by Gerri Hill
Shannon smiled, amused by his formality. “Just Shannon,” she said.
He grinned too. “Okay, Just Shannon.”
Shannon laughed, then it faded as she felt Madison’s presence. She turned to the doorway, finding the empty space now filled with the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. Madison’s hair still reached her shoulders, the blond strands silky and inviting.
“Hello, Shannon,” she said. “Good to see you again.”
She seemed a bit aloof in her stance; Shannon didn’t quite know what to make of it. No hug? No embrace? No “I missed you”? Of course, Shannon couldn’t really blame her. The last time they’d seen each other—the last time they’d spoken—Shannon had all but said she never wanted to see her again. So with her mother and Ashton watching, she mimicked Madison’s cool greeting.
“Madison. Hello.”
“I hope we’re not intruding, but Ashton insisted we help.” Madison smiled as she glanced at her son. “He’s dreading her moving.”
“I certainly don’t mind the help,” she said. “Although Jarod took care of the heavy stuff earlier in the week.”
Madison nodded. “Yes, we had a chance to visit with him too.”
Shannon hid her surprise. Jarod had not mentioned that to her. Of course, like everyone else, Jarod had no idea of her and Madison’s history. She didn’t reply, instead, glancing at her mother with raised eyebrows.
“Shall we get started?”
“Let’s start with the living room boxes and get them out of the way first,” her mother suggested.
The four of them got to work, albeit silently, she and Madison taking pains to avoid each other. Shannon was torn between being happy for that and being offended that Madison was blatantly ignoring her. Which, of course, was ridiculous. She was ignoring Madison as well.
If not for the chatter between Ashton and her mother, the silence would have been terribly uncomfortable. As it was, she and Madison sidestepped each other almost to the point of exaggeration.
The moving van she’d rented filled quickly. Less than two hours later, they loaded the last box, leaving their old rooms empty. They stood there, looking at the blank walls and bare floors. Shannon could see the sadness in her mother’s eyes. It was the nearly ten-year-old Ashton who broke the silence.
“I’m sure you’ll like your new place better, Miss Alice.”
“You think so? Will you come visit me?”
“Of course. That is—” Ashton glanced at his mother for confirmation.
“Of course we’ll come visit, Alice. I don’t think I could keep this one away.”
Shannon wondered how often Madison and Ashton visited her mother as it was. She had assumed they only stopped in to chat with her when they were over visiting Madison’s parents. The familiarity—and affection—between the three of them said otherwise. It almost seemed as if Madison and Ashton had taken her place in her mother’s life. That stung a little. It was because of Madison that she kept her distance from Brook Hill in the first place.
She watched with a bit of jealousy as Ashton took her mother’s hand and led her out. She glanced at Madison, who had an amused expression on her face.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, Ashton is quite fond of your mother,” Madison said. As if being privy to her earlier thoughts, she added, “I hope you don’t mind. He thinks of her more as a grandmother than my mother.”
“I don’t mind. She looks to be attached to him as well.”
“We haven’t finalized college though. He wants to stay close, but he has endless opportunities.”
“College? Don’t you have a few years yet?” she said. The kid was ten after all.
Madison smiled. “Next year. But given his age, I would go with him. Well, not to classes, but to live. He couldn’t live in a dorm.”
“Damn. He really is that smart?”
“Yes. Mensa member.”
“If you move with him, I guess that’ll put a kink in your marriage, won’t it?” she said, the words out before she could stop them.
Madison’s smile faded. “Whether I live here or not, it won’t change the state of my marriage, Shannon.”
She watched Madison leave, wishing she hadn’t mentioned her marriage. And no matter how much she wanted to pretend otherwise, the fact remained that Madison was married to Stephen. Married to him. Living with him, sleeping with him…having sex with him.
She closed her eyes for a second, chasing that last thought from her mind. When she opened her eyes, she saw nothing but the empty room of where she’d called home since she was ten. That seemed a lifetime ago now.
She left, closing the door behind her, knowing she would never return to the Lansford mansion again. The main kitchen was empty, but she heard Stella’s voice down the hall. She should go bid her goodbye but thought otherwise. She’d only seen her a handful of times in the last ten years.
The others were outside waiting for her, but Madison refused to make eye contact with her. Her mother was watching them intently and Shannon forced a smile to her face.
“All ready?”
“I suppose so.”
The trip was made quickly across town. Ashton rode with her mother in her car, and Madison followed behind the rented van in a sleek, black Mercedes. Madison looked right at home behind the wheel of the luxury car. As before, she and Madison avoided each other as they unloaded the van and piled boxes in the living room and kitchen. The furniture was already in place, some pieces that had been in storage and some new. While it wasn’t an abnormally large house, it was certainly bigger than the four rooms her mother had been living in. While her mother seemed disappointed to be leaving the mansion, Shannon also recognized the look of excitement on her face.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all this space,” her mother said.
“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it,” Madison said. “Especially the windows. I always thought it was so dark in your place. Shannon’s old room was practically a dungeon,” she said with a glance at Shannon.
Shannon smiled, acknowledging the name she and Madison had dubbed the room with back when they were kids.
“Yes, it’ll be nice to sit and see outside. That will be a welcome change.”
“And you said you were going to put in flower beds,” Ashton reminded her.
“Yes, I did.” Her mother turned in a circle, looking at all her belongings piled around them in boxes. “I can’t thank you enough for helping with all this.”
“It was no trouble,” Madison assured her.
“How about an early dinner?” Shannon suggested.
“Pizza!” Ashton said excitedly, his expression that of a ten-year-old boy and not the Mensa member that he was.
“It’s not something we get often,” Madison explained.
No, probably not. While Madison and Stephen didn’t live in a home quite as elaborate as the mansion, Shannon knew they had a household staff, complete with a cook. She wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Lansford coordinated the meals for them as well.
Shannon nodded. “Pizza it is. Mom? Is that okay with you?”
“Oh sure. Have it delivered here and we can break in the dining room table.”
“If I may,” Ashton said, “the best pizza in town is at Bruno’s. They don’t deliver, though.”
He looked at Shannon expectantly, and she noticed for the first time that his blue eyes were identical to his mother’s. She never could say no to those eyes.
“Okay, Bruno’s. I guess I could be persuaded to pick up our dinner.”
“You and Mom can pick it up. You haven’t had a chance to visit yet. I’ll help Miss Alice with unpacking.”
Shannon looked at Madison with raised eyebrows, wondering what the little imp was up to. Genius level IQ, sure, but still, he was ten. A bit young to be this manipulative, she thought. Madison apparently thought the same thing as she stared at her son silently. He had the good grace to shift uncomfortably under her stare as he moved closer to the protection of Shan
non’s mother. She couldn’t help but smile. So he was ten, after all. Of course, it gave her mother an opening as well.
“That’s a good idea, Ashton. When they were young, those two were inseparable. Now, they rarely see each other.”
It was Madison’s turn to glance at Shannon. She shrugged. Madison did the same.
And twenty minutes later, they were backing out of her mother’s driveway, Shannon riding shotgun in Madison’s Mercedes.
“Nice car,” she said.
“Thanks.”
“Did your mother pick it out?” she asked, unable to resist the dig. Surprisingly, Madison laughed.
“How did you guess?”
Shannon smiled too. “I picture you in a hybrid or something, not this.”
“Ashton and I wanted a Prius,” she said. “He’s very practical.”
“And he’s more than book-smart too,” she said.
“Yes. I think Alice must have told him stories about when we were younger. He asks about you frequently.” Madison glanced at her. “I don’t really have any friends,” she said. “Not close ones. He’s commented on that several times. It makes him curious, I think.”
“Why don’t you have friends? What about Stephanie? And who was the other one? Tamara?”
Madison nodded. “Oh, we see each other. But the relationship I have with them now is as superficial as it was back in high school and college. We only have one thing in common.”
“Your social status?”
“Yes.”
“Something we never had in common,” she reminded her.
Madison glanced at her quickly. “But we had everything else in common.”
Shannon stared at her profile, thinking she was as lovely as ever. She was also surprised that Madison would allude to their affair. After all, it had been well over ten years since they’d been intimate. It struck her like a blow to the chest to realize the last time she’d touched Madison, the last time she’d made love to her, was when Madison had announced she was getting married. It was a night she still remembered in great detail—when she allowed herself to remember it, that is.
“What are you thinking about?”
Shannon realized she was still staring at her. She blinked several times and cleared her throat. “I was…I was thinking about the last time…we made love.”
Their eyes held for a quick moment, then Madison turned her attention back to the road. “It was Christmas. My parents were announcing my engagement,” she said quietly. “It was the last time I ever made love with someone.”
Shannon’s heart broke at that moment. While she knew Madison’s marriage was a farce, she still blamed her for going through with it. And even though Madison had told her many times how miserable she was in her marriage, this was the first time it really hit home. Madison’s life had been as loveless as her own.
“It was the last time for me too,” Shannon admitted.
“I’m so sorry.”
Even though dusk was upon them and the shadows were heavy in the car, Shannon could still make out the misting of tears in Madison’s eyes.
“No need to be sorry. It’s not like I haven’t tried,” she said. “I just haven’t met anyone yet who…who made me feel the way that you did.”
Madison gripped the steering wheel tightly, her glance going from Shannon to the road and back to Shannon.
“There are two things I want to do right now,” Madison said. “One is to cry, but I’ve found that does little good.”
“The other one?”
Madison suddenly turned off the main road and onto a side street. She drove a couple of blocks and turned into the parking lot of a closed dry cleaners. Her hands still gripped the wheel with enough strength to turn her knuckles white.
“The other one is to kiss you.” Madison turned to look at her. “And to be held by you.”
Shannon’s pulse quickened, even though there was more sadness in Madison’s eyes than desire. She told herself she could have resisted the desire. But the sadness? No. It was too much to see those beautiful blue eyes shrouded in sadness.
“I think that’s two things, not one,” she said with a slight smile.
Madison didn’t return her smile as their eyes held. “Please, Shannon. I need you so much.”
Shannon reached over and released Madison’s seat belt before doing the same to her own. Her hand was trembling as she touched Madison’s face. She was shocked by the transformation in Madison’s eyes. The sadness faded almost immediately, replaced with relief, contentment and yes, desire. But she no longer had thoughts of resisting her. She was drawn to Madison’s lips as the proverbial moth was to a flame. Just one touch and the years washed away in an instant. Madison’s fingers gripped tightly to her forearms as her mouth opened to her. Then, as if they were teenagers again, they fumbled to touch—the console getting in the way as it had back then.
Madison moaned into her mouth when Shannon brushed Madison’s breast, her nipple hard and taut against the thin material of her blouse. Shannon deepened the kiss, her tongue slipping inside Madison’s mouth, stroking her own.
But it was all they could afford. The console—and the fact they were parked in a public parking lot—drew them apart.
Their breathing was ragged, hands still touched one another, foreheads rested together. Shannon finally pulled back, meeting Madison’s eyes in the near darkness. Everything she wanted, she saw reflected back at her. Unfortunately, it was something they couldn’t have.
“We should get going before they send a search party,” she said, her voice husky with desire.
Madison nodded but didn’t release her. “I miss you so much, Shannon. I miss you being in my life.”
“I miss you too,” she said. “But I need more than an affair with you, Madison.”
“I know. I need more than an affair too.”
They silently put their seat belts back on, but before Madison backed away, she reached over and squeezed Shannon’s hand. Shannon squeezed back, knowing it was all they would have.
Chapter Fourteen
“Would you have turned her down if she’d offered an affair?” Charlotte asked.
“Yes.”
“But would you have slept with her that night if you’d had the chance?” Tracy asked.
Shannon grinned. “Probably.”
“So that’s the last time you saw each other?” Charlotte asked. “Five years ago?”
“Yes. But the avoidance was mutual this time. She saw my mother often, but she never came around if I was there. And as you know, that’s not often.”
“You’re going back now, though,” Tracy said. “What’s going to happen?”
Shannon shrugged. “If I’m staying with my mother, then the chances of seeing Madison are good. What’ll happen, I don’t know.”
And she didn’t. It would be awkward. It always was. But to be there, for months, was going to be challenging. Keeping memories away was one thing. Being back in Brook Hill, where all the memories were real, where Madison was real, would no doubt be a test of her resolve. Because, for her own sanity, she had to stay away from Madison.
“Well, I don’t envy you,” Charlotte said. “I’m sure it will be stressful for you.”
“Stressful or not,” Tracy said, “the romantic in me hopes you do get to see each other.” She smiled at Shannon affectionately. “I know you’re still in love with her. You deserve a happy ending.”
Shannon sighed heavily. Was she still in love with Madison? Probably. But she shook her head slowly.
“This isn’t a fairytale. I’m afraid there will be no happy ending for us.”
PART TWO
LOVE IS TIMELESS
Chapter Fifteen
Madison hugged Ashton tightly, embarrassed by how much she was going to miss him.
“Mom, it’s not like you’re sending me to another country,” he reminded her.
“I’m just going to miss you,” she said. “You’re…well, you’re all I have.”
&n
bsp; His intelligent blue eyes studied her for a moment, then he took her hand and led her to the sofa.
“We should talk.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m the mother,” she reminded him. “You’re fifteen.”
“Yes, but I’m the smart, mature one,” he said. “I don’t have to go, you know.”
“Ashton, it’s the best medical school in the country. Of course you have to go.”
He tilted his head at her, his watchful eyes carefully studying her expression. “Have you stayed married to Dad all these years just for me?”
The question caught her off guard. She had played the game so long, she thought she was quite good at it. Had he seen through her façade?
“Why would you ask me that? Your father and I—”
“—are not happy. At least you’re not.”
She stood, keeping her back to him. She wasn’t prepared to answer his questions, wasn’t prepared to see the truth in his eyes.
“Ashton, you have a car waiting to take you to the airport. This is not the time—”
“Mom, it’s Grandfather’s private jet. I think I can be a little late.” He came to her and turned her around. “This is important. I’m leaving. I’m not going to be here to take care of you.”
She smiled at his statement. He was so grown up, yet he was still a boy. She sometimes wished he had been just a normal kid, but that was selfish of her. He had a gift and he never shied away from it. She brushed the blond hair on his forehead, pausing to cup his cheek.
“I love you, you know.”
He nodded. “I love you too. That’s why I want you to be happy.”
“Oh, Ashton, it’s not that simple. When I was your age, there were no choices for me. Your grandmother had everything arranged.” She looked him in the eye, hoping he would understand. “That included who I would date, where I would go to college…and ultimately who I would marry. Being happy wasn’t part of the equation. I don’t want that for you. I want you to make your own choices and do what makes you happy.”