Stealing Home

by Sherryl Woods

  “I know, but you wouldn’t have owned it,” Maddie said with a laugh. “You do have control issues, you know.”

  Helen shrugged, not denying it. “You going to the game?”

  Maddie glanced at her watch and realized she was now running late. “Yes, and I need to pick up the kids. You want to come along?”

  “Not tonight. I have to be in court on Monday and it’s going to take me all weekend to get my ducks in a row.”

  Maddie studied her worriedly. Helen spent way too much time getting her ducks lined up. “Come over for Sunday dinner,” she suggested. “You’ll need a break by then. It’s been a while since you’ve spent any time with the kids.”

  Helen gave her a sly look. “I will if you’ll promise to tell me everything about your date with Cal.”

  “I don’t have a date with Cal.”

  “What would you call it? He invited you to have pizza after the game again, didn’t he?”

  “With the team,” Maddie said. “And my kids.”

  “Even better than a date,” Helen said.

  “How do you figure that?”

  “He’s blending right into your life,” Helen explained. “The steamy sex will come along in due time.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t seem to stop the little buzz of anticipation that Helen’s words triggered.

  “I’ll see you Sunday,” she told Helen. “Don’t stay on that treadmill too long. You don’t want to wear it out before we get the doors open.”

  Helen merely waved, then set the machine’s speed up another notch and began to jog. Compulsive, type A, Maddie thought as she observed her silently. She couldn’t help wondering if exercise would be as good for Helen as the doctor believed or if it would just be one more thing Helen obsessed over.

  The team was jubilant. Ty had only pitched five innings before Cal had taken him out for a reliever, but their lead had been protected. They’d walked away with a shutout over the toughest team in their division and their biggest rival in the entire region. Emotions always ran high at these games and tonight had been no exception. Cal couldn’t have been more proud of the way they’d all pulled together.

  When he walked with the team into Rosalina’s, he immediately looked for Maddie, who’d left the ball field ahead of him. He spotted her sitting all alone at a table in a darkened corner, far away from the cluster of tables that had been set up for the team. Kyle was by himself at the team table, looking angry. Another glance around the crowded room revealed why. On the opposite side of the restaurant sat Bill Townsend with his very pregnant girlfriend. Some of Cal’s excitement died as he realized the amount of tension their presence was bound to cause.

  Though he was tempted to walk over and say something, Cal knew it wasn’t his place. At the ball field, Ty’s father might tolerate Cal’s interference in his personal life because of its effect on Ty, but here, he’d probably resent the hell out of it. And he’d be justified.

  As soon as the team was settled, Cal crossed to Maddie’s table and pulled out a chair. “Where’s Katie?” he asked, leaving the topic of Bill up to her.

  “Playing the games with Danielle and Danielle’s folks,” she said. “Thank heavens she didn’t spot her dad in here.”

  “I gather you weren’t expecting him, either.”

  “No.”

  “At least he’s keeping his distance from Ty,” Cal said, observing the couple across the room. “After the incredible game Ty pitched, it would be a shame to have Bill’s presence spoil the evening for him.”

  Even as Cal spoke, he watched Ty leave his teammates, a mutinous expression on his face, and walk over to his dad. Whatever he said had Bill rising to his feet and Noreen looking embarrassed.

  “Think I should go over there and run interference?” Cal asked.

  Maddie shook her head, even though her eyes were dark with worry. “Let Ty handle this. He needs to be able to deal with his dad.”

  Cal noticed that Bill’s fists were clenched, but there was no shouting. Eventually he and Ty appeared to relax. Ty accepted his dad’s outstretched hand, then went back to his seat.

  “Thank God,” Maddie murmured.

  A moment later Bill and Noreen headed for the door. Right before they left, Bill detoured toward Cal and Maddie, leaving Noreen waiting.

  “I know you probably think I shouldn’t have come here tonight, especially not with Noreen,” he told Maddie. “We really had planned to be gone before the team got here, but when the bus pulled up outside, I decided to wait for Ty and take a minute to congratulate him. I didn’t intend to make him uncomfortable.”

  Cal watched Maddie’s struggle to keep her emotions in check.

  “Did your conversation with Ty go okay?” she asked eventually, her tone perfectly neutral.

  Bill regarded her with unmistakable relief. “As a matter of fact, it did. He was even civil to Noreen when she congratulated him.”

  “I’m glad.”

  He looked from her to Cal, acknowledging him for the first time. “Congratulations on the win, Coach.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I didn’t expect to see you two here together again,” Bill said, his disapproving gaze shifting back to Maddie. “You know how people in this town love to talk. Next thing you know, they’ll be turning the two of you into an item. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  Before Cal could respond, Maddie frowned and countered, “I wasn’t the first one in our family to stir up gossip, and I doubt I’ll be the last. If you were all that worried about talk, you might have done a few things differently yourself.”

  Bill looked as if he’d bitten into a very sour lemon. With a terse “Good night,” he turned and stalked away, his back rigid.

  “I am so sorry,” Maddie apologized.

  “For what?”

  “Anything he might have said that made you uncomfortable. He was being more of a jerk than usual tonight.”

  “He’s jealous,” Cal told her.

  “Jealous?” Maddie echoed. “No way.”

  Cal grinned. “Some men might think I’m worthy of jealousy, especially when I’m out with the mother of their children.”

  Maddie blushed. “I didn’t mean you aren’t worth being jealous over, just that there’s nothing between us to stir anyone’s jealousy.”

  Cal’s expression sobered as he met her gaze and held it. “Are you sure about that, Maddie?” he asked quietly.

  “I—” her blush deepened “—I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said. “But I’m not going to push you, not tonight anyway. One of these days, though, maybe we ought to talk about what’s going on here.”

  “We’re friends,” she said, sounding a little desperate to pin a label on it right now.

  “We are,” he agreed.

  But if he had his way, it was going to turn into something more. And maybe it was only his ego talking, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t going to fight him when the time came.

  Maddie was relieved when an entire week went by and she barely saw Cal. There were no crises with Ty. She went to the Wednesday afternoon game, then slipped away before it was over. It was Bill’s turn to attend the Friday night game. She could use every second she was away from Cal to regain her equilibrium. He confused her. He seemed to be hinting at a future she didn’t want to allow herself to consider.

  Okay, she wanted to consider it, but it wasn’t sensible or practical with her kids already so confused about Noreen. A relationship with Cal would be the stuff of fantasies, a man ten years her junior actually thinking she was hot enough for an affair. And that’s all it could be. Surely he wasn’t thinking beyond that, not with all the baggage she carried. And Cal had baggage, too, for that matter. Trust issues.

  Still, in a moment of extreme weakness, she imagined crawling into bed with that hard, muscular body, making love to him, letting herself come apart in the safety of his arms. Because that’s what she knew above all—she would be safe with Cal
. He’d shown time and time again that he was willing to put her needs first, that he cared for who she was as a woman and a mother, not just as a potential lover.

  Oh, God, she thought, moaning at the ridiculousness of her fantasy. It would never happen. She couldn’t allow it to happen. Bill had been right about one thing—Serenity was a small town where reputations could be made or broken in a heartbeat. Maybe her ex could get away with his indiscretion simply because everyone accepted that men were weak, even idiotic from time to time, especially as they approached middle age. Women, down here in the world of Southern belles, were expected to live by a higher standard. Men slapped them up on pedestals and expected them to stay put.

  “My, my, that’s a lovely blush on your cheeks,” Dana Sue noted, breezing into Maddie’s office with a file folder. “Thinking about Cal, I assume.”

  “What’s in the folder?” Maddie asked, refusing to get drawn into that discussion, especially right now when her defenses were low and her mind was dodging X-rated fantasies.

  “You can’t avoid this conversation forever,” Dana Sue said.

  “Oh, but I can, especially since we’ve already had it way too many times,” Maddie corrected. “Come on—what’s in the folder?”

  Her friend regarded her with disappointment, but eventually relented. “A schedule for cooking classes,” she said, handing it over. “See what you think.”

  Just then Jeanette wandered in, wearing a sample of the new smock they were considering for their spa clients. “Good. You’re both here,” she said, tugging at a hemline that barely reached her thighs. “This’ll save us a couple of bucks, maybe, but I think it’s too short. We don’t want people to have to wear their street clothes while they’re getting treatments. We want them to feel pampered.”

  “True,” Dana Sue said.

  Jeanette went on. “A good smock or robe will make them feel as if they’re being wrapped in luxury. If we buy good quality, the smocks will last forever, even with constant washing. I think it’s a good investment, but it’s not my money.”

  “Do you have a sample of the one you prefer?” Maddie asked.

  Jeanette grinned and brought her hand out from behind her back. “I was hoping you’d ask.” She held out a satin-textured, polyester robe in pale peach that tied around the waist. “We could have our logo embroidered on this in white. It would only cost a little extra and it would be so classy.”

  “Classy is what we’re going for,” Dana Sue said. “And Helen is all about classy. I vote yes. Want me to call her and run it by her, Maddie?”

  Maddie winced. Did she have to run all the financial decisions past Helen? Helen hadn’t asked her to. She said she trusted Maddie’s judgment.

  “What’s this going to do to your budget?” she asked Jeanette. They’d gone over the figures the week before and she’d discovered that Jeanette had mastered them and had a terrific grasp of which corners could be cut and which would compromise their image.

  “It would double it,” Jeanette admitted. “But I could order a little less skin-care product initially to balance it out, though frankly, as soon as people have one of our treatments, the products we use are going to fly off the shelves.”

  “Then it doesn’t sound as if that’s a smart option,” Maddie told her.

  Jeanette’s expression turned thoughtful. “How far ahead have you projected a budget for supplies?”

  “Not that far,” Maddie admitted. “Three months ahead now and I was going to do a six-month projection after we get the doors open. Why?”

  “I was wondering if you’d figured in replacement costs for the smocks. If you had, we could make up the difference there. These are excellent quality, so we wouldn’t have to replace them nearly as often.”

  She and Dana Sue looked at Maddie expectantly.

  “Do it,” Maddie said at last. “But please, please find a way to cut some other corners till we can get this place up and running.”

  “The grand opening is less than a month away,” Dana Sue reminded her. “And you’ve said yourself that memberships are way ahead of projections.”

  “And I’ve already started booking treatment appointments,” Jeanette said. “In fact, we’re booked solid for the first two weeks, both facials and massages. I’ve had a lot of requests for manicures and pedicures, too, so we need to get a manicurist on board as soon as we can so I’ll be able to start booking those appointments.”

  Maddie brightened. “Really?”

  Jeanette grinned. “I told you I know how to organize this kind of stuff. And once we do that friends-and-family special the week before we open, I think we’re going to be booked through summer,” she said. “I might have to hire additional help beyond what we’ve talked about, especially if we want to add herbal body wraps.”

  “There’s no money in the budget for even one more person yet,” Maddie warned. “Besides, it’ll do people good to know that we’re booked so far in advance. That just adds to the aura that we’re the hottest new spot in town.”

  “Which we will be,” Dana Sue said. “Now, let’s talk food. Look at the class schedule, please.”

  Maddie handed a copy to Jeanette and looked over her own sheet.

  “Oh, my God, sign me up,” Jeanette murmured eventually. “I may not want to know how to cook these things, but I sure want to be around when you’re serving them up.”

  Dana Sue laughed. “Which one sounds the best?”

  “Desserts, of course,” Jeanette said. “Can you really do a bread pudding that won’t send me to carbohydrate hell?”

  “I think Erik has the recipe just about down pat,” Dana Sue said. “Maybe I’ll have him make it for next Tuesday when we get together, and you can tell me what you think.”

  “Count me in,” Jeanette said. “I haven’t touched bread pudding since I left home, but even the thought of it makes my mouth water.”

  “If you can’t make it till next Tuesday, we do serve it at the restaurant,” Dana Sue told her. “Of course, for now it’s still the old-fashioned, full-calorie version complete with a scoop of homemade cinnamon ice cream on top.”

  Jeanette stared at her with openmouthed awe. “I am so there.” She turned to Maddie. “Will you come with me? Just for dessert. My treat. You’ll still be at home in time for dinner with the kids, if you can eat another bite after all that decadence.”

  Maddie started to decline, then decided that a half-hour indulgence was well deserved after the long weekdays she’d been putting in. She could take some home to the kids, too. Bread pudding was one of Katie’s favorites, and Erik’s version of it had earned her daughter’s devotion. She begged for the treat whenever they went to the restaurant.

  Dana Sue grinned at her. “I’ll make up a to-go carton for Katie,” she said, as if she’d read Maddie’s mind. “I’ll even put it in a cooler so the ice cream won’t melt.”

  “Then let’s get out of here,” Maddie said. “There’s nothing on this desk that can’t wait till tomorrow.”

  And her quandary over Cal could wait another day, too.

  Maddie and Jeanette were just finishing up their bowls of bread pudding when Betty Donovan left her own meal, crossed to their table and pulled out a chair without waiting to be asked.

  “Excuse me for interrupting,” the high-school principal said with a brief glance at Jeanette, “but I really need to speak to Maddie.”

  Jeanette gave Maddie a questioning look, then stood up. “I need to be going anyway. Thanks for coming with me, Maddie. I’ll settle up with Dana Sue on my way out.”

  “See you in the morning,” Maddie told her, then drew in a deep breath as she turned to face the principal. “What’s this about? I assume it’s nothing pleasant. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been so rude to my friend.”

  Maddie had known Betty for years. The woman was as uptight now as she’d always been, but she’d never been flat out rude before. Betty blanched at Maddie’s comment.

  “I’m sorry. You’re right. I could have h
andled that better,” she admitted. “I had a lousy day at school and I assumed you wouldn’t want someone else hearing what I have to say, so I chose to be direct.”

  “Then by all means, continue being direct,” Maddie said tightly. “Is this about Tyler?”

  “No, from everything I hear from his teachers, your son’s doing better in school these days. I assume your husband laid down the law.”

  “You assume wrong. Bill’s not much help in the discipline department these days. Come on, Betty, whatever’s on your mind, just spit it out.”

  “Okay, then. It’s about you and Coach Maddox.”

  Maddie immediately tensed. “What about us? Not that there is an us.”

  “Oh, please, you can hardly deny that there’s something going on between you,” Betty said.

  “I most certainly can—and do—deny it,” Maddie retorted. “He’s Ty’s coach and my friend. That’s it.”

  “That’s not the way it looks to the other parents. They’re convinced that Ty is getting preferential treatment from the coach because you and Cal are so cozy. I field a dozen calls after every game you attend. It’s as if you’re rubbing the relationship in people’s faces.”

  Maddie held on to her temper by a very fragile thread. “I shouldn’t even dignify that with a response, but I will. My son is the best pitcher on our team. Any preferential treatment he might get—and frankly I doubt it’s any—is because of that and nothing else. To suggest otherwise demeans not only my son but Coach Maddox. The coach can stand up for himself, but I will stand up for my son, so you need to tell those busybodies reporting to you to get a life and stay the hell out of mine.”

  She stood up and tossed her napkin on the table, hoping the other woman didn’t see that she was trembling. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to pick something up in the kitchen and get home to my kids.”

  Betty stood up, too. “I’m just trying to give you fair warning,” she said, not backing down. “I’m sure you don’t want this to get ugly.”

  “It can only get ugly if you let rumors and innuendo become more important than facts.” Again, she started to walk away, then turned back. “You have a lot of influence with the parents, Betty. You’re in a position to put a stop to this. Show some backbone and do it.”