His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,63
it matters now. Don’t you get it? I crushed her. In public. In front of the idiots she was trying so hard to impress. Worse, I made her feel like she has to apologize for who she is. She left me.”
“Good for her. By the way, you look like hell—which means you’ve probably already figured out how precious she is to you. You’re not going to let her go back to Austin, are you?”
“How the hell am I going to stop her?”
“Why don’t you go over to Miss Jennie’s and throw yourself on her mercy? Crawl. Grovel. She’s not like the hard-hearted gossips who despise her. Unlike them, she’s got the softest heart in the universe. You love her. And she loves you. What else really matters?”
* * *
Maddie felt like throwing the phone at the wall.
“What? I can’t believe you sent him over here! Well, I don’t want to talk to him, Adam!” Maddie cried. “I’m packing, so I’m going to hang up!”
“No, you’re not! Because I’m your future brother-in-law. And you’re not that rude.”
Through her tears Maddie stared at the brightly colored T-shirts spilling out of the suitcases on her bed.
“What part of ‘I broke it off with him’ don’t you understand? He’ll never respect me! So, no, I don’t want to talk to him. If you send him over here, I won’t answer the door.”
“He looks terrible,” Adam said.
“That’s not my fault.”
“He loves you.”
“No, he doesn’t. Not if he thinks I’m capable of the same sort of low, despicable tricks my mother’s capable of.”
“You’re wrong. I’m not saying he didn’t behave like a fool. Or that he didn’t totally embarrass you. He did. He messed up because he loves you. Guys only screw up big-time with the women they love. Lyle hit a nerve, and Cole lost it.”
“Look, I have to go. I’m throwing things in my suitcases as we speak.”
“Now you’re being an even bigger fool than he was. You two are good for each other. You know it. Have you ever been this mad at anybody else before? Or felt this hurt?”
“No!”
“See there!”
“You’re crazy! I’m hanging up!”
“Don’t throw it all away. Relationships always require some give along with the take. He’s Noah’s father. You grew up without a father just like I did. Do you want to do that to Noah?”
“That last was a low blow.”
“He hurt you. Get over it.”
No sooner had she hung up the phone than Miss Jennie appeared at the door. “Who was that, dear?”
“Cole’s interfering brother. Adam was trying to talk me into forgiving Cole.”
“But you’re much too angry to even consider that, aren’t you?”
“This has nothing to do with anger. It has to do with the fact that Cole will always see me as Jesse Ray’s daughter. And I’ve always tried so hard to be more than that.”
“You’ve always been more than that.”
“You see it. You always saw it. But Cole isn’t capable of seeing it.”
“He is a man with a man’s blindness, but I believe he loves you, and that no matter what his failings, he’s always loved you. Maybe tonight made him realize who you really are.”
“And snakes can fly.”
“Horrid thought,” Miss Jennie said, causing Maddie to smile. Miss Jennie paused. “You know that I lost my darling Raymond in the Korean War, and I never found anybody else.”
“I know.”
“Think about that. You could go your whole life and never find anyone you love half as much as you love Cole. Or find a man who loves you as much.”
Maddie was silent as she considered the long, lonely years that would stretch ahead. For no reason at all, she thought of the intense way Cole looked at her sometimes.
“Raymond’s dead, so I could place him on a pedestal. I can always think of him as absolutely perfect. I’ve conveniently forgotten all our silly squabbles and his many faults. It’s really quite nice to have this perfect fantasy lover who never disappoints you. But life can be so messy. I think all men, however desirable, are the messiest of creatures. They have such limitations. Cole fell back into old habits, old thought patterns. Look at his mother, the woman who raised him. I never told anyone in Yella this, but she and I grew up in the same town. Did you know she grew up poor? That she was abandoned in a Dumpster as a baby by a teenage mother who was sent to prison? That she wasn’t adopted by the wealthy family who raised her until she