Authors: Dawn Lee McKenna
Landfall (22 page)
Gray looked at Wyatt. “I’ve come to relieve you so you can go downstairs and get that X-ray.”
Maggie looked at Wyatt. “You need another X-ray?”
Wyatt sighed. “It’s fine. Dr. Hamilton’s just punishing me.”
“That’s bull,” she said. “You messed up your hip, didn’t you?”
“No, I’m coming along nicely, thank you.”
Gray reached over and slapped Wyatt on the shoulder. “Go on, before he decides you need a colonoscopy, too.”
Wyatt gave him a look, then stared at him for a moment.
“What?” Gray asked.
“I’m going to kiss your daughter,” he said.
“Well, just don’t be sloppy about it.”
Wyatt bent down and kissed Maggie lightly, then gave her a kiss on the forehead for good measure.
“How was that?”
“Neat enough,” Gray said.
Wyatt patted Maggie’s hand goodbye, and when he had left the room, Gray took his place beside the bed, leaned down and kissed the top of Maggie’s head.
“How are the chickens?” she asked him.
“They’re good. It’s still too wet to move them back to the yard, but they’ll be okay in the shed for one more night.”
“And Stoopid?”
“He’s about how you’d expect. He’s not loving Clancy’s old dog crate.”
Maggie smiled, then reached up and took Gray’s hand.
“Thanks, Daddy. I appreciate it.”
He squeezed her hand gently.
“Anything for my little girl.”
Two days later Boudreaux sat in the vinyl arm chair by his window, watching as county workers trimmed some damaged trees across the street. Everything was still wet, but the water itself was gone, and everyone was working to make it seem like Faye hadn’t happened.
He looked away from the window as he heard his door swish open, and Maggie walked around the partition.
She was wearing jeans and a flowered blouse, and the bandage on her head was gone.
“Mr. Boudreaux,” she said when she’d reached his chair.
“Maggie,” he said quietly.
She smiled at him a little. “You’re up.”
“Yes, they’ve decided I can be trusted to sit in a plastic chair without harming myself.”
She looked at him for a moment. “I’m not really surprised to see you’ve had some better clothes brought in.”
Boudreaux looked down at his silk robe. “Yes. I see you’re dressed as well.”
“Yes. I’m going home.”
He nodded. “Good. I’m glad that you’re recovering well.”
“Hard heads run in my family.”
He blinked at her, then gave her half a smile.
“Anyway, I just came in to thank you again.”
He put a hand on either arm of the chair and gently pushed himself up, then stood. “That’s really not necessary,” he said as he slowly walked over to the little plastic table by his bed and picked up a book.
“Thank you for the reading material. I enjoyed it.”
He walked over and held the book out to her, the James Lee Burke that Wyatt had been reading.
She took it, then looked at him for a moment. She seemed a bit uncomfortable.
“What is it, Maggie?”
She gently let out a breath before she answered. “I was thinking that I’d like to hug you goodbye.”
He looked at her for a moment, then swallowed and held out one arm. She stepped closer, and tentatively put her arms around his neck. He closed his arm around her waist, and he could smell coconut shampoo in her hair as he lowered his head next to hers. He breathed it in soundlessly, then put his other arm around her and held her.
As they stood there, he realized that it was the first time, the only time, that he had held his only child.
Then she stepped back and looked into his eyes and gave him a polite smile.
“Goodbye, Mr. Boudreaux.”
“Goodbye, Maggie,” he said.
Then he watched her turn and walk out of the room.
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Dawn Lee
Do you enjoy reading about Axel Blackwell?
He’s a great character, but he’s also an amazing author. If you or someone you know, especially teens and young adults, enjoy a great scary tale, beautifully told, check out his
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Thank you to Tammi Labrecque, of
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And to my family: all of you are the reasons that I write, and all of you are the reasons that I can. I love you something stupid.
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