Cal was about to stand up, when Ty leaped from his seat and headed for the microphone.
“I just have one thing to say,” he said. “That newspaper story is a bunch of lies. I know my mom and I know Coach, probably better than almost anybody in this room does. They’re great influences on me and my brother and sister and on every other kid they know. Anybody who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
The entire baseball team rose to their feet and erupted into cheers as Ty returned to his seat.
Maddie glanced at Cal and saw that his eyes were damp with tears. She’d never felt prouder of her son. Whatever his own misgivings about Maddie’s relationship with Cal, he’d come through for them when it counted.
“He’s something, isn’t he?” she said, wiping at a few tears of her own.
“He should be,” Cal said. “You raised him. Now let me get up there and say my piece.”
The cheers that had started with the team escalated when Cal stood up. A lot of folks in town cared as much about his leadership on the ball field as they did about whatever example he set. And his team was going to play for the state championship on Friday night. A lot of parents wanted him to know they appreciated the hard work that had made that happen. In fact, he had to turn around and silence them before he could speak. Maddie saw the look of wonder in his eyes as he faced the solid show of support.
“Frankly, I wasn’t expecting this,” he told the board. “Mrs. Donovan is right about one thing. Teachers do have to set an example for the children in their care. I’ve tried to do that, both in what I teach them and in how I live. I came to Serenity because Hamilton Reynolds convinced me I could find a home here, and I have. In fact, I’ve found more than that. I’ve found a woman who is everything I’ve always wanted.”
He glanced at Maddie, his heart in his eyes, then turned back to the board. “So, at least some of what you’ve heard and seen in the paper is true. I have spent time with Maddie Townsend and hope to spend even more with her in the future. A lot of you have known her all her life. You know it’s true when I say that she’s someone who’s worthy of respect and deserving of love.” He faced her again and looked deep into her eyes as if there weren’t another soul in the room, then said quietly, “She has both of those things from me.”
When he finally turned back to the board, he said simply, “If you want to fire me because of that, so be it, but I’d say Maddie’s integrity and my feelings for her set an example a lot of folks in this town want for their kids.”
He returned to his seat, picked up Maddie’s hand and kissed her knuckles, then cast a defiant look up at the board members. “There you go,” he said. “I kissed her right here in plain sight.”
Ham shook his head, but he was clearly fighting a smile. “Anybody on the board have anything to say?”
“I’ve heard enough,” Roger Tate grumbled. “Let’s just vote and put an end to this. I’m about to miss my favorite TV show.”
“Can’t vote,” Ham said. “There’s no motion on the table. Any of you want to make one?”
“What happens if we don’t?” George Neville inquired. “Does the whole thing just die, the way it should?”
“It would,” Ham said. “But I think we owe the coach more than that for putting him and Maddie through this. I think we owe him a vote of confidence.”
“So moved,” George said at once.
“Second,” Roger said.
The five members of the board voted unanimously in support of Cal and the job he was doing. Ham glanced over at Betty Donovan after the vote. “You have any problem with that?”
Though her cheeks flamed, she gave him a curt shake of her head. “None.”
“Good, then this matter is settled,” Ham declared. “Coach, we expect you to win that state championship for us, you hear?”
Cal met his gaze. “We certainly intend to do our best.”
Ham winked at him. “Can’t ask anyone to do more than that.”
Maddie studied the exchange. Once she and Cal had made their way through the throng of well-wishers and emerged on the sidewalk outside the school, she looked into his eyes. “Just how well do you know Ham Reynolds?”
“He recruited me for the job,” Cal said. “I thought everyone in town knew that.”
“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?”
Cal met her gaze. “He saved me,” he said simply. “I was at the lowest point in my life and he walked into my rehab room and yanked me back from despair. I owe him for that and for tonight.”
“Not for tonight,” she told him. “You earned that vote in there. Don’t you ever think otherwise.”
Bill had chosen a seat in a back corner of the auditorium and watched Maddie stand solidly behind Cal Maddox during a hearing that would have humiliated a lot of women. A lot of men, for that matter. He wasn’t sure he could have withstood it if anyone had called him on the carpet for his behavior with Noreen, and he had a whole lot more to apologize for than Maddie or Cal did.
Not for the first time he wondered how he’d let his life spin so wildly out of control. Blaming it on a midlife crisis was too easy, too simplistic. He’d been restless, that was true enough. And he’d been open to the adoration of a beautiful young woman. It had been a balm to his ego after life at home had become so hectic that he and Maddie rarely found time for each other.
But what part of him had been so jaded and selfish that he hadn’t recognized and valued the woman who’d borne his children and helped him attain professional success? How could he possibly have thought that hot sex was more important than everything he and Maddie had achieved together?
“They got off easy,” Noreen commented beside him, dragging his attention back to here and now.
“I don’t think we’re in any position to cast stones,” Bill told her.
She looked rattled for a moment, then sighed. “No. You’re right about that. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Do you regret where we are now? I mean, together and on the verge of getting married, with a baby already on the way?”
Bill didn’t want to have this conversation, not now and certainly not here, but she deserved some kind of answer. He chose his words carefully, hoping to avoid an argument. “It’s way too late for regrets, don’t you think?”
Noreen’s expression turned sad. “In other words, you do have regrets. You’re just burying them under obligation.”
“I didn’t say that,” Bill said irritably.
“You didn’t have to,” she said, squeezing past him to leave. “I’ll wait for you in the car.”
“Noreen,” he protested, but she was already gone, moving with surprising speed for a woman who was eight months pregnant.
He stared after her, overwhelmed by more regrets. It wasn’t just his own life he’d messed up, he realized with sudden insight, or his family’s. Noreen was paying a price as well. Friends had deserted her when they’d learned of the affair. Even in the office, his other staff members treated her coolly. If she clung to him a little more tightly than he might have liked, it was understandable.
What the hell was he supposed to do? he wondered. Was there any way to make any of this right?
He thought of Cal’s very public declaration of his feelings for Maddie, and of Ty’s defense of both of them. Even if there was some way to make things right for Noreen without marrying her, it was probably too late to change anything with Maddie. She’d obviously moved on, and who could blame her?
In some deep dark corner of his soul, he wondered if he’d come here tonight hoping for a different outcome, one that would have sent Cal away from Serenity. Probably so. But that was only vindictive, wishful thinking. Reality was that Cal was here and was becoming a part of the family Bill had walked away from. He wondered if he’d ever find a way to make peace with that.
“Hey, Mom, do you think we could stop by Wharton’s for a milk shake?” Ty asked, walking beside her and Cal on thei
r way home from the meeting, Dana Sue and Helen bringing up the rear.
“I vote yes,” Dana Sue said.
“Count me in,” Helen said.
Cal grinned at Maddie. “If I get a vote, it’s yes, too.”
Maddie regarded them all with unease. “Don’t you think that might be a little too in-your-face for tonight? Some people are still unhappy about Cal and me.”
“Absolutely not,” Helen said emphatically. “I think a celebration is called for, and Wharton’s is where we’ve always held celebrations.”
Maddie knew when she’d been overruled. “Okay, then. Wharton’s it is. I think I’ll call Mom and tell her to bring Katie and Kyle and meet us there. They should be part of this, too.”
She drew her cell phone out of her purse and called her mother.
“The meeting’s over?” Paula asked.
“A few minutes ago,” Maddie confirmed.
“And?”
“The board gave Cal a vote of confidence,” Maddie reported. “We’re all heading to Wharton’s to celebrate. Can you bring Katie and Kyle and join us?”
“Katie’s already asleep,” her mother said. “But Kyle could walk over and meet you there. It’s only a few blocks and it’s still light out.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime. I’ll be glad to see him out of here. He’s beaten me at five straight games of hearts. He tells those corny jokes of his and gets me to laughing so hard I can’t concentrate.”
Maddie stopped in midstride. “Kyle’s been telling you jokes?” she asked.
“Sure. Why are you so surprised?”
“Because for the longest time after Bill left, he stopped telling them. Maybe he’s finally getting back to normal.”
“Or just figuring out what the new normal is,” her mother suggested. “I’ll tell him about Cal. He’s been worried. He’ll meet you at Wharton’s. I’ll call you back on your cell when he leaves the house so you can be watching for him.”
When she’d tucked the phone back in her pocket, Cal regarded her with curiosity. “Everything okay?”
“Better than okay. Kyle’s been telling Mom some of his jokes. It’s the first time he’s done that since Bill left. For the longest time, he’d pretty much stopped laughing.”
Ty overheard her and groaned. “You really think that’s a good thing? Kyle’s jokes are dumb.”
“They are not,” Maddie insisted. “I predict we’ll see him on Saturday Night Live someday.” She tousled Ty’s hair, even though he tried to duck out of reach. “It’ll be on right after you play in game one of the World Series.”
Ty grinned at that. “When you dream, Mom, you dream big.”
Maddie glanced up at Cal and thought about a few of the dreams she’d been having about him lately. “Yeah, I do,” she said.
Cal winked at her. “Nothing wrong with that. People with big dreams work harder to make them come true.”
When they walked into Wharton’s, Grace hurried over to greet them. “I heard what happened at the meeting tonight, Cal. I couldn’t be happier for you.”
Maddie was tempted to point out her role in spreading at least some of the gossip that had necessitated the meeting in the first place, but what would be the point? Grace loved to talk. It was as much a part of who she was and why Wharton’s had endured all these years as the friendly service her husband gave in the pharmacy.
Grace helped them pull two big tables together and saw them settled. “Chocolate milk shakes all around, I imagine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cal said. “Anybody want anything else? This is on me.”
Ty grinned at him. “In that case, I could use a burger. Making a speech is hard work.”
“Come to think of it, I’d like a burger, too,” Cal said. “I was too nervous to eat before the meeting.”
Ty regarded him with surprise. “You were nervous, too?”
“Sure. Give me a ball and bat and I know what to do. Standing up and talking to folks, especially when it really matters like tonight, well, I’d rather choke down a bucketful of worms.”
“Hey, maybe we should go on one of those TV reality shows,” Ty suggested. “You know, the kind where they make you eat gross stuff.”
“If you do, you’re on your own,” Maddie declared with a shudder just as her phone rang. It was her mom telling her Kyle had left the house.
“Amen to that,” Dana Sue added. “I wonder what’s keeping Annie. I called her, and she said she’d walk over and meet us here, too.”
“Don’t bother ordering a milk shake for her,” Ty said, immediately drawing a worried look from Dana Sue.
“Why do you say that?” she demanded.
“Because she never drinks them,” Ty responded innocently. “She just stirs the straw all around until the shake melts, then finds someplace to dump it out.”
Dana Sue exchanged a worried look with Helen and Maddie.
“I didn’t know that,” she said.
Ty suddenly looked guilty. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I just figured she didn’t really like ’em but ordered one just to fit in. It’s no big deal.”
“It’s okay, Ty,” Maddie soothed. “Dana Sue, try not to make too much out of it. I’m sure Ty’s right, that she orders them because everyone else does, then changes her mind about wanting it after taking a sip or two.”
“Do you honestly think my penny-pinching daughter who saves all her money for clothes would waste money that way?” Dana Sue said heatedly. “I’m telling you, she’s—” She broke off when Annie came through the door, Kyle right on her heels. They’d apparently met along the way.
Maddie studied the girl intently and saw why Dana Sue was so worried. Annie was about the same height as her mother, five-five or so, and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds if that. Her clothes hid the fact that she was too thin, but there was no disguising that her face was beginning to look gaunt.
Still, when she smiled, her face lit up and it was almost possible to think that Dana Sue was imagining that Annie had an eating disorder.
“Hey, Coach, I heard the good news,” Annie said. “Congratulations! The whole thing was bogus in the first place.”
“Thanks,” Cal said.
Annie gave Maddie a kiss on the cheek. “Bet you’re relieved, too.”
“I am,” Maddie confirmed.
“Was Uncle Bill at the meeting?” she asked, still using the honorary title she’d given him, just as she called Maddie and Helen her honorary aunts.
“I didn’t see him,” Maddie said. “Why?”
Annie grinned wickedly. “I just figured he was probably eating his heart out, knowing you’re with somebody as cool as the coach now.”
“Annie!” Dana Sue protested, then chuckled herself. “He was there. I saw him and Noreen in the back.”
Ty frowned. “Dad was there with Noreen?”
Dana Sue nodded. “Don’t make a big deal out of it, Ty. I’m sure your dad was there to lend his support to Cal. And I’m also sure he was very proud of the way you spoke up.”
Annie gave Ty a look that Maddie recognized as hero worship. She was barely a year younger than Ty, and there was no mistaking her feelings for him—and the fact that he was oblivious to them. Maddie hoped he wouldn’t inadvertently hurt Annie’s tender heart one of these days.
“You got up in front of everybody and made a speech?” Annie asked him with awe.
“It was no big deal,” Ty said.
“It was a big deal to me,” Cal corrected. “And I think it impressed the board, too.”
Grace returned then with their milk shakes and the burgers for Cal and Ty, then looked at Kyle. “Burger and shake for you, I imagine.”
“You bet,” Kyle said eagerly.
Then Grace turned to Annie. “What about you, young lady? You want a milk shake, too?”
Maddie watched Dana Sue observe her daughter with bated breath as she waited for Annie’s answer.
“No, it’s late,” Annie sai
d eventually. “I’ll just have some water with lemon.”
“Come on, Annie,” Dana Sue encouraged. “It’s a celebration. Have something more than that.”
Annie scowled at her mother. “I don’t want anything else,” she said forcefully. “Maybe you can eat this late but I can’t.”
“That’s okay,” Helen said, stepping in before the battle of wills could escalate. “Annie’s right. I’ll probably be up half the night if I finish this entire milk shake.” She deliberately pushed it away, though she’d taken only a few sips.
Dana Sue sighed, but she let the subject drop.
Maddie’s gaze kept drifting toward Annie as they sat there. She barely touched her water, but her conversation was animated. In most ways, she seemed like a perfectly healthy teenager, but Maddie wasn’t convinced that Dana Sue wasn’t right to worry about her. Something wasn’t entirely right.
Cal leaned closer. “Stop worrying,” he whispered in her ear.
She regarded him with surprise. “What makes you think I’m worrying?”
“I can see the way you’re watching Annie and I can practically hear those wheels in your head grinding away,” he told her. “Dana Sue’s on top of this.”
“You think so?”
He nodded. “And she has all of you for backup if she needs it.”
“Then you think there’s a problem, too?” she said, meeting his gaze.
Cal didn’t deny it. Instead, he merely said, “It’s nothing that’s going to be solved tonight, okay?”
Maddie nodded. But first chance she had, she was going to do some research on eating disorders and pass it along to Dana Sue. Maybe they were all wrong, but she would hate herself if they did nothing and something bad happened to that beautiful child.
21
It was midafternoon the next day before Maddie had a chance to take a break from work. They’d been overwhelmed with new members in the morning. Apparently word of Cal’s exoneration had spread, and now everyone, including a couple of those who’d walked out on Monday, wanted to join The Corner Spa. Helen had cynically suggested that they were hoping to achieve the same results Maddie had, since she’d so obviously toned up lately and managed to snag herself a hunk like Cal.
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