“Well. Come on. You saw the sparks between those two.”
“Yes, but—” Maggie stopped herself. “I can’t talk about my sister that way. And this is Phoebe. It’s not Ava or Ruby. You know what I mean?”
Olivia nodded. “I do, and maybe that’s part of the problem.”
Maggie suddenly wished she’d brought something to do. Her mother had invited the boys up to the house to make pickles and would drop them off at the library later. Maggie would pick them up there. She hadn’t planned on a project with Olivia, figured it was too soon after her return from San Diego. Too complicated with Noah Kendrick as a houseguest.
And she was too mad at Brandon.
She made herself smile as she changed the subject. “Daphne Stewart is something, isn’t she?”
“She wants to come back to Knights Bridge for a proper stay,” Olivia said. “She only stayed last night because it was all so last-minute and she had to get back to L.A. I also think she wasn’t sure she could handle being back here.”
“It was emotional for her. You could tell. She lived in town for such a short time but it had an impact, on her and on the people she met. She needed a brother, a man she could trust—who wouldn’t beat her up.”
“Your father,” Olivia said.
Maggie nodded, emotional herself. “Daphne helped him but he helped her. He was such a good guy, Liv.”
“I remember.”
“We all lost out when he died, but Phoebe most of all, although I don’t think she and that rat bastard from Orlando were meant for each other. But she’s never really had anyone since then.”
“Maybe that’s because she was waiting for a swashbuckler to sweep her off her feet,” Olivia said with a smile.
Maggie felt her own mood lighten. Sweat trickled down the nape of her neck. “Phoebe’s used to having people need her. Noah doesn’t need her. What does she have to offer a billionaire? She’s not a starlet. She’s…Phoebe.”
“Maybe Noah’s wondering what he has to offer her.”
“A winery, for starters,” Maggie said, partly serious, partly facetious.
Olivia went to the refrigerator and helped herself to a handful of crushed ice. She offered some to Maggie, rubbed her arms with hers. “Maybe Phoebe doesn’t want a winery. Maybe she just wants what she has.”
“That would be my sister,” Maggie said with a sigh. “She’s stubborn, you know. She’ll tell herself she doesn’t want anything but what she already has.”
“Noah took her by surprise, didn’t he?”
“They took each other by surprise. It’s not like Brandon and me. No surprises. I’ve known him my whole life. I know how he thinks. Wouldn’t you think he’d know how I think?”
Olivia watched the ice chips melt on her arm and didn’t answer.
“He can be such an idiot,” Maggie said, back on that train of thought. “What went on between us was never about money.”
“If Brandon wasn’t so thickheaded sometimes, Maggie, you wouldn’t love him so much.” Olivia took her towel, blotted her arm dry. “Maybe you two got into a pattern of thinking that you knew what was going on with the other person—like two halves of one whole instead of two individuals.”
Maggie wasn’t willing to go that far. “I talk.”
“Maybe you both should talk.” Then Olivia added, “To each other.”
“I’m too hot to talk, and when did you get so wise, my friend?” Maggie smiled. “Why don’t we let the guys talk demolition while we go swimming in the millpond?”
Olivia grinned. “I’ll grab my suit.”
“I’ve got one in the van.”
They drove out to the nineteenth-century sawmill the Frosts owned on a tributary to the Swift River. The small millpond and wood-sided mill, now converted into an apartment, were still intact. Maggie shivered just looking at the clear, clean, copper-tinted water. Tyler and Aidan hated swimming here. They preferred the warmer water of their friends’ pools. Maggie thought they might change their minds when they were older, although she didn’t want them to get the cuts and bruises that she, Phoebe and Olivia had swimming out here growing up. Like their nephews, Ava and Ruby had never been big on plunging themselves into ice-cold water.
Maggie sat on a sun-warmed boulder and dipped her feet into the water, then pulled them right out. “It didn’t seem this cold when we were kids.”
Olivia laughed. “It did, too. We were just oblivious.”
They eased into the water, each finding a rock to stand on as they got used to the chilly temperature. Maggie shut her eyes, appreciating the contrast between the waist-down cold and the waist-up heat. She remembered sneaking out here on a moonlit night with Brandon, back in the days when it felt like anything was possible.
She opened her eyes and realized Olivia was looking at her with concern. “I’m okay.” She smiled before she could burst into tears. “It’s a perfect day to be out here, isn’t it?”