“We’re a family,” she reminded him. “We stick together.”
“I guess Dad didn’t get that message,” he said sarcastically.
“Apparently you missed it, as well,” she retorted. “And for the record, one thing we do in this family is let each other know where we are at all times. I’m going to let today’s incident pass, since you’re already grounded, but add it to the list of things you think about while you’re confined to the house.”
“I went to Grandma’s,” he said. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that you skipped baseball practice, where you were supposed to be. You let your coach and team down. You scared me to death. You’ve always been more thoughtful than that, Ty. I don’t expect that kind of inconsiderate behavior from you and I won’t tolerate it. In addition, you worried Coach Maddox, who’s been nothing but good to you.
And he and I spent more than an hour riding all over town trying to find you. None of that is acceptable. Frankly, if I were your coach, I’d bench you for missing practice.”
Ty’s eyes widened at that. “Did he tell you he was going to do that? He didn’t say it to me. I mean, he talked about rules and consequences and stuff, but he didn’t bench me.”
“I’m just saying what I’d do in his place.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re not the coach,” Ty muttered.
“For your sake, yes, it is,” she agreed. “But I am your mother and I expect your respect and consideration. Another incident like this and I’ll have to reevaluate whether baseball means as much to you as you claim it does. It might turn out that it will no longer be the exception that gets you out of this house.”
He swallowed hard and for the first time looked as if he finally understood the seriousness of what he’d done. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t do it to be mean or anything. I just wanted to talk to someone who’d be on my side.”
Maddie felt a new ache in her heart. “Ty, I am
always
on your side. Please believe that.”
He regarded her with a guilty expression. “I know, Mom. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
Maddie suspected it would, at least in some form or another, but for now she was satisfied that she’d gotten through to him.
She set the tuna casserole on the table, then pulled a salad from the fridge.
“Who made the casserole?” Ty asked, regarding it warily. “It doesn’t look like yours.”
Maddie grinned. “Your grandmother made it. She was proving a point.”
“That she ought to stick to art?”
“Don’t let her hear you say that.” Maddie smiled. “I watched what went into it. It should be okay.”
“Meaning it’ll taste good or that we won’t die?” Ty asked skeptically.
Maddie studied the bubbling concoction with her own share of skepticism, then shrugged. “Both, I hope.”
On Friday afternoon Bill started thinking about that night’s game against the high school’s biggest rival. Everyone in town turned out for this game. The rivalry had gone on for at least fifty years. Decorated cars traveled in a caravan marked by pom-poms and banners whether the game was played in Serenity or in the neighboring town.
Bill had never missed it, not in all the years he’d attended high school, not since Ty had started pitching for the team. It was Maddie’s turn to attend the game but he couldn’t help wondering if she would mind switching with him just this once. Or maybe they could both go. Perhaps Noreen wouldn’t even have to find out about it. Where baseball was concerned, anyway, since he and Maddie had worked out their new arrangement, she seemed to be less insecure. Lately there’d been no reason for Noreen to check up on him, so she’d kept her distance from the ball field. He had to admit, everyone seemed happier.
As soon as he’d seen his last patient, he grabbed his briefcase and jacket and headed out the door. Unfortunately Noreen caught up with him.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
Bill bristled, though her tone was merely curious rather than possessive. “I have to run an errand,” he said mildly. “I
should be home for dinner in a couple of hours. Anything you need?”
He was surprised by how easily the lies tripped off his tongue. Maybe he’d perfected the skill when he’d been cheating on Maddie.
“Nothing,” she said, but continued to study him quizzically. “Does Ty have a ball game tonight?”
He nodded.
“Didn’t you go to the one earlier in the week?”
Again, he nodded, knowing that she’d figured out just what so-called errand he intended to run. He might as well admit it. “I thought I’d drop by the field just for an inning or two, not the whole game.”
“Maddie’s going to be there, isn’t she?”
“I imagine she will be,” he conceded. “But I won’t sit with her. I won’t even go into the stands. I can watch from the car. It’s a big game. I’d like to see at least a little of it.”
“I could ride along with you,” she suggested. “If it’s important to Ty, I’d like to be there, too. It’ll give us something to talk about next time we’re all out together.” She met his gaze, her expression sad. “I know he doesn’t want me there, Bill, but if I stay in the car, he won’t even have to know I’m there. He’s your son. I just want to find some common ground, maybe make things better for all of us.”
Bill sighed and pulled her into his arms. “I know you do. And I know I’m asking a lot when I ask you to stay away from his games, but it’s the way it has to be for now. Baseball’s the most important thing he has in his life right now. He doesn’t need any distractions.”
“And that’s all I am to him, right? A distraction,” she said bitterly, jerking away from him. “I don’t expect him to ever
think of me as his mother, but couldn’t he at least try to see me as a friend?”
“In time,” Bill said. “I know he will in time. He’s a teenager, Noreen. You can remember what that was like. It’s confusing enough without having your family split apart.”
She studied him for a long time, then sighed. “Maybe you should have remembered that before you got involved with me,” she said wearily. “I’ll see you at home.”
Bill watched her square her shoulders and lift her chin as she walked away, but he knew there were tears spilling down her cheeks. Despite her role as the other woman in this situation, she was a good, decent person. Otherwise he didn’t think he would have allowed her to come between him and Maddie.
“Noreen, wait,” he called after her. “Let’s go to Rosalina’s for pizza.”
She turned back, swiping at the tears glistening on her cheeks. “Really?” she asked, her expression brightening as if he’d offered her the moon.
He grinned. “Sure. Why not? We can hang out till the team comes in. The local radio station broadcasts the games, so they’ll have it on at Rosalina’s and we can listen to it together.”
“How’s Ty going to feel if we’re there when he comes in?” she asked.
“We won’t stay,” Bill said, warming to the idea. “We’ll just say hello, congratulate him on his pitching if they win and then take off. I’m sure it will be okay as long as we don’t stick around.”
Noreen looked doubtful. “He’s embarrassed about me, especially in front of his friends,” she reminded him.
“Then we’ll go before he gets there,” Bill said, knowing she
was right. “But you and I will be able to share the game and you’ll have something to talk to him about the next time we get together.”
“Perfect,” she said, beaming at him. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he said gruffly.
After all, if he had a decent bone left in his body, he’d try to remember that this was the woman he’d chosen over his family. She didn’t deserve to spend one single moment thinking she was second best.
The truth was, as young as she was, Noreen had borne up amazingly well under the judgmental scrutiny of Serenity’s nosiest residents, especially once she’d been unable to hide her pregnancy. She’d known that most of the town had taken sides and that Maddie had won the contest. But not once had she expressed a single ounce of self-pity. In fact, she’d done everything she could think of to stand tall and fit in, especially when it came to his children. It was the circumstances, not Noreen, that had made that impossible.
Bill looked at her glowing face, saw the eagerness shining in her eyes and impulsively leaned down to kiss her. “Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?”
She gave him a tremulous smile. “Not really.”
“Well, it’s true. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
Unfortunately, he also had no idea why his good fortune wasn’t making him happy.
N
early a dozen pieces of top-of-the-line exercise equipment had arrived at the club Friday morning. Most were still in their boxes and had been shoved to one side in what would be the main workout room, but Maddie had persuaded Mitch to unpack and hook up one treadmill just so she could give it a try. He’d positioned it in front of the wide expanse of windows facing the woods, just as she’d envisioned it.
Now, at the end of a long and tedious day, she had maybe ten minutes before she needed to leave to pick up Katie and Kyle and get to the field for Ty’s game. She climbed onto the machine, checked the settings and started it up. As she settled into an easy stride, she gazed out at the tranquil setting and felt her cares slip away. If it could do that for her in under a minute, just imagine what it would do—
“My turn,” Helen said.
Maddie was so startled she nearly stumbled off the platform. “Where’d you come from? Don’t sneak up on a person that way!” She climbed off and let Helen take her place.
“I saw Mitch earlier and he mentioned that the equipment had arrived. I was anxious to get a peek. Is that the rest of it
over there?” She nodded toward the assortment of boxes across the room.
“Yep. If all of it is as great as this, our members will be ecstatic,” Maddie said.
“Why didn’t you have Mitch’s crew unpack it?”
“There’s still too much work to be done in here. It would be in the way and get filthy besides.” Maddie grinned. “I couldn’t resist trying one machine, though.” She ran her fingers over the elaborate control panel. “Isn’t it fabulous?”
“Not just the treadmill, but this view,” Helen said, already looking more relaxed. “Honestly, I could swear I feel better already.”
“I know,” Maddie said excitedly. “I did, too. I’m really starting to believe this place is going to be a wonderful addition to the town.”
Helen regarded her with an odd expression. “You didn’t believe that going in?”
“Not really. I was too focused on what it would mean for me to have a project I could sink my teeth into,” Maddie admitted. “And of course, there were the health benefits for the three of us.”
Helen gave her a wry look. “I could have bought us all memberships in Chez Bella a lot cheaper.”
“I know, but you wouldn’t have
owned
it,” Maddie said with a laugh. “You do have control issues, you know.”
Helen shrugged, not denying it. “You going to the game?”
Maddie glanced at her watch and realized she was now running late. “Yes, and I need to pick up the kids. You want to come along?”
“Not tonight. I have to be in court on Monday and it’s going to take me all weekend to get my ducks in a row.”
Maddie studied her worriedly. Helen spent way too much time getting her ducks lined up. “Come over for Sunday dinner,” she suggested. “You’ll need a break by then. It’s been a while since you’ve spent any time with the kids.”
Helen gave her a sly look. “I will if you’ll promise to tell me everything about your date with Cal.”
“I don’t have a date with Cal.”
“What would you call it? He invited you to have pizza after the game again, didn’t he?”
“With the team,” Maddie said. “And my kids.”
“Even better than a date,” Helen said.
“How do you figure that?”
“He’s blending right into your life,” Helen explained. “The steamy sex will come along in due time.”
Maddie rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t seem to stop the little buzz of anticipation that Helen’s words triggered.
“I’ll see you Sunday,” she told Helen. “Don’t stay on that treadmill too long. You don’t want to wear it out before we get the doors open.”
Helen merely waved, then set the machine’s speed up another notch and began to jog. Compulsive, type A, Maddie thought as she observed her silently. She couldn’t help wondering if exercise would be as good for Helen as the doctor believed or if it would just be one more thing Helen obsessed over.
The team was jubilant. Ty had only pitched five innings before Cal had taken him out for a reliever, but their lead had been protected. They’d walked away with a shutout over the toughest team in their division and their biggest rival in the entire region. Emotions always ran high at these games and
tonight had been no exception. Cal couldn’t have been more proud of the way they’d all pulled together.
When he walked with the team into Rosalina’s, he immediately looked for Maddie, who’d left the ball field ahead of him. He spotted her sitting all alone at a table in a darkened corner, far away from the cluster of tables that had been set up for the team. Kyle was by himself at the team table, looking angry. Another glance around the crowded room revealed why. On the opposite side of the restaurant sat Bill Townsend with his very pregnant girlfriend. Some of Cal’s excitement died as he realized the amount of tension their presence was bound to cause.
Though he was tempted to walk over and say something, Cal knew it wasn’t his place. At the ball field, Ty’s father might tolerate Cal’s interference in his personal life because of its effect on Ty, but here, he’d probably resent the hell out of it. And he’d be justified.
As soon as the team was settled, Cal crossed to Maddie’s table and pulled out a chair. “Where’s Katie?” he asked, leaving the topic of Bill up to her.
“Playing the games with Danielle and Danielle’s folks,” she said. “Thank heavens she didn’t spot her dad in here.”
“I gather you weren’t expecting him, either.”
“No.”
“At least he’s keeping his distance from Ty,” Cal said, observing the couple across the room. “After the incredible game Ty pitched, it would be a shame to have Bill’s presence spoil the evening for him.”
Even as Cal spoke, he watched Ty leave his teammates, a mutinous expression on his face, and walk over to his dad. Whatever he said had Bill rising to his feet and Noreen looking embarrassed.
“Think I should go over there and run interference?” Cal asked.
Maddie shook her head, even though her eyes were dark with worry. “Let Ty handle this. He needs to be able to deal with his dad.”
Cal noticed that Bill’s fists were clenched, but there was no shouting. Eventually he and Ty appeared to relax. Ty accepted his dad’s outstretched hand, then went back to his seat.
“Thank God,” Maddie murmured.
A moment later Bill and Noreen headed for the door. Right before they left, Bill detoured toward Cal and Maddie, leaving Noreen waiting.
“I know you probably think I shouldn’t have come here tonight, especially not with Noreen,” he told Maddie. “We really had planned to be gone before the team got here, but when the bus pulled up outside, I decided to wait for Ty and take a minute to congratulate him. I didn’t intend to make him uncomfortable.”
Cal watched Maddie’s struggle to keep her emotions in check.
“Did your conversation with Ty go okay?” she asked eventually, her tone perfectly neutral.
Bill regarded her with unmistakable relief. “As a matter of fact, it did. He was even civil to Noreen when she congratulated him.”
“I’m glad.”
He looked from her to Cal, acknowledging him for the first time. “Congratulations on the win, Coach.”
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t expect to see you two here together again,” Bill said, his disapproving gaze shifting back to Maddie. “You
know how people in this town love to talk. Next thing you know, they’ll be turning the two of you into an item. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Before Cal could respond, Maddie frowned and countered, “I wasn’t the first one in our family to stir up gossip, and I doubt I’ll be the last. If you were all that worried about talk, you might have done a few things differently yourself.”
Bill looked as if he’d bitten into a very sour lemon. With a terse “Good night,” he turned and stalked away, his back rigid.
“I am so sorry,” Maddie apologized.
“For what?”
“Anything he might have said that made you uncomfortable. He was being more of a jerk than usual tonight.”
“He’s jealous,” Cal told her.
“Jealous?” Maddie echoed. “No way.”
Cal grinned. “Some men might think I’m worthy of jealousy, especially when I’m out with the mother of their children.”
Maddie blushed. “I didn’t mean you aren’t worth being jealous over, just that there’s nothing between us to stir anyone’s jealousy.”
Cal’s expression sobered as he met her gaze and held it. “Are you sure about that, Maddie?” he asked quietly.
“I—” her blush deepened “—I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “But I’m not going to push you, not tonight anyway. One of these days, though, maybe we ought to talk about what’s going on here.”
“We’re friends,” she said, sounding a little desperate to pin a label on it right now.
“We are,” he agreed.
But if he had his way, it was going to turn into something more. And maybe it was only his ego talking, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t going to fight him when the time came.
Maddie was relieved when an entire week went by and she barely saw Cal. There were no crises with Ty. She went to the Wednesday afternoon game, then slipped away before it was over. It was Bill’s turn to attend the Friday night game. She could use every second she was away from Cal to regain her equilibrium. He confused her. He seemed to be hinting at a future she didn’t want to allow herself to consider.
Okay, she wanted to consider it, but it wasn’t sensible or practical with her kids already so confused about Noreen. A relationship with Cal would be the stuff of fantasies, a man ten years her junior actually thinking she was hot enough for an affair. And that’s all it could be. Surely he wasn’t thinking beyond that, not with all the baggage she carried. And Cal had baggage, too, for that matter. Trust issues.
Still, in a moment of extreme weakness, she imagined crawling into bed with that hard, muscular body, making love to him, letting herself come apart in the safety of his arms. Because that’s what she knew above all—she would be safe with Cal. He’d shown time and time again that he was willing to put her needs first, that he cared for who she was as a woman and a mother, not just as a potential lover.
Oh, God, she thought, moaning at the ridiculousness of her fantasy. It would never happen. She couldn’t allow it to happen. Bill had been right about one thing—Serenity was a small town where reputations could be made or broken in a heartbeat. Maybe her ex could get away with his indiscretion simply because everyone accepted that men were
weak, even idiotic from time to time, especially as they approached middle age. Women, down here in the world of Southern belles, were expected to live by a higher standard. Men slapped them up on pedestals and expected them to stay put.
“My, my, that’s a lovely blush on your cheeks,” Dana Sue noted, breezing into Maddie’s office with a file folder. “Thinking about Cal, I assume.”
“What’s in the folder?” Maddie asked, refusing to get drawn into that discussion, especially right now when her defenses were low and her mind was dodging X-rated fantasies.
“You can’t avoid this conversation forever,” Dana Sue said.
“Oh, but I can, especially since we’ve already had it way too many times,” Maddie corrected. “Come on—what’s in the folder?”
Her friend regarded her with disappointment, but eventually relented. “A schedule for cooking classes,” she said, handing it over. “See what you think.”
Just then Jeanette wandered in, wearing a sample of the new smock they were considering for their spa clients. “Good. You’re both here,” she said, tugging at a hemline that barely reached her thighs. “This’ll save us a couple of bucks, maybe, but I think it’s too short. We don’t want people to have to wear their street clothes while they’re getting treatments. We want them to feel pampered.”
“True,” Dana Sue said.
Jeanette went on. “A good smock or robe will make them feel as if they’re being wrapped in luxury. If we buy good quality, the smocks will last forever, even with constant washing. I think it’s a good investment, but it’s not my money.”
“Do you have a sample of the one you prefer?” Maddie asked.
Jeanette grinned and brought her hand out from behind her back. “I was hoping you’d ask.” She held out a satin-textured, polyester robe in pale peach that tied around the waist. “We could have our logo embroidered on this in white. It would only cost a little extra and it would be so classy.”
“Classy is what we’re going for,” Dana Sue said. “And Helen is all about classy. I vote yes. Want me to call her and run it by her, Maddie?”
Maddie winced. Did she have to run all the financial decisions past Helen? Helen hadn’t asked her to. She said she trusted Maddie’s judgment.
“What’s this going to do to your budget?” she asked Jeanette. They’d gone over the figures the week before and she’d discovered that Jeanette had mastered them and had a terrific grasp of which corners could be cut and which would compromise their image.
“It would double it,” Jeanette admitted. “But I could order a little less skin-care product initially to balance it out, though frankly, as soon as people have one of our treatments, the products we use are going to fly off the shelves.”
“Then it doesn’t sound as if that’s a smart option,” Maddie told her.
Jeanette’s expression turned thoughtful. “How far ahead have you projected a budget for supplies?”
“Not that far,” Maddie admitted. “Three months ahead now and I was going to do a six-month projection after we get the doors open. Why?”
“I was wondering if you’d figured in replacement costs for the smocks. If you had, we could make up the difference
there. These are excellent quality, so we wouldn’t have to replace them nearly as often.”
She and Dana Sue looked at Maddie expectantly.
“Do it,” Maddie said at last. “But please, please find a way to cut some other corners till we can get this place up and running.”
“The grand opening is less than a month away,” Dana Sue reminded her. “And you’ve said yourself that memberships are way ahead of projections.”
“And I’ve already started booking treatment appointments,” Jeanette said. “In fact, we’re booked solid for the first two weeks, both facials and massages. I’ve had a lot of requests for manicures and pedicures, too, so we need to get a manicurist on board as soon as we can so I’ll be able to start booking those appointments.”