“Thanks, Grace,” Maddie said sincerely. She knew Grace meant it, too. That was the comfort of a place like Serenity. Neighbors helped each other out.
When she turned to face her son, his expression was troubled.
“Mom, are we short on cash because of Dad leaving? Is that why you’re trying to find a job?”
“We’re okay for now,” she assured him. “But the alimony payments your dad agreed to won’t last forever. I’m trying to plan ahead.”
“I thought Helen and Dana Sue wanted you to start up a new business with them,” he said.
Maddie was astonished. “How on earth do you know about that?”
“Mom, it’s Serenity and Dana Sue,” he said.
“Are you suggesting this town has a thing for gossip?” she inquired wryly. “And my best friend has a big mouth?”
“I’m not falling into that trap,” he sidestepped neatly. “But I do go to school with Dana Sue’s daughter.”
“And she’s been talking about this health-club idea?”
Ty nodded. “I think it sounds cool. I bet it’d be a whole lot more fun than working in some stuffy old office.”
“I pretty much think what they want me to do is work in their office,” she said.
“But you like them, right? I do. Dana Sue’s a riot and Helen gives just about the best Christmas presents ever.”
“Ah, yes. Important qualifications for a sound working partnership.”
“I’m just saying—”
She gave his hand a quick squeeze. “I know what you’re saying and you’re right. Working with them would be wonderful.”
“Then what’s keeping you from saying yes?”
She’d given the offer a lot of thought the past few days and knew exactly why she was hesitating. She’d even explained it to her friends, but it had fallen on deaf ears. “I don’t want to let them down,” she said honestly. “Right now, I’m just not sure if I can give the job the attention it needs.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Ty said, startling her.
“You do?”
“I know I’m letting the baseball team down,” he admitted. “But I just can’t seem to concentrate. That’s what Coach was all over me about today at practice. He said if I don’t get it together, he’ll pull me from the starting rotation.”
“Can he do that?” she demanded indignantly.
Tyler shrugged. “He’s the coach. It’s his call.”
“He won’t be the coach for long if the team starts losing.” Angry on her son’s behalf, she said, “Want me to talk to him? It’s not fair that he’s leaning on you so hard right now. I’m sure if he understood what’s going on, he’d cut you some slack.”
Ty looked horrified. “No way, Mom. He’s right. If I suck, I’ve got no business being on the field. I just have to work harder, I guess.”
“You could call your dad,” she suggested. “He’s always been able to help you before.”
“No!” Ty said fiercely. “I am not calling Dad about any
thing, okay? I’m not.” He pushed his unfinished milk shake aside and left the booth. “I’ll wait in the car.”
“Ty!”
He didn’t even look back.
Maddie stared after him in dismay. What on earth was she supposed to do now? It wasn’t as if
she
could start coaching him. She understood quite a lot about baseball thanks to her son’s love of the game, but she certainly didn’t have any technical expertise. Besides, Coach Maddox had more pitching skill and pro ball experience than anyone in the entire region. If he couldn’t get through to Ty, then maybe what her son needed was counseling of some sort to help him deal with the other issues in his life. Maybe it was time to give that possibility serious consideration.
Unfortunately, even suggesting such a thing when Ty was still so angry might make the problem worse. He might think she was losing faith in him. In the past she and Bill would have talked over the situation and made a decision together. Now she’d rather eat dirt than turn to him. She had to handle this on her own.
“Mind a bit of advice?” Neville Wharton asked, slipping into the booth opposite her.
“I’d be grateful,” she said.
“If I were you, despite what Tyler says he wants or doesn’t want, I’d sit down with the coach and tell him what’s going on. Cal’s got real good instincts about working with kids if he knows what he’s up against.”
Maddie tried to imagine spilling her personal humiliation to a man she barely knew. She didn’t think she could do it.
Neville smiled. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “That once you tell one person it’ll be all over town, but the
truth is everyone in Serenity probably already knows what’s going on with you and Bill, anyway. And I like the Maddox boy. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. The students at school look up to him, especially the boys on the baseball team.”
Only someone Neville’s age would refer to the baseball coach as a boy, she thought. Cal Maddox had to be thirty at least, given the time he’d spent in the minors and the all-too-brief time he’d been in the Major League before coming to Serenity two years ago to coach.
“I’ll give it some thought,” Maddie promised. “Thanks, Neville.”
“Tyler will be okay,” he reassured her. “That boy of yours is just going through a rough patch, that’s all. It’s tough having his dad walk out. He doesn’t know how to handle it. Same as you, I imagine.”
He gave her a wink. “And for what it’s worth, I think you ought to open that fancy spa with Helen and Dana Sue, too. I imagine even Grace might wander over there for one of those massages, just to see what it’s like.”
“Is there anyone in this town who hasn’t heard about their plan?” Maddie asked, exasperated.
“I doubt it,” he said. “I figure those two gals knew you’d be a hard sell and wanted to get folks on their side to help with any convincing that needed to be done.”
“Oh, great,” she grumbled. “I’ve half a mind to turn the job down.”
He grinned. “You’ll get past that,” he said with conviction. “A smart gal like you won’t walk away from the chance of a lifetime just to be stubborn.”
“You realize if we get half the women in Serenity on some
sort of health kick, Neville, your soda fountain will suffer,” she warned him.
“Nah,” he said, showing a complete lack of concern. “I’ve been in this business more than fifty years. Good intentions can’t hold out against hot-fudge sauce for long. And I’ll be sure to send my best customers over there to work off the calories. That way we’ll both profit.”
She studied him with surprise. “Then you really think this health club is a good idea?”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously. “Have you looked at the magazine racks lately? Fitness and weight loss and all that sort of thing is all anyone writes about these days. That tells me folks must be pretty worked up about it. Women sit at my counter every single day and talk about low-carb this and low-fat that. If it’s a craze, you three gals may as well make some money from it. Goodness knows, you won’t have any competition from Dexter’s.”
“No question about that,” Maddie agreed. “Thanks, Neville. I’d better get out to the car before Tyler melts. It’s hot as blazes out there, even if it is only March.”
“I know. Makes you wonder what July will be like, doesn’t it?” he said with a shake of his head.
The weather was the least of Maddie’s concerns. Even with all of Neville’s well-meaning advice, she still didn’t know what to do about her one solid job offer…or about her very angry and disillusioned son.
W
hen the doorbell rang just after lunch on Saturday, Maddie gladly left it to the kids to answer the door. She had no desire to face Bill after the frustrating week she’d had. These days she didn’t want to see him when she was at her best, much less when she was feeling defeated.
She was about to run a hot bath for herself when she heard Tyler’s raised voice from the front hall.
“What the hell are
you
doing here? We don’t want you in this house!”
Horrified by his language and his attitude, Maddie rushed from her bathroom wrapped in an old terry-cloth robe, her hair piled atop her head in a haphazard knot. “Tyler Walker Townsend, what on earth?” she said, then came to an abrupt stop beside him as she spotted the very pregnant Noreen standing on the doorstep.
Maddie had first met the young nurse when she’d interviewed candidates for the job in Bill’s office. She’d been impressed by the woman’s résumé and composure. In the weeks after Bill had hired her, Maddie had noticed the woman’s efficiency and her warmth with the young patients. She’d had no idea that Noreen’s attentiveness had extended to her husband.
On the two occasions when she’d seen Noreen since discovering the woman’s involvement with Bill, Maddie had been struck by how self-possessed she seemed, even dressed in her end-of-the-day wilted nurse’s uniform. Now, despite her designer maternity outfit, she looked far less sure of herself. There were patches of red on her cheeks from embarrassment and her eyes were shadowed with distress. She looked even younger than her twenty-four years.
“Dad sent
her
to pick us up,” Tyler said, his body radiating outrage. “I’m not going anywhere with her. And neither are they.” He scowled at Kyle and Katie, who were standing nearby in wide-eyed dismay. Kyle whirled around and ran upstairs. Katie promptly burst into tears and flung herself at Maddie.
“I miss Daddy!” she cried, hiccuping with sobs. “When is Daddy coming home?”
Despite her disapproval of her son’s tone, Maddie couldn’t help wondering the same thing Tyler had asked: knowing how his kids felt about her, why would Bill send Noreen in his place? Even as she tried to soothe her daughter, she pinned Noreen with an accusing look.
“Where is their father?” she asked.
“Bill was tied up at the hospital,” Noreen explained, clearly shaken by Tyler’s verbal attack and Maddie’s cold reception. “He asked me to pick up the kids. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”
“Well, you can forget it,” Tyler said. “We’re not going anywhere with you!”
“Tyler!” Maddie said sharply. She kept her gaze on Noreen’s face, trying very hard not to let it stray to her protruding belly. “Obviously, this was a bad idea. Tell Bill he’ll have to arrange another time to see the kids.”
“But I don’t understand,” Noreen said. “Saturday afternoon is his time. It says so in the divorce settlement. He went over all the terms with me.”
“That’s right,” Maddie agreed. “It’s
his
time, not yours. Now I think you should go. Your presence here is clearly upsetting my children.”
“Please,” Noreen said. “Can’t we talk about this? I’m just giving them a ride, Maddie. Bill will be really upset if he misses his time with them.”
“He’ll just have to get over it,” Maddie said, refusing to back down. “Maybe next time he’ll arrange to be here himself.”
For an instant, she almost felt sorry for the other woman. Maybe it was of her own doing, but even Maddie could recognize that Noreen was caught in an impossible situation.
Noreen’s lower lip trembled. “I just don’t get why they hate me so much,” she said miserably.
Maddie looked at her son. “Tyler, take Katie in the kitchen and get yourselves a snack, please.”
“But, Mom,” he began. At a warning glance from her, he sighed and took Katie from her arms.
When Maddie was certain they were out of hearing, she turned back to Noreen. “You’re a pediatrics nurse, Noreen. Surely you must have taken some child psychology courses.”
Noreen nodded. “Yes, but I still don’t get it. Whenever they stopped by the office to see their dad, they were always such great kids. I thought they liked me.”
“I’m sure they did when they thought of you as their father’s
nurse,
” Maddie said.
When Noreen still looked confused, Maddie added, “I’m sure Bill will explain it to you. He used to have a functioning brain and at least a tiny bit of sensitivity.”
Satisfied that the barb had hit its mark, she quietly closed the door in the woman’s face, then went to deal with her kids.
In the kitchen, she pulled Katie onto her lap, then tried to compose herself before facing Ty.
“Young man, if I ever hear you speak to another adult the way you spoke to Noreen just now, you’ll be grounded for a month.”
Ty looked as if she’d slapped him. “She had no business coming here,” he said defensively.
“That’s not the point. We’ve had this conversation before, but you don’t seem to have gotten the message. My children are respectful of adults, period.”
“Even when they’re nothing but—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” she told him. “Go upstairs and check on your brother while I try to get Katie calmed down.”
A half hour later she was physically and emotionally drained from walking the tightrope between what she knew was right and the vicious words she wanted to utter herself. She needed a break and the kids needed a distraction. Bracing herself for a slew of questions she didn’t want to answer, she called her mother. If she’d been willing to babysit once, maybe she could be persuaded to do it again.
“What’s wrong?” Paula Vreeland asked the second she heard Maddie’s strained voice.
“What makes you think something’s wrong?” she said. That was the way her relationship with her mother went. Even the most innocent question had a way of getting her hackles up. Maybe it was because she always sensed some inherent disapproval in her mother’s tone, if not her words.
“You sound as if you’re on your last nerve,” her mother said. “What’s Bill done now?”
Since there was little point in denying her husband’s role in her mood, Maddie gave her mother an abbreviated version of the scene that had just played out on her doorstep.
“It’s plain he wasn’t thinking, but women are usually more sensitive to these things. What on earth possessed Noreen to think that she’d be welcome at your house?” her mother demanded.
“I doubt she thought about it at all,” Maddie responded. “I imagine she was just doing what Bill told her to do.”
“Or she wanted to rub this situation in your face,” her mother said heatedly. “Isn’t it enough that she destroyed your marriage?”
“Apparently not,” Maddie said.
Paula drew in a deep breath. “Okay, there’s no point in belaboring the woman’s lack of good sense. What can I do to help?”
“The kids could really use a change of scenery,” Maddie said. “I hate to ask, but would you mind taking them to your place for a few hours? It won’t be the same as going to their dad’s, but maybe it’ll distract—”
“How about I take them to Charleston instead?” her mother offered. “We’ll see a movie, eat hamburgers and greasy fries and I’ll bring them home exhausted.”
Maddie was surprised. “Are you sure?”
“Believe it or not, I find your children highly entertaining and they don’t seem to mind spending time with me. We’ll enjoy ourselves.”
Maddie decided not to remind her that she’d once vetoed the idea of spending any time babysitting them. At the moment, she didn’t really care why that had changed. She was just grateful for it.
“Thank you,” she said.
“No thanks necessary,” her mother replied. “But one of these days I would like it if we could sit down and talk about why you hate asking for my help not just with the kids, but with anything.”
Maddie sighed. How could she tell her mother it was because asking for help—especially from a woman as competent and self-sufficient as Paula Vreeland—always made her feel like a failure?
“Well, you look downright pitiful,” Dana Sue observed when Maddie appeared in the doorway to the kitchen at Sullivan’s later that afternoon after depositing her surprisingly upbeat kids with her mother. “Come on in here and sit down. I’ll fix you a plate of spiced shrimp.”
“Save the shrimp. I’ve already eaten lunch with the kids,” Maddie told her, not entirely certain why she’d dropped by. When a leisurely bubble bath had done nothing to soothe her, she’d sought out the one person who could understand what she was feeling. Dana Sue had been through her own nasty divorce from a cheating husband, but at least Ronnie hadn’t stuck around Serenity to rub the situation in her face.
Dana Sue set a plate piled high with shrimp in front of her anyway. “Peeling those will keep your hands occupied while you tell me what’s going on.”
“Are you sure you have time to talk?” Maddie asked, regarding the shrimp without interest but picking one up anyway.
“The lunch crowd has dwindled and it’s hours till people start showing up for dinner,” Dana Sue said. “But even if I were busier than an ant at a picnic, I’d still have time for you.”
“I could chop or dice or something,” Maddie offered.
“No offense, but this is my kitchen. Any chopping or dicing will be done by me and my experienced staff. Besides, judging from the expression on your face, I’m not sure you ought to be trusted with sharp objects.”
Maddie managed a faint grin. “You have a point.”
“What’s Bill done now?”
“What makes you think my mood is his fault?” Maddie inquired. Dana Sue was the second person to leap to that conclusion. Obviously her life and her moods were becoming too predictable.
“Because you loved him for more than twenty years. Just because he’s turned out to be a low-down skunk doesn’t mean he can’t still twist you into knots.” She looked Maddie in the eye. “What did he do? Do I need to hunt him down?”
“I wish it were that simple. I wish a good swift kick or a smack upside his head would knock some sense into him, but I think he’s hopeless. Clueless, anyway.” Maddie shrugged. “How could I have been so wrong about him? For twenty years I lived with a man who was smart and reasonably sensitive. Now it’s as if he checked his brain somewhere and can’t remember where.”
“Well, we know he’s thinking with another part of his anatomy,” Dana Sue offered. “What did he do?”
“He was tied up at the hospital today, so he sent Noreen by to pick up the kids.” She twisted the tail off a shrimp with such force that both the shell and the shrimp went flying across the kitchen in opposite directions. She scowled at Dana Sue. “He sent that woman to
my
house to pick up
my
kids.”
“I can just imagine how that went,” Dana Sue said as she retrieved the scattered remains of the shrimp.
“I doubt it,” Maddie told her. “Tyler answered the door and told her to get the hell away from our house. Kyle ran upstairs and locked himself in his room and Katie burst into tears. It took me a half hour to calm her down. It’s breaking my heart to see how much she misses her dad.”
“And what did Noreen do during all this commotion?”
“Stood there wringing her hands and telling me she just doesn’t understand why the kids don’t like her anymore. I told her to ask Bill. I should’ve said that maybe even her little pea brain could come up with an explanation if she really tried.”
Dana Sue chuckled. “That would have been a nice shot.”
Maddie sighed. “One she deserved, but it hardly solves anything. I’m sure Bill is going to be on a tear once he hears how she was received by me and the kids. I’ll have to listen to another of his tirades about how we’re not giving Noreen a fair chance, that she’s in his life now, that she’s having his baby, that I promised to help smooth things over and now they’re worse than ever, and on and on and on.”
Dana Sue gave Maddie a penetrating look. “Something tells me you’re not this upset just because Bill’s going to have himself a hissy fit.”
“Of course not. I’m upset because my kids’ lives have been turned inside out and I can’t seem to do a thing to help them. I don’t even know where to start.”
“Where are they right now?”
“My mother’s taken them to Charleston to dinner and a movie.”
“Her idea or yours?”
“Mine, if you must know, at least the part about them spending the afternoon with her. I was desperate. I figured they needed a break from me as much as they needed one
from Noreen and their dad. All this tension has taken a terrible toll on them.”
“And on you,” Dana Sue reminded her. “What are you doing for yourself?”
“Running to you,” Maddie said.
“If we had our spa, you could soak in the hot tub and have a massage,” Dana Sue reminded her.
Maddie frowned. “My thirty days have barely begun. Stop pressuring me. I really don’t need that on top of everything else today.”
“Just pointing out one of the advantages of going into business with me and Helen,” Dana Sue said mildly. “I could list more.”
“Not necessary. I think I have a handle on most of them,” Maddie admitted.
Dana Sue studied her intently. “Meaning?”
“Nothing,” Maddie said. “Ask me a couple of weeks from now.”
“You know you’re going to agree to this. You’re just being stubborn.”
“Maybe I’m just enjoying keeping the two of you dangling on the end of my hook,” Maddie retorted. “It’s rare that I have the upper hand.”
She finally popped one of the peeled shrimp into her mouth and savored the burst of spices. “Mmm, these are fantastic!”
Dana Sue chuckled. “I’m glad you like them. For a while there, I thought you were just going to mangle them as some sort of bizarre therapy. How about a glass of wine to go with them?”
“Sure. Wine sounds good,” she said as she ate another shrimp, then licked her fingers.
“You know,” Dana Sue said, “I think you’d feel a whole lot better about your life if you had something positive to look forward to. You need to remember how capable and smart you are, that marriage to Bill didn’t define you. I know launching this place kept me sane when I kicked Ronnie out.”
“But you’d been dreaming about opening your own restaurant for years,” Maddie countered. “I’ve never envisioned opening a fitness club.”