His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,56
a way!”
“How effective to tell Cole now…when he’s free again. How else could a girl like you get him to consider marrying you? You don’t care what you cost him, do you?”
Maddie did care. “Does Cole know you’re here?”
“That’s hardly the point. He may be a fool, but I’m not. I’m here to offer you a generous settlement, in cash, if you refuse to marry him.”
With her rage and hurt simmering just beneath the surface, Maddie stood up. “This interview is over. I want you to leave my office.”
“What? You can’t throw me out!” Outraged, Hester arose. “When you’ve cut him off from everybody he’s known and loved his entire life, how long do you think you’ll continue to fascinate him? He’ll resent you,” Hester cried. “Eventually he’ll leave you.”
“Maybe.” Maddie picked up her purse. “But you’re risking as much as I am. You have a grandson. Do you want to lose him? Do you want to be cut out of his life forever? Is that what you really want?”
Color flamed in Hester’s cheeks. “No, but whatever sorrows I might be experiencing as a grandmother, my real distress has to do with my son for becoming involved with a woman who will ruin his life. If you were any kind of mother, you would understand.”
* * *
Maddie, who hadn’t been able to eat more than a couple of saltine crackers after Hester left, had felt so weak and shaken she’d barely been able to function for the rest of the afternoon. Her anger and sense of injustice ate at her. Indeed, she was so upset she made a mess of every project she touched. Finally, she grew so frustrated with herself for letting the woman’s words get to her, she went home early.
Once home, she took her phone off the hook and tortured herself by replaying the older woman’s vicious looks and cruel slights in her mind. Was Hester right about Maddie’s background making her unfit to be Cole’s wife? Would their marriage cut him off from everybody he knew and loved? He had said he thought they should live in Austin, so the past wouldn’t cloud their future. But she knew what Coleman’s Landing meant to him.
After a miserable hour spent beating up on herself for no crime other than having been born who she was, she dragged herself out of the depths and reconnected her telephone. When Cole called five minutes later to ask about her day, she didn’t mention Hester’s visit. Instead, she gave him the dates for her upcoming visit to Yella.
“Maybe we should put that off and just enjoy each other for a while.”
She sensed his hesitation and doubt. He’d been sweet and understanding when she’d told him about Vernon. But would he fight for her? Did he truly believe in her?
Or did he just want Noah?
Sixteen
Cole looked up from his desk just as his mother’s Lincoln pulled up to Coleman’s Landing in a cloud of dust. He got up slowly and strode outside to greet her, letting the screen door bang behind him. She’d been on a tear ever since Maddie and Noah had moved in with Miss Jennie for Maddie’s visit. When his mother frowned, he knew he was in for it.
“It’s hot. I could do with an iced soda,” she said coolly when he met her at the door holding a cup of coffee.
He led her inside and brought a soda to the den where she waited for him. “Why did you drive over here when you could have called more easily?” he asked.
“Because I can’t stand the way you flaunt your relationship with Jesse Ray’s girl so publicly, Cole.”
“Maddie’s my fiancée, Mother.”
“I’m sick of everybody telling me where they’ve seen her and that gaudy ring you gave her. Sick of the way people are laughing behind your back.”
“You’ve got a lot of influence on the women in this town. Tell them you won’t listen to another bad thing about Maddie, and a lot of them will shut up.”
Cole hated the way his mother and the people in the town acted toward Maddie, lifting their noses and staring at her coldly, even when she was on his arm and Noah was with them. It was as if they were more against her than ever—just because he planned to marry her. He’d had words with nearly everybody in town. “Maddie is an educated woman who spends her life trying to help the less fortunate.”
“I have no doubt about her ability to relate to