Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) by Beth Bolden Page A

last night was late, and I have to be up so early.” Maggie flushed, and Noah was pretty sure there was something about last night that she wasn’t telling him, but he supposed she didn’t really have to. It wasn’t any of his business. Then he remembered the semi-possessive glares that Cal guy had been sending his direction, and Noah thought maybe he understood a little better.
    He hadn’t gotten the vibe Maggie and Cal were involved from her body language, but if they weren’t yet, he was definitely interested in making that possibility a reality. So even if Noah hadn’t sworn to himself he’d avoid any other woman with the last name of King like she was the plague itself, he would have left Maggie alone. He wasn’t about to encroach on Cal’s territory, especially for an affair that could only have lasted a few days anyway.
    Besides , Noah told himself, if you stay here longer than a week, you’ll gain a hundred pounds from her cooking.
    “But you still will?” he asked, forcing himself to remember why he was here. He was here for Tabitha , not for her sister, even if she was annoyingly intriguing.
    Maggie looked down at her hands, wrapped around her coffee mug. “I said I will, and I will. But I have to warn you, you’re not going to like what you discover. It might be better to just call her a lost cause.”
    “Is that what you think she is?” he asked, even more intrigued, despite his best intentions.
    She thought hard for a moment. “I don’t want to think of her that way,” Maggie said, picking her words carefully. “I don’t want to think of anyone that way. But sometimes, someone goes so far down a particular path, they turn into a stranger.”
    “And you two are strangers now, I take it.”
    Noah half-expected Maggie to glare at him and say it was none of his damn business, but she surprised him again.
    “I stopped talking to Tabitha because whenever we would talk, it was like we were speaking two different languages. Tabby would tell me about her life, about the men she saw, about the work she was doing, the clothes she was buying, and it felt like a different world than the one I lived in. I couldn’t understand how she could be happy with such a superficial life. And she thought I was dumb as a rock for wanting to come back to Sand Point after living in the city. The idea was completely incomprehensible to her. So we fought, and at some point a few years ago I just got sick of fighting with her. So I stopped calling, she didn’t make an effort either, and we drifted apart.”
    “Is that why I bothered you so much?” Noah asked. “You thought I must be part of that life, too.”
    “That life doesn’t botherme,” Maggie corrected with a heated glance in his direction. “You didn’t bother me either. I’ve just spent most of a lifetime cleaning up after her, and I’m not eager to do it again. Plus, I didn’t want to upset you. And if she does pass on a message, chances are it won’t be what you want to hear.”
    “I’ve got a tougher skin than that,” he insisted, even though that didn’t seem true anymore. Tabitha, and then the concussion, had eroded his thick skin until it felt alarmingly thin in spots. He just hoped Maggie wouldn’t poke and prod until she found one of them and realized just how vulnerable he was.
    “You’d better.” Maggie drained the last of her coffee and slid out of the booth. “I’ll email her after lunch.”
    He tried to flash her one of his trademark smiles, but it felt weaker than normal, as if she’d already found that weak spot and exploited it. “You know where to find me.”

     
    After lunch, Maggie sat down at an empty booth with her laptop and screwed up her courage.
    She didn’t really want to know how Noah and her sister had gotten involved. She’d warned him about not liking what he found in the rabbit hole, but she hadn’t said it entirely for his benefit. Maybe Cal’s offer had temporarily helped her forget about Noah’s