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“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She squinted at the sticker proclaiming the property had SOLD. Her quiet little corner of the world was about to change, and she panicked at the unknown.
“Is someone out there?”
Not someone but there would be someone there soon. “The Nanomaker house sold.”
“That’s good. I don’t like you living here alone without neighbors.”
“The new owners could be serial killers.”
Her sister chucked her empty coffee cup in the trash bin. “In Center County? Please. Nothing that interesting ever happens here.”
The china in the cabinets rattled as a truck barreled down the street. Her house was at the very edge of town, so only people who had business in this area drove by.
She and Perrin craned their necks to see the truck. It turned the corner and pulled into the neighbor’s driveway, which faced her backyard.
“That was fast.” Perrin laughed. “Maybe we should try manifesting a winning lottery ticket next.”
Maggie chuckled and stared at the windshield of the truck, her view inhibited by the morning glare of sun. The idea of pretending to be normal and cheery for a perfect stranger exhausted her.
She glanced out the other window at her raggedy lawn. “I have to cut the grass.”
“You should hire someone to do that stuff for you.”
“I’m not helpless.”
Leaves gathered along the shared fence and the plants she hadn’t trimmed back had turned to straw. She and Nash used to spend a full weekend doing yard work at the start of every spring and again at the end of fall, mulching the beds and hosing off the lawn furniture. He used to love sitting around the firepit with his guitar.
“I know a guy who owns a landscaping business. I’ll give you his number.”
Her sister kept chatting as she dug through her purse, but Maggie’s attention locked on the truck. Who were they? A family? Newlyweds? Would their palpable happiness be her undoing?
“I think you’ll really like him. I know him through the salon. He’s a big, friendly guy, really sweet and funny.”
She frowned and turned away from the window, missing whatever Perrin had just said. “What?”
“Randy’s number.”
“Who?”
“The lawn guy. Weren’t you listening to me?”
Perrin shampooed clients at the local salon, so she had insider gossip and a contact for everyone. “Thanks, but I can mow my own lawn.”
Unlike her sister, Maggie had always been a bit more hands-on. Her sister loved dainty things, pretty, girlie things. Maggie, on the other hand, preferred activities that left a little dirt under the nails and the taste of sweat on her skin.
“I know you’re not helpless, Maggie, but it isn’t a crime to accept assistance from others. You can afford to pay someone to help around here if you don’t have the time or energy to do it yourself.”
She didn’t want help. She wanted solitude and a long nap. “I’m not hiring a stranger to do things around here that I’m capable of doing myself.”
“Then let me help you. That’s what family’s for.”
Nash was her family. He didn’t offer contacts, he offered hands-on help. They were supposed to have four little kids that never had the chance to exist. Their rooms were all empty, just a hope chest of hand-me-downs she’d wished to one day share with them and a list of beautiful names she’d never get to call.
“You’re right,” Maggie said, stepping closer to the door in hopes that her sister would follow. “Text me the landscaper’s number.” She wouldn’t use it, but if it satisfied her sister’s need to fix a broken piece of her life, she didn’t see the harm in humoring her.
Glancing at the door, Perrin’s expression shifted with understanding that this was a dismissal. “Oh, I… It’s early. Bran’s working until tonight.” She shrugged. “I was thinking we could do something together.”
“I can’t.” The response came automatically without actual consideration of her schedule.
Perrin frowned. “Why, what are you doing?”
“I…” Maggie’s mind scrambled for any solo activity that might work as an excuse. “Have a dentist appointment.”
“Oh. Maybe after?”
“I have to run errands in town.”
“I could come with you.”
She was a horrible sister. “Perrin, I just… It’s not a good day.” It never was.
Understanding flashed in her sister’s eyes, reflecting an effort not to take her rejection personally, but the hurt was evident. “I know. I’m pushing for too much.”
Maggie let out a breath, the pressure to be something she wasn’t ready to be lessened the second her sister backed off. Her brow puckered in apology. “It’s not about you.”
“I know that, too. I just wish we could go back to the way things used to be.”
A sharp knife lodged in her chest. “So do I.”
Every day Maggie wished she could turn back time, but there was no undoing the past. She remembered how it felt to be happy, but the foundation of her happiness was gone. And after such a painful loss, she saw no sense in forming or maintaining other attachments. Life was temporary, but grief stayed permanent because love was permanent. It didn’t ease with time. And what once brought pleasure, now only brought pain.
