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Well, I guess I needed a splash of cold water anyway.
“Still think I need help?” Triss gives me a mischievous grin.
She wants to play, does she?
“Oh, you will…” I give her my own sly smile. “When I’m done with you.”
I scoop water in my hands and splash it on her face. She wipes it off.
“Why, you…”
In the next instant, water splashes on me. I retaliate. At first, Triss curses, but then she screams and laughs. I, too, find myself laughing.
I may not remember any fun memories from my past, but this right here – I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
~
“Are you sure you haven’t forgotten anything?” I ask Triss as I glance towards the back seat of the truck after parking it in the driveway.
“I don’t think so,” she answers as she steps out of the vehicle. “I…”
She stops talking suddenly and as I look forward, I realize why. There’s a dark-haired woman standing on the front porch of the house in a pink dress and black stockings. A purple scarf wraps around her neck. I recognize it all too well.
“Maggie,” I greet her after getting out of the truck. “Didn’t anyone tell you not to wear a scarf in summer?”
“Since when have I ever done what other people tell me to?” she replies as she walks towards me. “Besides, this isn’t that thick and I happen to like the style. The person who gave it to me has excellent fashion sense.”
She means me. Excellent fashion sense? I doubt that. I just picked it because I know she likes purple.
She wraps her arms around me in a hug. “How are you?”
“Good.” I pat her back before pulling away.
“I heard Otto roughed you up at Paul’s wedding.” She checks my face.
“You mean the wedding you didn’t attend?”
“I didn’t because I couldn’t. I had a report to finish. Didn’t Ned tell you?”
“He did,” I answer. “Too bad you missed it.”
“The wedding or Otto beating you up? Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him.”
“You don’t have to,” I tell her. “We already talked.”
“Oh.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Triss walking towards the house. Maggie notices her, too.
“Is that…?”
“Triss,” I call her.
She stops and turns but doesn’t walk towards me. Is she feeling shy?
“This is Maggie.” I gesture to her over my shoulder. “And Maggie, this is Triss. She and her daughter are staying under my roof.”
Maggie walks towards Triss. “Wait a second. I’ve seen you before. No wonder Lara looked familiar.”
“You’ve seen Lara?” I ask her.
She ignores me and points at Triss. “I saw you at the bus stop on the day I left town. You were the woman with the baby.”
They’ve met before? Triss says nothing.
“You don’t remember? I bumped into you and we talked for a bit.” Maggie touches her scarf. “I was wearing this same scarf.”
Triss nods. “Yes. I remember.”
So they did meet. From the sound of it, Maggie was on her way out while Triss was on her way in. Maybe it was Maggie who told Ned about Triss. It makes sense.
“So Lara is your baby?” Maggie asks. “But I thought you said when we met that she wasn’t.”
“I’m sure you just misheard me,” Triss says. “Or maybe I didn’t hear your question right.”
Maggie gives her a puzzled look.
“You probably caught Triss at a rough time,” I say as I walk towards Triss. “She just came off the bus and she was tired.”
Maggie turns to me. “And she’s staying here now? With you?”
“Yes.” I pat Triss’s shoulder. “Would you like to join us for dinner? Triss put something in the slow cooker before we left this morning.”
Maggie’s eyebrows arch. “I didn’t know you had a slow cooker.”
“Neither did I. Well?”
She glances at Triss, then scratches the back of her head. “Yeah. Sure. I’d love to stay for dinner.”
~
“Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed for dinner,” Maggie says an hour and a half later as we stand on the front porch. She wraps the scarf that was hanging over her shoulders around her neck and tucks her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
I look at her with creased eyebrows. “What makes you say that?”
“Because Triss wasn’t happy to have me,” she answers straightforwardly.
She wasn’t? She didn’t seem to be acting strange to me, apart from the fact that she wasn’t talking much.
“She was just tired,” I say. “But I’m sure she was happy to meet you. Again.”
Maggie sighs. “Antonio Woods. You’re as dense as ever.”
“What?”
She meets my gaze. “Are you sure about letting her stay at your house?”
“Your brother asked me the same thing and I gave him the same answer – Yes.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“I do now.”
Her eyes narrow. “You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?”
“It’s none of your business, Maggie,” I tell her seriously.
She snorts. “You think I’m still a child, don’t you? Well, I’m not. I’m a woman now, and I can tell if another woman only means trouble. I’m telling you, Triss isn’t who you think she is. She’s – ”
