“Oh, this is nice,” I exclaimed as I looked around. “Not that I expected anything else, but…”
“It was always an apartment, but when we originally moved here, it hadn’t been renovated since the seventies. But while wewere here, we did some fixing up. After we got the resort rebuilt, Haven stayed out here and did some more updates. He’s the oldest of my boys—” There was a subtle hitch in her voice. Her gaze met mine. “My oldest was actually Bree. My daughter. She passed away after the fire.”
Since I knew this detail from Cole and Asher, I wasn’t shocked, but my heart clanged with pain for their loss. “I’m so sorry,” I simply said, thinking she needed to share it however she chose.
“It’s okay,” she said, her tone level. “It feels like this hole of information when people don’t know that detail.” She didn’t say anything more, and I didn’t press.
“Why isn’t Haven staying here now?” I finally asked.
“Well, he and Elsa built on her family’s old property. Just next door. Well, next door by Alaska standards.”
I was relieved when Maggie chuckled. I sensed she had almost taught herself how to talk about her daughter’s passing without getting caught in the quicksand of it.
“Ah, I see.”
“So the boys keep joking some of them might move over here, but you might as well because it’s available,” she added.
“Are you sure?” I looked around. There was a small kitchen and living room area, a bathroom, and threeentire bedrooms. I was a little surprised the guys weren’t using the space.
“I think…” she paused, her lips twisting to the side. “This place was crowded for us after the fire, and we had Tommy. He was a baby.”
“Oh, that’s a lot of people for this space.”
Maggie nodded. “It was a sad time. We’d lost the resort, for what it was at the time. It’s better now, and I’m glad it’s rebuilt. We needed that.”
I could almost feel the grief she carried. It wasn’t exactly heavy, but it burned, like an ember that never quite cooled.
“I understand. Well, thank you. Are you sure you don’t want me to pay rent?”
“It’s empty. At some point, maybe some staff will start staying over here, but so far, we don’t have any staff that’ve wanted to live full-time on-site. So, the guys are up in one of the staff suites we built, and they like it. Chloe sometimes stays in the staff rooms.” Maggie shrugged. “I don’t like it to be empty. I’ve been to therapy,” she added with a sheepish smile. “I dounderstand that I like to take young women under my wing because I lost my daughter, and I miss her a lot, and there are enough boys around.” Her low laugh held a bittersweet note.
“You have six of them, and Tommy.”
“I know, right?” She rolled her eyes affectionately. “I love my boys just as much as I loved my daughter, but it’s a different energy, you know?”
“Oh, I imagine. My sister says I’m the tomboy in the family.”
She curled an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze as we walked back outside. “Maybe so.” She added casually, as if it didn’t matter, “For what it’s worth, Cole’s a flirt. But he’s a good man. Heart of gold, that one.”
Her tone was light, but I wasn’t sure what to make of why she said it just then.
We walked toward the parking area.
“That’s not?—”
I stopped when Maggie did. “What?”
She gestured toward the car. “Oh… Oh my God.”
Maggie and I stopped and stared. Inside my car was chaos. “Are those squirrels?” I asked, blinking rapidly.
“Yup. Three of them by my count,” Maggie replied.
They were wreaking havoc, tossing a plastic bag around like confetti.
I snapped my mouth shut and glanced at Maggie. She bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. That tipped me over the edge.
I threw my head back, laughing so hard I started crying. Tears rolled down my cheeks before I could stop them. When I caught my breath, I shook my head and met Maggie’s eyes again. “Well. I guess I forgot to close my window.”
