“She needs to vent,” Brandon said as he joined them. “She can cater a dinner for seventy-five people without breaking a sweat, but this is different. It’s her kids. The boys are good, though. All’s well that ends well.”
Noah had entered the library with Brandon and knew how terrified he’d been for his sons, and for his sister-in-law.
Maggie stalked over to him, hands on her hips, some color returning to her cheeks. “Why didn’t you wait for the firefighters?” she asked as if in midthought.
“Noah and I were right there, Maggie,” Brandon said. “What were we supposed to do, twiddle our thumbs?”
She ignored him and glared at Noah. “You, too. You both had to go tearing into the library on your own.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond and spun back to her husband. “What if that tree had dislodged and fallen on you? Phoebe and the boys were safe.”
“We wouldn’t have gone up if it wasn’t safe,” Brandon said.
“You would have.”
“I’ve worked construction since I could pick up a hammer. I knew it was safe. I didn’t know Phoebe and the boys were okay.” His tone was patient, unwavering. “We had a good angle. We got through. Coming back down with Phoebe and the boys was risky, so we waited for the firefighters.”
“Phoebe had everything under control.” Maggie blinked back tears. “But if she and Tyler and Aidan had gone up those stairs thirty seconds later, and that tree, the window…”
“They’d have been in a world of hurt,” Brandon said bluntly. “Lucky that didn’t happen. Don’t think about what could have happened, Maggie. Think about what did happen.”
She nodded, calmer. Her sons edged toward their parents. Brandon slung an arm over Aidan’s small shoulders. “Aunt Phoebe protected us,” the boy said.
Tyler nodded. “It was a scary storm.”
“We don’t get many storms like that,” Maggie said, reassuring them despite her own lingering fear.
Tyler kicked a small stone in the lane, then looked up at the adults, his eyes still wide. “Aunt Phoebe said we just had to wait for someone to come get us. We were trapped, weren’t we?”
Brandon pointed at the fallen tree. “The storm took down that tree. It was blocking the stairs. It wasn’t even close to you guys in the attic. You can see that from here, can’t you, Tyler?”
“Yeah,” the boy said.
Next to him, his younger brother took his father’s hand. “I wasn’t scared, Dad.”
“It’s okay to be scared. We all get scared.” Brandon looked straight at his wife. “It’s what we do when we’re scared that matters.”
“Aunt Phoebe is brave,” Aidan said.
Brandon nodded. “She did the right thing today.”
Maggie looked at Noah. “That’s Phoebe. It’s who she is. She always tries to do the right thing, for all of us.”
It would be like that, Noah knew. The O’Dunn sisters would stick together. An attack on one—even a perceived attack—was an attack on all four. Most of the time, their solidarity was probably a positive for all of them. He glanced at the ambulance. Phoebe was back on her feet, her arm bandaged as she stood next to Olivia. She looked steady, her hair shining in what was now a clear, cool afternoon. He wondered how much freedom she had to do what she wanted and not just what her family wanted, or what she thought they wanted.
Elly O’Dunn arrived with Ava and Ruby, and Brandon and Maggie and their sons joined them at the ambulance. Phoebe smiled at her family. Noah knew that it’d be her instinct to reassure them.
Dylan sighed. “Damn. That was too close for comfort.”
“As Brandon says, all’s well that ends well,” Noah said. “Phoebe and the Sloan boys are in good shape. The damage to the library is repairable.”
“What about you, Noah?” his friend asked him. “You got to be a swashbuckler without having to stab anyone. Feeling pretty good?”
“You were annoying in kindergarten, too, Dylan,” Noah said with a grin. “I don’t know how we’ve stayed friends.”
“We didn’t do the same things. You’re a swordfighter and I’m a hockey player. You’re good at math and I’m not.” Dylan paused, his gaze on Phoebe and Olivia. “You and Phoebe do different things, too.”
“No kidding,” Noah muttered.
“It’s good. You get bored easily. In fact, you’re a pain in the ass when you’re bored.” Dylan looked more relaxed than when he’d arrived at the library. “Brandon Sloan’s a natural to work in adventure travel. He could do it on the side and still keep up with his construction work.”
Noah nodded. “You could use the help.”
“I thought this adventure travel initiative might burn out fast, but it’s not going to. It’s already taking off and we’re not even fully set up yet.”