“I’m just so happy you two are working together again! You know his Magic was on the fritz, and we could really use the help around here. Between you and me, that girlfriend of his isn’t worth a sack of salt. Ain’t got a lick of Magic in her, and even then, she doesn’t have the sense not to smooch all over a man in his daddy’s house. She came over here last week, and I could just hear them in the upstairs bathroom. And you know I’m a Christian woman, I don’t like to say nothing bad about nobody, but, well, Old Lou died, and she didn’t even send a condolence card. Nothing! I don’t know, I just didn’t think it was very polite.”
“Eileen said she got it. It just came in a little later than the others,” one of Max’s younger cousins said, sipping his soup.
She waved him away. “Are you all done, honey? You want some pie? Neighbor across the street made it.”
I’d always liked coming here. It was so much sunnier than my own home. The creaking old farmhouse, filled with rugs passed down from his grandmother, the scent of the tomatoes from the greenhouse. His dad, cracking jokes from the den.
I stood up from the table and washed my plate in the sink. “No, thanks, Mrs. Middlemore. I should really see Max. Is he in the barn?”
“Sure is,” she said, wiping up a spill from one of the little ones. “And, Cella?”
I looked up as I headed for the door.
“It’s good to see you, honey. I wish you’d come around more often.”
“It’s really good to see you, too, Mrs. Middlemore.” The screened door swung shut behind me.
I had so many memories from this place, sitting on the fence with Max’s sister eating Twizzlers and watching the horses, riding a horse myself for the first time—Max taught me. Granted, I felt a little out of place now, worlds away from the girl I was the last time I was here. The girl climbing out of Max’s truck with flushed cheeks, so carefree in her sundress and cowboy boots, not a problem in the world.
I wasn’t sure I even knew who that person was anymore.
Max was in the barn, working the saddle leather.
“Hey.” I popped open a bottle of Coke from their icebox.
“Just be a sec. This one here’s a little difficult.”
Marlon, the brown stallion, who was temperamental on his best day. “I know.” I patted his neck, breathed into his nose. “Hello, Marlon.”
“He always did like you.”
I climbed up on the fence to wait.
I had flashbacks of another time here. Crickets chirping, lying in the bed of his truck, wrapped up in an old blanket. The truck had broken down at the back of the farm, and we were waiting for his sister to come and bring the cables, laughing and resigning ourselves to a night beneath the stars. He leaned over and kissed me. I’d had kisses before, but this one made it feel like this was the only kiss that had ever mattered. He looked at me, tilted my chin with his finger, and I was lost in blue, blue, blue.
Now he heaved the saddle off Marlon with a grunt. “If you’re here, I’m guessing there’s bad news.”
I took a swig of the Coke, letting the bubbles crackle and fizz in my throat. “No.”
I watched the muscles tense and flex under his loose T-shirt as he worked the oil into the leather. The aura around him was a tangle of stormy thoughts, but I didn’t have to peek at his Magic to know something was up. He’d been in moods like this before. He had a lot on his plate, I knew, and for a moment, all I wanted to do was ease his burden. Hold his hand while the storm passed.
“Saw your mom.”
He laughed, “Oh yeah? She’s been asking about you ever since I got elected to the council. ‘When are you going to tell Cella to get over here? I miss that girl,’ yada yada.” He smiled, then looked down. “Dad wasn’t there.”
“No.”
I watched him work the leather, his hands applying more and more pressure.
I climbed off the fence, took a brush to groom Marlon.
“Careful of the—”
“Left leg, I know,” I smiled.
We worked in sync for a while, falling into a groove, and it was quiet except for the bray of the horse, the buzz of the cicadas, and the gentle rush of the wind through the open doors. I didn’t know what it was about this place that felt like coming home.
“I forget what a natural you are at this. Julia’s terrified of the horses.”
