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“They’re both dead now,” Jack said, staring into the distance.
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember my dad, and my mother died right before Lexi was born. My brother lives in New Jersey, but he has his own family. He tried to help as much as he could after Matt died, but he lives too far away.”
“I guess you’re lucky to have your in-laws.”
Maggie opened her mouth to answer when Lexi poked her head outside. “I’m starving, if anyone cares.”
“It will be just a few minutes, Lex,” Maggie said, and something shifted in her expression.
For the few minutes he’d heard Maggie unburden her heart to him, he’d been transfixed. Something about this woman made him forget all the rules he’d put in place. He didn’t want any commitments, and he didn’t want to care at all. But Maggie didn’t make that easy.
Earlier in the garage, he’d fought every instinct in his body to just grab her and kiss her. Long and hard. Not let her go. Butthere was the matter of a teenage girl who barely tolerated his presence, and he was a short timer around here. Maggie needed someone stable, and Lexi needed a father figure. Hopefully the God she and Calhoun both believed in would give her and Lexi what they needed. As for him, he’d given up asking.
Jack uncovered the lid of the grill and said the only thing of which he was certain.
“The coals are ready.”
Sunday arrived.Maggie rushed through the house throwing one last load of laundry in the dryer and then slathering a piece of toast with peanut butter. The breakfast of champions.
“Lexi, last warning. If you don’t get up now we’ll be late to church,” Maggie said.
Lexi rolled over and spoke through a blanket of hair. “I’m coming.”
Maggie took one last glimpse at herself in the mirror. No silly sundress today. She blushed at her mistake. She’d found the hideous floral dress in a box and put it on to appear less attractive. She’d realized too late, when she saw the look in Jack’s and Lexi’s eyes that it showed off a little too much of her legs.
He’d been enough of a gentleman to look away quickly, but the entire exchange had been so embarrassing she hoped to avoid him for a few days.
Their exchange in the garage, when he’d tenderly touched her hair, had rattled her. She didn’t like these somewhat foreign feelings that reminded her of being a love-sick teenager. There would never be any more of those heady and intense feelings for her. She had a teenager of her own now.
Hopping in the car, Maggie turned the key to dead silence. No chug-a-lug attempts to start. No sound at all. Wonderful.
“Well, maybe we can miss today.”
Another bill to add to the growing list. She’d expected to need a newer car soon enough, and it looked as if the day might have just arrived.
“I don’t want to miss today,” Lexi said.
Maggie blinked. Lexi normally railed against church, and for a moment, Maggie wondered what had gotten into her daughter, but she wasn’t about to complain.
“Maybe I can call someone to give us a ride.” Maggie thought of Vera first. She’d been trying to get her to come to church anyway, and now she had the perfect excuse.
Vera answered on the fourth ring, her voice groggy. “Who is this?”
“I’m sorry I woke you up. Can you give me a ride to church? The car won’t start.”
“I was out late dancing the night away.” Vera groaned.
Maggie didn’t even know of a place in the area to go dancing. That was stuff that single people did.
“Never mind. By the time you get here, it’ll be too late anyway.”
“Sorry,” Vera said.
Jack had noticed them sitting in the car and nodded in their direction. Today he wore gray sweats and a black baseball jersey and didn’t look as if he were ready to go anywhere but back to bed. He picked up the newspaper from his lawn.
“What about him?” Lexi jutted her chin in Jack’s direction.
“Jack?” Maggie worried a nail between her teeth.
