by Lynne Gentry
Maddie shook her head ever so slightly, afraid the tiniest movement would bring the wall down she’d guarded for years. And then where would they be? Maddie knew how to do distant. Close terrified her. “Momma, you didn’t.”
“I did, sweetheart.” A tear dripped from her mother’s cheek. The glistening drop landed like a sledge hammer to glass. The barrier between them shattered in the space of a heartbeat.
A slight smile tugged at the corner of Momma’s healing lip. She seemed relieved, yet determined to completely clear the air. “I was afraid of what your father, the church, this town, and even God would think of me if you took a wrong turn. I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you to manage your own life. You’ve proven yourself very capable again and again.”
Overwhelming love pushed past the last of Maddie’s resentment, anger, and bitterness. “Momma, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I’ve always known you’d walk on water for me.”
Momma chuckled at Maddie’s reference to her old mandate to save Momma should the family car ever plummet over a bridge, but Maddie knew it was the thawing of her heart that had really pleased her mother.
Momma squeezed Maddie’s hand. “If you’d allow me one last word.”
“Don’t you always have the last word?” Maddie teased, truly thrilled to discover that the woman who’d successfully fascinated and irritated her for twenty-nine years wasn’t perfect. And, best of all, Momma no longer expected her to be perfect either.
“Living with purpose liberates you. It’s risky, but worth it.” Momma brought Maddie’s hand to her split lip and tried to form a kiss. “Your purpose doesn’t look like mine, my love. Live the life God intended for you.”
Maddie didn’t fight the tears. She’d come home to close things up tight. Had given herself four weeks to put her life as the repressed, small-town pastor’s daughter behind her once and for all. She’d come to grips with the town, with God, and now her mother. Why on earth couldn’t she come to grips with the fact that she and Parker would never be more than friends? Especially, now that he had a child. She would make a horrible mother but, strangely enough, Isabella had been on her mind nearly as much as Parker these past few days. Raising that little girl didn’t scare her nearly as much as the thought of losing Parker forever.
“What do you want, sweetheart?”
“I don’t know what I want, Momma. And I’ve always known what I wanted.”
“And you’ve always gotten it.” Momma lifted her chin with her finger. “You know why?”
Maddie shook her head.
“You were born with a tight little fist raised in the air and a defiant look in your eye. Anyone who got in your way would eventually eat your dust.”
“Nothing like falling face-first to get a mouthful of the stuff.”
“That can happen when you risk loving someone.”
“I don’t like failing.”
“Failing doesn’t kill us.” Momma eyes filled with compassion. “But not getting up and trying again will.”
Momma had done just that. Got a job, sorted Daddy’s finances, moved out of the parsonage, remarried...all of it must have been so hard and Maddie had been so wrapped up in herself she’d been absolutely no help.
Tears spilled down Maddie’s cheeks. “I don’t know how.”
Momma took her hand. “Parker has always wanted what you wanted.”
“What’s that?”
“To save the world,” she paused then added carefully, “He and Isabella are going back to Guatemala.”
“How do you know?”
“Maxine.”
“By which you mean Nellie’s been spending time out at his ranch.” Every hair on Maddie’s neck rose like a dog determined to protect its territory. “I’d like to see that pampered spider navigate the jungle in those heels.” When their laughter died down, Maddie asked, “What should I do, Momma?”
“I’m done telling you what to do, Maddie.”
“Okay, tell me what you would do.”
A tiny smiled tugged her mother’s lip as she pondered what to say. “Well, I’ve heard that in countries where typhoid is endemic, the most important action is to secure safe drinking water and disposal of sewage.”
Maddie’s brows knit in confusion. “So?”
“For someone who’s brilliant, you have a hard time sorting the trees from the forest.”
“Just tell me, Momma. Please.”
“Until they get clean water in Guatemala, they’ll need good doctors, right?”
“You’re the one who’s brilliant, Momma.” Already planning for the obstacles Parker would throw at her and strategizing for ways to overcome them, Maddie jumped to her feet. “Where’s the key to Cotton’s truck?”
Momma lifted her blanket and pulled out a single key. She held it up with a sly smile. “Someone’s got to be that little girl’s mother. I believe you’re the perfect woman for the job.”
“How do you always know exactly what I’m going to do?”
“Oh, my little one. You’ll always be my baby.”
Maddie snatched the key. “I love you, Momma.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Maddie shifted Cotton’s truck into high gear. Windows open and her hair whipping around her face, she flew down the quiet country road. The small plot of land Parker called a ranch waited on the horizon. She hoped he was waiting for her.
She pulled into the drive and jumped out before the dust settled. A rich baritone version of I’ve Got Friends in Low Places floated from an open window. To her relief, Nellie’s car wasn’t here. Maddie bounded toward the back porch then ground to a halt on the bottom step when Parker appeared at the screen door.
“Maddie?” His pleasure seemed quickly replaced by the conviction that he’d done the right thing in letting her go. He flipped the dishtowel over his shoulder, opened the screen, and stepped outside. “So it’s true? You didn’t go to Yemen? Did they grant you an extension?”
“No.” Behind him Maddie could see Isabella playing with blocks on the blanket they’d used for their wonderful picnic. “I didn’t ask for one.”
“Why not?”
She stuck her hands in her front jeans pockets, stalling for the best way to get this conversation going. “I’d forgotten to tell you how good I thought you were in a crisis.”
“What crisis?”
“Grandmother falling down the stairs.”
Suspicion gathered his thick brows. “That was four years ago.”
“Right. And I never said thank you.” Maddie tried to concentrate on the golden flecks in his eyes instead of the butterflies in her belly. “Nor have I thanked you for taking over after I heard about Momma’s accident. You were right. I was in no shape to drive. And then when Etta May had her pulmonary embolism, you knew exactly what to do.”
“Guess I should have gone into medicine.”
“No!” She took a step forward and he took a step back. “You’re exactly where you belong. I was just trying to say...we make a good team.”
His eyes narrowed. “You could have texted me.”
She was making a mess of this. Failing again. “Well, not exactly...”
“Why?”
Get up. Momma’s words pushed her closer. “Text messages can be misinterpreted.”
Parker planted his feet and crossed his arms. “We have talked this to death, Maddie. We haven’t been a team since our Bible Bowl days.”
“We were number one in our region. We could have won the Bible Bowl Nationals if I hadn’t let you down.”
“Why are you really still in Mt. Hope, Maddie?” He lifted an open palm and waved it like he was giving her the floor.
“Whether or not I wanted things to change after Daddy died...they did. Momma left the parsonage, married Daddy’s lawyer, and made a new life for herself on the lake. David gave up being a perpetual student and began applying all that knowledge to our father’s pulpit. And me...I turned my back on everything that had ever mattered to me. God. Family. You.”
He shook his head. “Maddie, don’t.”
“Just hear me out.” She took a determined breath. “You’re a clumsy geek who’d rather spend his time ridding Etta May and Nola Gay’s garden of corn weevils than perfecting your basketball lay-up. You’d rather cook and sing and charm people like Momma into believing you have a heart as big as this West Texas prairie than tell me the truth.”
“And what is the truth?”
“There’s enough room in that huge ticker of yours for that precious little girl and an uptight epidemiologist who can’t cook, scares away most children, and still has big dreams of saving the world.”
“Is that all?”
“No! I think you should go back to Guatemala.”
“Not that I need your blessing, but Sugar Bean and I are heading that way as soon as I find a buyer for this place and raise the money to go back.”
“I’ll buy it.”
“What?”
“That way the ranch will be here when we decide it’s time to come home.”
“We?” He glanced over her head, his eyes landing on Cotton’s truck. “Where’s your car?”
“I sold it.”
“Won’t you need a car to drive around Atlanta when you’re not off saving the world?”
“I sold the Porsche because I won’t need a sports car in Guatemala.” She pulled out a wad of cash. “I think this will be more than enough for an all-terrain vehicle, don’t you?”
He stepped to the edge of the porch, his nostrils flaring. “How did you get the CDC to send you to Guatemala?”
“Are you not listening? I’m not going to work for the CDC.” She took a bold step toward him. “I’m sending myself to Guatemala.”
He stepped down one step. “You can’t go to Guatemala.”
She stepped up one step. “I’ve had my shots. I’m over twenty-one. And I’ve seen what they have for doctors down there. They need me. And frankly, you need me, Parker.”
“Maa-ma!” Isabella had toddled to the screen door. She plastered her face against the screen and raised her hands to signal her need to be held. “Maa-ma!”
“Did you hear what she just called me?”
“She’s confused.”
“That little girl needs me.” Maddie’s gaze held his and pointed toward Isabella. “Look through your books. I’m sure it has a chapter or two on the importance of having a mother.”
Gold flecks swirled in his eyes. “I was sitting in my third-grade Sunday school class when a beautiful blonde first-grader walked in holding tight to her big brother with one hand and her mother with the other. The new pastor’s wife asked Miss Freda if David and Maddie could be in the same class until they settled in. ‘It would make the transition easier for my little girl,’ she said. Miss Freda snarled and said ‘she supposed just this once it wouldn’t hurt.’ But it did hurt, it hurt you bad. I saw you flinch at her judgment and raise your chin. You were terrified but you weren’t about to let anyone know. You marched to the front row, took a seat, and stared straight into the eyes of Miss Freda. Your older brother scrambled after you, but you were just fine.” He’d grown into his Adam’s apple but it still bobbed slightly under the weight of this memory.
“I knew right then that you were something special,” he continued. “A girl willing to face down her fears to get what she wanted...even the fear of being someone’s wife and someone’s mother.” He descended the last step between them, now only towering over her by a head. “Sugar Bean’s hungry.”
Maddie lifted her chin in a mock show of defiance. “Want me to make grilled cheese?”
“If this is going to work, you have to promise you’ll never make me eat another grilled cheese.” Before she could tell him he had a deal, he scooped her up and drew her close. “I love you, Maddie Harper. I always have.”
She melted against his big frame, burying her nose in his thick neck and the comfort of Aqua Velva. “And I’ve always loved you.”
Over his shoulder, Maddie could see Isabella’s eyes widen, as if she wanted in the middle of this joyous moment.
“Paki,” Isabella pounded the screen.
“Hang on, Sugar Bean. I’ve got to kiss your maa-ma.”
“For the rest of her life.” Maddie smiled up at him and stroked a strand of dark curly hair from his brow. Then she turned her head toward the door. “And we’re both going to kiss you, little girl, until you get so big it embarrasses you as much as my momma and daddy used to embarrass me.”
Parker and Maddie’s lips found each other with ease. The fit was perfect, as if they were a couple who’d been kissing each other their whole life. Which, technically they had been. But this time was different. They were not kissing because one of them was bleeding, or sick, or terrified. This kiss sealed a promise. They would always be there for each other, but especially when they were bleeding, sick, or terrified.
Loving someone and being loved back was exactly as Momma had said—intoxicating and liberating.
EPILOGUE
Two years later
Leona had found the sparse Guatemalan airport signage less than helpful. But the lack of mileage signs on this twisting mountain road the jeep rental guy swore would lead to Parker, Maddie, and Isabella’s village terrified her. Not once had Parker mentioned the dangerous ruts or thousand-foot drop-offs.
She’d always longed for adventure, but four-wheeling third-world mountain switchbacks wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind.
Leona squeezed little Jamie’s legs draped across her lap. “David, are you sure this is the right road?”
“Saul’s in charge of the GPS.” David shifted into a lower gear. “Hang on, there’s a big boulder up ahead. We’re gonna have to hug the edge.”
Without a single seatbelt in this rusty vehicle, every pothole posed the risk of sending somebody flying. If they flipped over the edge, they’d all be lost.
“Maybe we should have let Parker come get us.” Amy’s vice grip on little Libby hadn’t deterred the child’s enjoyment of this bumpy carnival ride.
“It would have spoiled the surprise Parker has planned for Maddie,” David shouted over his shoulder.
Saul pointed at the waterfall to their right. “No wonder our kids don’t want to live in West Texas. It’s beautiful here.”
Leona would have smiled at Saul’s use of the term our kids, but the continual jostling was as unsettling to stomach as the river that fed that waterfall. Sooner or later, they would probably have to cross it.
“Not getting much of a signal.” Saul waved his phone around, gave up, then dug out the printed pages of Parker’s directions. “Once we get past the boulders, Parker says we need to keep an eye out for washouts because cars have been known to drop into those cracks and never be seen again.” Saul grinned and looked over his shoulder. “How you doing back there, sweetheart?”
Leona grabbed the side of the open jeep and hung on. “Do we have to cross over any of those swinging vine bridges?”
Saul looked at the paper. “Maybe.”
“Tell him the rule, David.” Leona shouted over the motor.
“What rule?” Saul asked.
“If the car goes over the bridge and lands in the water, first thing we’re all supposed to do is save Momma.” Her son shifted gears again and gunned the motor. Black smoke coughed out behind them.
Saul reached back and squeezed Leona’s knee. “So that’s why you’ve been taking swimming lessons?”
“We live on a lake,” Leona said. “It’s a safety issue.”
While her son and husband had a good laugh at her expense, Leona savored the healing that had come to her family. It hadn’t taken more than a mere mention of a family vacation to convince David and Amy to join her and Saul in surprising Maddie the week before she was due to deliver her first baby.
Leona had been nearly as excited at the prospect of finally having her whole family together again as she was at how close David and Saul had become. And while she hadn’t seen Maddie and her lit
tle family since the wedding, Maddie had made a point to Skype every family dinner night. They’d all grown closer than ever.
It hardly seemed possible that it had been two years since Leona had actually hugged her daughter’s neck and sent her off to live in the far reaches of Central America.
She would never forget the night Maddie returned from Parker’s ranch with that dreamy smile on her face and announced that she and Parker had decided to go to Guatemala together and they were leaving in a month. Tempting as it was to say I told you so, she’d wisely kept her mouth shut. She and Maddie had put their heads together and pulled off a beautiful wedding in the church where Parker and Maddie had fallen in love.
Of course, it helped that Leona had a few favors she could call in.
Roxie had arranged an expedited dress hunt in Dallas. Ruthie took over the catering of the reception...burgers, beans, big slices of meringue-covered pie, and even brought in Angus to operate her chocolate shake machine. Etta May insisted that she was up to helping Nola Gay supply the pickles plus a bushel of fresh roasting ears. Ivan Tucker took the photographs and put his most beautiful shot of Parker and Maddie kissing under an arch Saul built on the front page of the Mt. Hope Messenger. Mother and Cotton flew Melvin in from the condo they’d bought him in Belize. He stopped in Abilene, picked up the stretch limo, and had it shining like a jeweled ostrich egg. Maxine threw the biggest bridal shower Leona had ever seen. And Nellie had surprised everyone when she showed up at the rehearsal dinner with Dr. Boyer on her arm.
The ceremony was almost as perfect as Maddie. Her long blonde curls framed her bare shoulders in the simple, yet elegant silky sheath. The moment she tried it on, Leona knew she didn’t care how much the dress cost, it had been designed with her daughter in mind. Nothing to tie the girl down, not a trace of the ruffles and lace Leona used to make her wear, and a fit as perfect as the man Maddie had chosen to spend her life serving beside.
Wilma Wilkerson played the organ. Jamie and Isabella were the cutest little ring bearer and flower girl anyone had ever seen. David performed a touching ceremony, only stopping to embarrass his little sister once. Parker held Maddie’s hands and sang a song so beautiful everyone was crying long before the last perfect note floated to the rafters.
