He studied her intently and saw a surprisingly mature and steady resolve behind the sorrow in her eyes. “This is really what you want?”
“Not what I want, no, but what I know is best,” she told him, then stood up. “I’d better go. It’s a long drive and I’d like to get in a couple of hours before it gets dark.”
“Why don’t you wait till morning? Or fly?”
“The airline would never let me on the plane,” she said, her hand on her belly. “Besides, I’ll need my car in Tennessee.”
“Let me take you.”
“No. I don’t want to say goodbye all over again, not in front of my parents. I want to say it right here. Besides, I don’t think I could stand spending hours in the car with you rehashing all this.”
“What can I do, then?”
“Be happy,” she said quietly. “I’ll be in touch to make arrangements about getting the rest of my things.”
“Do you want me there when the baby comes?” he asked.
“That’s up to you,” she said, her expression wistful. “If you want to come, I won’t stop you. If you want to be a part of the baby’s life, as difficult as that would be for me, I won’t prevent that, either. How could I possibly deny my child the chance to know a dad as great as you?”
“Great? Hardly. I’ve failed my kids.”
“No,” she said fiercely. “All three of them are proof of what a terrific dad you are. And with me gone, you’ll be able to work out your differences.”
She reached for her luggage, but Bill grabbed it first. “You can’t be carrying anything this heavy. I’ll take it down.”
She backed off. “Fine.”
He studied her, surprised that she really was going to leave. He’d half expected her to back down. “There was never any chance I could talk you out of this, was there?”
A tear leaked out and tracked down her cheek. “Yeah, there was, but you blew it the second you didn’t deny that you were still in love with Maddie.”
Bill felt an ache in his heart, knowing just how badly he’d failed this beautiful young woman. But Noreen was strong, stronger than he’d realized. She’d do okay, and his son or daughter would be lucky to have her. And he’d do his part, as well. He’d pay child support, visit when he could, make sure that the child never paid for the mistakes made by its parents.
He loaded Noreen’s bags into the trunk of her car, kissed her one more time, then stood on the curb as she drove away. He felt completely and utterly alone, even more so than when he’d walked away from his family or seen Maddie with Cal Maddox. At least then he’d had Noreen in his life, a woman who’d deserved better than he’d ever had to give.
And now? Now he had to figure out if going back to Maddie was what he really wanted. And if it was, how the hell was he going to convince Maddie to let him?
For a couple of weeks now, ever since Cal had declared his feelings for her at the school board meeting, Maddie had been struggling to sort out her own feelings. She knew that sooner or later Cal was going to leap right over a courtship period and ask for more. He might be eager to drag her off to bed and she might be just as anxious for him to do it, but she knew now the kind of man he was. Respect and tradition were too important to him. He wasn’t going to subject her to more gossip in a town that had already proved just how deep it’d dig for a scandal.
Looking for answers, she dropped by her mother’s. She found Paula gardening in the backyard, pulling weeds from around her pink, purple and yellow snapdragons. She seemed oblivious to the dirt streaked on her face and clothes and just as oblivious to the hummingbirds darting in and out among the hollyhocks, which were just starting to break into bloom.
Maddie automatically picked up a pair of pruning shears and went to work on a rosebush. She didn’t have her mother’s flare for gardening and she’d made only a few distracted snips when Paula snatched the shears from her hand.
“Give me those. You’re going to kill it.” She gave Maddie a penetrating look. “What’s wrong?”
“I think it might be getting serious between me and Cal,” she said.
“Well, hallelujah! That’s a man with backbone, to say nothing of a great rear end.”
Maddie chuckled despite herself. “You would notice that.”
“Well, of course. I’m not dead. What about you? Have you noticed?”
Maddie blushed. “Oh, yes.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The kids, Bill, everyone.”
“The kids have always liked Cal. They’re just struggling with the idea of him in a new role in their lives. As for Bill, he doesn’t get any say in this. And that mess with the school board is in the past. What’s really stopping you? Why are you overthinking something that ought to be totally instinctive? You love the man or you don’t.”
“Not that simple,” Maddie said.
“Yes, it is,” her mother said just as firmly.
She thought of the accusation Peggy Martin had made. It had been eating at her for a few weeks now. “What if I’ve talked myself into having feelings for him just to get even with Bill? What if I’m only trying to prove that I’m able to attract a younger man?”
Her mother gave her a penetrating look. “Is that what you’re doing?”
“I don’t think so, but how do I know that for sure?”
“You imagine your life without him,” her mother said simply. “If Cal’s not that important or just passing through, you’ll know it.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Maddie said. “I loved Bill for years. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. But now that he’s been gone for nearly eight months, I’ve managed. The world didn’t come to an end.”
“Maybe he wasn’t your soul mate,” her mother said quietly.
“The way Dad was yours,” Maddie said with sudden understanding. Her mother, for all her carefree, irrepressible ways and outlandish comments about other men, had never had eyes for anyone but Maddie’s father.
Paula’s smile was tinged with sadness. “Exactly.”
“And you think Cal could be my soul mate in a way that Bill never was? We’ve only been seeing each other a few months. How can that be?”
“All it takes is a split second if it’s the right person. Did I ever tell you about the night I met your father? It was at a dinner party. He was there with someone else. So was I. On the surface, you’d think we wouldn’t have a thing in common. I was an unpredictable artist. He was a staid economist. But I looked across the table at him that night and I knew he was the one. He was everything I needed. We complemented each other.”
Maddie smiled. “Sometimes I envied that, the way you didn’t need anyone else. I felt…extraneous.”
“We never meant for you to,” her mother said, giving her a fierce hug. “We both adored you. Neither of us could quite get over the fact that we’d created something so incredible. Your father would have been so proud of the way you’ve handled all the changes you’ve had to face this year, Maddie, he really would.”
Maddie couldn’t seem to keep herself from asking, “What would he have thought of Cal?”
“He’d’ve liked him, but it doesn’t really matter what he’d think or what I think. Do you think Cal’s the one?”
Like a film playing out in Maddie’s mind, the years ahead flickered past, scene after scene with Cal at the heart of them, just as he’d already become the core of so many family occasions. He’d fit in easily and without rancor, despite the uneasy initial welcome he’d received from her kids. He’d never demand more of any of them than what they’d had to give, but he’d give unconditional love back to them, as much as they needed, more than they sometimes deserved.
Since the first time she’d met with him to discuss Ty, she’d felt stronger with him beside her, more herself than she had in years. She wasn’t playing a role, as she often had with Bill. She was simply being the best she could be, aware that it was enough for this man. More than enough.
She stood up suddenl
y. “I have to go.”
“You going to say yes, then?”
Maddie grinned. “He hasn’t asked a question yet.”
Her mother smiled in a way that suggested she knew something Maddie didn’t. “He will,” she said confidently.
“Have the two of you talked?”
“All the time,” her mother said. “But about him asking you to marry him? No, we haven’t talked about that.”
“Then what makes you so sure he’s going to ask?”
“The way he looks at you. It’s the way your dad looked at me.”
“And Bill never looked at me like that?”
Her mother shook her head. “Not even on your wedding day. He looked as if he’d just acquired a brand-new Mercedes—happy and proud of himself.”
“And how does Cal look at me?”
“As if he can’t believe his luck and would do anything on earth to make you happy.” She grasped Maddie’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “And that, my darling girl, has nothing to do with age, so forget about that once and for all. Age is a non-issue.”
Maddie hugged her mother. “I love you.”
“I know,” Paula said.
She spoke with the same infuriatingly calm smugness that usually drove Maddie nuts. Today, it made her laugh.
22
When Cal arrived at Maddie’s, he was relieved to find her gone. He needed to sit the three kids down and have a heart-to-heart with them. He’d promised Ty if his relationship with Maddie got serious, he’d let them know and ask their opinion. He and Maddie had been seeing each other more regularly lately and he’d decided tonight was the night. He was more nervous about it than he’d been during his first at-bat in the Major League.
When he had all three of them settled on the living-room sofa, he sat on a chair across from them, then stood up and began to pace, trying to come up with the right words.
“Coach, are you okay? You’re acting really weird,” Ty observed.
Cal forced himself to sit back down. “I’m here to ask you guys something, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. I mean, maybe I should talk to your mom about this first. If I tell you and then she’s not interested, well, it could be awkward.”
Katie left the sofa and crawled into his lap. “Did you want to help us plan our party? I love parties. Mom does, too.”
Cal stared at her blankly. “A party?”
“It’s Mom’s birthday tomorrow,” Kyle explained. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do to celebrate. Before, we always had a big party, ’cause Mom says birthdays should be really special, but maybe she’s not in the mood for it this year. You know, because…”
“Because?” Cal prodded.
Kyle squirmed, clearly uncomfortable with the question. “Dad’s gone, for one thing.”
“I see,” Cal said, wondering just how big a role Bill had played in the family celebrations. Would his absence cast a damper on everything from here on out? Would every holiday or celebration bring back a thousand memories of the way things used to be?
Ty gave him a pointed look. “Or maybe she doesn’t want a party because she doesn’t want you to know how old she is.”
Cal chuckled, despite Ty’s somber expression. “I think you can stop worrying about that one. I know how old your mother is. I just didn’t know her birthday was this week.”
“Really?” Ty asked skeptically.
“Really.”
“Isn’t she lots older than you?” Kyle said, frowning. “Isn’t that one reason everybody’s been so weird about you two?”
“Let’s not make her sound ancient,” Cal advised, ignoring the part about what other people thought. As far as he was concerned, that was no longer an issue, and he was pretty sure Maddie was finally on the same page. He looked from Ty’s face to Kyle’s. “Come on, guys. It’s ten years. That’s not so much. It’s the same difference there is between Ty and Katie. You two get along okay, don’t you?”
Ty gave him a scathing look. “She’s my baby sister. It’s not the same thing at all.”
“I am not a baby!” Katie protested.
Cal didn’t even try to hide his amusement at the sibling bickering. “And compared to your mom, I’m hardly a baby, either.”
“Then you really don’t care?” Ty persisted. “Dad left her because he wanted someone lots younger. Are you gonna do the same thing?”
“Never,” Cal assured him. “I want to marry her. Does that sound like I care about how old she is?”
Cal hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that. He knew he’d blown it when he saw shock register on all three faces.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” he said hurriedly. “I came over here to ask you guys how you would feel about it if I did that, asked her to marry me, I mean. So, what do you think? Would it freak you out?”
The question was greeted by a deafening silence. Cal felt his stomach twist into knots as he considered the very real possibility that he hadn’t won them over, after all. He knew Maddie well enough to know that she would never consider marrying anyone if her children disapproved.
“Come on, kids, say something,” he pleaded. “I’m dying here.”
“You’d move in here and be our dad?” Katie asked, looking perplexed.
“Your stepdad, actually,” he said, determined not to blur that line. “You have a dad and he will always be a big part of your lives.” He turned to Ty, knowing that his reaction was the most critical. “Well? Do you hate the idea? I know you weren’t that happy about us dating and we haven’t really been on that many dates. But I know what I want and I think your mom wants the same thing.”
“You think she wants to marry you?” Ty asked, frowning.
Cal nodded. “Look, I know you’re still furious with your dad for leaving you all to be with Noreen, so it’s important to me that you’re happy about me and your mom. Could you accept me being with your mom and here with all of you?”
Ty seemed to struggle for words, but at least he hadn’t outright rejected the idea. Cal held out hope.
“The whole dating thing was really weird for me when I figured out you and Mom were more than just friends, especially when everyone in town was talking about you guys,” Ty said finally, his face scrunched up in a deeper frown. Then he met Cal’s gaze. “But it’s been okay, you being around more. Having you here all the time, like a real part of the family, might be kinda cool.” His expression brightened. “I could get baseball tips anytime I want.”
Cal chuckled. “You get that now, without me getting to tell you to take out the garbage.”
“You’d ask me to do that?”
“I might.”
“And you’d make me keep up my grades?”
“You bet.”
Tyler actually smiled.
Kyle leaned forward. “What about me? What would you make me do?”
“That’s easy,” Cal said, grinning. “I’d make you tell me a new joke every night. Maybe one at breakfast, too.” He paused thoughtfully. “And you’d have to mow the lawn and help with the dishes.”
Kyle sat back. “Cool.”
“I don’t want chores,” Katie announced.
“’Cause you’re a little princess,” Kyle teased.
Cal grinned at her. “I’m afraid you’ll have to come down out of your tower with me around, Princess Katie. I might insist that you bake me cupcakes.”
Katie giggled. “I love cupcakes. I could bake you a million.”
Cal looked around at these three kids who’d become so precious to him. They’d slipped into his heart as if they were always meant to be there. “Then we’re agreed? It’s okay if I ask your mom to marry me?”
Ty appeared thoughtful. “Maybe you should let us ask,” he suggested.
“Why?” Cal asked.
“Since Dad left, she pretty much says yes to anything we want.”
Cal smothered a laugh. “That’s definitely one way to go,” he agreed. “But I think I’d better
handle this one. I could ask her during her birthday party tomorrow, then you’d all be here.” If he was setting himself up for humiliation, so be it. They all had a stake in Maddie’s response. Besides, as a last resort, he might need to call on their powers of persuasion.
He turned to them now. “So, how do we make this the best birthday party your mom has ever had?”
“Balloons,” Katie suggested, clapping with delight. “And lots and lots of presents. We should go shopping.”
Cal looked at Ty and Kyle. “You guys need to do any shopping?”
“I’ve got my present for Mom,” Ty said. “I got a copy of that picture the paper ran of me throwing the final strike in the championship game. I had it framed for her.”
“And I made her a book on the computer,” Kyle said. “It’s all my best jokes. I’ve got illustrations and everything.”
“She’ll love that,” Cal said, then looked at Katie. “What about you? Did you make something for your mother?”
“I painted her a picture at school, but it’s not very good,” she said worriedly. “Maybe I should buy something, but I already spent my allowance.”
“I imagine your mom will love the picture more than anything you buy,” Cal said. “So it sounds as if the presents are under control. Do your grandmother, Dana Sue and Helen usually come to this party?”
Ty nodded. “Dana Sue and Helen do, but we haven’t called ’em yet because we weren’t sure it was a good idea to have a party this year.”
“Okay, then, you call them and tell them it’s on for tomorrow night,” Cal said. “Call your grandmother, too. She should be here for this one. I’ll order a cake.”
“No way,” Kyle protested. “Dana Sue always bakes the cake.”
“But I wanna do it this time,” Katie argued. “I’m big enough this year.” She cast an imploring look at Cal. “Can I, please?”
Since Cal had decided that hiding an engagement ring in the cake might be just the right touch, helping Katie to bake one made a lot of sense. “How about you and I give it a shot? You tell me what kind and I’ll buy the ingredients.”
Stealing Home Page 30
