Cold feet(55)
Author: Brenda Novak

"Maybe that’s true for me, too, huh?" Tamara eyed her as though fearful she might agree.

"I don’t get that impression," Madison said. "I think you and your husband still have a good chance of working out your relationship. He’s just a little…preoccupied and needs to realize what he’s taking for granted."

The door opened behind them and they both turned as Caleb stepped outside, looking as sexy as always, despite the dark scowl on his face.

"What did you say to Mac?" Tamara asked when she saw it was her brother.

Caleb leaned on the railing. "Obviously not enough."

"You kept him off the phone for nearly fifteen minutes. That’s more of an accomplishment than you know."

"What’s the problem between you two?" he asked. "I thought things were going well. That’s what you always tell me."

"Isn’t that what you want to hear?"

"When I ask, I’m looking for the truth."

"In a way, things are going well. He hasn’t been unfaithful to me that I know of. He says he loves the boys and me. He just works twenty-four-seven, and in a good year he earns a living."

"In a good year?"

"Not every year is a good year."

"What about spending time with Jacob and Joey?"

"What about it?" She sniffed, looking resentful of her own tears. "I take care of them."

"That’s what I thought." Caleb sighed as he gazed out over the backyard. "When did it get so bad?"

Tamara shrugged. "I can’t name a particular time. It’s something that’s gotten progressively worse. He’s just so intent on becoming rich."

"At the sacrifice of everything else?"

"I don’t know," she said. "I haven’t tested him on that yet."

A large tabby cat hopped up the steps and started purring as it rubbed against Caleb’s legs. "Is that where the problems between you are going?" he asked.

Tamara didn’t answer. "Look at that," she said, motioning to the cat. "Even my Tabby likes you better than me. Isn’t that the story of my life?"

She’d said it jokingly, but Madison felt there might be a kernel of jealousy in those words.

"Are you serious?" Caleb said. "If you felt that way, why were you always working so hard to make sure nothing ever happened to me? ‘Don’t ride your bike in the street.’ ‘You’re not tall enough to go on that roller coaster.’ ‘Don’t go swimming in the creek without your life preserver.’ ‘Mom and Dad, Caleb snuck out again last night.’"

"You know why," she said gruffly.

He nudged her with his knee. "I don’t think I do."

"What a bonehead," Tamara muttered to Madison. "Because I love you, silly. First you were my baby brother, the very center of our family. Then you became the standard for everything I wanted in a husband."

Caleb blinked, then pinched the back of his neck. "Ah, Tammy. How am I supposed to hold all that tattling against you when you say things like that?"

Madison was beginning to feel she was part of a conversation better suited to privacy. She got up to head back inside, but Caleb hooked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him as casually as though they’d been dating for months. "Will you tell my poor sister that I’ve been a jerk and I’m sorry?" he said.

Madison grinned down at Tamara. "Caleb says he’s going to make up for all the grief he’s put you through in the past. He’ll stay with the boys next weekend and baby-sit while you and Mac get away and, hopefully, talk. He promises to keep in better touch in the future. And…" She paused to think, purposefully ignoring the are-you-nuts? expression on Caleb’s face "…oh yes, if you ever need money, you know right where to come."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to take care of those two boys?" he asked. In the face of baby-sitting, the promise of money was evidently minor, but she could tell he was only teasing, and it went far toward lightening the mood.

Tamara chuckled as she stood up, her tears now gone. "This girl’s something special," she said. "I think you should hang on to her."

"Wait a second," he said as his sister started back inside the house. "You’ve hated every woman I’ve ever brought home."

"So has everyone else," she said.

"Not Mom and Dad."

"Especially Mom and Dad." She cast a know-it-all smile over her shoulder just before the screen door slammed shut.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"THAT CAN’T BE TRUE," Caleb said in the wake of his sister’s departure. "I have good taste in women."

Madison laughed at his hurt-little-boy expression. "What don’t they like about your first wife?"

He pulled her down on the steps with him, keeping his arm around her, and Madison couldn’t bring herself to move away, not when sitting so close allowed her to breathe in the aroma of his clean warm skin. "Let’s see…I guess we could start with the fact that she’s insecure and clingy."

"And?"

"Temperamental. Basically high-maintenance."

"So you married her because…"

"I was young and stupid."

Madison playfully elbowed him in the ribs. "Come on, there has to be something you liked about her."

He pretended to think hard. "I liked being needed for a change. As the baby of the family, I’d spent my life being raised by two more-than-capable women."

"Your mother and your sister."

"Exactly. I was ready to assert myself as the caregiver, and Holly wanted someone to take care of her. It seemed like the perfect fit–at first. But I guess you’re right. I liked other things about her, too. I still do. I like the way she throws herself into everything wholeheartedly, usually without looking first. She’s childlike in her exuberance for the things and people she loves."

Madison was beginning to regret she’d asked. She no longer felt she had the luxury of throwing herself into anything, least of all a relationship. She had to be cautious. Unlike Holly, she had to look before she leaped. Certainly she didn’t compare well to the impetuous, trusting woman he’d married before….

"But I couldn’t live with the moodiness," he continued. "And she became so obsessive. She’d get jealous when anyone, male or female, wanted a few minutes of my time. She’d even throw a fit if I spoke to my mother more than once a month on the phone. She was just too insecure. I kept thinking that if I changed or she changed or we both did, it might work. But we’re just not compatible. I know that now."

"Why didn’t you try for another kid? It sounds as though you were together long enough after the miscarriage. And from what I saw with your nephews, you like children."