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  “That’s not the point, dammit!”

  “Then what is the point?”

  “You’re having an affair with your son’s baseball coach,” he all but shouted. “Do you know how disgusting that is?”

  “Disgusting?” She tried to calm down, to no avail. She wanted to tear across town and scratch his eyes out. Maybe Noreen’s, too, while she was at it.

  “Do you have a better word for it?” he asked.

  “First, let’s get our facts straight,” she suggested. “There is no affair.”

  “People are saying—”

  “People say all sorts of things in Serenity,” she reminded him. “Only a quarter of what they say is true, if that. You’re usually the first one to remind me of that.”

  “You’re not sleeping with him?”

  Maddie thought she detected a hint of relief in his voice. “No,” she said firmly. “But let’s discuss why you thought it would be any of your business if I were.”

  “Because I still care about you,” he said fiercely. “I don’t want you to make a public spectacle of yourself.”

  “Let’s back up a minute,” she said slowly, her temper still seething. “If I spend a little time chatting with a man ten years younger than I am, I’m a fool and an embarrassment. When you get a woman who’s sixteen years younger than you pregnant before you even ask for a divorce from your wife, you’re what? Some paragon of reason and virtue? I don’t think so, pal.”

  “Maddie, you need to be reasonable. Think about the kids,” he said, still oblivious to his adherence to a double standard.

  Unable to take his attitude a second longer, she slammed the phone down without hitting the Off button first. She hoped it hurt his eardrums. Nothing was likely to hurt his oversize ego.

  When lunchtime rolled around, Maddie was still seething about being the subject of gossip over at Wharton’s Pharmacy. She decided the best way to diffuse it was to march into the place with her head held high. As long as she was right there in plain view, no one was likely to say a word about her. And maybe she could set Grace straight about a few things while she was at it. The truth might not be half as much fun for Grace to spread, but she would no doubt repeat whatever Maddie told her.

  Unfortunately, though, Maddie wasn’t quite brave enough to face down everyone alone. She picked up the phone and called her mother, who, thanks to her fame and her eccentricities, had had her own share of experiences with the town rumor mill.

  “Do you have lunch plans?” she asked without bothering with any pleasantries.

  “No. Why?” her mother asked.

  “Apparently Cal and I are the hottest item on the menu today at Wharton’s. I’d like to go over there and put a stop to it, but I could use backup.”

  “Count me in. Grace Wharton is a wonderful, kind woman who’d give anyone the shirt off her back—but not before she fills them in on the latest gossip.”

  “I’ll swing by and pick you up,” Maddie said. “Ten minutes?”

  “I’ll be ready,” her mother said. “Want me to bring along the shotgun I’m rumored to have in the hall closet?”

  Maddie chuckled, knowing her mother’s hatred of guns and also how that particular rumor got started. When some neighborhood kids had targeted her mother for a few pranks, Paula Vreeland had gone to the gun range and made a tape recording of weapons being discharged. She’d played it at top volume just when the kids were sneaking around her house and pretty much put the fear of God into them.

  The next day there wasn’t a soul in Serenity who wasn’t talking about the wacky artist who’d pulled a shotgun on a bunch of kids. Even the police had come by to see if her weapon was registered, only to discover that the only gun on the premises was on a tape recording. But they’d kept her secret, the pranks had stopped, and the rumors had never died.

  “I think we can handle this without weapons,” Maddie said.

  Twenty minutes later, when they walked into the drugstore and everyone in the place fell silent, Maddie almost regretted her decision to confront the situation head-on. She and her mother slipped into the one available booth. Maddie grabbed a menu and hid behind it. Her mother tugged it out of her hands.

  “Look them straight in the eye,” Paula advised. “You have nothing to hide, remember?”

  “Would you tell me why I’m suddenly some kind of tramp or something when no one said a single word about what Bill and Noreen did.”

  Her mother regarded her with astonishment. “Of course they did. They said plenty, just not in front of you. People respect you too much to want to embarrass you.”

  “Not anymore, apparently.”

  “Sweetheart, this is today’s news. Tomorrow it will be someone else. All you have to do is hold your head up. In fact, I have an idea.”

  Maddie regarded her nervously. Her mother’s ideas tended to border on the outrageous. “What?”

  “Come on,” Paula said, stepping out of the booth. “Come with me.”

  “We’re leaving?” Maddie asked eagerly and slid from the booth.

  “Of course not. We’re going to say hello to a few people. Let’s start with the mayor.”

  She latched on to Maddie’s hand and dragged her straight to the booth where the mayor held court every day at noon.

  “Good afternoon, Howie,” Paula said, using the familiar form that only those who’d known the man since grade school could get away with. “How’ve you been?”

  Howard Lewis’s complexion paled. “Fine, just fine,” he blustered. “How about you? And you, Maddie? How’s that little club of yours coming along?”

  “We’re almost ready for our grand opening,” Maddie said. “I hope to see you and Mrs. Lewis there.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “Always like to support new businesses in town.”

  “And the rest of you?” Maddie inquired, turning to his companions—the town’s primary insurance agent, a real-estate broker and a retired marine. “Will you be coming with your wives? I know you were on the invitation list.”

  “Imagine so,” Realtor Harmon Jackson said without much enthusiasm. “Delia hates missing anything that’s going on in town. She always wants to be first to know what’s happening.”

  “I imagine Coach Maddox will be there,” Wilson McDermott said, then gasped in pain. He scowled at the mayor, who’d apparently stomped on his foot under the table. “What’d you do that for?”

  Maddie drew in a deep breath. This was her chance and she knew it. “I imagine he didn’t want me to get the idea that y’all had been talking about the coach and me just before I walked over here,” she said cheerfully, then beamed at the mayor. “Isn’t that right?”

  Since the mayor seemed speechless, she shrugged. “Not that there’s anything to say about the two of us, of course. Coach Maddox has been real good to my son, since Ty’s his star pitcher,” she told them. “The whole family is grateful to him. He even had a Major League scout here last week to take a look at Ty. Maybe you could tell folks that if the subject comes up.” She turned back to her mother. “I’m starved. Maybe we should order.”

  “Good idea,” Paula said, barely containing a grin. As they walked away, she murmured, “Maybe they won’t even be able to choke down their lunch after all that crow they’ve had to eat.”

  Back in their booth, Maddie took a long swallow of the chocolate milk shake that Grace had automatically brought for her. Then she met her mother’s gaze. “That was almost fun.”

  “Indeed it was,” her mother agreed, then sighed. “It won’t be the end of it, you know.”

  “No, but maybe the talk will die down at least for the rest of the day.”

  “You can always dream,” Paula said. “But frankly, I wouldn’t waste my dreams on the likes of them. I’d stick to Cal. That’s the kind of fantasy that can keep you warm at night.”

  “It’s also the one that’s making me the talk of the town.”

  “What do you care, if he’s with you at the end of the day?”
>
  “But he’s not,” Maddie said emphatically.

  Her mother patted her hand. “Give it time. He will be.”

  Maddie, puzzled, studied her mother. “And that’s okay with you?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “You don’t think it makes me look foolish or pathetic?”

  “Sweetheart, if a man like Cal falls for you, there is nothing foolish or pathetic about you. The only people who say otherwise are jealous. It’s that simple. Follow your heart, Maddie. It won’t steer you wrong.”

  Maddie wished she shared her mother’s confidence in that.

  17

  Cal was in his office a half hour before baseball practice when Ty walked in without bothering to knock. Looking as if he was spoiling for a fight, he slammed the door behind him.

  Cal met his stormy gaze with a steady look. “You seem upset.”

  “Gee, you think?” Ty retorted, dropping his backpack on the floor.

  Cal frowned at him. “Okay, cut the attitude and sit down. Do you have a pass to be out of class?”

  “No,” Ty said belligerently.

  “Then this must be important,” Cal said, trying to remain calm. He’d done everything he could to cut the kid some slack, but Ty was about to cross a line in a way Cal wouldn’t tolerate. He wanted to be sure Ty understood that. “I’ll make sure you have a note this time, but don’t expect me to do it again. There are procedures you need to follow. Understood?”

  Ty’s hard stare challenged him, but it was the boy who blinked first. “Yeah, I guess,” he said finally.

  “Okay, then. Which class did you cut?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ty said sullenly. “I can deal with it.”

  Cal barely contained a sigh. “It matters if the teacher decides to throw you into detention for cutting. That means you’d miss our last practice before our first playoff game. Let’s try not to let it go that far.”

  “Okay, okay. It’s just history. I’m acing it. Mrs. Reed doesn’t care what I do.”

  “Trust me, she cares,” Cal said, jotting down a note to the history teacher and signing it. “You can give her this when you leave here.”

  “It’s last period,” Ty said. “I may as well cut the whole class. I’ll take the note in tomorrow.”

  “No, you’ll take it today,” Cal stressed. “Even if the last bell has rung.”

  “But then I’ll be late for practice,” Ty protested.

  “And you know the consequences for that,” Cal said.

  Ty regarded him with dismay. “You’d make me run laps?”

  “If you’re late, yes, so let’s get this conversation over with so you can get to your history class before school lets out. And when you see Mrs. Reed, you might want to add an apology of your own.”

  “Whatever,” Ty said, stuffing the note into his backpack.

  Cal leaned back in his chair and studied his star pitcher. “So? Let’s hear it.”

  Ty leveled a defiant look straight into Cal’s eyes. “Are you and my mom getting it on?” he asked bluntly.

  Cal stared at him, stunned by his audacity. “Excuse me?”

  “You know what I mean,” Ty said. “I want to know if you and my mom are—”

  Cal cut him off before he could use the crude word Cal was pretty sure was on the tip of the boy’s tongue. “I know what you meant. I just wonder why you think you have a right to ask such a thing.”

  “She’s my mom,” Ty said heatedly. “That gives me a right.”

  Cal could see the turmoil in Ty’s eyes and felt for him. It must be hell to have one parent go off and start a new relationship and then discover that the other parent might be getting involved with someone new as well. He wondered how Maddie would want him to handle this. Unfortunately, she wasn’t here and Ty was. And Cal only knew one way to deal with kids—be honest. Still, he wasn’t entirely ready to be discussing his sex life—or his much-anticipated sex life—with one of his students.

  “Would it really bother you if I were seeing your mother?” he asked carefully.

  “Is that some polite way of asking if it’s okay for you to, you know…”

  “Actually, no. I was only referring to dating,” Cal said. “Are you worried about all this because your mom invited me to dinner tomorrow night?”

  Ty nodded. “It’s kinda creepy.”

  Cal had anticipated the dinner might be more of a problem than Maddie had thought. Teenagers generally didn’t like the idea of their parents having a sex life, whether it was with each other or someone else. That was at the core of Ty’s animosity toward Noreen, he sensed.

  Wanting to be sure he understood exactly what bothered Ty the most, he asked, “Creepy how?”

  “I don’t like to think about my parents…you know.” He flushed as he confirmed Cal’s guess. “I mean, I know my dad and Noreen must have, ’cause she’s gonna have a baby, but you and my mom? No way.” He regarded Cal earnestly. “I mean, you’re my coach and even kinda my friend. She’s way older than you, too. I don’t want the guys on the team making all sorts of comments about you and my mom.”

  “You think they’d talk about us?” Cal asked, already knowing the answer. Of course they would.

  “Sure,” Ty said. “Everybody else in town’s going to talk, too. They do about my dad. Even though they try to shut up when they know I’m around, I’ve heard plenty of stuff and none of it’s very nice. I don’t want ’em talking about my mom like that.”

  “You shouldn’t let what other people say bother you or control what you do,” Cal told him, though he knew that was tough to do when you were a kid and all you wanted was to fit in. He and Maddie were having a tough enough time grappling with it at their ages.

  “My dad says that, too,” Ty said. “I figure it’s a crock. Nobody wants their private business spread all over town.”

  “True enough, but let’s leave the gossip factor aside for the moment,” Cal suggested. “You realize that your mom shouldn’t be—and probably won’t be—by herself forever. She deserves to meet someone and fall in love again.”

  Ty’s eyes widened. “She’s in love with you?”

  Cal held up his hand. “No, I’m not saying that. Right now your mother and I are good friends. We enjoy spending time together. I’d like to keep on seeing her and get to know you, your brother and sister better, too. Could you, maybe, allow us that? If you make it too big a deal, she might decide to stop seeing me.”

  “Maybe that would be best,” Ty said.

  “Even if I can make her happy?” Cal asked.

  Ty frowned at the question. “What makes you think you can make her happy?”

  “To be honest, that’s why people date, to see if they can make each other happy,” Cal explained. “Look, give it some thought. I’ll make you a promise. If things do get serious between your mom and me, I’ll talk it over with you first. See how you feel about it then.” He shrugged. “Maybe you’ll even like having me around a little more.”

  Ty studied him intently. “You’d really care what I think?”

  “Of course. I know how important you, Kyle and Katie are to your mom, so you’re part of the package. I certainly don’t want to replace your dad in your lives, but I would want us to get along. You’re a great kid, Ty. I know what you can do on a ball field and I know how smart you are, but I’d like the chance to discover what else there is about you that makes you unique. The same with Kyle and Katie.”

  Cal gave Ty a moment to digest this before he said, “Okay? You feel better now?”

  “I guess,” Ty said, then added grudgingly, “And I guess it would be okay if you come to dinner tomorrow.” His gaze challenged Cal. “As long as there’s no funny stuff going on, if you know what I mean.”

  Cal bit back a grin. “No funny stuff. Got it. Now, take that note back to class so you don’t wind up in detention and miss practice.”

  Ty took off, dragging his backpack behind him. Cal stared after him. What on earth was he get
ting himself into? Knowing he was ready for a relationship with Maddie was one thing. Knowing he’d have to form strong relationships with her two teenage boys and their little sister was quite another. Maybe he was in way over his head.

  Oddly enough, though, he no longer felt even the slightest inclination to bail.

  After the episode at Wharton’s, Maddie buried herself in work. She’d made arrangements with her mother to pick up the kids after school and take them out for dinner so she could work into the evening. Maybe if she dealt with all the last-minute crises at the spa, she wouldn’t have to deal with the far more complicated crisis that Cal represented.

  So far, though, it wasn’t working. She still had plenty of time to wonder if she was doing the right thing by having him over for dinner tomorrow night despite Ty’s emphatic objections and Bill’s ridiculous determination to interfere in her life.

  Since she wasn’t accomplishing much anyway, she opened the screened, sliding glass door to let in a breeze, climbed onto one of the treadmills and set it into motion. The sun was setting outside the window, splashing orange and pink light over the last of the azaleas and the dark green forest of trees just beyond the creek. The breeze brought with it the scent of rain, and she saw darker clouds start to roll across the horizon from the west. A crack of lightning split the sky and the last rays of the sunset disappeared behind the clouds. She took a deep breath and ran a little faster, as if trying to outrun the storm.

  She was just working up a good sweat when Cal suddenly appeared on the other side of the screen. Startled, she stumbled and nearly rolled off the back of the machine.

  “Sorry,” Cal said, sprinting inside to catch her and shut down the machine at the same time.

  She poked him in the chest. “Dammit, Cal, you scared me!”

  “Sorry,” he said. “The front door was locked, but I saw your car out front and the lights on around here.”

  “You’re wet,” she said, still trembling, either from the fright, from her workout or perhaps just from being held in his arms. Most likely the last. God, he felt good. Smelled good, too. She breathed in the musky masculine scent.