The Sheriff's Valentine by Amy Vastine

Author:Amy Vastine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-11-02T18:31:23+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

“ARE YOU SURE you want to move?” Shelby asked Maggie as they sat at the kitchen table, finishing off that second bottle of wine. “I mean, you have great neighbors and this is such a beautiful location.” Shelby felt overwhelmingly nostalgic. “Not to mention all the memories.”

“It’s been a wonderful place to live for the last thirty years. My husband and I did make a lot of great memories. I fostered some amazing kids here, like you. But it’s time for me to find a smaller place. There is a family out there who is going to be so happy here.”

Maggie hadn’t always been alone. Her husband, Greg, had been a Goodfield firefighter and, according to Maggie, one of the funniest and most charismatic men she’d ever known. The two of them had tried for years to have a family, but learned that it wasn’t meant to be. Instead of giving up, they decided to become foster parents. Before Shelby, Maggie had fostered dozens of kids with her husband over the years.

About five years before Shelby came to live with Maggie, Greg died while fighting a four-alarm fire in the Goodfield Library. Widowed and heartbroken, Maggie stopped fostering and planned to live out the rest of her years alone. That was until a certain caseworker, who knew about Maggie from years back, gave her a call and begged her to help out with a particularly challenging child who had bounced from home to home and was about to be put in a residential treatment center if she couldn’t find someone to take her.

That child had been Shelby and, for some reason, Maggie had agreed to open her home and her heart back up. It had been the luckiest thing to ever happen to Shelby. One of her greatest regrets was that she had caused Maggie so much trouble.

“I know I haven’t been around, but knowing you were here made me feel connected still. When you leave, I can never come back to this house.”

Maggie’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t realize you were so attached to this place.”

“It’s the only place that ever felt like a home to me. I don’t think I tell you enough how much I appreciate everything you did for me.”

“I was happy to do it. After Greg died, I never imagined myself taking on another kid in need. We had been foster parents, a team. He made the kids laugh like you can’t believe. He was so caring and compassionate. I didn’t feel like I could be enough for someone on my own.”

“I’m sure Greg was amazing, but you don’t give yourself enough credit. You have this way of letting kids know you’re there without being in their face. You were firm but fair. I had never experienced that before. You’re also pretty hilarious when you want to be.”

Maggie wagged a finger at Shelby. “Well, sometimes I think you were laughing at me and not with me.”

Shelby chuckled. “Sometimes I was. But never in a mean way,” she quickly explained.

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