by H. P. Munro
“You should get to know the heart kiddo, much cooler than bones,” Zoe said. “I’m a cardiologist, that means I know everything about hearts.”
“No thanks,” Jessica replied without looking up. Zoe tilted her head and jerked it furiously as she got up and walked over to the kitchen.
“Be right back,” Maddie said, rubbing Jessica’s back and getting up to follow Zoe.
Zoe pulled a beer out of the fridge. “The kid hates me,” she whispered.
“I’ve no idea what’s going on with her, I’m sorry,” Maddie said, watching Jessica as the young girl studied the books that Maddie had brought out for her.
“So that’s Alex’s daughter.”
Maddie pulled the fridge door open and snagged a beer; she took the opener from Zoe and popped the cap off the bottle. “Yeah,” she sighed wistfully.
“I still can’t believe you, Maddie Marinelli, were going to choose to stay in Hicksville for love over heading up the ER in a major San Francisco hospital,” Zoe said incredulously.
Slapping Zoe’s arm Maddie shushed her roommate, “Shhh, keep your voice down.”
The door to the apartment opened and Mitchell entered, “Hi, I hope you’re hungry I brought…” He stopped as he spotted the blonde child kneeling beside the coffee table pouring over medical books. He shrugged one arm out of his jacket and switched the pizza box he was holding into his other hand as he let his jacket fall onto the sofa.
“Mitchell, this is Jessica. Jessica, this is Mitchell,” Maddie said, moving back towards the living area of the apartment.
“Hi,” Mitchell said, as Zoe kissed his cheek and took the pizza box from him towards the kitchen area.
Jessica looked between Mitchell and Zoe. “Is Zoe your girlfriend?” Jessica asked.
Huffing slightly in surprise at the question Mitchell looked between the two other adults and Jessica before replying, “Um yes, yes she is.”
The young girl broke into a wild smile; her dimples popping in each cheek, “Zoe can you show me the heart stuff now?”
Zoe raised her head out from inspecting the pizza that Mitchell had brought, her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Ehhh, sure,” she said carefully, lifting a slice of pizza before walking over and settling herself down beside Jessica. She looked up at Maddie who shrugged in response.
***
Maddie pulled a hoodie on over her tank top and wandered out of her bathroom, sitting cross-legged in the center of her bed was Jessica.
“Mama has that sweatshirt,” Jessica said. “Did you brush your teeth?”
“Yes I did,” Maddie replied, ignoring Jessica’s remark about the sweatshirt. When she had unpacked her belongings, she had found the grey sweatshirt, with a crimson A on its chest, that Alex had loaned her following her altercation with the skunk and despite knowing she should, she was yet to return it and had instead started to wear it. “Now scoot over,” she instructed, pulling the covers back for the young girl to climb in. She tucked the covers down then walked around the bed and climbed in. Laying down she switched the light on her nightstand off plunging the room into darkness.
“Do you still like my mama?” Jessica asked.
Maddie rolled her eyes; she had wanted to avoid any discussions with Jessica about the circumstances of her leaving Grace Falls. The child’s interest in all things anatomy had kept her occupied through the evening meaning the subject was never raised but now it looked like she was going to make Maddie talk.
“Yes I still like your mommy, but it’s complicated.”
“Aunt Teddy says that when something is complicated you just have to break it down into its component parts and that way it makes it much simpler,” Jessica said, wriggling down underneath the duvet.
“Well that’s very sound advice,” Maddie said, her lips twitching into a smirk at Jessica’s advice. “I’ll be sure to consider that, now sleep,” she said mustering up an authoritarian tone.
“Maybe if you told me the component parts I could work it out, I’m pretty clever for my age.”
Maddie let out a soft laugh, “I know that. Your being here is proof of how clever you are, but you really can’t help with this one sweetie. So sleep.” Maddie closed her eyes and felt herself start to drift off, the last thing she heard before she fell asleep was Jessica’s voice.
“My mama still likes you too.”
Chapter Twelve
“She gets it from you, you know,” Alex grumped, nodding her acknowledgement to the air steward who was preparing the cabin for landing. She pushed the window blind up complying with the steward’s request and winced as the bright sunlight shone through the small window of the plane.
Sully turned in his seat, “The smartness. Really? You think?”
“The sneakiness,” Alex clarified. “The smartness comes from me.” Her right leg jiggled up and down with nerves. The closer they got to San Francisco the more Alex started to think about what she wanted to say to Maddie. She could feel the pent up frustration coursing through her as her mind created various scenarios on what their meeting would be like. Sully reached over and placed his hand on her knee stalling her movement.
“Wanna talk about it?” he asked.
Alex rolled her eyes and allowed her head to flop back against the headrest, “I’m nervous about seeing Madeleine again. I don’t know whether I want to smack her or kiss her.”
“Go for both, in that order,” Sully said furrowing his brow and looking serious.
“You’re not helping,” Alex groaned rolling her head to the side to look at her now grinning friend.
Sully laughed and squeezed her knee, “You were mad because she didn’t let you defend yourself, so now you can.”
“I wish I was just mad. I’m hurt Matt. She hurt me, I haven’t opened myself up to anyone in years and then I do and…” she huffed and looked back at the console above her head. “Being mad is easy, but mostly when I think about her, I’m sad; sad that I misjudged who I thought she was. Sad that I allowed myself to think that I could have the happy ending with her.” She raised her hand and wiped angrily at the tear that was tracing its way down the side of her face. Sully leaned over and pressed his lips against the side of her head before he rested his head against Alex’s.
“You should tell her that then,” he said softly.
***
Sully followed the exit signs through the arrivals area. “She said she’d get us at the customer service desk,” he said, looking around. He turned to speak to Alex before realizing that she was no longer by his side; he spun round seeing her standing ten yards behind him. He frowned and retraced his steps, “She’ll be at the customer service desk.”
“I don’t think I can,” Alex said, shaking her head.
“Don’t think you can what?”
Alex shook her hands as if trying to loosen the tension from her body. “Ugh,” she looked up at the ceiling attempting to tip the tears that were welling in her eyes back in. “God,” she groaned giving up and wiping her eyes. “I don’t know what to say Matt, I…I…it hurts,” she balled her hand into a fist and held it to her chest.
Sully stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her, “The stuff that matters usually does.”
***
Maddie stood at the customer service desk, she held onto Jessica’s hand as she scanned the arrivals board. “Their flight has landed,” she said managing to sound brighter and less nervous than she felt. Her stomach had started to churn from the moment she had woken up at the thought of seeing Alex again. She had been unable to eat anything for breakfast, her nervousness reaching a level she had not experienced since sitting her finals. Maddie was torn between wanting to see Alex again and not wanting another visual reminder of how she had mistaken their mutual attraction for anything deeper than that. She still felt the burn of the humiliation of being lied to and called ‘easy’, however the part of her that refused to return the borrowed sweatshirt had to admit to still wanting Alex. As she tried to sort through her emotio
ns, she felt a tug on her hand.
“Daddy!” Jessica exclaimed, releasing Maddie’s hand and running towards Sully who was standing with his arms outstretched.
He scooped his daughter up into a tight hug, peppering her face with kisses. “Do. Not. Ever. Do. That. Again,” he said, walking them towards Maddie.
“I won’t, I promise,” Jessica said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Where’s Mama,” she asked, twisting so she could look past her father’s head.
“She’s waiting inside,” Sully said watching Maddie’s face and seeing a look that was a mix of disappointment and relief flash across her features. “Maddie, thank you for looking after her,” he said, adjusting his hold on Jessica and holding out his hand.
Maddie shook it, “No problem, I’m sorry if anything I said contributed to this.”
He shook his head. “No, this is all on Jessica,” he replied, looking sidelong at his daughter. “Thanks again.” He took Jessica’s backpack from Maddie and turned to leave. He took two paces then stopped and turned back again, “She didn’t know about Sam and Peter’s plan, they didn’t tell her as she would have told you, she’s the most honest person I know.” Maddie opened her mouth but Sully held his hand up to stop her, the backpack dangling from it, “And the bet. We bet on everything. We bet because it reminds us of Alex’s brother who is no longer with us and who loved to bet on stupid things. We all do it. Except for Alex, she’s never bet on anything in her life, the only thing she took a gamble on was you,” he looked sadly at Maddie. “And it looks like she lost that one,” he gave a nod, satisfied that if Alex was unable to defend herself then at least he had. Not waiting for a response he turned to leave.
“She called me easy,” Maddie yelled after him.
Sully turned round again, “You one hundred percent sure on that? ’cause by my reckoning you’re two for two on being wrong so far.” He looked at Jessica, “Say bye to Doctor Marinelli, Jessica.”
“Bye Maddie-Lyn,” Jessica said waving her hand. “Thank you for my skeletons, say bye to Zoe for me.”
Sully turned and walked back towards security with Jessica bouncing up and down in his arms as she waved to Maddie. Maddie waved until they disappeared around a corner, her hand dropped to her side and she gulped in air as she processed Sully’s words; realizing that right now, she wasn’t sure about a damn thing anymore.
***
“Can I have a story?” Jessica asked her eyes wide with innocence as she tried to convince her mother.
Alex bit her lip, her ability to stay mad at her daughter was always sorely tested when she gave her the puppy dog look. “Do you really think you should be asking for that after your adventures?” she said, managing to coax out a half decent attempt at seriousness.
Jessica pouted, “No…I’m sorry I worried you all.”
Leaning down, Alex kissed her daughter’s head. “Yeah, well you’re still grounded ’til you’re thirty and no computer ever,” she said against her daughter’s hair. She stood up straight and turned the light off, “Night night.” Alex rested her hand on the doorframe and gave her daughter one last look, she had almost closed the door when Jessica tried one last ploy to stay up.
“Mama, where’s Hicksville?”
Alex opened the door again, “Where did you hear that?”
“Zoe said it to Maddie-Lyn. She said that Maddie-Lyn almost chose love and stayed in Hicksville. Where is it? Can we go?” Alex’s mouth opened as she took in what Jessica had said. She stood there, her mouth gaping unable to process what her daughter was telling her, her thoughts were disrupted when Jessica pursued her question, “Mama, are you listening to me? Can we go there?”
Shaking her head to clear it Alex closed her eyes and took in a breath, “It’s nowhere sweetie, Zoe or whatever her name was must have got it wrong.” She turned and stepped out of Jessica’s room.
“No I definitely heard her say Hicksville,” the young girl called after her mother.
“Sleep Jessica,” Alex called, waking down in the hallway in a daze. She pulled out her cell and selected Teddy’s name, and typed a text. ‘Need you…bring Jack!’
***
“Hey, sorry I’m late, you will not believe where I’ve been,” Teddy dropped her jacket over the stair handrail and poked her head into the downstairs rooms as she walked through the house looking for Alex. “Remember that Deputy that was here yesterday, not Harvey the other one; Douglas, he asked me out,” she paused, frowning, as she entered the kitchen and found it empty. She noticed the empty bottle of Jim Beam on the table. “Looks like Jim got here first Jack,” she said lifting up the bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand and speaking to it. “Alex?” she called. When she didn’t get a response she headed out towards the back porch, fully expecting to see Alex on the swing. Finding it vacant her concern increased.
“Marco!” she yelled, putting the bottle of Jack Daniels down onto the swing and looking out into the darkness of the garden. She heard a faint ‘Polo’ coming from near the bottom of the garden. Stepping forward Teddy spotted where it was coming from. “Awwwww crap,” she muttered, digging her cell from her pocket, “Sully, it’s Teddy. Can you come to Alex’s?” She rolled her eyes as Sully started to protest, “Yes, I know it’s a Friday, but she’s gone on a Bear hunt. Yeah you heard right.” She hung up and started to make her way down the garden, muttering curses as she went.
***
Sully looked up, “Well how in the hell did she get up there!”
Teddy stood beside him her arms crossed tight against her chest, “How does she ever get up there. She climbed.”
They looked up into the tall tree that sat at the bottom of Alex’s garden, half way up its stout trunk a small wooden platform had been built, from their position on the ground they could see the lower parts of Alex’s legs dangling from it. “I swear to God I’m going to tear that down,” Sully growled standing on his tiptoes to get a better look.
“You said that the last time,” Teddy remarked, “and the time before that.” A small smile started to play on her lips, “And I’m pretty sure that you said that the day that Bear built it and we got stuck up there.”
“And I meant it,” Sully said, looking sideways at Teddy.
“Just do what you always do, go get her,” Teddy waved up towards the platform.
Sully blew out a long breath. “I haven’t done that in years. I’m not as young as I used to be…and…and she’s had a kid since the last time I carried her down,” he said quietly.
Teddy snorted, “I’m so telling her you said that when she’s sober.”
Ignoring her Sully looked back to the trailing feet, “So do we know why she’s sunk a bottle of JB and climbed Bear’s tree?”
Teddy shook her head and shrugged, “Nope, I got a text from her earlier asking me to come over but I was running late and she was up there when I arrived. How did things go in San Francisco?”
Sully gave a small huff, “Let’s not go there. So how was your date?”
Teddy turned to look at him her mouth open in shock. “How?” her eyes narrowed. “Lou. I’ll kill her,” she murmured. “It was very nice thank you.”
“I could be dead up here you know,” a slurred voice announced above them.
“Are you?” Sully asked.
“Nooooo,” Alex replied.
“Teddy had a date,” he shouted, getting a slap on the arm from Teddy. Alex sat up and blinked trying to clear her vision, then looked down at her friends.
“You did?” she grinned. “Thasss great!” her smiled faded quickly. “Love sucks,” she flopped backwards, her legs lifting up slightly with the momentum.
“Honey, you’re going to have to come down,” Teddy said tipping her head back.
“Donwanna.”
Teddy and Sully exchanged frustrated looks.
“Daddy?” a tired voice came from behind them, they turned towards the house. Standing in her nightdress rubbing her eyes with a balled fist, tiredness making her look younger than
her years, stood Jessica.
“I got this,” Teddy said. “Hey fugitive,” she grinned jogging back towards the porch and scooping Jessica up. “C’mon I’ll take you back upstairs,” she carried the girl back into the house leaving Sully with Alex.
Sully watched Teddy disappear, then turned his attention back towards the feet dangling above his head.
“She was gonna stay, Matt,”
He dropped his head and kicked the toe of his shoe against the ground, “You don’t know that for sure.”
“I do, Jessicatolme,” she garbled, sitting upright again before swaying slightly back and forth.
“Jessica’s seven. What does she know? Apart from how to hack a computer and lie and cheat her way across half the country.” His eyes pleaded with Alex, “Please come down.”
“I can’t.”
“Please!”
Alex closed her eyes and shook her head, the action taking her dangerously close to coming out of the tree quicker than either of them were ready for, “No. I actually can’t Matt. I tried, but I’m too drunk to get back down.”
Sully looked up into the night sky, “Bear, if you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you for building that damn thing.” He stepped forward and took hold of Alex’s ankles, “Okay lean forward and try to lower yourself slowly.”
Alex scooted forward and balanced her weight on her hands. She moved her backside off the platform, feeling Sully’s strong arms around her legs as he guided her down, she felt the muscles in her arms start to shake at the exertion and gasped as they gave out speeding her descent. Sully let out an ‘Oomph’ as Alex’s upper body landed on his shoulder and he struggled to keep his knees from giving out at the impact. Standing up straight, he kept Alex in a fireman’s lift and started back up towards the house.
Bouncing up and down, her face almost level with Sully’s ass, she spotted his cell phone in the back pocket of his jeans. She pulled the cell out and selected a number from his recent calls list.
Sully was climbing the steps of the porch when he heard Alex’s voice.
“Hmmm voicemail, well that doesssn’t surprise me since you left me! You freakin’ left me standing in the middle of the road! This might of just been a fling for you Madeleine. A woman in every port as you swung on by, but I’m worth more than that and I just wanted to tell you that you’re a coward. Yep, thas right a coward.”
