Page 227 of The Way I Hate Him
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HATTIE
“Why would he do that?”I ask as I shove another donut in my mouth.
After dinner, we set Maggie up with pillows, blankets, and sheets for her air mattress. This of course was done after Mac was put to bed for the night because if she was still around, the blankets and sheets would have been used for a fort, and we never would’ve gotten her up to her room.
Maggie dabs at her mouth with a napkin and says, “Explain it to me again?”
I roll my eyes. “How many times do we have to go over this?”
“At least one more. I’m sorry, I’m still reeling over the fact that I told Hayes Farrow he’s an asshole. Positively shaking over here, so excuse me for my lack of comprehension.”
“Yeah, I’m still a little shook from your brazenness as well,” I reply. Maggie is loyal to her core, would defend me to the moon and back, but never in my wildest imagination would I have pictured Maggie telling Hayes off in front of a sandwich shop. I was equally stunned and proud . . . and grateful.
“Don’t treat my friend like shit and I won’t call you an asshole, simple as that.” She shrugs, trying to play it cool, but I know damn well, she was shaking just as much as me in that moment.
“You called Hayes an asshole?” Ryland asks, walking into the living room with a beer in hand. He takes a seat on the couch, shoving my blanket toward me and letting himself get comfortable.
“I did,” Maggie says, puffing her chest with pride. “I said it right to his face.”
“Ah, to his face. So not to his elbow?” Ryland jokes.
Maggie smirks. “I thought about his elbow, but I didn’t think it would be as effective or as menacing. Conversations to the elbow although a novelty of enjoyment, not the impact I wanted. Face was the way to go.”
“Smart choice.” Ryland nods. “Although, elbow might have confused him, which would have been entertaining.”
“We weren’t looking for entertaining, Ryland,” Maggie says, making a fist. She slams it on the air mattress, before saying, “We were looking for intimidation. We wanted to make him weak in the knees and not in a good way. We wanted to set the tone that we weren’t falling for his handsome, scruffy face defense and now when he sees us walking the mean streets of Almond Bay, he’ll have pure, nut-shriveling fear race up his spine.”
“Nut-shriveling fear, huh? How come I can feel that all the way to my scrotum?”
“Because that’s the kind of power us ladies have.” She raises her fist to the air. “We are the Nutcrackers of Almond Bay.” She nudges me with her foot as an idea passes over her eyes. “We need to make T-shirts with that saying on them. Possible merch for The Almond Store, something to consider.”
“Can I buy one?” Ryland smirks.
“Women only.”
“Hey, I’ll crack any nuts that bring harm to the women in my life.”
“Is that so?” Maggie folds her arms over her chest. “Then please regale me with the reason as to why Hayes still had full intact nuts in his pants.”
“Did you look inside his pants?” Ryland raises a brow at her. “Or have do you have X-ray vision I don’t know about?”
“I don’t need to feel around between a man’s legs to know if his nuts are attached or not. It’s all in the walk, and he was walking around like his scrotum was still hanging pretty. And I only say pretty because even though I hate him, there is no way in hell that man doesn’t have a pretty package.”
“Um,” I clear my throat. “Can we please bring it back to what I was talking about? The moment?”
“Oh, right.” Maggie waves at me to continue. “You were saying . . .”
“Well, we started with the fact that he agreed with you.”
“Right,” Maggie says.
“What did he agree with?” Ryland asks.
“Maggie said he was lucky I even gave him a chance and then . . .” In a low whisper, I say, “He agreed with her.”
“Oh wow, it’s almost as if he scandalously showed off his ankle.” Ryland sips his beer, finding far too much joy in this which is different for him. I love my brother, but it’s not very often that he relaxes and right now, in this moment, he’s relaxed.
