“Exactly.”
Holden’s truck barely enters the driveway before Maggie comes into view, rushing out of the barn, dropping buckets of flowers on the way. I’m bouncing in my seat, and she’s bouncing on her feet, and I’m so eager to get out and greet her that it takes three tries for me to even open the door. The minute I’m out of the truck, our bodies collide, and our laughter does the same.
We’re jumping, hugging each other, and laughing like childhood friends who haven’t seen each other in years. We spent a week together.
Two weeks apart.
And, yeah, it might be ridiculous, but I’m pretty sure I’m in love with the woman. “Wait!” she snaps, pushing me away.
I openly pout.
“You ghosted me, Jamie.”
“I’m sorry!” I whine. “I just thought it would be easier if—”
I’m in her arms again before I can even finish, and it feels… it feels like home.
“Miss Jamie!” Big H calls, walking toward us with his arms outstretched. He wraps both his girlfriend and me in his arms, and I find myself giggling. “Thank God you’re back. You almost wrecked my Maggie Mags.”
We pull apart at the same time Maggie asks, “How long can you stay for?”
“You think I’m crazy enough to let her go again?” Holden says from behind me. I turn, noticing him watching us with emotion in his eyes I can’t decipher. He stops beside me, says, “I have something I’ve got to do. Are you good here?”
I frown. “You want me to come with you?”
“Nah.” He shakes his head. “You stay. Spend some time with Mags.”
Maggie makes a sound that I can only describe as eek and claps. “I’ll take good care of her,” she says, marking a cross over her heart. “I promise.”
Ten minutes later, Maggie’s holding my arm as I rollerblade through the greenhouse. “You’re really bad at this,” she says through a giggle.
“I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong,” I laugh out. “I’ve spent hours watching videos, and it looks so easy.”
“You’ll get it!” Big H encourages, pushing a flatbed dolly with large ceramic pots. He’s been working while I’ve stolen Maggie and Holden is doing God knows what.
“Should you be working?” I whisper. “I feel bad for distracting you.”
“Pshh.” She waves a hand in the air, dismissing the thought. “Honestly, I don’t even know what I do all day. I just like to be around my fucking hunk of man-meat.”
“Maggie!” I laugh out, almost losing my balance. I take baby steps—rolls?—toward the bench overlooking the water fountain and sit my ass down.
Maggie sits down beside me and nudges my side. “I’m glad you’re back, Jamie. I missed you, And Holden—God, he was a mess when you left.”
“Did he tell you what happened?” I ask, loosening the straps of the rollerblades.
“About you going to him the morning you left and unloading your feelings and that Britney girl was there?”
My head snaps up, eyes on hers. “You mean Brianna?”
“Whatever,” she says, rolling her eyes. “She wasn’t the one for him, so her name is irrelevant.”
“You think I’m the one for him?”
She shrugs. “I mean, I think you’re the one for me, so it doesn’t matter what he feels.” She stares ahead, saying, “You’re staying, right? At least for a little while?”
I nod, even though she can’t see it. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. Because I wasn’t kidding about Holden. He really was a mess. I’d never seen him like that. Even during the summer after you left the first time.” Her eyes meet mine. “Have you told him yet?”
I shake my head. “He says it won’t change anything, so…”
She watches me a moment, working her bottom lip, and I know what she’s thinking because I’m thinking it too. Eventually, it has to come out, and when it does…
“Maggie,” I start, slipping the rollerblades off. I bring my knees up, hug them to my chest. “Do you know about how Holden’s grandma used to take him to this spot in the garden and watch the sunrise?”
“Yeah, she used to do the same with Big H when he was little.”
I smile, trying to picture Big H as Little H. “Holden took me there the night before I left, and he told me about the gates of Heaven…”
“How you can ask God one thing?” she asks, leaning back on the bench and turning to me. “Did Holden ask you what your one thing would be?”
With a nod, I answer, “Yeah. I told him that I’d ask God if He knew my mother. I guess it was my way of asking if her soul was good or bad.”
Maggie smiles, but it’s sad. “Oh, honey…”
I hug my knees tighter, rest my chin on them. “But I take it back now.”
“Yeah?” she asks. “What would your one thing be now?”
“I’d ask him who my mother was… you know, before her disease took over. Not because I think it would change my opinion of her. I just… I want to know who she was so that maybe I can know who she could’ve been.” Emotion clogs my throat, and I swallow it down. “Because if I had my wish…” I say, tilting my head slightly so I can face her, “I wish that she was just like you.”
Maggie’s eyes fill with tears, but she blinks them away, keeps them on mine.
“I wish she had your sense of humor, your wit. But most of all, I wish she had your heart and your willingness to accept everyone just as they are…”
“Jamie…” Maggie cries, wiping at her tears.
“Because I think if she had all those things, I would’ve grown up pretty damn happy…”
“Dad just sent me a text, says you broke Maggie again!” Holden calls from where I assume is his bed.
We’d left the main house over an hour ago after having dinner with Big H and Mags. Then we went to my garden and lay on a blanket until it got too dark to stay out. Afterward, we came back here, where I stripped the bedsheets and replaced them just to be safe.
Now, I look toward the closed bathroom door while I finish drying myself. I’d left it cracked open just in case Holden wanted to come in and... you know. When I got out of the shower, the door was closed. “I didn’t mean to!” I yell back. “I was just being honest.”
He doesn’t respond, and I dress quickly, open the door.
Holden’s sitting up in bed, his back against the wall, the blankets pulled up to his waist. In front of him sits a brown paper bag. I freeze mid-movement and look from him to the bag. Again and again. “What is that?”
“It’s a gift,” he says.
“Holden, you need to stop—”
“Just open it,” he interrupts, rolling his eyes.
I’m not going to lie; I’m giddy with excitement, and I couldn’t hide it even if I tried. I rush to the bed and scoot over on my knees until I’m sitting in front of him, the bag between us. “I’m serious, though. You don’t need to keep buying me things.”