Читать книгу Stealing Home - Sherryl Woods - Страница 3

Maddie focused on the wide expanse of mahogany stretching between her and the man who’d been her husband for twenty years. Half her life. She and William Henry Townsend had been high-school sweethearts in Serenity, South Carolina. They’d married before their senior year in college, not because she was pregnant as some of her hastily married friends had been, but because they hadn’t wanted to wait one more second before starting their lives together.

Then, after they’d graduated, there had been the exhausting years of medical school for Bill, when she’d worked as an entry-level bookkeeper, making poor use of her degree in business, just to keep their heads above water financially. And then the joyous arrival of three kids—athletic, outgoing Tyler, now sixteen, their jokester, Kyle, fourteen, and their surprise blessing, Katie, who was just turning six.

They’d had the perfect life in the historic Townsend family home in Serenity’s oldest neighborhood, surrounded by family and lifelong friends. The passion they’d once shared might have cooled ever so slightly, but they’d been happy.

Or so she’d thought until the day a few months ago when Bill had looked at her after dinner, his expression as distant as a stranger’s, and calmly explained that he was moving out and moving on…with his twenty-four-year-old nurse, who was already pregnant. It was, he’d said, one of those things that just happened. He certainly hadn’t planned to fall out of love with Maddie, much less in love with someone else.

Maddie’s first reaction hadn’t been shock or dismay. Nope, she’d laughed, sure that her intelligent, compassionate Bill was incapable of such a pitiful cliché. Only when his distant expression remained firmly in place did she realize he was stone-cold serious. Just when life had settled into a comfortable groove, the man she’d loved with all her heart had traded her in for a newer model.

In a disbelieving daze, she’d sat by his side while he’d explained to the children what he was doing and why. He’d omitted the part about a new little half brother or sister being on the way. Then, still in a daze, she’d watched him move out.

And after he’d gone, she’d been left to deal with Tyler’s angry acting out, with Kyle’s slow descent into unfamiliar silence and Katie’s heartbroken sobs, all while she herself was frozen and empty inside.

She’d been the one to cope with their shock when they found out about the baby, too. She’d had to hide her resentment and anger, all in the name of good parenting, maturity and peace. There were days she’d wanted to curse Dr. Phil and all those cool, reasoned episodes on which he advised parents that the needs of the children came first. When, she’d wondered, did her needs start to count?

The day of being completely on her own as a single parent was coming sooner than she’d anticipated. All that was left was getting the details of the divorce on paper, spelling out in black and white the end of a twenty-year marriage. Nothing on those pieces of paper mentioned the broken dreams. Nothing mentioned the heartache of those left behind. It was all reduced to deciding who lived where, who drove which car, the amount of child support—and the amount of temporary spousal support until she could stand on her own feet financially or until she married again.

Maddie listened to her attorney’s impassioned fight against the temporary nature of that last term. Helen Decatur, who’d known both Maddie and Bill practically forever, was a topnotch divorce attorney with a statewide reputation. She was also one of Maddie’s best friends. And when Maddie was too tired and too sad to fight for herself, Helen stepped in to do it for her. Helen was a blond barracuda in a power suit, and Maddie had never been more grateful.

“This woman worked to help you through medical school,” Helen lashed out at Bill, in her element on her own turf. “She gave up a promising career of her own to raise your children, keep your home, help manage your office and support your rise in the South Carolina medical community. The fact that you have a professional reputation far outside of Serenity is because Maddie worked her butt off to make it happen. And now you expect her to struggle to find her place in the workforce? Do you honestly think in five years or even ten she’ll be able to give your children the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed?” She pinned Bill with a look that would have withered anyone else. His demeanor reflected a complete lack of interest in Maddie or her future.

That was when Maddie knew it was well and truly over. All the rest, the casual declaration that he’d been cheating on her, the move, none of that had convinced her that it really was the end of her marriage. Until this moment, until she’d seen the uncaring expression in her husband’s once-warm brown eyes, she hadn’t accepted that Bill wouldn’t suddenly come to his senses and tell her it had all been a horrible mistake.

She’d drifted along until this instant, deep in denial and hurt, but no more. Anger, more powerful than anything she’d ever felt in her life, swept through her with a force that brought her to her feet.

“Wait,” she said, her voice trembling with outrage. “I’d like to be heard.”

Helen regarded her with surprise, but the stunned expression on Bill’s face gave Maddie the courage to go on. He hadn’t expected her to fight back. She could see now that all her years of striving to please him, of putting him first, had convinced him that she had no spine at all, that she’d make it easy for him to walk away from their family—from her—without a backward glance. He’d probably been gloating from the minute she suggested trying to mediate a settlement, rather than letting some judge set the terms of their divorce.

“You’ve managed to reduce twenty years of our lives to this,” she said, waving the settlement papers at him. “And for what?”

She knew the answer, of course. Like so many other middle-aged men, his head had been turned by a woman barely half his age.

“What happens when you tire of Noreen?” she asked. “Will you trade her in, too?”

“Maddie,” he said stiffly. He tugged at the sleeves of his monogrammed shirt, fiddling with the eighteen-carat-gold cuff links she’d given him just six months ago for their twentieth anniversary. “You don’t know anything about my relationship with Noreen.”

She managed a smile. “Sure I do. It’s about a middle-aged man trying to feel young again. I think you’re pathetic.”

Calmer now that she’d finally expressed her feelings, she turned to Helen. “I can’t sit here anymore. Hold out for whatever you think is right. He’s the one in a hurry.”

Shoulders squared, chin high, Maddie walked out of the lawyer’s office and into the rest of her life.

An hour later Maddie had exchanged her prim knit suit and high heels for a tank top, shorts and well-worn sneakers. Oblivious to the early-morning heat, she walked the mile to her much-hated gym, with its smell of sweat pervading the air. Set on a side street just off Main, the gym had once been an old-fashioned dime store. The yellowed linoleum on the floor harked back to that era and the dingy walls hadn’t seen a coat of paint since Dexter had bought the place back in the 1970s.

Since the walk downtown had done nothing at all to calm her, Maddie forced herself to climb onto the treadmill, put the dial at the most challenging setting she’d ever attempted and run. She ran until her legs ached, until the perspiration soaked her chin-length, professionally highlighted hair and ran into her eyes, mingling with the tears that, annoyingly, kept welling up.

Suddenly a perfectly manicured hand reached in front of her, slowed the machine, then cut it off.

“We thought we’d find you here,” Helen said, still in her power suit and Jimmy Choo stiletto heels. Helen was probably one of the only women in all of Serenity who’d ever owned a pair of the expensive shoes.

Beside her, Dana Sue Sullivan was dressed in comfortable pants, a pristine T-shirt and sneakers. She was the chef and owner of Serenity’s fanciest restaurant—meaning it used linen tablecloths and napkins and had a menu that extended beyond fried catfish and collard greens. Sullivan’s New Southern Cuisine, as the dark green and gold-leaf sign out front read, was a decided step up from the diner on the outskirts of town that simply said Good Eatin’ on the window and used paper place mats on the Formica tabletops.

Maddie climbed off the treadmill on wobbly legs and wiped her face with the towel Helen handed her. “Why are you two here?”

Both women rolled their eyes.

“Why do you think?” Dana Sue asked in her honeyed drawl. Her thick, chestnut hair was pulled back with a clip, but already the humidity had curls springing free. “We came to see if you want any help in killing that snake-bellied slime who ran out on you.”

“Or the mindless pinup he plans to marry,” Helen added. “Though I am somewhat hesitant to recommend murder as a solution, being an officer of the court and all.”

Dana Sue nudged her in the ribs. “Don’t go soft now. You said we’d do anything, if it would make Maddie feel better.”

Maddie actually managed a faint grin. “Fortunately for both of you, my revenge fantasies don’t run to murder.”

“What, then?” Dana Sue asked, looking fascinated. “Personally, after I kicked Ronnie’s sorry butt out of the house, I wanted to see him run over by a train.”

“Murder’s too quick,” Maddie said. “Besides, there are the children to consider. Scum that he is, Bill is still their father. I have to remind myself of that on an hourly basis just to keep my temper in check.”

“Fortunately, Annie was just as mad at her daddy as I was,” Dana Sue said. “I suppose that’s the good side of having a teenage daughter. She could see right through his shenanigans. I think she knew what was going on even before I did. She stood on the front steps and applauded when I tossed him out.”

“Okay, you two,” Helen interrupted, “as much fun as it is listening to you compare notes, can we go someplace else to do it? My suit’s going to stink to high heaven if we don’t get out in the fresh air soon.”

“Don’t you both need to get to work?” Maddie asked.

“I took the afternoon off,” Helen said. “In case you wanted to get drunk or something.”

“And I don’t have to be at the restaurant for two hours,” Dana Sue said, then studied Maddie with a considering look. “How drunk can you get in that amount of time?”

“Given the fact that there’s not a single bar open in Serenity at this hour, I think we can forget about me getting drunk,” Maddie noted. “Though I do appreciate the sentiment, that’s probably for the best.”

“I have the makings of margaritas at my place,” Helen offered.

“And we all know how loopy I get on one of those,” Maddie retorted, shuddering at the memory of their impromptu pity party a few months back when she’d told them about Bill’s plan to leave her. “I think I’d better stick to Diet Coke. I have to pick the kids up at school.”

“No, you don’t,” Dana Sue said. “Your mama’s going to do it.”

Maddie’s mouth gaped. Her mother had uttered two words when Tyler was born and repeated them regularly ever since: no babysitting. She’d been adamant about it then, and she’d stuck to it for sixteen years.

“How on earth did you pull that off?” she asked, a note of admiration in her voice.

“I explained the situation,” Dana Sue said with a shrug. “Your mother is a perfectly reasonable woman. I don’t know why the two of you have all these issues.”

Maddie could have explained, but it would take the rest of the afternoon. More likely, the rest of the week. Besides, Dana Sue had heard most of it a thousand times.

“So, are we going to my place?” Helen asked.

“Yes, but not for the margaritas,” Maddie said. “It took me the better part of two days to get over that last batch you made. I need to start looking for a job tomorrow.”

“No, you don’t,” Helen said.

“Oh? Did you finally get Bill to hand over some sort of windfall?”

“That, too,” Helen said, her smile smug.

Maddie studied her two friends intently. They were up to something. She’d bet her first alimony check on it. “Tell me,” she commanded.

“We’ll talk about it when we get to my place,” Helen said.

Maddie turned to Dana Sue. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“I have some idea,” Dana Sue said, barely containing a grin.

“So, the two of you have been plotting something,” Maddie concluded, not sure how she felt about that. She loved these two women like sisters, but every time they got some crazy idea, one of them invariably landed in trouble. It had been that way since they were six. She was pretty sure that was why Helen had become a lawyer, because she’d known the three of them were eventually going to need a good one.

“Give me a hint,” she pleaded. “I want to decide if I should take off now.”

“Not even a tiny hint,” Helen said. “You need to be in a more receptive frame of mind.”

“There’s not enough Diet Coke in the world to accomplish that,” Maddie responded.

Helen grinned. “Thus the margaritas.”

“I made some killer guacamole,” Dana Sue added. “And I got a big ole bag of those tortilla chips you like, too, though all that salt will eventually kill you.”

Maddie looked from one to the other and sighed. “With you two scheming behind my back, something tells me I’m doomed anyway.”

The tart margarita was strong enough to make Maddie’s mouth pucker. They were on the brick patio behind Helen’s custom-built home in Serenity’s one fancy subdivision, each of them settled onto a comfy chaise longue. The South Carolina humidity was thick even though it was only March, but the faint breeze stirring the towering pine trees was enough to keep it from being too oppressive.

Maddie was tempted to dive straight into Helen’s turquoise pool, but instead she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. For the first time in months, she felt her worries slipping away. Beyond her anger, she wasn’t trying to hide anything from her kids—not her sorrow, not her fears, but she did struggle to keep them in check. With Helen and Dana Sue, she could just be herself, one very hurt, soon-to-be-divorced woman filled with uncertainty.

“You think she’s ready to hear our idea?” Dana Sue murmured beside her.

“Not yet,” Helen responded. “She needs to finish that drink.”

“I can hear you,” Maddie said. “I’m not asleep or unconscious yet.”

“Then we’d better wait,” Dana Sue said cheerfully. “More guacamole?”

“No, though you outdid yourself,” Maddie told her. “That stuff made my eyes water.”

Dana Sue looked taken aback. “Too hot? I thought maybe you were just having yourself another little crying jag.”

“I am not prone to crying jags,” Maddie retorted.

“You think we didn’t notice you were crying when we got to the gym?” Helen inquired.

“I was hoping you’d think it was sweat.”

“I’m sure that’s what everyone else thought, but we knew better,” Dana Sue said. “I have to say, I was disappointed you’d shed a single tear over that man.”

“So was I,” Maddie said.

Dana Sue gave her a hard look, then turned to Helen. “We may as well tell her. I don’t think she’s going to mellow out any more than she has already.”

“Okay,” Helen conceded. “Here’s the deal. What have all three of us been complaining about for the past twenty years?”

“Men,” Maddie suggested dryly.

“Besides that,” Helen said impatiently.

“South Carolina’s humidity?”

Helen sighed. “Would you try to be serious for one minute? The gym. We’ve been complaining about that awful gym all our adult lives.”

Maddie regarded her with bafflement. “And it hasn’t done a lick of good, has it? The last time we pitched a fit about the place, Dexter hired Junior Stevens to mop it out…once. The place smelled of Lysol for a week and that was it.”

“Precisely. Which is why Dana Sue and I came up with this idea,” Helen said, then paused for effect. “We want to open a brand-new fitness club, one that’s clean and welcoming and caters to women.”

“We want it to be a place where women can get fit and be pampered and drink a smoothie with their friends after a workout,” Dana Sue added. “Maybe even get a facial or a massage.”

“And you want to do this in Serenity, with its population of five thousand seven hundred and fourteen people?” Maddie asked, not even trying to hide her skepticism.

“Fifteen,” Dana Sue corrected. “Daisy Mitchell had a baby girl yesterday. And believe me, if you’ve seen Daisy lately, you know she’ll be the perfect candidate for one of our postpregnancy classes.”

Maddie studied Helen more intently. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“As serious as a heart attack,” she confirmed. “What do you think?”

“I suppose it could work,” Maddie said thoughtfully. “Goodness knows, that gym is disgusting. It’s no wonder half the women in Serenity refuse to exercise. Of course, the other half can’t get out of their recliners because of all the fried chicken they’ve consumed.”

“Which is why we’ll offer cooking classes, too,” Dana Sue said eagerly.

“Let me guess. New Southern Cuisine,” Maddie said.

“Southern cooking isn’t all about lima beans swimming in butter or green beans cooked with fatback,” Dana Sue said. “Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Me, yes, absolutely,” Maddie assured her. “But the general population of Serenity still craves their mashed potatoes and fried chicken.”

“So do I,” Dana Sue said. “But ovenbaked’s not half-bad if you do it right.”

“We’re losing focus,” Helen cut in. “There’s a building available over on Palmetto Lane that would be just right for what we have in mind. I think we should take a look at it in the morning. Dana Sue and I fell in love with it right away, Maddie, but we want your opinion.”

“Why? It’s not as if I have anything to compare it to. Besides, I don’t even know what your vision is, not entirely anyway.”

“You know how to make a place cozy and inviting, don’t you?” Helen said. “After all, you took that mausoleum that was the Townsend family home and made it real welcoming.”

“Right,” Dana Sue said. “And you have all sorts of business savvy from helping Bill get his practice established.”

“I put some systems into place for him nearly twenty years ago,” Maddie said, downplaying her contribution to setting up the office. “I’m hardly an expert. If you’re going to do this, you should hire a consultant, devise a business plan, do cost projections. You can’t do something like this on a whim just because you don’t like the way Dexter’s gym smells.”

“Actually, we can,” Helen insisted. “I have enough money saved for a down payment on the building, plus capital expenses for equipment and an operating budget for the first year. Let’s face it, I can use the tax write-off, though I predict this won’t be a losing proposition for long.”

“And I’m going to invest some cash, but mostly my time and my expertise in cooking and nutrition to design a little café and offer classes,” Dana Sue added.

They both looked at Maddie expectantly.

“What?” she demanded. “I don’t have any expertise and I certainly don’t have any money to throw at something this speculative.”

Helen grinned. “You have a bit more than you think, thanks to your fabulous attorney, but we don’t really want your money. We want you to be in charge.”

Maddie regarded them incredulously. “Me? I hate to exercise. I only do it because I know I have to.” She gestured at the cellulite firmly clinging to her thighs. “And we can see how much good that’s doing.”

“Then you’re perfect for this job, because you’ll work really, really hard to make this a place women just like you will want to join,” Helen said.

Maddie shook her head. “Forget it. It doesn’t feel right.”

“Why not?” Dana demanded. “You need work. We need a manager. It’s a perfect match.”

“It feels like some scheme you devised to keep me from starving to death,” Maddie said.

“I already told you that you won’t be starving,” Helen said. “And you get to keep the house, which is long since paid for. Bill was very reasonable once I laid out a few facts for him.”

Maddie studied her friend’s face. Not many people tried explaining anything to Bill, since he was convinced he knew it all. A medical degree did that to some men. And what the degree didn’t accomplish, adoring nurses like Noreen did.

“Such as?” Maddie asked.

“How the news of his impending fatherhood with his unmarried nurse might impact his practice here in the conservative, family-oriented town of Serenity,” Helen said without the slightest hint of remorse. “People might not want to take their darling little kiddies to a pediatrician who has demonstrated a complete lack of scruples.”

“You blackmailed him?” Maddie wasn’t sure whether she was shocked or awed.

Helen shrugged. “I prefer to think of it as educating him on the value of the right PR spin. So far people in town haven’t taken sides, but that could change in a heartbeat.”

“I’m surprised his attorney let you get away with that,” Maddie said.

“That’s because you don’t know everything your brilliant attorney knew walking into that room,” Helen said.

“Such as?” Maddie asked again.

“Bill’s nurse had a little thing going with his attorney once upon a time. Tom Patterson had his own reasons for wanting to see Bill screwed to the wall.”

“Isn’t that unethical?” Maddie asked. “Shouldn’t he have refused to take Bill’s case or something?”

“He did, but Bill insisted. Tom disclosed his connection to Noreen, but Bill continued to insist. He thought Tom’s thing with Noreen would make him more understanding of his eagerness to get on with life with her. Which just proves that when it comes to human nature your soon-to-be ex really doesn’t have a clue.”

“And you took advantage of all those shenanigans to get Maddie the money she deserves,” Dana Sue said admiringly.

“I did,” Helen confirmed with satisfaction. “If we’d had to go in front of a judge, it might have gone differently, but Bill was especially anxious for a settlement so he could be a proper daddy to his new baby before the ink is dry on the birth certificate. As you reminded him on your way out the door, Maddie, he’s the one in a hurry.”

Helen regarded Maddie intently. “It’s not a fortune, mind you, but you don’t have to worry about money for the time being.”

“I still think I ought to look for a real job,” Maddie said. “However much the settlement is, it won’t last forever, and I’m not likely to have a lot of earning power, not right at first, anyway.”

“Which is why you should take us up on our offer,” Dana Sue said. “This health club could be a gold mine and you’d be a full partner. That’s what you’d get in return for your day-in, day-out running of it all—sweat equity.”

“I don’t see what’s in it for the two of you,” Maddie said. “Helen, you’re in Charleston all the time. There are some fine gyms over there, if you don’t want to go to Dexter’s. And Dana Sue, you could offer cooking classes at the restaurant. You don’t need a spa to do it.”

“We’re trying to be community minded,” Dana Sue said. “This town needs someone to invest in it.”

“I’m not buying it,” Maddie said. “This is about me. You both feel sorry for me.”

“We most certainly do not,” Helen said. “You’re going to be just fine.”

“Then there’s something else, something you’re not telling me,” Maddie persisted. “You didn’t just wake up one day and decide you wanted to open a health club, not even for some kind of tax shelter.”

Helen hesitated, then confessed. “Okay, here’s the whole truth. I need a place to go to work off the stress of my job. My doctor’s been on my case about my blood pressure. I flatly refuse to start taking a bunch of pills at my age, so he said he’d give me three months to see if a better diet and exercise would help. I’m trying to cut back on my cases in Charleston for a while, so I need a spa right here in Serenity.”

Maddie stared at her friend in alarm. If Helen was cutting back on work, then the doctor must have made quite a case for the risks to her health. “If your blood pressure is that high, why didn’t you say something? Not that I’m surprised given the way you obsess over your job.”

“I didn’t say anything because you’ve had enough on your plate,” Helen said. “Besides, I intend to take care of it.”

“By opening your own gym,” Maddie concluded. “Won’t getting a new business off the ground just add to the stress?”

“Not if you’re running it,” Helen said. “Besides, I think all of us doing this together will be fun.”

Maddie wasn’t entirely convinced about the fun factor, but she turned to Dana Sue. “And you? What’s your excuse for wanting to open a new business? Isn’t the restaurant enough?”

“It’s making plenty of money, sure,” Dana Sue said. “But I’m around food all the time. I’ve gained a few pounds. You know my family history. Just about everybody had diabetes, so I need to get my weight under control. I’m not likely to stop eating, so I need to work out.”

“See, we both have our own reasons for wanting to make this happen,” Helen said. “Come on, Maddie. At least look at the building tomorrow. You don’t have to decide tonight or even tomorrow. There’s time for you to mull it over in that cautious brain of yours.”

“I am not cautious,” Maddie protested, offended. Once she’d been the biggest risk-taker among them. All it had taken was the promise of fun and a dare. Had she really lost that? Judging from the expressions on her friends’ faces, she had.

“Oh, please, you weigh the pros and cons and calorie content before you order lunch,” Dana Sue said. “But we love you just the same.”

“Which is why we won’t do this without you,” Helen said. “Even if it does put our health at risk.”

Maddie looked from one to the other. “No pressure there,” she said dryly.

“Not a bit,” Helen said. “I have a career. And the doctor says there are all sorts of pills for controlling blood pressure these days.”

“And I have a business,” Dana Sue added. “As for my weight, I suppose we can just continue walking together a couple of times a week.” She sighed dramatically.

“Despite what y’all have said, I’m not entirely convinced it isn’t charity,” Maddie repeated. “The timing is awfully suspicious.”

“It would only be charity if we didn’t expect you to work your butt off to make a success of it,” Helen said. “So, are you in or out?”

Maddie gave it some thought. “I’ll look at the building,” she finally conceded. “But that’s all I’m promising.”

Helen swung her gaze to Dana Sue. “If we’d waited till she had that second margarita, she would have said yes,” Helen claimed, feigning disappointment.

Maddie laughed. “But if I’d had two, you couldn’t have held me to anything I said.”

“She has a point,” Dana Sue agreed. “Let’s be grateful we got a maybe.”

“Have I told you two how glad I am that you’re my friends?” Maddie said, feeling her eyes well up with tears yet again.

“Uh-oh, here she goes again,” Dana Sue said, getting to her feet. “I need to get to work before we all start crying.”

“I never cry,” Helen declared.

Dana Sue groaned. “Don’t even start. Maddie will be forced to challenge you, and before you know it, all of Serenity will be flooded and you’ll both look like complete wrecks when we meet in the morning. Maddie, do you want me to drop you off at home?”

She shook her head. “I’ll walk. It’ll give me time to think.”

“And to sober up before her mama sees her,” Helen taunted.

“That, too,” Maddie agreed.

Mostly, though, she wanted time to absorb the fact that on one of the worst days of her life she’d been surrounded by friends who’d given her a glimmer of hope that her future wasn’t going to be quite as bleak as she’d imagined.