by Josie Belle
“No,” Maggie said.
“Really?” Blair asked. “Aren’t you even curious?”
“No.”
“Well, I suppose it is best to live in ignorance when you’re not quite on the same level as someone else. That way your tender feelings won’t get hurt.”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Maggie asked.
“Oh, here’s our street,” Blair said as gestured out the window.
Maggie slowed down and cut the wheel. Still, she was going a bit too fast, and the car bounced into the turn. Blair steadied herself by reaching out and grabbing the dashboard and gave Maggie a chastising look.
“You really should drive more carefully,” she said. “But, of course, with your fiery temperament . . .”
“My fiery temperament?” Maggie sputtered. She almost pulled over the car, but another car was behind her, pushing her along. “Your daughter is a mean, twisted psychopath, and you say that I have a fiery temperament?”
Blair just looked at her with one eyebrow raised in haughty disdain, as if Maggie were doing nothing but proving her point.
Maggie forced deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth as she tried to calm down. She was not going to bicker with Blair about her daughter. Of course Blair was on Summer’s side. She was her mother, and judging by her string of ex-husbands and penchant for tight clothing, Summer was the acorn who had not rolled far from the oak.
“I’m sorry,” Maggie said. “I guess we shouldn’t be talking about Summer, since we have such differing opinions of her personality and such.”
That was the closest thing to an olive branch Maggie could offer. Unfortunately, she should have suspected that Blair would do exactly what Summer would have done—smack Maggie upside the head with it.
“You’re right,” Blair said. “I know it must be very hard for you to know that Sam has pined for Summer all these years and that you’re just a sad substitute, but honestly, don’t you think it’s time you cut him loose so he could have the woman he truly belongs with?”
“What?” Maggie turned and stared at Blair hard before turning back to the road. “Are you kidding me?”
They were cruising along a sparsely populated stretch of road. The trees arched over them, their bare limbs reminding Maggie of skeletons reaching up from the grave as if trying to catch her and drag her down. She could have told them not to bother, since she seemed to have a specter of death sitting beside her.
Blair gave her a sympathetic shake of the head. “I know it’s hard, but you need to accept the inevitable. You’ve already had your family. It’s time you let Sam have his with a woman who hasn’t already been there and done that.”
Maggie blew out a breath, trying to contain her temper.
“Sam is not now nor was he ever in love with Summer. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be blunt, but honestly, both you and Summer need to stop chasing him. He’s just not interested and, as for him wanting a family, well, that’s just . . .” Maggie’s voice trailed off as she lost her words. She really didn’t know what to say about that.
Blair turned halfway in her seat and gave Maggie a look that was full of pity. “Really? He’s not? Then why is his squad car parked next to Summer’s in front of that—oh dear, is that a motel?”
Maggie turned her head to look. Yes, that was Sam’s car, and she recognized Summer’s beside it. Instinct took over, and before she could think it through, she turned the wheel into the parking lot and stomped on the brakes, stopping her car right before it smashed into Sam’s.
Chapter 5
“What have you done?” Maggie asked Blair. She was livid. “If you harmed one hair on that man’s head, I will kick your butt!”
With that she slammed out of her car and stormed toward the open door of motel room number seven.
“Sam?” she cried. “Are you all right? They didn’t knock you out or drug you, did they?”
She barged into the room with Blair right behind her, yelling, “You can’t stop true love, Maggie! Sam has made his choice, and it’s best for everyone involved if you just accept it.”
Maggie stumbled to a halt just past the threshold. The sight that greeted her made her eyes bug in shock and horror. Unfortunately, Blair slammed into her back, projecting her into the room.
“Whoa!” Maggie said, and quickly averted her gaze, holding up her hand to block the view.
“What is this?” Blair screeched.
Maggie glanced through her fingers to see Blair standing with her hands on her hips, facing the bed, looking ready to do battle.
“Wild guess here, but it looks to be Tyler Fawkes in bed with your daughter, ma’am,” Sam said from behind the hat he was using to shield his view. His eyes met Maggie’s, and he grinned. “What? Did you think they kidnapped me?”
“It crossed my mind,” she said. She moved to stand beside him and went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay. I really was not up to snatching the hair off Summer’s head for harming my man.”
“‘Your man,’ huh?” Sam asked. “I do like that.”
“Summer Phillips, you get out of that bed right now!” Blair demanded.
“Hey, now, if you all could just give us a minute?” Tyler spoke up, but Blair turned on him.
“Do not speak,” she demanded.
“But—” he protested.
“No!” Blair roared. She reached over and yanked Summer out of the bed. Maggie was relieved to see that Summer was dressed, sort of, in a slinky slip type of thing.
“You had one thing to do,” Blair was yelling at Summer now. “One thing, and you screwed it up. This is why you are such a loser. How hard is it to seduce one man? You got the legs, the boobs—clearly it’s the brains you’re lacking.”
“I tried, but—” Summer began to protest.
The cold air from outside was billowing into the room, and Summer shivered. Blair was pacing, looking like she wasn’t sure who she wanted to paddle more—Summer or Tyler or both. When Summer’s teeth began to chatter, Tyler rose up out of the bed—he was still in his undershorts, thank heavens—and wrapped a blanket around Summer’s shoulders.
Tyler was a big man in both height and girth. He was also pretty hairy, with a full beard and a pelt of chest hair that looked like something only found in the zoo next to a sign that said DO NOT FEED THE BEARS. Despite his forbidding appearance, when he looked down at Summer it was with a tenderness that bespoke more than lust; it was a look of genuine caring and concern.
Maggie realized that Tyler was in love with Summer. The poor guy. Falling for a woman who, as far as Maggie could tell, was incapable of human emotions—that was some serious bad luck.
“It’s not Summer’s fault,” Tyler said. “I saw her driving out here and I followed her, well, because I’ve missed her and I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to see if maybe we could get back together.”
“I’m sure you wanted to talk,” Blair spat. Then she turned on Summer. “What’s the matter with you? Are you stupid or slow or both? Why would you go for him?” She waved a dismissive hand at Tyler. “When you’re supposed to be seducing that man!”
She pointed at Sam, who looked immediately alarmed.
“Say what?” he asked. “I came here because someone called in a disturbance, and then I found you two, which explained all the noise.”
His face flushed a faint shade of pink, and since Sam never blushed, Maggie could only imagine what he had walked in on. Oh, dear!
“Piecing it all together,” Maggie said to Sam, “I’d say, Summer was supposed to seduce you while Blair conned me into supposedly coming out here to look at some items for my shop; we were supposed to walk in on you two; I would be suitably devastated; and we’d break up, thus paving the way for you and Summer to be together forever.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
Maggie looked at Blair.
“How am I doing so far?”
“I will not dignify that ridiculous story with an answer,” she said.
“Probably, that’s just as well,” Sam said with a glower. “Or I’d have to cite you for making a false report. Didn’t we already do this song and dance once? Did you really think we’d fall for it again?”
“Since it worked so well the first time, I’m sure they were counting on it,” Maggie said.
“Hey, now, hold up,” Tyler sputtered as he tried to yank on his pants. “What are they talking about, Summer? Is this true?”
“No, sugar, it’s all just a horrible misunderstanding,” Summer said. She was looking at Tyler with pleading eyes, but it didn’t work.
“I can’t believe you’d do that to them or to us,” he said. He frowned at her. “You were really going to bust them up by seducing him? That’s just cold and mean.”
“No, Tyler, wait. I can explain,” Summer pleaded. She put her hand on his arm to stop him from leaving.
He shook her off, looking hurt and disappointed. “I’m sorry, darling, but you’re not the girl I thought you were.”
With that, Tyler grabbed his shirt and jacket and stormed out of the room.
Maggie would have thought he’d slam the door in a temper, but Tyler shut it quietly behind him, making his departure seem all the more serious and condemning.
Summer had been Maggie’s nemesis since childhood. Maggie thought she’d enjoy seeing Summer put in her place, but Summer was the picture of misery, and Maggie was stunned to find she actually felt sorry for her.
“If you care about him, go after him,” Maggie said. “Trust me on this.”
“You stay out of it!” Blair snapped. She turned to Summer and said, “Don’t even think about following that man. You put one toe outside this room and I will disown you.”
“But I lo—” Summer began to protest, but her mother cut her off.
“No, you don’t,” Blair said. “You can do so much better than that no-account trailer trash.”
“Tyler’s not—” Maggie protested, but Blair cut her off, too.
“And you can bet I won’t be taking you to see my friend’s collectibles either,” Blair said.
“See?” Maggie asked. “Now that’s where I should have caught on. A viper like you doesn’t have any friends!”
“How dare you?” Blair sucked in a breath, but Maggie didn’t care.
“Oh, I dare. You might want to be nicer to Tyler,” she said. “As far as I can tell, he’s your only ride home.”
With that, Maggie spun on her heel and stormed out the door. She could hear Sam trying to choke back a laugh as he followed her.
Once they were in the parking lot, the chilly February wind did wonders to cool Maggie’s ire. She pulled her coat more tightly about herself as she stomped to her car.
“I can’t believe I fell for it,” she muttered.
Sam jogged to catch up to her and caught her hand in his. “Hey, Maggie, hold up.”
“Sorry,” she said. She slowed her pace to match his. “I am just so angry. I can’t believe I fell for Blair’s line about having friends with old fifties kitchen memorabilia. I am such an idiot.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. They stopped beside her car and he tugged her into his arms. “You’re a savvy small business owner who thought she was onto a score.”
“But what if Tyler hadn’t followed Summer out here?” Maggie asked. “What if I had walked into their trap?”
Sam leaned back to study her face. “What if you had walked in on Summer and me alone? What do you think you would have found?”
An image of Summer from their high school days having a jolly good time with a guy wearing Sam’s football jersey flashed through her mind. Gross!
At her silence, Sam continued, “I can tell you what you would have found—me hiding in the bathroom.”
Maggie burst out laughing. The idea that Sam would hide from Summer on the make was ludicrous and lovely.
“Thank you. I thought you might be hiding under the bed, but the bathroom makes more sense,” she said. She glanced at the closed motel room door. “I have to be honest. For the first time ever, I actually felt sorry for Summer. Her mother was so cruel to her.”
“Me, too,” Sam said. “Her mother is a horror. I really thought Blair was an over-involved helicopter mother, but clearly she has her own agenda, and Summer’s happiness is not on it.”
“This whole episode explains a lot,” Maggie said. “About why Summer is the way she is. I always wondered what made her so mean and now I know it’s in her DNA. She is either genetically predisposed for cruelty or she just doesn’t know any better.”
“And that is another thing I love about you, Maggie Gerber,” he said. “You have a big heart.”
Sam leaned forward and kissed her, and Maggie felt as if all was right with her world again.
“Oh, hey,” Sam said as he stepped back. “Don’t you have a date tonight?”
“I do,” Maggie said. “At five.”
She glanced at her watch. It was a quarter to four. She’d never make it back in time to dress and change. Oh, no!
Sam smiled at her. “It’s okay. I think your date is running behind as well. Want to roll it back to five thirty?”
“Ish,” Maggie amended. “Five thirty-ish. That’s a fifteen-minute buffer, for the uninitiated.”
“Five thirty-ish it is,” he said. “See you at the shop.”
Maggie gave him a quick kiss and climbed into her car. She saw Sam wander over to the far side of the lot, where Tyler was sitting in his truck. She wondered what sort of pep talk Sam would give to Tyler. He’d certainly suffered a humiliating blow at the hands of Blair Cassidy.
This all could have gone so horribly awry. She couldn’t help but be grateful that Summer and her mother’s scheme hadn’t worked this time.
Chapter 6
Sam arrived at the shop at five thirty on the dot. Maggie was relieved that she hadn’t needed the ish factor after all. When she opened the door to let him in, he looked suitably awestruck by her slinky black dress and high heels.
“Wow,” he said. “You are gorgeous.”
Maggie felt her face get hot as she took in his charcoal gray suit, light blue dress shirt and burgundy necktie.
“You clean up pretty well yourself,” she said.
He grinned at her. “Deputy Wilson threatened to tase me if I wore my uniform.”
Maggie laughed. She could see Dot doing that. Sam lifted her coat off the back of a chair and held it open for her. Maggie slipped it on and felt his hands rest on her shoulders with the familiarity of someone who was becoming intimately acquainted with her person.
Was this really them? She caught sight of their reflection in the window glass and her breath caught. They were a couple; a couple that was dating, going out to dinner and, dare she think it, falling in love again. She wondered what her brokenhearted seventeen-year-old self would have thought if she had known the future held this moment in store.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
Maggie felt her face grow warm. Did she have the nerve to tell him? Yes, she did.
“Just that I wish I’d known when I was seventeen that I’d have the opportunity to fall in love with you again,” she said.
Sam’s blue eyes met hers in a look that was more than the scorching heat of chemistry, although there was plenty of that. It was a tangible connection of the soul-deep kind, the twined vines of friendship, love and passion. Wow.
“I wish I’d known, too,” he said. “Realizing I’d get to call you my girl again would have helped me get through some very dark days.”
He kissed her, and to Maggie it felt as if there was a promise tucked in it.
“Ready to go?” he asked when he steppe
d back.
“Yes, definitely,” she said.
Sam led the way out the door, waiting while Maggie locked up. He was driving his personal vehicle tonight and not a squad car. Maggie hoped that this meant they could have a crime-free evening.
“Who’s on patrol tonight?” she asked as he settled her into his SUV.
“The rookies,” he said. “Deputy Wilson threatened to tase them, too, if they called me before they called her.”
“She is determined that you have a night off,” Maggie said.
“So it would seem,” Sam said. “I have to admit, it will be nice to eat in a restaurant and not be worried that I’m going to have to run out halfway through the meal.”
“So, we’re going to a restaurant?” Maggie asked.
“Voltaire’s, if that’s okay?” Sam asked.
“Okay?” Maggie asked. “It’s the finest French restaurant in the county. I’ve always wanted to eat there.”
“I’d heard something like that,” Sam said.
“Talked to Ginger, did you?”
“Well, I wasn’t a crackerjack detective on the Richmond force for nothing,” he said. “I do need to make one stop first.”
Maggie nodded. That was fine. Everything was fine. She’d be just as happy to eat at a highway truck stop, so long as she was with Sam.
They hadn’t driven far when Sam pulled over to the curb on the town green. He turned in his seat and said, “Come on, I want to show you something.”
He got out of the car and hurried around to open the door for Maggie. She noticed the center of town was quiet as she slipped out of the car and into the cold night air.
Sam took her hand and walked her down the path that led through the barren green. The gazebo where the local geriatric jazz band put on weekly summer concerts was lit up with strings of white and red lights.
“Look at that,” Maggie said. “Someone decorated the gazebo.”
She glanced at Sam, and even in the dim light of the night she could see his face flush with embarrassment.
