“I have to do some work online before that. Grace has me doing social media for half of Main Street. I had to put my foot down before she hired me out to the entire town.”
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Grace is a good friend. You could do lots worse.”
“I know,” she smiled sadly, and her gaze flitted away. “Oh, shoot.” She patted her hands over her pockets, then breathed a sigh of relief.
“What did you forget?”
She pulled out two small oblong stones, one black and one pink. “Edith gave them to me when I got to town. She said to keep them on me at all times.”
“Edith’s a bit of an odd duck.” He chuckled. Her eclectic bohemian style stood out anytime she was at the diner.
“I went into her shop looking for work, but she gave me some tea and these instead.” Maggie rubbed her thumb over the stones in her palm. “She said the pink one would bring me love, and the black one would protect me.”
His brows drew down in concern, and his spine straightened. “Protect you from what?”
She tucked the stones away and bit her lip. “Um…From the stalker, I guess.”
“Maggie…” He’d left his hand in the middle of the table, and turned his palm up. But she didn’t reach for him. “You can tell me anything.”
She shook her head, her bright red hair a curtain over her face. “We had such a lovely night. I don’t want to ruin it.”
Luke sighed, but he let it drop. They finished up their breakfast and spent a long time saying goodbye at the front door. When he finally forced himself away from her tempting lips, she seemed in a better mood.
“I’ll see you later.”
“You will,” she promised. He hopped down the porch stairs and turned back to see her still standing at the door. They waved, and he headed to his car. He had to get home to change into his work shirt and check on Mom.
Maggieknockedonthedoor to Deb’s house and waited while Deb wheeled over to open it. She breathed in the crisp spring air from Deb’s front porch. Things were turning green again. Alex had been in touch, and while they hadn’t heard a word from Sean, she felt sure he knew by now she was serious about leaving him. It had been almost two months, after all.
The door swung open and Deb waved her inside. “Maggie! Come on in.” She hugged the older woman who was fast becoming the mom she’d never had growing up, “What are you doing here?”
“It’s Tuesday! I wanted to come over and help with the cleaning again.”
“You’re so sweet. Luke left a load of laundry for me to fold, but I know there’s more.” She followed Deb inside and shut the door.
“Before we get started, I was about to make some lunch. Do you want any?”
Maggie shrugged. She could eat. “If it’s not too much trouble, sure.”
She followed behind Deb’s scooter to the kitchen, where Deb had sandwich fixings laid out on the small kitchen table. “Help yourself.”
They put their sandwiches together, piling them high with sliced roast beef and cheese, lettuce, and tomato. Maggie chose mayonnaise over the horseradish dressing Deb preferred. She’d had something on her mind recently, and while it might be awkward to talk to Deb about her son, she also knew that Deb would be the best person to ask.
“Hey, Deb. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, Hun.”
Maggie played with the napkin in her lap. “How do you do it? Luke being away all the time, I mean. How do you…” Her voice trailed off, not sure how to finish her question.
Deb swallowed her bite and one side of her mouth turned up in a half smile. “How do I handle the uncertainty? Knowing he could be in danger?”
Maggie gulped. She hadn’t considered he might be in dangerous situations. “Is he often in danger?”
Deb shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s not allowed to talk about ongoing investigations. And usually by the time hecouldtalk about them, he’s off on another assignment.” She took a swig of her water, then set it down and fixed her attention squarely on Maggie.
“It’s like this, Hun. For the first part of his life, it was Luke and I against the world. Then Marcus, my husband, came along. And then Aaron. But I knew from his first ten years that Luke was a tough guy. We had to deal with a lot, me being an unwed mother. It wasn’t as accepted as it is today, especially in a small town.”
Maggie nodded. Luke had mentioned something like that, but he hadn’t gone into detail.
