“He did.”
Brady waited for more. When it didn’t come, he prodded, “And?”
“Nothing. He moved out of the bed-and-breakfast.”
“Why?”
Maggie recognized the stubborn look on his face and knew he wouldn’t let this go unless she explained. “I asked him to leave.”
“Why?” Then he frowned. “Did he do something?”
The only thing he did was be his charming, irresistible self, she thought. “Nothing like you’re thinking. He’s great with Danielle, and that’s a problem.”
He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. “I’m not seeing the issue.”
“He’s not staying and she’s getting attached to him.”
“Her? Or you?” Brady asked.
“She’s a little girl. I’m not. I understand that he’s temporary but Danielle doesn’t. I have to protect her.”
“Really?” One dark eyebrow rose. “Or is it yourself you’re protecting?”
“She’s my number one priority,” Maggie snapped. “It’s my job to raise her the way Danny would have.”
“I get that. But raising your daughter doesn’t mean you can’t have a life, too.” Brady reached across the table and covered her hand with his own. “It’s obvious to anyone who sees you and Sloan together that you care about each other.”
It would be so much easier if she didn’t like him so much. Her determination to keep him at a distance had been no match for the power of her attraction to him.
“Brady, if you don’t mind, I would rather not talk about this.”
He squeezed her fingers then let go of her hand. “I just have one more thing to say.”
“It better be short and sweet.”
“You once lectured me about getting over loss, moving on and making the most of every day. It’s about time you took your own advice.”
“It’s not that easy,” she protested.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Falling in love is easy. It’s taking a leap of faith that’s hard. Trust me, I know. And you’re the one who gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get out of my own way.”
“Look, Brady, I must have sounded like an annoying know-it-all. I didn’t mean to. But you and Olivia have known each other forever. It was a very different situation between the two of you. Mine is complicated—”
He held up a hand to stop her. “Don’t apologize. Not to me. I couldn’t be more grateful that you made me see the light. I love Olivia more than anything and I’m grateful for every single second that we spend together. I’m deliriously happy with her. And that’s why I’m here. I want you to be deliriously happy, too.”
“I know.” She tried to smile but tears were right there. It wasn’t so easy putting on a brave front to someone who knew you almost as well as you knew yourself. “Thanks for caring about me.”
“And that’s code for you’re finished with this conversation.” He sighed. “Just keep in mind that cowards always have regrets.”
“Okay, then. Good talk, Brady.”
Not.
Coward? That seemed a little harsh. Don’t sugarcoat it, Maggie thought. Tell me how you really feel. And that was the problem. Feelings. She didn’t want them.
Not ever again.
But she didn’t know how to make them go away.
Chapter Fifteen
Maggie came home from work, parked in front of the house and tried her new attitude, which was to feel nothing at all. Normally spending time with her brother lifted her spirits, but not today. And her spirits would sink even further when she walked in the door. That was all about the fact that Sloan had done as she’d asked and no longer lived under her roof. She looked at the place and couldn’t help thinking it looked as sad as she felt.
She braced herself for the overpowering emptiness waiting for her inside. That morning Josie had said she wouldn’t be there for dinner, and Danielle was with her mom, due here shortly. But right this minute the house was deserted. Sloan was never coming back, and in spite of trying to feel nothing, Maggie swore she could feel her heart crack.
She exited the car and walked to the rear to retrieve the two small bags of groceries she’d picked up on the way home. Milk, bread, fruit, eggs and her daughter’s favorite cookies. It made Maggie probably the world’s worst mother, but she’d been a little lax with the cookie rules in the past couple of days.
After unlocking the front door, Maggie went inside and turned on lights as she made her way to the kitchen, then settled the bags along with her purse on the island. She busied herself putting groceries away. Busy was good. It would keep her from missing his cheerful, charming disposition along with the broad shoulders and brown eyes. Not to mention her own sense of security and support. If she needed him he’d be there—or he would have been if she hadn’t thrown him out.
The sound of a car door slamming drifted to her. “Oh, thank God.”
Moments later the bell rang and the door opened, followed by her mother’s voice. “Maggie?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Mama!” Danielle’s little feet sounded on the wood floor.
Maggie went down on one knee and opened her arms, grabbing that little warm body in a hug and holding her close. “Hi, baby girl. Did you have fun with Grandma?”
“Book. ’Bary.”
“Library,” her mother enunciated. “I took her for story time. We were in the car anyway and it was easier for me to drop her off than have you pick her up.”
Maybe that was the reason her mom had called and said she’d drop Danielle off, but Maggie wasn’t so sure. “I hate to have you go out of your way, Mom. You’re doing me a favor.”
“It’s not a favor. I love spending time with my grandchild. You know that.” Maureen watched the little girl toddle toward the stairs, obviously calling for someone. “What is she doing?”
Maggie sighed and met her mom’s gaze. “She’s looking for Sloan. Been doing it since he left. She’s too little to understand why he’s not here.”
“That makes two of us. I don’t understand and I’m a lot older than she is.”
Maggie caught up with her daughter before she could climb the stairs. “It’s complicated, Mom.”
“I’ve got time.” Maureen took off her sweater and hung it on one of the bar stools at the island and set her purse on the seat. “Explain it to me.”
Maggie put her squirming-to-get-down daughter in the high chair and warmed some cut-up chicken and green beans, then put it on the tray. Danielle instantly grabbed a piece in her chubby fingers. She put it in her mouth, then took another, in a not very ladylike way. One of these days, they would work on manners.
The explain-it-to-me remark had been a clue, and now Maggie knew for sure that dropping Danielle off at home was a contrived excuse. Her mother’s real purpose was to interfere in her personal life. “You talked to Brady, didn’t you?”
“What makes you say that?” her mom hedged.
“Oh, please. Nothing happens in this family that doesn’t get relayed to all at light speed.” She rested her hands on her hips. “He came into the café for lunch today and I explained everything to him. I’m sure he shared the high points with you.”
“He did.” Her mother sighed. “But the explanation doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I can’t help that. It makes perfect sense to me.” Mostly.
“I’ll admit to having doubts about Sloan at first. After all, he can’t help that he’s handsome and wealthy and women are drawn to him like—well, the nicest metaphor is bees to honey.”
Maggie wished she was the exceptional woman who successfully ignored his appeal, but unfortunately she’d succumbed. And it wasn’t about those qualities. She’d been drawn to them as much as the fact that he was a really good guy.
“What’s your point, Mom?”
“My point is that he proved me wrong. He manned up and came to my house for lunch. He ate quiche and said he enjoyed it.” Her mom took a breath. “And while he was being a real man and choking down that quiche, I grilled him like raw meat. About his women. He said the stories were exaggerated and he wasn’t that guy. I believed him when he told me he would never deliberately hurt you, that you’re a special woman. It shows he has good taste.”
It was the “deliberately” part, Maggie thought. He might not mean for it to happen, but as soon as you let someone into your heart you left yourself open to hurt. “You saw the way Danielle was looking for him. She was getting used to him. What happens to her when he leaves town? I won’t let her be hurt.”
“Oh, Maggie—” Her mom pressed her lips together. “A mother’s job is to protect her babies, but we can’t do that all the time. If it was possible, I’d have done that for you. With Danny—”
“I know.”
“The only positive thing I can say is that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. A cliché, I know, but that doesn’t make it any less true. You’re strong and you have to move on with your life.”
“I have.”
“You’re raising a child and working at your business.” Maureen shook her head. “But you have no joy in a personal relationship with a man. I saw a flash of it when Sloan was here, but it’s gone now.”
“Mom—”
“I hear a patronizing tone and we’ll nip that in the bud.” Speaking of flashes, there was one in her mother’s eyes. “No one knows you as well as your mother. On top of that, the two of us are members of an exclusive club no woman wants to belong to. We’re widows. We both lost the man we loved. And it sucks. I know. I recognized your pain when you got the news and the light went out of your eyes. I saw when it came back on—when Sloan was here.”
“I don’t want Danielle to get attached to him,” Maggie said stubbornly.
“You mean the way you were to your dad?” A sad look slid into her mom’s eyes.
“Yeah.” Maggie would never forget the shock of her father’s sudden heart attack, the pain of finding out he was gone.
“You were older when he died, but there were still things you missed out on. Seeing the look of amazement in your father’s eyes when you were all dressed up for your first formal dance. You didn’t have the man whose mere presence in the house told all those boys who came calling not to mess with his daughter.” There was a hitch in her voice before she said, “Giving you away on your wedding day.”
“Danielle won’t miss what she never had,” Maggie protested.
“That’s just it. She could have all of that. She could have a man in her life to be the best kind of role model. She wouldn’t be missing Sloan now if he hadn’t shown that he was ready and up to the challenge of being a father. The kind of man who would navigate the complex world of car seats and strollers to help you out is looking for family. He’s ready to support you because he cares about you and your daughter. But you have to meet him halfway, baby girl.”
“Oh, Mom—”
“Cookie?”
Maggie looked at her daughter’s messy high chair tray. There was food sticking to it and some on the floor. Guessing the little girl had consumed enough, she gave her a cookie from the brand-new box sitting on the island. Happily, Danielle shoved it into her mouth.
Maggie looked back at her own mother and recognized hope and pain in her expression. “I don’t know if I can move on. You never did.”
“I would have—if I’d met anyone who made me want to,” Maureen admitted.
“Josie lost her husband and she hasn’t moved on.” Maggie was grasping at straws to make an argument, support her decision to push Sloan away.
“Are you sure about that?”
Something in her mother’s voice got her attention. “Is she seeing someone? Who?”
“You don’t think she went all that way to the hospital in Copper Hill when Hank Fletcher had his heart attack and only stayed there just for his daughter, Kim, do you?”
“She’s dating the sheriff?”
“Hank is a widower. And technically he’s not the sheriff right now, what with being on medical leave. But, yes. They have been discreetly hanging out, or whatever it’s called these days.” Her mother smiled. “She’s moving on.”
“I’m happy for her.”
“Me, too.” She released a big sigh. “I know what loneliness feels like. No one knows better than me that it takes a toll. I can see what it’s doing to you, Maggie, and it breaks my heart. Especially when there’s a chance to change it.”
“Mom, I—”
“Get back out there, Maggie. Sloan is a good man. But if you don’t love him, that’s a different story.”
“It’s not that,” she whispered. “I’m afraid.”
Maureen moved close and wrapped Maggie in her arms. “I know, baby girl. I get it.”
“What if I lose him, too, Mom?”
“What if you don’t?” There was steel in her mother’s voice. “The choices you make in life don’t come with a money-back guarantee. You can put a wall around your heart to protect it, but that’s not really living. Or you can take a chance and make the choice to live every day to the fullest.”
Maggie’s eyes filled with tears. “What if I blew my chance?”
“Well—” Her mother’s expression turned fiercely protective. “You know what love feels like and I expect you would recognize it if that’s what you have with Sloan. This may come as a surprise, but he can’t read your mind. If you love him, you have to tell him.”
“What if—”
“No. Don’t borrow trouble. You tell him what’s on your mind. It will either work out or it won’t. But you’ll never have to wonder what might have been. You’ll never have to say, ‘if only.’”
Maggie nodded. “Good talk, Mom.”
And this time she meant those words with all her heart.
* * *
Later, after putting Danielle to bed, Maggie waited for Josie to come home. She was hoping her friend would babysit because there was something important she had to do.
Unable to sit still, she paced the length of the house, rehearsing what she wanted to say. A jumble of thoughts went through her mind but she couldn’t pull them together. Then finally she heard a car pull into the driveway, and at this time of night it wouldn’t be anyone but Josie. Her friend always used the front door instead of the outside stairs and Maggie waited for her to come in.
Josie unlocked the door and opened it. When she saw Maggie, her eyes widened. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Fine.” If you didn’t factor in that she’d been a stubborn coward. “I was just wondering if you could keep an eye on Danielle for me.”
“Of course. I can give her a bath—”
“She’s in bed already. Mom wore her out today at the library and she didn’t have a nap.” Maggie twisted her fingers together. “If you could just listen for her I’d really appreciate it.”
“Sure.” Josie looked at her watch. “It’s after eight. Must be pretty important.”
“I have an—errand.”
“Kind of late, isn’t it?” There was a knowing look on her friend’s face. “This errand isn’t by any chance the handsome and charming man who, until recently, lived here, is it?”
Maggie sighed. It was too much to hope that she could pull this off without anyone else knowing about it. In her defense, it was difficult to pull off a covert operation when you had a two-year-old. But Josie was guessing.
“Why would you think that?”
“I talked to your mother.” Josie’s expression grew firm. “Before you get huffy, you should know that she’s worried about you. She needed to unburden herself to someone.”
“It does. Thank you for noticing. But it’s also true. Maureen could see how distracted and unhappy you’ve been and, frankly, I did, too.”
“I didn’t mean to worry anyone.”
“It comes with the territory. We love you.” Her friend turned serious. “Just keep in mind that he was hurt and angry when he left here.”
“You talked to him?”
“Yes.”
“So am I wasting my time? Maybe he won’t see me—”
Josie held up a hand. “I’m sure he’s cooled off by now. And just remember, if you don’t try, you’ll never forgive yourself.”
“Yeah. That seems to be the majority opinion.” Her wise family had made her see the truth of it. And she knew from personal experience that what might have been was more painful than facing up to what was going on right now.
“Okay, then. And before you leave, I just want to say that you need to remember when he left here he was running away, too.”
“From what?”
“That’s something you need to ask him. But trust me, honey, it’s an even playing field.”
“Okay.” She hugged her friend. “Thanks.”
“Anytime. Now go run your errand. And put on your raincoat. It’s drizzly and cold outside.”
Maggie did as ordered, then grabbed her keys and purse and drove to Blackwater Lake Lodge, where her “errand” was currently residing. Nervous didn’t adequately describe how she was feeling. Her nerves had nerves. And it would be ridiculously easy to turn the car around and go home. But Brady and her mom were right. She’d lost her husband in a situation that was completely beyond her control. With Sloan... Well, she would regret it forever if she didn’t at least talk to him one last time.
She exited her car and headed for the lodge’s bright lights. When the lobby doors automatically whispered open, she stopped short. Obviously she hadn’t thought this completely through.
The Widow's Bachelor Bargain Page 19