Independence (20 page)

"I wasn't thinking about intruding. I just thought since we were here anyway we'd bring breakfast," Maggie tried to apologize again.

"It's all right." She smiled and turned to me with a wry smile. "I think I'll go get dressed now."
"OK," I said and tried not to look at her. She quickly scooted out of the room and Maggie turned to me to complain about her being an idiot when her dad came in.
He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which was…weird.

"Mags. Hey, baby girl," he crooned softly and happily. Fiona may not have been the happiest to see her, but her dad sure was. "Mmm, is that sausage and gravy?"

"And biscuits," Maggie supplied. "I'm sorry I barged in on Fiona."

"You didn't," he insisted and looked at her full on. "This was your house first and you can come anytime you like. Fiona understands that."

"But I wouldn't want someone to barge into Caleb's apartment in the morning," she said and sneaked a quick look at me. Her dad may have missed her blush, but I didn't. "Lynne and Kyle did that the other day and I hated it. I just wasn't thinking."

"No worries, baby." He turned to me then and I was surprised to see a smile there. He usually just seemed to tolerate me. "Hey, Caleb. How are you, son?"

Son?

I felt my scowl, but tried to hide it. "Good, sir. Maggie also got you coffee." I handed it to him and then took a sip of my own.

He sipped his
, too, and
made a noise of contentment. "Well, as soon as Fiona gets dressed, we'll eat and then-"

My phone went off with a buzz. "Sorry," I muttered and peeked at the screen. Vic. I smiled and answered as I excused myself into the den. "Vic, what's up?"
"What's up, brother!"

I laughed. "Not much, man."
"Not much? You registering for classes today or what?"

I almost slapped my forehead. "Ah, crap. I forgot that was today."

"And coach set try-outs for today, too."

I groaned. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Afraid not. So get your rich butt up to the school."

"All right. I'll be there in a couple of hours."

"Later."

"Later." I could've punched something. And Maggie had to register for classes today, too.

I relayed the news and we ate quickly. Maggie changed into something other than my hoodie and when she came down from the stairs I felt my grin take off. "
Those jeans are nice, too."

"Thanks. Sorry I don't have any clothes for you to change into."

"Nah, I'm fine. It's just school."
"Just school…" she muttered. "Right."
"It's not a big deal," I soothed and we waved to Jim and Fiona in the kitchen as we left. "I'll be there to tell you what classes suck and what teachers will rip your heart out for being late."

She giggled. "That
does
sound pretty good. My own personal tour guide who's already been through this."

"Yep."

We walked to the bike and made it to the school in record time. I parked in my usual spot on the side lot under the trees and helped Maggie de-bike. I smoothed her hair back and she let me with a smile.

I took her to Freshman registration. She was a little shocked whe
n
she said her name and they had her packet all ready to go. She gave me a kind of wild look before taking it and thanking her. And then we went to my own registration. After we got our packets and everythi
ng turned in and filled out,
ran through the ringer and got our student IDs, we made our way to gym.

As soon as we walked in, the cat-calls began.

"Oh, so
that's
where Caleb's been all summer," Mark said.

"Shut it, Barker!" I said laughing and pointed to Vic across the pool. "There's Vic, babe. Why don't you go wait by him while I get changed so the uncaged animals don’t eat you alive."

"Hardy, har," Mark yelled and dove in splashlessly.

"
OK," she agreed. "And you're going to be wearing that when you come out?" She pointed to Vic's Speedos
with the VOLS 'T' on the front
.

I heard myself make a throaty noise. "It's the uniform, babe."
She grinned and walked backwards slowly. "I can't wait to see that." She then turned and looked at me over her shoulder
. I groaned.

Holy hell, Maggie.

I heard her giggle in my mind
before
she greeted
Vic. He recognized her immediately and hugged her
to him before waving to me, telling me he had her
.

I sprinted to the double doors leading to the locker room and hurried. Several people
tried to talk to me, but they didn't understand. It was the day before my wedding. I couldn't tell them that, of course. They'd want to know why they weren't invited. They wouldn’t understand. So I'd tell them later that Maggie and I had eloped, but until then, I just needed to get this practice over with and get everything that needed to be done, done.

I emerged from the locker room to find Maggie right where I left her. And Vic was charming the smile right out of her. I shook my head and somehow snuck up on her. She must've been listening pretty intently.
I wrapped my arms around her and she didn't even jolt. She just sighed and leaned back further into me. I stopped that right then, pulling her under my arm.

She gave me a once over. And then repeated it. Her eyes held mine for a couple beats too long.

Stop that right now.

What?
she said innocently.

You know what.

Your
underwear are cute.

Speedos. Uniform. Required.

Call them whatever you want, Jacobson. They're hot.

Will you go bench yourself before I have to drag you outta here?

She giggled.
Giggled
at me.

Gorgeous, you're torturing me.

She rolled her eyes good naturedly and made her way to the benches behind the pool. I took a deep breath and swung my arms to warm up. Vic flanked me and grinned like an idiot. I could hear every thought in his brain with Maggie's ability there to borrow. "Shut up," I muttered before he could say anything.

He laughed. "She's the cutest little thing I've ever seen. You're gonna be fighting the boys off with a stick. You gotta know this."

"I know this," I told him and felt a growl rise in my throat.

"Did you just growl?" he asked through his belly shaking laughter. "My man's got it bad!"

"I'm not the only one, am I?" I nodded my head to his girlfriend sitting in the stands. And she was sitting next to Ashley. I didn't look that way again.

"Oh, Vic ain't whipped!" he said loudly and sniffed as he rolled his shoulders. "Vic ain't whipped."

"Who's whipped?" Mark asked.

I ignored him and went on. "Talking about yourself in the third person doesn’t make it
less
true, Vic."

Mark laughed along with me while Vic mumbled, "Laugh it up, yuppies. Laugh it up."

Coach called the meet to a start and we got in starting position.
I could hear Maggie silently cheering me on in her head. I smiled as I took my stance. She had never seen me swim before. I actually missed it. A lot. Swimming was something that came naturally for me. I was fast, clean and efficient.

When the buzzer sounded, I leapt into the water. I felt calm though my arms and heart beat with exertion. I swam and pushed myself. I didn't look at the other swimmers. I didn't want or need that kind of motivation. I wanted to swim for me.

When I finally made it back to the
platform, I didn't even look to see what order we had come in at. I just got out and grabbed a towel.
She sat there on the bench, her
lip between her teeth, contemplating if she was in the way of me being with my friends. I smiled and shook my head.

Come here, gorgeous.

She made her way down the bleachers carefully and stood in front of me. "You did awesome," she said kind of breathlessly.

"Did I?" I glanced back at the board. I came in second. Daggum Vic. He was egging me on, shooting me the rock-first. I turned my back on him and heard his laugh echo across the pool. "I guess."

"I had no idea you could swim that fast."

"I love it," I admitted.

"I know. But in your head it's just fun for you. You don’t see yourself as being awesome at it. I had no idea that you…"

I gulped at the look of reverence on her face. "That
I
what?"
"That you were this amazing at everything," she whispered.

With my towel wrapped around my shoulders she leaned in and kissed me, sucking on my bottom lip. I could taste the pool water through Maggie
's mind.

"Holy mother…." We turned to find Vic watching us curiously.

I cleared my throat and started to dry off. "So we've got to get going, Vic."
"You can't! You just got here," he complained and threw his towel at a Freshman who muttered a 'Hey', but went no further. "Dude, you can't leave!"

"We've got to. Sorry. So much stuff to do."

He scoffed and turned to Maggie. "When can we see your pretty face around here again?"

"Day one, I'll be here."

"Awesome. Later, dude." He bumped my fist as I
waved to the rest of the team and snuck Maggie into the locker room. Big no-no. The things I did for this girl.

She sat on the bench in front of my locker and I jumped into the quickest shower I'd ever taken. I heard Maggie's thoughts as she checked her phone once more. She'd texted Beck four times already today and this was the third text she'd gotten from Chad.

Chad…

Apparently he heard about the wedding from her dad when he stopped by his house today and was hell bent on seeing her tonight to talk sense into her. I threw my clothes back on and came around the corner to find her guilty face resting her chin on her knees drawn up to her chest.

"How can I make him see that I'm fine and this isn't a mistake?" she asked.

"Why do you have to justify anything to him?" I said softly and squatted in front of her, pulling her legs down.

"Because he was my friend my whole life and this isn't just about getting me back. He really thinks you've tricked me or something. He's really worried, I can tell."

I sighed. It wasn't that I didn't trust her. It wasn't that I was jealous. It was just the fact that I knew he was going to be looking at her like he wanted to take her away and my body was going to want to pummel him for it. "Tell him we'll meet him at your dad's."

"Really?" she asked and smiled small.

"Yeah." I leaned up and kissed her forehead. "Whatever keeps my girl happy."

"I just don't want him to worry." She stood and looked up at me. That reverence was there again. "I want him to know that I'm fine. That I'm safe and happy with you."

"OK. You've still got lots to do though. I have a couple of pre-wedding things that I have to do, too."

She nodded. "I need to get something from Dad's anyway. I'll meet him there, be quick, get what I need and then be all ready to go."

"Sounds good."

So we drove to her father's house once more. This time to let Maggie a
n
d her ex have a pow-wow about the wedding. The wedding that no one was suppose
d to know about until afterward
. I sighed and rubbed her jean clad knee as I drove us through the city.
We just had to get through this day. Tomorrow we'd be married
and not just significants
.
It would be real for everyone to see.

And she'd be all mine. Screw anyone else who wanted her time. She would be mine until we decided to come back to reality.

Maggie

Chad was on the steps just like he'd been the last time we'd pulled up this way. His scowl was more contained this time. More accepting, but ready to fight anyway. I put on my boxing gloves and got off the bike. Before Caleb could even suggest that he leave, I asked him to come with me. I did love Chad. He had been one of my best friends for all my life. I didn't want him to hurt or worry. And if he saw us together, maybe he'd understand that I wasn't jumping into a tank of sharks.