“Ouch. Come inside and I’ll clean it and look at it.”
A small, slightly battered car pulled into the driveway and Jacqui jumped out. “Thanks for calling to let me know you’d found him, Seth. Oh, would you look at this mess. You go on inside and get cleaned up, Seth. Alice and I will turn a hose on Waldo and then see what we can do about cleaning the inside of your car, won’t we, Alice?”
Alice’s glance at her father showed she didn’t dare object, even had she wanted to.
Leaving the mess in Jacqui’s capable hands, Seth and Meagan went through the garage so he wouldn’t track mud anywhere but the kitchen. He shed his ruined shoes before entering the house. Meagan led him straight to the sink, where she moistened a paper towel and dabbed carefully at his face, keeping her focus on the scratch.
“It doesn’t look too bad. You don’t need stitches, though you’ll have a bruise and some puffiness for a few days. Are you current on your tetanus boosters?”
“Had one a couple of years ago when I cut my hand on a piece of metal during a fishing trip with a friend.”
She nodded. “That’s current enough. You’ll be fine.”
“Thanks.” He caught her hand and lowered it from his face. “I’ll clean up in the shower. Did you rush straight over here when Alice called you?”
She couldn’t quite meet his eyes when she turned to toss the dirty towel in the trash. “I was just starting surgery, so it took me a couple of hours to get away. I’d only been here a few minutes when you got here with Waldo.”
“Alice shouldn’t have called you at work. I don’t know what she was thinking.”
“She was upset and here by herself and she wanted to hear a friend’s voice,” Meagan answered with a slight shrug. “I didn’t mind.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll tell her not to disturb you at work again.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” She stepped directly in front of him to hold his gaze with her own. “Any time Alice needs me, she can call me. I can’t promise that I’ll always be able to drop everything and run to her, but I can guarantee I’ll get to her as quickly as I can. I think she understands that’s the best I can do. Of the three of us, she seems to be the most sensible about certain subjects.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that.”
She smiled, laying a hand against his dirty cheek. “I’ll have her explain a few things to you later.”
He caught her hand in his, lowering it but not releasing it. His eyes drilled into hers. “What are you telling me, Meagan?”
“Your marriage didn’t end because you both had careers. It ended because you were wrong for each other.”
He shook his head in bemusement. “That’s what I told you.”
; “I know. It just took me a little while to hear it. And to believe it,” she admitted. “I said I was protecting Alice—but I’ve come to realize that I was protecting myself. I was the one who got scared this time. Scared of hurting her. Of hurting you. Of being hurt, myself. And for the first time in my life, I let fear keep me from pursuing something I wanted very badly. To be a part of your life. Yours and Alice’s.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, dropping a kiss in her palm. “We both want very much for you to be a part of our lives.”
“I’ve missed you, Seth.”
“I’ve missed you, too. So much I ached.”
A lump formed in her throat in response to his candor. She swallowed and whispered, “So the invitation still stands?”
“It was always open,” he replied simply. “We both know it won’t be easy, but I think we just might have a good chance of making this work between us.”
She smiled up at him. “As my mom always says, nothing worth having comes easily.”
“I think I’m going to like your mom.”
He lowered his head to kiss her, but drew back at the last moment. “I’m filthy.”
She laughed and caught his muddy, scratched face in her hands. “I don’t care.”
Rising on tiptoe, she pressed her mouth to his.