The Man for Maggie

Allison looked up at her. “There’s a difference?”

“Of course. I’ve fallen in love twice. Three times if you count sixth grade, but I don’t. I’m pretty sure I was too young. But I fell seriously in love when I was a senior, with a boy who didn’t even know I was alive.” Her insides startled her by contracting unexpectedly. Nick reminded her of that boy. Jeremy… Hmm. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten his name.

“And the second time?”

“The second time was when I moved into my own apartment and became friends with the guy across the hall.”

“But?”

“Just when I started to think he might fall in love with me, a woman named Debbie moved into the apartment down the hall. Six months later he asked her to marry him. So although I’ve fallen in love, I’ve never been in love with someone who loved me back.”

“That’s an interesting distinction. I’ve never thought of it that way.”

Yeah, well, Allison had probably had dozens of boys—and men—fall in love with her, so the odds were that she was bound to love some of them back.

Maggie sighed. “Someone fell in love with me once, in high school. He was so sweet and I did everything in my power to fall in love with him, but nothing worked. I even begged my mother to cast one of her spells on us, but she said a love spell would only work if love was destined to be. In my case, she was sure it wasn’t, and, of course, she was right.”

“Your mother does love spells?”

Watch what you say around these people, Maggie.

Aunt Margaret? Is that you?

Allison was watching her, waiting for an answer.

Now that she’d blurted the stuff about love spells, she couldn’t think of a way out of it. “Yes, she does. But apparently there’s nothing she can do to help me. I have a habit of falling in love with the wrong men. Not bad men—” she hastened to add “—just men who don’t fall in love with women like me.”

“And what kind of woman are you, Maggie Meadowcroft?”

“Me?”

Watch what you say around these people.

“Well, let’s see. I have a tendency to leap before I look. I always have good intentions, but sometimes I rush into things and they don’t always turn out the way I planned.”

There, that sounded safe enough.

“You’ll fall in love someday, Maggie, and when it happens, it will have been worth the wait. But—” she studied her cuticle some more “—just a word of advice. You mentioned falling for the wrong ones. Nick’s one of them.”

Maggie jumped down from the stool and started to clear things off the kitchen table. “I’m sure you’re right.” She wanted to say, “Give me a little credit.” She might be impulsive, but she always learned from experience. Nick Durrance was definitely one of the many, many men who would never fall in love with her.

But she could be curious, couldn’t she?

She decided to change the subject. “Nick said Aunt Margaret was his English teacher. Were you in her class, too?”

Allison seemed to relax a little. “Yes. And trust me, she could have told you stories about Nick Durrance.”

“Really?” Note to self. Find out what Aunt Margaret thinks of him now.

“Miss Meadowcroft loved Shakespeare,” Allison said. “Of course, you probably know that.”

“Yes. Hamlet was her favorite. Whenever she suspected I was up to something, she’d say ‘Maggie Meadowcroft, something’s rotten in the state of Denmark.’ It was years before I understood what that meant. I used to imagine Denmark filled with piles of rotting garbage. Kind of like New York one summer when the garbage collectors were on strike.”

Allison gave her an odd look. “I doubt that Nick ever tried to figure out Shakespeare. He spent more time in detention than in English class. Or any class, for that matter.”

That opinion seemed grossly unfair. Shakespeare wasn’t for everyone. Just like not everyone could renovate a house. “He must have been good at something.”

“Nick was very charming in those days and he didn’t take anything, or anyone, seriously. Not even himself. From what his sister tells me, that hasn’t changed.”

Everyone had strengths and positive traits. Maggie couldn’t tell if Allison had ignored her point, or if she just didn’t get it. She decided to try a different line of questioning. “You mentioned his family. What are they like?”

“You haven’t heard of the Durrance family?”

“Hmm. No, I don’t think so.”

“I thought you used to spend summers up here with your aunt.”

“I did, but she wasn’t into…” Gossip. “Um, she made a point of not talking about her students.”

“That makes sense. Nick’s father was a judge and so was his grandfather. Everybody assumed Nick would go into law, too. He was at the top of the class when we were freshman, then overnight everything changed.”

“How strange. What do you think happened?”

Allison shrugged. “Well, his father died. It was totally unexpected, but still, most people get over things like that. But it seemed to turn Nick into a different person and he never got back to normal.”

Hello? A young, teenage boy lost his father and everyone expected him to just “get over it”? Maggie had only been a little older when her father died. She’d missed him like crazy, but on another level, he’d still been there with her and her mother. That was when she’d first become aware that she had what Aunt Margaret called “the gift.”

“Maybe he really missed his father,” she said.

“Anything’s possible, but according to Leslie, Judge Durrance was a workaholic. He devoted himself to his career and other than having high expectations of her and Nick, he pretty much ignored them.”

“Who’s Leslie?”

“Nick’s sister.”

“I see,” Maggie said, glancing at the timer. Only a few more minutes. “How does your skin feel?”

“Great. How long does this stay on?”

“Just another minute or two. So, is Leslie older or younger than Nick?”

“A year younger. She’s an attorney, just like everyone expected her to be. Probably her mother’s influence. Lydia Durrance—Nick’s mother—is an amazing woman. She has a beautiful home and she puts on the most incredible garden parties you’ve ever been to.”

Except that Maggie had never been to one. The Village was well-known for its parties, but they weren’t the garden variety.

Allison was still gushing. “On top of that, she does a lot for the community. There’s even a charity named after her.”

“Really? She sounds formidable.”