“Why don’t you unwrap it for me, Gran?” Maddie lifted the coffee jug, using it as an excuse. Too many times Brad’s impersonal gifts left her feeling let down, as if one of his office staff chose, not him. She didn’t want to feel that again. Especially now.
As Gran lifted the box, her sharp gaze darted between Maddie and Brad. Maddie didn’t even want to imagine what she was thinking. The older woman didn’t simply add two and two and get five, like everyone else. Gran could easily make it six and a half.
“It’s fragile, so don’t shake it!” Brad warned, reaching out to stop her.
Gran’s merry laugh rang out. “How did you know I was about to do just that? I like to guess what’s inside.”
“Sorry to spoil your fun. It’s fragile.” He smiled as he settled opposite her at the table. “You’ll need to open this one to find out.”
Maddie poured them each coffee while Gran, excited as a child, pulled off the ribbons and tore through the blue foiled paper to expose a cardboard box. Inside that waited a solid-looking white foam container.
“Oh, the suspense! This is like those Russian dolls.” Chuckling, Gran glanced up at Brad. “Don’t tell me it’s a trick and there’s nothing inside.”
He shook his head. “I don’t play that sort of mean joke. There’s something in there. The box is in two parts. Lift the top one off. Carefully!” he added as Gran tugged at it.
She handed the container to Maddie. “You’ll have to do it. My old fingers can’t manage.”
Maddie eyed her. Almost certainly, this was a ploy to ensure she opened Brad’s gift. But she couldn’t argue, despite the wily sparkle in Gran’s eyes. Hands a little unsteady, she picked up the box. Easing the foam sections apart revealed a circular opening, protecting a bunch of sweet peas in soft pastel colors. She gasped and stared at him.
Sweet peas in winter.
Most florists didn’t stock the delicate flowers, even in season. A cellophane wrap inside the smoothly curving green ceramic vase held water, so they weren’t the least bit wilted.
Lifting them to her face, she inhaled. Something hard and defended in her melted as she breathed in the old-fashioned scent she adored. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to get these flowers to her.
Brad never gave her sweet peas when they were married. He’d always brought home huge long-stemmed bunches of flashy but scentless roses. Each time, she’d tried to appreciate his gesture. But it left her heart untouched. The roses were conventional, expected. As if he’d walked into the florist shop and asked for whatever most women wanted, not considered what she wanted.
The sweet peas were different. It couldn’t be coincidence he chose these particular flowers or this particular vase.
He must have remembered how much she loved sweet peas. How they’d chatted and laughed while she picked big bunches in Gran’s garden, the long hot summer they met, arranging them in a ceramic jug much the same color green. The sweet peas flowered abundantly that year, and their scent held extra sweetness, gently pervading the room they were placed in.
Did he also recall how she’d peeped over the top of the bunch at him, just the way she did now? As her eyes met his warm hazel gaze, her heart had stuttered with a wild ecstatic joy.
Exactly the way it stuttered now.
And it mustn’t. She couldn’t let herself feel like this for him. Not now.
She set the bouquet on the sink with a clunk. She hadn’t known then what a disaster their marriage would be. How much worse it was to be lonely in a marriage than to be alone. How Brad would betray her.
Pain twisted in her gut. No matter how badly she wanted to believe he’d changed, nothing could change the facts.
Her joy in his thoughtful gift shriveled and died as surely as in a few days the delicate blossoms would also shrivel and die. And as surely as in ten days’ time, Brad would be back in the city and out of their lives again.
Chapter 4
What just happened?
One minute, Maddie seemed delighted with his gift. Their eyes met as she gazed over the pretty blooms, and something real and warm and sweet had passed between them.
Brad wanted to jump up and do a two-handed victory punch in the air. He’d gone to half a dozen florists before he found one with sweet peas, but if he’d finally got it right with her, it was worth it.
Then her expression changed, hardened. She turned away from him to plunk the vase onto the kitchen sink. “Thank you, Brad. I’ll freshen the water and think where to put these so they’ll last a little longer.”
Her thank you held little gladness. Instead, the brittle words carried something bitter. Something hurt.
Staring at her rigid back, he wished Maddie would tell him what she really felt. The real reason she’d divorced him then turned so sour. A man could go nuts trying to figure it out.
Hurting and angry, he hadn’t asked why. He’d accepted the divorce, let her have what she wanted. Jacob needed his mom, and if she didn’t love him anymore, what was the point contesting it? Getting those divorce papers told him they had nothing worth fighting to save.
Now, he knew better.
If they were to have a chance of becoming a family again, he had to understand her reasons. Even though creating peace and goodwill between the hospital’s doctors and insurers would be an easier challenge. Or convincing his dad healthcare management was a worthy career choice.
Still, he had to try with Maddie. And then do what he could to fix things.
“The florist said keeping them cool would help them last longer,” he offered. “Maybe a windowsill?”
“You said you had presents for me, too, Daddy!” Bright eagerness shone in their son’s face.
At least Jacob, he could probably please. Brad swallowed hard, but the pressure on his throat didn’t shift. It was surely only Jacob’s stranglehold on his neck choking him, not a lump of emotion as solid and indigestible as raw steak.
Lifting the boy higher loosened his tight grip. Brad reached out to ruffle baby-fine blond curls, just like his in photos at that age, before they darkened to brown. His fingertips felt clumsy and rough against that silky smoothness. Awkward protectiveness swelled in him, filling his lungs till he could hardly breathe.
Lord, please show me how to be a good father to my son. And a good husband to Maddie, if she’ll let me.
Liz waggled a finger at the boy. “Jacob, it’s not polite to ask. You have to wait until you’re offered.”
“But this is Daddy. He always brings me presents. And he said.” That raised a chuckle from everyone, even Maddie.
Brad grinned. “I did say I had presents.” He glanced at Maddie as he spoke, gauging her response. “Maybe I could give you one now, if your mom agrees. There’s the one I left in the back of the SUV.”
She nodded, though her brow creased. “One now would be fine.”
“Presents!” Grinning, Jacob punched his hands in the air.
Maddie lifted a warning finger. “Only one. The rest have to wait till Christmas.”
“I’ll go get it.” Brad lowered Jacob to the floor, but the boy clung to him.
“Take me too.”
Maddie shook her head. “No. You’d need to put all your cold-weather clothes back on to go outside. Coat, hat, gloves, boots.”
Jacob pouted, lips pursing and then opening, ready to argue back. Maddie sighed, and her shoulders sagged.
Brad crouched to Jacob’s level. “You need to do what your mom says. I’ll be back with your present before you got halfway done with all that.”
Maddie shot him a grateful smile, full of way-too-obvious surprise he’d backed her up.
As he quickly pulled on his boots and coat in the hall, another realization smacked him hard. Had he unintentionally undermined Maddie’s mothering? She’d done the discipline, while he’d spent his time with Jacob having fun. Making up for seeing so little of the boy. She must have felt she had two kids to deal with, sometimes.
Out in the driveway, the icy wind bit throug
h his thin down coat. He took barely more than a minute getting Jacob’s gift from the back of the SUV. Even so, by the time he ducked back into the house with the package in his arms, Jacob waited in the hall, dancing with impatience.
“That’s for me?” The kid’s eyes widened at the size of the parcel. How the toy store in Spokane had paper big enough to wrap it, Brad had no idea. But he’d wanted to make Jacob happy with his gift, and as soon as he saw it, he knew it was the thing.
He hoped.
“It is.” He grinned at Jacob’s excitement. “Want me to carry it into the kitchen so everyone can see you open it?”
“I can carry it.” Jacob’s arms spread wide, and he struggled to half-carry half-drag the gift. Stifling another grin, Brad held the door open for him.
It shamed him to admit he didn’t know for sure whether Jacob would like what he’d bought. Busy with work, he’d seen way less of them than he wanted back in August when he’d paid for Maddie and Jacob to fly to L.A. for the boy’s birthday. They spoke weekly via Skype, but four-year-olds weren’t the best for phone conversation. It wasn’t really being part of his son’s life.
Truth was, even when they’d lived together as a family, Jacob’s Sunday school teacher probably knew as much about his son as he did. Those years after Jacob’s birth had been grueling. Establishing himself at work, as well as doing his MBA evenings and weekends.
This trip to the lake for Christmas was a chance to change that. Though it risked his promotion, maybe Maddie had been right insisting he come here. Even right insisting he stay till New Year’s Day.
In the kitchen, Hiram and Liz oohed and ahhed at the size of the package. Maddie’s lips tightened a little, the same way they’d done when she’d seen the parcel filling the back seat. Impossible to guess what she was thinking.
Maybe if he could, they wouldn’t be in this mess, living over a thousand miles apart.
Jacob tore into the wrapping, and then squealed when he saw the huge, blue soft toy. “It’s an elephant! Like the one at the zoo. Can I really have him now?” He looked to Maddie for permission.
She nodded, and Jacob ran over to hug Brad. “Thank you, Daddy. He’s the bestest present ever ever ever.”
Her glued-on smile bent out of shape. Brad gave her an apologetic shrug. It wasn’t like they were competing for Jacob’s love.
Or at least, he hadn’t consciously intended it that way.
Jacob grabbed the toy, towering over him by twelve inches and three times as wide, and hugged it tight. “His name is Trunkie. He can sleep on my bed with me.”
Maddie surprised Brad with a sudden laugh, sweet and merry as bells. The genuine smile she gave Jacob warmed her eyes. “I’m not sure you and Trunkie will both fit in the same bed. He’s a lot of elephant.”
“Maybe he can stand beside your bed and watch over you while you sleep?” Brad suggested.
“Yes. That too.” Jacob gazed up at him. “Daddy, I wish we lived with you all the time.”
A hard knot tightened in Brad’s chest, and he swallowed. There wasn’t a trace of blame or recrimination in Jacob’s voice or in his glowing face, but he felt it anyway.
He’d hoped the outcome of this trip would be exactly what Jacob asked for. Remarrying Maddie, being together as a family wherever he was working. Now, with her grandmother’s health complicating things as much as Maddie’s attitude, he couldn’t see an answer.
All he could do was trust God had a plan.
Lord, help me to be a better father than mine ever was. I haven’t done too good a job so far. I don’t deserve that the kid loves me so much.
Glancing at Maddie, he chose his words with care. “I want to be with you all the time, too, Jacob. But I have to work, and that means I need to be in the city. I’ll be here with you for a whole ten days, and I’ll see you as often as I can next year.”
Though how often that would be if he got the promotion, he couldn’t guess.
Before Maddie said anything, the phone rang, and she answered it. Maddie mostly listened and spoke very little, but her worried expression and her dejected slump into a chair suggested whatever the caller said wasn’t good news.
“Uh huh… uh huh… Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.… No, of course, I don’t mind. I’ll come over straight away.”
She hung up the phone, shaking her head as she loosed a sigh. Tears gleamed in her eyes, and she rubbed a hand across her face. “That was Pat. Their daughter’s at the hospital, with pregnancy complications. He and Susanna need to go to Coeur d’Alene to care for the other children. He’s asked if I’ll look after the store for them.”
Brad knew who Maddie meant. The fifty-something couple who took over the store after Maddie’s pop died. He and Maddie spent hours there that summer, chatting over ice creams and sodas.
Liz’s face crumpled. “Oh no. It’s far too early. She’s what, six months? We need to pray for them.”
Hiram took her hand, bent his head, and began to pray out loud for the family. Surprised, Brad closed his eyes and joined them.
As Hiram’s resonant voice filled the room, asking God’s care for the family and for the unborn baby, Brad felt a deeper sense of peace. God’s presence right there with them. He wasn’t used to being around people who prayed just like that, but the impromptu prayer was so right and so natural. When two or more are gathered…
The outcome was in God’s hands, and they could trust His will would be done.
After Hiram ended, Liz and Maddie both looked more comforted, though Liz still clung to the older man’s hand.
Maddie raised her head to Brad, face creased in apology. “I’m sorry. You’ve only just arrived, and I need to go. There’s really no one else who can take over there.” She grimaced. “It could mean I’ll be working there the whole time you’re here.”
“Pete and I used to own the store, not just work in it. I want to help out, so you two have some time together.” Liz stubbornly tipped her chin as if daring Maddie to argue.
Maddie replied with a smile, though an edge of sorrow loosened it. “That was ten years ago, Gran. Anyway, I’ll need you here to help with Jacob.”
Ouch. Brad hoped that was a ploy to keep her gran safely home, and not a dig at his parenting ability.
“I planned to sit and visit with your gran for a while, Maddie,” Hiram said. Brad didn’t miss the hint of a wink he flickered her. Reassurance he’d be there for Liz, if needed? “You and Brad could both go to the store.”
Brad shot the older man an assessing glance. Was Hiram creating an excuse for them to spend more time with each other?
“What a good idea,” Liz chimed in with a sunny smile. “You could be there together while I watch Jacob. Knowing there’s backup would comfort Pat and Susanna. I have Hiram right next door if I need anything. These winter days, the store closes early. You’d be home hours before Jacob’s bedtime and still have plenty of time with him.”
The tight smile narrowing Maddie’s lips confirmed his suspicion. They were being railroaded.
Not that he minded.
He needed all the help he could get.
Chapter 5
More matchmaking. Just what Maddie needed.
With Hiram aiding and abetting Gran’s scheme to push her and Brad together, avoiding the man would be a bigger challenge than she thought. There’d been a mischievous twinkle in Gran’s eyes ever since she heard he’d agreed to come for Christmas. Maddie warned her not to even think of it.
Their marriage was well and truly over.
So her suspicion had been correct. So what? Gran would realize soon enough she was wasting her time. After Christmas, Brad would go back to his big-city, high-flying life, chasing his latest promotion or his latest blonde, and leave her and Jacob behind at Sunset Point.
Exactly where she intended to stay.
She’d lost herself once before, when she left to marry Brad after one summer of shining romance. Then she discovered their married life had as little substance as the shimmer of
moonlight on the lake.
Much as she wanted to, she couldn’t spend time arguing. Pat and Susanna needed to get on the road.
“Okay,” she said. “See you later, li’l guy.” She bent to kiss Jacob, perched on Trunkie’s broad back chattering away to the elephant in some unintelligible language only Jacob and his toy understood. She doubted he’d miss her. Typical of Brad to give such a huge gift.
She could one-up him though, come Christmas Day. The local carpenter had refurbished Gran’s vintage sled, and it hid under her bed, packaged up in five rolls of gift wrap.
Gran followed them out to the hall as they bundled into their cold-weather gear. She picked up the edge of Brad’s black down coat and squeezed it critically. “Your coat might be fine for Southern California, but it won’t cut much ice out here.” Diving to the back of the closet, she pulled out a different coat and handed it to him. “Wear this instead. It’s a proper man’s coat for these parts.”
As Maddie saw the heavy red-checkered wool and the thick padded shearling lining, her fists involuntarily clenched. “No, Gran! Not Pop’s lumber jacket. You can’t let Brad wear it.”
Gran pursed her mouth and raised her hands to her hips. “Maddie Calder Hughes, I hoped your pop and I raised you to have a heart with more Christian charity than that! Pete hasn’t needed his coat for a long time now. He’d want your husband to have it.”
Maddie bristled. She did have charity. For everyone but Brad. “He’s not my husband.” Even as she spoke the words, she knew how childish they must sound.
“And you know what I think about that.” With a quick headshake sending salt-and-pepper curls bouncing, Gran straightened to her full four foot eleven and poked a finger at Maddie’s chest. “I’m sorry you coming up here to help me when I was ill separated you two. I feel so responsible.”
Maddie huffed, narrowly avoiding an eye roll. “You aren’t responsible.”
She didn’t add the words, Brad is. Gran didn’t understand. How could she? Her marriage had been so different. She and Pop had been true partners, in everything.
Come to the Lake Page 3