Free What Were You Expecting? by Katy Regnery Page A

saved her bacon, and it was another reason she loved him.
    For the better part of three years she’d loved Nils Lindstrom, but Maggie wasn’t the sort of girl to throw herself at an unwilling suitor, and for all of Nils’s kindness toward her, he’d never given her a solid indication that he saw her as anything more than a friend. Despite the fact that she’d joined his family for Christmas dinners and Easter brunches. Despite the way he watched her as they played euchre twice a week with Lars and Paul, or the way he always seemed to swoop in and look after her when she was in a jam. And though she sensed his affection for her went deeper than friendship, he was careful to always, always , remind her that they were friends and he didn’t see her romantically.
    And yet.
    When he’d held her close on Monday morning and wound his fingers through hers as they walked back from Beck’s office? She had almost fooled herself that they were actually going somewhere. Again, when he convinced her to marry him instead of Paul, she wondered if jealousy could have possibly played a part in his proposal, rather than friendship. And while she’d taken a day or two to savor the deliciousness of the notion, she’d been forced to abandon the fantasy because Nils had insisted—in no uncertain terms after euchre last night—that their status quo as friends remain unaffected.
    After they’d finished their game and Paul and Lars had said good-night, Nils had stayed to help her turn the chairs up on the tables. They’d worked quietly in the dim light without speaking, their shared secret buzzing like an electrical current between them.
    “Maggie,” he’d said as she took the broom out of her office and started sweeping. “Can we talk about tomorrow?”
    She leaned on the broom handle and looked up at him. He stood tall and impossibly beautiful in the center of the room with his hands on his hips. The dim light caught the light blond of his hair, and she longed to cross to him and reach up to catch one of the locks on the back of his neck and thread it softly through her fingers. His icy eyes were stern, as usual, but he bit his bottom lip, and she couldn’t help the way her gaze darted to it, staring at his lips for a moment before catching his eyes again.
    “Of course.” She gestured to the loveseat beside him. “Do you want to sit?”
    He sat down on the faded floral slipcover, taking up more than half of the settee, and when she sat down beside him, her hip grazed his. He flinched, but Maggie didn’t move away. She liked that she affected him. She wanted her body on his radar.
    “Walk me through it,” he said in a low, gravelly voice.
    She wanted to put her hand on his arm, but decided against it. Since Monday he hadn’t reached for her or touched her again, and the thought that he might pull away from her was enough for her not to risk it.
    “You pick me up here at noon. We go up to the courthouse in Livingston. Dinna forget your birth certificate and driver’s license. We complete the application, I pay the fifty-three dollars and we’re back in time for our five o’clock wed—, um, appointment with Beck.”
    When she glanced at him to her right, he clenched his jaw twice, staring down at his lap where his hands were clasped between his spread legs. He nodded once, curt and businesslike. “Okay.”
    She wondered if sharing some more details would help him feel easier about it. “Beck’s secretary, Emma, will be there. To witness”
    “Emma Branson?” asked Nils, raising his eyebrows as he looked at her.
    “Yes. And Emma’s daughter. Um, Tess. She’s visitin’. Beck understands that we want to keep everything quiet and he thought Tess would be a good person to witness because she goes back to Billings on Sunday.”
    “Tess Branson,” said Nils quietly, looking away from Maggie as his face reddened perceptibly.
    “No. That wasn’t it. Tess…uh, Flynn. Flynn, I think.”
    “Right,” said Nils, shifting