“Maybe not on my own, although I suppose if I had a reason I could. Studying for the bar, writing a dissertation.” She paused, not looking at him. “Getting over a man.”
“Figuring out if you wanted to be with a man,” he added. “You could chew on that one for a whole week up here, couldn’t you?”
“An hour, maybe,” Ellen said lightly. “An hour to figure out being with him would be pure insanity, then a week to breathe a sigh of relief and relax.”
“Breathe a sigh of relief because the decision’s made or because he’s out of your life?”
“Both. One leads to the other.”
“So it does,” Luke said, pulling in behind a cabin. “This should be the right place.”
Speaking of relief, Ellen thought. She was relieved to put an end to that conversation. The cabin looked adorable, and it was the right one. She recognized Maggie’s rental car parked in the gravel driveway, next to the cabin’s back steps. Three steps led to a landing and the back door—a screen door and regular door. The regular door stood open. Ellen felt slightly guilty at interrupting her sister’s retreat, but she was confident Maggie would understand her overreaction. Once reassured, she and Luke would be on their way.
Ellen unfastened her seatbelt and got out of the car. The air was noticeably cooler than in Saratoga Springs—cooler than she preferred, but it would feel like heaven in mid-summer, when Austin would be blistering hot.
A breeze stirred, rustling in the trees. As Luke got out of the car, he squinted into the sun shining on the lake. “Back door’s wide open.” He turned to Ellen. “Want to give Maggie a shout?”
“Sure.” Ellen started up the steps. “Maggie—Maggie, we’re here. Luke and I are here.”
No response. Ellen peered through the screen door. She could see Maggie’s suitcase on the floor, as if she’d just arrived.
“She must be out front,” Ellen said, jumping back down the steps.
She took a pounded-grass path that looked as if it wound around to the front of the cabin. She led the way, aware of Luke behind her. She had enough experience as a prosecutor and the daughter and niece of Texas Rangers to know the signs of a law enforcement officer on alert, and that, she thought, would be Luke Jackson.
She glanced back at him. “You’d think she’d have heard us arrive.”
He shrugged. “Maybe she did.”
“And she’s waiting for us to come out front and find her?”
“Why not? She could have her feet in the water.”
“The ice practically just melted,” Ellen said.
The cabin had a wide deck overlooking the lake. The simple furnishings were uncovered, but their weatherproof tarps remained stacked in a corner, as if the owners didn’t dare believe lake season was upon them. From what Ellen had seen in the news, it had been a rough winter in the northeast.
Luke eased past her onto the front lawn, the grass thick and green and dotted with natural boulders and peeks of ledge. Not the most hospitable of land, Ellen thought. She could hear gentle waves lapping against the dock. Two kayaks—one bright yellow, the other bright orange—were turned over on the grass close to the water’s edge. Once she located Maggie and assured herself that her sister was all right, Ellen wouldn’t mind taking a spin out on the lake in one of the kayaks. She didn’t have proper clothes, but if she rolled up her pant legs and was careful paddling, she wouldn’t get too wet. Wet, yes. But not too wet. And if Luke went with her in the second kayak…
She stopped herself right there. What was she thinking?
Nothing, she told herself. I’m not thinking anything.
Of course she was thinking something. It was the Luke Jackson effect.
Once she checked on her sister, she would leave, as planned.
She glanced around the small yard. Five freshly painted Adirondack chairs were arranged in a half-circle in front of a stone-and-brick outdoor fireplace, as if awaiting the first fire of the season. On the edge of the lawn to her left, backing up to more tall, thickly growing evergreens, was a shed. Its dark brown paint and deep orange shutters matched the cabin. The kayak gear would be stored here, no doubt. Ellen shuddered, an image flashing in her mind of snow-laden evergreens when she and Maggie were eighteen…
“Ellen?”
“Mind wandering.” She forced a smile. “It’s pretty here but it really is quiet. I thought we’d see Maggie by now.”
“So did I.”
Luke walked down the gentle hill to the dock. The sun was lower in the cloudless sky, light slowly leaking out of the afternoon. He glanced back at Ellen. “Call her.”
Ellen had been about to do just that. She gave a yell. “Maggie!” She paused, waiting for a response. When there was none, she tried again. “Maggie, it’s me, Ellen. Luke’s with me. Where are you?”
No response.
“She could have gone for a walk,” Ellen said, noticing her heart was racing. Maggie. But she didn’t let her mind take off with wild possibilities. One thing at a time.