by Rachel Hanna
“Can I see inside of it? For old time’s sake?” Madison asked with a sly smile.
“Of course you can, girl. I’ve got the keys right here. Mrs. Granger overnighted them to me,” Jennifer said.
Madison and Jennifer walked up the stairs and unlocked the door. The huge oak door creaked as they stepped inside. The musty smell overwhelmed Madison for a moment.
“It’s been locked up for a few months. Sorry about the smell,” Jennifer said as she started to open some windows in the side rooms. As she did, she told Madison the price of the home, which was shocking. Madison never would have imagined that Mrs. Granger would price it so low.
Madison was taken back in time to her favorite childhood memories of walking through the home at Christmas time. Her Dad so loved to see the old woodwork and the plentiful fireplaces. They would serve hot apple cider and hot chocolate. Some years, they roasted s’mores out on the back patio in the rock firepit that Mr. Granger had built with his own hands.
As the women walked and talked, Madison continued thinking about how the home had touched her over the years. Her cousin CiCi had been married in the house when Madison was about ten years old. It was the most beautiful wedding she had ever seen, and the Grangers were kind to allow her to get married there. Madison felt a hitch in her breath when she thought about how wonderful her own wedding would have been there, too.
“You okay, girl?” Jennifer asked as she noticed Madison staring into space.
“Huh? Oh. Yes. I’m fine. Just a lot of memories here,” she said with a sad smile.
“I know. Now someone else will get to make memories here. I just hope no one tears it down,” Jennifer said biting her lower lip.
“Tear it down? Why would someone do that?” Madison was stunned at the notion.
“Because this is prime land right here. And because it needs a lot of cosmetic repairs done to it. It might not be worth it to most people…”
“Well, it’s worth it to me!” Madison suddenly shouted without thinking. Surprising herself, she realized that she couldn’t let anyone tear down the Granger house.
“What are you saying, Maddie?”
“I’m saying that I want to buy this place and fix it up myself.” Madison’s heart sped up in her chest. What was she saying? She didn’t want to stay in Magnolia Cove. Why was her mouth running wild while her brain was saying “no”?
“You want to buy it? Seriously?” Jennifer’s mouth was gaping open.
“I do. I want to decorate it for Christmas again, Jenny. Like old times,” Madison said smiling for the first time in days.
Chapter 5
The next few days were a flurry of appointments with inspectors and bankers. Madison had to dig through her boxes and online storage files to find everything the bankers needed to approve her loan.
The closing was scheduled for two weeks, which meant that Madison would have only a few weeks to decorate in time for Christmas. In years past, the Granger’s had decorated early enough to where visitors could come between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Madison knew she would be lucky to have things ready for tours by Christmas week, but that was okay with her. She just wanted to restore the old place to its former glory.
The house mainly needed cosmetic work, so Madison had applied for a renovation loan. This would give her the money needed to do repairs and finance the house. The loan officer told her that the financing was pretty much a slam dunk, so she started to put out feelers for contractors to do the work.
“You did what?” Amber squealed on the other end of the phone. She had been Madison’s “right hand” assistant in Atlanta for nearly two years.
“I bought a house to renovate,” Madison repeated with a sly smile on the other end of the phone. She was walking around inside the home as she measured for curtains while her cell phone teetered on her shoulder.
“Madison, why on Earth would you do that? Are you planning to move to Magnolia Cove?”
“Of course not! My life is in Atlanta,” Madison said continuing to measure.
“Then what do you plan to do with the place long-term?” Amber asked.
Madison stopped for a moment and realized that she hadn’t thought past Christmas. What was she doing? After the holidays, she would own this large place. What was she going to do with it?
“I don’t know yet… Maybe I will open a bed and breakfast…” Madison said.
“Do you know how much time that will take to run every day, Madison? My grandmother owned a bed and breakfast for thirty years, and she was there every day… cooking, greeting guests…” Amber trailed off.
“Well, I will cross that bridge when I come to it,” Madison said getting back to her measuring.
“Honey, you are standing on that bridge right now!” Amber said with a laugh.
Madison looked up to see Jennifer trotting through the front door with a smile on her face.
“Amber, I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you tomorrow. Oh, and tell Cicely that I will call her on Friday as well, okay? Thanks…”
Madison hung up the phone and looked at Jennifer who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Jenny, what’s up?” she asked putting the tape measurer on the end of the banister.
“I just got some great news! I’m pregnant!” she said with a squeal that would rival any cheerleader.
“Congratulations!” Madison forced out of her mouth as pangs of jealousy ripped through her gut. She loved Jennifer and really was happy for her, but she couldn’t help feeling like her friends were all leaving her behind. Why did Connor have to be such a cheating ass? He had set her life back years, and now she was alone at the holidays.
Jennifer went on and on about how many weeks she was, the names she was already considering, and how her husband reacted. She was so excited, and her voice was moving ninety to nothing. Madison pasted a smile on her face and ventured off into another place for those few moments, just to save her sanity.
“Well, back to business. I talked with the loan officer this morning. He said to start getting bids on rehab work as soon as possible. Have you made any appointments?” Jennifer asked.
“Not yet. I’m not really sure who works this area…”
“I wrote up a list of four companies that other clients have used around here for similar stuff, of course not on such a grand scale.” Jennifer handed her a folded piece of notebook paper.
Madison looked down the list at the names: D & D Contracting, Smith and Sons, Walton Home Renovations and C & R Contractors.
“Anyone specific you recommend?” Madison asked looking up.
“The cheapest one!” Jennifer responded with a giggle.
***
Madison spent the morning meeting with contractors. Smith and Sons had been first, and they were the most expensive so far. D & D Contracting had a more reasonable bid, but they couldn’t get the renovations done until February. Walton Home Renovations seemed okay on their timeline, but the budget was out of whack. Madison was pinning her hopes on C & R Contractors.
“Are you Madison?” a man’s voice rang out.
“Yes, I am,” she said as she turned around.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Buddy Cantrell,” he said reaching out a hand to shake. He was an older man with a handlebar mustache, thick black hair, and a flannel shirt.
“Thanks for meeting me, Mr. Cantrell…”
“Please, call me Buddy,” he said with a smile. Madison instantly felt comfortable with him.
As they walked through the home, Buddy made notes along the way. His animated personality seemed to be a perfect fit for Madison, and she hoped that his bid came in on budget.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked when they were finished going through the home.
“I know that we had a job that was just postponed until January, so we could be in and out of here no later than December tenth. Here’s our bid,” he said handing her a piece of paper. Not only was the bid within budget, but it was three thousand dollars less than any other
bids.
“This looks good,” she said trying to contain her excitement. “Will you be here every day?”
“Actually, I just do the bidding process. My partner will be the one directing the crews, but he will be here daily,” he said.
“Great. Let’s do it. I should be closing in a few more days, and then we can get going,” she said.
As Buddy left and drove down the street, Madison couldn’t help but feel the excitement of something new in her stomach. She needed this new adventure, even if she had no idea what she would do with the house once Christmas was over. She locked the house up and looked at the mountains off in the distance, wondering what the future held in store for her this Christmas.
***
“Hi, honey…” Diane chirped as Madison walked into the kitchen. Her mother was busy making dish after dish for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow was the big day, and Madison was feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement over seeing her entire family.
“So, who’s coming tomorrow?” Madison asked as she sat down on a bar stool to fully absorb the smell of her mother’s sweet potato casserole.
“Well, your Uncle Henry is coming with his new girlfriend, Eva. Your cousins Katelyn and Olivia are coming… Oh, and Brooks Callaway is joining us,” her mother said trying to sound nonchalant.
“Mom! You invited Brooks? Seriously?” Madison was more than irritated at that information.
“Maddie, it’s no big deal. He just didn’t have anywhere to go for the holidays, honey…”
Brooks Callaway had followed Madison for her entire life. When he transferred to their school at age eleven, he immediately became smitten with red-haired Madison. All throughout elementary and middle school, Brooks had a huge crush on her. He was kind of a geeky kid, and Madison did not want to be seen with him. He was tall, had feet too big for his body, Coke bottle glasses, and often wore headgear to straighten his teeth. Madison felt sorry for him at times, but not sorry enough to accept his invitation to the eighth grade dance.
Unfortunately, her mother had other ideas. She pushed and prodded until Madison agreed to go to that dance. And what happened? The taunting had begun. She was called “geeky’s girlfriend” for the rest of the year and even into ninth grade. As a child, she had gone to the local elementary school, but when the small town middle and high school were closed, they were rezoned into the next county. That had led to taunting and bullying for Madison because of her looks. Hanging out with Brooks didn't make that any better.
Madison tried to stay away from Brooks during high school, but he still remained by her side. Then, in tenth grade, his parents split up, and he had to go live with his father in Kansas. As far as Madison knew, he still lived in Kansas.
“When did he come back to Magnolia Cove?” Madison asked.
“Oh, Brooks came back years ago. When his mother got sick with cancer, he came home to care for her. When she passed a couple of years ago, he stayed here to tend to the dairy farm.”
“Well, don’t get any ideas, Mom. You forced me into that eighth grade dance, and I am not going out with him now!” Madison said holding up her finger.
“No worries, honey. Brooks has no problems getting dates now,” Diane chuckled to herself. Madison had no idea what that comment meant, and she didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, Brooks caused her to start getting bullied in school whether he meant to or not.
***
Thanksgiving morning arrived, and Madison tried to shake off the butterflies that were flitting around in her stomach. She had yet to reveal to the family that she was the buyer on the Granger house. She couldn’t wait to tell everyone that she was redecorating it for Christmas.
“Madison! Can you help me get this turkey out of the oven?” Diane called from the kitchen. Recalling memories of Thanksgivings from childhood, Madison smiled at the thought of helping her mother in the kitchen. Her big job as a kid was to mix the mashed potatoes so that there were no lumps. Her Dad did not like lumpy mashed potatoes at all, and he had no qualms about complaining to Madison if his potatoes were lumpy. “What are you smiling about?” Diane asked.
“I was just thinking about Dad and his potatoes,” Madison said with a smirk.
Diane laughed. She knew exactly what Madison was referring to. Samantha walked into the kitchen with her perpetual scowl. Even Thanksgiving didn’t seem to change her attitude toward Madison.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Samantha,” Madison said softly.
Samantha ignored the comment and started wiping down the dining table.
“I said Happy Thanksgiving, Samantha,” Madison said again as she walked toward Samantha.
“Samantha! Your sister is talking to you!” Diane said with her hand on her hip.
Samantha looked at her mother, shook her head and left the room. Madison held her hand up at her mother as if to hold her off and followed her sister outside. Samantha had made her way to the barn to pet one of her horses.
“What is your problem?” Madison yelled as she walked into the barn.
“Keep your voice down or you will scare my horses. Does it always have to be about you?” she snipped.
“Samantha, I really don’t understand this. Why do you hate me so much? We were close growing up. We stuck together when Dad died. What is going on?” Madison asked grabbing Samantha’s shoulder and swinging her around.
Samantha’s eyes filled with tears. In that moment, she didn’t look like a thirty year old woman. She looked like a scared child.
“You abandoned us like we were trash under your feet, Madison!” she finally yelled. Her horse jumped in fright, and Samantha turned to calm her.
“Abandoned you? What are you talking about?”
“After Dad died, I took care of you because Mom was in no position to do it. As soon as you graduated, you bolted from here. You didn’t look back. You didn’t ask me how I was doing. You just left. I’ve had no sister for years. What did I do to deserve that, Maddie?”
“I didn’t mean…”
“And then the worst part was that you didn’t even come home when Mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease!”
Chapter 6
Madison’s head started to pound, and she couldn’t hear in either of her ears. Parkinson’s? What was she talking about? Their mom hadn’t been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Had she?
“Parkinson’s? Samantha, I had no idea. When was this?” Madison asked trying to calm her pounding heartbeat.
“It was last year, Maddie. Are you trying to pretend you didn’t know about it?” Samantha glared at her with suspicion.
“Sam, I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t. Why didn’t someone call me?” Madison asked with tears streaming down her face.
Samantha suddenly realized that it was possible Madison didn’t know. She knew her sister, even if she was mad at her, and she could tell when she was lying. She wasn’t lying.
“Mom said she wanted to tell you. I thought she did,” Samantha stammered.
“No. She didn’t. I had no idea…” Madison leaned against the barn door and took a few deep breaths to regain her composure. It wasn’t working.
“Maddie, I’m sorry. I really thought you knew and just didn’t care,” Samantha admitted.
“Didn’t care? About Mom? How could you ever think that?” Madison asked swinging around. “You know how much I love Mom…”
“Then why did you leave after high school and never come back?” Samantha asked.
“Because I was running from the torment that I suffered here, Sam!”
“Torment? What are you talking about?”
Madison sat down on a small bench next to one of the stalls. “Samantha, I was bullied. Bad.”
“You were? How come I never knew this?”
“Because I hid it from you and Mom. I guess I get it honest…” she said with a smirk. “Mom was grieving so bad, and you had your hands full with school and trying to help out around here. I didn’t want to add more stress. When school was over, I bolted ou
t of this town.”
“How did they bully you?” Samantha asked softly.
“They called me names, pushed me down, keyed my car, broke into my locker, shoved me into the boy’s locker room… It went on and on. Rumors were started about me that weren’t even true. That I was sleeping around, had an abortion… all kinds of crazy stuff.”
“Who did this?” Samantha asked, suddenly feeling a rise of sisterly protection.
“There was a group led by a girl named Kim Dixon. She moved away to California right after high school. I think she’s an actress now. Then, there were several boys too. She egged them on. They made fun of my red hair and the color of my eyes…”