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He followed her up the narrow ladder to the attic. Ducking down so his head didn’t hit the rafters, Justin was just as intrigued with all the junk up in there as Maggie had been the first time she saw it.
“This looks like Christmas stuff,” he said, moving stacks of boxes around. There was the original cardboard packaging for electric lights printed with green holly and ivy.
“Where do I start?” she asked, shaking her head.
“Can we take it all down? We’ll go through it, and maybe it’s time to make your aunt and your mother choose what they want to keep or toss. This space is going to waste.”
“What would you do with it?” she asked, looking around in dismay.
“Someday we’re going to have teenagers who need their own space and privacy, and this will be the perfect place for them.”
He was thinking of their future, already planning to stay there at Bayou Cottage, and it floored her, love for him sweeping her off her feet.
“Well, that about knocked me over,” she said, laughing. “I can’t picture us raising teenagers.”
“We’ll get into it gradually,” he said, laughing.
Full of emotion, she sniffed, trying to hide her tears from him, and he grabbed her, trying not to hit his head on the rafters.
“Aw, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset at all. It’s kind of moving, actually, you thinking of our kids growing up. You’re way ahead of me. It makes me relax a little bit because I think you’ll have it all figured out.”
“We’ll do it together, trust me,” he said.
***
Sunday afternoon, Gus sat on the settee in his apartment with Grace Breaux’s feet in his lap, who moaned while he massaged them.
“Oh god, that feels so amazing.”
At age seventy, she still ran five miles a day, and on this day, it was particularly difficult because she’d been on her feet fixing fencing for hours the day before.
“How was fence day?” Gus asked, always looking for a bit of gossip.
“Interesting because Amber Greely got bushwhacked by Ted LeBlanc in front of everyone.”
“Lord have mercy. Right after he goed over to Maggie Angel’s, too. There’s something loose about that man.”
“I wonder if he’s having a breakdown again. You know it happened before. He was in rehab for thirty days.”
“Someone oughta have a talking-to with him,” Gus said. “Maybe his father needs to step in.”
“Maybe, but it won’t be coming from me,” Grace said, chuckling. “That feels so good. When are we going to make it legal so I can move in here?”
“You want to live in the dockmaster’s shack? Ha! I thought I’d move in with you.”
“You are more than welcome to move in with me, Gus. But I’m not on the water. I fancied living here, right on the cove.”
“We can do both places, then,” he said, laughing. “We’ll have our place on the water and our place in town. I’m not sure how I rate. But I’m sure lucky.”
He snickered, thinking how ludicrous it was that he had next to nothing, and this wealthy widow was going to share her life with him.
“I’m the lucky one,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him. “I’ve wanted you all my life.”
“You were married to Tom and had two boys with him,” Gus said, frowning.
“I was married to him, that’s true. But only for a few years. The rest of the time I was free, and you didn’t take the hint.”
