Chapter Twelve #2
The reality was that her head was so messed up that she was probably as in need of Bed for Vets as most of the veterans who’d come to Hamilton House.
Well, except that she’d hit her rock bottom months ago and had already started turning her life around.
She had a new job, a new life. Things weren’t ideal.
Even if she was proven not at fault, there would be those in high places who would never forget what she’d done.
But she had been given a second chance that she wouldn’t blow.
With Lukas’s help, she would fly again. She had to believe that.
Walker gave her an odd look, then caught her by surprise by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her down. She plopped into the fluffy white coldness.
“Walker? What are you doing?” She could have stopped him, could have hurt him, even with his fast movement. Why hadn’t she? Why hadn’t her training kicked in to prevent him from toppling them into the snow next to where Zoie patted her gloved little hands into the accumulating fluff.
Because Maggie trusted him, innately knowing that he wouldn’t hurt her. Innately knowing that Walker was a good, honorable man. Innately knowing that she could never intentionally hurt him.
“Just knocking you off your feet for a little while longer, princess.” His arms were still around her waist. Rather than struggling to right herself, Maggie lay against him in shock.
It had been a long time since a man’s arms had been around her. It wasn’t something that she’d have said she wanted, but Walker’s arms around her felt … good. Safe.
Which wasn’t safe at all.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Before he realized what she was doing, Maggie scooped a fistful of snow and smushed it into his face. “Gotcha.”
Sputtering, he laughed as he wiped his hand across his face to brush away lingering snow. “Guess I deserved that.”
“You definitely deserved that. Just so you know, Prince Not So Charming, you’re supposed to sweep a woman off her feet, not knock her off her feet.”
Looking at her with eyes so molten that they warmed her insides as surely as if she stood by the Harvey’s big fireplace, he grinned. “I have no regrets.”
Maggie had enough for both of them. Standing, she brushed the snow off her backside. “Good thing your daughter is here to keep me from changing your mind about that.”
Still sitting in the snow, Zoie next to him, Walker’s gaze held Maggie’s. “Good thing half of Pine Hill is here to keep me from trying to change yours about a lot of things.”
She wanted to ask what he meant, but perhaps deep down she knew, and that was what held her tongue.
He stood, brushed the snow off his clothes, then picked up Zoie, and kissed the baby’s pink cheek. “Come on, sweet girl. Enough snow for you.” Then to Maggie, he said, “Let’s take her inside. We’ll get warmed up with cocoa before we build the greatest snowman Pine Hill has ever seen.”
*
Walker couldn’t say his and Maggie’s snowman was truly the greatest one to ever be built in Pine Hill, but he could say it had to be close.
That his sister and Ben joined in hadn’t even dampened his mood.
Which was saying something since the couple couldn’t quit making googly eyes at each other.
Then again, how could he complain about that when he was doing the same with Maggie?
Not that he could say how she looked at him was with googly eyes.
A more accurate statement would be that she looked at him with curious eyes.
Had she known how much he’d wanted to kiss her when he’d pulled her into the snow, softening the fall by having her land upon him?
He’d wanted the rest of the world to fade away, and it be just him, Maggie, and Zoie there.
What if it had been? He wouldn’t have kissed her when Maggie said she wasn’t interested, when he knew she was leaving.
She was leaving. She’d reminded him moments before, triggering his desire to do something, anything, to let out his desire to keep her there.
She wouldn’t stay. He’d seen that truth on her face. It was a reality that he obviously refused to acknowledge.
Walker placed an old black felt hat on top of the snowman. “Our snowman would have been sad looking if not for the Butterflies having brought those totes of items for everyone to choose from. I hadn’t thought to bring anything to decorate this guy with.”
Once they’d gotten started, Maggie had been all in on building their snowman. “According to Sarah, all the scarfs, hats, and the like were things left from Rosie’s wedding. I’d thought Sarah meant for photobooth props, but apparently there was actual snowman building at the wedding reception.”
“That must have been some wedding,” he mused.
“Must have been.” Maggie looked his way and shocked him by asking, “What was your wedding like?”
“Big and flashy and nothing like what I’d ever imagined his wedding would be like,” Amy answered before Walker could. “That Linda wanted all that fuss, should have been his first clue.”
Amy was wrong. What Walker had always imagined was giving his bride the wedding of her dreams. The marriage was what had been unlike what he’d imagined.
“There’s nothing wrong with a woman wanting a big fuss at her wedding. It’s her day and should be everything she’s dreamed of, including having a big fuss made over her.”
“I’m going to remind you of that at my wedding,” Amy promised.
All eyes shot to her.
Her cheeks turned red. “Not that that will be any time in the near future.”
Ben shrugged. “That’s the thing about the future, it’s unpredictable. Anything can happen.”
Walker frowned. Amy gave Ben another googly-eyed look to which his coworker googly-eyed back. Walker’s whole body tensed. He liked Ben. They’d called a truce, but making her think there was a chance of—
“Ben’s right.” Maggie placed her hand on his arm. “Anything can happen. Look at me, building a snowman when a year ago I—” She stopped, as if she realized she was saying too much. “When I’d never built a snowman.”
They all knew it wasn’t what she’d been going to say. But as she’d likely meant, she’d defused the tension.
Ben cleared his throat. “Now that this guy is finished, Amy and I are going to sled. Cole and Sophie headed that way a few minutes ago with Isabelle and Zach. Do you want to join us?”
Walker shook his head. He needed a break from Ben with his sister. “I’m going to check on Zoie. Maggie?”
“Maggie, do you want to sled?” Amy asked. “It’s been years since I’ve done so. I remember it being a blast. Do you remember that time we went with Mom and Dad, Walker? That was such a fun day.”
It had been a great day and memory with their parents.
“I may join you but am going inside with Walker for a few minutes first to make sure Sarah doesn’t need anything. She went inside not long ago and hasn’t come back out yet.”
Maggie never strayed far from Sarah. Whether that was something to do with the Beds for Vets program and Sarah serving as a security blanket of sorts or if it was just a coincidence, Walker couldn’t decide.
Nodding, Amy slipped her gloved hand into Ben’s outstretched one and the two took off in the direction of where the others were sledding a half mile or so down the road.
There had been several four-wheelers and side-by-sides going up and down the road, but the couple waved them on, seeming content to walk hand in hand.
“I can’t decide if I’m upset, happy for them, or jealous,” Walker admitted as he and Maggie walked toward the barn.
“Jealous?”
Stopping, he glanced toward Maggie. “If I held your hand, would you smile at me the way Amy smiled at Ben?”
Her eyes widened. “No.”
“Exactly.”
“Walker, I—”
“It’s okay. I know you don’t want me to be attracted to you and that even if you did want that, you’re leaving. That’s what I remind myself of when my every gut instinct is that you feel the same spark as I do.”
A snowflake landed on her cheek. Lashes lowering, she brushed it off. “My life is complicated.”
“Whose isn’t? I’m a divorced single dad before I’m thirty.”
“That doesn’t seem so complicated in comparison.”
“Explain?”
Glancing at the lit barn that they’d almost reached, Maggie sighed. “Check on Zoie, Walker.”
“Will you talk to me when I’ve done so?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “We can talk. Unless Sarah needs me.”
Staring at her a moment, he brushed another fallen snowflake from her face.
“Okay, princess. Let’s check on Zoie, then, if Sarah doesn’t need you, we’ll find a quiet spot so you can explain to me what is so complicated about your life.
Perhaps talking about it will make you realize it isn’t that complicated, after all. ”
Next to him Maggie shivered. “I wouldn’t count on that if I were you.”
*
Sarah didn’t need Maggie. Not really. Or maybe she did, because her friend looked stressed at the two women giving each other a stare down. When Maggie and Walker had gone into the room that was used as a playroom, Rosie and Janie B had been in a glaring competition.
“You tried to steal Max,” Rosie accused, her hands going to her hips.
“I did not try to steal Max,” Janie B countered, shushing Rosie at her raised voice as Zoie was asleep in a crib. “If I had wanted Max, he would have been my husband instead of yours. I chose Floyd.”
Rosie’s fists went to her hips. “Max would not have been your husband. You take that back, Janie B Henry.”
The other woman sighed. “Okay, fine, I take it back. I’m sure Max learned to love you or he wouldn’t have married you. Well, unless he had to. Tell me again, how long after you were married before your son was born?”
Rosie’s jaw dropped. “I was not a compromised woman. I was the love of Max’s life; God rest his soul. You were just the prequel to the real thing.”
Normally sweet as sugar, Janie B waved her hand dismissively. “Keep telling yourself that, but you and I know the truth. It wasn’t until after I married Floyd that Max consoled himself by proposing to you.”