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He’d looked at the bright side of things when she’d asked him for a divorce years before, only to regret it almost immediately. But by then, Chris Harcourt had moved on.
Chapter 3
Sunday morning, the households of Cypress Cove awoke at different levels of awareness. At Bayou Cottage, Justin and Maggie were jarred into consciousness when Tina woke up at seven in spite of having been up until nearly midnight, calling, “Dadda, hunggy!”
“Oh God,” Justin groaned, rolling to the side of the bed. “She’s hungry. Why can’t it be this the morning she wants nothing to do with food?”
“Put pants on before you go in there,” Maggie mumbled, pulling the sheets around her.
“I will.” He bent down for sweatpants with his rear in her face, making Maggie bark out a laugh, and threaded his feet into the legs.
Standing up, he grabbed his head and moaned. “I didn’t drink that much last night.”
“Yes, you did. We need to starting weaning ourselves so we won’t have the DTs when Lent starts.”
“We have six weeks, so partay!” he shouted, leaving their room for the baby’s room across the hall.
“Hello, Miss Tina. You’re bad.”
“Dadda bad,” she teased, reaching her arms up for him.
“Let’s make waffles, and then we have to go outside to feed the horses.”
“Tina ride!”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that. Maybe a pony.”
Maggie lay in bed, listening to the conversation. She chuckled. She wasn’t a horse person at all until moving to Bayou Cottage and discovering wild horses came onto her property. Now, if she didn’t go for a ride at least once a day, she suffered withdrawal. Tina had practically been born on horseback. Horses were fast becoming her life.
The lure of the horses called louder than the need for more sleep, so she got up and quickly dressed, running down the stairs to eat with her family.
“I know Sunday is family day, but I’m getting a babysitter out here so I can ride.”
“Go for it, and if you can’t find one, I’ll take over for you.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather ride with you today if it’s possible.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I love you, Justy.”
“Love you, too, Sassy,” he said, using her rarely heard childhood nickname.
His phone beeped. “It’s Chris.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I just got an earful from my son. Yeah, Aunt Elizabeth unloaded all Annie’s foibles last night during cocktails, and it pissed Cindy off so much they left before dinner was served.”
“No way. What did she say about her?”
“All the business with Steve. None of it’s a secret; Annie told me about it the first time I met her. But in front of my kids? What a bitch.”
“Yeah, I’ll mention it to Maggie. She might have some ideas about what to do. Is Annie upset?”
“I wasn’t going to tell her, but I don’t want to lie to her. She’s embarrassed because the boys know now, but other than that, she really doesn’t care.”
“I’ll get back to you after I talk to Maggie,” Justin said.
They chatted a bit more and then said goodbye.
“Now what?” Maggie asked. “Honest to God, my family continues to be a constant source of aggravation.”
