Lost And Found

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Her breath fogged on this cold and unusually clear day in early December, but the icy chill barely penetrated the ache that shredded her insides. Maggie squeezed her eyes shut as a single tear fell. Breathe in and out. She really tried, but nothing would ease the hurt. With her shoulders pulled inward, she hurried to her rusted blue Topaz. Her eyes hurt, swollen from the tears she thought had long since passed. All that unreconciled agony she’d shoved and locked away had flooded her senses—all because of Jacob’s kind words.

Maggie slammed her door. “No, no!” She hit the steering wheel with the palm of her hand to change the hurt to a physical one—a real one she could deal with. Then she fought to battle back the agony. Today was not the day she’d face it.

Jacob was a kind man. His gentle eyes never left hers, and she’d be a fool to miss how her feelings mattered to him. The meeting was swift, and even Maggie was aware Jacob could see through the charade and her new motto—“Just do it.”

In the end, she had listened quietly as he reminded her to watch her Ps and Qs, especially when dealing with district personnel. Then he had done it, given her the reminder she hadn’t wanted. “So how are you really doing, Maggie?”

A jagged knife had ripped open her tender wound. With Jacob, there was no pity and no avoidance. She knew he genuinely cared. On the first day of this school year for Ryley, and in the days following, Jacob had simply touched her shoulder, saying, “If you need anything, I’m just a phone call away.” He was a passionate school principal, her friend, and a children’s advocate—and he’d been there the day they buried Lily.

Holding on to the wheel of the car, she slumped as the overwhelming grief tore with viscous claws through her chest. She struggled and gasped for breath while hammering those walls back up, pushing the pain back where it needed to go. How, in one single genuine moment, had he managed to knock those barriers down?

“How could he?” she asked. I am stronger than this, she chanted to herself as she quickly shoved her dark sunglasses on, hiding her tear-stained eyes. “Suck it up, come on, come on, come on. You can do it.” Her determined pep talk helped her refocus her thoughts. Maybe, one day soon, she’d relive the day her heart broke just a little bit less.