Her Holiday Secret. Jennifer Greene
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to take me more than two shakes.”
“But you made the dinner. And I really meant to help—”
“So you can help next time.” Although that would never happen, Maggie suspected. Growing up, the sisters had bickered like cats and dogs over stuff like this. Joanna was infamous for making the virtuous offer, but somehow always managed to be out of sight when it came time to do the dishes or the chore. But that was then, and this was now. “I made a fresh pot of tea—raspberry mint. You want a cup?”
“Maybe a short one. But I don’t want to rush you on time. When’s the sheriff picking you up?”
“Not until seven. And I keep telling you, it’s no big thing. Andy just offered to take me car shopping.” Maggie set a sturdy mug in front of her sister, feeling her heart catch just looking at Joanna’s face.
Any nerves about meeting Andy were backbumered. She was so worried about her sister that she could hardly think. Steve had died more than a year ago. God knew the two had been inseparably in love, but Maggie felt at an increasing loss for how to help Joanna move past her grief.
Her sister was five years older than she, and in Maggie’s view, the real beauty in the family. Now, though, Joanna’s long blond hair was lanky, her elegant features drawn, the huge almond-shaped green eyes deeply shadowed. Her slim white hands trembled even holding the mug of tea.
Maggie had always been the strong cookie of the pair. From the time her brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, she’d naturally stepped in. Long before Steve died, she’d had her sister over for dinner once a week, took her nephews all the time, stopped by the house whenever she could. But Steve had been gone a year now, and Joanna seemed more fragile instead of less. Increasingly everything seemed to throw her sister, from finances to leaky faucets to snowstorms. Joanna paced the floor at night, worrying about her two sons. She didn’t sleep right, didn’t eat right, didn’t take care of herself.
Maggie could fix the stupid leaky faucets and sneakily pad Joanna’s bank account, but she didn’t know how to fix her sister. The two may have fought ferociously growing up, but they’d also always been hopeless gigglers. Lately it was tougher than climbing a mountain to win a smile out of Joanna.
“Hey, did I tell you how great Colin’s been to me? I don’t know how many times he’s been over since the accident. Shoveled my walk without asking, stacked my wood. What’s wrong with him?” Maggie teased.
“He always worshiped the ground you walked on. And you’re terrific with both boys. I can’t seem to get either one of them to talk to me...” Joanna spilled a little tea. “I don’t seem to be doing anything right lately.”
Maggie hustled for a cloth to wipe up the spill. “Listen, you goose, you’re doing fine. Quit being so hard on yourself. Do you remember either of us talking to Mom or Dad when we were teenagers? There’s just this stage where it’s hard to talk to a parent. But I do think you should get out more.”
“Mags, I’m not ready to date anyone.”
“So don’t date. But you could take up skiing, or aerobics... you love cards, maybe you could find a euchre club. There’s a dozen things you could do to get out, meet people again—”
“You’ve got ten times more courage than I do, Maggie. I’m just not good with charging into things the way you do. Speaking of which...do you know this guy you’re going out with tonight?”
“Andy? Nope. But being the sheriff, I think it’s a fairly safe bet he isn’t a serial killer on the sly. And how well do you have to know someone to spend a couple hours car shopping with them?” Maggie asked wryly.
“I still don’t know why you just didn’t ask me. I’d have taken you. Or you could have borrowed my car. You do so much for me all the time, Mags, and you never let me return the favor—”
Cripes, they were going down another long, mournful road. “Come on, you,” Maggie said humorously, “I couldn’t see turning down guy help. Not on this. What the two of us know about mechanics would fit in a thimble with room to spare.”
“Well, that’s true. Clothes shopping’d be a lot more fun,” Joanna admitted. “For that matter, Christmas is coming and I haven’t even started that shopping yet.”
“Good. Neither have I. How about if we block off next Thursday morning and get a start on it together?”
It took a while to get her sister on a more upbeat track. By the time she had Joanna bundled up and headed out the door, though, headlight beams were turning in her drive. Andy. And she hadn’t had two seconds to brush her hair or yank on her good boots, much less slap on some lipstick.
Still, she stood freezing in the open doorway. Andy pulled up next to her sister’s car and stepped out. The yard light didn’t beam far enough for her to identify his vehicle, but it was something low and black instead of the car with the sheriffs logo. He stopped long enough to introduce himself to her sister and exchange a few words.
Before driving off, Joanna turned around to level her a look. Maggie knew That Look from their childhood. It meant she’d neglected to tell her sister some critical tidbit of information...such as that her casual don’t-sweat-it company for the evening was a priceless hunk, for example.
Which he was. He ambled toward the door, as lazy as a long, cool drink of something wicked, his boots crunching in the snow, his jacket open over a thick black sweater.
Her sister’s car lights disappeared down the road, and then there was nothing but him—and a wham-slam of magic that confounded Maggie. It was absolutely ridiculous for a practical, grounded, capable twenty-nine-year-old woman to feel bowled over by the look in a guy’s eyes. But there it was. She hadn’t suddenly stopped worrying about Joanna; no problems in her job or life had instantly disappeared. But darn it, he was so darling she just wanted to sip him in.
His mouth kicked up a grin long before he reached her back porch. Those eyes of his were darker than a midnight sky. He gave the length of her a once-over, from the floppy socks to her jeans and navy angora sweater to her hair flying every which way. Maggie knew darn well there was nothing in her appearance to earn that sizzling spark.
“Remembered anything yet that I need to arrest you for?”
Sparks or no sparks, she had to laugh. “I haven’t robbed any banks since the accident—but that’s all I’m willing to swear to.”
“Uh-huh. That memory loss was the story you gave me last time. I was a little afraid you’d extend that amnesia business to tonight, knowing how thrilled you were at the idea of car shopping.”
“If I didn’t have to have transportation, nothing could talk me into domg this,” she admitted. “And I did think about cancelling. This is an awful thing to ask anyone to do, Andy.”
“As I remember it, I offered. You’re not putting me through anything I didn’t volunteer for. And, speaking for myself, I think this is like toothpaste.”
She’d just turned around to pull on her suede boots and grab her jacket and purse. “Toothpaste?”
“Yeah. There’s just no point in getting all hot and heavy and involved with a woman, only to find out she squeezes the toothpaste tube from the top. I mean, where can you take a wild, immoral affair after that? You just know it’s going downhill.”
“Um...I take your point. I think. But I’m not exactly sure how you got from toothpaste-tube-abusers to car shopping?”
“Car shopping with a woman,” Andy informed her, “gets all those down-and-dirty details out of the way right up front. If you go for the awkward first date, out-to-dinner thing, what do you ever learn? Nobody’s honest. Both sides are too busy tiptoeing around each other, trying to be ultra nice.”
“I sure agree with that. First dates, you’re just kind of stuck, being on your shaved and perfumed behavior, so to speak,” Maggie replied with a chuckle.
“Uh-huh.