Good Buy Girls 05 - All Sales Final (16 page)

Maggie nodded. She and Sam had figured as much but it was good to hear it confirmed. They were both quiet for a moment.

“You know Sam was the best detective on the Richmond PD, right?” Andy asked.

Maggie glanced across the basement where Sam was fixing two coffees and chatting with his deputy.

“Sam’s good at whatever he does, so yeah, I figured as much,” she said.

“Then you know what a waste it is to have him stuck in the middle of Podunk nowhere, spinning his wheels writing traffic tickets when he could be making a real difference,” Andy said.

Now the flash of dislike Maggie had seen before on Andy’s face was more than evident. She could feel the
other woman’s anger toward her but she had no idea how to talk her out of it.

“It was Sam’s choice to retire—” she began but Andy interrupted.

“Sure, but he was bored after ten minutes here and seriously considering coming back until you came along,” Andy said. “Make no mistake, I’m here to help my friend investigate a potential crime scene, but when I go back to Richmond I fully intend to bring Sam back with me.”

Maggie was so shocked she was pretty sure she’d lost her powers of speech and that
never
happened. Here she’d thought that Andy wanted Sam back for a relationship and she’d been right. But it wasn’t a romantic one, it was a working one.

“The man retired,” she said. Her temper loosened her tongue enough to spit out the words. “Let him go already.”

“Oh, but it’s not me who’s hanging on,” Andy said. “It’s him. Who do you think calls every week just to check in and see what cases we have cooking? He does. Why? Because he misses it. Look, I’ve got nothing against you or your cute little town, but that boy belongs in Richmond where he can be challenged by real cases and do what he loves. If you really love him, you’ll encourage him to move back where he belongs whether you come with him or not.”

Maggie felt as if Andy had just clocked her upside the head with a sledgehammer. Was it true? Was Sam unhappy in St. Stanley? She’d never lived anywhere else. Sure, she traveled but she always came home to St. Stanley. Always.

She felt Andy move away from her as she went back
into the root cellar with Captain Bones. She stared at Sam across the basement and watched him talking and laughing with one of the investigators from the county medical examiner’s office. He really did look like he was in his element.

Was Andy right? Did Sam want to go back to Richmond? Could she walk away from everything she’d ever known and go with him? The thought made Maggie a bit queasy, mostly because they’d just bought this house and she’d just opened her own business.

Still, she didn’t want to marry Sam and then, in a few months or weeks, have him up and leave her to go back to Richmond because he missed his job.

She glanced back at the root cellar and watched Andy ordering around her staff. Maggie straightened her spine. There was no way she was going to let this woman get inside her head. If Sam wanted to go back to Richmond, he would have told her by now. She was sure of it.

She took out her phone and sent a text to the Good Buy Girls. Yes, even Summer. Like it or not, she needed some of Summer’s man advice. In fact, she needed all of their man advice.

Plus, she needed to get a handle on this wedding. If she didn’t want to lose Sam then she had better make darn sure that they got hitched on the day they said they were getting hitched. And while it was okay for him to have just the two of them and Pastor Shields, she needed a little bit more in the witness box, especially if he was getting wobbly on her.

She glanced back at Andy. Sam had brought her coffee
to her and the two of them were laughing together again, no doubt some more gallows humor about the good old days. Well, that was fine. She didn’t mind a little reminiscing, but there was no way she was going to let Andy infiltrate their wedding.

“You’ll stop my wedding over my dead body,” she muttered.

A cold draft blew across her skin and Maggie shivered. She glanced behind her to see if the storm doors were open and if that was where the breeze was coming from. No, they were shut. She glanced around the room and while the hair around her face still moved from the cool breeze, it appeared that the gust of air was circling her as everything else in the basement was completely undisturbed.

Maggie felt a gentle hand brush the hair out of her eyes. The only trouble was there was no one there. Maggie screamed.

Chapter 16

Everyone swiveled their heads in Maggie’s direction. Sam started forward and she would have leapt into his arms except she saw Andy staring at her with clear contempt from the doorway of the root cellar.

Instead, she held up her hand to Sam to stop. She was not going to let Andy think she was a wimp, and she definitely wasn’t going to admit to an otherworldly presence in the basement and have them all thinking she was a nutter.

“Sorry! I saw a snake,” she said. Then she pointed toward the far corner. “It went that way.”

In a move that locked Maggie’s affection forever, Deputy Curtis jumped up onto a cinder block and scanned the surrounding area with his high-powered flashlight.

“Snake!” he cried in an unusually high-pitched voice. “I hate snakes!”

The others looked away from Curtis, some trying to hide their laughter and others making no attempt at all.

Curtis did not care. He spoke into his shoulder radio in a bark, “Deputies Wilson and Rourke, one of you will come down to the basement and relieve me immediately.”

“Roger that,” Deputy Rourke’s voice answered.

Curtis looked at Sam. “I don’t do snakes.”

“Understood,” Sam said. He put his arm around Maggie and she could feel his shoulders shaking as he was trying not to laugh.

She felt bad for needlessly scaring Curtis but not bad enough to admit what had really spooked her. Sam’s warmth dispelled the chill that had crept under her skin and she was grateful.

“I think I’m going to be here awhile longer while they prep to move the body,” Sam said. “Why don’t you head home and I’ll call you later.”

“Sure,” Maggie agreed. “I’ll stop by your place and spend some quality time with Marshall Dillon.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re avoiding going home and spending time with your mother?” he asked.

“Me?” Maggie put her hand on her chest in a protestation of innocence.

Sam smiled and kissed her. “I know your game, Maggie Gerber. Avoidance will not make the moms back off. In fact, it will only make things worse.”

Maggie sighed. “I know. I promise I’ll go home right after I tuck in Marshall Dillon.”

Sam walked her out and Maggie felt a pang of regret that he was so preoccupied with excavating their houseguest. Yes, it had to be done. And, yes, they needed to know who the skeleton had once been, but she couldn’t help feeling that they were charting a course of action that was going to change everything.

*   *   *

Maggie was true to her word. She did go back to her house after taking care of Marshall Dillon. Of course, it was not her fault that he seemed to require an inordinate amount of attention and he really felt the need to watch a movie with her while they shared a tub of popcorn.

And, oh darn, by the time Maggie got home, her mother was already asleep and she snuck in the back door just as she had all those years ago when she and Sam had been out and they’d broken curfew. What Mom didn’t know then didn’t hurt her and the same thing was true now. Or so Maggie told herself.

She did not count on waking up to find her mother sitting on the end of her bed, sipping coffee and doing the crossword while she waited for Maggie to wake up.

“Finally, look who decided to rise and shine,” her mother said when Maggie blinked against the morning sun. Someone had opened her curtains. Oh, joy.

“I’m not rising or shining and you can’t make me,” Maggie said. Even to her own ears she sounded as if she were thirteen instead of in her early forties.

“Good thing I don’t care if you’re shining then,” her
mother said. “But you will rise because we are going wedding dress shopping.”

Maggie opened her mouth to protest, but her mother held up her hand.

“No arguments. This loosey-goosey thing you’ve got going for a wedding stops today.”

Maggie didn’t argue, protest, or even snivel. She knew her mother’s “that’s final” tone of voice when she heard it and she knew there would be no finagling, negotiating or wiggling out of this one.

“I really can’t talk about this before co—” Maggie began to say but her mother pointed to her nightstand.

A fresh cup of coffee with a delicate puff of steam coming off the top in invitation sat waiting for her. She knew when she had lost.

She pushed herself up to a seated position and reached for the mug. It read World’s Best Mom. Laura had given it to her when she was a kid and even though Maggie knew she was far from being the world’s best anything, it touched her that her daughter had given it to her.

The coffee was just the way she liked it, with a little bit of milk and enough sugar to balance the bitterness of the brew. She glanced at her mother to give her thanks but stopped when she saw how intently her mother was studying her face.

“What? Do I have a pimple?” Maggie asked.

Her mother barked an unexpected laugh. “No. I was just thinking.”

“Nothing good judging by your expression,” Maggie
said. She was afraid her mother was about to confirm her words but figured it was best that they get it out in the open before they got any closer to the wedding.

“Actually, I was thinking just the opposite. You’ve dealt with so much and at such a young age. You worked so hard to take care of yourself and Laura and never wanted to lean on anyone. You and that little coupon pouch of yours, you’ve been through a lot.”

“Old Blue,” Maggie said with a smile. Yes, she had named her coupon holder. It was blue with mauve paisleys and she took it everywhere she went. She still did. In those early dark days, it had been a lifesaver.

Maggie wondered where this talk was going but she didn’t want to interrupt her mother so she sipped her coffee and waited.

“Do you love Sam?” her mother asked. “Really love him for all that he is and all that he isn’t?”

“Yes,” Maggie said without hesitation.

“You’re sure you’re not in love with a boy from twenty-plus years ago who no longer exists?”

“I’m positive,” Maggie said. “That boy grew up and so did the girl he loved.”

“And your hesitation to plan your wedding is because why?”

There it was. The million-dollar question that only her mother had been brave enough to ask so directly. Maggie didn’t have an answer.

“Is it because of Charlie?” her mother asked.

Maggie felt around in her insides. Was it Charlie that was holding her back? Did she have some loyalty to her
late husband that kept her from being able to move forward with Sam?

“No,” she said.

“Then what is it that’s keeping you from picking flowers, a cake, a dress or a venue?”

Maggie blinked at her mother. “I don’t know.”

“You do want to get married, don’t you?”

“Yes, of that, I am sure, but . . .” Maggie stalled.

“But what?” Lizzie asked. “Come on, spill it.”

“I might be a little afraid of losing Sam like I lost Charlie,” Maggie said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “I just . . . I don’t know if I could go through that again.”

And just like that the dam burst and Maggie felt a sob burble up inside of her and tumble out of her mouth in one wrenching hiccup of stress.

“Oh, honey, I figured it was something like that.” Lizzie took both of their coffee cups and put them aside, then she opened her arms and let Maggie cry it out just like she had when Maggie was seven and knocked her front teeth out on the monkey bars in the park.

She rubbed Maggie’s back and made soothing noises and Maggie let herself be comforted. There was nothing like a mother’s love to ease away the fear.

“Would you give him up just to keep yourself from the possible pain of losing him?” her mother asked.

“No,” Maggie said. She pushed her hair back and met her mother’s understanding gaze. “I won’t give up what we have no matter what might happen.”

Lizzie reached out and put her hand over Maggie’s,
giving it a tight squeeze. “Then that settles it. It’s time for you to jump all in, my girl. Now get up. We have dresses to try on.”

Maggie groaned and sank deeper into her pillows. She couldn’t make her get out of bed.

“I made cinnamon swirl coffee cake,” her mother called over her shoulder as she left the room. Darn it. Her mom knew she couldn’t resist her coffee cake.

*   *   *

“I look like I should be on
Dancing with the Stars
, the reject edition,” Maggie said.

She was wearing a slinky blue gown that hugged her curves and dipped low in the front and in back and had a slit up the side to her upper thigh.

“Sam will love it,” Joanne said.

“I love it,” Summer said. “If you don’t want it, can I have it?”

“Sure,” Maggie said. It still jarred her to have Summer in her shop, joining her mother and sister and the Good Buy Girls while she tried on dress after dress. Fifteen had been rejected so far.