by Force, Marie
“Thanks, but I’m good.”
He laughed. “How’s Poppy today?”
“I heard she was a little fussy earlier and her mama was feeling sore, but otherwise, all is well.”
“And Corey? How is she?”
Maggie couldn’t believe the way Corey’s story had been pushed off the front page by much bigger news. “She seems to be holding up. She wanted to see the baby before she left the hospital and asked me to go with her.”
“Damn. What was that like?”
“As you can imagine. Sad and a little bit frightening. The baby is so small and attached to so many tubes and wires. It was overwhelming for me. I can’t imagine how she must’ve felt. She told me her boyfriend pushed her down the stairs.”
“He needs to be strung up by his balls.”
Maggie sputtered with laughter. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I just did, and I mean it. Any guy who’d push a pregnant woman down the stairs deserves to be strung up.”
“I happen to agree with you. I think she’s going to be okay, though. She was with the other moms in the upstairs lounge when I went to check on them earlier.”
“It’s good that they have each other.”
“That’s one of the central goals of our program—to give the mothers a network they can rely on when they leave here. One of them was saying how lucky Debbie’s kids are to have a grandmother to come running and how she didn’t have anyone like that. Two of them said they’d take in her child if anything ever happened to her.”
“That’s so awesome. I’m so impressed by what you’re doing there.”
“It takes a village, that’s for sure.”
“And you’re the boss of the village.”
“Sometimes I feel like the village idiot.”
“Stop,” he said, laughing. “You’re way too hard on yourself. You’re doing a great job. Every day you’re giving them things they haven’t had in a long time, if ever. Safety, security, a sense of place, a home, a community of support. To them, you’re a miracle worker.”
“My sister and brother-in-law are the miracle workers.”
“The three of you are.”
“If you say so.”
“I do and so do a lot of other people. The job is still somewhat new to you. It’ll take some time for you to feel truly confident.”
“If people are going to die here, that might never happen.”
“You’re going to find out that she either had some sort of medical condition, or she took something she shouldn’t have. Her death was not your fault. If anything, give thanks for the fact she was there when it happened so her children would be well supported.”
“You’re kind of a glass-half-full sorta guy, aren’t you?”
“I try to find the positive in any situation.”
“Thanks for the support and the encouragement. It helps a lot.”
“I wish there was more I could do.”
“This was just what I needed.”
Chapter 16
Maggie’s four parents, aunt and uncle came to visit Matthews House the next day at lunchtime. They greeted her with hugs and condolences over the loss of Debbie as well as concern for her children. The McBride children had gone with Karen to their school to collect their belongings and transcripts and to say their goodbyes. They’d be leaving to fly to Arizona that afternoon.
Mitch had prepared a feast for Maggie’s special guests, who had a million questions about the facility, the services and Maggie’s daily routine, such as it was.
“It’s different every day,” she told them as they enjoyed lunch in the conference room after she’d introduced them to the staff and showed them around. “Just depends on what the residents need.”
“You’re doing such important work here, honey,” Clare said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”
“Me, too,” Jack added. “You’re making such a difference for the people you serve.”
“We’re trying,” Maggie said. “Some days, I feel like we’re spinning our wheels, but then something wonderful happens, like last night, when the other moms came together to support each other. That was really special. I like knowing they’ll have each other after they leave here.”
“I don’t know about you guys,” Andi said, “but my job feels rather superficial in light of what our girl is doing here.”
“Agreed,” Aidan said. “I love what I do, but this… This is so meaningful. Good for you, Mags.” A gifted carpenter who specialized in historical restoration, Aidan was also a cardiologist but had stopped practicing after the loss of his first wife to cancer and their son to stillbirth.
Maggie basked in the parental praise. “You guys are good for a girl’s fragile ego.”
“How many families can you host at one time?” Jamie asked.
“We have rooms set up for ten families, but we could squeeze in a few mothers with one child or a baby in addition to that. We haven’t had to do that yet.”
“When does your equine therapy program begin?” Jack helped himself to another half sandwich from the platter Mitch had put together. Maggie had invited him to join them for lunch, but he’d told her to enjoy the time with her folks.
“Monday, when Brayden gets back from a vacation he already had planned before he was hired. He’ll start with getting the kids acclimated to the stables and the horses and how to care for them, with an emphasis on safety, of course. This week, I’m meeting with the mothers to create a profile for each child so we can work to address their various needs.”
“So you’re very much involved, then?” Andi asked.
“Brayden is required to work in concert with a qualified counselor to tailor the program to the individual needs of the children. I’m the so-called qualified counselor in this case.”
“Kate and Jill said he seems really great,” Clare said.
“He is. He came highly recommended, and he’s already built the platform we need to help the children mount the horses.” Maggie tried not to think about him shirtless, swinging a hammer in the bright sunshine, but the image was indelibly etched upon her memory. She’d probably recall that image of him in her last moments of life.
“Working on that program is a perfect fit for you, too,” Frannie said.
“How many horseback riding lessons did you drive me to?” Maggie smiled at her beloved aunt. Frannie had come to live with them after Clare’s accident and had been so essential to Maggie and her sisters as they coped with life without their mother.
“Too many to count. Those were good times. Olivia is starting to make noise about taking lessons.”
“She’ll love it. It was the best part of childhood for me. So what else is new at home?”
“For us, baseball, baseball and more baseball,” Jack said. “Which will stretch into summer again because both boys are probably going to make All-Stars.”
“They love it so much,” Andi said, “but it’s still freezing in Rhode Island this time of year, especially at the ball field—or so it seems.”
“You should see her in a winter down coat, wrapped in two blankets,” Jack said.
Andi laughed. “And I’m still cold!”
“I can’t wait to see them play,” Maggie said.
“They’re really good,” Clare said. “We went to one of their games last week, and they were easily the best players on both teams.”
Maggie loved that her mom and Aidan went to the games of her dad’s sons, and knew the opposite was true, too. Jack, Andi and the boys went to Max and Nick’s hockey games. The four boys referred to each other as cousins. They had no idea there was anything different about that arrangement. Once upon a time, Maggie would’ve bet her life none of that would’ve ever happened, but look at them now. They were the poster couples for how to do divorce the right way for their children.
They left a short time later to go back to Kate’s to relieve Reid from Rob, John, Owen and Olivia, all of whom they’d left with him for a nature hike on Kate’s property.<
br />
“They’ve probably got him tied to a tree by now,” Jack had quipped.
Each of them had hugged Maggie and told her again how proud they were of her. They would be heading home early the next morning so the kids could get back to school.
“Nice people,” Mitch said after Maggie came in from seeing them off.
“They’re the best.”
“So the dark-haired guy, Jack, is your dad, and the blonde lady, Clare, is your mom, right?”
“That’s right. Jack is married to Andi with the dark hair and Clare to Aidan. The blond guy, Jamie, is married to my aunt Frannie with the red hair.”
“And your folks, they hang out together regularly with their new spouses?”
Maggie nodded. “They’re all friends.”
“Wow, you don’t hear that every day.”
“They’ve worked hard at it for our sakes, but it wasn’t always this way.”
“It’s a pretty cool thing.”
“Yes, it is. Thanks for making lunch. They loved it.”
“My pleasure. Glad you got to show them what we’re doing here.”
“They were very impressed.”
“As they should be. We’re doing God’s work.”
Maggie hadn’t thought of it that way, but she supposed that was true. The rest of her day was spent helping to pack up the McBride children and making sure they had everything they needed to make the move to their grandmother’s home in Arizona. The children hugged her and thanked her, bringing Maggie to tears with their composure in the face of such a tremendous loss.
“I’ll be thinking of you, so please make sure you write to me,” she said to Mandy and Patrick.
“We will,” Mandy said.
Derek had offered to drive them to the airport in the van before picking up the other children at the bus stop.
Maggie helped Karen get the children loaded in and seat belted before she hugged the other woman. “Take good care, and let us know if we can do anything for you and the kids.”
“We’ll get through this together,” Karen said. “Thank you again for all you did for Debbie and the children.”
“It was a pleasure knowing them.”
“She spoke so highly of you and everyone here. You made her final days very special, and I’ll never forget that.”
“Thank you for telling me that,” Maggie said, moved to tears that she fought to hold back while she waved them off.
After they left, she walked over to see Thunder, and as always, he seemed to know just what she needed. “I’ll be back in a bit for a ride.”
He nickered in response, making her smile.
She kept her promise later that afternoon with an hour-long ride on Thunder that helped to calm and center her after the emotional couple of days. When they returned to the stables, she spent an extra hour brushing and grooming him before heading inside to see what Mitch had made for dinner.
Maggie fell into bed at ten and checked her phone for the first time in hours, looking for a text from Brayden.
He didn’t disappoint. He’d sent more fish pictures, a few goofy selfies from the boat and another Key West sunset.
I’m green with envy, she replied, thrilled to see him responding right away.
Have you been here?
Nope.
Oh, we gotta get you here. It’s like Disney World for adults. Beaches, bars, boats and ballads.
That’s a Jimmy Buffett rip-off.
Guilty as charged.
It sounds delightful.
The phone rang with a FaceTime call from him.
Maggie panicked for a second, because a girl needed a minute to prepare for a call like this, but she told herself to stop being stupid and took the call. “Hi there.”
“Hey. I thought you were gonna shoot me down for a second there.”
“I was considering the disheveled state of my hair.”
“Your hair looks great, and so does the rest of you.”
“You give good compliment.”
“I only speak the truth.”
“Why’re you FaceTiming with me when there’re bars to be visited?”
“I’d rather FaceTime with you.”
“That can’t possibly be true.”
“Well, it is. Truth speaker, remember?”
“Your friends will be merciless.”
“Too late—they already are. I’ve taken a shitload of abuse over you the last few days. You’re not going to let me down, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“When I ask you out, which I will be doing very soon—like the second I get home—you’re not going to say no, are you? Because that’d be a huge bummer after all the horseshit I had to shovel with your name on it with these guys.”
Maggie couldn’t contain the gurgle of laughter that erupted from her. “That has to be the most romantic request for a date I’ve ever received.”
“It was the horseshit that put it over the top, right?”
“That was very special.”
“In light of my very special, super romantic request, I do hope you won’t let me down when I ask you out the second I get home.”
“I’ll have to think about that.”
“Maggie! Seriously?”
She laughed again. She did that a lot when she talked to him. “Yes, seriously. You know I’m conflicted about the work situation.”
“And you know I meant it when I said if you and I don’t work out, I’ll leave if that’s what you want.”
“I just… I don’t know, Brayden.”
“What don’t you know, sweetheart?”
Oh damn, when he called her that, she melted inside. “If I’m ready to date anyone.”
“I understand why you might feel that way, but I meant it when I said you have nothing to worry about where I’m concerned. You believe me, don’t you?”
“I want to.”
“But?”
“There’re things you’re not willing to talk about.”
“My juvenile record, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t talk about that with anyone.”
“Which is your prerogative, just as it’s my prerogative to be hesitant to date someone who doesn’t want to talk about what got him into trouble back in the day.”
“It was a one-time thing, something that happened that I don’t regret because I was defending something that couldn’t defend itself. Under the same circumstances, I’d do it all over again, even knowing the outcome.”
Maggie was more intrigued than ever after hearing that much. His use of the word something that couldn’t defend itself led her to believe that the incident had involved a horse.
“I think you probably would’ve done the same thing I did in that situation.”
“Do you understand that I’m reluctant to get involved with you without knowing more about this?”
“Yes, I understand, but I hope you’ll consider what I’ve done with my life since then and weigh that against one thing that happened when I was a kid that was well worth every bit of hell I went through afterward.”
He was extremely convincing. She’d give him that.
“Will you think about it?”
“I’m not sure how I’ll think about anything else.”
“Maggie…”
“Brayden…”
He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Let’s change the subject. How was your day?”
“It was good. My parents, aunt and uncle came for lunch and a tour.”
“How was that?”
“Great. They loved the place and everything we’re doing here.”
“You said your parents are divorced, right?”
“Yep, and both remarried to people we adore.”
“That doesn’t happen every day.”
“We got very lucky—and we know it.”
“You said you’d tell me about how your parents ended up divorced.”
“I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And you really want to hear about that?”
“I want to hear about everything, Maggie Harrington. Every freaking thing.”
No man had ever been more blatant about his interest in her. She’d gotten her share of attention from guys in high school and college, but this one was in a league all his own, and she rather liked his league. “I told you about my mom’s accident, right?”
“You did.”
“Well, after that, my dad… He was pretty much a mess for a long time, so much so that my aunt Frannie, who’s his sister, moved in to help take care of us. He did everything he could for my mom, but after a while, we had to accept that she probably wasn’t going to recover, and we had to get on with our lives. He moved her out of our dining room into a place of her own with round-the-clock nurses.”
“That must’ve been a very difficult thing for you.”
“Saying it was rough is putting it mildly. My mom… She was the glue who held us all together. We were a mess without her. So after a year had gone by and my mom was in the new place, my dad made a real effort to get things back on track with us and at work. He’d taken an entire year off, which was funny because before the accident, it was a big deal to get him to take a week off.
“He and Jamie had been hired to build an Infinity hotel in Newport, and that’s when my dad met Andi, who was their director of interior design. She was headquartered in Chicago, but things between them got pretty intense. She and her son, Eric, eventually moved to Rhode Island to live with us.”
“Was your dad still married to your mom?”
“Oh yeah, he was adamant about how he’d never leave her, but he was forty-four and had a lot of life left to live. Everyone was encouraging him to move on. Even my grandmother, my mom’s mom, was supportive of him after the way he’d suffered after my mom’s accident. Watching that was almost as hard as seeing my mom get hurt.”
“You all went through so much.”
“We did, but we were very well supported. In addition to my dad and Frannie and Jamie and our grandmother, we had my dad’s parents and Jamie’s parents, who’re like extra grandparents to us. Everyone stepped up for us. We got through it, thanks to my dad and Frannie. And Andi… She was just… We love her very much. She somehow managed to get it mostly right coming into our mother’s home and befriending us and supporting us as best she could without appearing to try to ‘replace’ our mother, which wasn’t possible.”