Page 35 of Matched By Mistake
“I’m sorry I just started talking but it was so—”
“Perfect,” he said. “I was trying to think of something to say. Good idea to compliment me.”
“You know I love that building. I’ve told you so,” she reminded him as he poured her a glass of rose wine and handed it to her.
“I do. I wasn’t sure how Dad was going to react when you mentioned your family, but he was cool,” Jericho said.
“He was. It would be silly for us to ignore it. You know?” she asked.
“I do. I think you aren’t what they expected.”
“Fair enough, since not a single Winters I’ve met has been what I expected,” she said. “So bass guitar?”
He groaned. “I was going to be a rock star when I was in the ninth grade and I’d seen this interview with Dave Grohl that said if you wanted a surefire way to get into a band, play bass. That most people pictured themselves as lead guitarists... So I learned.”
“Sensible plan. What happened to derail your rock star dreams?”
“The Astros. We got to go to Houston for a summer camp that was adjacent to their practice field and my ambition changed. What did you want to be at that age?”
She remembered being fourteen and tried to remember if she wanted to be anything. “Lizzie McGuire or someone like that.”
He laughed as she’d hoped he would. “Well, I see we both changed along the way.”
“Yeah, my mom always said childhood is for dreaming so that when you are an adult, you’ll be able to find something that makes you happy,” she said. Maggie had realized that what she’d loved about Lizzie McGuire was the animated Lizzie who’d talked on the screen, and in high school she made her own comic strip. In college she’d found that she didn’t really love comics, but drawing and art had stayed with her. So she saw the sides of Lizzie McGuire in her life.
“That’s interesting,” Jericho said. “I’m not sure I took anything from that time with me.”
She thought about it for a minute. “There is something very methodical about you and architecture, and I can see that bass and baseball both could have helped hone that.”
He tipped his head to the side. “I like that you see things in me that I’ve never noticed before.”
She scooted closer to him, wanting to touch him but still very much in her feelings, and as much as she was ready to own her instincts, something about Jericho made her forget that she was conducting an experiment and more like she was in the middle of a tempest and out of control.
Nothing good ever came from that.
Ten
The music was heavy with electric guitars and that distinctive blues rhythm, and Jericho watched as Maggie moved to the music. His parents were on their feet, too, and an evening that he hadn’t been sure would be anything but awkward was actual fun. Maggie sang along with a lot of the songs, which Jericho only half knew, but his dad actually knew all the lyrics as well.
His mom looped her arm through his while Maggie and Joseph clumsily duetted to a cover version of “Pride and Joy.”
“She’s not what I was expecting,” his mom said to him as they swayed to the music.
“Me, either,” he admitted.
“Does this mean we didn’t need to get the lawyers involved?” she said dryly.
He smiled at her. “It’s always easier when you don’t have to have a contract to date someone. But Maggie and I are still figuring things out.”
“Looks like you two are certainly on the same page,” his mom said as Maggie turned and danced over to him.
She sort of shimmied at him and his mom dropped his arm as his father held out his hand to her and she went to his side to dance with his dad. Jericho reached for Maggie and then stopped himself.
She threw her head back and laughed. Strands had come free from her braid and curled around her face, one of the tendrils sticking to the back of her neck. “Still afraid to let me win.”
“I don’t know thatafraidis the word I’d use,” he said, coming so close to her that he could feel the heat of her body, smell that intoxicating perfume she wore without touching her. The band had switched to another Stevie Ray song, Texas Flood. This one was slow and sensual, and he moved his body to the music so close to Maggie’s and she gave him one of those looks that made him hard immediately.
She wanted him and she knew he was hot for her. She timed her dance moves to his so that they were moving in sync. They never broke eye contact. It was one of the most sensual moments of his life. It felt to him like they both wanted the same thing. Each other. But they also both had their pride and wouldn’t break first.
