by Bex, Alice
Madeleine wondered when Emily was going to start having second thoughts about letting Riggs go. Up until recently, Emily had insisted on sleeping with Riggs tucked under her arm. Now Riggs slept at the end of the bed. He was a guard elephant, Emily claimed. Just like a guard dog. Only he ate less.
“I love Riggs!” Mark said. “There’s one thing though, that worries me.”
Emily’s eyes got big.
“My reindeer are awfully big and they can be terrible bullies. Rudolph in particular.”
“That’s not nice!”
“No. I talk to Rudolph about it all the time, but he just won’t listen.”
“Like Samuel F. He never waits his turn. Miss Hill keeps telling him to wait, but he never listens.”
“It sounds like Rudolph and Samuel F have a lot in common.”
Emily nodded. Mark handed Riggs reverently back to Emily.
“I think you’d better take care of him for me until I get Rudolph back in line. I wouldn’t want Riggs to get hurt.”
“OK,” Emily said. She looked relieved. She threw her arms around Mark and gave him an enthusiastic hug.
Madeleine looked at Mark and mouthed, “Thank You” over the top of Emily’s head.
And that was the moment. The moment when every doubt she had about him melted away. Madeleine still questioned Joe’s claim that the man had spent the last decade madly in love with her, but, if true, she was one lucky woman.
Mark looked over Emily’s head at Madeleine. She was smiling at him. He wanted so badly to walk over and kiss her, but now was not the moment. Instead he took the tiny box out of his pocket.
“Look what I found, Emily. Another present!”
“Who is it for?” Emily tried to find a name tag but there wasn’t one.
“This one is for your mother,” Mark said. “My friend Mark asked me to deliver it to her personally.”
Emily grabbed the tiny box and took it to her mother.
Madeleine opened the box and took out an antique cameo pin. She didn’t speak. She just looked at him. It was a full minute before she found her voice.
“This is exactly like—“
Exactly like the cameo pin belonging to her great-grandmother. The one Madeleine had lost the weekend she’d graduated from law school. She’d pinned it to her graduation gown as a tribute to her great-grandmother—the first female lawyer in the state of Minnesota—but the clasp had come loose somehow and after the ceremony the cameo was missing.
Mark and Joe and Ami had spent hours helping Madeleine search the lawn where the graduation had been held. They searched until it got dark, but they never found the brooch.
“Let me see!” Ami interrupted.
“How in the world did you find this?” Madeleine asked.
He’d spent years searching internet auction sites, but he could hardly admit to it.
“Oh, I—I mean my friend Mark—happened to come across it and I thought of you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Madeleine said. She walked over to Mark and kissed him on the cheek, or what would have been his cheek if it had not been covered with a white wooly beard. “Thank you for delivering it, Santa. It’s the nicest present anyone has ever given me.”
It was worth it. She might not love him back—the way he wished she would—but at least he’d made her smile. She didn’t have nearly enough reasons to smile.
“Time for bed, Emily,” Madeleine announced.
Emily begged to stay up a little longer, but Madeleine pointed out it was already 2 hours past her regular bed-time.
“Maybe Aunt Ami will tuck you in.”
Emily was satisfied. She trotted upstairs to brush her teeth on the condition that Aunt Ami would be up to read her a bedtime story. She came racing back down a minute later.
“I forgot to tell Santa goodbye!” She said. “I won’t see you again until next year.”
Maybe not even then, Mark thought. By next year he might no longer be a part of their lives, even dressed up as Santa.
Madeleine hurried Emily through her good-byes and sent her upstairs for a second try at brushing her teeth. That was his cue to go.
“I’d better take off,” Mark said.
“Already?” Joe protested.
Mark looked at Madeleine. She was smiling at him, but he wasn’t sure what it meant.
“Actually, Mark—“ Ami said, “—after I’m done reading Emily her bed-time story I was thinking you and Joe might help me finish up a little project I’m working on.”
“Sure,” Mark answered.
“What kind of project?” Joe asked. Joe had seen the sorts of projects Ami sometimes came up with, and he wasn’t willing to commit until he had a better idea of what he was getting into.
“I’m doing a social experiment.”
“Social experiment?”
“Yes, and all to benefit a very good cause.”
“And what good cause would that be?”
“You know our friend Mark here has been having some trouble with a certain female lately?”
Mark hoped whatever Ami had done hadn’t just made a bad situation worse, but he saw no point in voicing his doubts.
“Yes, I was aware of that,” Joe was saying.
“Well, I might have succeeded in putting a spoke in her wheels.”
“Ami! What did you do?” Madeleine sounded extremely skeptical and concerned.
“It remains to be seen,” Ami said. “Now, much as I’d love to include you in this little outing, Madeleine, somebody has to stay here with Emily.”
“Fine with me,” Madeleine answered. “Your brilliant ideas usually end up scaring me to death.”
“How often do Ami’s projects succeed?” Mark asked.
“It’s about 50/50,” Joe answered.
“Incidentally, I’ve already set this plan in motion,” Ami said. “There’s no going back, so you two might as well come along with me to see how things worked out.”
“And why do you need us?” Joe was suspicious.
“Just in case.”
“Just in case of what?”
“You’ll see,” Ami said.
“Why won’t you tell us now?” Joe asked.
“Are you coming or not?”
“Let’s go, Joe,” Mark said. Then he thought of something. “Ami, can I get away with going in this Santa suit?”
“I don’t see why not.” Ami said.
Madeleine fell asleep on the couch. She woke up to the sound of Ami’s car in the driveway. It was two o’clock in the morning.
They came back with an extra person. Ami introduced him as Jagger, her next door neighbor. The carpenter. The loud one. The one she hated. Or so she had claimed on many previous occasions, but Ami wasn’t looking at him like she hated him. She made no explanation for Jagger’s presence.
Ami was barely in the door before she demanded Madeleine’s laptop. She inserted a flash drive and pulled up a video file.
“You have to see this,” Ami said, thrusting the laptop under Madeleine’s nose. “Hit ‘play’ when you’re ready.”
Madeleine looked over at Mark. He was looking shell-shocked under his Santa beard, but slightly relieved. Good. Whatever Ami had done must not have backfired. At least not too badly.
Madeleine hit play. It was a split screen. The first camera was aimed at the outside of Mark’s front door. The second showed the inside of Mark’s living room.
“How did you do this?” Madeleine asked.
“Oh, Jagger has this friend who’s got a van fitted out with surveillance equipment,” Ami said, like it was the most natural thing in the world to have a next-door neighbor with access to professional-quality spy-gear. “Earlier today Jagger and I broke into Mark’s houseboat and put up the cameras. They’re tiny. Top of the line. Almost impossible to spot.”
“I thought you were a carpenter.” Madeleine looked over at Jagger.
“I am. My friend owed me a favor.” Jagger shrugged.
Madeleine let it go a
nd returned her attention to the video. Two people could be seen approaching the front door.
“That’s Kristen!” Madeleine exclaimed.
“You’re surprised?” Ami asked.
“And that looks like—“
“Chad?” Amy enquired. “Why, yes it is. You can thank me for that.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to start thanking you for anything yet. I don’t understand.”
“Would telling you Chad is sitting in jail right waiting to be charged with attempted arson help you feel any gratitude at all?”
“Arson?”
“Yes, arson.” Mark still looked a little traumatized. “They didn’t succeed, for which I’m very grateful. Not to sound like a total punster, but don’t you think that was playing with fire, Ami?”
“But why would they try to burn down Mark’s houseboat?” Madeleine asked.
“Maybe Kristen has watched a few too many crime thrillers? I don’t know. I had a feeling that was her plan all along. After what you said she told you about not planning to burn down Mark’s houseboat, I was almost certain that was what she would do if Mark didn’t give in to her demands,” Ami said.
“Huh?”
“Seriously. People always preemptively deny whatever it is they actually intend to do.”
“OK. But what’s Chad doing there?”
While they’ve been talking the video had continued playing. Kristen and Chad had now managed to break in the front door. It wasn’t much of a front door. Chad had jammed a crowbar between the door frame and the lock and it had popped right open.
“I may have had something to do with Chad being there,” Ami said. “I’ve been texting him all day, pretending to be Kristen. Then I text Kristen, pretending to be Chad. I got one of those cheap disposable cellphones. Bought with cash. Untraceable.”
“She’s brilliant!” Jagger said.
“Brilliant? Or crazy?” Joe protested. “They might have burned Mark’s house down.”
“I’m just glad Festus wasn’t in there,” Mark said.
“Yes, I wouldn’t put it past Kristen to shoot him,” said Ami.
“Are they doing what I think they’re doing?” Madeleine asked.
Chad appeared to be pouring the contents of a gas can around the living room floor while Kristen watched.
“They’re doing exactly what you think they’re doing.”
“Please tell me they didn’t get a chance to light that!”
“Just watch.”
Chad finished sloshing the gas onto the floor. Then he turned to Kristen. She grabbed him and pushed him up against the wall and started kissing him.
“Eww!” Madeleine didn’t want to see this.
The video cut off.
“You’ll be happy to know Kristen didn’t get anything she came for. The police arrived before they got around to igniting the accelerant and, according to Jagger, it appears they were arrested fully clothed,” said Ami.
“So, Jagger was there when the police arrived?”
“I was still in the back of the van. Watching through the cameras. I didn’t talk to the cops. Didn’t want Kristen to get a look at me.”
“I talked to them, though,” Mark said. “We arrived just as they were putting Kristen and Chad into the police car.”
“Jagger was the one who called the police?” Madeline was still confused.
“Yeah,” Jagger said. “I waited a little while to put in the call. Said I lived in the neighborhood and was walking by with my dog. I had a feeling Kristen and Chad would fool around a little before they got around to lighting up.”
“Wasn’t that a bit risky? Waiting so long to call the police? ” Madeleine asked. Poor Mark. Was he regretting getting involved with her family again?
“Maybe a little.” Jagger grinned.
Mark looked across the room at Madeleine. She was looking back at him. He wished everyone else would go away and leave them alone.
They finally did. Ami and Jagger left together. Joe went off to bed. Mark stood by the fireplace, waiting. Madeleine stayed where she was, keeping the couch between them.
“Do you believe me now?” Mark asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s all you have to say? After all those horrible things you thought about me.”
Madeleine walked up to him and put a finger to his lips.
“Shut up.”
“That’s kind of rude,” Mark scolded.
“Shut up and kiss me!”
He’d imagined this moment a thousand times and it was every bit as good as he’d imagined it. No. It was better. Sure, the wooly Santa beard was getting in the way a little, but it didn’t matter. She tasted so good. Madeleine let out a little moan. Mark pulled away and looked into her eyes.
“Ami tells me you have a rule about—“
“I’m giving you an exemption,” Madeleine said.
“How long is this exemption good for?”
“It’s too early to tell, but I’d say there’s a possibility it could be permanent.”
Mark didn’t say anything. Instead he picked her up in his arms and headed for the stairs. The second night he spent with Madeleine, he wasn’t going to be sleeping on top of the bedspread.
The End of February
Madeleine stood in the middle of the street and waved until Mark’s car turned the corner and drove out of sight. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t cry, but she’d broken that promise before he’d even made it out of the driveway. Portland might be only a commuter flight away and she’d see him the very next weekend, but she couldn’t wait until she tied up all her loose ends in Seattle and joined him in Portland for good.
Madeleine was looking forward to Monday. She shouldn’t be getting so much pleasure from anticipating the look on Angela’s face when she informed her she was quitting. Angela would be sorry to lose Madeleine, but Madeleine wasn’t the least bit sad to be leaving. Two weeks. In two weeks her days in divorce court would be over.
Not everything was rosy, of course. It would be hard to leave Ami here and Chad hadn’t been too happy when Madeleine had informed him of her intentions. However, since he only had Emily every other weekend and was currently out on bail until his court date, he wasn’t in a position to create too much of a fuss. He was looking at jail-time and so was Kristen. Madeleine felt sorry for them both. Maybe she shouldn’t, but she did.
There was also the house to sell. Chad hadn’t been too happy about that either, but it was her house now, and he didn’t have any say in the matter.
Madeleine already had a job lined up through someone Ami knew. She could start whenever she was ready. She’d be representing victims of domestic violence. There wasn’t much money in it, but Madeleine didn’t care.
She was so happy for Mark. He was finally realizing his dream of owning his own gym. Well, part-ownership, anyway. And after they got married, she’d buy out his friend Stan, and it would be their gym for good.
Madeleine took her mitten off and looked at her hand. It was strange to have a ring on her finger again. She turned her hand back and forth in the light to make the stone sparkle. It had belonged to Mark’s grandmother. When Mark had gone to his parent’s for Christmas he’d come back with the ring. He’d carried it around until Valentine’s Day, then he’d proposed.
It was awfully quick, but Madeleine wasn’t having second thoughts. Mark was everything that Chad had never been.
Madeleine’s phone jingled.
“Hi, Mark.”
“Just making sure you haven’t forgotten me. Out of sight. Out of mind.”
“Not a chance.”
“I’m the luckiest man on earth.”
She didn’t know how to react when Mark said sweet things like that. She wasn’t used to it.
“Recent history might indicate otherwise.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Why?”
“Because all the bad stuff had to happen to get to the good stuff.”
“Maybe you’re
right.”
“I know I’m right. Just because you’re 6 years older than me doesn’t—“
“Are we about to have our first fight?”
“I thought we already got that over with.”
“We weren’t a couple then.”
“Weren’t we?”
“No.”
He had loved her way back then. He loved her even more now. She had no doubts, just delicious anticipation of a long and happy life together. Mark and her and Emily. Together. A family.
“Are you still there?” Mark asked.
”Yes. I was just distracted by happy thoughts.”
“No fighting, then?”
“No. We can save fighting for later.”
“Why not? We have all the time in the world.”
THE END
