He laughed because she wanted him to, and she appreciated it.
“I went. One weekend every month. Until I turned eighteen. That’s when I decided I didn’t want to have anything to do with him or them. It was a relief for everyone. He paid for my college, at least the years I attended. Something that was hard for me to swallow, but Mom stuck on that. She died when I was twenty-one. A car accident. She had a job she loved finally. With Dad’s financial support, she’d moved us into a little house in a nice neighborhood. But it was only home because she was there.
“When she died, I lost my balance. I dropped out and got married. I tried to replace my mom and my father with Dean.”
“Twenty-one, Mags. Who knows what the hell they’re doing at twenty-one?”
She gave him a smile. “Hardly anyone.”
“And look where you are now.”
She was enjoying the moonlight on land she’d bought with her own money. His hand slipped under her shirt to stroke the bare skin of her back. It soothed her rough edges.
“Dayana, she made an effort after Mom’s accident to, I don’t know, get to know me? Acknowledge me? I don’t hold it against her, what she did as a kid or a teenager. But I also don’t know how to open the doors and let her in.”
“And now she’s here, knocking on your door.”
“And now she’s here,” she repeated, nodding slowly.
“Neither of you is the kid caught in the middle anymore. You both get to make your own decisions. But that also doesn’t mean you have to automatically forgive and forget,” he pointed out.
“We’re going to see how this goes. Living together in a construction zone during a family crisis. We’ll either come out of it sisters or we won’t have to remember to send each other birthday cards every year.”
“Is your father still in Dayana’s life?” Silas asked carefully.
“He is. But he’s no longer in mine. He gave me money after Mom died. I wanted to refuse it, but there were medical bills, and I had nothing. Not even a degree. But I did have an idea. So I used part of the money to fix up our little house. I sold it at a profit and bought my next one, learning as I went. It took me four long years, but I finally got to mail him a check for every penny I owed him.”
“That must have felt good.”
“For about five minutes. Then I realized how much I would have rather had my mom back and a dad who loved me. And after I finished destroying the ugliest laundry room you could ever imagine, I decided it didn’t matter who did or didn’t love me. Who was or wasn’t here. I had myself, and that wasn’t going to change.”
And it still hadn’t. There was a solace and a sadness in that truth.
Silas looked up at the moon and blew out a breath. “Well, damn, Mags. I was countin’ on being able to stay mad at you for at least a few more days.”
“I should have told you I had a sister.”
“You should have. But at least now I understand why you didn’t. Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”
She reached up and tugged at the ends of his hair. “Thank you for making it easy to tell you.”
“I’d like to make a lot of things easier for you if you’d let me, Maggie.” His voice was gruff and again it managed to soothe.
“Maybe I’ll take you up on that,” she said softly.
PotHeadLibrarian: Maggie don’t take down the bird of paradise wallpaper in the foyer!!!! At least bring it to me and come hang it in my house!!!
DreemzComeTru: Just me or is Maggie glowing these days? IS THERE A BABY #MILAS???
ReelTalkSmurf: Can we talk about how cute Cody is?
37
June 1 brought with it real summer temperatures and a renewed energy at the Old Campbell Place. Silas’s crew had finished the foundational planting around the house and finished the massive undertaking of clearing brush and nuisance weeds from the remaining acreage. The expanded terrace was being meticulously laid out, mixing in original stone with new like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
The job was enough to keep Bitterroot Landscapes afloat in a down season. Sy would have survived with his crew intact thanks to savings and creativity. But Silas was grateful for Maggie and her big vision for helping even out a tough year.
The pinch of the plant closing was being felt in earnest now as the emergency plan to entice a new buyer had fallen through and the unemployment checks continued to barely cover necessities. Hundreds of neighbors vied for seasonal work with little to no experience. He, like the rest of his family and town, worried about their neighbors. About a mass exodus if they had to move for jobs. About the ones too proud to ask for help.