Chapter Fourteen #2
“Okay, everyone, wasn’t that just fabulous?
” Sarah announced, coming out onto the stage with the teams. “We’re going to take a quick break, allow everyone to grab some snacks that are set up in the community room, and then we’ll be back to announce the winner of tonight’s event and the overall winner of Pine Hill’s first Grandma Games. ”
Walker turned in his score sheet, then without looking toward Maggie, walked away.
He’d fulfilled his obligations and had had enough.
*
Handing Sarah her scores, Maggie took a deep breath, watched Walker leave the room, and fought the million emotions assailing her. Did she give him space or go after him? Was there any point in explaining when she’d just be leaving again?
“He’s headed to the nursery,” Sarah helpfully supplied. “Annabelle’s watching Zoie there.”
“He’s upset with me.”
“You left without telling him you were leaving,” Sarah reminded.
“Everything happened fast. I explained that to you when I called.”
Sarah gave her an empathetic look. “I’m not the one you need to explain things to.”
“You think I should go after him?”
Sarah shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I think, Maggie. The question is what do you think you need to do?”
Meeting her friend’s eyes, Maggie nodded, then took off after Walker. Rushing past several who wanted to stop her to chat; she caught him just as he was reaching for the nursery’s door.
“Walker, wait.”
He didn’t open the door, but didn’t turn toward her, either.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to explain before I left.” Ugh. She hated that there were people out here in the foyer. No one seemed to be paying them much attention, but she was so self-conscious that anyone could hear them.
“You don’t owe me any explanations. I knew you were leaving.”
He was upset and rightly so. “I don’t. I’d like to give you one, anyway.”
Turning toward her, he crossed his arms and waited. “Okay, talk.”
Glancing around the crowded foyer, she asked, “Could we go sit in a classroom somewhere? Or even the stairwell?”
“Whatever, we’ll have to make it quick. I’m ready to get Zoie home.”
Oh yeah, he was upset and determined to shut her out.
Not sure where to go or if he’d follow, Maggie grabbed his hand and led him toward a quiet hallway.
She passed the first few doors, then ducked into one without turning on the lights as she didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they were in there, should someone come down the hallway.
Apparently, it served as an adult classroom and housed old wooden pews that were lined up facing the front of the room.
Closing the door behind them, Maggie practically pushed him onto the bench, then sat down beside him.
“I have no recall of ever being to church prior to the day I sat next to you,” Maggie began.
“I know you need me to be quick, but I have things I need to say and that I need you to hear. My mother had addiction issues. If she knew who my father was, she never said. Most of my life, even before she died, I bounced back and forth between foster homes. I was in my late teens when she passed, freeing me to be adopted. But I wasn’t a cute kid or a particularly good one, so not surprisingly, no adoption happened. ”
Having to remind herself why she was telling him her greatest vulnerabilities when he just sat there staring into the darkness, Maggie took a deep breath, then pressed onward.
“Joining the military was my way out of following in my mother’s footsteps.
I’d never flown until I was sent to basic training.
I absolutely loved it. I aced training and AIT and immediately went into flight training.
Planes or helicopters didn’t matter. I just wanted to fly.
I was a natural and felt happier than I ever had the first time I went up in a Chinook.
I met William in the Middle East during a Nighthawk mission to extract trapped soldiers.
It was probably our high adrenaline, but after that, we became a couple.
Being in the military, there were times we didn’t see each other for months, but that didn’t matter so much because we were doing what we both loved.
For me that was flying. For him, the end goal was DC. ”
Walker still sat in complete silence, looking toward the front of the dim classroom lit only by the light coming in through the door’s window.
“No one had ever cared about me until William. I thought I was the luckiest girl alive because I got to fly and be engaged to this handsome up-and-coming major. I thought that right up until, during a training exercise outside of Ain Al Asad Air Base, I lost control of the helicopter and woke up in the hospital a week later. I was the only survivor.” Knowing her colleagues had died would always weigh heavy on her heart.
“I lost everything that day. I’ve already told you how I didn’t want to live because why should I when others had died at my hand?
There’s more than what I can share”—like an experimental computer program that overrode her panels to give control of the Blackhawk to a remote location—“but I’ve hope I’ll get my wings back. That’s why William came here.”
Because he’d written an anonymous letter to Lukas Kincaid when he’d gotten wind that Maggie’s crash might not have been her fault. Not able to dig without putting his neck further on the line, he’d turned to iSecure.
“To help you get your wings back?”
“Yes. I’m not privy to who or what was said, but after the crash, pressure was put on him to stay away from me.”
“He was protecting you?”
Mainly himself but… “Yes.”
Next to her, Walker’s tension was palpable. “Congratulations.”
“We’re not together.”
“But you will be?”
Maggie shook her head. “No.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Do you mean that?” Throat tightening, Maggie frowned.
Walker had never been so … so distant with her.
She’d thought that when she explained he’d …
what? What was it she expected him to do?
Pick up where they’d left off earlier that week?
Pick up where her future wasn’t overshadowed by a dark cloud?
And for what purpose when she would be leaving again?
Maybe she shouldn’t have even come back, but she’d felt obligated to finish the Grandma Games and to explain to Walker.
“Sure. Why not?” His shoulder brushed against hers as he shrugged, then stood to leave. “Everyone deserves to be happy, Maggie.”
*
“So, what’s this I hear about you, and the blond working for the Harveys?”
Leaning back in the fire department’s recliner where he’d been reading a book on successful parenting, Walker groaned. “Seriously? You just got back in town yesterday and you already know about that?”
“Hey, don’t look at me.” Ben held up his hands from the laptop keyboard where he’d been doing a training module. “I didn’t tell him a thing.”
“Because he doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he’s dating Amy.” Andrew grinned, giving Ben a pointed look, then cutting his gaze back to Walker. “To be fair, you did mention Maggie several times when we talked on the phone a few weeks ago.”
That had been before he realized how foolish he’d been to think that she would decide to stay in Pine Hill.
His friend had arrived in Pine Hill that week to spend Christmas with his family.
He’d done more than arrived. He’d announced that he, Morgan, and their two children were moving to Pine Hill.
Apparently, Chief had contacted him to say he planned to retire in the new year, and suggested Andrew apply for the position.
Although his buddy loved fighting wildfires, he loved the idea of raising his children in Pine Hill more.
Walker couldn’t think of many firefighters he respected more than the man he’d gone to hotshot school with.
“When’s your interview?” Walker asked, hoping to change the subject.
“First week in January. Now, tell me why my grandma suggested I talk to you about Maggie.”
“Blasted Butterflies,” he mumbled loud enough for all to hear. “Ruby shouldn’t have done that.”
“She and Maybelle are worried about you.”
Amy said the same thing. “I’m fine.”
Andrew studied him. “You don’t look fine.”
“Nah, he’s okay. You’ve just forgotten that he’s always this ugly,” Ben supplied, glancing up from his laptop again.
From where he worked on his crossword puzzle, Cole snickered.
“I had a momentary lapse of judgment that won’t happen again. My focus from this point out is going to be what it should have been all along—just on Zoie.”
Andrew didn’t appear to agree. “Then what?”
“What do you mean, then what?”
His pal sat down next to him and gave him a hard stare. “I mean, eventually your daughter will grow up and you’re going to be all alone.”
“There are advantages to being alone.”
Andrew didn’t so much as blink. “Such as?”
Not having one’s heart broken.
“Can we talk about something other than my personal life.”
“I can help with that.” Ben closed his laptop and turned to face Walker. “I take back what I said about you being ugly. You are one handsome dude.” All three men stared at him, waiting to see where his compliment was going. “And, on that note, I’d like your permission to ask Amy to marry me.”
Walker’s jaw dropped. “Seriously? You’ve only been dating a month.”
Standing, Ben shrugged. “When you know you know.”
“And with Amy you know?”
Ben’s chest puffed out. “She’s the one.”
Cole reached over and slapped Ben on the arm. “Congratulations, man.”
“About time some lucky girl won your heart.” Andrew shook his hand, pulling him in for a bro hug.
Ben’s gaze stayed on Walker. Not some lucky girl, but Walker’s little sister.
Staring at his friend, who was waiting anxiously for his approval, Walker sighed.
He couldn’t say no. Not when Amy was the happiest he’d ever seen her.
His concern had been that Ben would move on.
His buddy was proving that wasn’t the case because throughout his dating history Ben had never proposed.