All for Maddie (10 page)

“No, no, Maddie alweady go to
da zoo. My daddy take me.”

Well, hell.

My dad looked straight to my
startled face.

“I seed a monkey and a dis
many fish,” she explained, holding out her arms, stretching them as far as she
could.

“Did she go to the zoo?” my
dad asked, wondering why I hadn’t disclosed that information.

“Uh-huh, me did,” she assured
him.

“Whitley?”

“Yes, Dad. She went to the
zoo.”

“With?”

Oh man.

“With her dad.”

He stood up and sat Maddie on
the swing. “What do you mean her dad? I thought you didn’t know who he was. I
thought you only had a first name.”

“I lied, I was afraid you
would go after him. He’s older than me.”

“How much older?”

Shit, I didn’t know how old
he was. Okay, if I was seventeen and he was a senior in college that would make
him about…twenty-five. Yeah, that sounded about right.

“Whitley?”

“He was only twenty-one at
the time.”

“How does he know about
Maddie?”

“We ran into each other at
Kylie’s wedding a couple months back. We’ve been talking ever since. That is
why I went there last weekend. I went to see him, not Kylie.” And the lies
flowed like the river. “He’s coming here tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“He wants to see us. I’m
going to move there with him, Dad,” I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going. If I
let my lies stop, I might not get them started again.

“No, you’re not.”

“Dad, I’m twenty-one. You
can’t tell me what I can and can’t do anymore.”

“Why would you do that,
Whitley?”

“I love him, and he is so in
love with Maddie.” I felt sick. It was the worst thing that had ever fallen
from my mouth. I love him? Ugh….

“How can you say you love
him? You don’t know him. He doesn’t know Maddie. I’m not going to let you take
her almost two hours from home. And when were you going to tell me any of
this?”

“I’m telling you now.”

“Only because your daughter
doesn’t lie. You’re not doing this. Forget it, Whitley. Your life is right
here. You’re not taking Maddie away from here, this is her home. What is wrong
with you?”

“Dana Ray,” Dana called from
the door, trying to calm the raise in his voice.

I’ll never forget the look on
his face. He kind of shook his head and walked away from me, off the porch and
around the house.

“Papaw didn’t read a book,”
Maddie pouted.

“Come on, you can take the
book.”

“You okay?” Dana asked,
touching my arm.

I smiled at her. “Yeah, I’m
fine,” I lied again. I wasn’t fine. I was far from fine, not only was I being
forced to live with a monster, I had just broken my dad’s heart.

“I drive?” Maddie asked,
carrying the book under her arm.

“What are you going to drive,
silly? Mommy walked.”

“My wegs hurt,” she whined,
three feet out of the yard.

“You haven’t walked ten steps
yet.”

“My wegs hurt,” she whined
again.

I picked her up. “You’re a
little bit of a brat. You do know that, don’t you? And you’re too big for me to
carry.”

“I free. I have a birfday a
morrow.”

<><><> 

My dad always came to the
office on Friday mornings. He sat and drank coffee with me while I started the
check in process for the weekend guests. He didn’t come. I hated the strain
this was causing between us. I hated Alex fucking Wesson.

“I have a feed a fish,”
Maddie said. I was sure she was wondering too why papaw hadn’t come for her
yet. They always fed the fish, every morning.

I finally texted him. Maddie
had been standing at the glass doors looking out for almost two hours. He had
no reason to be mad at her.

Come and get your granddaughter.
She has been standing by the door waiting for you all morning. You can be mad
at me. Don’t be mad at her.

You’re going to take her
away from me. Tell her I’m on my way.

My dad didn’t come inside. He
opened the door and Maddie jumped in his arms. I never saw him again until
later in the afternoon.

I was going over who hadn’t
checked in yet with the high school boy, Ryan, when I saw
him
pull in.
Damnit, he hadn’t died a slow painful death.

“I’ll see you later, Ryan,” I
said walking out. I saw my dad and Maddie coming on the golf cart in the other
direction. I needed to be out there to intervene. He might have caused a slow
painful death himself.

“Hi,” Alex smiled as I met him
getting out of his car. Damn. Why couldn’t he be ugly? Wait, he was ugly. What
the hell was I thinking?

“Hey,” I bitterly spoke.

“I’m going to kiss you.”

“What? No, you’re not.” Yes,
he was. Damn, I wasn’t expecting that.

“That was for your dad, you
know, to help you with the show and all,” he said, close to my lips with his
arm around my waist. I was going to be sick.

I didn’t have time to
respond. My dad was pulling up with Maddie. He looked mad. He looked furious.
Alex didn’t care. My dad didn’t intimidate him one bit. He did me. I was
intimidated as hell, standing between the two of them.

“Maddie! Come here, I missed
you,” Alex exclaimed, dropping to one knee. She ran right to him, let him pick
her up, and hugged his neck. Pathetic.

I smiled at them when I
noticed the peculiar expression my father was carrying. I was sure he could
read the disgust on my face.

“Dad, this is Alex Wesson.
Alex, my dad Dana.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet
you,” Alex said, shifting Maddie and offering his hand.

My dad reluctantly shook his
hand. “You two will be joining us for supper,” my father insisted, turned on
his heels, and left us standing there.

“Ahhh, dinner at the in-laws.
How sweet is that?”

He was really here. He was
going to stay at my house, sit at my father’s table, and pretend that he was in
love with me. Insane.

“You driving, Maddie?” I
asked, wanting her to leave his arms and get in the cart with me.

“You come too?” Maddie asked
Alex.

“Yes, but daddy’s going to
drive his car. Do you want to go with me?”

“I can drive?”

“Yes, you can drive,” he
offered, opening the door of his stupid fancy car. I just got ditched by
Maddie.

I shot him a dirty look and
took off, allowing him to follow behind. Jaron stopped me as I passed the
dining room.

“Hey, can you sign for this
order. I can’t find your dad. Who’s that?” he wanted to know, seeing the car,
and Maddie driving on the driver’s lap.

I looked back after signing
the clipboard and groaned. “I’ll tell you later.”

“She sits on your lap in the
car, and you extort me with your fake pictures,” I accused as Alex got out of
his car with Maddie.

“You were on the road. I was
on a dirt path.”

“I was…. Never mind.” I
wasn’t arguing with him. It wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.

“This is quaint,” Alex said,
looking around the living room. I could tell he wasn’t impressed. I didn’t
care. I loved my house and I wasn’t ready to leave it. I was twenty-one and had
my own house. I was proud of that. I’d only been in it for a little over a
year. I would be back. I would figure out a way. I would get something on him.
I would show him what extortion was.

“I sweep in der,” Madelyn
pointed.

“That’s your room?”

“Uh-huh, I show you,” she
excitedly said, squirming from his arms.

I didn’t go with them. I
stayed back, shaking my head in disbelief. He was in my house. He was sleeping
in my house. He was going to my dad’s for supper, and I had to pretend to be
madly in love with him. Yeah, this might be a disaster.

“Do you really think she
needs that many toys?” Alex asked, coming out. Maddie didn’t return. I heard
the music playing from her My Little Pony play set. She was occupied.

“She just had a birthday.”

“You know, you should
probably just chill with the attitude. You’re not hurting anyone but you.”

My lips instantly formed the
position needed to say, fuck you.

“Don’t!” he demanded with a
straight finger.

“Do you really think that you’re
going to treat me this way? I’m not your child. The only way this is going to
work is if you stay the fuck out of my way,” I said in a low voice as I walked
towards my room, stopping right next to him. “I’m going to shower. Watch my
daughter.” I heard him snicker as I walked away. Stupid bastard.

I was in the bathroom for at
least an hour. I dressed to kill, tight dark skinny jeans, red knit shirt with
a low cut front that snugged my figure, and a bright shiny belt. Yes, I was
overdressed for hanging out by the fire, but he didn’t know that’s what I was
doing. I would pull a flannel overtop once I was out of his sight. I curled big
loopy curls in my long dark hair, did my makeup, darkening my eyes with smoky
gray eye shadow, and sprayed my favorite perfume right between my breasts.

Yes
! His mouth dropped
when I emerged. I saw it.

“You always dress like that
for family dinners?”

“Nope,” I unemotionally
replied, sliding my foot into a pair of black heeled boots. “I’m going out
after that.”

“You’re going out?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied, sliding
my foot in my other shoe.

“I don’t think so.”

I laughed and bit my bottom
lip to keep from saying bad words in front of Maddie.

“You don’t think so?”

“No, why would you go out? I
came all the way here to spend the weekend and you’re going out?”

“You didn’t come to see me.
You came to see Maddie, remember? Come on. Maddie, we have to go eat with
Papaw,” I called. Screw this guy, he wasn’t telling me what the hell I was
doing.

<><><> 

This wasn’t real. This wasn’t
fucking happening. Alex had my dad feeding right out of his slimy hand. They
were talking football, stocks, politics, and Maddie! My dad was laughing with
him, telling him funny things that Maddie said and did. My dad was supposed to
be punching him in his face by now or at least sitting there scowling at him,
not being his buddy.

“You didn’t have to hide this
guy from me, Whit,” my dad smiled, giving me his approval. 

Alex smiled over at me and
took my hand, resting it on the table. I suddenly wanted to laugh. This was a
bad dream. I looked down at our hands as he brushed the back of my hand with
his thumb. Un-fucking-believable. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sit here and
pretend that I was in love with Alex Wesson; I hated his ever-living guts.

“Papaw, you watch dis wif
me?” Maddie asked, holding up her princess movie.

My dad stood and went to her.
I instantly jerked my hand from Alex’s, giving him a dirty look. He smirked. I
wanted to punch him.

“Papaw has a better idea. Why
don’t you stay here with papaw and nana tonight and let mommy have an adult
night?” he offered, smiling over at me.

Man, this sucked. I didn’t
want his smiling approval. I didn’t want him to like Alex. How could he like
Alex? Alex was a conspirator. He couldn’t like Alex.

“No Dad, Alex came here to
spend the weekend with her,” I tried.

“Alex is going to take her
away from me. Alex can deal with it,” my dad joked, with Alex.

“Its fine, sweetie. She can
stay if she wants to.”

I got up to go to bathroom. I
had to. I was going to vomit,
on him
! I leaned in to Alex, catching the
smile on his face when he thought that I was going to play his make believe
game and kiss him or something. “You’re going to a hotel,” I seductively
whispered in his ear.

“What is your problem,” Alex
asked as I stomped across the yard towards my golf cart.

“You. You, Alex, are my
fucking problem,” I said, turning on him, poking him hard in the chest.

“What the hell did I do?”

“Are you serious? I swear
your brain is in your big toe and it’s been walked on one too many times. Thank
you for going in there and wrapping my dad right around your little finger.
You’re nothing but a conniving son of a bitch. Now all you have to do is reel
him in.”

“What did you want me to do,
Whit? Scoot over, I’m driving,” he demanded.

I scooted, only because I was
too afraid of running his arrogant ass into the river.

“Did you want me to go in
there and act like an ass around your family? Would it make you feel better for
your father to worry about where you would be living? Do you want him to sit
around and think you are miserable?”

Damn. I didn’t want that.

“Just take me back to my
house, get your car, and get the hell out of here.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Why do you always repeat
everything I say? No, I’m not leaving. You’re not going to party with a bunch
of people that work for your father. You’re not getting drunk and you’re not
taking Jaron back to your house and fucking him.”

“You are leaving. I am going
to party with my friends. I am getting so fucking drunk I won’t remember my
name, and you can’t tell me who the hell I am going to fuck! What the fuck is
wrong with you?”

Alex stopped right in the
middle of the pitch dark path leading to my house. I just shook my head. What
else was there to do? He was impossible.

“Now what the hell are you
doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Stop doing that. I’m not
doing anything until you stop acting like Maddie, and use your head.”

“Use my head?” Really? I
needed to use
my
head?

“If you do that one more
time, so help me God. Think about it, Whitley. Do you really want those people
seeing you pack up and leave with me in a week, wondering why you’re rubbing
your pussy all over some kitchen help when you’re supposed to be in love with
me? What the hell do you see in that guy anyway?”