Page 57 of Matched By Mistake
In that moment Jericho knew he was going to have to admit his feelings for Maggie, but he still felt that she should hear them first so he’d simply said that he wanted a future with Maggie and he’d do whatever he had in order to make it happen.
Gayle had stopped her automatic ball machine and turned to him and gave him that level stare of hers. “I’ll tell you where she is, but if you don’t make things right with her, you leave and we never see you again.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
So here he was on Preston Del Rio’s ranch sitting in the sun without a beverage since he hadn’t been offered one. He knew that he wasn’t the Del Rio family’s favorite person. He got it. He had heard via Trey that his dad and Fernando hadn’t spoken since the night of the break-in. It seemed to Jericho they were back where they started before the k!smet app had matched him and Maggie.
The feud had new fuel to drive it for another generation but Jericho didn’t care about that. He had realized over the last few days when he’d been alone how much he loved Maggie.
He heard the sound of boots on the stone patio and turned to see Maggie walking toward him. She wore a pair of faded jeans and a scoop-neck top, and her long black hair was braided, falling over her shoulder across her breasts. She had on a straw cowboy hat, which she tossed on one of the chairs as she walked toward him.
Her expression was guarded and she looked tired. He thought she looked hurt as well and he hated that he was responsible for that. He stood up, taking the papers he’d brought with him.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“The agreement we signed,” he said, tearing it in half and dropping it in the firepit that was near the seating area.
“So no more dates?”
“No more doing things for anyone other than ourselves,” he said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“From the beginning I wanted you, Maggie. I mean before the app,” he said.
“We didn’t even know each other.”
“I saw you at the TCC,” he said.
“So, lust... Well, you were certainly right about the chemistry between us.”
“But it was more than that. Yes, you’re hot and every time I see you, I want to pull you into my arms find a private place and make love to you. But it’s more than that,” he said.
“Really?” she asked. “The other night it seemed it wasn’t even lust.”
“I’m sorry. I should have led with that and I should have said it when we were outside of the sheriff’s office,” he said.
“Are you sorry because they found the real culprit and she confessed so you don’t have any doubts?” Maggie asked, but there wasn’t anger in her voice—it was hurt.
He took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry I ever doubted you. I have no excuse.”
“No you don’t,” she said. “So why are you here?”
“I want to start again. Not because we’re put on the spot by the k!smet app or because we want to make our families happy. I want to do this because I love you, Maggie.”
She put her hands on her hips and gave him a hard stare that was reminiscent of the one that Gayle had given him.
“You love me?”
“I love you. I thought... Well, I hate how vulnerable I feel when I say those words to you. Other than my family, I’ve never said them to a woman. I didn’t believe that I could be in love with you until...” He trailed off.
“Until when?”
“Until you walked away.”
He loved her? He loved her. She was just giving herself time to process everything he said. She looked over at the torn-up dating agreement, which she’d never really cared for to begin with, and then back at him.
