Page 59 of Forever To Me

I tighten my grip on the neck, searching his face. “Where did you get this?”

His jaw twitches. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It kinda does.”

“Red.” His voice is a warning.

I hesitate, but I know a locked door when I see one. And I’m also not going to make him feel like I’m ungrateful or interrogating him. He didn’t think twice about letting me stay here with Maggie. Sure, she’s like family to him. But me? I’m not his family, and he still took me in, without a thought. And he’s been so kind to Maggie. I’m glad she has Walker and Mack.

So, I don’t push.

Instead, I run my fingers over the strings again, letting the sweet, golden sound settle into my bones.

I lost everything in that fire.

But now—he’s given me this.

And I don’t really know what to do with that.

But somehow, that guitar feels like hope. Like a blanket of reassurance that everything is going to be okay. Maggie’s safe, and that’s all that really mattered to me. I can rewrite the songs. They’re in my head, anyway. I can buy another guitar and give this one back to Walker. But I can’t replace Maggie.

Maggie decides we need to go into town.

“Supplies,” she says, listing things off on a piece of notebook paper. “Clothes. Shoes. Shampoo. Probably some snacks, because I’m not living in a house full of hungry people without emergency cookies.”

She refuses to dwell on the fire, refuses to let us sit around and feel sorry about it. At first, I wondered if she was handling everything okay. But this is just her way. She pushes through it and makes it fun.

I love that about her.

So, off we go.

Walker stays back, saying he has things to do. But I think he saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to be dragged to a million stores to shop with us. Instead, he hands Maggie his credit card and heads out to the barn.

Maggie grins and holds it up. “Who wants to go on a shopping spree?”

I shake my head, laughing, glad my phone still holds a way to pay for my things.

Maggie doesn’t take us to some big-box department store to replace what we lost.

She takes us to the Bridger Falls Thrift Shop.

Before we can even enter the store, about a dozen people stop us and tell Maggie and me how sorry they were about the fire and that they were all safe and to offer help if we needed anything.

God, I love this town and these people. They rally around Maggie and give her the love that she deserves.

The thrift store is amazing. It’s chaotic and wonderful, packed with old books, weird lamps, and clothes that should have remained in past decades.

Mack groans as we step inside. “If you try to make me wear someone else’s old moldy jeans, I swear?—”

Maggie pats her cheek. “Hush, child. You’re gonna love this.”

Mack just sighs, already resigned to whatever is about to happen.

But me?

I love places like this. I love thrift stores. I love finding treasures.

Because sometimes, the best things in life aren’t new.Sometimes, the best things are the ones that have been loved before.

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