“That would be mandatory, yes.”
He sat at their table, helping himself to a slice of toast, cold by now. “I wonder what I’d look like in a waistcoat and one of those top hats the Regency guys wear.”
“I think we should do a Jane Austen adaptation for modern Texas,” Ellen said with a smile.
“That would be fun,” Maggie said, her mood visibly improving. “I should get moving. I want to give myself plenty of time to get to the airport. I don’t want to miss my flight.”
“Ellen can go with you,” Luke said.
Maggie shook her head. “There’s no point in her paying a fee to change her flight when I’ll be perfectly fine on my own.”
“All right,” Luke said. “I’ll have Sam meet you in Austin.”
“At the airport, you mean?”
“Correct.”
Maggie turned to her sister. “Is he always like this?”
“Always,” Ellen said. “You can argue. It just won’t make any difference.”
Luke shrugged. “Until someone lays eyes on Hugh Parker, that’s right, it won’t make any difference to argue. Ellen, I can pay your change fee—”
“Thanks for your concern, Luke,” Maggie said, interrupting him. “I want to do this on my own. I don’t need my sister at my side. Nothing happened yesterday. I just don’t want to stay here by myself. I have the same amount of work to do that I had when I left Austin, and I need to get back home, regroup and come up with a new plan to revise my introduction. See? I’m fine.”
“We need to be sure Hugh Parker isn’t stalking you to get back at Ellen.” Luke’s voice was calm and professional, but it was clear he wasn’t trying to persuade Maggie. He was informing her of what he was going to do. “Once you’re in Texas, Maggie, you’re back on my patch, as the Brits would say.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it again and waved a hand. “You do what you have to do.”
He gave her a small smile. “I’m glad I have your permission.”
“I’ll think of Sam meeting me as a peace-of-mind precaution,” Maggie said. “Peace of your mind.”
Luke said nothing. Maggie got up from the table and walked down to the dock.
“That went well,” Ellen said, sighing at Luke.
“I thought so.” He frowned at his toast. “Cold toast isn’t my favorite.”
She wasn’t letting him change the subject that fast. “I’m surprised you don’t want to fly back with Maggie yourself. You’re not even checking to see if there’s a seat available on her flight.”
“That’s right.”
His tone was deliberately casual, Ellen thought. She watched him finish his toast—cold or not—as he watched Maggie stand at the end of the dock, looking out at the lake. She stayed for a few seconds, then about-faced and walked back toward the cabin.
“You’re up to something, Luke,” Ellen said. “I can tell.”
He shrugged. “The prosecutor at work.”
More like the woman who knew him—who’d slept with him—guessing he had solid reasons for not taking Maggie to the airport and boarding her flight with her. Whatever he was up to, Ellen doubted he’d be touring Saratoga Springs or taking a scenic drive in the Adirondacks.
Maggie mounted the steps to the deck. “I’ll pack. I never really unpacked, so it will only take a few minutes.”
She went inside. Ellen understood her sister needed space. As originally planned, her cabin retreat would have given her space—to work on her dissertation, take a break from the pressures of her academic life and confront her past. She’d left the trauma of their experience in the Adirondacks too long untended. As she’d tried to explain last night, their ordeal—our incident, she’d called it—would jump out at her when she least expected it. She had come to realize she’d been avoiding known triggers, even when doing so caused problems for her career, her life.
But Ellen knew her sister was strong enough to make the right decisions for herself.
Maybe Maggie hadn’t been wrong to push aside the past for as long she had. Maybe her timing was right for her, and any sooner wouldn’t have worked.
“Why did you book a later flight in the first place?” Luke asked.
Ellen frowned. “Later?”
“You’re leaving on Sunday. Why not go straight home?”
“I arranged to meet friends from law school in Albany.”
“New York’s capital. Bet there are a lot of lawyers there.”
“There are lawyers everywhere,” Ellen said with a small laugh.
“We do need lawyers. Are you going to stay a prosecutor?”
His question caught her by surprise. “I never say never, but I don’t have any intention of doing anything else.”
“A legalistic answer.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You got all the Galway argumentative genes and Maggie got none.”
“She doesn’t argue. She just puts her foot down and does what she does.”
“So I’ve noticed.” His expression softened. “I’m sorry she got scared yesterday.”