Page 62 of Grumpy

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The diner was quaint, but it was no Mount Grove Diner. It reminded Grumpy of the ones around base in his Army days, the ones in desperate need of renovation and menu update. Soldiers flocked to them anyway because they got a discount and didn’t require a cab ride to journey off base for a quick bite. Even when one was shut down following an E. coli outbreak, a much younger Grumpy had still missed the rough taste of their burgers, which he and his shop mates used to joke had been marinated in diesel fuel.

Grumpy could understand why this one was a college hangout. Fries and a milkshake at three in the morning would certainly hit the spot while studying for an exam. What he didn’t like was the lack of security. A young woman studying alone, out at night… He didn’t want to envision his little Mads getting into that sort of trouble.

Then again, he’d just met the sort of man she thought worthy of dating her. Grumpy would have to work on changing Maddie’s opinion of herself if she thought that was the best she deserved or could do.

An old man greeted Maddie with familiarity when they entered. From the way his eyes dropped to her belly and then to Jackson, it was obvious who he thought the father was. The man led their group over to a corner booth. Kelly and Grumpy took one side while Maddie took the other. Jackson sat at the table between them and the door with his back to the booth.

Good. A smart prospect lived longer.

When the old man returned with menus, he seemed taken aback by Jackson’s choice of seats, though he still offered Jackson a menu.

“Thank you, Bert,” Maddie mumbled. It broke Grumpy’s heart to see her eyes welling again with unshed tears.

The old man, Bert, took their drink orders and then left them to peruse the menu.

Maddie laid her menu flat on the table, rubbing her hands against the peeling laminate like she thought she could wipe away years of grease smudges and sticky fingerprints. “I don’t even know where to start.”

Grumpy wasn’t overly hungry, but he also knew he was low on calories for that day. He doubted that the diner had a puree cookbook handy, though. He’d likely get soup and mashed potatoes or something like that.

Kelly had taken the slider seat since it would have taken Grumpy far too long to maneuver himself into the corner. And regardless of Jackson’s presence, Grumpy would have been extremely uncomfortable allowing Kelly to take the more vulnerable seat. Thankfully there were only a few other patrons in the small diner, and they were seated away from Grumpy’s party.

“How about I start?” Grumpy offered. He held Kelly’s left hand under the table with his right.

Maddie glanced up from not reading the menu, her blue eyes grateful. She nodded silently.

“I’m not sure what your mom told you, but this is what happened from my perspective.” Grumpy’s mouth was already starting to get dry, and he hoped that Bert would hurry up with their drinks. “The last day I saw you, I came home from base to find your mom crying, bent over the kitchen table. My first thought was that someone had died. But as soon as she heard me approach, she stood up, flinging accusations at me. Asking me things like ‘how could you’ and calling me every name in the book. I still had no idea what it was she was talking about. It took several minutes before I realized she was accusing me of cheating on her.”

Bert approached, handling a tray of drinks with practiced ease despite his advanced years. When he asked if they knew what they wanted for food, they asked for a bit more time to decide.

As Bert walked away, Maddie said softly, “Mom tried to shield me from it at first. All she would tell me was that she was filing for divorce and you were no longer welcome in our home. I wasn’t to speak to you or see you. If I did, I was to call the police. It was months later when I tried to run away to find you that she confessed the whole truth, that she had proof of numerous affairs you’d had with women on the base.”

Grumpy swallowed hard, feeling like he had a tennis ball caught in this throat. “I didn’t do it, Mads. I never cheated on your mom.”

Maddie held his gaze for a long moment before she nodded. “I know. I think she did, too, though she never came out to say it. Her pride was too hurt by the time she pieced it all together, and by then, she’d met my new stepfather.”

From the venom in her voice, Maddie had no love for the man who had married her mom.

Grumpy reached across the table with the hand that wasn’t gripping Kelly’s. “I heard about your mom. I’m so sorry, Mads.”

She let out a low, humorless chuckle. “No one’s called me ‘Mads’ in years. Around the time I turned fifteen, I was such a troublesome teenager that even Mom didn’t bother with ‘Maddie’ anymore. It was always ‘Madison’.” She wiped under her eyes, though no tears fell. “We weren’t exactly on speaking terms when she died.”

Grumpy frowned. Tanya and Maddie had been extremely close when he’d been with them. “What happened?”

“Teenage hormones and me being so pissed at her for replacing you with such a crappy human being that we were barely even speaking by the time I hit high school. Add in a stepfather who hated me if he wasn’t hinting that he would love to sleep with me when I turned eighteen, and my home life wasn’t exactly magazine worthy.” Bitterness laced her voice.

Grumpy didn’t give a damn about her teenage rebellion. What he cared very much about was her comment about her stepfather’s unwanted advances. “Did he hurt you? Touch you?”

Mads blinked, like it took her a second to realize what Grumpy was referring to. “No,” she shook her head. “I was never home enough for him to try.”

That was not a good enough excuse in Grumpy’s book. “What about Tanya? I can’t believe she would ever allow anyone into her life that might be a threat to you.”

Tanya had had her faults, but he never would have accused her of being a bad mother.

Maddie sniffled, and Kelly used her free hand to pull a pack of tissues from her purse to hand to Maddie. She smiled in gratitude as she dabbed at her eyes. “I think after you, she was too ashamed. She would have stuck by Rupert—that’s the asshat’s name, by the way—to the bitter end. It was like he could do no wrong. I tried to suggest she get help, but she wouldn’t listen. I got out as soon as I could.”

Grumpy let go of Mads’ hand to pull his phone out of his coat pocket.