Contract for Love, page 9
She took a deep breath and said the first thing that came to her mind. “Don’t be afraid. Just ask.”
“I…I didn’t imagine them to be like you, but…” Keeping his head down, he looked up at her shyly. “Are you an angel?”
Madison snorted. “Why the h…Um, why would you think that?”
The boy blushed. “Well, Rita Mae always says that when you wish for something very, very much, sometimes God sends down an angel to make it happen.”
The answer felt like a punch in the stomach. “And…” She cleared her throat. “What have you wished for?”
He swallowed. “Mom was always sad, and Rita Mae told me it was because she worried so much. She didn’t tell me, but I’m sure it was because of me. Because I was sick so often. And then I prayed to God so that he would send us an angel to make me healthy.” He looked up to her and then hastily down again as if afraid of her. “And that Mom doesn’t need to work so much anymore, oh, and for the leak in the trailer roof to be repaired.” He beamed at her. “But a real apartment is even better.”
The lump in her throat and the fist in her stomach formed one huge knot and stole her breath away.
“And then,” he continued, “you came. And Mom said you paid for the doctors and the medicine and now we get to live with you. So I thought, you might be an—”
The door opened, and a nurse entered with ice cream in her hand.
Jake jumped up, Madison totally forgotten. “Oh, great! Thanks, Nurse Flea.”
Relief washed over her at the distraction. She wouldn’t have known how to answer him. Madison had never been good with kids; she didn’t even like them. Not now, and not when she had been a kid herself. Not after losing all her friends when she’d moved in with her grandparents.
The nurse smiled and handed him the ice cream. “Here, Jake. We’ll miss you. You’re such a nice kid.” She caressed his head and turned to Madison. “And you are?”
“Madison Fielding. His mother is my partner.”
“Oh, I s—”
The door flew open again. This time Sherry entered, followed by Rita Mae. When she saw Madison, she came to an abrupt halt. “Madison.”
“Um, yeah. Hi.”
The nurse looked back and forth between them as if watching a tennis match.
She’s thinking we’re a couple. Do something! Madison jumped out of her chair, hurried over to Sherry, and bent down to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek. Hopefully, Sherry wouldn’t freak out. But when Madison straightened, Sherry was staring at her as if she had two heads.
If this was her reaction to Madison’s platonic touch, she probably would totally lose it as soon as she learned where she’d be sleeping from now on.
Madison pointed to the two battered suitcases. “That’s all?”
Sherry nodded, still dazed.
“Great. Well, then, let’s go.” Usually, she wouldn’t even have thought about carrying the luggage, but she needed something to do right now. Anything. With both suitcases in hand, she marched ahead.
Madison opened the door to her apartment and entered first. “Here we are.”
A long hall, ending in a huge room, stretched out in front of them. Sherry couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the city skyline ahead.
“Wow!” Jake shouted and ran toward the floor-to-ceiling window.
“Baby, I told you not to run.”
Jake stopped and almost fell in the process. With his head hanging, he shuffled back to them. “Sorry, Mom.” Instead of going to Sherry, he went to Madison, who had just put the luggage down.
With a slight hesitation, he shoved his hand into Madison’s, who in return eyed him as if he might have a deadly disease.
Jake seemed oblivious to it; he smiled at her and asked, “Will you show us around?”
Rita Mae tromped past Sherry and took Jake’s other hand. “First we’ll bring the suitcases into our rooms.”
Madison, who had wrapped her hand around Jake’s, maybe in an unconscious gesture, let go of him and took a huge step away. “Sure.”
Sherry closed the front door. The click of it sounded in her ears strangely like prison doors. At least that’s how she imagined it to sound. A feeling of being trapped surged through her.
“I’d like to unpack first. Are you gonna tell me where, or should I start right here?” Rita Mae pointed to the spot where she was standing.
Madison rubbed her hands on her pant legs as if the luggage—or Jake—had made them dirty.
Or was she sweating? Was she as nervous as Sherry?
Madison looked at Rita Mae and pointed to a door to their right. “That’s your room.”
Rita Mae opened the door but left her suitcase behind. “Oh, Lord!” She covered her heart with a hand. With the other, she pulled Jake into a half embrace.
Madison peeked in. “Something wrong? I was told everything had been prepared.”
“Wow, it’s huge,” Sherry whispered. With three steps, she had entered the room, which was more spacious than Rita Mae’s whole trailer.
When Rita Mae kept staring, Sherry whispered, “It’s fantastic.” And it was. A desk stood beside a queen-size bed at the wall. A huge window gave a view over the city, the skyline impressive. On the other side of the room was a closet three times the size of her old shower stall. Never ever would Rita Mae be able to fill it up completely.
Rita Mae let go of Jake, ran back into the hall, and grabbed her suitcase. Enthusiastically, she shoved one of two sliding doors of her closet open. “Oh my. All my things from the moving boxes are already in there.”
Madison wore a bewildered expression. “What did you think would happen when the guys from the moving company picked up your things?”
Jake jumped up and down. “Can I see our room now?”
Sherry caressed his soft hair. “Of course. But just if you stop jumping. You know what the doctor said.”
Pouting, Jake nodded.
Rita Mae opened her suitcase on the bed and dug into it with vengeance.
They watched her until Madison said, “We should go to see Jake’s room now.”
“Yeah!” Jake ran back into the hall.
He was so excited. Sherry was too. Well, nervous was probably a better description. But if Jake continued like this, he’d risk some bleeding, as the doctor had warned them repeatedly. In her sternest voice, she said, “Jake Franklin Miller, I told you not to run.”
Jake stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned back to her. Focusing on his feet, he mumbled, “Sorry.”
Sherry walked to him, went down on one knee, and searched his face while smoothing a loose strand of hair out of his handsome face. “I’m just worried. Right now, running and jumping is too dangerous.” He was looking so sad that she engulfed him into a tight embrace.
Madison looked away. “Opposite Rita Mae’s room is the guest bathroom. That’s what you’ll use.”
Sherry let go of Jake and stood. “Okay.”
Jake took Sherry’s hand. “And where’s our room?”
Madison took a few steps and stopped at the next door on the right. “That’s your room, Jake.”
He let go of Sherry’s hand as quickly as he had grasped it and opened the door.
Two feelings sprung up instantly: happiness about Jake’s incredibly beautiful room, yet also the unsettling feeling that this room was obviously meant only for him. He’d love to have his own space. It would be a first for him. And she didn’t want to be one of those mothers who couldn’t let go. But sleeping without him would be…lonely.
Sherry took a deep breath and focused on what this all meant for Jake instead of her. Taking it all in, she had to smile at the little red bed in the form of a racing car to her right. The huge room had Spiderman wallpaper all over, and it made the room surprisingly warm and friendly. Next to a red-and-blue children’s desk was a trunk in the same colors but decorated with racing-car stickers.
“Look, Mom!” Jake repeated while he touched everything he could get his hands on as if he needed to make physical contact with it all to believe it was real.
Sherry’s eyes burned suddenly, and she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
Jake turned back to her, and his smile faltered. “Mom?”
“I’m just so happy for you, baby,” she croaked out. Never would she have been able to afford something like this for him. But now it was real. Who knows for how long? a quiet voice in her mind supplied. Even though she always tried to face reality head-on, she refused to think of the time when this arrangement would come to an end. God, what am I doing to him?
Jake rushed toward her and wrapped his tiny arms around her waist. “Please don’t cry, Mom.”
Sherry wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. “It’s fine. Really. Sometimes you cry because you’re happy, you know?” They weren’t just happy tears, but for Jake’s sake she shoved all dark thoughts away for the moment. She couldn’t do anything about them anyway.
In the past, all Jake had known were the sad kind of tears. As much as she avoided crying when he was close, Rita Mae had told her that he’d seen her shedding tears more than once.
Madison cleared her throat to get their attention.
When Sherry looked over Jake’s head at her, Madison shifted her weight and inspected her shoes as if made uncomfortable by this emotional display.
Madison signaled to the trunk beside the desk. “There’re toys inside.”
Sherry gaped. The only toys Jake owned were two teddy bears and two little toy cars.
“Really?” Jake let go of Sherry, opened the trunk, and stared down, his eyes widening. “Mom!”
Sherry inspected the trunk that was filled to the brink with Lego, toy blocks, toy cars, and every other kind of toy suitable for a boy of Jake’s age. She turned to Madison and waited until she met her gaze. “Thank you.”
Jake rushed past Sherry and threw his hands around Madison’s hips. “Thank you so much.”
Madison stood rooted to the spot. “Um, yeah. You’re welcome.” For a second, it seemed as if Madison wanted to shove Jake away, but then she placed her hands on his shoulders and patted him awkwardly.
It was a strange feeling watching them. Gratefulness fought with distrust and worry that Madison could hurt Jake. But there was something else as well. Jealousy?
Before she could fathom her emotions, Jake let go of Madison to run back to the trunk and his toys.
“You can play with your toys now, but later you have to put everything back in the trunk, you hear?”
With an expression of concentration, he examined the rollability of one of his new toy cars on the soft carpet.
“Shall we?” Madison asked.
Sherry nodded and bent down to give Jake a kiss on the forehead. She didn’t really feel comfortable going alone with Madison, but she was mature enough to know how silly that was. Besides, it made no sense taking Jake away from his paradise now. “Baby, I’ll show you my room later, okay?”
He didn’t even look up to her. “Okay.”
Sighing, Sherry followed Madison out of the room and closed the door.
At the end of the hall, Madison gestured to her left. “This is the open kitchen, as you see.” She pointed ahead. “The living room.” Why are you commenting on the obvious, idiot? The boy had totally distracted her with his touchy-feely behavior, but that was no reason to be so nervous. Probably the true reason was her apprehension of Sherry’s reaction about their sleeping arrangement. She wasn’t happy about it either. Especially as Sherry didn’t seem to be open to a roll in the hay every now and then. But the boy would need to think they shared a bed. How else was he supposed to tell everybody that she and Sherry were a couple? If someone asked about their relationship, it had to appear to be rock solid. Besides, her cleaning lady Carmen would become suspicious if she ever found Sherry sleeping in Jake’s or Rita Mae’s bed.
“…fortune.”
“Huh?” Madison focused on Sherry, who was facing the floor-to-ceiling window. “I mean, excuse me?”
Sherry turned back to her. “I said the rent for this apartment has to be a fortune.”
“The place is mine. I don’t pay rent. Just running expenses. Don’t ask me how much. My financial adviser takes care of these things.”
Sherry looked at her for an uncomfortably long time. Finally, she nodded. “Where’s my room?”
Madison pointed toward the bedroom.
Sherry stepped past her and opened the door. “Wow. You could make two huge rooms out of it.”
True. The bedroom was the biggest room in the apartment beside the living room.
Sherry went inside and turned a few times around as if trying to take it all in.
Madison tried to see it through her eyes. The king-size bed, the huge walk-in closet, and the two spacious white cabinets opposite the bed. The view through the window was the same as Jake’s and Rita Mae’s, though.
“Where does this lead to?” Sherry pointed to the door to her left. “Your room?”
“No. It leads to the master bathroom.”
“And where do you sleep?”
Time for the bomb to drop. “Here. This is my bedroom. Ours now.”
Instead of complaining, or crying or maybe even shouting, Sherry just stared at her. After what seemed to be hours, she said in a voice that left no room for argument, “I’ll sleep in Rita Mae’s room.” Not giving Madison a chance to say anything, she added, “I understand that your interior designer expected me to sleep here, but we’re alone now, so we can stop pretending. About sleeping together, I mean.”
Anger surged through Madison with unexpected vengeance. “Do you think I would attack you like an animal while you’re sleeping?”
Sherry blinked repeatedly. It seemed that she hadn’t expected this reaction from Madison. “N…no. But it’s not necessary for me to—”
Madison strode over and came to a halt just within her personal space. Using the few inches of height she had over Sherry to her advantage, she looked down at her. But before she could decide on what to tell her, a realization hit her. How likely would it be that the boy spoke with anybody about their sleeping arrangements? She could keep the bedroom to herself, and Sherry would be happy too. “Fine.”
Sherry hadn’t backed off and still held her gaze as if trying to prove she wouldn’t budge. “Fine,” she echoed, and turned to the door.
“Carmen, my cleaning lady, comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays at eight. Make sure to be out of bed by then.”
Without looking back to her, Sherry nodded and left the room.
Madison let the breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding escape.
The phone on one of her nightstands rang, ending all her thoughts about this recent encounter. She grabbed the phone and said gruffly, “Yeah?”
“Hello, Madison. It’s me.”
No further introduction was needed. “Hello, Grandmother.”
“Oh, the joy in your voice is truly touching.” A quiet clacking came through the line. Probably from the ice cubes whirling around in her grandmother’s ever-present glass of scotch. “What is this nonsense that has just come to my ears?”
Someone from the hospital had contacted her? “What are you talking about?”
“Someone has moved in with you? Several someones? And Flinton informed me, you’d arranged for a money transfer because you want to become a joint owner of a bar. That has to be a joke, right?”
Grandmother Eileen truly had her spies everywhere. Not that it was a bad thing in this case. But she really needed a new financial adviser. One who could keep his mouth shut. “Yes, Grandmother. That’s correct.”
“Are you playing hotel for your party friends now?”
“No, Grandmother.”
“You’re a shame for the Fielding name and I will—”
“Grandmother, my partner and her son have just moved in. And I have a housekeeper now who has her own room here and takes care of things.”
Silence.
Then a thump and a clack, probably caused by her glass being put down on one of her oak tables. “P…partner?”
“Yeah. I’m in love.”
“The girl from the morning when I—”
Why the heck did everybody think it was this stewardess? “No. Sherry, my partner, has a son.”
“A son?”
Madison had to grin. Who would have thought this would be so much fun? “Yes. Jake. He’s six.” Hopefully.
“You’re making fun of me.”
“No. I’m really in love. As much as I tried to ignore my feelings for her, I just couldn’t. You were right that I was a disgrace to the Fielding name. Sherry convinced me that it would lead me nowhere if I kept having parties all the time. That’s why I decided to join Danielle, and by the way, it’s not a bar but a coffee bar.”
Grandmother Eileen made a strange noise, something between a moan and a squeak before calling for Jonathan.
A few seconds later, the sound of glass on glass followed by the splash of fluid filtered through the line. Without a doubt, her butler had refilled the scotch. “Let’s start this again. You have a girlfriend now? Since when?”
This was the weak point in her story. “It’s all still fresh. I’ve been interested in her for a while now, but instead of confessing my feelings to her I escaped into the arms of strangers who didn’t mean anything to me.”
“Just like your grandfather. God bless his soul.”
The witch believed her? Who would have thought this would go so smoothly?
“So you told her about your feelings a few days ago, and she moved in with you on a whim? With her child?”
“Um, yeah. It turned out she’s just as much in love with me as I’m with her. But—”
“Madison, she’s just after your money. Trust me. Which family is she from? Do I know her?”
