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“That’s quite a commute.”
“I’m a field investigator, so I don’t have to go into the office more than a few times a month. The beauty of the internet.”
“Alexandria is what? About three hours from here?”
“Yes, about three. I’ll stay in a hotel while I poke around here. The rest of the wild horse population in Louisiana will be jealous if word gets out about your place. This is really nice. It’s a nice thing you’re doing for them. Plus, the band has their own vet. Doesn’t get much better than this.”
The sound of Gus’s boat motor interrupted their conversation. The women rose, hugging Maggie, getting ready to leave.
“Our ride just got here,” Calista explained to Austin.
“Can I drive you home? I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
She looked at him sidelong. “I think so. That would be nice. Let me tell them.”
She went out on the porch and explained she was leaving with Austin Macon. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said to Katrina.
“Not at all. He’s eligible, and that’s a rare find here in Cypress Cove. Go for it.”
After the others left in Gus’s boat, Maggie led Austin and Calista to the back door. “I’m guessing you need to find your truck? Go through that path and you’ll get to a dirt road that will take you to the main highway.”
Watching them walk through her yard while the sound of Gus’s boat leaving the dock echoed around the cottage, Maggie smiled. She had the rest of the day to herself after cleaning up from lunch. There wasn’t very much food left over, thankfully. Nothing to put away. She’d save the pie for Justin. Washing dishes gave her a chance to recover, looking out over the yard and seeing horses peeking out among the trees.
Austin Macon had said nothing about seeing the horses when he was having lunch. Was he filing a report at that moment, accusing Maggie of stealing his horses?
Exhausted from socializing, she locked up the cottage, got on the couch with Brulee and an afghan, and fell asleep.
While Maggie snoozed, Calista and Austin hiked through the woods behind Maggie’s cottage. In ten minutes, they reached the same dirt trail that Justin took when the trail from town was flooded, and that Kelly took to get to the rescue.
“I didn’t know this road existed,” Calista said.
“It’s on the map. That’s the only way I could have found it again. It’s an old horse path leading from Saint John’s Parish to Cypress Cove. We used to come back here to drink beer when we were in high school.”
“Ha! I went to Saint Anthony Padua’s. We didn’t do things like drink beer in the woods.”
“Right,” he said, laughing. “Remember, I was a Padua graduate, too. Then he changed the subject. He had been in the group that was opposite of the in-crowd in high school and didn’t want to remind her. “You have children, don’t you?”
“Two kids. Nine-year-old Porter and six-year-old Davina. They’re with my former sister-in-law, Lola, right now. I take care of her kids during the week, so she owed me today. Katrina, the redhead you met, is dating my brother-in-law, Alphé. Lola and Alphé are divorced.”
“Lola French?”
“Of course you’d remember her,” Calista said, trying not to let her attitude show through.
“I remember the French sisters,” he said, “Only because they were the daughters of a fisherman.”
“Why would that make you think of them?”
“Remember, the fishermen’s kids were at the top of the pecking order, so that left me at the bottom.” He chuckled. “My father owned the roadhouse. It was known for its fried seafood platter. He bought fresh seafood from the Frenches and the Beaumonts. He sold out a few years ago to my cousin Rob.”
“I don’t know Rob.”
“He’s younger than us, cocky. About what you’d expect.”
“Why didn’t you take over?” Calista asked.
“I had no interest in it. I love my job.”
“You work for the government,” she stated frowning. “I didn’t think anyone would love that.”
