CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Luke handed the guest an envelope. “Here’s your key card. Your room is down the hall and to your left, number one twenty-seven. Enjoy your stay.”
“I’m sure we will. We can’t wait to get out on the cross-country ski trails.”
“We’ve had a lot of snow. The trails are in great shape.”
The guest held his young daughter’s hand. “Sounds wonderful. Thanks.”
The little girl gave Luke an impish grin that made him smile. She had dark eyes and dark braids that hung beneath her knitted hat. She reminded him of Maggie…
Everything reminded him of Maggie.
He pushed down a lump of guilt and greeted the next group of guests in line. He, Harper and their new desk clerk had been working steadily at the front desk to check people in. Despite a few minor glitches, the grand opening celebrations were going well. The packed house meant every staff member was working flat out. The jury was still out, but it looked like the Lindquist sisters would make a success of the new Solace Lake Lodge.
He was happy for them, and proud of their accomplishments. It would have been fun to see this venture through, to be part of their ongoing success. But it wasn’t to be. Maggie didn’t want him at the lodge, and he couldn’t blame her.
Thinking about Maggie made his chest ache. In the last few days, they’d only spoken about matters concerning the business. But despite their lack of communication, she’d made it perfectly clear they were over.
After he finished checking in another family, Harper quietly turned to him. “Reese is on line one, and he’s asking for you. I think you should take this call in the office.”
The bottom fell out of his stomach. He nodded briefly to Harper and left for the privacy of the office. He sat behind the desk, his hand shaking as he picked up the phone. “Reese?”
“Luke. Your mother is asking for you and Maggie. The nurse says…she says it won’t be long now.”
Luke bent his head, barely suppressing a groan. He wasn’t ready. He’d never be ready. “I’ll come right away.”
“Please ask Maggie to come, too. I know how busy you all are, but seeing her once more is important to Abby. She can’t rest until she does.”
“I don’t know if Maggie will come with me.”
“Please, Luke. It’s important that Maggie comes.” His mother likely wanted to tell her the name of her biological father.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Maggie needed to know as much as his mother needed to tell her. “I’ll make sure she does.”
He hurried out of the office and past the front desk, giving Harper a nod. She nodded back, understanding and sorrow in her eyes. Luke wove his way past the guests filling the restaurant and bar and entered the kitchen. The room was thrumming with organized chaos. Maggie plated food with a quick, efficient hand while calling orders to Celeste and the two new line cooks they’d hired. Luke touched her arm.
“Maggie. Reese called. Mom wants to see us. He says it won’t be long now.”
As she stared at him, a rainbow of emotions crossed her face, each one speaking to him in silent words. He saw surprise, indecision, resignation, and finally sorrow and a touch of fear. Was she afraid of what his mother had left to say?
She turned to her sous-chef, her face bleak. “Celeste? I have to go.”
Celeste understood immediately. She wrapped Maggie in a hug, then gave her a little push toward the door. “Go. Don’t worry about us, honey. We’ll be fine.”
Maggie expelled a long, slow breath as she hung her apron on a peg near the door, then turned to Celeste once more. She looked so lost Luke had to clench his fists to keep from touching her. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll take care of everything here.”
She nodded before turning to face him. He could almost see the armour she was building around her heart, to protect herself from what she was about to face, or possibly from him. He squeezed his eyes shut against the pain.
“I’m ready.”
They made it to his mother’s house in less than fifteen minutes. Reese met them at the door and captured Maggie’s hands in his. “Thank you for coming. I know this is not easy for you.”
Maggie only nodded, her gaze slipping to Luke’s. She was scared. Without thinking, he reached for her hand and was relieved she didn’t try to pull away. Instead, she held on tight.
Reese led them to the bedroom where Paula was taking his mother’s pulse. His mom looked frail and small in the hospital bed, like a tiny, wounded bird. She opened her eyes as they entered and, despite her weakness, managed a smile.
“My darlings.”
His throat threatened to close. “Hi, Mom.”
“Luke, my sweet boy. Maggie, dear, come sit beside me. Please.”
She did as his mother asked. “I’m sorry about running away before. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. Your news caught me completely off-guard.”
“I know. I’m sorry I had to tell you like that, but you needed to know. You deserve to know.”
“Yes.”
“Are you ready to hear the end of the story?”
Maggie’s gaze locked briefly with his. Then, she lifted her chin and smiled for his mother. “I’m ready.”
Luke had never been prouder of her, of her strength, her grace, her kindness. And he’d never loved her more.
Reese stood on the other side of the bed. “Paula, would you mind leaving us for a few minutes?”
“Of course, Reese. I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”
Paula left the room and quietly closed the door. Maggie reached for his mother’s hand. “I’d like to hear the rest of the story, Abby.”
“All right.” She rested her head against her pillows. “Miranda and Robert tried to work things out when they found out you were on the way. I know they went to marriage counseling, but things got even worse after you were born. I believe Robert loved her very much, but the strain of knowing you were another man’s baby was too much. You were a living, breathing reminder of Miranda’s infidelity, and worse, a reminder that her heart belonged to someone else. Cracks began to form in the marriage and they argued constantly.
“It soon became obvious to both of them that they couldn’t go on because the tension was beginning to affect Harper and Scarlet. So Robert moved out, and Miranda contacted your father and told him about you. He was overjoyed. He told her he didn’t care that she’d gone back to Robert. The five of them could now be together as a family. There was nothing standing in their way any longer.
“Miranda was thrilled to finally be able to start a life with the man she’d loved for so long. She planned to leave Robert the house, so as soon as school was out, she packed up you girls and headed to the lodge. She had to tell her parents about her upcoming divorce and about Robert not being your father.”
Maggie grasped her hand. “But she never told Harper and Scarlet any of this. She only said they would be moving to a new house and new life.”
Abby’s sigh was long and tired. “I tried to tell her keeping the girls in the dark was a mistake. But she wanted to wait until your father got to the lodge so they could tell them together.
“Your father was working in Ohio on a construction crew, and he moved back to Minnesota right away and started looking for a house near Minneapolis where they could all live. Miranda wanted Harper and Scarlet to be close enough to their father to be able to see him often.
“Unfortunately, finding a house took longer than he planned. Before he could take you away to your new home, Robert showed up at the lodge. I guess he had a change of heart and went there to try one last time to win Miranda back. And now we know the truth about what happened. He didn’t kill Miranda. He loved her to the end and died trying to save her.”
“And my father? What happened to him?”
“He was grief-stricken. He’d lost both the woman he loved and you, with one fatal blow.”
“Is he…is he still alive?”
“Yes.”
Maggie’s throat worked. “Abby, can you tell me who my father is? Like you said, I have the right to know.”
“Yes, you have the right to know.” Her gaze flickered toward her husband. “Doesn’t she, Reese?”
“Yeah.”
In that one, barely audible word, Luke heard the pent-up emotion in his stepfather’s voice. Maggie must have heard it, too. She lifted her gaze to Reese, and he reached out to touch her shoulder.
“I hope you’re not disappointed, Maggie. It’s me. I’m your father.”
Maggie stared at him. All these years, it had been Reese. He’d known he was her father since she was less than two years old and he’d done nothing. Why hadn’t he told her?
Abby’s voice was barely a whisper. “I know you don’t understand. You have to let him explain. Let him be your father. I’ve always known he’d be a wonderful father.”
Her confessions had taken a toll. Her hand fell limply to her side and lines of fatigue etched grooves between her brows. Reese kissed her forehead and gently tucked the blanket around her. “Rest now, sweetheart.”
Her eyes flickered open. “I love you, Reese. I’ve always loved you. My first love and my last.”
“I love you, too, Abby.” He caressed her cheek with a gentle hand. “You’re the best wife, the best partner a man could ever have.”
When Reese raised his head, tears streaked his face. Answering tears filled Maggie’s eyes, but she wouldn’t let them fall. She needed answers.
“Let’s go into the other room and let Mom sleep,” Luke said quietly.
Maggie and Reese followed him to the living room. Reese wiped his eyes with a tissue and addressed the nurse. “Paula, would you mind sitting with Abby for a while?”
“Of course.”
As soon as she heard the door to Abby’s room close behind the nurse, Maggie turned on Reese. “Why didn’t you tell me? Where were you when I was growing up?”
“I don’t blame you for being angry.” Reese lowered himself into an armchair, his movements slow. “Please, Maggie, sit down and I’ll try to explain. You too, Luke. You need to hear this.”
She perched on the edge of the sofa cushion, too full of questions to relax. She wanted to shout at Reese, to demand answers. Instead, she folded her hands in her lap and forced herself to wait for him to speak. Luke sat next to her, his pale face telling her he was as shocked at this news as she was.
“I loved your mother very much, Maggie. Abby told you how we fell in love as teenagers?”
“Yes.” She glanced at Luke. “Your story was eerily similar to mine and Luke’s.”
“I guess it was. Strange how history repeated itself.” He closed his eyes a moment before continuing. “I never stopped loving Miranda, even after she went back to her husband. When she told me you were my child and that she was leaving Robert, I was ecstatic. We were finally going to be together, and we were going to be a family.
“And then I heard she was dead. I couldn’t believe it. I went crazy. I drove to the lodge and demanded that your grandparents hand you over to me. Of course, they wouldn’t. Miranda’s will gave them legal custody of you and your sisters. In the eyes of the law, you were Robert Lindquist’s child. And to be honest, I was in no shape to raise you. I was consumed by grief and anger and guilt.”
“Why did you feel guilty?”
Reese scrubbed a hand across his face. “If only I’d come for Miranda and you girls immediately instead of trying to find someplace nice for us all to live. If I’d taken her away, she wouldn’t have died.”
“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen. No one could,” Luke said.
“I struggled for years before I realized that, before I could forgive myself. I spent nearly ten years trying to ease the pain with booze. I was no fit parent for you, Maggie.”
“What made you finally get sober?” Despite her anger, she could appreciate what he’d gone through. She could understand, but she didn’t know if she could forgive.
“Abby. About nine years after Miranda’s death, she talked to my brother Glenn and he told her I was drinking myself to death. I happened to be working in Minneapolis, and she came looking for me. She didn’t pull any punches. She told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and start living again. If I wanted a chance to be in your life, I had to get clean and sober. I had to rebuild my life.
“She got through to me. I checked myself into a rehab center. Once I got out of there, I joined Alcoholics Anonymous and worked hard on staying sober. It was tough, but I always knew Abby was only a phone call away. She was a friendly shoulder to lean on, someone to listen to my problems. She never wavered in her support, but she wouldn’t let me wallow in self-pity either. Gradually, I fell in love with her.”
“She told me you were her first love,” Luke said. Maggie turned to look at him in surprise. “She said she’d loved you since she was a girl.”
“Yeah.” Reese smiled in remembrance, closing his eyes briefly. “She told me the night I asked her to marry me. I had no idea. I’d been so in love with Miranda all those years ago I hadn’t noticed anyone else. While your mother was alive, Abby avoided me, even though Miranda was married to Robert. She was wracked by guilt because she was in love with the man her best friend loved. After Miranda died, she felt even worse, as if she was somehow responsible for her death because of her feelings for me. Abby was completely loyal to the people she loved.
“She probably wouldn’t have sought me out if Glenn hadn’t told her about my drinking. But she wanted to help. And she continued to help me, right to the end. She insisted on being the one to tell you I’m your father because she thought it would be easier for both of us if she gave you the news.” A smile trembled on his lips. “I’ve been privileged to love, and be loved, by two incredible women. I’m a very lucky man.”
Maggie swallowed back her tears. But she still had unanswered questions. “Why didn’t you come to see me once you got sober?”
“I tried. When you were about thirteen, I came to see your grandparents while you were at school. I wanted the two of us to get to know each other, and I wanted you to know I was your father. I didn’t ask for custody or anything like that because I didn’t want to take you away from your sisters and everything you’d known. But your grandparents wouldn’t hear of it. They forbade me from seeing you and threatened to tell you I’d caused your mother’s death if I tried to contact you. I was afraid they’d make you and your sisters hate me, so I backed off. I’m sorry I did that now. I should have fought them. But they were getting old, and they’d already lost so much.”
“So you had Abby step in to keep tabs on me in your place.” Anger and sorrow and regret for all the wasted years swirled in her head. Maggie didn’t want to be angry with Abby, especially now. But she’d kept the truth from her for years.
“That was all Abby,” Reese said with a fond smile. “She was your friend because she loved you. Things got very complicated for her when the two of you got together.”
Maggie glanced at Luke. Abby must have been torn between her love for her son and her desire to care for her. She took a shaky breath. All those times she’d gone to Abby for comfort and solace, all the confidences she’s shared with her. Abby had never judged or been disappointed in her, no matter what she’d done. She’d always tried to be her friend, no matter what. Love for Abby swamped her.
“If you wanted to see me so badly, why did you and Abby move away when you got married?”
“By then, I had a construction business established in Minneapolis. And frankly, living so close to you without being allowed to talk to you was hard. I reached out to your grandfather again after your grandmother died, but he was as adamant as ever that I should stay away from you. I thought it would be best to leave things alone until you were an adult and could make up your mind about me for yourself. I’d hoped that through your relationship with Abby, I could maintain a kind of contact with you.”
Maggie glanced down at her hands. “But then I cut Abby off because I was angry she’d left me. I thought she’d abandoned me, like so many other people abandoned me.”
Luke placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Whether he was trying to apologize for abandoning her or lend support, she didn’t know. Despite her lingering anger with him, she didn’t push him away.
“Abby never gave up on me. She continued to write to me all those years, even though I didn’t write back. I was angry with her, but I always looked forward to her letters.”
“If I had to do it over, I would have stayed here in Minnewasta and tried to get to know you. That was one of the many mistakes I’ve made, Maggie.” Reese sank against the cushions of his chair. “When we found out Abby’s cancer was terminal, she wanted to come home and bring all the secrets out into the light. She wanted you to know the truth.”
The truth. Lately the truth had been hitting her like a tsunami. First Willy’s confession, then learning Robert Lindquist wasn’t her father, and now discovering that Reese was. But most of all Luke’s bombshell. Truth upon truth piled on her until she couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t sure she could handle much more.
She got to her feet. “I need to get back to the lodge. I’m sure the kitchen is swamped.”
Luke also rose. “I should get back, too.”
Maggie nodded at him, not quite meeting his eyes. Luke’s truth had hit her hardest of all. It hurt so much to know he’d taken her grandfather’s money to leave her. And he said he loved her, had always loved her. She had no idea what to do with that declaration. After so many lies, she didn’t think she could start believing him now.
Reese walked them to the door. “I hope some day you can forgive me, Maggie. I hope we can forge some kind of relationship from all the pain we’ve been through.”
She nodded, not certain how to respond. She needed time to process everything she’d learned.
Reese put his hand on Luke’s shoulder. “It won’t be long now.”
Maggie swallowed and closed her eyes, knowing he was referring to Abby. Time was a luxury she didn’t have.