Rush to the Altar (28 page)

“What? What’s happened?”

Jake walked over to a table and picked up one of several of the newspapers lying there. He flipped the paper around and handed it to her. Maddie looked down and saw a photo of her and Jake in an embrace, her chest barely blurred out, and read the huge headline. “Marriage Over: Jake Hart Admits Gold Digger Duped Him.”

She gasped, heat rising to fill her face. Her gaze scanned the article, which quoted some of their wedding and wedding night descriptions from her diary.

“Oh, Jake,” she whispered as she read. “This is worse than anything I imagined they might do with it.” She looked up at Jake, his face white and stark.

Placing the paper on the table next to her, Maddie looked at the floor. “I’m sorry,” she rasped out. “I’m so sorry.”

She ran from the room, stumbling down the hallway, blinded by tears. When she arrived outside, it began to sleet.

~~~~~~

Jake stared at the paper on the table, everything inside him wanting to go after her, wanting to wrap his arms around her and tell her he loved her, and they would get through this. But he couldn’t make his feet move. That reporter from the men’s room had twisted his words but this was his fault, not hers.

It had been the worst day of his life. The entire team had come down on him about the embarrassing press. He’d had to feign indifference against the jokes, the sideways looks and snickers of his teammates, the embarrassed anger of his coaches. The feeling that they wanted to get rid of him grew and grew until he might as well have not been on the floor practicing with them.

Then his parents had called—outraged. If he had thought they were going to have a hard time with Maddie before, well, this made him realize that in all likelihood, they would despise her for what they perceived she had done to their iconic son. No amount of explaining had changed their ranting against her. Jake hung up feeling helpless and angry.

He walked down to the locker room and opened his locker, his head down, his stomach hollow. “How am I going to fix this?”

CHAPTER THIRTY

FOUR MONTHS LATER

M
addie walked into the club carrying her new Taylor electric guitar with its awesome acoustic sound that she’d fallen in love with at the music store. She edged through the chairs of the dark club, making her way to toward the back where her lead guitarist, Neko, was leaning against the wall, tuning, his long dark hair hanging in his eyes, his shirt tight against his muscled chest. Sam, a stocky black man who wore a knitted beanie cap to cover his bald head and the best bass player in the Midwest, came in right behind her, lugging in his bass amp, laughing with the drummer, Nate, who was similarly loaded down with band equipment.

It would take them about thirty minutes to set up. They’d gotten it down to a science in the last few months since Rick had helped Maddie put together a band. Rick had become something of a manager to them. Maddie didn’t know how an NBA player had time to babysit her career and set up gigs for a band, but he seemed to love it and they were booked to play every weekend, and even had a gig at the state fair in August. It helped to have a famous band manager, she supposed, but every time Maddie tried to give Rick the credit for one of their accomplishments, he would look her in the eyes and ask if she’d listened to her own demo tape recently. And Maddie would smile and nod and admit, “It
is
pretty good.” That and the talent scout who had immediately liked her and was finishing up a recording contract for them, well, the career part of her life had turned out really good.

The place started filling up, her name drawing the regulars and a plethora of fans.

“Maddie.” A blond-bearded guy named Rex waved her over. “Come meet some friends.”

Maddie smoothed down her rhinestone-studded t-shirt and walked over. It still felt strange to be so popular for something like music. People thought they knew her, and Maddie guessed that in a way they knew that deep and exposed side of her that she poured into her music even better than her parents knew the everyday Maddie. But in other ways, day-to-day living ways, they didn’t know her at all.

“This is Bobby and RJ and Cody.”

Maddie shook their hands and smiled, seeing one of them look pointedly at her bare left hand, causing the pain of nothing being there to strike her—a white hot, lancing pain in the region of her heart, but short-lived as she distracted herself from it. She had insisted on a divorce so that she wouldn’t ruin Jake’s life but he had steadfastly resisted it. She’d stopped taking his calls, sent him back his ring and had gone ahead with the paperwork, determined to do what was right for him. As far as she knew, he would get the divorce papers any day.

“Thanks for coming, guys. I hope you enjoy the show.”

The first set was fast and happy people-pleasers. She’d learned how to get the crowd into the cheering, dancing party mood. It was still amazing to her, the way she had instinctively known how to work a crowd, and every crowd was a little different. There were the twins, Dora and Danika, who danced to every song until sweaty and laughing, the other women giving them envious glares and the men staring with admiration. They were always a fun addition to the crowd and Maddie learned to play it up, letting them come on stage and sing with her, letting them bring up the shy guys to dance and have a great time.

The biggest shock had been the men who, after hearing her sing with a voice that swept the crowd into wide-eyed silence, wanted ask her out afterward. She’d always resisted, knowing what they were really attracted to, knowing that it was a God-given gift, and that while it was real and good and beautiful, it wasn’t all of who she was, it wasn’t anything that would ever belong to those men who thought they wanted her.

The second set slowed down a bit. People were starting to find someone in the crowd they wanted to get to know, and a slow one or two gave them a nudge to take a chance. Her favorite song was coming up.

The band quieted down, the lights dimmed except for one spotlight as she pulled up her stool and sat on the edge, one foot propped on a rung, her guitar in her hands. She’d learned about twenty songs on the guitar, but this was one of her favorites—Anna Nalick’s Wreck of the Day. It was the story of the last year of her life. She closed her eyes and began to sing it.

As she neared the end, she opened her eyes and looked out beyond the embracing dancers to the crowd and then up, past the bright spotlight to those standing toward the back. There, by the door, was someone tall, his suit jacket hanging in effortless ease from his shoulders. Familiarity slammed into her. She faltered, the strumming on her guitar missing a beat, then she hurriedly regrouped, singing the last the verse, not able to look away from his shadowed face.

The song faded away, the notes slow and soft coming to an end from the speakers, and she found she didn’t know what to say.

Neko filled the space. “We’ll be taking a short break now.” He dialed up the filler music.

“What’s up?” He walked up next to her.

Maddie shook her head, unable to look up and see if he was still there. “I don’t know. Just someone I used to…I think he’s here.”

Neko looked into the crowd and then Maddie could see him look up and up as a tall figure materialized in front of them. “Ah,” he said simply. “Take all the time you need.”

Maddie sat frozen on her stool.

“Maddie?”

Her head lifted, her gaze locked with his. “Jake.”

“I forgot. I forgot how beautiful you are.”

She exhaled a breath, heart pounding. “How are you?”

“I’m…I’m terrible. I got the papers.”

She let the guitar slide from her hands, hearing a twang as it knocked against the floor.

She shook her head, fighting tears. “I’m sorry. It’s for the best…I won’t let a rush to the altar ruin your life.”

Jake reached for her hand. “Dance with me?”

“Jake…what are you doing? I can’t. Someone will record it. It will be on the internet, magazines. You know they will make it into something terrible for you.” Her insides quivered with the effort to hold it together.

“Dance with me.” His voice was low, certain.

She looked at the outstretched hand of her husband. Those beautiful hands. Those long fingers, elegant in their execution. She let out another breath and closed her eyes, remembering how much she loved holding his hand.

An old classic started from the speakers. She nodded. She couldn’t help the melting feeling as he pulled her into his arms, smelled the familiar smell that she’d cherished and remembered everything she loved about him in a flash of insight, smell, touch and sound. She looked at his lips, wanting to kiss him more than she could ever remember wanting anything.

They danced on the stage while the crowd watched on. She closed her eyes, feelings of love and heartbreak warring within her. The song wound down and they stood there in the colored lights, staring at one another. Finally, Maddie backed out of his arms and asked, “What do you want, Jake?”

“I want my wife back.”

It was the answer she wanted and yet couldn’t bear to hear.

“What about your parents? What about your career?”

Jake shrugged. “I’m retiring. And my parents will just have to come around.”

“What do you mean you’re retiring? You love that game.” She couldn’t tear her gaze from his eyes.

“I love you more. I miss you. You are my other half. Without you and Max…I’m lost.” He pulled her close with one hand, saying into her ear. “Come back. Be my wife.”

Maddie pulled back. She looked up at him, stopped and really looked at him. He might miss her now but what if his parents really came against him. How could she ask that he turn away from them? And she knew, deep inside, that she didn’t want to be that girl. That woman who would be rejected and abhorred for making him something other than what they wanted him to be. “I can’t.” She turned and walked quickly away.

At the bar she motioned to the bartender for a glass of water. Taking the glass, she downed several gulps. He was behind her. He turned her by her elbow.

“I’m not giving up, Maddie. I don’t want to live my life without you, okay? I’ve tried. I’ve tried to tell myself we were going too fast, that people can’t fall in love like that. I’ve tried to convince myself that everyone was right about us. But they aren’t right. We were right all along.”

Maddie shook her head and looked down, trying not to cry in front of the listening people around them. “It won’t work, Jake. You’ll resent me sooner or later.” She said it so softly she didn’t think he heard her.

“For giving up basketball? No, I won’t. If I ever again have to choose between you and anything, I will choose
you
,” he stated with conviction.

“But don’t you see? I don’t want you to have to.”

He took her by the arms then slid his hands down to grasp her hands. “I don’t want anything in my life as much as I want you. It is a huge mistake, this separation.” He made her hold his gaze. The intensity of his voice and face forced her to let the words sink in. He was waiting for her to accept or reject him, looking so bare…so full of pain-filled hope. “Give us another chance, Maddie.”

“I just can’t.” Maddie tried to breathe and found she couldn’t. Pulling her hands out of his, she turned and ran toward the back of the building. Opening the back door, she stumbled out onto the gravel alley. She pressed the sides of her head as she stood, smelling the dumpster next to her, trying to get a grasp on reality.

The door behind her opened.

It was Neko. “You okay?”

She nodded, leaning against the brick wall, hugging herself. “I just needed a few minutes.”

“That was Jake, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“He seemed pretty intense. You want me to do something?”

She laughed, a short, harsh sound. “He’s nearly six foot seven and in top physical shape. You think you can take him?”

Neko grinned back at her and shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve got cunning on my side. A roll of duct tape? The other guys in the band helping me?”

Maddie went over and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks. But I can handle it. Is it time to go back on?”

“Past time.”

“Okay, let’s go. This is a job, remember?”

“Yeah. A good job.”

She knew what he meant. Neko and the others had been in a lot of bands, but there had never been this sweet meshing that had magically occurred with this group. They loved playing together and getting a recording deal was a dream come true for all of them.

Maddie walked back on stage determined to do her job and do it well. Her gaze scanned the crowd as she began the next song. Jake was nowhere to be seen.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Sasha yelled into the phone at one in the morning after Maddie’s final set. “You let him go after he said that to you?”

“I can’t go through it again. Sasha, you know me, I can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Love hurts too much.”

“That’s life and you know it. Quit hiding from it. You found something so great…something a lot of people long for their whole lives and you are being a coward, telling yourself that you’re taking the high road when really you’re just afraid. Maddie, I know I’m being tough here but you can do this. You can trust him and have a wonderful life with him if you will just let your fears go and love him back with all your heart.”

Maddie was sitting in her car in the dark parking lot. She paused, letting the words sink in. “What if he isn’t who I think he is? What if he leaves me?” She wailed it, beating on the steering wheel.

“What if he doesn’t?” came Sasha’s soft reply. “Go to him.”

“I don’t know…I just don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. You’ve been miserable without him. Now put that car into drive and go. Right now. Don’t talk about it anymore. Don’t think about it anymore. Just drive.”

Maddie let out a laughing sob, shaking her head back and forth against the headrest. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it.”

She hung up, put the car into drive and began the trek downtown.

She’d forgotten about the gate and the security guard she would have to get through to enter Jake’s condo. Did he still live here? Her heart was beating so hard her hands shook.