“All right, James, is this the handsome, heroic man who has stolen your heart?” she asked.
“Yes, it is,” James said warmly. “Maggie, this is Mr. Cassian Penn Livingston. Cassian, this is Miss Margaret Byrne.”
“Handsomeandheroic, she says?” Cassian remarked. “I like her already.”
“His words, not mine,” Maggie clarified, sticking out her hand for Cassian to shake.
Cassian crooked an eyebrow, and James realized that he was probably feeling a bit baffled by her forwardness. Ultimately, though, he moved to take Maggie’s hand. Just before Cassian grasped it, however, Maggie spluttered something like “Oh, to hell with it” and lunged forward, wrapping Cassian up in a hug instead. Cassian’s eyebrows shot up, and he froze for a second before he finally hugged her back.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Cassian. I promise I’ll be as formal as you want me to be once I start officially working for you, but first, I needed to thank you properly for looking after our James,” she said, pulling back from their hug. “On that enormous ship and ever since.”
Huffing a light laugh, Cassian nodded once. “You’re welcome.”
“Thank you for paying for me to come over here as well. And for handling the paperwork. James said that it’d be even easier coming here to work for you than it would have been had I wantedto come on my own. And I think he must have been right, considering how short the screening process seemed.”
“Anything for James,” Cassian said with a falsely modest shrug.
“Ah, see, I like him already, too, then,” Maggie said to James.
James beamed at both of them. Thank God everything was going well.
“Excuse me, Mr. Livingston,” John Quinn said, holding up a couple of Maggie’s bags. “Where should I put these?”
“Upstairs. Fourth bedroom on the left,” Cassian instructed.
John hurried off.
“Fourth bedroom,” Maggie repeated, seemingly impressed. “Out of how many?”
“Nine,” Cassian replied.
“Nine bedrooms. And you’ve been on your own here, managing the whole house by your lonesome?”
“John and I have been working together,” James said. “I like the challenge of it. Which isn’t to say that I’m not behind on plenty of chores here. But I know that of this is temporary. Cassian said that the other house won’t be nearly as big.”
“James has been a treasure,” Cassian confirmed. “And I’m perfectly fine with how he’s been running things for the summer, especially since this arrangement was the best thing that I could come up with to ensure us some privacy.”
“And I’m really only as behind as I am because Cassian bothers me constantly,” James remarked in a playful tone.
Cassian leveled a look, and James held up his hands in mock innocence while Maggie laughed.
“Alright, Mr. Household Steward, may I have some tea, please?”
“Of course, Mags,” James said, hooking his hands behind his back. “I’ll make some for the both of us.”
“Coffee for me, James,” Cassian said.
“Cream, no sugar,” James confirmed with a nod. “I know.”
Cassian threw him a wink.
James turned to leave. Walking down the hall, James listened to Cassian and Maggie becoming engaged in conversation as they soon followed. When James reached the kitchen, the melodic sound of Maggie’s laughter caused a wonderful warmth to bubble in his chest, the feeling spreading as Cassian began to laugh, too.
Pausing in front of the kitchen, James looked over his shoulder to see Cassian and Maggie heading into one of the sitting rooms, and he caught Cassian’s eye. He was about to turn back around when Cassian encouraged Maggie into the room and then seemed to excuse himself. He started over.
Curious as to what he wanted, James faced him more squarely and smiled a confused smile.
“Do you need something else?” James asked when Cassian reached him.
