Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (31 page)

Ironically, that was the moment he’d heard the front door open and then the second voice. He’d gotten up to investigate, only to discover Tabitha standing in the entryway. It had been a few days now, and Noah still felt the scrape of the words in his veins, in his heart, wanting out, but he’d decided that it was probably better for his long term sanity if he kept them inside until Maggie had gotten sick of “space.”

As for him, he’d been sick of the space since it had started, but Maggie, other than calling him up to invite him to Christmas, seemed to have no such issues.

“Maybe you could, you know, take Tabitha off Maggie’s hands for a few days. A romantic getaway,” Noah joked.

Cal only glared, but Noah thought it was a lot more fun to tease Cal about his crush than to mope about how he’d barely seen Maggie for two days so he kept going. “You’re not that bad looking, actually,” Noah said, tilting his head, as if he were taking in Cal’s appearance, “and you’ve got a successful business. Tabby could really do worse.”

“You’re nuts,” Cal snapped, and Noah wanted to tell him he was lucky that it wasn’t Jack in his place, because the crap Noah was giving him was
mild
in comparison to what his best friend could work up on a good day.

Noah just shrugged. “I’m not the one with the crush on Hurricane Tabby.”

And as if she was actually
trying
to justify her name, he heard her voice rise right above the rest of the general noise in the dining room.

“I want to talk to Maggie,” Tabitha exclaimed loud enough that Noah was fairly certain Maggie could have heard her sister from the next county, nevermind the next
room
.

Janice looked vaguely panicked, but Noah had to give her credit for holding her ground. It was right in the middle of the lunch rush, and the last thing Maggie needed to do was leave the kitchen to hold Tabitha’s hand as she navigated the not-exactly-complex menu.

“I don’t care if she’s busy,” Tabitha practically seethed. “She’s my
sister
. Go get her.”

Noah glanced over to see Cal listening avidly to the exchange, and couldn’t help but wonder if he would actually say something. Would he defend his best friend against the girl who had probably barely ever given him the time of day?

But Cal stayed silent, and as Tabitha’s voice continued to soar, complaint piled upon complaint, Noah found himself working up quite a bit of steam at the thought of Tabitha treating Maggie like some sort of servant. Yeah, she cooked here, but she also
owned
the Café, and she wasn’t just available at the beck and call of anyone, even if the anyone was her sister.

Noah was certain that this thought had never occurred to Tabitha. He knew that in her mind, everyone
waited with bated breath to see exactly what she wanted, when she wanted it. One of the many things he’d discovered about her that had made the reality of Tabitha a lot less interesting than the sweet fantasy that he’d once constructed in his mind.

“Can you believe this?” Noah hissed across the table at Cal, who had again retreated into the pretend world of his tablet.

Cal just shrugged, as if this was completely normal and also completely inevitable, and suddenly that was just the final straw. Or maybe it was the way Tabitha’s shrill whining was working on his last nerve.

Noah slid out of the booth and walked right up next to Janice, who was cowering as Tabitha threw her hissy fit. He wrapped an arm around the waitress, who glanced over at him like he was a combination of Jesus and Brad Pitt. Tabitha wrinkled her nose and pointedly stared right over his shoulder, as if wasn’t there at all.

“What’s going on?” he asked casually, as if the entire Café hadn’t just heard Tabitha melting down.

“Tabitha has some concerns about the menu,” Janice explained carefully.

“Hmmm,” Noah said, “I thought you had lunch here yesterday
and
the day before.”

Tabitha was apparently refusing to acknowledge him because she still hadn’t said a word since he’d approached her table, but then that was pretty par for the course for the two of them in the last year and a half. Noah had quite a lot of experience in breaking through her shell, and he was kind of perversely happy that he could do it in front of all these people and in defense of Maggie, no less.

“Janice,” Noah said, turning his brightest smile on the waitress, “what did Tabitha have for lunch the last two days?”

“Two days ago, the apple salad with chicken. Maggie suggested it, I think. And yesterday, an egg white omelet with spinach and mushrooms.” Janice gave Tabitha a nervous glance, as if she was somehow selling out to the dark side by confessing Tabby’s eating habits.

“Apple salad and egg whites with spinach
and
mushrooms. Losing weight again, eh, Tabs?” he asked and it must have hit a nerve because she finally looked him in the eye and glared.

“Are you saying I need to lose weight, Noah?” she asked with a sneer that Noah was pretty sure she wouldn’t ever use again if she could see how truly ugly it made her look.

“No,” he said honestly. “But I
am
saying that you should be nicer to Janice here, and Maggie too. She’s cooking for everyone in this Café, not just you. You can’t just order her to come out here and talk to you. She’s got a business to run and frankly, she’s brilliant at it.”

It felt amazing to see Tabitha’s jaw drop a little at Noah’s words. He’d never really gotten the opportunity to chastise her for her shitty attitude
or
what she’d done to him, and though he’d probably let the latter drop, it did feel good to finally call her out on the former.

“You’re quite on Maggie’s side,” Tabitha said bitterly.

“Yes.” Noah could have gone into quite a bit of detail about supporting Maggie, but he also figured that if anyone was going to hear about him being in love with Maggie, it should be Maggie first and not her brat of a sister.

The plus was that it also took the wind right out of Tabitha’s sails. She literally
sank
right in front of him, going saggy and vulnerable, as if that could possibly win him back to her side. Or maybe that was just the
real
Tabitha he was currently witnessing, deflated and depressed.

She turned to Janice and quietly ordered. “The walnut apple salad, with chicken. And an iced tea.”

Janice gave Noah a wide, grateful smile and Noah slipped his arm from her shoulders, returning to the booth, his job done.

Cal gaped at him in shock.

“What?” Noah asked, secretly quite pleased that he’d been the one to put Tabitha in her place. No doubt Cal would have made a mess of it, considering his inconveniently stupid crush.

“You really do, don’t you?” Cal asked.

“Do what?”

“Love her,” Cal mumbled. “You really love Maggie.”

Noah shot him an incredulous look. Hadn’t the man been paying attention
at all?
Or had all his blood just shot straight to his dick the moment Tabitha flounced into town? “Of course I do, you idiot.”

Maggie leaned back and stretched, feeling as each vertebra in her back popped. “Oh, that feels good,” she said to nobody in particular. It had been a crazy lunch shift; she
and
Rosa had been run off their feet for two hours straight and Rosa had just been able to duck into the office for a quick bite to eat.

“Maggie?”

She turned and to her surprise, the hesitant question had come from none other than Tabitha. Her normally extremely vocal, extremely confident sister.

There was a hesitancy now in the way she approached, even in the way she held her hands together in front of her. Maggie picked up a water bottle from the counter and took a drink, watching as Tabitha made her way further into the kitchen. She still looked like she’d come straight off a runway, in a black cashmere sweater and tight jeans that fit her flawlessly, tucked into tall, shiny black boots. But even in such gorgeous clothes, Maggie thought she could see the Tabitha act slipping just a little further with each breath she took.

“Everything okay?” she finally asked when Tabitha just stood there, eyes everywhere as she took in the kitchen full of professional equipment.

“Oh. Yeah. Lunch was wonderful.” Tabitha paused, making a little face. “Of course.”

“You shouldn’t be surprised.”

“I’m not,” Tabitha said and for the first time since she’d showed up in Sand Point, Maggie heard unvarnished honesty in her sister’s voice.

“Seriously,” Tabitha continued, “you’ve built something here. Something. . .amazing.”

Maggie gave Tabitha a skeptical look. “Do you want something?”

Tabitha gave a breathy little laugh. “Is that really what you think of me? That I’d only say I’m proud of you because I want something?”

Maggie threw the empty water bottle into the recycle bin and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here first?” She’d been waiting for a real answer for days now and with each passing hour, the tightness in her chest grew. Something was up with her radiant, flawless sister and for the first time in years, Maggie was very nearly worried
about her.

“I told you. . .” Tabitha started to say but Maggie just interrupted.

“I’m not that dumb, really. You could give a shit about Christmas. Or if I’m alone.”

Tabitha took a deep breath and to Maggie’s surprise, leaned up against one of the counters, shoulders folded in and Maggie thought for a split second that she almost saw defeat on her sister’s face. “Do you. . .” Tabitha hesitated. “Do you ever wake up and feel alone? Like nobody gives a shit about you?”

For a split second, Maggie thought about giving her sister some of the sarcastic bullshit that she
herself
would have gotten a few years ago, if she’d ever posited this question. But the vulnerable expression on her sister’s face stopped her—and that stupid hope that would never quite seem to die that someday they’d be sisters in more than just name. “Actually, no,” she said gently.

Tabitha’s face crumpled and to Maggie’s complete shock, she was suddenly crying. “Of course not,” she choked out. “You would
never
feel that way. You would never
let
yourself feel that way. Not perfect, flawless Maggie May.”

Maggie just gaped. She was hardly the “perfect, flawless” one. That was, and had
always,
been Tabitha. From the very beginning.

“Are you okay?” she stuttered out as she watched Tabitha wipe her eye makeup all over the sleeve of her no doubt insanely expensive sweater.

“Do I look okay?” Tabitha challenged back, glaring a little.

Maggie paused. “No.”

“Then, no, I’m not okay.”

“I’ll be right back,” Maggie said, walking over to the office and grabbing the tissues she knew were stashed there. Returning, she extended the box towards Tabitha, who took it with a little grimace.

“I hate crying,” she said, as if she needed to explain this particular fact.

“I hate crying too,” Maggie agreed. “Something we actually have in common.”

Tabitha gave a watery laugh. “You’re too nice to me.”

Maggie tilted her head and took in her sister—makeup smeared down her cheeks, red eyes, trembling lips—and didn’t feel the expected vindication that she’d thought she would at seeing living, breathing perfection break down.

“Yeah, I kind of am.” Maggie paused, hesitating because it was crazy to even
think
it, nevermind say it out loud, especially to someone like Tabitha who would probably use it forever to get whatever she wanted. But it was too ingrained in Maggie to be nice, and it would definitely be mean, Maggie thought, to think this and not say it. “Deep down, I’m sure you do deserve it.”

Tabitha’s expression twisted. “Trust me, I don’t. I’ve done. . .I’ve done plenty to never deserve it.”

“I know what you’ve done,” Maggie said. “At least some of it. I’m not saying it wasn’t bad, because it
was
, but you’re not bad. I’ve never believed that.”

Tabitha slumped against the counter and blew her nose again, and to Maggie’s eternal surprise, she shot her a grateful glance. “Why do you think I came here?”

It had never occurred to Maggie that the reason Tabitha had finally come home was
her
.

“I hate this town,” Tabitha said, and Maggie was further shocked to hear actual embarrassment in her sister’s voice. “Did you think I came here for the stimulating social scene?”

Maggie blushed. “We’ve just. . .we don’t even talk.”

Tabitha shot her a frank look.

“Well, it doesn’t mean that we can’t start. I mean, if that’s what you want,” Maggie stumbled.

Her sister’s answering smile was the softest Maggie had seen on her face since she was a little girl. “I would.”

Maggie curled her arms around her waist further and glanced over self-consciously to where Tabitha was still leaning against the counter. “Should we . . .I don’t know. . .hug or something?”

Tabitha broke into laughter, throwing her head back and literally
cackling.
“Um, no. I’m still me, you know.”

“Right,” Maggie teased. “And I’m not a super hot guy with the influence to help your career.”