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“Grace and I looked at one of the palominos with a bad foot. It took two hours to catch her.”
“You’re saying you stink?”
“I’m sure I do. But Dave got the call from Gus, and I wasn’t about to go home and change first.”
“Thank you, honey.” She closed her eyes, the pain medication beginning to take effect. “All I wanted was to see you again before I die.”
Maggie wasn’t a big user of endearments, so that meant a lot to Justin, but the comment about death scared him. Gathering her hands up in his, he poured out his heart.
“This morning before I left for the preserve, I said you’d regret it if you didn’t kiss me and I died. That was awful of me.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “Justin, it didn’t mean anything. Your comment didn’t cause the accident.”
“I’m not sure,” he said, fear washing over him. “Words are like energy in the universe. I’ve been so negative this week. Seeing you lying here battered is forcing me to realize I need to step it up.”
“Justy Chastain, chill out.”
Decompressing, he folded over like a balloon losing its air, and barked out a laugh. “I’m acting like a kid.”
She took a deep breath. “I want to sleep, and you being here is keeping me from it. You have to try to sleep. And tomorrow I want you to call someone to come get you. You can’t live in my room.”
“But I can,” he said earnestly. “My dad is doing the office hours this week. I’m not leaving.”
“I’m too tired to argue. But you need to let me sleep.”
He kissed her cheek and got into his chair, pulling the blanket up to his chin, and fell right to sleep. And Maggie dug her fingers into the rigid collar around her neck, trying to loosen it up, and that was all it took. She was wide awake.
Chapter 10
Monday morning, the community would jump into high gear on behalf of Maggie. Devastated that her friend had been injured and was an hour away, Annie tried to think of something that would be helpful to her and meaningful. She dialed Kelly’s number. They hadn’t known each other long enough to get particularly close, but after this, after a mutual friend was almost killed, the sisters-in-law bonded and had already talked to each other hourly after it happened.
She sent her a text.Come for coffee if you can.
Kelly sent a return text.I’m just dropping Danny off at school. Be right over.
When they’d heard about the accident, everything that they’d been obsessing about in their personal lives—lost jobs, crazy boyfriends, unfortunate baby daddies—faded into the background. Now there was one focus and that was on Maggie.
On her way up to Annie’s apartment, Kelly stopped in at the hardware store first in case Steve had heard from Justin. Her father, Alfonso, was recording figures into a ledger when she walked in.
“Did you hear from Justin? Or did Val or anyone hear anything? I’m going nuts.”
“You just missed Gus. He came in to tell us that Maggie is going bonkers already, worrying about the rescue. Steve is going to pick up Val Amotte right now, and they’ll be on-site when the trailer is delivered today. I bet that’s what she was worried about.”
“Should I go over?” Kelly asked.
“Honey, I was just going to ask if you and Annie can watch the store while I go. I should at least be there when they load the trailers.”
“I can, sure, Dad. I’ll run up and get Annie right now. I was going for coffee anyway.”
Annie was thrilled at the chance to be productive. They entered the store together, and Alfonso left for the property.
“This is my worst nightmare,” Kelly said. “I mean besides the fact that someone I care about was almost killed, if I had to start from square one with the rescue. Maggie even said it was like it was too good to be true.”
“Did she really? I’m telling you, that girl is a witch.”
“Will you help me set up the trailer once it’s in place? She wants the lounge area a certain way, but we still need pens and cordoned-off areas. The animals can’t be loose all the time, as nice as it sounds. It would be chaos.”
“Of course I’ll help you.”
