Bayou Christmas (Cypress Cove #2) - Suzanne Jenkins Page 0,58
this. I thought Steve was just your average working stiff. I met your mom right before the wedding, and she seemed fine to me.”
“That’s why we insisted on a morning wedding,” Kelly replied.
“Anyway, I know zero about Ted, and he’s lived in the vicinity all of his life. So go figure.”
“How’s it going?” Annie asked.
“It’s fabulous,” Kelly said dreamily. “I hate to say it, but Maggie’s accident was the best thing that ever happened to us.”
Chapter 11
Maggie was discharged on Christmas Eve. By the time the doctors wrote orders and her medication got filled, and after the trip to Cypress Cove that took twice as long as it should due to last minute shoppers, they didn’t get home until after dark. The surprise awaiting her back in the woods would just have to wait until daylight on Christmas Day.
But the tree at the dock that she’d covered with lights the morning before her accident was the first thing she saw when Justin stopped to open the gate.
“Look! Look at my tree! How beautiful.”
Her heart pounded, and a tear slipped out of the corner of her eye. So much had happened since that innocent, tree-decorating morning. Now to see it sparkling in the night made her realize how precious life at the cove was. She could have been killed.
“It is beautiful. I was shocked when I saw it,” he said, looking at her when he got back in the truck. “I knew it meant you were up on a ladder again, especially to get the star on top. But I was determined not to say anything to you, and thank god I didn’t.”
He put the truck into gear and drove the rest of the way to the cottage. “This whole experience has taught me to just let things go.”
“I just realized I could have been killed,” Maggie said. “That morning would have been my last morning at the cottage. How sad.”
Fortunately, she’d lived, and now she couldn’t wait to get inside her cottage. There was a surprise for her, too.
Justin opened the passenger door, and she took his hand, still a little stiff from lying around for two weeks.
“Just a second,” he said, letting go.
Running up the steps of the porch, he flipped a switch, and the entire cottage lit up, the roof, the sides of the cottage, the entire length of it. Maggie looked at it in wonder, like a child with wide eyes and her mouth open.
“Did you do this? When would you have had time?”
“No, I didn’t do it. Dave and Amber were the ringleaders. And probably your mother and my dad, Aunt Elizabeth and Val Amotte and Gus and Grace and everyone you know in Cypress Cove had a hand in it.”
Then she heard a woof, and she mounted the stair with more spring in her step than Justin had seen.
“Brulee!” Maggie cried, and Justin opened the door for their long-lost meeting.
Some instinct that Brulee had prevented her from jumping up on Maggie as badly as she wanted to. She sniffed her for a good twenty minutes after Justin got Maggie safely situated on the couch.
“Aw, she must smell the hospital. Poor Brulee. But look how fat she is!”
“Yeah, Dave said they didn’t have the heart to restrict her food.”
“It’s not good for her though,” Maggie said. “You’re on a diet, Brulee.”
Her ears lifted up and flattened down on her head when she heard food.
“Speaking of food, I actually have an appetite. I bet there’s nothing in the refrigerator that isn’t rotten.”
“I understand you hate the thought of people going through your things, and that includes your fridge, but your mom and Aunt Elizabeth cleaned it out and shopped for you. And Gus has been here every day after seeing you in the hospital, doing errands, overseeing Gloria and Bubba picking up horse poop.”
“Poor Gus, I need to find a way to make it up to him. Now all I have to do is get the rescue back on track. Kelly has to have the rest of the animals relocated in a week. I might have to bring them to the cottage.”
“Don’t worry about that now, okay? Ted can take them to his place. Kelly’s his problem now. She’s not yours.”
“Justin, she’s my friend. We’re in the rescue together now. I feel responsible.”
“I know, I’m just kidding. But truthfully, don’t worry about it, or you won’t recover. Tomorrow is Christmas, and the day after that, work can resume on everything. You just need to take it slow.”
He