment.

So, I contented myself with trying to catch her when she was leaving the office. Trying to avoid the risk of looking like a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend, I found myself knocking on the door of the man whose shit list I was already on.

Hence why I was contemplating the very real possibility of jail time.