Nanny Behaving Badly (21 page)

‘Lyle has too many fingers in too many business pies,’ she snapped. ‘He wants glory, success. He wants control, but that’s not enough for me. I want nothing from my father. Nothing!’

‘Lyle esteems you highly, and on that I back him to the hilt. He wants to secure your future – his need for the restaurant is fuelled by his interest in you.’

‘Profit and pound signs, I’d argue.’

Marco’s face was earnest. ‘There aren’t many people I’d rest so easy about selling up to.’

Maddie’s shoulders slumped. Was her uncle right – or blind? Was she prejudiced – or puffed up with hurt pride?

‘Lyle’s a business man through and through. I can’t help wondering if he used me to get to you and the restaurant.’

‘I’m selling to Lyle because I approached
him
.’ Marco smiled. ‘I’ve met a woman I adore. Her name is Angelina and she’s been coming to Bonafonte’s for many years. I can never forget when I first met her, looking so beautiful in a coral silk dress. Her husband passed away a little while ago, and our friendship grew. I never really believed she’d consider a future with me. Now I’m grabbing that chance. I won’t miss out by working every hour in this place! It’s time for me to move on. You understand, don’t you?’

Maddie wrapped her arms around her uncle’s neck. She still couldn’t stop crying. It was a sadness tinged with joy for her uncle. But it was a loss for herself. Because of her foolishness. Her own crazy predicament.

Marco looked at her. ‘Maybe there could be wedding bells soon if I play my cards right – I’m sure Lyle will give me a preferential hire rate for our reception party! Could you use your influence with him?’

She gulped out sobs. ‘No, Marco, Lyle and I are over.’

‘Then you should talk it through. He’s a good man and I never thought I’d find someone eligible to be a successor for this place – other than you. Would you like to take on this place, Maddie?’

She shook her head. ‘As a tribute to your kindness, maybe. But no. Bonafonte’s would always be yours in my heart. Besides, I’d never uphold your amazing traditions.’

She was losing the family she’d adopted. She could feel her new life slipping away beneath her like solid ground turning to quicksand.

Uncle Marco went to his bureau and withdrew an envelope from the drawer. Maddie recognised the cream parchment paper immediately and fury spiked her thinking.

‘No!’

Uncle Marco held up a stalling hand. ‘Please, it’s from your father. He told me you’d been ignoring his correspondence. He came here to sign the deeds – his share of Bonafonte’s is yours now, and it’s your inheritance. I agreed to pass it on when I saw your father earlier.’

So this was the reason for her father’s return. He’d been trying to appease his guilt with this gift.

Marco removed a stack of papers from the envelope. ‘You should have read his letters. The future shouldn’t be blighted by the past.’

Maddie’s hands were shaking as she placed the papers on her lap. ‘I want nothing. I told my father today that our relationship is broken, Marco. I’m not interested in making reparation now.’

‘But my sister would never have wanted this.’

‘My mother kept my adoption a secret and only told me about it on her death bed. You really think she knew what I wanted?’

With a drumming heart, Maddie fought back fresh tears.

‘Nothing can put the past right – which is why I’ve tried so hard to be a good uncle to you, Maddie. You will always be the daughter I never had. But this restaurant is half yours and Lyle wants you to have the apartment too. Lyle intends to purchase my share so I’ll have my retirement fund. You and he will be joint owners of Bonafonte’s. Think carefully about what you want to do with the place. Quarrels can be rectified if you step back and take a clearer view.’ He shook a finger at her. ‘Grasp the life that beckons!’

‘There’s something you should know,’ Marco added softly. ‘Your father and mother had problems, their relationship died, and I know that still hurts you. But when you were born, they came here to live while your adoption arrangements were being finalised. This restaurant is your heritage. Don’t let hurt obscure good sense.’

Maddie took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. Bonafonte’s had always stirred a tapestry of rich emotions inside her.

‘All will be well. Trust me on this! Now you have a home and a future with financial stability. Put it to good use, whatever you decide to do with it.’

Maddie nodded – though inside her confusion pounded and the nod was a superficial lie to placate her uncle. She had hurts that altered how she saw the world, how she saw herself. She feared trusting, loving. She’d lost Lyle, her uncle and the map to the path ahead.

Right now she had only one intention: sanctuary. Anywhere away from the claustrophobic forced merriment of Christmas. Somewhere she could hide out as if it was just another day.

Marco had his dreams, his future. Lyle had his restaurant, his son. Right now the only thing she wanted was solitude.

Paula’s vacation cottage in the highlands was free and she had the keys. She’d gone to Paula with her saga of events, desperate for comfort and reassurance. Paula had simply pressed the keys into her hand with an instruction to stay as long as she wished.

As Maddie packed, the test box on the bathroom countertop had weighed heavily on her mind. She could take it with her – or use it and be free of the mental chains.

Pregnancy wasn’t an option. Simple as that. Life couldn’t be that cruel.

Surely the last thing Lyle needed was a baby bombshell?

Maddie picked up the box containing the pregnancy test she’d bought in the pharmacy, feeling guilty even with it stashed inside her handbag. The smile to the assistant who’d served her had felt as plastic as the box contents.

She was doomed if she did it, condemned to worry if she didn’t. Maddie simply didn’t want to spend any more energy thinking about her overdue period.

In sudden haste she prised the cellophane wrapper off, then flipped the box and tipped out the clinical white plastic stick, still convincing herself that her period was probably going to come within the hour and this was just paranoia.

She hid in the shower while the clock ticked towards an answer.

Maddie pulled the stick and instructions closer but the pink lines screamed like sirens. She was pregnant.

Slowly, she climbed back in the shower – as if soap and hot water could clear up the mess she was in.

Three days and no word. No word equals no inroads. No sorry, no revisiting, no solution. Three days and nights of mental hell. Now Christmas week’s predictable countdown overkill.

Marco had told Lyle she’d taken off for ‘think time’. She’d left Marco a note: nice touch.

Shame she hadn’t repeated the same courtesy for Josh. His son had been asking about Maddie for days, and he wanted nothing more than to sit down and talk to the boy, explain what had happened.

Anger and hurt battered at his soul. How could things have gone so right between them, then suddenly gone so wrong? Was it just like before – Lyle, poor judge in character. Hoping for more and only getting women who liked to jump ship?

Lyle stood inside Maddie’s room – still full of her clothes, her sports shoes discarded under a chair, her jacket hanging from a peg along with his own towelling robe. Should he bag them up now, send them to Marco’s?

She’d been hurt, she’d lost someone close. She’d been lied to and had her trust betrayed. Reality had vandalised her values without permission. Had he inadvertently done the same to her?

Snatching open the closet door, Lyle scanned her items hanging there. He flicked through the hangers and pulled close her blue sweater – the one he loved, the one she liked to wear that showed off her eyes. While part of him itched to swim one hundred laps in the pool or beat his punchbag until every muscle hurt – part of him needed comfort, a reminder of her presence.

He tugged the sweater close, then breathed deep, felt its softness. Had Maddie ever felt this bereft by her losses?

Lyle ached inside, imagining the sidelined teenage Maddie facing a firing squad of lies. He loved her so deeply. He also sensed she wouldn’t return and that knowledge shot him with steel shards.

Lyle jumped from bed and the rigours of his dream in a fit of sweaty, heart-pounding panic. He grabbed the mineral water bottle on the bedside table and drank deep. The dream – nightmare most would call it – had felt so damned real. He’d been back there. Watching her leave. Becca.

Knowing that tiny Josh was asleep upstairs and his mother was hell bent on crazy behaviour – the knowledge had wounded his patience like a switchblade. He’d come back from a week of intensive rally competition and discovered she was partying harder than ever. It had baffled Lyle, angered him,

Still shaking and disoriented, Lyle padded through the hallway to Josh’s room. To crazily check on reality: an older Josh from the one in his dream lay there, still asleep, this time motherless. His arm was curled around a dinosaur book Maddie had bought him.

Did he really think he’d been clever and in control by evading discussing the trattoria plans with Maddie? He knew how it felt to be defied and baited. He should have known better than to inflict his thoughtlessness on someone he loved.

He loved Maddie. In a way he’d never loved Becca.

Could any amount of pleading, or anything he had to say ever make her return?

There was only one answer. He needed to go and talk to Marco, then see Paula. He couldn’t let this slip away. Going back to the darkness would surely be the hardest thing of all.

There was only so much cleaning of the cooker that a woman could do. Paula’s highland holiday home, so tiny it only featured a small lounge with a bed in it and a galley kitchen, now gleamed with cleanliness. But there was only so much isolation Maddie could stand.

Eventually tiring of the cottage, her own company and her paperback novels, Maddie took herself out into the crisp, highland winter weather. Clearing away the cobwebs and her constant thoughts of Lyle were a priority now. Her mind kept returning to her situation. The discovery of Lyle’s secret had been a catalyst to venting all her baggage and deep-seated mistrust. She might have gotten rid of the blue hair, but at heart she’d always flee these tough emotional battles. She couldn’t be trusted to make the right decisions.

She was about to lose Marco’s restaurant.

She’d already lost Josh and Lyle.

Now pregnancy, loss of job, no home too compounded it all.

The bonus, a restaurant she didn’t want to run, with a co-owner who’d be her baby’s father.

Did Lyle realise how desperately terrified she was of risking everything, of relying on anyone other than herself?

Especially when she knew that the pregnancy was a dark secret of her own.

It felt tortuous even imagining how to tell him the truth.

Part of her had hoped he’d call, or at least leave a cell phone message or text. Part of her dreaded that he might. It seemed easier, even if it was cowardice, to evade him by hiding herself away in the highlands.

She now had what she had always wanted, a place with her name on the deeds and independence. But it didn’t bring security or comfort. Even her father had given her unwelcome food for thought; a part of her was drawn to think about a couple who’d drifted apart, a relationship that had persisted because of duty alone.

Now she felt guilty, and another day pregnant, and at a loss to know what should come next.

Only ten minutes into pounding the dirt track road, her cell phone rang. Immediately, Maddie’s heart lurched to thoughts of Lyle.

She scrabbled in her fleece pocket only for her heart to go completely crazy at ‘Lyle Sutherland’ emblazoned on the screen. With shaking fingers she pressed the green button to take the call.

‘Hi!’

‘It’s Lyle.’ The line began to distort and crackle and break with predictably bad timing.

‘Lyle … can you hear me?

‘The line’s bad. You’re not at the cottage. I’m here waiting.’ And in a breath he was gone.

Maddie ran at full pelt through the muddy bracken, wishing she didn’t look like such a hermit. But she’d gotten her wish. Lyle was coming; whether for a showdown, or a practical truce, she didn’t know. This was her chance, she had to seize it. It was time to face up to responsibility.

Lyle paced around the periphery of the tiny cottage. Then he stared at his cell phone that was struggling to keep a signal; just as he was struggling to keep a grip on his life since Maddie had gone.

At least something had paid off. He’d pestered Marco for answers, plagued Paula until she’d relented and confessed.

The brown-caped, majestic hills stared down on his plight. Taking in the breathtaking views, he contemplated how magical Christmas would be in the highlands. But only if you had someone special to share it with.

Since Maddie had gone all he had left were recriminations and a guilt complex. Why had he again sought to outstrip the competition? Answer: he hadn’t realised that when it came to Marco, the competition was the woman he loved. She needed to come first because her own family had let her down.

Lyle looked at the photograph of Josh on his phone’s screensaver. Wouldn’t he feel the same? He’d felt that way over the tug of war involving his boy.

Lyle stretched the limbs he’d hunched up, riding here as fast as he dared on his motorbike over winding highland roads. Though the journey was only partly over because he’d have to be back tonight. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and he’d earmarked that for his son. Josh’s smile had beamed at him.

‘Wish me luck, champ. I’ve gotta try this one more time.’

Lyle saw a figure in the distance, running down from the hill at the back of the cottage. Muffled up in a down jacket and beanie hat.

Maddie.

Final lap. Make or break. All he could do was throw himself into the race. And this time, he vowed, he’d make her listen and comprehend just how much she meant to him.

Maddie’s heart lurched at the sight of Lyle, and her conscience went on freefall. She was exhilarated at first. Then the doubts clouded in. He had no idea she was pregnant. As Christmas gifts went, this was a biggie.