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Ryan stopped mid-dribble and stared at Jack. ”It’s like ripping off a bandage. You need to get over it.”
Easier said than done. He wasn’t ready yet, and the way he was going, he might never be.
Jack scored another three-pointer. Where were the guys anyway? If Ryan wouldn’t help him, they might as well start this game and stop talking. He wanted to start scoring.
Ryan roughly grabbed the rebound. Perhaps they were keeping score. “If you don’t want to help, then just tell her no. What’s the big deal?”
“She needs help. You should meet her kid, a real piece of work. And the dad is not in the picture.”
“Yeah? So what’s this neighbor’s name?” Ryan pressed, dunking the ball.
“Maggie Bradshaw.”
Ryan stopped under the basket, and whistled.
“Maggie Bradshaw?Well, now it all makes sense.”
“What does?” Jack asked.
“I see why you won’t say no to her. But fair warning. Sure she’s gorgeous, but she’s the ice queen of Harte’s County.” Ryan laughed. “She and her daughter came back about a year ago to live near her in-laws. She’s a widow.”
A widow. He felt worse for Maggie, and if it were possible, even a little sorry for Lexi. Losing a loved one wasn’t easy on a kid, or a grown man, for that matter.
“Before you get any ideas, I asked her out a few months ago, and she turned me down flat. Know what she said? ‘I don’t date.’ Those were her exact words. So good luck with that,” Ryan said.
“Sure thing, buddy, but did it ever occur to you that she just doesn’t want to date the town’s Romeo?” Jack asked.
“Oh, you are dead!” Ryan fouled Jack, almost knocking him to the ground.
Jack gained his bearings quickly to make the next shot.Just get over it.Hadn’t that been what he’d tried to do for the past year? And even though he’d finally quit the Marshals Service and moved three thousand miles away, he’d brought the nightmares with him.
Thank you,Lord.For the first time in a year, Maggie woke up with the thought that the tide had turned in her favor. She had a law enforcement official who would talk some sense into her daughter. He’d agreed to do it, anyway. But the way they’d left things she still wasn’t sure how they would make it work. She couldn’t just bring Lexi over to him for a lecture. That might be a little too obvious.
Maybe now she would get some real help with Lexi, not the pseudo-support of a grandfather and grandmother who couldn’t find fault with anything their only granddaughter did.
Richard and Paula Bradshaw did not seem to understand that giving Lexi material things would not fill the hole in her heart that her father’s death had left. She’d agreed to move back to Harte’s Peak, the small town where she and Matt were both raised, because her in-laws promised to help them adjust after Matt’s death. Instead, they’d plotted against her, and she still struggled to forgive them for the pain they’d caused. The Lord was helping her with that, but progress was slow.
The last thing she wanted them to know was that she was having trouble with Lexi, especially if their absence was a big part of the problem. They already believed that she could not adequately parent Matt’s child.
If only Mom were still alive.
Maggie’s mother had managed as a single mother, and so could she. Maggie hadn’t been given any choice in the matter, but even so, she believed God had a plan for her future. She just had to hold on and trust in God, and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Holding her mug of steaming coffee, Maggie gazed out the bay window of her kitchen. Up in the mountains, the air might be thinner, but for the first time in almost a year, she breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Small reminders of winter remained in the patches of snow not yet melted away, but spring began to debut in its own immortal way. Daffodil bulbs were already pushing through, little sprigs of green. A reminder that life goes on.
The landscape changed as a white pickup pulled into the neighbor’s driveway and Jack emerged, carrying a basketball. Off duty, he dressed in basketball shorts and a white sports shirt that couldn’t hide his athletic arms and well defined chest.He plays basketball. Lexi and Matt used to play basketball.
“Mom!” Lexi screeched from the family room, and Maggie startled.
So much for quietly enjoying the landscape of beautiful things. She sighed and turned away from the window.
“What is it?” She walked into the family room where Lexi sat at the desktop computer.
“It’s doing it again. This computer is a dinosaur. That’s what Grandpa says,” Lexi whined. “It doesn’t have the bandwidth I need.”
She’d been begging for a new computer, but it wasn’t in their budget, and the way things were going it might not be for some time.
