“You haven’t told him yet?” Lexi asked. “Why not, Maggie?”
“I’m so scared,” Maggie said, losing the battle to stay strong before them as tears began to fall unchecked from her eyes. “What if there’s something wrong?”
“Because of the surgery?”
“I had all those drugs. What if they hurt the baby?”
Lexi nodded. “I know exactly how you feel. I had the same problem. I was terrified something was wrong with Patrick. I put off telling Ian until I knew everything was okay.”
There was tremendous comfort, Maggie had to admit, in having someone who understood exactly what she was going through.
“So we’ll take you for tests,” Taryn said, reasonably. “Not here, though. The boys will find out before we even have a chance to get there.”
But Maggie shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Maggie exhaled. “No insurance. And I can’t afford to pay cash.”
Taryn and Lexi exchanged a look. “And before you even think of suggesting it, I will not accept charity.”
“Tell her,” Taryn prodded Lexi. “Tell her what you were telling me on the way over.”
“Tell me what?”
“Well, a couple of months ago Michael brought me some of your home-canned stuff. I loved it – so much so that I gave some to my partner, Aidan, and he loved it, too. We’ve had such a difficult time getting quality organic products for our menus, he wanted to talk to you about a possible business agreement.”
“What kind of agreement?”
“We contract with you for organic produce and ask you to oversee the harvesting and canning processes. It would be a term type thing, so if after a year or two you feel it’s not in your best interests you can opt out. Aidan is extremely flexible and fair-minded about that kind of thing.”
“My land?” Maggie asked warily.
“Stays yours. There will be occasional inspections and whatnot, required by federal regulations, of course. Although I’m sure that Aidan will ask that you provide exclusively for the Celtic Goddess and not any other restaurants.”
Maggie was stunned. “But I couldn’t possibly do all that.”
“You will have a staff, equipment, whatever you need. Delegate as much or as little as you want.”
Maggie sank into a chair. It was too good to be true.
“The added benefit of all this is that you will be required to have meetings with Aidan and myself. Quite a few of them initially. Some of those will undoubtedly be at our corporate offices down in Benton, Georgia.” Lexi paused. “I know some great, really discreet specialists down there, Maggie. No one else would ever have to know, not unless you wanted them to.”
Maggie couldn’t help it. She started to cry. “Why would you do all this for me?” she asked tearfully.
“Because, Maggie, like it or not, you’re one of us now,” Taryn said with a smile. “And we take care of our own.”
––––––––
“Explain to me again why you think I shouldn’t go with you,” Michael pouted as Maggie packed a small overnight bag. If she hadn’t been so nervous, it might have been funny. But she was nervous, afraid that she would give something away. So far she hadn’t had to lie to him. Everything she’d told him was one hundred percent true, even if it wasn’t one hundred percent complete.
“You’re supposed to be recovering, remember? It’s only for a day or two,” Maggie said, keeping her voice light. “And Ian’s not going either.”
“I’m not sure I like this, Maggie.”
“I know, Michael, and I’m sorry about that. I am going to miss you terribly, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to a little girl time with Lexi. I haven’t done anything like that in a long time.”
Michael shifted uncomfortably, his eyes watching her every move.
“You trust Lexi, don’t you?” She refrained from asking him if he trusted her, because either way she didn’t want to hear the answer. An affirmative would rack her with guilt, a negative would crush her.
*
“Of course I do.” To a point, that was. Lexi would never do anything to intentionally cause harm to anyone, ever. She was quite possibly the gentlest soul he’d ever met. Yet there was nothing Lexi would not do to help someone else she cared about, either. If she believed she was helping Maggie in some way, even if it was something she knew he would not agree with, she would not hesitate.
And he was pleased by the fact that Maggie was growing so close to Taryn and Lexi. The more she became of part of his family the better as far as he was concerned. And he certainly wouldn’t begrudge her a little ‘girl time’ as she called it. But there was something else there, something unspoken, something vague and undefined, that was making him uneasy.