CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Once the buffet had been served and the wedding cake eaten, the dishes were cleared away. The DJ hired for the evening set up in a corner of the room and began to spin some tunes. Scarlet had told Maggie she wanted everyone to dance, and have fun, and be as happy as she and Cam were. By the way they looked at each other, Maggie knew they were enjoying themselves. And they were deeply in love.
She was happy for them. She really was. But seeing them smile at each other, the look of love in their eyes, caused a dull ache to pound through her chest.
She pushed away the unwelcome jealousy. Embrace the joy, Maggie.
As Scarlet had hoped, the wedding dance was a lot of fun. Maggie danced with Drew and Cam and Ethan, jived very badly with Cam’s brother-in-law Graham, and even polkaed with his cousin from Wisconsin. She hadn’t laughed so much in a very long time.
She danced with everyone but Luke. He never asked her.
She was keenly aware of him and everything he was doing, as if she had some sort of weird internal radar where he was concerned. Her heart melted to see him get his grandmother up to dance, and she nearly cried as he pushed his mother out on the dance floor, twirling Abby’s chair in a slow circle. But when he danced a slow waltz with Scarlet’s friend Jill from Chicago, white hot jealousy slammed into her gut, especially when he smiled down at her. Maggie had no right to feel that way. She and Luke had a history, and some unresolved feelings, at least on her part, but nothing more. Once again, she reminded herself of her vow to find the joy in life instead of focusing on the negative.
But even with the internal pep talk, she couldn’t help wondering what Luke saw in Jill that he didn’t see in her.
Maggie watched Reese push Abby’s chair toward the front door with Phyllis and Luke closely behind. She followed them, wanting to say goodnight. By the time she caught up with them in the front entrance, Reese had already helped Abby into her winter coat, and Luke had gone outside to bring their car to the front door. Maggie helped Phyllis with her coat.
“Thank you so much for coming,” Maggie said, taking Abby’s hand as soon as she was settled in her chair once more. “I know it meant a lot to Scarlet and Cam to have you here tonight. It meant a lot to me, too.”
“Darling girl,” Abby said, giving her hand a light squeeze. She looked exhausted, her face grey with fatigue. But she hadn’t stopped smiling all evening. She gave Maggie a tired smile. “You’ll come see me soon? We can continue our story.”
Abby’s determination to tell her stories about her mother puzzled her. She wasn’t sure why she insisted on devoting her dwindling time and energy on her, and she didn’t understand why her sisters couldn’t hear the story, but she was grateful for the gift. “Of course I will. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Good.” Abby turned her attention to Luke when he returned from outside. “Goodnight, son.”
He stooped to hug her. “Goodnight, Mom. I’ll drop by tomorrow.”
“That would be wonderful.”
Luke shook hands with Reese. “I’ll get Mom and Grandma into the car.”
“I’ll be right there, Luke,” Reese said. “Just need to grab my coat.”
He held the door open while Luke wheeled his mother to the waiting car. Maggie rubbed her bare arms against the cold blast of air that invaded the lodge. Reese firmly closed the door once Luke was through, then turned to Maggie. “I want to thank you for coming to see Abby. It means a lot to her, to both of us.”
Maggie studied his face. His dark eyes were hooded and he looked almost as tired as Abby. Deep lines bracketed his mouth and she was sure more gray was mixed with his dark brown hair than when she’d first arrived in early June.
“I’m the one who’s grateful. My mother has been like a mythical figure most of my life, someone not quite real. Abby told me stories about her when I was a kid, but these are different. She’s making her come alive for me. Miranda feels like an actual person now.”
“Abby will be happy to hear that.”
“I’m looking forward to whatever else she has to tell me.”
Reese nodded, his brows knitting together in a way that made Maggie think he wanted to say more on the subject. Instead, he shuffled through the coatrack and pulled out a grey parka. “I should go. Make sure you step away from the door. I don’t want you to catch a chill.”
“I will.”
Reese slipped on the parka and zipped it to his chin. Pulling a red knitted hat from his pocket, he twirled it in his hands, his gaze fixed on a point somewhere over her left shoulder. “Your mother was a wonderful person.”
“Harper told me you knew her.”
“Yeah, back in high school.” He shifted his gaze to look at her. Sadness flitted across his face, but he quickly covered it with a grin. “A million years ago.”
“Were you friends?”
“For a while.”
His short answers both frustrated and intrigued her. She’d known Reese, and had worked with him since she’d moved back to the lodge in the spring, but he’d never talked to her about her mother before. She wanted to know more. What was she like as a teenager? What was their relationship back then?
Reese’s throat moved. “I knew her well enough to tell you how proud she’d be of you. She’d be so proud of the hard-working, compassionate young woman you are today.”
Maggie stared at him, unable to speak past the lump that had formed in her throat. The last thing she’d expected this evening was a speech like this from Reese.
He shifted his gaze and stepped back, obviously uncomfortable with her silence. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
She laid her hand on his arm, stopping him. “Reese, there’s nothing you could have said that would have meant more to me. Thank you.”
She put her arms around him in a hug. For a moment he held himself stiff, but then he relaxed and put his arms around her shoulders and held her tightly. His throat hummed with a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh. For a moment, she thought he was crying. But when he pulled away, his eyes were dry.
He smiled at her, still holding her arms. “Thank you, Maggie.”
She had no idea what he was thanking her for but before she could ask, the door opened and Luke stepped in along with a bitter gust of cold wind. Reese let her go and stepped away.
“I should get Abby and Phyllis home,” he said, all formality once more. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. We all enjoyed it.”
“I’m glad you could come.”
Reese nodded, his hand on the doorknob. “Step back, Maggie. You’re definitely not dressed for this cold.”
Luke wordlessly removed his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. Maggie blinked up at him. The jacket was warm from the heat of his body and smelled like a combination of his aftershave and the clean, male scent unique to him. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Luke stared back at her, but she could read nothing in his enigmatic gaze.
Reese cleared his throat. “Goodnight, Luke.”
“Goodnight.”
He slipped through the door and closed it softly behind him. Maggie removed the jacket and handed it back to Luke, immediately feeling the chill lingering in the air. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He tossed the jacket over his arm. “You looked like you were having a very intense conversation with Reese.”
“Yeah, I guess we were. Did you know he knew my mother when they were young?”
“No, but that’s hardly a surprise. Minnewasta is small town. Everybody knows everybody.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
Even so, it had sounded as if Reese and Miranda’s relationship had been more than small-town acquaintance. She’d have to ask Abby.
Luke let out a long sigh and stared at the door. “I hope tonight wasn’t too much for Mom. I’m afraid she overtired herself. She’s got so little time…”
Maggie’s heart thumped painfully at the look of despair on his face. She wished there was something she could say that would make things easier for him but at this point, words meant little. “Abby was determined to come to the wedding. She wants to embrace every moment she has left.”
His mouth unexpectedly turned up in a lop-sided grin. “That’s Mom. Her whole life has been about embracing moments. I guess I shouldn’t expect her to stop now.”
Maggie smiled at his assessment. It perfectly described Abby. “I guess not.”
“What about you? Are you having fun?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Maggie picked at an imaginary piece of fluff on her dress. “I saw you dancing with Scarlet’s friend. Did you enjoy yourself?”
“You mean Jill? I was being polite. I asked everyone to dance.”
“You didn’t ask me.”
She sounded pissy, even to herself. Luke was consumed with the impending death of his mother and all she could talk about was her petty jealousy. Her face grew hot with embarrassment and shame.
“I wanted to dance with you but every time I was about to ask, you were already dancing, especially with Cam’s nephew.” His voice went low and quiet. “Is there something going on between you two?”
“With Drew? No, of course not. We were paired in the wedding party, that’s all.”
“He looked like he was into you.”
She bit her lip. She was going to have to have another talk with Drew. A relationship between them wasn’t in the cards. “I don’t feel the same way.”
Luke nodded and looked toward the dining room where couples were dancing to a slow waltz. “There’s a few dances left,” he said, taking her hand and intertwining her fingers with his. “We should take a page from Mom’s book and embrace the moment. Would you like to dance?”
Despite all her misgivings about their past, her grief over Abby’s impending death, even her worries about living up to her responsibilities of being head chef, happiness bubbled through her veins. Or maybe she’d had too much champagne.
“I’d like that a lot.”
She followed him onto the dance floor and when he pulled her into his arms, they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Her body hummed with desire.
If she wasn’t very careful, she could fall in love with Luke all over again. Maybe she already had.
And when he left, her heart would be broken for a second time.
She didn’t want to think about that. Not now. Embrace the moment.
Luke bent close to whisper in her ear. “You’re beautiful tonight, Maggie. I’ve never seen you more lovely.”
“Thanks. You’re pretty lovely yourself.”
He chuckled at that, his laugh tickling her ear and making her laugh, too. How wonderful, how freeing, to laugh, to be happy, to have fun. It had been far too long.
Maggie gave herself over to the romance of the evening. She let herself sway to the beat of the music, loving the feel of Luke’s hand on her hip and his body pressed close to hers. She stared up into his face, unable to look away. Every detail of his face was dear to her. His beautiful grey-green eyes with their ridiculously long lashes. The long, straight nose and elegantly shaped mouth. A mouth she wanted to kiss. Desperately.
She inhaled an unsteady breath as a shiver raced down her back. There was no doubt she wanted him, and she believed he wanted her, too. But even if they made love, he’d still leave.
Don’t think about it, Maggie.
Instead, she smiled up at Luke as if neither of them were facing the imminent loss of someone they loved. Or the loss of each other.
And they danced. At least on the dance floor they could hold each other and pretend they’d never let go. At least she could touch him, and be touched. She longed to feel him skin to skin, to feel his hard muscles beneath her questing fingers. She wanted his weight on her, his body inside hers.
Dancing with Luke was an exquisite kind of torture. These perfect moments on the dance floor couldn’t last. Reality would return soon enough.
And it did. Soon the DJ announced the last dance. Luke held her a little tighter as they moved around the floor. Maggie closed her eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart. As the final notes of the song faded, he held her a minute longer before letting her go. The sudden chill made her shiver.
“Goodnight, Maggie.” Though he smiled, she read the sadness on his face. She wanted to reach out to him, beg him to spend the night with her, make love with her. If only for a few hours, they could lose themselves in each other.
But it would change nothing. She returned his sad smile.
“Goodnight, Luke.”