Linda Warren - Madison's Children

In less than thirty minutes he was back. Earl was passed out on the sofa. Verna, his wife, said everything was fine. Ginny seconded that and Walker felt a lot better.

He fell into bed exhausted, but the worry over his kids was always there. What was he going to do? He needed help.

Blue eyes edged their way into his subconscious. His eyes popped open. Madison Belle. It was hard to explain his reaction to her. When he was a senior in high school, he and his dad had gone on a fishing trip to the Gulf Coast. They’d rented a cabin on a secluded cove outside Rockport, Texas. The cabin was shaded with gnarled, bent oaks, tempered and tried by the Gulf winds. The water in the cove held him mesmerized. It was the purest blue he’d ever seen, as if it had been untouched by nature and its wrath. He thought he’d never see that color again.

Until he looked into Madison’s eyes.

She had that same purity. That same quality of not being tainted by the ups and downs of life. It had to be an illusion. No woman could be as pure or as good as Madison appeared.

For a cynical man like himself, he knew it was an illusion. His motto was to avoid the woman in case she could look into his soul and see all his sins.

MADISON SLEPT VERY LITTLE. She couldn’t stop thinking and worrying about Walker’s kids. And Ginny. She was so young to be pregnant. Her family situation seemed dire, and she wondered how the girl would cope?

A baby.

Maddie would give everything she had for a child. It seemed so unfair, but she’d come to grips with her situation long ago. Every time she thought about it, though, she felt that empty place inside her that would never be filled.

She had a ready-made family waiting for her in Philadelphia. All she had to do was accept Victor’s marriage proposal. Victor’s wife had died five years ago, leaving an eleven-and a fourteen-year-old who needed a mother in their lives. But Victor was a friend, a very dear friend. She didn’t have passionate feelings for him. Hadn’t even gone to bed with him. She’d told him how she felt, and he’d said those emotions would come later. She didn’t believe that.

Soon she’d have to go home and face Victor and her future. But for now her life was here on High Five. Maybe she was in denial. Maybe she was hiding. Or maybe she believed in miracles and love.

She went to sleep with that thought.

The next morning she dressed in jeans, a pearl-snap shirt and boots, her customary garb. Oh, yes, she was a cowgirl now and she was getting damn good at it.

She hurried to Gran’s room as she did every morning. Gran was up and winding her white hair into its usual knot at her nape.

“Good morning, my baby.” Gran smiled at her.

Maddie sat on the stool beside her in front of the mirror. Gran called her three granddaughters “baby.” At thirty-one, Maddie was past being a baby, but it was useless to mention that to Gran.

“Caitlyn’s coming to pick me up. I’m going to Southern Cross for a visit,” Gran told her, patting her hair.

Maddie lifted an eyebrow. “So the honeymooners are having company?”

Gran slipped on her comfortable shoes. “I’m not company. I’m the grandmother. Besides, we were all at Southern Cross for Thanksgiving.”

“Everyone but Sky.” Maddie worried about her baby sister and wished Sky would just come home.

“Sky has a mind of her own.”

“Mmm.” Maddie linked her arm through the older woman’s. “Let’s go down for breakfast.”

“Yes, my baby. It’s the first day of December and we have to start thinking about the upcoming holiday.”

Maddie would rather not. But soon she’d have to tell her mother that once again she wouldn’t be in Philly for Christmas.

The scent of homemade biscuits met them in the hallway. “Oh, my, isn’t that wonderful?”

“Makes my mouth water,” Gran replied.

Etta pulled a pan of biscuits out of the oven as they entered the kitchen. “Good morning, lazy bugs.”

Maddie glanced at the clock. It was barely seven, but she saw the dirty plates on the table. Cooper and Rufus had already eaten and gone.

Grabbing a biscuit, she juggled it to the table. It was hot, hot, hot. She opened it on a napkin and dribbled honey over it. Picking it up, she headed for the door. She had to catch up with Cooper and Rufus.

She took a bite of the biscuit and stopped in the doorway. First, she had something else to do.

“I need to make a phone call,” she said to Gran and Etta.

On the way to her study, she finished off the biscuit. Damn, she’d forgotten her coffee. Where was her brain? In Worryville.

She licked her fingers and punched out the number Cait had given her yesterday. Walker’s number. He answered on the first ring.

“This is Madison Belle,” she said quickly.

“Ms. Belle.” His deep, strong voice came through loud and clear. “Is there a problem?”

She curled her sticky fingers around the receiver. “No. I was just wondering how the kids are?”

“Mine are fine. Haley’s getting ready for school and Georgie’s eating breakfast. Anything else?”

Yes. Lose the attitude.

“And Ginny?” she asked without even pausing.

The silence on the other end was loaded with four-letter words, and they weren’t nice.

She waited, licking her fingers.

After a moment he replied, “Ginny is fine, too. I had a talk with her father about what was going to happen to him if he hits her again. I checked on her last night and the family was fine.”

“That was so sweet of you.”

“I’m not sweet, Ms. Belle,” he shot back in a voice tighter than a rusted padlock.

“But your gesture was,” she reminded him just because it annoyed him so much.

“Anything else, Ms. Belle?” The way he said Ms. Belle was beginning to irritate the crap out of her.

“You might try working some of that ‘sweet’ into your attitude.” The words were out before she could stop them. Not that she tried very hard.

“And you might try minding your own business.”

“Ginny needs someone to help her, and I’m beginning to think that Haley might, too.” After saying that, she slammed down the phone.

She reached up to see if steam was gushing out of her ears. She was so angry. How could he be so…so ungrateful? And stern. And rigid. And infuriating.

Blood pumped through her veins with renewed fervor. She hadn’t felt this angry in a very long time. She took a long breath and blew it out her mouth. Mr. Attitude hadn’t heard the last of her.

MADDIE HURRIED TO THE BARN to catch up with Coop and Ru. A little exercise was what she needed to untangle all the anger inside her. After all, Walker was the children’s father and she was sticking her nose into his business. But she cared. Children were her weakness. In this situation, though, she needed to tread carefully. Or not. Annoying Walker might become the highlight of her day.

In the doorway to the barn, she stopped short. Cooper was shoving bullets into a rifle, and Rufus held another one in his hand. Her heart skipped a beat.

“What’s going on?”

Coop turned to her. “Ru got a call from Mr. Peevy. Wild dogs killed two of his baby calves last night. We have to be prepared.”

“Prepared?”

Coop handed her the rifle, and she just stared at it. “Put it in the scabbard of your saddle.”

She shook her head. “Oh, no. I don’t do the gun thing, and since you’re on probation, you shouldn’t, either.”

His face darkened. “I promised Cait to help you run High Five, and I’m not going to let a pack of feral dogs slaughter our calf crop.”

She could see the anger in his eyes, which was very rare. Ever since he had the fight with the man who had framed him, Coop kept his anger on a tight leash. Although Coop was cleared of all wrongdoing in the killing of the horses, he was on probation for the assault. The man refused to drop the charges. Maddie understood Coop’s anger. Anyone would have lashed out at being used as a scapegoat in an insurance scam, but she didn’t want him to get into any more trouble.