Rush to the Altar Read online

  She also realized that she wanted to be with him entirely too much for her own good. She had a son and a good job and she didn’t want to jeopardize her responsibilities. She didn’t have room for such relationships in her life.

  Jake finally spoke as Tiffany grasped his arm to lead him away. “I’ll call you to set up our date.” He didn’t even sound excited anymore.

  Maddie’s heart sank further despite her internal lecturing. “I hope it meets with your expectations.” It was a soft-spoken thrust and it stung, she could see it on his face, making her feel at once guilty and ready to flee, find a place to allow the tears to fall that were threatening to escape. She turned and hurried away. He might buy her time, but as wonderful as he could be, it was going to take a lot more than twenty thousand dollars to win her heart.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Maddie poured the cereal into Max’s plastic bowl, sloshed in some milk and handed him the matching plastic spoon. Groaning, she sat beside his chair and dropped her head into one hand, clutching a cup of steaming coffee with the other. “Eat your breakfast, sweetie,” she managed before dropping her head all way to her arm that lay across the table. Wow, had she ever felt this awful?

  She’d been out until 3am, home and in bed by four and probably not asleep until four-thirty, her mind refusing to quiet and stop thinking of everything that had happened. It was now 7:22 am, and after attempting to divert Max with cartoons while she laid comatose on the couch, feeling guilty for allowing the television to be the babysitter again, and Max beating her on the head with a musical hammer, she had finally dragged herself into the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast. It wouldn’t be so bad if her head wasn’t pounding so.

  “Good morning.” Her dad came in the kitchen wearing his PJs and looking half asleep, as cute as Max with their matching tousled hair. “Got any coffee?”

  Maddie lifted her head, squinted at him and motioned to the pot. “Fresh ground and everything,” she said, laughing, then groaned and dropped her head back onto her arm.

  Simon laughed. “You’re not feeling so well, eh, sweetheart?”

  Maddie just shook her head. They both looked up suddenly as a loud thwack sounded by the window. Max was dipping his spoon down to the bottom of the bowl of floating Os and had discovered that if he flicked the spoon up he could propel cereal around the room. Another thwack and a spoonful of Os hit her mother’s new mini-blinds, sliding down in sticky, milky streaks to the floor.

  “No, Max!” Maddie got up and took the spoon from her grinning son. “No throwing food.”

  Her dad was laughing, or rather shaking while trying not to. “Dad, don’t encourage him. Mom will kill all of us if she sees those blinds.”

  Maddie got a sponge and began cleaning up the mess. Her dad walked over to her, handing her some water and a couple of painkillers. “You feed Max, I’ll get this.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” Maddie sat by Max and tried to feed him.

  “No,” Max stated, his face in scrunched anger. “I do it, Mom.”

  “Okay, Max, one more try, but if you flick your cereal around the room, Mommy will have to do it. Understand?”

  “Can’t you see I’m eating here?” Max said with stoic injustice, gripping his spoon in his fist and digging in.

  Maddie’s eyes grew round with laughter, her lips suppressed. Looking at her dad, she whispered, “He sounds like he’s seventy. Sometimes it’s like a grouchy old man has taken over his body.”

  Her dad smiled back at her while rinsing out the sponge. “Naw, he just knows what he wants. Some people are born like that.”

  The thought whirled around her cloudy head. She couldn’t remember ever being like that. She hardly ever knew what she wanted, from the choices on a menu to the classes in college and the career path she had chosen. Her life had just seemed to happen to her and she’d always just gone along with the flow, rarely stopping to find out for herself what she really wanted. Max was different, so confident and self-contained even as a toddler. It was really amazing when she thought about it.

  “Where’s Mom?”

  “Still in bed. She was shopping at Walmart until one in the morning again.”

  “She sure is a night owl. And with the extra money I’ve been paying her to watch Max, she’s probably shopping more often these days.”

  “Tell me about it.” Her dad grinned and rolled his eyes.

  “Dad…”

  Her dad sat down across from her, sipping his coffee from a mug with pictures of fishing lures all over it. “Yeah?”

  “Did you always know what you wanted?”

  Her mom did. She knew that. Her mom never seemed to hesitate in any decision. And she’d heard the story countless times of how her mom had set her mind to winning Simon, and how she’d gotten him. But her dad never talked about wanting much beyond a tool for his workshop out in the garage or a new hunting rifle or fishing pole. He always ordered the same food at the same restaurants and let Gloria decide the rest.

  “I knew I wanted to teach. I was lucky that I was able to do that for so many years.”

  “So you never wanted to be a musician?” Maddie knew her father had been in a band for many years when he was younger. They had even toured the local scene, but she’d never really heard what happened to them.

  Simon shrugged. “Life has a way of taking over, you know? I played for ten years or so but we just didn’t get any big breaks.” He let out a little bark of laughter. “Teaching wasn’t bad. Every once in awhile you had that great class that seemed interested in algebra, soaked it right up. And once in a blue moon, you had the student you knew would someday be a rocket scientist or help find the cure for cancer, something really big and that you had played a small part in that. Anyway, the most important thing was you girls and your mother who didn’t have a college education and couldn’t ever earn much more than minimum wage. A teacher’s salary pays a whole lot better than a starving artist.” He winked at her with a smile.

  “Oh, Dad.” Maddie compressed her lips together, feeling tears spring up in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you gave it up for us.”

  Her dad laughed and looked into her eyes with such love. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Maddie girl. I have no regrets.”

  “None? Really?”

  “Well, maybe buying all that blasted exercise equipment that sits in the garage collecting dust.” He grinned big at her and rubbed his round belly. “Now that was a mistake.”

  His attempt to make her laugh made Maddie smile and swallow back the tears. “Thank you, Dad. If I’ve never said it before, thank you for letting us tell you what you wanted.”

  He brushed her off, both embarrassed and pleased. “It’s what men do, Maddie. The good ones anyway.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is.” She looked at Max and wondered for the first time when his stubborn desire to feed himself would become something bigger, something that would someday effect his loved ones. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, to not know what you wanted, maybe this life flow, this river of change and conflict, the giving and receiving, the getting and the giving, was God’s plan for her. And maybe she had a lot to learn.

  Max grinned big at her, the cereal in a mush around his lips, his eyes alight with the delight of playing with Os, and she was suddenly just so glad to be alive and seeing it.

  Gloria chose that moment to walk into the room, loaded down with her latest packages, wanting to talk about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

  Her dad got up, gave Gloria a kiss on the cheek, which her mother ignored, and left for the adjoining family room to flip on the morning news. But as Maddie watched his tall form retreat she looked at him with fresh insight and was so glad that Max got her out of bed early, when only she and her dad were up and wandering about the kitchen.

  A half an hour later her dad called from the family room recliner. “Maddie. I think you might want to see this.”

  Maddie had Max on her lap, giving him little kisses along his cheek and neck
, making him laugh and listening to Gloria’s harrowing tale of walking into the dark Walmart parking lot at one in the morning, seeing purse snatchers in every shadow. They both got up and hurried into the family room. Her dad never said things like that.

  He turned up the sound as the three came in and sat down on the couch, all eyes glued to the television.

  The news anchor was proclaiming the latest headlines in a cheery voice. “Halloween seems a smashing success for more than the kids this year as the Racers rake in a record four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for charity from their annual Halloween Extravaganza Fundraiser. Let’s check in with our reporter, Pat Carson, who covered last night’s event. Pat?”

  Tape from last night rolled. “Yes Debbie, we’re here at the Racers Halloween party, thrown every year by Racers Sports and Entertainment, one of the many charity events they sponsor. One of the Racers coordinators and the woman who planned this event is here to speak with us, Madeline Goode. Ms. Goode, a record amount was raised tonight, are you pleased with the results?”

  The microphone was shoved into Maddie’s face. Maddie on the couch looked on in horror, barely remembering the interview in all the hoopla of the evening. Had she been coherent? Intelligent? Remotely cute?

  The camera flashed to a white, sparkly fairy and the Maddie on the couch couldn’t help but gasp. She looked…good…and professional, every hair in place. Thank you, God!

  “Yes, we are overwhelmed with the support for the many wonderful causes the Racers support. The auction went incredibly well, better than we expected. We are so thankful for the generosity of the guests.”

  “Especially one of the players, I’m told. Maddie, toward the end of the auction, you yourself were bid on. Did you really wring twenty thousand dollars from Jake Hart for a date? Could it be love?”

  Maddie on the couch gasped. Her parents gasped. Her mother turned white and stared at her. Her father’s eyes widened as he swiveled in his recliner to stare at her.

  Maddie on the TV, the one that seemed in perfect control, laughed with an elegant tinkling sound. “Mr. Hart was very generous. I have no doubt that the charities we sponsor will be worth a date with him.”

  The reporter even laughed. She was so polished, so professional; she could hardly believe it was really her on the flat screen her father had gotten for Christmas last year.

  “Well, Madeline Goode, we wish you well on your date. I’m sure all the female viewers agree with me that it won’t be too difficult a sacrifice for the sake of charity.”

  Maddie on TV laughed, agreeing with her.

  Her mother turned toward her first as they went to commercial. “You have a date with one of the basketball players? What’s this about bidding on you for a date?”

  Oh dear, how was she going to explain this? “Sort of.” She held Max tight even though he had tired of the electrified atmosphere of the family room and obviously wanted down to see what he could get into. “Jake knew we weren’t going to meet last year’s donation and decided at the last minute to auction a date with me. I was shocked, Mom. Appalled at the time. But we did make our goal, so I went along with it.”

  “Jake? You are going out with Jake Hart? Number 14, Jake Hart?” her dad asked with his eyes lighting up. He was a big fan so she shouldn’t be surprised he would be excited by the idea.

  “Well, I think so. Don’t get too excited, though. It’s nothing really. Just a stunt to raise money and attention to the cause. He’s very nice…” She thought of Tiffany. “…Sometimes, and I think one date is a small price to pay for a twenty thousand-dollar donation.”

  “Are you serious?” He shook his head and seemed to be talking to himself. “My Maddie girl is going out with Jake Hart.” Her dad couldn’t seem to reconcile it in his mathematical brain.

  “He has a very big…heart.”

  Her dad almost choked on his coffee while she turned red.

  “Just don’t fall in love with him, Maddie. A man like that will break your heart,” her mother announced. “You don’t need to be hurt again, especially right now.”

  Maddie, with visions of Tiffany grasping Jake’s very muscular arm, had to agree, much as she hated to. “I’m sure I can manage one date, Mom, without swooning over him.”

  Her dad was flipping through the options on the TV, looking for the latest recorded Racer game. “Jake Hart,” he mused, finding a game and then fast forwarding until number 14 was playing. “There he is.”

  Gloria raised her eyebrows at Maddie and tilted her head. “He’s not bad looking for such a tall man, is he?”

  Maddie wanted to tell her mom to zip it, but instead smiled and said. “No, he’s not bad looking…for someone so tall.”

  Darn the man. He wasn’t bad looking at all.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Maddie sat at her desk taking advantage of the brief lull in the afternoon to look up Thanksgiving recipes on the internet. Most companies might slow down between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, but Maddie was quickly realizing this was the season when charity work revved up to full throttle. Coming up next was the Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless sponsored by one of the players, who also helped serve the meal. They would be ordering hundreds of pounds of turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans, hiring a company to come in and cook it, another company to set up and tear down, the list went on and on. But there was one thing Maddie knew for sure she absolutely had to squeeze time in for—cooking an old-fashioned turkey dinner for Max. She wasn’t about to have tacos on turkey day.

  Her phone buzzed just as she spied an exciting title—Death by Turkey—and clicked on the link.

  “Yes?” Maddie asked the receptionist.

  “Jake Hart is here to see you, Maddie.”

  “Oh,” Maddie’s eyes widened. “Give me just a minute and then send him in.”

  She hadn’t heard a word from Jake since the party, and that was almost two weeks ago. She had begun to wonder if she’d dreamed the whole date thing, but her dad kept playing the saved news report over and over, which only left her feeling rejected and miserable. Why hadn’t he called? There had only been one away game since the party, so that couldn’t be it.

  She reached for her purse, added some pink lipstick and a thin coat of gloss without the confidence of a mirror, ran her fingers through her hair, which she had worn long and in loose waves today, and stood up. Smoothing down her skirt, she silently thanked heaven she was wearing her new ivory suit, iridescent black-green-blue satin pumps and an emerald green blouse that she knew made her eyes pop with more of a blue-green hue than blue.

  Jake knocked and opened the door a little. “Hi, Maddie,” he said with a smile, coming further in the room.

  “Jake. Hello. It’s so good to see you.” She was determined to be professional. Walking over to him, holding out her hand, she felt his strong grasp, looked up into his face and had to remind herself to breathe. Boy, did he look good, smell good. He had that five o’clock shadow thing going on with a perfect square chin, piercing eyes that looked right into her. No…don’t think like that. “Please, sit down.”

  His hand reached toward her face. Maddie stood very still while he touched her cheek and then rubbed his thumb across the corner of her upper lip. “You’ve, um, got some lipstick smeared there.”

  Maddie gasped. “Oh.” She pulled away, pulled a tissue out of a box as she walked over to the decorative mirror hanging against one wall and hurriedly fixed the mistake, wiping off too much on one side and making the whole thing worse. Blast! She needed to look perfect for this.

  Jake looked around the office. “Wow. This place looks great. Did you redecorate it?”

  Maddie smiled, compressing her lips together in an attempt to even out the color. She gave up and turned back toward him, genuine happiness bubbling up from inside her about her office. “Yes, I just finished. Do you like it?”

  Jake nodded as he plopped down on one of two overstuffed chairs that were facing her desk. The backs, sides and fronts were str
iped cream and beige with brown leather trim and big brown leather cushions. “It’s very comfortable and…homey but…” He shrugged as if unable to come up with a good description.

  “Elegant and sophisticated?” Maddie prompted with a sparkle in her eyes. Why did he always bring out the flirt in her?

  He did that slow smile thing and she had to remind herself to breathe. He nodded. “Exactly. Looks expensive.” He raised his brows in flirting-back challenge.

  Maddie laughed. “Oh, not really. I enjoy antiquing and reupholstering, you know, finding great deals and then making them over. As long as the design is sound and of good quality.” She shrugged. “Then it’s just a matter of pretty trappings. Those chairs cost fifty dollars each at a garage sale.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing. I like it a lot.” He didn’t say anything for the next minute, a very long minute, while he looked around the room, seeming to study the details, and then his gaze settled on her computer, where there was still the photo of the giant turkey. “You cook too?”

  Maddie glanced at the computer screen. “Oh that, well, sometimes. I enjoy it when I have the time. My mother seems to only remember how to cook three meals, so, since I’m determined to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for Max, I’m planning to cook it. I’m working on my menu. Do you go home for Thanksgiving?” She knew Jake was originally from Colorado and still had parents there.

  “Sometimes, but not this year. We have a game on the Friday after, so it’s not worth the travel time. Sure looks good, though.”

  Was he hinting at an invitation? Maddie could not imagine bringing him home to her parents all day. Their brick ranch house, her mother smoking and pecking Jake with a million personal questions, her dad star-struck. Goodness, she would have to be an idiot to do such a thing.

  “Would you like to come? If you don’t have other plans, that is?” What was she doing? Of course he would have other plans! Something fancy and probably involving Tiffany or one of his player friends at one of their mansions.