Closest To My Heart

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Her concerns washed away hours before by the frigid ocean waves, Maggie laughed as she heaved open the door to her brother's building and raced joyously up the stairs. Tag caught her before she reached the halfway point, hugging his strong arms around her waist and pulling her down onto the steps as he playfully kissed the side of her neck. Maggie squealed and writhed beneath him, her fingers clenching in his hair as his beard tickled the hollow behind her clavicle. In all her life, she couldn't recall ever feeling so euphoric and free.

"Not now," she murmured, folding her arms around his neck as his lips moved to her mouth. "My brother might see us."

"So?" Tag said between kisses. "We're going to tell him anyway, right?"

"Yes, but 'stairwell copulation' isn't exactly the method I had in mind. I figured we'd just tell him over dinner or something."

"Fine," Tag sighed, dragging himself off of her with feigned dejection. "If you insist."

"Aww, poor baby," Maggie soothed. "We'll christen the stairwell another time, I promise."

Tag stood and hitched his camera bag up over his shoulder, then extended a hand and pulled her up. With her feet one step above his, Maggie stood almost eye-to-eye with him as he pressed a soft, sweet kiss to her lips.

"I'm gonna hold you to that promise," he warned with a roguish gleam in his eye.

Maggie grinned. "Do I look worried?" she asked, and then spun away and raced him to the top of the stairs.

At the door, Maggie attempted to fit Tag's apartment key into the lock while he tugged at the spaghetti-string tie of her bikini top with his teeth. She giggled and abandoned the lock, pressing her back to the door and sliding her hands around his waist. He leaned in to kiss her and the door swung open, both of them nearly falling over as they stumbled over the threshold.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Sean hissed, his face flushed an angry shade of red above the collar of his faded green t-shirt. "I've been calling and calling!"

"Geez, Sean, take a chill pill," Maggie said, slipping the beach bag from her shoulder and tossing it aside before kicking off her flip-flops. "We were at the beach."

"All night?" her brother bit off, incredulous.

Maggie opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her brother had always trusted her judgment, never questioned her whereabouts or her motives, but the way he was looking at her just then made her feel like she was some kind of... whore.

"All night," Sean repeated, although it came out as more of a statement the second time. "You were at the beach, all night."

Maggie took a step back, garnering strength from the feeling of Tag's heat against her back. An argument wasn't the method she'd had in mind for telling her brother the good news, either, but if he was going to be a jerk and make a federal case out of it...

"I don't believe that's any of your business," she said icily.

"Oh, on the contrary," another voice chimed in with curt authority, and Maggie's eyes flew open wide as a familiar figure stepped into view from the direction of the kitchen. "Under the circumstances, I believe it's entirely his business. And mine, as well."

*****

Tag peered over the top of Maggie's head at the unexpected visitor. Diminutive height, slight frame, stylish dress, and short, flawlessly coifed auburn hair that was just a bit too red to be natural. The woman was a glimpse at a future that was never to be, a model of the woman that Maggie likely would have become, had her marriage to Kevin come to fruition.

"Mom?" Maggie choked out, and Tag couldn't help but notice how quickly she moved away from him. "What are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same question," the elder O'Donnell woman sniffed as she seated herself primly on the edge of the sofa. "Imagine my surprise when, upon arriving in town late yesterday afternoon, I went to surprise my only daughter at work, only to find that she's no longer employed there. In fact, the boutique that formerly served as her place of employment is no longer in business, and hasn't been for at least a month, according to the courteous Rastafarian gentlemen who runs the head shop that now occupies said location."

Tag eyes volleyed back and forth between Maggie and her brother, waiting for one of them to speak up in defense of Maggie's situation, but both seemed struck mute by the spell of their mother's airy condescension.

"And imagine my further surprise," the matriarch continued. "When I drove to the condominium that my only daughter shares with her fiancé, only to learn that he is no longer her fiancé, and that she no longer lives there. As of a week ago, I'm told."

"Ten days," Tag mumbled, belatedly realizing that he'd said the words aloud when Maggie drove her elbow into his ribs.

Her mother raised her green eyes to Tag's, looking as if she had just then noticed his presence.

"And you are?" she prompted with haughty condescension.

"Oh!" Maggie finally found her voice. "I'm sorry. Mom, this is Tag Vitale. Tag is... Sean's roommate. Tag, this is our mother, Cecelia O'Donnell."

Sean's roommate? The words echoed in Tag's head. Sean's roommate? How about 'my boyfriend'? Or even, 'the guy I'm seeing now'?

"Charmed," Cecelia O'Donnell said, in a tone that told Tag she was anything but. She then turned her frosty attentions to her son. "Sean, I'd like to have a word with your sister. Alone."

Who in the hell does this woman think she is? Tag fumed. Sean and Maggie were both adults, and even if she was their mother, Cecelia O'Donnell had no business barking orders at anyone. Tag managed to take one step forward before Sean took hold of his arm and turned him toward the door, warning him off with a discreet shake of his head. Maggie turned and gave him a slight nod, her eyes silently pleading with him not to interfere. Reluctantly, Tag complied and followed Sean out into the hall, his heart sinking in his chest as the door fell closed behind them.