The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (5 page)

“No Justin, we shouldn’t. I promised Tucker that I would
marry him.”

“Maggie, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I want you
to marry me.”

Maggie pulled away, looked sadly at Justin and said, “I
love you too, Justin. But I can’t.”

She buttoned her pants, got up off the couch and
retreated into the kitchen. She picked up the phone off the hook and called
Zak. He answered after the fifth ring. She said, “It’s me. Justin has had too
much to drink and can’t drive us home. He wants to stay over with Spencer. Zak,
I want to come home, can you please come and get me?”

“Maggie, it’s kind of late. Why don’t you just stay over
at Spencer’s and come home in the morning?”

Maggie was quiet for a moment and then she said, “I
think you know why.”

“Oh,” Zak replied. “O.k., I can come get you but it will
take half an hour.”

“Thanks, Zak. I appreciate it.”

“No problem, sweetheart. I’ll see you soon.”

Maggie hung up the phone and went into the living room.
Justin was awake and obviously had heard her making the call.

“Maggie, I probably could have driven you home.”

“No, that’s o.k. Zak is going to come and get me. You
just go to sleep. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Justin closed his eyes and was asleep in a minute or
two. Maggie went into the kitchen and made some tea and waited for her
ex-husband to rescue her.

.

Chapter 6

Half an hour later, Maggie saw some headlights
through the back window and she heard Zak park the van in the gravel driveway.
She turned on the back light and he walked up the steps and helped her down to
the car. Maggie had an especially hard time seeing at night.

“Thanks Zak for coming to get me.”

“No problem Maggie, but what’s going on?”

“Oh god, I don’t really know. Justin and I are still
attracted to each other, but I don’t want to do anything to hurt Tucker. He’s
been so good to me and the kids.”

 Zak sensed that Maggie was holding back something.

“Anything else going on?” he asked.

“Yes,” she admitted, “but I can’t talk about it yet.”

“O.k. Maggie,” and Zak didn’t press her any further.

They were quiet on the rest of the ride home. They
pulled up in front of their house and Zak went inside to get Tucker whom he had
recruited to babysit the kids while he went to get Maggie. Tucker emerged from
the house looking a little groggy, he told them he had fallen asleep on the
couch. Zak drove Tucker and Maggie down to Justin’s house and dropped them off.
Fortunately, Tucker had left some lights on so they didn’t have any problems
seeing to walk inside the house. Tucker and Maggie immediately went to bed
without too much talk and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, Maggie woke up in Tucker’s arms. She
lay there quietly for a few minutes thinking about how safe and secure she felt
when she was with him. She felt embraced in his love and knew that he would
always protect and take care of her. After her visual cortex was damaged when
she was hit by lightning at the bluegrass festival, she often felt incredibly
vulnerable. She had trouble doing a lot of things that most people take for
granted, like getting dressed for the day or seeing well enough so she could
get around by herself. Since she wasn’t visibly impaired, most people didn’t
realize that she couldn’t see and needed help. She joked that she should wear a
sign saying “I am visually impaired, please help me,” but the reality was that
this wasn’t too far from the truth. Tucker made it his mission to run
interference for her and help her in every way he possibly could. The only
problem was that this made her feel uncomfortably dependent sometimes, she
wanted to do things for herself even while she was frustrated by the struggle. Zak
had coddled her a lot less and expected her to try to function on her own.
While she hadn’t always been successful at this endeavor, it had helped her
maintain some independence. The more dependent she had become, the more she
felt like she was truly disabled.

Tucker slowly opened his eyes and looked over at Maggie.

“Mornin’ darlin’,” he said. “How did it go? Did you have
fun playing with your friends?”

“Yes, it was great to get together with Little Maggie
again. We rehearsed some of the old songs and I gave them tapes of the new ones
that we recorded in Nashville. They’re going to learn them, and then we’ll work
out some arrangements. We’re going to rehearse again tomorrow,” Maggie said.

“What happened with Justin last night?”

“He and Spencer were partying a little too hard and he
didn’t feel comfortable driving Zak’s Porsche home.”

“Why didn’t you just stay at Spencer’s?”

“Because I wanted to come back and be with you,” Maggie
said and smiled at him. “I missed you, you know.”

“Well, I missed you darlin’ and I’m glad you’re here
now.”

Tucker leaned over and kissed Maggie for a few minutes.
Then they got up and got dressed and walked over to Zak’s house where everyone
was sitting around having breakfast. Maggie and Tucker helped themselves to
some cereal and coffee while the children made plans about what they wanted to
do for the day. They had just decided on a trip to the zoo, when the Porsche
roared down the driveway and parked in front of the house. Justin got out, and
walked slowly into the house.

“Is there any coffee left?” he asked.

“Yes, and there’s orange juice in the refrigerator. Do
you want some cereal?” Maggie said.

“No, I’m feeling a little under the weather. Coffee will
be fine.”

He poured himself a mug of coffee and sat down at the
table next to Maggie.

“I’m sorry, Maggie and Zak. I shouldn’t have had so much
to drink last night since I was the one driving. It’s just that Spencer and I
hadn’t seen each other in so long and we were partying a little too much.”

“No problem,” said Zak. “There were more than a few
times when I was in no shape to drive and you helped me out.”

“Well don’t worry, it won’t happen again. I’ll be on my
best behavior.” Justin gave Maggie a quick look so she knew that remark was
aimed at her.

“The kids want us to take them to the zoo today. Do you
want to go with us, Justin?” Maggie asked.

“I think I’ll stay behind and catch up on my sleep.”

Just then the phone in the kitchen rang and Zak answered
it.

“It’s for you, Maggie. It’s the doctor’s office.”

Maggie felt butterflies in her stomach as she took the
phone. She was quiet for a minute and then said, “O.k., ten o’clock tomorrow is
fine.”

She hung up the phone and explained that the doctor
wanted her to bring Jake back in because he needed to have his eyes checked.
She gave Justin a long look and asked him if he could give them a ride over to
the doctor’s office.

“Sure, Maggie. No problem,” he said looking extremely
serious. “Do you want to go with us, Tucker?”

“If you want, I’m not doing anything else,” Tucker
answered casually, but Zak knew that there was some sort of undercurrent going
on.

The children ran into the kitchen.

“Can we go to the zoo now, Mama?” Belle asked.

“Yes, just give us a minute or two and we’ll be ready.”

Tucker and Maggie brought their plates to the sink and
washed them quickly while Zak packed a bag with some snacks and drinks for the
kids. Zak handed Tucker the keys to the van.

“Have fun,” Zak said. “See you in a couple hours.”

Tucker and Maggie and the three children went out to the
van and left on their expedition. Zak and Justin talked for a few minutes and
then Justin said he had some things to do, and he went back to his house.

.

Chapter 7

The next day, Tucker and Maggie were up by
eight. Justin knocked on their door and came in for some coffee before they
went to the hospital with Jake. You could tell that Maggie and Justin were
nervous by their serious demeanors. A few minutes later, Zak showed up at the
door with Jake.

“Just drop him off with me when you get back, Maggie.
I’m going to take him over later to his friend Ben’s house.”

 Maggie got into the front of the van and sat in the
passenger seat next to Justin. Tucker sat in the back with Jake. Justin drove
out of the driveway, looking over at Maggie. He could see that her hands were
trembling, so he reached over and briefly took her hand in his.

“It will be o.k., Maggie. Don’t worry,” Justin said.

Maggie didn’t respond. Tucker brought out one of Jake’s
favorite books and read to him while they drove to Lafayette. When they got to
the hospital, they parked the car and went up to the doctor’s office. The
doctor suggested that Tucker take Jake over to the cafeteria for a few minutes
while he had a talk with Maggie and Justin. After they left, the doctor pulled
out a folder and took out a sheet of paper with some lab results on it. He read
it for a minute and then took off his reading glasses to look at Maggie and
Justin.

“The test results show that your suspicions were correct.
Jake is Mr. Boudreau’s son.” He paused for a moment to let his words sink in.
Maggie turned pale and looked like she might faint.

“Can I get you some water, Miss Williams?” the doctor
asked.

“Yes, please.” Maggie was having trouble catching her
breath.

The doctor got some water out of a cooler in the corner
of his office and handed her the paper cup. Justin reached over and took
Maggie’s free hand and held it.

Maggie started to cry. “How am I going to tell Zak? How
am I going to tell the children?”

“Maggie, I’ll help you tell Zak,” Justin said quietly.

“He’s going to be so disappointed that Jake isn’t his
son. He loves him so much.”

Justin sat closer to Maggie and put his arms around her,
she started to cry uncontrollably.

“Why don’t I leave you alone for a while so you can
process this,” the doctor said. “You’ll probably want to amend Jake’s birth
certificate at some point. We can give you some documents that prove Jake’s
paternity.”

The doctor shook hands with Justin and Maggie and then
left them alone. The minute he left, Maggie started to cry even harder. Justin
stroked her hair until she started to get her feelings under control.

“Maggie, I know this is a tough situation. I’m so sorry.
I feel like I’ve totally disrupted everyone’s lives. I just had to know whether
Jake was my son.”

They heard a knock on the door and when it opened, they
saw Tucker and Jake standing outside. Jake ran inside and threw his arms around
his mother.

“Mama, what’s wrong? Did you have a shot too?”

“No, Jake,” Maggie said and held him close to her. After
a minute, she asked Justin if he would take Jake out to the car so that she
could talk to Tucker. After they closed the door on the way out, Maggie started
to cry again. Tucker took her hand and started to pat it.

“I’m guessing that I don’t need to ask what the results
were. Justin must be Jake’s father.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Maggie said. “Why
didn’t Justin tell me earlier? Zak is going to be incredibly hurt when he finds
out that he isn’t Jake’s father and I have no idea how we are going to tell the
kids.”

“It’s going to be difficult Maggie, but things will work
out. It’s a lot better that everyone knows the truth.”

“Does this change how you feel about me, Tucker?”

“God, no. I still love you. My private life certainly
hasn’t been above reproach and you’ve put up with that.”

“Yes, but I knew about all that before we got together.
There weren’t any surprises.”

“Maggie, I’ve always known how you felt about Justin, so
I’m not that surprised by this news. The main thing is that your relationship
with Justin is in the past. I’m not worried about it.”

Maggie and Tucker walked out of the hospital and over to
the car in the parking lot. Justin and Jake were nearby, playing catch with a
ball that had been in the car. Jake got in the back of the van with Tucker and
Maggie sat next to Justin in the front. Justin gave Maggie a long look, and
then started the car for the drive home. When they got back to the house,
Tucker took Jake inside so that Justin and Maggie could have a chance to talk
privately for a minute.

“What are we going to do, Justin?”

“Maybe Tucker could take the kids out to lunch
somewhere, so we could have a chance to sit down with Zak.”

“He’s going to be devastated,” Maggie said.

“Well, if you remember, we went through this once before
with Gabriel.”

“And weren’t you devastated to find out that Gabriel
wasn’t your son?”

“Yes, you know that I was, Maggie. I think it was the
hardest thing I’ve ever been through. That’s why I didn’t want to go through it
again. But this time, we know that Jake is my son. We’re going to have to
figure out how to deal with this situation.”

“Why are our lives so complicated, Justin?”

“I don’t know, Maggie. I guess everyone’s lives get
complicated sometimes.”

He kissed her on the cheek and they went into the house.
When they got inside, Zak was getting Jake ready to go over to his friend’s
house.

“What are we going to do this afternoon, Mom?” Gabe
asked.

“Justin and I were thinking of working on some new
songs,” she said. “Maybe Tucker would be willing to take you and Belle into
town for some lunch and ice cream. What do you think Tucker?”

“I think that would be fun,” he said. “And maybe we
could go over to the bookstore, I finished the book that I brought with me.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” said Zak. “I’ll go drop Jake
off at his friend’s house and then join you guys in the studio for an hour or
two.”

Maggie and Justin walked down to the studio while Zak
and Tucker left in their cars with the kids.