Page 85 of Panther's Magpie
Meek cringes like the sound of her smacking the gum hurts him.
“People are fucking gross,” he murmurs as she walks away.
As we dig into our food, my mind races. I hate fucking waiting. I’ve always been proactive, so to wait feels like torture, but if it means Aspen is safe, I’ll fucking do it.
I’ll do anything to keep her and Maggie safe.
Maggie.
My thoughts shift to the way she looked this morning when I woke up. Her hair was spread across the pillow behind her. Her mouth was slightly parted as she snored softly.
Just thinking about her, I can’t help but smile.
“Maggie on your brain?” Eagle asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Shut the fuck up,” I tell him.
“Hey, all I’ll say is that I think she’s good for you,” he says.
Meek nods. “I like her. Statistically speaking, couples who turn toward each other in hard times, their marriages last longer.”
The thought of marrying Maggie should fill me with anxiety, but it doesn’t. Instead, it feels right.
Shit, I really am gone for her.
Gone for a girl after one night of being together, who the fuck am I?
I’m not mad about it, though. Not mad at all.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
MAGGIE
Idon’t really know what I expected when Rain said we were going to come down and help rebuild these houses, but it wasn’t this.
There have to be at least fifty people here. Several are wearing the Mountain River cut, but most aren’t.
It’s quite a sight to see.
“All of these people showed up to help?” I ask Rain.
“Yep. Amazing, isn’t it?”
“Do they even know them?” I ask, wondering if that might be why they came today.
“Nope. I mean, I’m sure some of them do, but most don’t. To be honest, we don’t even know them. Or we didn’t before this happened and we got involved. I can see the question on your face. This is what a community does. When one of their members is hurting, they rally,” she tells me.
I’m amazed. I can’t believe people would show up to help a stranger. I mean, sure, I’ve heard about it on the news from timeto time, but I thought it was an extraordinary thing then. I didn’t realize I would ever see it with my own two eyes.
Maybe it’s my own trauma speaking. My own flesh and blood wouldn’t show up if I needed help, but here are strangers helping each other.
“Let me go introduce you to some people and get you a task,” Rain tells me, grabbing my arm as she leads me closer to the groups.
They are split in two. One group is working on the left house while the other is working on the right. I expected to see rubble and ash, but instead, they already have concrete poured and dried. Each home has a group of men building a foundation.
“Ridge, we are here and ready to work,” Rain tells one of the brothers.
