Maggie Moves On(92)
They’d fixed up the front study for Wallace, who showed up every morning at nine as if he were punching a clock. He’d pick up where he left off with his cataloging and research into the third-floor finds. Silas wasn’t sure if he was getting used to the man or if Wallace was getting less irate with the world. Either way, the grump was joining them most nights for dinner.
Dean was busy filming both renovations and historical finds and muttering under his breath about the impossibility of telling a story when he didn’t know the ending.
They grilled meals and took turns helping Cody study for finals. And it was getting easier to convince Maggie to shut down the laptop and join them in the living room for TV or some quiet reading time. They divvied up the remaining books by Aaron Campbell and were sifting through them, looking for clues.
Silas stepped outside into the humid morning and took his mug of coffee along to check out the in-progress retaining wall and the wider panorama of the gorge below, now that the dead trees had been cut down and hauled away.
Things were taking shape inside and out.
He had a new present for Maggie. She’d loved the copper heron on the side of the house, naming it Henry. He’d taken some of the dried lumber from an old fallen tree and used it to make a series of floating shelves for the bare wall in the front parlor. She’d quickly filled the shelves with a mix of Campbell antiques and new finds.
He held up the comically huge pair of wooden googly eyes that he’d found at a nursery. Whimsical and unexpected. Just like the rest of the house. He put his mug down in the dew-damp grass and set about attaching the eyes to Maggie’s favorite tree, a quaking aspen that marked the entrance to the path leading to the under-construction firepit.
Yes. Things were progressing. But unlike the plan for the house, the forward momentum of their relationship went unspoken. For now, they both pretended not to notice that his clothes were finding their way into her closet. Or that he was doing her laundry at his house. Or that they texted about what was for dinner nearly every night like a married couple. They reveled in Cody’s slow blossoming from teenage rebel to responsible young adult.
She was pretending that things weren’t getting real. That making love until the world stopped was usual, typical. And he was letting her.
It was a problem he needed to tackle sooner rather than later.
So far, the new episodes were doing well. Silas had sat in on a couple of their work meetings, mainly because he liked watching Maggie when she was in all-business mode. She had a seemingly endless well of energy. He sometimes wondered if he was the only one who saw beneath it. Who caught the slump of her shoulders when she’d pushed too hard for too long. The shadows under her eyes when she got lost in budgets and spreadsheets late at night.
He stepped back and assessed the eyes on the tree trunk. They looked just a little bit ridiculous, and he couldn’t wait for her to find them.
Picking up his coffee, Silas gave the tree a salute and headed back toward the house.
Maggie would be dressed and grilling Cody on his plans for the weekend. She’d confessed to Silas that she thought there was a girl in the picture, but neither of them had managed to pry anything out of the kid yet. He made a note to try again that evening and then wondered if he was an idiot for taking it for granted that he’d be here at the dinner table.
Things had the potential to go horribly wrong, and he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that some kind of disaster was lurking just beyond the horizon.
On an impulse, he dug out his phone and carefully chose a funny good-morning GIF to send his siblings.
Taylor: I miss mountain time. I’ve been up for three hours.
Niri: That’s the problem with the East Coast. That and the fact that YOUR FAMILY LIVES IN IDAHO.
Michael: Are we shouty caps already today? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Niri: You try waking up 36 times with a baby jumping on your bladder.
Silas: Taylor, I looked at flights from Boston and there’s some good deals this summer. Hint. Hint.
Niri: YES! COME HOME!
Michael: You should. I can’t quite remember what my niece and nephew look like. What are their names again?
Silas: Chewbacca and Lego Face, right?
Taylor: Thanks, assholes. Way to ruin the surprise. John and I booked tickets for the last week in August. AND IF YOU TELL THE MOMS AND DADS I WILL MURDER ALL OF YOUR FACES!
Michael: The last weekend of August. Didn’t anyone tell you? The rest of the family is going to Disney without you. Sorry we’ll miss you.
Niri: I’ll grab you a pair of the mouse ears if I have time between all of our fun family activities.
Taylor: You are terrible people. If I had any sense at all I’d cancel the flight to Boise and book myself into a spa for a week.
Silas: I guess we could reschedule the Taylor-free Disney trip. Maybe we can squeeze it in before our Taylor-free Alaska cruise instead.
Taylor: middle finger emoji
Niri: Okay. Razzing over. I’M SO HAPPY YOU’RE COMING HOME!! I’M CRYING!!
Silas: Me, too. But with very manly tears.
Michael: I’m smiling appreciatively.
Taylor: You guys are the worst. I love you shitheads.
Silas: We love you back, turd breath.
Comforted with the constancy of his siblings, Silas headed inside for more coffee. He was just pouring when the doorbell groaned out a greeting.
“Sy, can you get that?” Maggie called from upstairs.