She nodded. “Good. I, um…meant to call, but I didn’t know what to say.”
Maggie almost laughed. A simple “I hope you’re okay” would have been better than nothing. But then, Maggie had never expected it. She didn’t expect anything from her aunt.
Lilith straightened the strap of the bag on her shoulder. “I’ve also been thinking about what you said. And you’re right. I haven’t been a good aunt to you. I haven’t been a good anything. Your mother…she was my best friend. And I couldn’t look at you without blaming you. And…it was wrong.”
“Itwaswrong.” There was no sidestepping that fact. Lilith had blamed a child for something that was in no way her fault.
“I know that me saying this doesn’t change anything,” Lilith said quickly. “I know I let you down at a time when you really needed me. I just want you to know that I understand I was wrong. That I was awful. That you deserved better. I’m going to try todobetter.”
It was too late for Lilith to be any kind of family member. Heck, it was too late for them to have any relationship at all. Butif she was saying that she’d stop throwing insults and hurtful words Maggie’s way every time she saw her, then she’d take it.
“I appreciate you saying that.”
Lilith dipped her head. “I wish you well, Maggie. Maybe one day I can somehow mend what I damaged.”
That wouldn’t be easy, and they both knew it.
“I’ll see you later.” Lilith turned, grabbed her to-go cup from the counter, and left Bloom.
Her aunt had barely stepped away when Ethan was up and walking toward her. “Are you okay?”
“I am.” She traced the green specks in Ethan’s eyes. “Because I have you. I have Polly. And I’ve learned that family isn’t always blood. It’s the people who love us.”
His arms slid around her waist. “I do. Love you.”
“I’ve loved you since before I completely knew what love was, Ethan. I’ve loved you from the other side of the country, when there was so much distance between us you should have been the furthest thing from my mind.”
“You’vealwaysbeen on my mind. I don’t know hownotto think about you.”
She tugged him down and touched her forehead to his. “Thank God I don’t have to love you from afar anymore.”
“Thank God.”
Ethan kepthis eyes on Maggie, who was behind the counter with Polly. The two women were talking. Laughing. And the smile on Maggie’s face almost lifted the weight that had been pressing on his chest since she’d been taken. Since he’d pulled her out of the water, her body limp and unresponsive.
“Are you okay?”
He turned to look at Connor beside him. “I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from pulling her from the river. For a moment, I thought…” Shit. He couldn’t finish the sentence. He couldn’t eventhinkabout finishing it.
Connor leaned closer. “She’s alive.”
Ethan nodded, gaze going back to her one more time before scanning the room. David Collins sat near the books, coffee and novel in front of him. As usual, he was alone and, other than ordering his drink, he hadn’t spoken to a single person.
Anika and Mark sat at another table. They were obviously having a good relationship day, because she was leaning over the table, touching his hand, and he had a lazy grin on his face.
Maureen was talking to Deputy Cox near the door, a tulip in hand.
He knew just about everyone who lived here. And the responsibility to keep them safe felt heavy.
“You ready to talk about what you found?” Ryan asked from the other side of the table.
His team went quiet, everyone’s eyes going to Ethan. They’d chosen a corner table for privacy. Others didn’t need to know what they were discussing.
He pulled out his phone and opened the list before setting it in the center of the table.
“Francie Collins, David Collins’s wife. Went missing twenty-five years ago. Never found.” He shot a look to David Collins in the corner, but the man didn’t look up. “Opal Sinclair, Maggie’s mother, found dead in the water, drugs in her system, twenty-three years ago. Lila Wren, a tourist, missing for fifteen years. Eileen Baker, a local missing for ten. And Fern Paley, a local, found dead in the water, drugs in her system, six years ago.”
He remembered each of them off the top of his head. Five women. All missing or found dead. All in their forest.
