Stealing Home

by Sherryl Woods

  Kyle regarded them with a worried expression. “I think I’ll tell Dana Sue to go ahead and bake one just in case.”

  Cal ruffled his hair. “Hey, what’s with the lack of confidence? I think Katie and I will make a great baking team. Dana Sue will probably want to hire us as pastry chefs.”

  Ty rolled his eyes. “If you ask me, love’s made you kinda goofy.”

  Cal laughed. “You just wait, young man. It’s the best kind of goofy there is.”

  “Do we really need to have this meeting right now?” Maddie asked Helen. “I’m anxious to get home.”

  “I know,” Helen said. “I’m coming to the birthday party, too, remember? I thought you’d rather I give you this here, rather than in front of the kids.”

  She pulled an envelope from her purse and handed it to Maddie.

  “The divorce decree?” Maddie whispered, clutching the thick, official-looking envelope in a hand that had suddenly turned ice-cold.

  Helen nodded. “You okay?”

  “I just wasn’t expecting…” Maddie began, then shook her head. “Of course I was, but not today. When it didn’t come a couple of weeks ago, I guess I kind of shoved the whole idea out of my mind.”

  “It was bound to catch you off guard whenever the decree came through,” Helen said. “I understand that. Seeing it on paper makes it final.” She studied Maddie worriedly. “You weren’t hoping for some kind of last-minute reprieve, were you?”

  Had she been? Maddie didn’t think so. She was more than ready to move on. Eager, in fact. Maybe Dana Sue’s conviction that Bill’s relationship with Noreen was rocky had shaken her a little, but not enough to make her question the final outcome. Her marriage was over. She’d known it for the better part of a year now.

  “No,” she told Helen. She stared at the envelope, not really wanting to open it and see the words in black and white. “I guess I just never figured I’d be one of those statistics. I thought Bill and I were stronger than that, more devoted to each other and our family.”

  “You’ve known for months now that it was a lie, at least on his part,” Helen reminded her.

  “Doesn’t make it any easier,” Maddie said. “I feel like a failure.”

  “You didn’t fail,” Helen said heatedly. “If anyone did, it was Bill.” Her expression mellowed. “But the truth is, Maddie, sometimes these things just happen and it’s nobody’s fault. I’ve handled a lot of divorces over the last fifteen years, and at the core of most of them is the same thing. People change. It’s the universe’s one constant. Nothing stays static.”

  “Then why on earth does anyone ever get married?” Maddie asked in frustration. “With all those odds stacked against you, why bother?”

  “Are you asking in general, or are you talking about you and Cal?”

  Maddie frowned. “Both, I guess.”

  “Some people are just optimists,” Helen told her. “Or maybe there’s something about love that can make you forget all the odds and statistics and pain. It’s that same kind of amnesia that allows women to have more than one baby after they discover that childbirth’s no picnic. Love is powerful enough to convince you that this time will be different.”

  Her gaze met Maddie’s. “For what it’s worth, I think you and Cal can make it. Ever since the school board meeting when he said what he did right out there in front of God and everyone, whenever I’m around the two of you, I believe in the power of love.” She grinned. “And coming from a cynic like me, that’s saying something.”

  Maddie shoved the unopened envelope into a desk drawer. “I imagine Bill has his copy by now, too.”

  Helen nodded. “I imagine so.”

  “Then I guess he and Noreen will be setting their wedding date.”

  Helen gave her an odd look. “Does that bother you?”

  Maddie thought about it. A few weeks ago it would have shaken her to her core, but now? Surprisingly, she felt nothing.

  “No,” she said, relieved to be able to say it with conviction.

  Helen seemed strangely relieved. “Good for you. Now, get out of here and head home to your party.”

  “You’re not coming with me?”

  Helen glanced at her watch. “It’s not supposed to start for another hour. I’ll be along in plenty of time. I have to make a couple of stops first.”

  Maddie grinned. “You haven’t bought my present yet, have you?”

  “Of course I have,” Helen insisted, then chuckled. “Okay, I admit it. I know what I’m getting you, but I haven’t had a chance to go by the store. And as long as you know my shameful secret, you might as well help me out.”

  “Help you out how?”

  “Do you think Cal would prefer to see you in black lace or red?” she inquired innocently.

  Maddie moaned. “Please do not give me sexy lingerie in front of my adolescent boys,” she pleaded. “Or in front of Cal, for that matter.”

  “Just trying to help,” Helen told her. “I thought it might give him ideas.”

  “I think Cal has plenty of ideas on his own, thank you very much. We’ve been out on half a dozen actual dates now and it’s getting harder and harder to send him home.”

  “If you say so. I’ll try to tame it down for the young folks,” Helen promised. “I’m thinking flannel now. Maybe with a high neckline. The covered-up look can be a turn-on.”

  Maddie waved her away. “Just go.”

  “See you in an hour. Don’t cut the cake without me.”

  “Cal and Katie would never allow it. They baked it themselves. They wouldn’t even allow me in the kitchen. I just pray it’ll be edible.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Helen advised. “Enough frosting can make almost anything edible.”

  Maddie was counting on that.

  Despite the divorce decree she’d left in her desk, Maddie was surprisingly lighthearted as she walked home. She’d wanted to ignore her birthday this year. She hadn’t wanted to be reminded that she would officially be eleven years older than Cal, at least for a couple of months. Ten years was bad enough.

  But ever since her conversation with her mother, she’d decided to forget about the whole age thing and focus on the man who’d made her happier than she’d dreamed possible. In fact, she had a surprise for him after the party that she predicted would pretty much make this birthday unforgettable for both of them. Despite her earlier protest to Helen, a little black lace might have come in handy.

  When she arrived at the house, she could hear laughter from the kitchen. Hearing Cal’s deep laugh blending with Ty’s, Kyle’s and Katie’s made her smile. There were party hats and streamers on the dining-room table along with brightly colored paper plates and matching napkins. There was a pile of presents at the end of the table. Looking at the display, she decided it might be an even better party than the previous year’s when Bill had called at the last minute to say he couldn’t make it home. It had been the first of his lies.

  One of the family traditions was to play music from the year—or at least the decade—the person was born, so Maddie went to find her stash of CDs with music from the late sixties. She’d just put a mix into the CD player when the doorbell rang. Opening it, she was shocked to find her ex-husband standing there.

  “Bill, what are you doing here?”

  He looked past her into the dining room and spotted the decorations. “Oh, hell, I’m sorry. It’s your birthday, isn’t it? I forgot.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Come on in. You look upset.” She studied him intently and realized she’d never seen him quite like this before. His shirt was wrinkled, his tie askew. Even more surprising was the day’s growth of stubble on his cheeks.

  “Is this about the divorce?” she asked him. “The papers took me by surprise, even though I’d been expecting them.”

  He regarded her with bewilderment. “The divorce?”

  “You didn’t know? It’s final,” she said. “Helen brought me the papers a little while ago.”

  “I see,” he
said as if they were of little or no importance. “I hadn’t seen them yet, but I haven’t been in the office. I imagine my attorney sent them there.” He headed straight for his favorite chair and sat down, then hung his head as if he couldn’t bear to look at her.

  She studied him with dismay. “If it’s not the divorce, did something go wrong at the hospital? Is that why you look as if you haven’t slept in days?”

  “I haven’t slept, I haven’t even been at the office in a couple of weeks,” he told her. “I took some time off. I needed to think.”

  Maddie sat on the edge of the sofa across from him. “Think about what? What’s wrong, Bill?”

  He finally met her gaze. “Noreen and I have split up,” he said, then added with a touch of belligerence, “Go ahead. You can say it.”

  “Say what?”

  “I told you so.”

  Maddie shrugged, unwilling to play that game with him. “It hardly matters now.”

  “You were right,” he said bitterly. “I was an idiot. It was a mistake from the beginning. Noreen figured that out before I did.”

  “Then breaking up was her idea?” Maddie asked, trying to keep the amazement out of her voice. Maybe she hadn’t given Noreen as much credit as she deserved. Even more amazing was that no one in town had found out about the split. She hadn’t heard a word, though she couldn’t help wondering if that was why Helen had regarded her so warily earlier. Had she known?

  “Actually Noreen left a couple of weeks ago. She moved home to be with her folks in Tennessee.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maddie said, not knowing what else to say. Did he want her sympathy? Was he here expecting her to gloat? What? “So why are you here?”

  Bill’s exhausted gaze caught hers and held it. “I want to come home, Maddie,” he announced with a perfectly straight face, even as Maddie’s mouth fell open. “I want us to try again. And before you say no or toss me out the door, I want you to think about our family and what’s best for all of us.”

  The audacity of the suggestion astounded her. “The way you did?” she scoffed.

  He winced at her tone. “No. You’re smarter than I am. You don’t walk away from things this important without a fight.”

  His attempt to twist this around and make it seem as if she were the only roadblock to their recapturing their marital bliss made her want to smack him. “How dare you come here today and throw this in my lap? We’re divorced, dammit! Your choice, not mine, but I’ve made the best of it. I’m not interested in looking back.”

  He looked shaken by her declaration, but he pressed on. “It’s a piece of paper, Maddie,” he said. “That’s all it is. We can get married again. In fact, maybe it’s for the best that the divorce came through. With a new ceremony and our kids standing up for us, it’ll be a real second chance. A fresh start.” He was clearly warming to the theme he’d chosen to win her over. “I’ll do this however you want, whenever you want. You make the rules. You set the date. I’ve spent the past two weeks thinking this through and it’s the right thing to do. I know it is.”

  Maybe if there’d been even a touch of humility in his tone, she would have given his plea more thought, but he was still the same Bill, the cocky, assured man with all the answers, never mind that they’d come months too late. It was all just words, and not very convincing ones at that. He hadn’t even uttered a real apology for all he’d put them through.

  As she sat there listening to him, Maddie clutched one of the birthday napkins that the kids had picked out for her party. She prayed they remained in the kitchen and heard none of this. She didn’t want them to be as shaken and confused as she was.

  “I can’t do this now,” she said at last, her voice tight with tension. “You need to go.”

  “Let me stay for the party,” he countered. “Let it be a real family celebration.”

  “You walked out on this family,” she reminded him. “So, no, you can’t stay, not today.”

  His expression faltered at that. “Cal’s coming?”

  “He’s already here.”

  “I see,” he said, his voice turning cold.

  “No, Bill, I don’t think you do. He and the kids planned this party for me. I will not have it spoiled because you’ve suddenly had a change of heart now that your girlfriend’s abandoned you. You can’t waltz in here and assume that things can go back to the way they used to be.”

  “I’m not assuming anything, but they can be that way again,” he insisted. “I believe that, I believe in us.”

  Before she realized what he intended, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her, taking his time about it. She detected a hint of desperation in the kiss.

  “Marry me again, Maddie,” he said. “We can get back everything we lost. I swear it.”

  Maddie wanted to scream that she didn’t trust his promises, not anymore.

  But before she could utter a sound, she heard Katie’s gasp from the dining room and then the kitchen door banged open and closed again.

  She cast a furious gaze at Bill. “See what you’ve done! How could you?”

  “What?” he asked blankly.

  “You’ve just turned your children’s lives upside down yet again,” she said wearily. “And you did it every bit as thoughtlessly and impulsively as you did the last time.”

  She left him standing there as she went to see just how much damage he’d done this time with his lack of consideration for anyone’s feelings but his own.

  23

  Cal and Katie were coming out of the kitchen to put the somewhat lopsided, pink-frosted birthday cake on the table when he overheard Bill Townsend’s proposal and guessed the rest. He felt his stomach drop. Beside him Katie gasped, then whirled around and raced back into the kitchen. Cal met Maddie’s dismayed gaze for barely a heartbeat, then turned and went after Katie.

  He barely had time to hunker down in front of the little girl and take her hands in his, before Maddie and Bill followed them into the kitchen.

  “Hey, Katie-bug,” Bill said, a weary smile on his face. He held out his arms, but Katie continued to cling to Cal’s hands.

  “Did you come for Mommy’s birthday party?” she asked her father, regarding him with distrust. “Is that what you meant?”

  Ty stood there, scowling, his body tense. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Why are you here? We didn’t invite you. We have everything planned and now you’re going to ruin it all.” He looked at Cal. “It’s ruined, isn’t it?”

  “It’s okay, Ty,” Cal reassured him. “Nothing’s ruined.”

  “I don’t need you interfering in a conversation between me and my son,” Bill snapped.

  “He has more right to be here than you do,” Ty retorted. “You left us!”

  Bill heaved a sigh. “I know, son, and it was a terrible mistake. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I put all of you through that. I’ve already told your mother that I want to come home for good,” he said, aiming a hard, pointed look at Cal.

  Though Cal’s every instinct screamed at him to stay right here and claim this family as his own, he knew what he had to do. He faced Maddie. “I should get out of here and let you guys talk,” he said quietly. “This is a family matter.”

  “No,” she said, her expression pleading.

  He bent down and gave her a hard kiss. “Talk,” he said. “I’ll call you later.”

  “But the party,” she protested. “You and the kids worked so hard.”

  “We’ll have it tomorrow night. No big deal.”

  She stood up. “I’ll walk you to the door, then.”

  When they reached the front door, she said, “I had no idea he was coming over here, much less that he was thinking along these lines.”

  “I know.”

  “He said he and Noreen are over.”

  “I figured as much, if he wants to move back in here.” He searched her expression. “What do you want?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he shook his head. “Sorry. That’s not a fair question.
He’s just hit you with this. We’ll talk later.”

  “But Cal—”

  “Later,” he said firmly and closed the front door behind him. He was afraid if he lingered for even a moment, he’d do or say something to try to convince her she belonged with him. She didn’t need the pressure. The decision was hers and hers alone.

  As much as he might hate it, those two had a history. They had kids. And they were the same age, same generation. Cal knew exactly what she was going to decide. And when she told him it was over, he didn’t want her smug, unworthy ex-husband sitting there listening as she tried to let him down gently.

  He hadn’t even made it to his car when Dana Sue and Helen pulled in behind him, blocking his way.

  “Where are you going?” Dana Sue asked. “Did you guys forget something? I can run out for it.”

  Helen studied him with an assessing look. “This isn’t about party favors or ice cream, is it?”

  Cal shook his head. “Bill’s inside.”

  “Damn him,” Helen muttered. “I thought that was his car on the street. What does he want or do I even need to ask? I know Noreen left him.”

  “He wants Maddie,” Cal said tightly.

  Dana Sue stared at him with shocked expressions. “But their marriage has been over for months.”

  “Apparently Bill doesn’t see it that way,” Cal said. “I really need to get out of here.”

  “You’re leaving?” Dana Sue demanded indignantly. “What’s wrong with you? Get back inside and protect Maddie.”

  He managed a half smile. “Maddie can take care of herself.”

  “Well, I know that,” Dana Sue said with a wave of her hand. “But she’s vulnerable to him, especially today.”

  “Why today?” he asked.

  “The divorce is final,” Helen explained.

  He sighed at the irony. “Tell that to Bill. He seems to want to come back and take up where he left off.”

  “He actually said that?” Helen asked, looking as dismayed as he felt. “In front of the kids?”