Bayou Christmas (Cypress Cove #2) - Suzanne Jenkins Page 0,21
head when she stood. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, she always regretted drinking alone. There was no barometer but the empty bottle.
“Come on, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”
Brulee took the lead down the stairway and a straight shot to the front door.
“Will you be satisfied with your little yard? I’ll take you for a long walk later.”
The small fenced-off area off the front porch would keep Brulee safe from the urge to chase rabbits and get into trouble but provide grass for her morning constitutional. Maggie turned the coffee pot on and went into the bathroom. “Ugh.” Her reflection told a myriad of stories, too much vino being one of them, and the failure to remove makeup indicated by the smudges under her eyes the other.
She washed her face and poured coffee and kibble and returned to the porch, where Brulee waited for breakfast. In companionable silence, they’d have their morning sustenance. To be ready for any possible Skype or Facetime business calls, she’d shower and do her makeup. But she really just wanted to sit on her porch au naturel and get lost in a good book. While Brulee ate, Maggie got her phone and saw that she’d missed calls from Annie and Justin.
“Hey, it’s Justin. Call me when you get up.”
And from Annie, “Thank you for being my friend.”
She looked at the time; it was too early to call Annie, but Justin would be up, getting ready for work.
“Are you having coffee?” she asked when he answered the phone.
“Just pouring some. What’d you do last night?”
“I’m sorry I missed your call. I was out here on the porch until about one, googling everything I could about non-profits. I have a lot to learn. To start a nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, I have to fill out a bunch of IRS forms with a tax attorney. Then it will take about three months, so I’m glad I’m starting early.”
“You’ll do it.”
“It’ll give me time to search for a trailer. You interested?”
“Oh yeah. I love this sort of thing.”
“What’d you do last night?” she asked.
“Do you really want to know?”
“I think so.”
“I went by Ted’s. He apologized. I told him to stay away from you and to get some help. I told him I was going to talk to Dave if he gave you any more trouble.”
“What’d he say?”
“The usual, begging me not to get Dave involved. I’m tempted to contact his parents.”
“What could they do?”
“They have a big influence on him. He’s like me in that we inherited our businesses from our parents. His father was a veterinarian, too.”
“I had no idea. Kelly said his parents are snobs.”
“They are kind of patrician. But the Cassons aren’t exactly riffraff.”
“She said it could be her kid.”
“Oh, right, like having a baby out of wedlock is unheard of in Cypress Cove. Ha! But they lived on the right side of the railroad tracks. And Ted went to the private school in town.”
“So you’re saying there was competition from way back.”
“Oh yeah, from way back. When the two high schools used to have football games, we would kick their asses just for the hell of it. I mean literally kicking their asses. Not just winning the games.”
He burst out laughing, guffawing through the phone.
“So there still might be some animosity between you and Ted from high school days?” she asked, flaring her nostrils. Men were odd creatures, that’s all there was to it.
“There might be. But we’ve been working together in the clinics, helping each other out for years. Our fathers were good friends. Are good friends.”
“And then I come along and ruin it.”
“Not at all. He’s got a few problems, and we are always trying to help him. But coming there uninvited was a lot, even for Ted.”
“I guess I should let you get back to breakfast,” she said.
She was going to call Gus and ask if he’d share the issues Grace had with Ted.
“We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Have a good day.”
“You too, Maggie.”
She sat with the phone in her hand, looking out over the water. Thinking of the rescue was a good distraction from other topics that tended to annoy her, one being preparing for Christmas. It was just around the corner; its magnitude could diminish the well-being she’d garnered since moving to Cypress Cove. A beautiful, sacred time had the power to reduce her to square one—the anguish she felt when she discovered her husband and her best friend were not only having an affair, but