The kitchen fell silent.
Nessie’s hands stilled on the pie crust. “Holy shi—” She darted a look across the kitchen to where Oliver and Mariah’s son, Tate, had stopped coloring to listen in. “—smokes. Oliver, stop eavesdropping.”
“We weren’t,” Oliver protested.
“Yes, you were. This is girl talk.” Nessie pointed toward the other room. “Go find Jax and the guys.”
The boys grumbled, but dutifully gathered their coloring books and sulked away.
“Maggie, that’s a lot of money,” Lila whispered once they were gone.
“I know. It would make me their highest-paid talent.”
Greta whistled softly. “So they’re in full panic mode.”
Maggie shrugged, trying to appear more nonchalant than she felt. “But it’s not about the money. It’s about what I’m leaving behind if I go back.”
“I get it. Money isn’t everything,” Mariah said. And out of all of them, she probably did understand the best. She’d left behind an even bigger inheritance to move to Solace. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. Part of me says I’d be crazy to walk away. I don’t really enjoy the cameras or celebrity, but the money’s more than I ever dreamed of, and I get to do what I love.” She finished one potato and set it with the growing pile. “But the other part...”
“The other part is here,” Greta finished. She stood back and assessed her and Mariah’s handiwork with the garlands before nodding and pointing at Maggie. “Your heart. It’s here with a certain tall, broody farrier, a gentle giant of a dog, and those rambunctious kittens.”
“It’s not just Anson.” But even as she said it, she knew it was mostly Anson. The ranch, the women at Haven House, the found family around her—they all mattered, but Anson was the axis this new world revolved around.
“Speaking of difficult men, are things okay with you two?” Nessie slid the pie into the oven and turned, wiping her hands on her apron. “Every time I see you together, you’re either staring at each other like lovesick teenagers or looking like you’re about rip his clothes off and climb him like a tree.”
Heat crept up Maggie’s neck. “That obvious, huh?”
“Obvious?” Mariah drawled. “Honey, you could power all the Christmas lights in the state with the sexual tension between you two.”
Greta turned, brow raised. “Wait. Youhaven’tclimbed his tree yet? Why not?”
Maggie snapped up a peeler and a potato from the pile, focusing on the task as she tried to find words that wouldn’t feel like a betrayal of Anson’s privacy. “He’ll hold me all night, but the second I reach for him, he just... freezes.”
The women exchanged glances.
“Some men need time,” Nessie said softly. “Especially men who’ve been where these guys have been. With Jax, it took months before he really let me in.”
“And don’t get me started on Owen,” Naomi added. “I practically needed dynamite to get through his defenses.”
“Men with trauma need direct communication,” Johanna said, obviously donning her therapist hat for a moment. “You’re dancing around each other. Just tell him what you want.”
“I have told him.” Maggie sighed. “And I’m trying to be patient. It’s just...”
“Frustrating?” Lila supplied with a knowing smile.
“God, yes.” The admission burst from her like steam from a pressure cooker. “We sleep in the same bed every night. I feel him against me. I know he wants me. But it’s like he wants me and hates himself for wanting me at the same time. I’ve told him a thousand times I don’t care about the scars.”
“Maybe it’s not about whether you accept his scars.” Johanna stopped stirring the gravy to look her directly in the eye. “Maybe it’s about whether he does.”
“Don’t tell him they don’t matter, because that minimizes them,” Naomi said softly. “You can’t love him despite his broken parts. You have to love him because of them.” Her expression softened when Ghost stepped into the room, and the kitchen fell silent except for the soft hiss of bubbling pots.
Ghost froze mid-step on his way to the coffee pot, his gray gaze sweeping over them. “What?”
“Nothing,” all six women chorused together, and Maggie hid her blazing face behind her hands.
His expression didn’t change, but amusement flickered in his eyes. “Right.” He turned away from them and poured coffee into his favorite mug.
