Chapter 10 Sam
SAM
Maggi is the perfect buffer. I didn’t know I was a foot guy, but the second my fingers were undoing Rosie’s sandal, I realized I was in big trouble.
I heard her breath catch, could feel the tension in her body without even touching her, and I panicked.
Suddenly helping her shed some stones from her footwear felt reckless, and as much as I enjoy a bit of recklessness now and again, I don’t want to be reckless with this woman. Least of all in front of her damn kid.
“Have you seen Nessie?” Maggi asks as we make our way toward the trees.
I shake my head, eyes flicking between her and the ground. The last thing I want is to trip and fall. I’ve already humiliated myself enough today.
“I have not. But I do look for her every time I come here, so maybe one day.”
“You can look with me and Papa,” she informs me as she stops and then leaps over a thick root. “We are going after the wedding.”
“Roo, Sam probably has plans,” Rosie says, stepping beside Maggi and taking her hand.
When I look over, she’s smiling at me apologetically. “Oh, well, I do have plans, but I appreciate the in—” My words halt as my toe catches a rock, and all my energy goes into catching my balance before I faceplant. “Shit! Shoot, I mean shoot.” I cringe, looking from Maggi to Rosie.
Maggi giggles into her stuffed Nessie before peeking up at her mother. “Mommy, he said that word,” she babbles through her laughter.
“He’s allowed to, Roo. Do you remember what we talked about the other day?”
Maggi’s head tips back as she thinks, Rosie somehow directing her over and around tripping hazards while her daughter’s eyes are skyward.
“Some words are big people words. Some words are small people words.”
Rosie’s eyes meet mine as she laughs. “Something like that.”
“Papa said lots of big people words today.”
“When?” Rosie asks, her eyebrows drawing inward.
Maggi jumps again, pulling her mother toward the ground as she lands in a deep squat. She doesn’t even flinch. I, on the other hand, unconsciously reach up and rub my shoulder .
“On the boat. He sai—” Rosie’s hand shoots out and covers her daughter’s mouth.
“We don’t need to repeat Papa’s words. Sometimes they don’t sound the same coming out of anyone else’s mouth.”
“Okay,” she squeaks, jumping again but this time releasing Rosie’s hand and taking off at a run down the path.
“Careful!” Rosie yells after her. “Aunt Sarah isn’t going to be happy if you hurt yourself.”
“I won’t!” she calls back, slowing to hop around various obstacles that dot the path.
Rosie sighs, and after checking that I’m not about to catch my foot on something, I glance over.
“I’m sorry about the big people word,” I say. “It has been a while since I was around a kid.”
She slips her hands into her pockets, her eyes meeting mine briefly before she looks back at Maggi. “Don’t be. I’m around kids all the time. Well, one kid. But I’ve never quite got my big people words under control. Between her grandfather and me, she’ll have quite the vocabulary one day.”
“Does her father—” I stop short, remembering who Maggi’s father is, or rather, was. I could blame jetlag for my lapse but it probably has more to do with this undeniable and awfully inconvenient infatuation I’ve developed for the stunning redhead walking next to me.
“Eric was as bad as his dad.” She groans.
“The Scots have a way with cursing, though. Half the time it was endearing rather than crass. If Maggi repeated most of the stuff they say at school, no one would even understand it.” She side-eyes me, her smile growing wider.
“She repeats everything her grandfather says with a thick Scottish brogue and a deep voice. It’s actually very funny. ”
I chuckle, wishing now that she’d allowed her to tell us exactly what he’d said on the boat earlier.
“It’s hard when you know something is going to be hilarious because you desperately want to hear it, but you also don’t want to encourage them. Because the second you laugh…that’s it, game over.”
“I bet,” I reply, slipping my hands in the pockets of my shorts as I keep pace with her. “So why Roo?” I ask, already knowing the answer as Maggi jumps over another rock. “Guessing it’s marsupial related?”
“You’d guess right,” she confirms just as Maggi leaves her feet again.
Silence stretches comfortably between us as Maggi begins to sing a song a few feet away. As I don’t spend any time with kids, I can’t be sure if it’s something well known or one she’s making up. Judging by the coincidence of what she passes being in the song, I’d wager she’s making it up.
“So…” Rosie says after a few minutes. “How’s the cottage?”
“Quiet.”
“I thou—”
“Mommy!” Maggi squeals, launching herself at Rosie, knocking her off balance when her body collides with her mother’s.
On instinct, I jump behind them, stopping the backward motion, my hands remaining on Rosie’s upper arms even when she has regained her balance.
Maggi, seemingly unbothered by the near tumble, climbs her mother like a koala. Wrapping her arms and legs tightly around her body.
Rosie steps out of my grasp, pulling her head back to look at Maggi. “Roo, you’ve gotta warn me before you do that. I could have fallen.”
Maggi’s face scrunches up, and she shrugs. “But you didn’t.” She looks over Rosie’s shoulder and smiles brightly at me.
“Well, no, but only because Sam was nice enough to stop me from falling on my butt,” she teases, dipping Maggi back, and laughing when Maggi giggles uncontrollably.
I don’t join in the laughter, but I also don’t stop the smile that hijacks my face. Only a monster would see a mom and her kid laughing like this and be able to appear grumpy.
“Do you hear that? It sounds like we’re about to discover the elusive Mags. Known in these parts for making unsuspecting hikers giggle until they pee their pants.”
I whirl around to see Rosie’s in-laws walking up the path and step farther away from her, my hands finding their way into my pockets again.
I can feel my face heat at how that probably looked.
Me standing behind her as she was bent over laughing with Maggi.
Me being inappropriate with their dead son’s wife and kid.
I hadn’t even been touching her, and yet I feel a wave of guilt so powerful I want to sink into the ground.