182. Chapter 182

She leans against her cop car and stares up at Alex with skepticism and maybe a little bit of hope in her eyes.

“I think I read you wrong.”

She hopes, she hopes, because her entire body is smarting, aching, reeling, from the pain of what her ex had said to her, the things she’d accused her of.

And Maggie, self-esteem shattered, is sure her ex had been right about all of them.

She is hard-headed, insensitive. Obsessed with work. Borderline sociopathic (well, that wasn’t her exact diagnosis, but hell, her ex wasn’t to be expected to know all the right terms, right?).

And she knows her ex was right, too, when she’d accused Maggie of having eyes for that damn FBI agent.

She’d tried not to, and she would never have done anything about it – she was nothing if not loyal – but she couldn’t help the feelings. Alex was…

Alex had rescued her, Alex had walked into the line of literal fire for her.

Alex had cared.

So she didn’t have words for Alex.

Except, now, maybe – because it really feels like Alex is asking her out, and hell, she thinks now the word might be gay – the word she hadn’t dared to hope for, because anyway, if she was straight, Maggie couldn’t be tempted any more than she already was.

“What do you mean?” Alex is tilting her head and smiling confusedly and her voice is nervous, nervous, nervous.

“I… I didn’t know you were into girls.”

And the nerves seep out of Alex’s body, now, because suddenly, Alex is laughing. Maggie blinks and furrows her brow, crossing her arms defensively across her chest, because she’d thought Alex was straight, sure, but she’d also thought Alex was just fine with her being a lesbian.

“Problem, Danvers?” And suddenly Maggie’s voice is hard, cold, defensive, protective. The voice she’d honed in Blue Springs. The voice that served her well on the force. The voice that didn’t feel like her at all, and yet felt like her whole life.

Alex reaches out and touches Maggie’s elbows, shaking her head now. “No, no, Maggie, no, I’m sorry, no, no, nothing’s wrong. I just… how could you not have known? I thought the leather jackets and the bike and the boots and the, like, everything, were kind of neon signs.”

Her grin is awkward, now, but with just a twinge of confidence, and her eyes flit down to Maggie’s lips, and Maggie’s gulps, because oh. Oh. Oh.

“So… you wanna keep each other company, Danvers.”

“You don’t wanna celebrate singledom, fine. You can be all sullen and quiet, that’s okay, or you can drink as much as you want and I’ll make sure you get home okay, or you can vent as much as you need to, or all of the above. I’m a good listener, Sawyer.”

Maggie tilts her head. “And… venting is all you want?”

Alex smiles softly. “You’re still hurting, obviously. So for now, yeah.” Her eyes flit to Maggie’s lips again. “For now.”

Maggie loses her breath because Alex wants her, and Alex wants to take care of her.

Of all the things she’s used to, this isn’t one of them.

“So what’d you say about a great pinball bar?”

Alex smiles, and Maggie swears she might be blushing. And it feels… like life might be beginning again.