“And my tree is a fire hazard?” Lilith asked, disbelief threading her words.
“When it becomes overgrown, yes. As a precaution you might want to prune the lower limbs and ensure you keep all needles and cones off the ground.”
“I’ve lived here for over thirty years. There’s never been a fire.”
“There never is—until the first one. I can get names of people who can do the work if you’d like?”
Her lips thinned. “I’ll look into it myselfwhenI get time.”
Meaning, she wouldn’t. Ethan might have been lying about the neighborhood checks, but he wasn’t wrong about the fire hazard.
Lilith looked like she was going to turn, only to face him again. “Are you and Maggie dating again?”
The sound of Maggie’s name from Lilith made every protective instinct scream to life. “With all due respect, ma’am, that’s not your concern.”
If his words offended her, she didn’t show it. “That girl has made an art out of cutting people out of her life.”
“I need to go, Lilith.”
“She’s a flight risk. You’d be smarter to stay with Nel.”
“You’ve never given Maggie enough credit.”
“And you’ve always given her too much.” Lilith shook her head. “One fight and she left me. After everything I did for her. Stay with her at your own risk.”
One fight? That was so wrong it was laughable. But it did confirm one thing—she and Maggiehadfought that night. The same night, he was assuming, that Maggie had left him.
He waited for the front door to close after Lilith before walking away, but not toward his truck. He headed toward the side of the house. Joel joined him, both of them remaining low and avoiding windows as they slipped around the corner.
He found Maggie in the same place she used to wait for him when they were kids, legs dangling over the edge of the porch roof.
This was how she’d snuck out when she’d wanted to get out of the house but didn’t want to face her aunt.
He stopped beneath her. “Drop.”
A small smile curved her lips. Without a second of hesitation, she shuffled farther over the edge of the ledge and dropped, trusting him to catch her. And he did.
For a moment, he didn’t set her down, just held her in his arms. “Feels like old times.”
“Is that a good thing?” Her warm breath whispered over his lips.
He opened his mouth to respond, to tell her that he’d lived for these moments with her, when a shout-whisper from the roof cut in.
“Hell no! I don’t trust you.”
He and Maggie looked up to see Polly still on the roof.
“Come on, Polly,” Maggie whispered. “We have to go.”
“Isn’t there a less fall-to-my-death kind of way to get down?”
Joel’s lips curled into a grin. “Afraid not, darlin’. I’m your way off that roof. Don’t worry, I’ve had quite a few women fall for me in my day, and they’ve all lived to tell the story.”
Polly rolled her eyes. “But have they livedhappily?”
“Polly, drop,” Maggie pushed.
Polly groaned. But she shuffled to the edge and dropped.
