What Tomorrow Brings (Florida Keys Series) (12 page)

The Florida Keys were paradise, heaven and everything in between. There was no other place like it. She loved it here, she really did. Maggie didn’t want to go back any more. She wanted a new life, one with Jake included. It was time to tell him that.

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“OK, Maggie McCoy, you just march up to him and tell him how you feel,” she said aloud to herself. It’s not like they were going to be instantly married or anything. She knew they had a long way to go to even get to that point. So, she stood on the steps right outside the atrium doors practising what she wanted to say to him silently as she watched him as he stood in the shadows, unsure of what he was doing there. She glanced around. Charles was no longer outside picking up trash, the now empty courtyard looked deserted. The only figure outside was the one of Jake hiding or doing something in the shadows. Where was his pup, who was always by his side, she wondered.

All of a sudden another figure steps out from the bushes and starts walking towards the hotel doors. Maggie stared hard at the figure. She was swinging her ass back and forth to entice the man in the shadows. She turned around once and pointed her finger at the shadow and then at the hotel as in enticing him to follow, then continued on up the steps until Maggie could make out the figure walking towards her. The demon girlfriend!

“Well, look who it is,” Cari gleamed. She smirked at Maggie, then laughed aloud. “You just will never learn that I am the one with the power. Can you see him watching me? He’ll be following me up to my floor very soon, I guarantee it.” With that, Cari bounced past Maggie and flung her hair back. She turned to Maggie for one last dig. “What I gave him in the bushes, you’ll never, ever be able to top.”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open. She knew better than to believe a word that Cari said, but the fact was that Jake was over by the bushes in the garden with Cari. Maggie wasn’t blind. Was Jake a cheating, lying jerk just like her own father? She could hardly believe it, she couldn’t believe it! Something had to have happened to make him desire Cari. He hadn’t liked her one bit before. Was he drunk? Would he be a drunk who desired other women? Mean women at that, because Cari was the most despicable woman she had ever known.

Maggie rubbed her eyes, closing them at first and then opening them to get a better look at the man in the garden. Why, oh why would Jake bring her here and then make out in the bushes with that witch? She should just walk away, go upstairs and leave first thing in the morning. She should just say good bye to this two timing creep who couldn’t keep his hands off another women. Well, she’d leave al right, but Maggie McCoy would let everyone here know what kind of lying, cheating man was standing over there in those bushes before she walked away and kicked the dust of Jake Hatfield from her shoes.

Maggie stomped down the steps and marched over to the garden where the shadow of Jake stood, facing the fountain. He was bent over at first and Maggie wondered if he were sick? Then, she shook herself and remembered that he had just been in those same bushes with her arch enemy, Cari.

“Jake Hatfield, you no good lying,” Maggie yelled really loud, obviously surprising him, because he swung around so quickly that they butted into each other and Maggie almost toppled over. She grabbed onto his shoulders and they both went flying into the bushes. Maggie was on the bottom, her face stuffed into Jake’s chest that she could barely breathe.

“Maggie, I didn’t know you cared,” Jon Hatfield whispered in her ear. “You know if Jake finds out, we’re both in trouble, deep trouble.”

“Jon? Jon, it wasn’t Jake in the shadows with the witch, it was you? Oh thank you!” She hugged him tight and gave him a big, wet kiss on the lips.

“Maggie, I heard you yell for me, are you OK?” Then she saw Jake come around the corner and there she was lying on her back, his twin brother on top of her and she was hugging and kissing Jon on the lips. “What the, Jon, get off my girl!”

Jake didn’t wait for Jon to move, but jumped on his brother, and in one swift move, knocked Jon off of Maggie. The two wrestled around, putting each other into wrestling locks, daring the other to give up. “What are you doing on my girl?” Jake demanded, then flipped his brother onto the ground and pinned him.

“I wasn’t doing anything, it’s all a misunderstanding Jake,” Jon pleaded with him, yet there was a smirk on his face. “Cari was after me again and let me tell you, after all the booze I had tonight, I was going for it. Then, along comes Maggie thinking I was you and she tried to kick my butt!”

Maggie stared at the two of them in shock.

Jon started laughing while Jake applied more pressure to his brother’s arms to keep him pinned to the ground. “Give up, Jon, say the word.”

“Never.”

Maggie finally composed herself and sat up. “Would you two quit acting like you’re in high school.” She sat up on her knees to dust off her clothes when Jake reached out with one arm and pulled her to him. She was caught in his embrace and they both were sort of leaning over Jon, who was still pinned to the ground. “This is awkward,” Maggie mentioned.

“That it is,” Jake growled, “ but Jon has to say the word before I let him up.”

“Never,” Jon laughed. “I want to see what happens with you two next.” Jake applied a bit more pressure on his brother and Jon yelped.

“You sound like a girl, Jon. Ready to give up?” He turned to Maggie. “Does this mean that you were a little jealous? What does this mean Maggie?”

She squirmed, then wrapped her arms around Jake’s waist. “It means that I don’t want to leave the keys. It means I don’t want to leave you. There, I said it.”

Jake placed both hands on Maggie’s cheeks, forgetting suddenly all about Jon. He brushed his fingers across her cheeks. Ah Maggie, I am falling for you. Deep. I do want you to stay.”

Maggie smiled. “If you want me to stay Jake, it’s gotta be more than ‘I’m falling for you deep’ kind of thing. It’s got to be more than waiting to see what tomorrow brings. I want love, I want it all. I’m a romance writer, Jake. I have to have a happy ending.”

Jon burst out laughing. Maggie and Jake had forgotten about him for a moment. Then he rolled away from the two of them, jumped up and dusted himself off. “I know when I’m not wanted. Goodnight kids,” Jon said. Maggie waved, but turned right back to Jake, who was giving her that stormy, dark look she loved so much..

“You want it all?” Jake asked. He pulled her up from the ground, and hitched his thumb into the waistband of his shorts. He nodded. “OK, wait here,” he commanded and took off for the hotel lobby.

“What, Jake, what are you doing? Where are you going?”

“Just stay right there, don’t move.” She stood there on the edge of the garden, watching him stroll into the lobby. Several minutes passed before he came back out, a trio of musicians behind him. They stopped in front of Maggie and Jake bent down on one knee in front of her. #

“Oh no, Jake you are not going to do that?” she whispered as a guitar strummed in the background. Maggie was starting to blush, something she never did!

Jake looked up at her, serious. “I want you to know Maggie, that you have my heart.” He reached out and took her hand and Maggie knelt down on her knees in front of him and took his other hand. “Say something babe,” Jake said softly, his words a mere whisper in the night air.

Maggie looked into his dark, stormy eyes. “I love you.” Then she closed her eyes because she was afraid that this was just a farce, it was only make believe and that he was not as serious as she was.

“I love you,” Jake repeated back to her and those words carried across the water’s edge, into the darkness of the night. “Do you hear me Maggie. I love you and I want you to stay here, with me, here in the keys, in paradise.”

A tear slipped from her big brown eyes. Then everything just came out as she burst into tears and Jake held her as she clung to him. They would see what tomorrow brings, but it would be together. Maggie, Jake and Jax, who suddenly realized that the two were in close enough range for a round of wet kisses.

The End

A Message From Author Cyndi Raye

Thank You for reading What Tomorrow Brings, the first book in my Florida Keys series. It truly is a place like no other and I wanted to share paradise with you and those who have found love and romance there. If you’ve enjoyed my work, a review from you on Amazon would be greatly appreciated.

Jon’s story is next so if you haven’t found me on Facebook or Twitter yet, follow the links below and I’ll let you know exactly when the next book becomes available. I love interacting with everyone of you.

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