Cold feet(54)
Author: Brenda Novak

Madison felt a blush of pleasure at the compliment, but she liked Caleb’s mother for more than her impeccable manners. She liked the air of authority Justine carried, and the high place she held in her family’s esteem. Madison wished her own family hadn’t been torn apart, especially in such an unusual way. The suspicion surrounding her father had separated her from almost everyone else, even friends of hers who’d suffered through calamities such as divorce, abuse or the death of a loved one.

"I’m ready for dinner. Can we eat?" Tamara said.

"Shouldn’t we wait for Mac?" Justine asked.

"We can’t do that or we’ll all starve," her daughter replied.

THROUGH THE FIRST PART of dinner, Madison felt Caleb’s eyes on her often and glanced up to see him smile. She loved that smile, even though it seemed to make a mockery of her puny attempts to hang on to her heart.

As the meal progressed, Caleb began looking out into the hallway, where Mac was talking to a client or someone else on his phone. Tamara had been carrying on as though her husband’s extended absence from the table didn’t bother her, but her smile had grown brittle and Madison was starting to realize how much it upset her. She could tell Caleb was coming to the same conclusion. Especially when, just before coffee and dessert, he excused himself from the dinner table and slipped out.

A few seconds later, he came back, and this time Mac was with him.

"Sorry that took so long," Tamara’s husband said, completely nonchalant in his tardiness. "It was pretty important."

"On a Saturday?" Tamara said.

He shrugged. "Business is business."

Madison caught a subtle glance between Justine and Logan, but neither parent made any comment. Justine simply smiled and asked Mac if she could reheat his plate.

"No, thanks," he told her and turned to Caleb. "So how are things going on the case?"

Case? What case? Madison waited for Caleb’s response, but everything became a little stilted at that point. Justine’s fingers seemed to tighten on her wineglass. Tamara put down her fork, and Logan hesitated with his water halfway to his mouth.

Caleb was the only one who continued eating. "Work’s going well, as usual. How about you, Mac? You getting that business you were telling me about off the ground?"

Everyone’s eyes went to Mac, and the tension eased as he launched into a zealous explanation of why the next few months were going to make him a rich man in the import-export business. He rambled on and on, while everyone sat quietly, waiting for him to come to an end–or realize that he was going into far more detail than anyone cared to know.

Madison watched Tamara, mostly, and noticed the way her eyes flicked from her sons to her brother and finally to her husband. She was obviously struggling with some emotion, and Madison didn’t have to be psychic to know that it was because of her husband’s preoccupation with himself and his business.

"Are we all ready for coffee and ice cream?" Justine asked when Mac had finally finished eating.

"I don’t think so," Tamara said. "Mac and I had better get back. I have a lot of laundry to do and…and I was going to finish painting the downspouts before it got dark."

Mac’s cell phone had vibrated twice while he ate. Each time he’d paused to check the caller ID, obviously tempted by what he might be missing. But each time, he’d looked at Caleb and pushed the End button. It was then that Madison knew Caleb had said more to him than a simple, "Your dinner’s getting cold."

"I want dessert," Mac said. Then his phone vibrated again, and he changed his mind about dessert and left the room.

His "Hello, this is Mac Bly" floated back to them as he moved away.

Caleb reached over and took his sister’s hand.

Madison saw that Tamara was fighting tears, and the sympathy of her family was only making it worse, so she quickly stood. "Maybe you wouldn’t mind showing me your house, Tamara," she said, to offer the other woman an easy retreat.

Tamara glanced up at her in surprise. "Sure. Excuse us for a few minutes, will you?" she managed to say, and immediately ducked out of the room.

Madison hesitated, giving her a few seconds’ lead.

"Is something wrong with Mom?" Jacob asked. At least Madison thought it was Jacob. The boys looked so much alike it was difficult to tell, but she was reasonably sure Jacob was the one in the blue shirt. Thank goodness Tamara hadn’t dressed them alike.

"She’s fine, dear," Justine said. "She’s just eager to show Madison your pretty house. She’s put a lot of work into that house, you know."

The way Justine said it indicated Tamara was the only one working on the house, but she was certain the boys didn’t pick up on that.

"Uh-oh," Joey groaned, nudging Jacob. "She’s gonna be mad at us for not cleaning our rooms."

"I promise not to notice, okay?" Madison said at the door, and followed Tamara out.

She found Caleb’s sister waiting for her on the back porch, wiping her eyes with her hand. "You going to be okay?" Madison asked, sitting down on the step next to her.

Tamara tried to shrug and ended up sniffing instead and wiping her eyes again. "Do you really want to see my house?"

"If you feel like showing it to me. Otherwise, we can just sit here until you’re ready to go back inside, and you can give me a tour some other day." If I’m ever invited back… Strangely, Madison was disappointed by the thought that she might not have another opportunity to come to this place and be with these people.

Tamara nodded but didn’t move, so Madison assumed the tour wasn’t going to happen today.

"It shouldn’t bother me, you know," Tamara muttered, sniffling again. "It’s just…I can’t get his attention for five minutes without an interruption, and the boys aren’t having much better luck. If he says he’ll come to one of their baseball games, he shows up when it’s nearly over and then he spends the short time he’s there standing in the background, where he can’t even see, talking on the damn phone."

"My ex-husband was like that," Madison said.

Caleb’s sister propped her chin in one hand, looking dejected. "Is that why you divorced him?"

"No, I was going through some other stuff at the time and didn’t get around to considering our relationship, let alone acknowledging that I’d become very dissatisfied with it. He left me for another woman."

"I’m sorry."

Madison was surprised to find that it didn’t bother her nearly as much as it used to. "Don’t be. In many ways, he did me a favor. Now I’m not saddled with the guilt of calling it quits, which I would’ve had to do at some point."