Page 120 of Creeping Beautiful

But I had finally found my words. “Indie. Why is he here?” I said it in the calmest voice I could manage. But my heart was beating fast and furious. It was a jackhammer inside my chest. Fluttering and pounding so fast I couldn’t count the beats if I wanted to.

Indie looked at me like I was an idiot. “He’s her father, McKay. I told him he could see her today. He’s gonna bring her back tonight for cupcakes.”

“Yay!” Maggie was clapping her hands, jumping up and down like a little crazy person.

Donovan, and Adam, and I looked at each other like… Did you know about this?

And clearly, none of us had.

Indie gently nudged Adam out of the way of the door and opened it up. “Come in. I’ll get her dressed. Be right back.”

Then she picked Maggie up and took her upstairs.

Adam shot me one more look, then he and Donovan followed her up, leaving me alone with that little fucker from across the lake.

Did we have a say in this decision? I wasn’t sure. But I was sure that Indie didn’t seem to think we did, or she would not have pretended this wasn’t happening until it actually happened.

Nathan St. James was now a huge twenty-one-year-old man. I’m talking that boy must’ve been in the gym all day, every day for the past two years. That’s how big he was.

I was not small, either. Never have been. And I was certainly not afraid of throwing down with the fuckhead next door. But not while Maggie was here. And if Adam had wanted to get rid of Nathan with a fight, he would not have been upstairs trying to talk Indie out of… whatever the fuck this was.

Nathan and I both heard every word of what was happening up there.

Adam was saying, “What the hell? What the hell, Indie?”

Donovan was saying, “Are you out of your mind?”

Indie was saying, “Jesus Christ. It’s one day. Calm down.”

Maggie was saying, “I want to ride pony!”

Meanwhile, Nathan and I were just staring each other down like he was a Hatfield and I was a McCoy, which was not that far off the mark.

Finally, Nathan broke the ice. “Hey, McKay. How’s life been for ya?”

I morphed into some polite Southerner I did not even recognize. Because I replied, “Just fine, thank you. How about yourself?”

“Can’t complain much. But I hurt my knee in football last year and lost my scholarship. So I’m gonna sell the old place to cover tuition. That’s why I’m coming home this summer for break. I have to spruce it up a little before I put it on the market. The electrical is a big ol’ mess. I turned on the heater this morning, just to see if it was still working, and the damn thing caught fire.”

Again, I was out of sorts. Because I replied, “If you need any help with that, you let me know. I’m a fairly good electrician.”

He nodded his head at me. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

But then I snapped out of it. “Where are you taking Maggie? Across the lake? To that fire trap?”

Nathan just… chuckled at me. “No. We’re going to the zoo in New Orleans. I can’t remember the last time I went to the zoo.”

Which spurred another pertinent comment from me. “When was the last time you saw Indie?”

He hesitated a little. I have often wondered if Nathan St. James understood who the girl next door really was. And it was during this short hesitation when I realized—he did. “She’s been coming to see me.”

“When?”

“The whole time, McKay. She would just show up at my dorm in Oxford out of the blue after Christmas that first year. And then I got a house with some of my football buddies and she’d show up there too. Even though I never told her I moved. I never asked her to come. But… McKay. You gotta know, I did love her. I’m sorry things… well, I’m sorry. That’s all. And I love Magnolia too—”

“Maggie,” I corrected him.

“Maggie. And then Indie started bringing her up to see me.”