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With his hand on Maggie’s knee, he slid it slowly up her leg. “Does this jog your memory a little bit?”
“How fast can you drive?” she asked, giggling.
Chapter 2
The next morning after Justin left, Maggie sat at her computer and finished the work for her client. Then she got a text message from Kelly at Cove Rescue.
Can you come in today and give me a hand? I’m going to take a van load of animals over to the two vet clinics, and Justin said you might be willing to help.
Glancing at Brulee, Maggie had looked forward to taking their morning walk.
Do I have time to walk the dog? I can be over by you at eleven.
She answered right away.Eleven will be perfect. Thank you so much.
“Come, girl, we’re going early today.”
Walking around the perimeter of her property was no easy task; it took an hour if they focused, but if there were wild horses that needed talking to, it could take twice that. Most of the horses on her property were used to her presence, and although they were standoffish, they wouldn’t run away. And one of them actually came up to her in case of treats.
Wellingtons were a necessity. Brulee didn’t care if her feet got wet. They always went the same way, taking the trail at the right side of the cottage and moving northwest through the woods. But on this day when they reached the border of Maggie’s property with the state land, they encountered Amber Greely on horseback.
She saw Maggie first and shouted, waving, “Maggie!”
Galloping over to the fence, Amber was really impressive up in the saddle.
“Hey! I might run into you later today,” Maggie called out.
“What’s going on?”
“Kelly Casson is moving animals to the two vet clinics today and asked me to help. If you’re at work, I’ll see you over there.”
“I’m working this afternoon. I wish I were in a situation where I could take some of her rescues, but I live in a stinking apartment.”
“I know. I wish I had a barn,” Maggie said.
“We’ll think of something. Anyway, I need to get moving. I might see you later today, then.”
“Right,” Maggie said, waving and resuming her walk.
It was a nice encounter, seeing Amber like that. There didn’t seem to be any animosity. Maggie didn’t feel any toward her, although she had reason to be cautious. Amends had been made for the wrongs done. Now they’d see each other later that day. They wouldn’t be best friends, but cordial was good.
Stomping through a marshy area, she came upon a new band of horses on the state land side of the border, and that made her happy. Later, she’d drag a bale of alfalfa over so they’d be tempted to cross the invisible line that separated her land from the state’s.
Having wild horses on her property gave her a sense of peace and safety. At sunset, the horses crept around her house, and at any given time, a band of them would surround her place, some lying down. At night when she sat in her screened-in porch, having a glass of wine or, if it was really late, a cup of tea, she saw the nightly visitors’ eyes shining in the pitch black.
And if anyone would try to creep up on her in the dead of night, which had happened in the past, their whinny would alert Maggie.
They came around the property, and she knew that the cottage was a sharp right turn on a path through the woods. She could keep going and find the horse trail that Justin used to ride his horse Spooky to her cottage from the vet clinic, but that meant having to open her gate. Instead, where the fence began, she turned there and soon would come upon her backyard with the cottage.
The clearing the cottage had been built on was about two acres of level, dry ground. If she had an enclosed space, it would be ideal for an animal rescue. Examining the area, she imagined where a barn could be built. Was she nuts? She imagined the amount of work it would take to organize something like that.
“Come on, Brulee, let’s get moving.”
Back inside the cottage, she got the dog settled, and Brulee definitely had an attitude, knowing Maggie was going on an adventure without her. Grabbing an apple and the keys to the skiff, she kissed Brulee one last time and left the cottage, locking up. The chances that anyone would dare to come there and trespass were remote. But better safe.
Walking along the dock, the sense of unreality hit her of how much her life had changed in such a short period of time. Not long ago, she’d ended a marriage that should never have taken place, and moved to the Bayou Cottage at Cypress Cove. The first day there, she met, or re-met, a guy from her childhood, Justin Chastain. And except for a brief time, they’d been together ever since.
The brackish smell of the water made her happy; this was home. She jumped down into the skiff—the water was at low tide, so it was a long drop—and untied it from the mooring. The motor started up right away, and she steered around, avoiding the lily pads and grasses that grew at the edge of the water. She’d been advised that if she wanted to swim in the bay, she should have the area dredged to rid it of the sedges and water plants and visiting alligators, but she didn’t want that. She preferred the ducks and toads and all the fish that found sanctuary in her ungroomed beach. In the months she’d lived there, she’d never seen an alligator; the water was too brackish. The fishermen asked her if she minded them coming so close because she had the best fishing outside of the village dock.
