Closest To My Heart

Chapter Twelve

Tag stared blindly into the television screen until Maggie dozed off, and then jumped up to pace the apartment like a caged animal. She'd remembered what had happened between them the night before, he was certain of it, even though she'd tried to pretend otherwise. And just what the hell was he supposed to take away from that, anyhow? Was she waiting for him to broach the subject, or was she hoping that he wouldn't?

Why do women have to be so damn complicated? he groused, collecting his laptop and camera bag and plunking them down on the kitchen table.

Tag flipped open his laptop with the intent of uploading the shots he'd taken that morning, but when it booted up, he found himself faced once again with Kevin Crawford's Facebook page. He'd shut the computer the night before without logging off, and since that time, fourteen more people had approved of Kevin's updated relationship status. With a couple maneuvers on the touchpad, Tag navigated back to Maggie's homepage and accessed her list of Friends. Scanning down until he located Kevin's name, Tag placed the cursor on the Unfriend box. With a single click, Kevin would be expunged from her cyber-world, and Maggie would never have to know about the fourteen additional approvals of his status update. Tag let his finger hover over the touchpad, but then pulled it away. He couldn't go through with it. If Maggie was going to erase Kevin from her life, it had to be her choice.

Half an hour later, Tag had transferred the contents of his camera's SD card over to the laptop and judged nearly all of the shots he'd taken that morning to be complete and absolute garbage. With a low growl of frustration, he deleted the entire file just as Maggie's head popped up over the back of the sofa.

"Sorry," he said, disconnecting the camera cords from their ports. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't," she said through a yawn, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she shuffled toward the kitchen. "Sean home yet?"

"No, not yet," Tag answered. "He had his sights set on a girl, remember?"

Maggie rolled her eyes in resigned disapproval and pulled open the cupboard. Tag watched as she poured a glass of water from the tap and gulped down nearly half of it before setting it down on the counter. Her hair was a tousled mess and there were still dark shadows beneath her eyes, but some of the color had returned to her cheeks, and she looked far better than she had earlier that morning.

"Sean's always got his sights set on a girl," she said, and then gestured to the jumble of paraphernalia he had spread out over the table. "Work?"

"Rubbish," he corrected.

Maggie laughed. "C'mon, it can't be that bad," she said, sliding into the chair to his right. "Show me."

Tag hesitated, but then gave in, turning the laptop toward her. He stood and moved around behind her chair, breathing in the faint scent of her shampoo as he leaned over her shoulder to control the touchpad.

"My friend Jerry, the one you'll probably be working for soon?" he said, and she nodded. "These are some of the shots I did for him."

Tag clicked to enlarge the first shot and then moved away to let her peruse them at her own pace.

"Tag, these are amazing!" she gushed, never taking her eyes from the screen. "Ooh, this one's my favorite so far."

Tag leaned over to see which one she was looking at, and was pleased to see that it was the same one that he favored, as well.