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“I’ll have dinner ready when you get back.”
He kissed her and jumped off the porch, headed to the barn. One of life’s pleasures turned out to be the barn he’d recently finished on Maggie’s Bayou Cottage property. It was a beautiful building. Going through the door, he greeted his old horse.
“Spooky, you ready to ride?”
She did a little dance when she saw him and whinnied, hoping what his presence in the stall could mean. In record time, he saddled her and got on, heading around the back of Bayou Cottage and west, out to the trail through Maggie’s property in the woods.
Maggie watched from the kitchen window, sipping a glass of wine. She was going to drink until the deed was done. The landline in the cottage rang and she debated not answering, but they’d persist. It was her aunt Elizabeth.
“I haven’t heard from you. I thought you’d get in touch once you heard I was booted out of Val’s house.”
“I’m so sorry, Aunt, but you brought this on yourself. Why in the hell would you bring up stuff you’d heard at my kitchen table to Cindy Johnson? It turns out it doesn’t matter anyway since she’s dead, but you betrayed me and my friends by doing that.”
“Harrumph. I’m insulted. I practically raised you and your ungrateful friend! If I made an observation about her behavior, I think I’m more than qualified to do so.”
“You got your way and now your husband kicked you out and you’re stuck living with my father-in-law and mother. Sounds like fun, Aunt.”
“You’re so disrespectful, after all I’ve done for you.”
“Well, I am sorry if you feel disrespected. That wasn’t my intention.”
In the background, Maggie could hear her mother admonishing Elizabeth. Maybe that was enough. “Okay, I’m going to let you go. Justin is out on Spooky and I have to get dinner ready.”
“Enjoy the pie I sent.”
“We will,” Maggie said, looking through the bag and not seeing a pie. “Justin said he had layer cake.”
“He did. Four layers of German chocolate.”
“What kind of pie?”
“Pecan, of course.”
“Thank you for the pie.”
Justin must have eaten that on the way home,she thought, flaring her nostrils. Is that what she’d asked for? Her husband making himself sick instead of bringing food home from her mother?
“Anyway, why did you call?” Maggie asked.
“Not to fight with you! I just thought it was unkind of you not to acknowledge that my marriage is over, ostensibly because I repeated something that was so innocuous…”
“We’ve already covered this! Have a wonderful day. Justin just got back so I’ll talk to you later.”
Her relationships were slowly becoming so superficial, she hated that she placated those around her just to avoid conflict. Were they doing the same thing to her? Soon, there would be no substance to their relationships because all they did was skirt issues and pretend they were okay with things they hated. She heard horse hooves on gravel and looked out the window in time to see Justin gallop in on Spooky.
Stepping out on the porch, she grinned, watching him unsaddle his horse and wash her down, the muscles in his back rippling with each stretch.
“You’re just hot,” she called out.
He made muscles for her, laughing. Looking out at the water, she thought about what her intentions had been, moving to the relative isolation of Bayou Cottage. She was running away from heartbreak, into a life she never realized she wanted.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he said, climbing the steps into her arms. “Watch it, I’m sweaty from Spooky.”
“I was just thinking of how I didn’t know I wanted any of this. The husband, the child, a busy social life. I thought I came here to hide, not grow.”
“Hey, I’m so lucky you agreed to this because it’s my dream.”
“I have news,” she said. “You have to promise me you won’t get on the horn with your brothers though.”
