Page 16 of Crash and Burn

He hadn't heard anything either, which was another relief. But he didn't say this to Maggie. She would wind up asking about the obvious history between him and the officer. He wasn't ready to volunteer his past.

They worked together through periods of easy silence and bursts of conversation. He learned all kinds of things about Maggie and it bothered him that the information all made him like her more. He wanted to find something that would make him back off. But this was, once again, having the opposite effect on him.

She'd been on the dance team in high school and always wanted to be a lawyer. She was a little frustrated with the slow speed at which her business had been growing in Redemption, but she countered quickly. “I knew this was a possibility, but I told myself it would happen faster. I was here when I was a kid, but I’m not really a local. So I guess I don’t have that advantage of everyone knowing me and trusting me right off the bat.”

He'd agreed. People were just a little insular that way. Even though they liked Maggie, it would take a while before they brought their business to her. It wasn’t like she was selling hardware at a discount either, she was offering personal services like contracts between friends and partners, wills and prenups. Maybe he could talk Rex and the others into promoting her business as a thank you for her volunteer work.

At lunchtime, she insisted on buying him a sandwich. Then he tagged along to the paint store—like a friend, and not like a man who desperately wanted a woman he couldn't have. Sebastian wound up providing commentary on paint colors.

She raised a delicate eyebrow at him once again, a look he was coming to appreciate.

“Do you just do everything?” she asked.

He finally confessed to why he knew these things. “No, but my dad is a master carpenter—he’s done construction and contracted houses—and my mother is an interior designer. So I know things. Ask me about your color palette and whether you want modern, farmhouse, or cool beach tones.”

At least he’d made her laugh, and the sound diffused through his system. Rex was an idiot.

Sebastian stayed with her as late as he could, hanging out and working until Maggie decided her day was over. She fed him soup that she'd made and frozen earlier in the week. Then she thanked him profusely, until it was clear that she was ready to be home alone for the evening.

There were no hugs, just a friendly goodbye, no matter how much he would have loved if there was something more between them. But as he got in his car and pulled away, Sebastian still couldn't quell the uneasy feeling that had grown steadily throughout the day.

Chapter Fifteen

Maggie sat across from the chief, trying to keep her hands from fidgeting and showing her nerves. It was like being called into the principal’s office as a kid, only she knew better than to squirm now.

She pushed her hands between her knees and tried to sit calmly, as though that would hide her irritation. Rex sat next to her and leaned back in the chair. His butt slid toward the front edge, his hand on his forehead and, as irritated as she was, she felt surprisingly sorry for the man.

“I don't know what's going on with you two,” Chief Taggert said, but he shook his head as though he didn’t want to know. Turning to look directly at Maggie, he said, “We love having you here. We need you as a volunteer. And I was happy when you came back on A-shift.”

She nodded. She already knew that, and she knew it was because they had volunteers on the other two shifts already. He'd been willing to let her trade shifts to babysit Hannah in a domino effect to keep both his volunteer and his firefighter when Rex suddenly inherited his daughter. But now, things were supposed to have gone back to normal and he was as frustrated as they both were.

“Rex,” Taggert turned to her now-ex-boyfriend, his hands clasped together on the desk. “I can’t have your child dropped off here.”

“I know. I told the sitter that, but clearly I can't control what she does.” He sounded so defeated that Maggie wanted to help, but she couldn’t always take up the slack.

Rex’s new babysitter had made it through only one and a half shifts.Not even that,Maggie thought. The older woman had come in today with Hannah and her stroller and a fully packed bag. The firefighters had all smiled and said hello and Maggie had thought how nice it was to be on this end of things for once. But then the woman had pulled Rex aside and apparently explained that her daughter had gotten a horrible diagnosis, and she was leaving town … right that moment.

Maggie had heard part of the conversation. “I understand,” Rex had assured the woman. “I'll find another sitter for Thursday.”

Though Maggie hadn't heard the rest, it had become very clear when the sitter left and Hannah didn’t. Rex had to explain to the chief that his child was in the station and he suddenly had no childcare for her.

It had been hard enough finding this woman. Maggie didn’t know what he would do.

The chief wasn’t done. “Either someone takes your daughter—quickly—or you take a sick day and I call in a sub.”

Rex hated taking sick days, Maggie knew. In fact, he picked up most of the spare shifts that he could. Since Hannah had arrived he’d worked exactly zero extra hours.

It was costing him, especially now with the child care on top of the loss of income. He’d been paying child support, but now he was paying everything. The last Maggie knew, he'd heard nothing from Hannah's mother.

The chief looked back to Maggie. And she understood what he was silently asking. She was the easiest fix to the situation—even if she didn't like it.

So she turned to her ex. “Three hours. I will take her forthree hoursuntil you find another sitter.” She hated to have to be so harsh, but she had to get her business going or it was going to fail. There was also the issue of the house. “I can’t keep her overnight. And if I don’t get my business going, I have to go back to LA. Then there’s no sitter and no A-shift volunteer at all.”

“I thought you were doing fine.”

“I am. But only if I have the hours to run myown life.” Maggie tried not to grind her teeth, but maybe he just wanted to be sure she was okay. He was a decent guy, just in a shitty situation. “But if someone breaks in again, you don’t want Hannah there!”

Wow, she thought, just those words coming out of her mouth were concerning enough. Rex nodded. She held up a hand to the chief who was looking alarmed. “Nothing has happened since last week. I'm doing okay. The police are sending patrols by. I don't think my burglar is coming back. But if he does—” she turned back to Rex, “—and Hannah was in the house with me, I would never forgive myself.”

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