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“Ah, no. No bedroom. We’re taking it slow, remember?”

“Right. So what’s your upcoming agenda?”

“My agenda is to get everyone who is bugging me to leave me alone, present company excluded. My aunt will be busy with Val. Evidently, your father has designs on my mother. Annie and Steve will do whatever they are going to do, but it’s not going to be at Bayou Cottage.”

“Do I have to stay here with Dad?” he asked, chuckling.

“Yes, if you don’t mind. I’d like to live alone at the cottage a little longer if that’s possible. Jeez, it’s been nonstop!”

She tried to reach the buttons at the back of the dress but was unable to. “Can you help? No funny stuff, either.”

“Aw, you’re spoiling all my fun.”

She asked him to step out while she undressed, not out of modesty but because she was wearing a control garment that looked like a torture device, and she didn’t really want to expose him to it.

When she finished dressing, she found him leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

“Justin, you look like you’re about ready to keel over. I think we should chill out in front of that huge flat-screen I saw in the den. I haven’t seen TV in weeks.”

“Well, this will be interesting,” he said, threading his arm around her shoulder. “Are we TV compatible?”

“I doubt it. I like true crime and reality TV. What about you?”

“Ha!Naked and AfraidandSurvivor.”

“No way. I don’t want it that realistic. So that means if we get married—”

“Whenwe get married,” he said.

“We’ll have to have separate televisions.”

“Okay, I can agree to that. It’s a small price to pay.”

Chapter 11

Autumn was in full swing. As the end of October approached, a sense of well-being that Maggie hadn’t experienced for a long time had returned. Life at the cottage was wonderful, there was no getting around it. Unless Justin was there with her, she was alone most of the time with her doggie, Brulee.

Out of the need to do something productive, she’d started her own online graphic design company and had one client, whom she would pamper until another client came along to share the attention. When she wasn’t working on the cottage or for the client, she joined Justin volunteering with the wild horse preserve. The band at Bayou Cottage was doing great, and they were sticking close to home and the state land that bordered her property.

Gloria and Bubba came by to help scoop manure from the yard twice a week, more as a precaution from Brulee thinking it was snacks left for her than anything else. And she was forging a relationship with them, as well.

An apologetic Annie couldn’t do enough to make amends for her unsociable behavior at Elizabeth’s pre-wedding party.

“Will you ever forgive me? I feel like a horny teenager.”

“You’re forgiven,” Maggie had said. “What’s next for you two?”

“Well, we’ll take turns visiting each other on the weekends. When he can’t get away, I’ll come here. But don’t worry, I won’t stay with you. I know that would get old fast.”

“Thank you so much, Annie,” she said, relieved, but laughing. “I really don’t want to run a rooming house at the cottage. But you can stay once in a while, okay? I’ll invite you.”

Through September, Annie stayed with the Cassons when she visited, and Steve’s mother and father would grow to love her, especially when the following month, in early October, Annie found out she was pregnant.

“I have to talk to you,” she cried over the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Maggie asked, petrified.

“I’m late. I got a test and I’m pregnant! What the hell am I going to do?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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