Rush to the Altar (13 page)

Jake thanked the man, promising something as payment in a low voice that Maddie couldn’t hear or make out clearly and then was gone. It was an hour and a half since they’d arrived at Jake’s and they’d missed their dinner reservations, but it was still too early to call it a night.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Jake asked with an apologetic smile after the doctor left.

She wanted to do anything but watch a movie, but politely nodded. “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

He had that look in his eyes that said they were both trying to shove their feelings beneath good behavior. “I have something of a library to choose from.”

He motioned Maddie over to a cabinet that pulled out to reveal a huge library of movies. “Hmmm,” Maddie heard herself observe. “Any chick flicks?”

Jake laughed. “There might be one or two.”

Maddie thumbed through them. Lots of action, adventure, sci-fi and an occasional romantic comedy. “I can’t believe you have this! I love this movie.” She held up The Cutting Edge with a big grin.

Jake sighed dramatically. “I think that’s my little sister’s, but okay, since you sustained an injury and all.”

“Not to mention the twenty thousand dollars I’m worth,” Maddie agreed with a laugh.

He loaded the film into the player and sank back into the cushions of the couch next to her, from all appearances glued to the ice-skating action.

Jake had his ankles crossed, his feet swaying back and forth, laughing at all the appropriate times. Maddie started to get hungry.

“Hey, you want to order a pizza?” she asked.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Jake replied. He made a call and within twenty minutes a man arrived with a three-course steak dinner.

“How did you do that?”

“I have vast connections,” he teased.

“It must be nice to have such power,” Maddie mused as she tore into the Styrofoam box of salad. “Umm, raspberry vinaigrette dressing, my favorite. How did you know?”

Jake grabbed a box for himself and shrugged, “I studied you before the date.”

“You what?”

He passed her a round roll and some butter. “You know, I asked your co-workers. Found out what you liked so I could order for you.”

She stared, non-blinking, at him. She couldn’t help it. Had he really gone to that much trouble?

“Why?” she asked quietly.

Jake grinned. “I guess I wanted to impress you.”

“Well, it worked.” Maddie looked thoughtfully at him for a moment and then frowned, blurting out her fear. “Do you do the same thing with all the women you date? Did you study Tiffany?” The words skipped past her brain and popped out, one by one, before she had time to stop them. She inhaled in astonishment, wishing she could take them back.

“Tiffany? Tiffany Daniels?” His face grew closed.

“I’m sorry. That’s none of my business.” A couple of heartbeats of silence. “I guess I’ve done a little research too. I thought you might still be dating her.”

Jake laid his arm on the back of the couch, reaching toward her but not touching her, waiting for her to look at him. “You are the only woman I have ever studied before a date, Madeleine Goode.”

He knew her name was Madeleine. That she went by Maddie as a nickname. Maddie looked quickly down, feeling sudden gladness spring to her eyes and not wanting Jake to see how much she loved what those words meant. She loved the rush of excitement they produced inside her, but what if he was only a really good pretender?

If only she had a safety net and could see across this tightrope to the other side. If only her heart didn’t feel so fragile. If only she could be safely ignorant again, not knowing that life could come crashing down at any moment.

If only.

Suddenly, she needed some air.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“
M
om, can you pass me that stuffing mix?” Maddie asked, pointing toward the box with a wooden spoon. She threw an apron that said “K♥ss the Cook” over her head and tied the strings tightly behind her back.

Her mother’s eyes widened. “You haven’t put the turkey in yet? It’s never going to be ready in time.”

Maddie tilted her head and stared at her mother, her eyes widening with annoyance. “Mom, I told you, I’m not stuffing the bird. I’m trying a new recipe and it’s been in the oven for over an hour already. I’m making this sausage and mushroom stuffing on the stovetop. It’s going to be great.”

“Okay.” Gloria shook her head. “But you should never try out new recipes on company. You just never know how they’re going to turn out.”

“Yeah, I know.” Maddie
was
a little nervous about all the new things she was trying at once. She wasn’t a bad cook, but she wasn’t an expert either.

Yesterday, she’d made three pies—pumpkin, pecan and apple. This morning she and Gloria, both edgy about hosting Jake, had gotten up extra early to prepare the rest of the meal and set the table. Maddie had even bought a new tablecloth and centerpiece so that everything would look pretty.

The doorbell rang with unexpected clarity. Maddie and Gloria looked at each other, eyes wide. “It can’t be,” Maddie whispered in horror. She hadn’t even put on her makeup or fixed her hair yet. “He
would
be a half an hour early!”

“I’ll go check. You run into the bathroom in case it’s him. We can’t have him seeing you like this.”

Maddie nodded agreement to the plan and made a dash for the bathroom, calling Max in after her, knowing that a closed and locked door would soon produce yells from him as he always somehow found her and wanted her when she was behind a locked door. “Come on, Max. Mommy wants to tell you a story.”

Max took her hand and seemed to think it was great fun running into the bathroom with her. He quickly plopped down on the toilet with the lid still open and nearly fell in as Maddie snatched him off, laughing and scolding at the same time. “Put the lid down Max, unless you have to go.”

Max decided he did have to go, taking up several minutes to help him with his button and zipper. Maddie made sure he sat low enough to not spray the room since he wasn’t tall enough to stand up yet, all the while trying to hear the muffled voices from the living room.

Finally, she was able to pull out her makeup bag and dot on some concealer and powder over it. She was sweating from the heat of the kitchen, which made the makeup turn into orange/brown goo on her cheeks. “Oh…blast,” she mumbled, hoping Max hadn’t heard, and flipped on the bathroom fan. She rubbed frantically at the streaks, making it worse as the powder turned into horrid little orange balls. She wanted to yell in earnest, but she refrained, taking a cool washcloth to her face instead. With a deep breath, she started over.

She heard a laugh. It
was
Jake. He was here already. Why couldn’t he follow simple instructions? Now the whole meal was at risk.

“Tell the story, Mommy,” Max reminded.

“Oh, yeah,” she muttered. Why had she said that to him? Swiping a pearl pink lip-gloss across her lips, she scrambled for an idea. “Once upon a time there was a giant frog.” Eyeliner, a touch of eye shadow in purple and brown to bring out her eyes and some mascara, the application of which had her talking from the corner of her mouth. “And he was so fat he couldn’t hop like the other frogs, so…”

She pondered for a minute, trying to make it as silly as possible to get Max to laugh. “So, he put on a girdle.” She smiled at the image in her mind and shook out her hair from the pony tail she’d had it up in all morning and finger combed through it.

“What’s a girdle?” Max’s face scrunched up in cute curiosity.

Maddie laughed. How to explain it? “Umm, kind of like a pair of really tight underwear, so it holds in your stomach.” She put her hands at her waist and squeezed to demonstrate.

Max’s face registered horror. “Why would frogs wear underwear? Frogs don’t wear nothin’, Mom.”

Maddie shrugged, trying not to giggle while combing Max’s hair. “Well, the girdle didn’t work anyway, so he bought himself some…giant springs, strapped them on his big, webbed feet, and then he could jump as high as a four-story building.”

Max’s eyes grew wide, his chin jutting forward. “I want springs like that.”

Maddie took him by the hand, giving herself one last look in the mirror, thinking it was the best she could do with the nanoseconds she’d had to work with, and shook her head. “No springs today, Max. Let’s go meet Mr. Hart. Remember? I told you a friend is coming for dinner today.”

Max patted his round stomach. “Turkey day.”

“Yes, let’s go check on our turkey.”

They came out of the bathroom together, walking down the short hallway and into the living room where Jake stood with her parents, a white box in his hands and a bouquet of beautifully hued fall flowers in her mother’s arms.

“Maddie, there you are,” Gloria said as if she didn’t know where Maddie had gone.

Maddie gave her mother a tight smile then went over to Jake and gave him a light hug. “Happy turkey day,” she said, smiling into his eyes, not able to suppress the pure pleasure coursing through her just at the sight of him in dark jeans and a perfectly fitting button-up shirt.

“’Appy turkey day!” Max parroted.

Jake squatted down in front of Max and grinned, holding out his large hand, which Max promptly high-fived. “Happy turkey day to you too, Max. Do you like turkey?”

Max patted his little round stomach and nodded, dimples showing. “Mmmmm. Mommy’s cooking it.” He announced like it was the greatest feat on earth.

Everyone laughed.

Jake held out the box. “I brought you a turkey day present, Max.”

Max’s eyes grew round as he reached for the box. He tore into it like only a child can and then grinned as he pulled out a stuffed turkey that sang and said funny things like “eat beef” when Max pushed on his stomach.

When Jake stood back up, Maddie looked up at him, feeling her heart swell with warmth. “Thank you, Jake. That was so thoughtful.”

“Did you see these beautiful flowers?” Gloria gushed. “I’ll just go put them in a vase and check the dinner. Simon, get Jake something to drink. Max, come help Grammy find some water for these gorgeous flowers.”

Maddie’s dad clapped Jake on the shoulder like they were old friends. “You want a beer?”

“Sure.” While he left to get it Jake took Maddie’s hand and held it out. “You look pretty,” he said, taking in the blue dress and apron she’d forgotten that she was still wearing.

Maddie looked up at him, a shy smile playing across her lips. “You look pretty good yourself.” The flirtatious tone to both their remarks made heat steel up Maddie’s cheeks.

Her dad came back in on that note, embarrassing her further. Here, she’d been afraid her parents were going to do something stupid and she was the one acting like a star-struck groupie. Her dad handed Jake the drink and motioned to the recliner and the football game playing across the big screen. “You a football fan?” Simon asked.

Jake nodded, taking a sip and sitting on the couch, probably not wanting to take what was obviously her father’s chair. “North Carolina’s playing today, right?”

The men talked and Maddie waved at Jake and went into the kitchen to hurry dinner along, sighing with relief. It looked as though things might go better than she thought.

The sweet potatoes looked wonderful, bubbling and oozing with brown sugar and butter in the oven next to the turkey. The homemade egg noodles bubbled in chicken broth on the stove. They were still a little tough, but smelled great and would be ready in another fifteen minutes. The mashed potatoes and gravy were the easy part, just heat up in the microwave toward the end, which left the stuffing on the stove and the rolls to bake at the last ten minutes. The marshmallow cranberry salad was in the fridge looking elegant in a beautiful cut-glass bowl.

Maddie’s mom edged closer to her, glancing around the corner to make sure they were alone, and rasped out in too loud a whisper, “You didn’t tell me he was so handsome. He looks better in person than on TV, doesn’t he?”

Maddie grinned, really looking at her mom’s face. Gloria was a petite woman, always thin, but now, as she’d gotten older, curvier, which her father assured everyone he liked better, with strawberry blond hair and a round face. “I know. He about took my breath away when I walked into the living room.” She reached for her glass of water, took a small sip and stared dreamily off into space.

“I just hope he doesn’t break your heart,” Gloria whispered.

Maddie patted her mom’s arm. “I’m guarding it. Believe me, I’m worried about the same thing.”

They set the table, filled the glasses, put the rolls in the oven and set the timer. Maddie wandered back into the living room to check on how Jake was doing.

Jake was sitting on the couch, his long arm stretched out across the back, Max squeezed in next to him, as close as the little boy could get, looking up at him with innate idol worship. Jake had Max’s favorite storybook in his hands and was reading it to him in a low voice, pointing at the pictures, smiling and nodding when Max got a picture right. They were so wrapped up in each other that they didn’t even notice Maddie at the door, glass suspended in her hand, tears forming.

Razor sharp, the truth sank through layers of physical attraction and infatuation. If she allowed these feelings for Jake to grow, allowed him into her heart and her home, it wouldn’t only be her heart that she was risking, but Max’s too. How could she possibly put her little boy through more pain? More loss? The agony of loving and losing.

And yet, watching them, so close and comfortable together, she found she couldn’t tear Max away. He…
they
deserved friends at least, didn’t they? She could resist the attraction. She could build in healthy boundaries for her and Max so that they could enjoy his company without falling in love with him.

“Daddy,” Max said, pointing to the dad in the picture. He then looked up at Jake with the most cherubic smile and stated with sweet simplicity, “You can be my new dad.”

Oh no, stop! Maddie rushed into the room, not knowing what to say.

Jake smiled at the panicked look on her face. “It’s okay,” he assured her. He ruffled Max’s hair and squeezed him in a tight hug. “Whoever gets to be your dad is one lucky man.” He kissed the top of Max’s curling hair and then pointed to the mom in the picture. “Who’s that?”