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She thought about it. There was only one reason she hesitated surrendering her heart entirely to Jack, but she also didn’t want to judge him the way she’d been judged by others in the past.
“Why?” she whispered.
“First, you have a teenage daughter who isn’t crazy about me.”
There was that, but she’d noticed that Lexi had softened towards him lately. She never would have pictured Lexi asking Jack, of all people, to hang out with Maggie.
“And second?”
Jack met her eyes. “I’m supposed to go back to Virginia. Although I’m not so sure about that anymore.”
Maggie sucked in a breath. She was supposed to talk Jack into going back to Virginia, not give him a reason to stay. Guilt pressed down on her bones.
It’s not about me, not about what I want. He needs to go back. And I need to let him go.
“Aren’t you? Why wouldn’t you go back?”
“For one, I like the scenery here.” He gave her a meaningful look, and heat crept up her cheeks.
“Kimberly asked me to talk you into going back.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have come out and told him that, but her first loyalty was to Jack alone. He was the man who made her feel alive again, and maybe she could help him somehow.
“She had no right to do that.” Jack scowled.
“Don’t be upset with her. She cares about you, and you’re like family to her. It’s not fair for me to introduce my own agenda to you, but the truth is, I don’t want you to go.”
“Maggie,” he said as he drew her into his arms.
This time when he kissed her, she twined her fingers through his hair which made him groan with pleasure. When they came up for air, they both realized they were standing by the truck but hadn’t bothered to get in it. And when a passing motorist honked, it also became clear that they were visible from the road.
Jack tugged her toward the passenger door of the truck and opened it.
“We need to get something to eat and then maybe take a hike by the lake.”
This was too easy.Hanging out with Maggie when he’d been asked to do so, should have been a chore but, of course, he’d known better. He might not have jumped at the chance otherwise. Might have made up some excuse that Lexi could accept. The reality was that she’d asked him to do what he’d wanted to all along. He wondered if that meant that he and Lexihad some kind of truce, temporary or not. Either way, he’d take it.
“We should go back and check on Chief,” Maggie suggested after their hike.
Right. He’d almost forgotten. Then again, he’d pretty much ceased to think straight for the past few hours. It seemed that every muscle in his body had relaxed and unkinked. He and Maggie were acting like a couple, holding hands as if they’d been doing it for years, and it all felt so natural.
Deep in the back of his mind there was a nagging thought that maybe he should stop feeling this way, stop acting as if he had every right to care about her. But for now, he wanted to ignore that voice and listen to Maggie’s soft and lilting one instead.
As he pulled into the driveway, he noted the white van parked in front of his house, another vehicle he hadn’t noticed on this street before. A couple he didn’t recognize got out of the van and approached. Jack instinctively calculated the short distance between him and Maggie, how fast he could get to her, and then reminded himself to calm down. These people were not a threat.
“Thank goodness,” the man said. “You’re home.”
“Do we know you?” Jack moved next to Maggie and slipped an arm around her.
“You have our dog I think,” the portly woman said. “Our shepherd mix. We’ve been searching for weeks, and today we saw the sign in town.”
“We don’t know how it happened, but if you have our Max, he’s come a long way. We live in Sonora,” the man said. “By the way, my name’s McGuire and this is my wife, April.”
Sonora was a town thirty miles east, and it was indeed difficult to believe Chief had come that far. Then again, recallinghis smell it all started to make sense. He’d obviously been on his own for some time before Mrs. Jones had found him.
“Jack Butler. And this is my…Maggie.”
He walked to his front door and opened it to find Chief standing by at attention, waiting, as he always did. As if he wasn’t sure anyone would be back.
