AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I missed you so much today,” he murmured in her ear. “I kept thinking of last night.”
“That must have been awkward,” she said, teasing.
“I stuck my head under cold water a couple of times. The short hair has paid off.”
“You’re nuts,” she said, laughing. “Come up. We can eat on the porch tonight if you’d like.”
“I’d like,” he said. “It’s finally cool enough.”
She dished up their plates of food and brought them out while he poured the wine. “I see I’m having pie again,” he said, chuckling.
“Compliments of Miss Spencer. Only this one you can actually eat.”
They made small talk while they got settled, watching the sunset, bullfrogs calling, and the quiet whinny of wild horses coming into the yard to watch.
“You had a busy day,” he said. “This is delicious, by the way.”
“I saw Annie, too. She lost her job.”
Justin paused, listening. The impact for the family would be huge. “What’s she going to do?”
“She’s not sure yet. Collect unemployment, and look for a job. But I actually had an idea I thought I’d run by you.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I saw the travel trailer Dr. LeBlanc has. I thought I could get a trailer out here and open a rescue. I’d charge an adoption fee like Kelly did, and ask for donations. Then I could pay Annie a wage to help me. When the baby comes, she could bring the baby if she wanted.”
He took a sip of wine, thinking. “So, are you doing this because you want a rescue, or because Annie needs a job?”
“I thought of it long before I even knew Annie had lost her job. I’ve been fantasizing about it along with the wild horses. You knew that, right? And then when Johanna showed up, I started thinking about it again.”
“I guess I thought you were saying it like I’ve said in the past that having an ice-cream shop in town would be fun, or that I wish I could fly a plane. Just a fantasy.”
She didn’t say anything right away, letting his words sink in. Sharing her deepest feelings with him had not been easy, and now it appeared that he wasn’t really listening to her. Either that or he hadn’t taken her seriously.
Running a rescue would take skills she didn’t have, but maybe Kelly would mentor her. She’d call her as soon as she could. The reason why she didn’t want to be with Justin every minute had reared its head again. The fear that he would belittle her plans prevented her from saying anything more about them.
“No, not a fantasy. It’s a real dream.”
“Maggie, I’m sorry. I can see I’ve upset you. Will you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
“I’ll do what I can to help you out, okay? Tell me what you’re going to do.”
She looked at him carefully. Telling him meant exposing herself to criticism. But she wanted his opinion. “I do want your supportive opinion. Not sarcasm.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best to keep that in mind.”
“Well, since I know nothing about running a rescue, I plan on asking Kelly if she’d mentor me.”
“That’s a good idea. She’s a generous woman. She practically lives and breathes that rescue and sacrificed her social life for the past five years to get it up and running.”
“Well, not exactly,” Maggie said, finding the opening she needed to introduce Ted LeBlanc into the conversation. “She and Ted were hot and heavy today when I was over there.”
“No way.”
“Oh, yeah. He was all over her. She said something weird to me, too. She said Ted would probably call you, bragging on me, meaning me. What does that mean?”
