Playing for Keeps (23 page)

"
It'll be fine, stop it." Rosa sprayed her again. They gave Maddie just a little make-up, she didn't need it, but it brightened her face a bit.

She twirled around in the bedroom in front of the mirror.
"Love it!" Maddie grinned. "You two do good work."

"
When you've got a good model to work on, sure." Emma patted her shoulder.

"
What's going on in here?" Rob came to the bedroom door.

Rosa
dived for him and covered his eyes with her hand. "You are not supposed to see her!"

He laughed, and tried to pull her hands down.
"Maddie and I don't go for that bad luck crap."

"
I told her," Maddie said in agreement.

"
Where are you?" Rob held his hands out like Frankenstein.

"
Way over here," she teased.

Rosa
held her hands tightly on his eyes. "I think it's wrong to tamper with bad luck. You are not going to see her."

Rob said quietly to
Rosa, "I saw quite a lot of her this morning, I hate to tell you, and from several different angles."

"
Well, lucky her." She yanked a lock of his hair and held his eyes firmly.

"
Ouch! You know, I need to get ready, too."

"
Maddie's leaving." Rosa nodded for Maddie to go out.

She walked past Rob and he reached for her.

Emma scooted Maddie out and said, "Are you grabbing for me, Robert?"

"
No, Ma'am." He dropped his hands and apparently gave up.

From the hall, Maddie saw
Rob reach around and grab Rosa's butt.

Her friend
squealed and dropped her hands.

He grin
ned at her. "Payback's a bitch, baby."

She
shrugged. "So I am, if you try to see Maddie before she walks down that aisle."

"
Duly noted." He motioned for the door, Rosa walked out, and he shut it between them.

Maddie
laughed as Rosa came out. "Still crazy after all these years, girl."

Rosa
shook her head. "You shouldn't tamper with tradition."

Fred came in
, carrying Sam. "I think this little guy needs to eat. I can't get him to stop crying."

"
I'll feed him," Emma said and reached for him.

"
You know what?" Maddie stepped up and took Sam into her arms. "I haven't gotten to spend a minute with him all day. I'd like to feed him. I'll take the bottle in his room, so we'll be out of daddy's way."

"
Good idea." Emma got a bottle from the refrigerator and heated it for her.

Maddie said
, "Thank you all for everything you've done. We're so lucky to have friends like you."

Smoky stepped into the kitchen.
"You've got more friends arriving, too. I'm serving drinks and everything's fine, so take your time." He turned to Rosa. "I could use your help, though."

"
Coming dear." She smiled at her husband, and they walked outside.

Maddie
watched them fondly, then took Sam to his bedroom. She sat in the rocker and savored giving him the bottle. She didn't get to feed him much these days, Rob or Sophie almost always did it. At first it was better, because Sam got mad when Maddie tried to bottle-feed him. But now he was used to it, and drank it happily. Maddie rocked slowly and studied her little boy's face. He was truly beautiful, and a marvelous little miracle in her life. She closed her eyes and thought about how happy she was, having both Sam and Rob in her life again. She couldn't even begin to think about the new baby. It still scared her a little, but mostly, gave her an overwhelming feeling of joy.
Too much for any one person to bear.
It was almost like living in a bubble that Maddie was afraid could burst at any time.

"
Need any help in there?" Rob asked through the closed door.

"
Only if you want to get your ass kicked by Rosa," Maddie replied, grinning.

"
I'd gladly accept an ass-kicking, for one glimpse of your beautiful face."

"
How romantic. Maybe you should add that line to your vows."

"G
ood idea!"

"
Ha!" Maddie snorted.

"
I love your laugh," he said softly through the door.

"
I love everything about you," she replied.

"
I forgot to ask you, so I went ahead and shaved."

"
You what?"
she screeched, clutching Sam as she hopped up and ran to the door.

Rob laughed and held the door shut.
"Man, that worked like a charm."

"
You better not have shaved," Maddie scolded.

"
I was just trying to get you to come out. I didn't."

"
Are you alone?"

"
Yeah."

"
On our first date I wondered how your scruffy little beard would feel against the soft skin of my inner thigh."

"
Oh, yeah?" his voice was husky.

"
Yeah. And it feels just as heavenly as I imagined it would. So you better not have shaved."

He leaned against the door.
"I promise you I didn't. I can't wait to feel those thighs."

"
Me too, sugar. I love you."

"
I love you too, Maddie. I guess I'll see you outside."

"
I'll be the one walking down the aisle."

"
I'll be the one waiting for you at the end of it."

She
tapped on the door, and he knocked back. Maddie heard footsteps and imagined how he looked, walking away. She smiled and glance at Sam, sucking on an empty bottle. "Oh, sorry, sweetie!" She threw a rag over her shoulder and walked him around to burp him. More excited than she'd ever been in her life, she was very ready to become Mrs. Robert Cooper. She tingled thinking about it.

Maddie
changed Sam's diaper and opened his door to look out. The house seemed empty. She walked out slowly to make sure, but no one was there. She looked through the kitchen window and saw all their friends milling about in the yard. Rob was talking to Sandy and Suzie and their husbands. Maddie touched her hand to her heart.
He's so sweet!
They were probably the only people there who didn't know everyone else, and Rob was making them feel welcome. Her heart was so full of love for him at that moment, Maddie thought it might burst. She spotted Emma, and was going to sneak Sam out to her when the front door opened.

"
Who could that be?" she murmured. Practically everyone they knew was already in the back yard. She walked through the kitchen to the front room and stopped. Dionne stood there, looking at her.

"
Dionne," she said stupidly.

"
Hello Madison."

Rob's ex-
looked tall and leggy and busty and beautiful as ever.
Here's the pin that's going to burst my bubble.
"What are you doing here?"

"
I wanted to talk to you."

"
This is not a good time." Maddie looked toward the kitchen nervously. Did she want Rob to walk in, or did she hope he'd stay away?

"
I realize you're getting married tonight. Edward and Andrea told me. But this is important."

Maddie's
heart dropped into her stomach with a thud.
Were Rob's parents trying to sabotage their wedding by sending Dionne here? How would Rob react when he saw her?
Visions of Rob and Dionne driving away in her Beemer flooded through Maddie's mind, and she tried to push them away.
Rob loves me
. He left Dionne. But the only thing she could see, at that moment, was Rob kissing Dionne for ten seconds by the bushes last July fourth.

Sam babbled and Maddie looked at him
, surprised. For a moment, she'd forgotten she was holding him. It helped to concentrate on the baby, because she knew Rob could never leave Sam.

"
Cute kid," Dionne murmured. "Sophie can't stop talking about him."

Maddie looked up.
"She likes being a big sister."

Dionne took a step
toward her. "May I hold him?"

A vision of Rob, Dionne, Sophie and Sam driving off in the Beemer flitted through
her mind, and she took a step backward. "I need to take him outside. I'll be right back." She rushed through the kitchen and hurried out to Emma with a lump of anguish in her throat.

"
What is it, child?" Emma grabbed her arm.

She handed Sam over.
"Don't let anyone take him."

Emma held Sam close to her.
"Maddie, who would try and take him?"

"
Dionne's here," she whispered. "She wants to talk to me."

"
I'll get Robert," Emma told her.

"
No! I don't want him to see her!" Maddie went back in the house and shut the door. She walked to the living room, slowly.

Dionne was fingering one of Sam
's rattles. Maddie snatched it from Dionne's hand and clutched it to her stomach. "What do you want, Dionne?"

"
I want to know what you've told Sophie about me."

"
Excuse me?"

"
What have you said to Sophie about me? About what kind of mother I am?"

"
I've never said anything to Sophie about you at all! You're not a subject I discuss with her."

Dionne gave a sultry chuckle.
"I'm so sure. But I need to know what kind of a person you are. I don't believe you're the kind of person I met here last summer. I need to be sure."

Maddie was confused.
"I really don't know—"

"
Dionne!" Rob stormed in from the kitchen. "What in the hell are you doing here?"

"
We need to talk," she replied simply.

Maddie inhaled.
Her whole life balanced on a tightrope. A tip in one direction or the other would change things forever. She looked at Rob.

He
stepped behind Maddie and placed one hand on her back, the other on her stomach. "Are you all right?"

The look in his eyes pulled
her off the tightrope and securely into his arms. "I'm fine," she said with renewed confidence and a sense of empowerment she'd never felt before. "I'm just not sure what Dionne wants to talk about."

Rob kept his hands on her and looked at Dionne.
"We're about to get married, Dee. Can this wait?"

"
No. Can the wedding wait?"

"
No," Rob replied without skipping a beat.

Dionne looked at his protective stance and chuckled softly.
"Oh, Jesus. She's pregnant again, isn't she?"

He scowled. "
Not that it matters to you, but yeah, we're having another baby. The second of many, if I have my way."

"
Is this really what you want, Coop? Because it wasn't, a few years ago, when we were in college and making plans for the future."

"
College was nothing like the real world. And once I got out here, I realized pretty quickly what I did and didn't want. I tried to make a go of it with you, Dee, you know I did. We had a history, and we'll always have a connection because of Soph. But this," he motioned around the room, "and this," he took the baby's rattle and shook it, "are what really make me happy."

Dionne shook her head, smiling.
"I see it, I just don't believe it. It's not the Coop I know."

"
You're right," he admitted. "I'm not the same guy you knew. I changed when I met Maddie, and fell in love with her. And all this," he motioned around the room again, "as happy as it makes me, means nothing without Maddie in my life." He wrapped his arms around her from behind. "She's the reason for everything I do, and everything I have. I don't just want a wife and babies. I want Maddie, and Maddie's babies. I hope you understand, because it's that simple."

Maddie leaned back
against him and closed her eyes. She wasn't living in a bubble anymore. She was firmly standing on the ground, securely wrapped in Rob's arms. She rubbed her hands over his biceps and clung to him.

"
Yeah, okay." Dionne paced around the room. "What I've got to ask is this, is there room for Sophie in this new life of yours? I won't have her treated like a second class citizen in your family, with the little princes and princesses treating her like crap."