After a few minutes of gentle clicking, Bree said, "I always really liked your house. How long did you live here?"
"We moved in the day before our tenth wedding anniversary," Maggie said. "So, forty-two years."
"You were married to Gene for fifty-two years?" Bree asked.
"Yep. And I would have taken another fifty-two."
Bree watched Maggie knit for a few moments, the yellow stripe getting wider as she went. Maggie had been happily married to the same guy for fifty-two years.
Obviously some people were wired for long term. And Bree could see where Max might get the idea that she wasn"t one of them. But she just wasn"t so sure he was right about that.
Bree rolled to her side in the recliner, putting a hand under her cheek. "Hey, Mags, can I ask you something about you and Gene?"
"Sure, honey," Maggie said, still concentrating on her st.i.tches. But a sweet, almost-subconscious smile curved her lips, and Bree could tell that Maggie was still very much in love with her husband.
"How"d you keep things exciting for so long?"
Maggie laughed at that. "Exciting? Oh, Lord, sweetie, thank goodness it wasn"t exciting that whole time."
Bree felt her eyebrows raise. "What? It wasn"t fun?"
"I didn"t say it wasn"t fun. But it wasn"t exciting."
"I don"t understand." Bree pushed herself up to a sitting position.
Maggie put down her knitting and looked over at her. "You know how you go on a trip and you have the best time and you feel great and you try new things and feel thrilled the whole time?"
Bree nodded. "Yes. Of course. I love that."
Maggie smiled. "My favorite trip was an Alaskan cruise."
Cruising wasn"t really Bree"s style, but she said, "I love doing new things."
"So you know how you get home after the trip, and the first thing you do is take a great big breath and then you get into your own bed and lay down on your pillow and you just . . ." Maggie gave a big sigh. "You just feel wonderful? The trip was great, but there"s nothing like coming home."
Bree found herself nodding along to that. "Yeah, I"m with you." She always took that big, satisfied breath after a landing or a race or at the bottom of the snowy hill. She loved the exhilaration, but she also loved the sense of contentment that came after.
"Gene was that big, deep breath for me," Maggie said, her smile growing. "He was what I always came back to. He was home . . . the place I always wanted to be no matter where else I could be."
Bree felt like Maggie had just sucked the oxygen from her lungs.
He was what I always came back to.
The place I always wanted to be. No matter where else I could be.
That was Max.
But . . . was that . . . did that . . . Bree felt her mind spinning and her lungs fighting to expand and wondered if she was having a panic attack.
Bree put the footrest down on the recliner and stood swiftly. She paced to the fireplace, running her fingers through her hair.
"You okay, honey?" Maggie asked.
"After you fell in love and settled down, did you ever miss the exciting times?" Bree asked, turning to her. "Didn"t you miss the things that made your heart race? The things that made you get all . . . tingly?"
Maggie didn"t laugh at her. Instead, she considered the question. "I guess my heart never stopped racing," she said after a moment.
Bree felt her eyes widen. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, my heart raced every time he walked into a room. It still does, even now, when I think of him," Maggie said. "It raced for fifty-two years. Each time I told him I was pregnant, every time I saw him holding one of our children or laughing with them or pushing them on the swings, the first time he made me an anniversary gift because we didn"t have enough money to buy one. My heart flipped when he got his first promotion, and then when he told me he was going to start his own business. It fluttered whenever he fixed something around the house or worked on the car or made dinner-anytime he was taking care of us. It was a regular thing, honey."
Bree was fascinated by all that. "Really?" She tried to think of something Maggie might have done in her younger years. "That was equivalent to sneaking out after curfew and going skinny-dipping in the pond?"
Maggie laughed at that. "Oh, no. It was a . . . softer excitement. But so much deeper. It lingered. If that makes sense."
Bree had to admit that it did. The high from racing or jumping seemed to fade faster than the warmth she"d been feeling since she"d started noticing things about Max.
Bree took a deep breath. So babies and new businesses and him making dinner. Would those things excite her? As much as jumping out of airplanes?
"What about the trips? Learning new things?" Bree asked. "You didn"t miss those?"
"I didn"t give up any of that," Maggie said. "The trips became family trips, and I never stopped learning new things. I learned to knit when I was forty."
"I"m not really the knitting type, Mags."
Maggie just shook her head. "And I"ll tell you what"s even better-the thrill of learning something new or going somewhere new multiplies as you have people you love with you. Seeing them light up is even better than being excited yourself."
Bree stopped pacing at that and looked at the older woman.
She realized she knew exactly what Maggie meant. Seeing Max at the end of a ski run or on the ground after a jump, or watching him when he was storm chasing or when he was talking about weather was just as good as doing something she loved.
"So things with Gene were exciting," Bree said.
Maggie"s smile softened. "They were. And Gene was my anchor through it all. He was the reason I could be neck-deep in everything, enjoying the swim, but not be swept away by it."
Bree could suddenly take a deep breath again.
She got it.
Max could let her push and try new things and take risks, and he was always there-smiling at her on the way down, grinning at the end, making her feel safe the entire time.
Bree crossed to the chair and sat down again.
"You okay?" Maggie asked.
Bree took another deep breath, then admitted to them both, "Yes. I actually think I am."
"Good." Maggie gave her an affectionate look, then picked up her knitting again. "Girls like us, who love to take those big leaps, need to be sure to have a reliable parachute, you know."
Bree smiled. "I thought those of us who like to dive into the deep waters needed a good anchor. Was Gene your anchor or your parachute?"
Maggie nodded. "Yes."
Bree laughed and leaned the recliner back again. "Okay, tell me about some of your big leaps and deep waters over the years."
So Maggie did. For nearly an hour. And when she was done, she had a beautiful blanket for her first granddaughter, who was due to arrive in October.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
"Gentlemen." Max greeted Jake and Wes in the town square. He hadn"t seen Bree in almost two hours, and those hours hadn"t been nearly as restful as he would have liked.
"How far did you get?" Wes asked.
Max knew his uncle was asking about how far along he"d gotten on the building inspections and repairs at the school, but he couldn"t help that his mind immediately went to how far he"d gotten with Bree. d.a.m.n. "Not as far as we wanted," Max told him. He meant that in multiple ways. He wanted a lot more than he"d gotten from Bree-mutual o.r.g.a.s.ms or not.
"I can give you a couple of my guys tomorrow," Wes told him.
"We"ll take them."
"How are things going with Bree?" Wes asked.
Max"s spine went ramrod straight. "What do you mean?"
He didn"t miss the look that pa.s.sed between Jake and Wes. They definitely seemed amused.
But Wes said, "She was excited to learn more about building inspection and repair from you. Has she been helpful?"
Wes was Bree"s boss and had been supportive of Bree learning more so she could take over the majority of the emergency-management tasks. Of course he would want to know how she was doing.
Which meant Max had overreacted-and given himself away. He cleared his throat. "Fine. It"s all . . . fine."
Fine was definitely not the right word, but Max was not going to hash this out with his cousin and uncle at the moment.
Wes chuckled. "With anyone else, I"d warn him that Bree can be a handful, but I don"t have to tell you that." He clapped Max on the shoulder.
That was for sure. No one knew Bree better than Max, and calling her a handful was accurate. But the term made his thoughts skitter off in inappropriate directions this time.
"Yeah, thank-"
"Chief Mitch.e.l.l, you have to help us!"
Max, Jake, and Wes all swung toward the young voice at once.
Wes stepped toward the little boy who"d come running up. "What"s going on?" he asked the kid.
There was another little boy slightly behind him, and Max realized they were Tim Hubert"s sons. They looked just like their dad.
"Chief."
That voice Max knew very well. He turned to find Bree approaching from across the square.
G.o.d, she looked beautiful. She was in uniform now, but he knew that there would be a slight whisker burn on her collarbone and possibly a small love bite on her inner thigh. His body hardened as their eyes met briefly. In that flash, he knew she was recalling everything from a couple of hours ago as well.
"What"s up, Bree?" Wes asked, his hand still on the little boy"s shoulder.
"Altercation on Main," she said, pulling her attention to Wes. "A tow-truck driver got into it with some guys who are doing the tree removal."
"Okay, I"ll be right there." Wes looked back down at the little boy. "Brody, what do you need?"
"Kayley won"t come out of our house."
Wes frowned. "What do you mean?"
"She thinks our dog is still in there."
Max remembered that Tim had two sons and a daughter. He guessed Kayley was Brody"s little sister.
"We can help Brody out," Jake said, pointing between himself and Max.
Wes nodded. "Brody, this is my son, Jake, and his friend Max. They went to high school with your mom and dad. They"re soldiers. They"re going to help you and Kayley."
The kid looked impressed with the soldier thing, and Max grinned. They were in.
"Thanks, son." Wes started toward Main with Bree.
"No problem." Jake turned just in time to see Max watching Bree go.
Max couldn"t quite regret it, though. The view was spectacular.
Thankfully, Jake didn"t have time to rib Max about anything. They had an a.s.signment.
"Let"s go," Jake said. He looked at Brody. "I"m going to grab my bag from my truck, then we"re right behind you."
Max ran to his truck to grab his supplies as well. There was no telling what they were going to run into. Max did remember reading a report that the Hubert house had sustained a lot of damage.
As they headed across the yards and between houses toward the Huberts" place, Brody explained that his parents were busy with cleanup activities elsewhere and that Brody had been put in charge of babysitting his younger siblings.
"Kayley snuck out?" Max asked him.
"Yeah. But I know where she went. She won"t stop talking about Cooper. We couldn"t find him after the storm. She thinks he"s stuck somewhere in the house."
So Cooper was the dog.