Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,22

going to miss him when he leaves for Boston. He’s my star player,” Buck said. She was more interested in his education than a future in the NHL.

“I’m going to miss him too,” she said sadly. Buck had been very kind to him in the three months since Brad had died. He had mentored him all through high school, but had stepped it up when Brad died and tried to be almost a father figure to Aden. He had dropped in on him at home to check on him from time to time, which Maggie appreciated. There were no other adult men in his life now. “The house is going to be like a tomb without him,” she admitted.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it. Enjoy the next five months before he leaves, and then I have to find something to do. I can’t sit around here all day.” She had been thinking about it a lot, and hadn’t come up with any ideas. She didn’t even have her twice-a-week job at Brad’s firm anymore. She didn’t want to intrude on Phil, since he was buying the business, and he didn’t really need her. She had just done it to be close to Brad, once Aden was in school.

Buck chatted about the subject awkwardly for a while, and then looked at her and spat it out. “I’d love to take you out to dinner sometime. You’re a wonderful woman.” He had been divorced for years and his kids were grown. His whole life was the school and the coaching he did. He was kind of gruff, a little rough around the edges, and he was great with the kids, but he held no appeal for her. She couldn’t see herself with a high school hockey coach, going to games every weekend. She was ready for that time in her life to end. Brad had agreed to travel to please her, and they had both liked the theater and ballet. They went to Chicago for it. She wondered if this was what she had to look forward to now, dating the high school coach. The prospect didn’t cheer her. She turned him down as gently as she could, and he looked disappointed when he left. She told him she wasn’t dating and wouldn’t be ready to for a long time.

Brad’s lawyer tried the same thing when Maggie met with him. He’d been divorced twice and was something of a ladies’ man, or thought he was. He was sixty years old, and Maggie was shocked when he asked her to dinner with a clear innuendo in his tone, and the look in his eyes made her skin crawl. She had always liked him until then, and decided to change lawyers as soon as possible. Helen recommended a friend, a younger woman at a local firm. Maggie met with her and hired her. She had no interest whatsoever in dating, and certainly not the dregs of what was available, either slimy men or lonely ones, who didn’t measure up to Brad and didn’t appeal to her.

She thanked Helen for the recommendation when they had lunch. They had gotten close since Brad’s death. Her son had been accepted at Yale, and would be playing hockey too, but hadn’t applied for a scholarship. They didn’t qualify, and he wasn’t a strong enough player to get one. Aden didn’t need a scholarship now either, although he didn’t know it. Phil Abrams and her lawyers were the only ones who did, and she intended to keep it that way. She had no desire to show off. On the contrary, she was extremely discreet. Aden’s scholarship was based on his talent, and the schools he applied to offered it as a lure to get him to come to their institution and play on their team. It was not based on his parents’ financial need or she would have felt obliged to decline it in their new circumstances, and would have had to explain it to Aden. She was glad she didn’t have to.

“Wait till the married guys start hitting on you,” Helen said with a wry smile, and Maggie groaned.

“Is that all that’s left out there now for women like us? Married guys and creeps?” she asked with a look of disgust. “I don’t want to date, and maybe I never will. But if I did, it’s slim pickings. Who do people go out with at our age?”