Chapter 2
Two
Maggie was late for dinner, but that was nothing new. She, who’d prided herself on punctuality in her old life, was hardly ever on time in her new life. “Sorry,” she said to Kate when she walked into her sister’s spacious kitchen.
Reid and Ashton were sitting at the bar devouring chips and salsa, while Kate and Jill tended to the stove.
Kate kissed her cheek. “You haven’t missed much.” She glanced toward the guys. “They don’t speak until the first bowl of chips is consumed.”
“This is true.” Jill kissed Maggie’s other cheek. “How was your day, dear?”
“Insane.”
“Good insane or bad?” Kate looked at her carefully, the way she always did these days, as if trying to see if Maggie was breaking under the strain of her new job.
“Some of both.” Maggie prepared a weekly status report that she emailed to Kate and Reid on Fridays, updating them on each of the residents and the efforts being put forth by the team Maggie had hired to assist them.
They’d settled on that plan so they wouldn’t feel compelled to talk about the facility every time they were together.
“Do you need us?” Reid asked.
“Not at the moment, but I’ll let you know if I do.”
“We’re always here for you, darlin’. You know that.”
“I do.” Maggie smiled gratefully at her brother-in-law, charmed as always by his delightful accent and inherent sweetness. “You know I appreciate the support, but what I’d appreciate even more right now is a margarita. Make it a tall one.”
“Coming right up.” Jill fired up the Ninja and produced a yummy strawberry margarita that she garnished with a lime.
Maggie took a sip, closing her eyes as the heat of the tequila moved through her system, calming her after another crazy day. “That’s delicious.” When she opened her eyes, the others were looking at her with concern. “I’m fine. I love every second of it. It’s just a lot, but I’m coping. I swear.”
Although she’d interned for a year at a homeless shelter in New York while in college, she’d worked in the donation center and helped kids with their homework. Running the entire show was a whole other level of challenge, which she loved most days.
Kate and Reid exchanged glances that told Maggie they were worried about whether she’d taken on more than she could handle by making their passion project hers.
She didn’t want them worried. She wanted them to feel confident that they’d made the right choice by choosing Kate’s inexperienced sister as their director.
Maggie appreciated that they were always far more concerned about her than the program itself, although they’d both given tons of time and attention to the program over the last six months.
They’d chosen to be more hands-off now that Maggie was in charge, but had made it clear they were a phone call or text away if needed.
Before she could think of something more she could say to reassure them, Jill’s phone rang.
“It’s Mom FaceTiming about wedding plans.
” The wedding, set for the last weekend in July, would be held at Infinity Newport, the hotel her dad’s company had built on Newport’s famous Ocean Drive.
He’d met his wife, Andi, during that project, and she had later been appointed the hotel’s general manager.
“You’ve got all of us for the price of one call,” Jill told their mother, Clare, as she panned the gathering with her phone.
“All my girls together. I love it. How is everyone?” Clare had blonde hair and the same striking blue eyes as Kate and Maggie. Though now in her late fifties, she would say that Max and Nick, the sons she shared with her second husband, Aidan, kept her young.
“Maggie’s stressed, Kate’s huge and I’m great,” Jill said.
“I know why Kate is huge—she’s about to make me a grandmother, after all—but why is Maggie stressed?”
“I’m not.” Maggie glared at Jill. “I’m just adapting to my new job and being responsible for twenty extra people. No biggie.”
“She makes it look easy when it isn’t,” Kate said.
“Enough about them.” Jill flashed a giddy smile as she waved her hand to dismiss her sisters. “Let’s talk about me and my wedding!”
“See what you’re marrying?” Maggie said to Ashton.
He grinned like the lovesick fool he was around Jill. “Isn’t she magnificent?”
Maggie made barfing noises that had everyone laughing.
Jill flashed a huge, dopey smile at her beloved. “That earned you big points redeemable at bedtime, my love.”
Ashton stretched and yawned dramatically. “I’m feeling really tired all of a sudden.”
While the others laughed, Maggie experienced the oddest hollow feeling.
Jill and Kate had their lives figured out, and she was still floundering.
Granted, she was a few years younger than them, but still…
Their delirious happiness had her wondering if she’d ever find what they had with Ashton and Reid.
For some reason, that had her thinking of Brayden Thomas. She wanted to laugh out loud at the trajectory of her own thoughts, but her family already thought she was on the brink of a breakdown. No need to give them proof.
While Jill and Kate talked wedding plans with their mother, Maggie checked the stove and stirred the chicken Kate had made for fajitas.
“How’d you make out with the horse whisperer?” Ashton asked.
“I’m not sure.”
He offered her another margarita, but she declined. One drink was her limit these days. She never knew when she’d be called to deal with a new crisis and had to be ready—and able to drive. “What happened?”
“I mentioned that we’d noticed he has a sealed juvenile record and asked if he could tell me why.”
“And?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘Nope.’”
Ashton tipped his head inquisitively. “That was it? Just nope?”
“That was it.”
“Huh, well, he’s not obligated to share that info with you as a prospective employer. The more important piece of information, in my opinion, is the twelve-year adult record, which is squeaky clean.”
“So you’d be comfortable hiring him based on that as well as numerous recommendations?”
“I think I would be.”
“Even knowing there’s something in his past that resulted in him being in juvie?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to have things I did as a kid held against me as an adult.”
“No kidding.”
Ashton flashed a wicked grin as he leaned in. “What did you do?” Before she’d met Brayden Thomas, Maggie had thought Ashton was one of the best-looking men she’d ever encountered. Now the bar had been set even higher.
“Dream on. I’m not telling you.”
“I’m sure you were a wild child,” he said, laughing.
“I had my share of fun but never got into any real trouble. What was it my grandmother used to say? ‘There but for the grace of God go I’?”
“Buddy’s mom Martha says that, too.”
“I guess the bottom line is we all have things we regret from the past. Brayden comes highly recommended and has a clean record as an adult. I called his references, and they raved about him. The last people said they only let him go because they lost funding for their program. I wanted to do a three-month probationary period, but Brayden said it’s got to be all or nothing.
If he’s going to pull up stakes and move to the estate, he doesn’t want it to be provisional. ”
“We can write his contract so he can be terminated at any time for cause.”
“What does that mean?”
“That you can find fault with him for any reason you’d like and fire him.”
“Is that fair?”
“It’s fair to you. It gives you an out if he’s not getting the job done or if other information comes to light. It’s fairly common language in employment contracts. It’ll also give him the right to quit at any time, with at least a week’s notice.”
“So we’d both have an out if we need it.”
“Right.”
The other employees she’d hired were regular full-time workers, not contracted. Ashton had recommended doing a contract with Brayden and anyone else who was brought in to oversee special programs.
“I’ll put the contract together and shoot it over to you in the morning. You can run it past him, and we’ll go from there. When he’s ready to sign, send him to my office. We’ll need witnesses, which my people can do.”
“All right, thank you. I appreciate your help with this.”
“No problem.”
“Maggie,” Jill said, “Mom and the boys want to talk to you.”
“I’m coming.” She spent the next few minutes catching up with her mother, stepfather, Aidan, Max and Nick.
“We can’t wait to see you guys,” Clare said.
“We’re waiting for her to pop.” Maggie glanced at Kate, who was on a chaise in the living room with her feet up and her husband by her side, as usual. “Any time now.”
“Dad has a plane on standby to get us all there.”
“Of course he does,” Maggie said, laughing. Her dad, Jack, was nothing if not predictable when it came to his children.
“We can’t believe Kate’s going to make us grandparents!”
“She’s taking the pressure off the rest of us.” Maggie felt like she was light-years from where her sisters were, settling into marriages and families. She was still figuring out her own life, and after what’d happened in New York… Stop. Don’t go there.
“How’re things going with the job?”
“It’s an adventure. Every day is different. Today, we were all about preterm labor. Tomorrow, it might be an outbreak of lice. It’s never boring, that’s for sure.”
“Yikes. In case I haven’t said it enough, I’m so proud of the work you’re doing. You’re helping to change lives.”
“That’s the goal. We’ll see how it goes.”
“Be confident, Maggie. Kate and Reid wouldn’t have hired you if they didn’t believe in you.”
As much as Maggie wanted to believe that was true, she wondered sometimes if she would’ve had a prayer of landing this job if her sister and brother-in-law weren’t the bosses.
Probably not since she had zero experience in the field, but she was certainly acquiring on-the-job training on a daily basis.
“Thanks for the pep talk, Mom. We’ll see you soon. ”
“Can’t wait. Love you, honey.”
“Love you, too.”