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Prosper berated himself for not coming sooner. A wave of guilt washed over him as he thought of how he had been balls deep in that little blonde for the past few days instead of being here, where he should have been.
Where he was needed.
It wasn’t until Maggie began to move out of his embrace that he realized he was still holding her against him, so he reluctantly let her go.
“Mamma! Daddy! Look what we got!” Claire came running towards them with a face full of melted chocolate, her sister following close on her heels.
“We got some animal puppets that you can put on your fingers!” Claire was jumping all around again and waving her little cloth-covered fingers high in the air. “There are zebras and giraffes and lions and tigers …andmonkeys!”
“Oh no! Not monkeys!” Jack grabbed Claire and threw her over his shoulder as she laughed uproariously. Then he tipped Raine over and held her like a suitcase while she screamed out in glee. Jack roared, “We’ve already got too many monkeys around here! And they are chocolate covered! What do you say I take these two little chimps and douse them with people juice, Mommy?”
Maggie shook her head and laughed at her husband’s antics. “Just so long as you bring them back safe and sound! And clean!”
Jack put the two girls down and yelled out, “Last one to the house is a chunky monkey!” He held back for a moment and let the girls take the lead. Then he kissed his wife on the cheek, nodded a thanks to Prosper, and ran after the laughing little girls.”
“Sit with me by the garden?” Maggie smiled at Prosper after the door had shut behind Jack and her daughters.
“Sure.” Prosper followed her to the cedar glider next to the lush vegetable garden. As Prosper looked at the thick vines covered in cucumbers, the rows with bright leaves of lettuce, fat green beans, and fragrant onions bursting up from the soil, he thought the garden was almost obscene. It irritated him and made him angry. How could she be dying when these stupid vegetables were so vibrant and healthy and growing so heartily.
“I brought you something too,” Prosper said with an embarrassed apology. He thought it was a great gift at the time, brilliant as a matter of fact. Now, fully faced with Maggie’s illness, he realized how naïve he had been, and the present seemed trite and … well, sort of stupid.
“I’ve got to tell you, those little finger puppets are going to be a hard gift to beat,” she said with a small smile.
Prosper put the small woven-lidded box in her hand. It was the size of her palm and hand-painted. Inside were a half dozen tiny handcrafted dolls.
“They are beautiful! I have never seen anything like them!” Maggie cried out in delight and meticulously examined each tiny doll. “Where are they from?”
“They’re Guatemalan. They’re called ‘worry dolls.’” Prosper hesitated to continue.
“Worry dolls?”
“Yeah. Legend has it that if you give a doll a worry and sleep with it under your pillow, the doll will take away the worry overnight,” Prosper told her uneasily. “I brought them for you a while back before … umm … before the … before I heard about the—”
“Cancer. It’s okay to say it, Prosper.”
“I know. I know it is, Maggie. It just seems like such a ridiculous gift now.” He managed to speak around the lump in his throat. “I know a dumb doll can’t take away your worries …”
“I love them for the hope they represent, and I love you for bringing them to me.” Then she reached out her hand to his. “Thank you for being here.”
He held her cold hand. “What can I do for you, honey? Anything. I’ll do anything for you. Is there anything you want?”
“Time,” she whispered to him. “I want more time.”
After dinner, Jack helped Maggie give the kids a bath and tuck them in. While her husband was in the shower, Maggie talked to Prosper.
“Take Jack out tonight. He’ll say no and come up with a million excuses, but I want him to go, get out, get some air and clear his head. He’s hovering and it’s driving me insane. There’s gonna be a time where he can’t leave me alone with the kids, but that time isn’t here yet.”
Prosper didn’t respond to her. He couldn’t. There was nothing, absolutely nothing to say. He didn’t want to leave her either, not for an hour, not for a minute, not for a second. Not now and not ever. In the few hours he had been with her, time had become very precious.
“Oh, god, you too?” She let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m fine. I’m going to turn in early, and the kids always sleep through the night. And even if they don’t, the most they’ll do is hop into bed with me. Please, go out and take Jack with you. He hasn’t been on his Harley in forever, and I need him to do that.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Then, you got it, darlin’.” Prosper caved because when it came down to it, he really couldn’t deny her anything.
Just as Maggie had predicted, it took some convincing, but once Jack was clear of the cottage, he flew through the wide open roads, leaned in hard, and went full throttle.
