A Second Chance (16 page)

Matt had spent hours with him when
problems with Madeline had begun. He had been his confidant, his
sounding board, his strength. What kind of man takes that
brotherhood and stabs you?

Matthew Carson, that’s what kind of
man. The same man who moved his way into Madeline’s heart and
convinced her to marry him only months after their divorce was
final. Then five years later walked out on her when she needed him
the most.

He let out a breath. Who needed
friends when they were like Matt Carson?

They combined their lists. He had
twenty. She had forty-three.

She looked up from his list, her brows
drawn together. “Madeline isn’t on your list.”

“
No. I left her
off.”

“
Why?”

“
Kathy, you can’t tell me to
leave her alone and then want me to have her there for the
wedding.”

She nodded as she stacked their lists
together and paper clipped them.

“
I want to tell you how
sorry I am for being like that.” Her delicate fingers crinkled the
papers she nervously reclipped. “I’ve never been jealous before,
and I don’t like the way it makes me act.”

Carlos pushed his chair back and
crooked his finger for her to walk toward him. She stood and
crossed to him, sitting on his lap just as he wanted her to
do.

He wrapped his arms tightly around
her. “You have a problem, do you know that?”

“
What?” Her eyes narrowed
again and her lips pursed.

“
You’re too
nice.”

“
Quit,” she said as she
slapped his shoulder.

“
Do you know what she would
have done in your situation?”

Her lips tightened. “What?”

“
She would have thrown a
shoe at my head.” Kathy laughed but quickly reeled it back in.
Carlos pulled her closer to him. “Really. She gave me three black
eyes in the ten years we were married.”

“
I don’t believe
you.”

“
Okay, I ducked from the
shoes and ended up moving right into their line of fire, but that’s
my story.”

Her shoulders hunched and she cuddled
into his chest like a small child. “You’re a lucky man to have a
relationship with your ex-wife like you do.”

“
I know that. I also know
I’m a lucky man to have a woman who loves me and wants to marry
me.”

“
Thanks.” She brushed his
lips with a gentle kiss. “She’s fortunate to have had you around.
I’m sorry that I ruined that.”

Carlos shook his head. “She’ll be just
fine without me meddling in her day-to-day affairs. She’s an
amazingly strong woman with a great will to live and do many
wonderful things.”

Kathy sat up on his lap, cupped his
face in her hands, and kissed him again. She lingered for a moment,
and Carlos knew she’d fight that jealousy demon for a long time to
come, but she was trying. What more could he ask for? She gave his
cheek a playful pat, which he thought might have been just a bit
too hard, and then stood and went about tiding up the
kitchen.

Carlos sat and thought about what he’d
said. He was right about Madeline. She’d be fine and she’d go on
and make a life for herself. Sooner or later the kids would be
grown and they’d have no reason, except weddings and births, to
even see each other.

The thought struck him as hard as the
shoes she’d once thrown at him. He didn’t want that. Madeline had
been a daily part of his life since he was fifteen. How could he
give that up?

Kathy pushed through the rack of
dresses she had chosen. There were eight. With Regan and Arianna’s
help, she’d been able to eliminate five of them.

“
I like the simple elegance
of that one.” Arianna pointed to the dress Kathy held in her hand
with its straight skirt and scooped neck. “It’s just simple and
elegant.”

“
That would encompass the
statement
simple
elegance.
” Regan laughed at her
sister.

“
You know this is all beyond
me. If you weren’t going to appreciate my opinion, why did you ask
me to come?”

“
I appreciate your opinion,”
Kathy said softly. “I’ll try this one on first.” She walked toward
the dressing room with the dress that Arianna liked best. As she
undressed she could hear the banter between her future
sisters-in-law.

“
So when are you getting
married?” Regan’s voice was muffled through the door.

“
Right. I see that happening
in the near future,” Arianna was quick to quip.

“
Giving up?”

“
No. I’m just too busy to
care. Besides, everyone in my industry is so adept at telling lies
for a living, I think they forget which ones they’ve already told
me.”

Regan laughed. “In time.”

“
Well, I’m thirty-eight
years old. I don’t see myself settling down now and starting a
family. I’ll just have to spoil Tyler.”

“
Zach’s already talking
about having more.”

Kathy paused with the dress over her
head. Was it wrong to hope that Reagan would hold off on another
baby until she had convinced Carlos to have one? Was it wrong to
want, for once, some of the limelight?

Arianna huffed out a loud breath.
“Tyler is only three months old. What’s the rush?”

“
Oh, I think we’ll start
trying at the end of the year. I want him to have siblings that are
close in age like we were.”

“
Yeah, Mom and Dad had their
hands full for a while. I think about the time I was ten, you and
Carlos were both eight, and Curtis was six. How did Mom keep her
sanity?”

“
She’s a saint?”

“
No kidding.”

Kathy slid the dress down her body and
emerged from the dressing room. Both Regan and Arianna stood, their
mouths dropped open in awe.

“
Kathy, its gorgeous,”
Reagan said as she laid her hand to her chest. Her eyes filled with
tears, and when Arianna noticed she nudged her.

“
Having a baby has made you
sappy.” She walked toward Kathy. “It’s just beautiful.”

Kathy looked in the mirror. “Do you
think so?”

“
This is your wedding day.
You’re supposed to have whatever you want.”

Kathy nodded. “Maybe I should show it
to Carlos.”

“
Are you kidding me? The man
has no taste. You can’t show it to him until you walk down the
aisle. Those are the rules.” Arianna settled her fists on her
hips.

“
You sure are an expert,”
Regan added, nudging her sister back.

“
Well, I’ve seen enough of
these things. I’ve seen simple and I’ve seen yours. Your
six-hundred-person wedding with more flowers than a flower
shop.”

“
We didn’t have six hundred
people.”

“
Felt like it.”

“
You’re jealous.”

“
As if.” Arianna shook her
head and turned her attention back to Kathy. “Try on the other two.
Let’s see what they look like.”

Kathy retreated back into the dressing
room with another dress. She wished her own sisters had been able
to be there with her, but they lived too far way to make the trip
more than once. She missed her family and wished she had the kind
of relationship with her sisters that Arianna and Regan shared. All
of the Keller siblings looked out for each other. Even Curtis, who
was the baby, wasn’t treated like one. She was the baby too, and
wasn’t she always reminded?

She slid on the dress of white silk
and let it fall over her curves. Looking at her cleavage, full and
beautiful in the bodice of the dress, she thought of Madeline. She
sighed.

What would it be like to be going
through what she was going through alone? Was she scared of dying
or had she come to grips with it all? It had been months since
she’d had surgery and started her chemotherapy. Had her hair grown
back like Carlos’s and Eduardo’s? Was she feeling any better than
the last time Kathy’d heard Carlos talk about her? Clara mentioned
that she was going to have more surgery to get her boobs back, as
she’d put it. Was that going to be more painful than having them
removed?

Kathy touched her hand to her chest.
She’d been so unfair to Carlos in asking him to not have anything
to do with Madeline. It had been three weeks, and he’d been home
every night. He’d been attentive. He helped pick out invitations
and gave his opinion on flowers. He took his brothers to the tux
rental store and they had initial measurements done. Everything she
needed from him, he’d given, without argument and without one
mention of Madeline’s name.

Kathy felt ill. She’d said she was
going to see Madeline since the day they’d found out she was sick.
She’d never made it to her door. It was time.

When she walked out of the dressing
room, Regan and Arianna shook their heads.

“
You like the slimmer one
better?” Kathy asked, and they both nodded. “I think I do
too.”

She turned and looked at herself in
the mirror. She wasn’t feeling like a blushing bride at the moment.
She was feeling like a grinch.

Kathy stood on the doorstep of the
house that Madeline and Carlos had once shared. Carlos had the
kids, and she knew Madeline should be home from work. She’d lied
and said she had a late meeting and wouldn’t be home until late.
She thought it was a bit ironic that when it came to Madeline,
neither she nor Carlos could be completely honest with each
other.

She’d picked up flowers and wondered
if the gesture would seem silly. She let out a breath and rang the
doorbell.

When the door opened, Kathy almost
didn’t recognize the woman who stood before her. Madeline was in a
business suit with high heels, a suit coat, and a beautiful white
silk blouse. But it was the deep red hair that brushed her
shoulders in a swingy bob that had thrown her off.

“
Kathy,” Madeline said, her
voice rising in obvious surprise at finding Kathy standing on her
doorstep. “Is everything okay?”

“
Yes, everything is fine.”
She tried to keep her voice even but found it extremely hard to do.
“I’ve been meaning to come by for a visit.”

“
Well, come in. I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean to leave you out in the cold.” Madeline opened the door
and Kathy stepped through. “I just got home from work. Make
yourself comfortable. I’m going to change my clothes, and I just
made some coffee. I’ll bring us out some. Do you take anything in
it?”

“
No, black is
fine.”

“
I’ll be right
back.”

She’d never been inside the house.
She’d been outside when Carlos had dropped off or picked up the
kids from time to time. It was a simple design from the outside. A
house once picked out by a young couple with the mindset that they
would fill it with family. Inside it was homey. A candle burned on
the mantel of the fireplace. A quilt had been thrown on the back of
the couch as if someone had recently stood from under its comfort.
Pictures of the kids she cherished were everywhere.

Their current school pictures were set
on the mantel in big elegant frames. The same pictures hung on the
walls of Kathy’s home, but she only now noticed that the children’s
clothes matched in color and accented the colors in the
room.

She laid the flowers on the coffee
table and looked at the other collages of pictures. They were
filled with Madeline and her children, all of them at varied ages.
Eduardo’s first bike was red, and Clara had curly hair as a baby.
Christian played baseball, and when Eduardo graduated from
kindergarten, Madeline wore her hair long and straight.

Kathy swallowed hard. She stared at
the wall in front of her, plastered with its eclectic mix of
photos, and realized that was what she wanted. She wanted a
matching wall with pictures of children she gave birth
to.

She felt lightheaded and sat down on
the couch.

None of the pictures had Carlos or
Matt in them. Madeline had done her best to remove the men from her
life.

One frame across the room caught her
eye. It had three slots on it and was tucked behind the lamp. The
photos were small, but in each one of them, there was a family. The
first picture was of a newborn Eduardo nestled in a hospital
blanket between the adoring faces of his mother and father. Next
the same pose with Christian and next with Clara. Tears stung her
eyes. Carlos was so young then and so handsome. But the hardest
part was seeing the love in his eyes. He wasn’t even looking at the
babies or Madeline in the pictures, but it was there. It was deep
inside of him. Her lip quivered. He’d never looked at her like
that.

“
Sorry to keep you waiting,”
Madeline said as she entered the room with two cups of coffee and
set them on the table. She’d changed into a pair of sweatpants and
a baggy T-shirt. Her head was now wrapped in a bright orange scarf,
and her feet were covered in fuzzy pink socks.

Kathy readjusted her position on the
couch to better see Madeline as she sat across from her. “I should
have called. I’m so sorry.”