“Well, well, well,” she said as the trouble triplets, with their ripped denim and facial piercings, paused. “You’re not gonna break any windows while you’re here, are you?”
The boy, who’d grown at least another two inches since they’d met in the dark a few months ago, kicked at the grass with a knock-off Doc Marten. “We’ll try to control ourselves,” Tommy promised with an impish wiggle of eyebrow.
“Good enough for me,” she said. “There’s a ton of food over there. Sodas and water are in the red cooler.”
“What’s a soda?” Lipstick smirked.
Maggie sighed and thanked her lucky stars that her smirky teen didn’t get mouthy. “Pop,” she corrected. “If I see any of you trying to sneak beer out of the keg, I will go zombie apocalypse on you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they chorused.
“Now, go say hi to the graduate.”
They sauntered into the crowd with feigned teenage confidence.
Maggie took a time out to give Mr. and Mrs. Meng, Jun’s parents, a tour of the property.
“You’ve certainly accomplished a lot in a very short time,” Mrs. Meng said.
“It’s the only way I know how,” she confessed.
Mrs. Meng excused herself to force Cody and Jun to pose for pictures in their T-shirts.
Mr. Meng let out a weighty sigh as he watched Cody slide an arm around his daughter. “A kid who can rally this kind of loyalty must be pretty special,” he said finally.
“He really is,” Maggie told him. “Listen, I’m not a parent. But I can tell you that there are qualities more important than fancy degrees and family money. I’m guessing when it comes down to it, you want your daughter with someone with a heart of gold who treats her with respect. Who pushes her to follow her dreams, not just his own. He’s a good kid turning out to be a good man.”
“I guess I can give him a chance,” Mr. Meng grumbled. “But one misstep, and I’ll make him regret the day he ever met me.”
She watched him cross the terrace and strike up a conversation with Cody.
Love took on a lot of forms. She found Silas in the crowd. Easy, since he was a few inches taller than the rest of their guests. He was on the bluff, standing next to Michael as his brother said something to their parents.
Sometimes it meant holding tight and planting roots. Other times it meant loving enough to let go. Maggie wished she knew which was the right choice for her. Holding on or letting go.
She spied Dean coming toward her, two glasses of wine in hand. His expression was odd.
“What’s wrong? Are you having a health emergency? Did you eat something weird? Oh my God. We didn’t give everyone food poisoning, did we?”
He shook his head, still looking a little dazed when he pushed one of the glasses at her.
“What?”
“I just got off the phone with an executive at the Welcome Home Network.”
“Oh boy.” She took a preemptive gulp of wine. The Welcome Home Network was the biggest home improvement network out there. It had launched the careers of people like Cat King. “Was it a wrong number?”
“It was not. They have an offer for you. Your own series. Two seasons guaranteed. On the East Coast. It’s a Main Street–makeover kind of idea where you’d go into a town and spend a season rehabbing their downtown.”
“Holy shit.” She took a deeper drink of her wine. She felt like the ground was crumbling under her feet, and she didn’t know if she was going to fly or fall.
“The money is generous enough I almost squealed when she mentioned the number. Major advertisers.”
“What about our show?”
“They’re willing to negotiate. Either you’d use it for behind-the-scenes or you could shoot episodes in the off-season.”
She looked around them. At the house. The people. The happy faces.
“This is the big-time, Mags. Forget leveling up. There’s nothing bigger.”
Her gaze landed on Silas, who had his arms around Michael and Niri as they video chatted with Taylor. “I feel like I’m going to throw up. I don’t know if I’m excited or terrified,” she admitted.
“Right there with you,” Dean said, eyes on Michael’s broad smile.
40
July rolled through Idaho with heat and sunshine that brought tourists flocking to Kinship, where they cooled off in the lake and river. Silas thoroughly enjoyed the Fourth by forgoing the festivities in town and watching the fireworks on the bluff with Maggie by a campfire. Kevin cowered in a bathtub on the second floor with the rapidly growing kittens keeping him company.