4. Maggie
FOUR
MAGGIE
I hadn’t considered that a princess-style gown could be used as a murder weapon until I tripped face-first into the world’s smallest closet, inhaling a mouthful of silky fabric.
If I ever went through with a wedding someday far off in the distant future, I vowed to choose a dress with less tulle. Maybe no tulle at all.
“You know how your sister is,” Mom said through the speakerphone resting on the nightstand, oblivious to the fact I was ten feet away from it and fighting for my life.
Not her fault, considering she had no clue I took the dress with me when I left Washington. I wasn’t about to tell her now. How could I explain packing a wedding dress my ex-mother-in-law-to-be accidentally destroyed?
The dress was beyond repair. No less than three seamstresses had made that abundantly clear.
Still, throwing it in the dumpster seemed .
. . wrong. And leaving it wadded up in the back of my Forester was definitely out of the question since Officer McGrumpy went all judgmental detective at the sight of it.
A shiver zipped through my body, and I silently cursed. The tall, built-like-a-linebacker pain-in-the-ass man would be annoyingly attractive. The kind of attractive that prompted a sane woman to make stupid and irrational decisions.
Thankfully, that hypercritical gleam in his light blue eyes when he caught sight of the wedding dress was better than a bucket of cold ice water.
I bet the lug already had my entire story decided, and none of it would be accurate.
But Luke Mason didn’t seem the type to care about the truth, and that made it easier to dislike him.
For now, the dress was best stashed away in the closet of the smaller bedroom I planned to use for storage during my stay. Out of sight, out of mind.
Or so I hoped.
I’d decide what to do with the garment before I left Bluebell Springs, almost a month from now. No way I could bring it back to Michigan with me. I wouldn’t allow Mom or Violet to see what had become of it. It would break their hearts.
But first, I had to get the damn closet door to close. Who knew tulle expanded like spray foam when stuffed into tight spaces? It should really come with a warning label.
“Maggie, are you there?” Mom asked as I shoved my hands against the wall at the back of the closet, palms slipping on silk as I scrambled for purchase. “Are you driving through a dead spot?” The pitch and panic rose in her voice. “Are you in the mountains? Hello? Maggie? Maggie?”
“I’m not driving,” I called back once I managed to wrestle free of the suffocating fabric.
Ironic, considering who I almost married.
If I was ever brave enough—or stupid enough, really—to consider marriage again someday far, far away, I’d wear something comfortable and loose. Hell, maybe I’d wear pants.
“You’re there, then?” Mom said, a mixture of relief and resignation in her tone as I tugged the rolling closet door closed by the glass knob. It caught in the track, of course, so I yanked harder. “In Colorado?”
The knob dropped to the hardwood floor and cracked in two.
Dammit.
“What was that? Maggie? Are you okay?”
“I just broke a knob,” I called back, collecting the pieces. “Mom, you really have to calm down. I survived four years in the Army—one of those in a warzone.”
“I know, I know.”
“I can handle a few weeks in a small town. I already made friends with one of my neighbors.”
“How long have you been there?” Mom asked, suspicious.
I stared at the broken glass knob in my palm, making a silent vow to hide the evidence until I could replace it. Hopefully, Officer McGrumpy would be none the wiser. He’d probably blame my dog.
“You were supposed to call me when you got into town,” Mom reminded me. “You said you would.”
Ellie let out a heavy sigh from her perch on the queen-sized bed, as though annoyed she couldn’t offer my mom a sock through the phone.
Or maybe she was just bored with my pitiful attempts to strong-arm the gown into the guest room closet that had taken entirely too much time away from more important things. Like naps.
A yawn escaped at the inviting thought. Exhaustion went clear into my bones.
Ellie’d already eaten. So, as soon as we picked up some groceries and grabbed a late dinner, I was giving myself permission to go to bed early.
Maybe I’d sleep until Monday. How long had it been since I allowed myself to simply relax?
“Maggie?”
“Yes, sorry.” I shook out of my exhausted daze long enough to return to our conversation. “I meant to call sooner.”
But I nearly peed myself right before facing off with Officer McGrumpy.
I almost liked the guy. And for some reason, that irritated me. It wasn’t just his attitude about the dress. It was Ellie too.
How could anyone justify liking a person—unfairly hot male or otherwise—who had it out for my dog?
She was literally the sweetest thing in existence.
She’d find something like destroying doors with her teeth way too much effort, not to mention completely beneath her.
Hopefully, their brief meeting earlier satisfied him enough to let us be for the few weeks we were here.
Somehow, though, I doubted it.
“Did you run into any trouble finding the place?” Mom asked, as though fishing for the reason I didn’t immediately respond to her earlier text.
“It was pretty easy to navigate. The town’s really small and ridiculously charming,” I said, recalling the most adorable Main Street in existence as we drove through to reach the condo.
I couldn’t wait to leisurely stroll the streets, discovering all the cute shops and restaurants.
“There was a delay with the access code, and then I had to get unpacked. We’re settled now. ”
“You’re sure this is what you want to do?”
Concern edged Mom’s tone, not for the first time since I announced a slight detour on my way back to Michigan.
She meant well, but I’d endured enough of people hovering over me for a while.
It was why I’d deleted all my social media accounts.
And also why I wasn’t in a hurry to make the trek back to Lansing.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“You could stay here while you’re waiting for your sister to get back. I can move my craft stuff into the guest room if you want to sleep in your old room. If you got on the road in the morning, I’d have plenty of time—”
“No, Mom. I’m staying here for a while.”
At the brief mention of my sister, I made a mental note to check my video messaging app for an update.
When I called off the wedding, I dreaded telling Violet the most. She and her hubby had taken time off work to drive since she was too pregnant to fly, and booked their hotel on one of those non-refundable discount sites.
But my baby sister was nothing if not persistent.
Not only did she refuse my offer to repay her, she managed to get a full refund for her hotel in Lakewood.
Then, she and her hubby decided since they’d already scheduled the time off, they’d use it to take a family road trip before baby number three arrived.
I’d lost track of where they were today. The Black Hills? Jackson Hole? I was about to ask Mom, but she spoke first.
“Maggie, you know you can come home, right?”
“I am coming home,” I countered, despite how home never really felt like home.
I’d yet to find anywhere that truly did.
It’s why I kept roaming, I suspected. Why nothing ever stuck for long—college, the Army, the military-adjacent jobs.
In the past fifteen years, I’d moved no less than eight times. Nine if I counted the TDY in Hawaii.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” I wasn’t, really. But considering I called off my wedding two weeks out from walking down the aisle, I was allowed to feel some type of way.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I just need some time to take a breath and recalibrate before I face everyone.
” Because of course one couldn’t call off their wedding and expect a well-meaning but overbearing family not to constantly remind them.
“Plus, Bluebell Springs is possibly the cutest little mountain town I’ve ever seen. This is what I need right now.”
After a few hesitant seconds, Mom asked, “You’ll send pictures?”
“Yes, I’ll send pictures.” I lifted the phone and snapped one of Ellie. She looked up at me as though to say Really, Mom? before rolling onto her side and stretching out for the nap she’d been wanting all along.
“I thought you said your rental host was giving you grief over bringing Ellie,” Mom said after the photo delivered. “Guess you two worked something out if she’s allowed on the bed.”
“Well, he didn’t kick us out,” I mumbled.
“What’s that?”
“Everything worked out.” For now. Just as another yawn assaulted me, a notification from my video messaging app popped up, alerting me to Violet’s latest send. “I think we’re going to find a bite to eat,” I said, stretching out beside Ellie instead. “Can I call you tomorrow?”
“Of course,” Mom said.
“Love you, Mom.”
“Love you more.”
I ended the call and settled in next to Ellie. She looked back at me from the pillow she’d perched her head on.
“She means well,” I said, nestling in beside her, her back pushed against my side, and rested my head against a puffy pillow—hey, at least Officer McGrumpy got something right—to watch Violet’s latest video message.
“Hey, Noles!” Violet waved at me from the screen. “Today we’re in Casey—”
“Is that a Polo for Auntie Maggie?” The camera jerked suddenly, and my four-year-old nephew came into view.
I smiled, adoring the way he shorted Marco Polo.
“Hey, Ollie,” I murmured. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see me.
It was a prerecorded message. But talking to the littles was one of my favorite things.
My nephews were the only thing that could make me feel any sort of homesick.
In a month, I’d get to spend several weeks with them while Violet and her hubby focused on their newborn.
“It’s a big chair!” Ollie announced as the camera flipped around and a gigantic rocking chair came into view. My brother-in-law was lifting Ollie’s three-year-old brother Carson onto the seat.
“What’s special about it?” Violet asked Ollie.
“It’s the biggest!”
“The biggest what?”
“Chair.”
“What kind of chair?”
“A rock chair.”
“Rocking chair,” Violet offered.
“Yeah! Rocking chair! Mom, can I go sit on it, too?” Ollie begged.
“Go ahead, buddy,” Violet said, bringing the camera back to her face. Her blue eyes that matched mine were hidden behind an oversized pair of sunglasses, but I saw the exhaustion through the lenses. “So, as you might guess, we’re a little behind schedule. Who’s surprised? No one.”
As Violet rambled on about the mundane details of their travel day, my eyelids felt suddenly heavy.
Ellie was already softly snoring beside me.
I set the phone on a pillow and listened as Violet yammered on.
I’d get groceries later, I decided as gravity nudged my eyelids to fall. After a quick cat nap.