going to badmouth her husband to her best friend. After all, Maggie had introduced Annie and Steve. It wasn’t Maggie’s fault Annie got pregnant the first day she met Steve.
At the same time, Maggie thought of Johanna but didn’t say anything since Annie had enough on her mind. She’d tell Justin about this new wrinkle; Annie had lost her job. The dog might have to take a back seat to the family’s bigger issues.
They had coffee, and then Maggie looked at the wall clock in Annie’s kitchen. “I’ve got to get going. Poor Brulee’s been alone since before eleven.” It was nearly two. “I need to run next door and pick up a few things.”
“Making amends for the salty apple pie last night?”
“Ha! Yes. How embarrassing. Give me your info, and I’ll take care of the COBRA payment for your insurance, okay?”
Annie wrote down the information, handing it to her friend gratefully, and Maggie hugged her again before going down the staircase. “It’s all good. It makes me happy my ex-husband was a jackass.”
“Ha! Thank you, dear.”
In Spencer’s, Maggie picked up a bakery apple pie and the makings for meatloaf. She’d make it up to Justin for that pie if she had to do something special for him on a daily basis. The trip to the dock gave her a chance to process everything. Annie losing her job at this critical juncture was troubling. What could she do with a new baby on the way in Cypress Cove?
Gus was at the dock, helping a fisherman load his boat with ice. It was a bigger boat than Maggie was used to seeing, at least twenty feet long, with outrigging and giant motors.
“Hey, Gus,” she called, waving to him.
He waved back, and when the other boat slowly departed, he came to help her with her bags.
“What kind of pie?” he asked, peeking in the bag.
“Apple,” she said. “His favorite.”
“Did you get over to LeBlanc’s?”
“I did,” she answered, taking his hand to climb down the ladder.
“What did you think?” Gus asked, grinning.
“Interesting fellow.”
“Your eyes are twinkling,” he said, laughing out loud.
“I’ll say no more,” she replied. “I’ll see you later.”
“You surely will,” he said, saluting her as she took off from the dock in the bigger boat’s wake.
Now that she was on the water, she was in no hurry to get home, only Brulee was waiting. She decided once she unloaded her groceries, they’d get back in the skiff and take a ride.
Her mind was swirling, the animal rescue idea she’d gotten when she saw Ted LeBlanc’s travel trailer taking the forefront. How could she do something like that at Bayou Cottage? She envisioned a comfortable place where volunteers would care for animals in a homey atmosphere while they waited for adoption.
After toileting Brulee, she called Justin, but his phone went to voicemail. “I’m home and going to take off in the boat with Brulee. I’ll call when we get back. Love you.”
The different experiences she’d had that day had her revved up. When she was in the business world, different personalities came and went, and she didn’t flinch. Now, since she’d been at Bayou Cottage, her tolerance seemed to have diminished radically. Everyone had an opinion, and everyone wanted to voice it. Was it really that important?
They got into the skiff, and she angled it out to the right, opposite from town. The shore looked so inviting from the water. With the leaves off the trees, the cottages were exposed. They ranged from shanties and old bayou shacks to multimillion-dollar mansions with luxury boats in covered boathouses. The big houses left Maggie cold. She had no desire to have a larger, grander home.
After half an hour, she turned around and headed back to Bayou Cottage. But when she was still far enough away, she saw someone standing on her dock, watching. And as she got closer, but not too close, sliding down in her seat, she saw that it was Ted LeBlanc.
Chapter 3
Out on the road installing customers’ Wi-Fi dishes, Steve Casson couldn’t wait to get home. Since getting married, his life had taken on a new and peaceful routine. There was a woman waiting for him every night. He timed it so he was home after she was, even if it meant dragging his feet a little bit. He hated coming home to a dark apartment. After he installed timers on the lights at Annie’s request, it wasn’t the same. Needing people around him, it was why he continued to live