Chapter 4
Four
Maggie’s day got busy when a new family arrived via Uber, in need of temporary shelter because the mother’s cancer diagnosis made it impossible for her to work during treatment.
After getting a call from a local social services agency, Maggie was ready to meet Trish Lawson and her three children, Lily, Jimmy and Chloe, ages six, five and two.
She set up the children to have snacks in the kitchen so she could meet with Trish in the conference room they’d made out of the former dining room.
Maggie could hear Trish’s sobs as she approached the conference room.
Maggie ducked into her office to grab a box of tissues and brought that and the coffee Trish had asked for when Maggie offered her something to drink. “Here we go,” Maggie said, trying to project cool competence in the midst of Trish’s despair.
“Thank you.”
At about five-foot-five, the woman’s lovely light-brown face was streaked with tears, and the scarf on her head had slid to the left side, making her look lopsided.
Maggie wanted to put her arms around her and tell her everything would be all right, except she’d learned not to make promises she couldn’t keep.
She had no way to know if everything would work out for their clientele.
All she could do was give them her very best effort during the time she had with them.
Trish dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “I’m so sorry.”
“Please don’t be. We’re here to help.”
“Thank God for that, because I didn’t know where else to turn. I heard about your program from a friend, and when the landlord told me to be out by today or he was bringing the police, I had nowhere else to go. I contacted one agency, but they couldn’t take us all. They referred me to you.”
Maggie handed her another tissue. “I’m very glad you came here and that we had an opening available for you and your children.”
“I never thought this would happen to me,” she said softly. “I had a decent job. I paid my rent every month and took care of my kids. But when I got sick with ovarian cancer… I just couldn’t keep up.”
“Of course you couldn’t. No one could.”
“My friends have helped so much, but none of them have room for four of us, and my family lives in Texas. My doctors are here. I just… I don’t know…”
Maggie put her hand over Trish’s. “Take a deep breath. You and your children are safe here.”
Trish broke down into deep sobs.
Maggie got up to hug the other woman. “Our staff nurse, Arnelle, will be able to help you with side effects of treatment, coordinating with doctors and anything else you need.”
Trish clung to her. “Thank you so, so much. You have no idea what a godsend you are to me.”
Over the next hour, Maggie went back and forth between checking the children, who were now in the playroom with several of the other kids and their mothers, and helping Trish complete intake paperwork.
By the time she got them settled in their room upstairs, it was after three o’clock, and her plan to visit Corey in the hospital before dinner was in jeopardy.
She would go later.
While she had one minute to herself, she sat in her desk chair and closed her eyes, breathing through the emotional storm that each new heartbreaking story brought into her life.
She loved the job, loved the people, loved the challenge, loved that she was making a real difference for people in crisis.
But sometimes… Sometimes it was too much for her to handle.
Not that she would ever admit that to anyone.
God forbid Reid and Kate ever have second thoughts about giving her the job of a lifetime. She wanted to make them proud and help as many people as she could.
The sound of a throat clearing had Maggie opening her eyes to find Brayden Thomas standing in her doorway.
“Sorry to interrupt.”
“You’re not. I was taking five after a difficult intake.”
“No need to explain yourself to me.” Holding the worn cowboy hat in his hands, he looked ridiculously large and hopelessly sexy standing in the doorway. “I was told to come check in with you.”
Maggie pulled herself together and stood. “Yes, I can walk you through the onboarding process.” She reached for the clipboard she’d put together earlier and set him up in the conference room. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
“Some water would be great.”
“Coming right up.” She checked on the children in the playroom on the way to the kitchen and was pleased to see Trish’s children happily playing with the wide assortment of toys that Reid and Kate had sprung for.
They’d spared no expense when it came to ensuring the children had everything they could possibly want.
Maggie had joked that the playroom resembled an FAO Schwarz store.
Every one of the children who walked through their doors marveled at the toys in that room.
Kate had said that shopping trip had been among the most fun things she’d ever done.
Maggie took a tall glass of ice water back to the conference room. “Here you are.”
“Thanks a lot.” Brayden drank half the glass in one big gulp. “Starting to get hot out there.”
It’s starting to get hot in here, too, Maggie thought, holding back the ridiculous need to giggle like an eighth-grade girl.
The man was too handsome for words. In addition to broad shoulders, he had silky dark hair that had a tendency to slide down over his brow, golden brown eyes and lashes every woman she knew would kill for.
His cheekbones were prominent, his jaw chiseled and covered with the perfect amount of stubble.
As he filled out the forms, Maggie discovered he was left-handed, and his plush lips moved adorably as he wrote.
Shifting her gaze to his right hand, which was flat on the table, she noted that his hands were as big as the rest of him.
“I feel like I’m being watched,” he said without lifting his gaze from the paperwork.
Maggie’s face went warm with embarrassment. “Sorry. I was thinking about something else.” Liar.
“I can bring these in to you when I’m finished if you have other stuff to do.”
“Sure. Thanks.” Mortified, she got up and left the room. So far, he’d caught her taking what looked to be a nap in the middle of the workday and had called her out for staring at him. “Great way to start a professional relationship.”
“What was that?” Mitch, the cook, asked as he came in the kitchen door carrying shopping bags.
He made dinner for the residents each evening and provided instruction for those who wished to learn basic cooking skills.
In his mid-fifties, Mitch was retired from the Marine Corps and wore his gray hair in a buzz cut.
“Just talking to myself.”
“First sign of senility.”
“Very funny.”
“Heard you’re bringing in some more testosterone.”
“You heard right.”
“He’s some kind of horse whisperer or something, right?”
“That’s what they say. I’ve hired him to run a therapeutic riding program for the children.”
“It’ll be good for the kids to have access to that. The things some of them talk about…” He shook his head. “Hard to hear.”
“I know. If you need support—”
“I’m okay. I just worry about them, about the long-term fallout.”
“We’ll do everything we can for them, now and into the future.
My sister and brother-in-law want Matthews House to be a long-term source of support for our families.
They have so many plans to expand into scholarships and other forms of support long after they’ve moved on from here.
We’re going to be there for them, Mitch. ”
“It’s a really good thing y’all are doing here. I’m glad to be part of it.”
“We’re happy to have you. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“It’s taco night,” he called over his shoulder as he continued toward the kitchen. “The kids will be happy. It’s their favorite.”
Maggie smiled. Happy, safe kids were what they were all about. Her cell phone rang, and she took the call from Jill. “Hey.”
“What’s up?” Jill asked.
“The usual chaos. You?”
“Wedding madness. I think Mom is more excited about this wedding than I am.”
“That’s absolutely not true.”
Jill laughed. “She and Andi are having too much fun planning it.” Their mom was working with Andi, who, as the manager of the Infinity Newport Hotel where the wedding would take place, was seeing to most of the details herself.
“Can a person have too much fun?”
“If they can, Mom is.”
“Well, good for her,” Maggie said. “Whatever she wants, right?”
“You said it.”
Ever since their mother had miraculously recovered from a three-year coma that doctors had once said was irreversible, her daughters had indulged her every whim. They were so damned happy to have Clare back in their lives, they didn’t care what she asked of them.
“I’m calling to remind you about the interview tomorrow.”
For a brief second, Maggie’s brain went completely blank as she stood in her office, facing the window that looked over the back side of the vast property. “Uh, what interview?”
“Maggie! Come on! You said you’d do it with us. We’re counting on you.”
The details came back to her all of a sudden, a sit-down with one of the local news shows with Kate and Jill.
Apparently, people were interested in how Kate Harrington had both her sisters working with her in Nashville, and Kate had agreed to the interview, provided they got it done before the baby arrived.
“Stand down, Counselor. I said I’d do it, and I will.
” Even if it would require hair and makeup before noon, something that rarely happened these days.
“They’re coming to Kate’s at ten tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there.”
“At nine, for hair and makeup.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ashton said you found someone for your therapeutic riding program?”
“I did. He’s starting today.”
“Congratulations, Maggie. You worked so hard to make that happen. I’m happy for you.”
As the baby sister of two insanely accomplished women, Maggie basked in the glow of her eldest sister’s praise. “Thanks. I’m excited about it.”