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“Oh that? Well, he’s a friend of a friend…of a friend. My husband was stationed overseas, and his best friend Logan is there. Morrison is in his group, and they all wanted a pen pal. I like to coordinate these things and well, it just works.”
Madison could practically picture the woman’s easy shrug in her mind – and sighed.
This wasn’t a favor or a friend, but rather plucking a name from a hat. She should be offended or frustrated, because it was rather like a blind date set up on paper… except they were becoming friends – and she truly could use someone on her side, that was currently imploding on itself.
“Just curious. Thanks.”
“Did something happen or change?” there was such an excited tone that Madison paused.
“Not really. I was just curious.”
“Ah, okay. Yeah. Let me know if anything changes.”
“What would change?”
“Nothing! Oh, nothing at all.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Gotta go, we’re testing.”
“Of course.”
Madison hung up the phone and smirked. Yeah, the woman was up to something, and barely hiding her intentions. Interesting. Somehow, she wanted her to be talking with Eric and for something to change… but what she wasn’t sure.
Hours later, Madison was picking up Max at her mother’s. Buckling him into his car seat, she smiled at his happy grin as he looked at her.
“We’re gonna go meet a friend,” Madison whispered excitedly. “Are you ready?”
Max nodded happily and clapped his hands together, before putting them on each of her cheeks. She leaned forward to kiss his nose and felt him ‘kiss’ her chin, leaving a little ‘sugar’ on it.
“I love you too,” she smiled, moving back from him and wiping the drool off her chin, laughing softly. “This should be interesting.”
Max had never been around animals, which was part of the reason she’d said ‘No’ to Lily’s invitation in the first place. It was all just a lot to process, yet here she was putting herself out there… and going to meet some strange man, who had a dog, at his parents’. Check, check, and double-check, on how badly this could all go.
Sliding into the driver’s seat, she started up the vehicle and called Eric.
“Hello?”
“Hello, it’s me. Your friendly neighborhood worry-wart coming to mooch a free meal, pet your dog, and bend your ear a little more with the weight of the world…” she uttered bluntly in a playful manner, and was rewarded with a laugh.
“C’mon,” he invited easily. “Worry-warts are welcome, the meal is hot, the dog is insane at the attention she’s getting, and my ears haven’t been ‘bent’ at all in the last twenty-four hours, so they are all yours.”
“Thanks, Eric, for being an amazing friend.”
“This is what amazing friends do, right?”
“Sure. We’ll go with that.”
“Just be prepared for lots of questions from my parents, who makewayyyytoo much out of everything, and my brother is very outgoing,” Eric hesitated and sighed. “Trigger is wigging out and has played so much ‘ball’ in the last twelve hours she probably will see it in her sleep for weeks to come.”
Madison laughed easily, feeling her sense of worry slipping away. It all sounded so unassuming and normal, reminding her of her own family.
“Perfect. We’ll see you soon.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later,Madison pulled in front of a brick ranch house that looked very suburban. There was a clematis, a flowering vine, wrapped around the mailbox and some shrubs along the front of the house, complete with an American flag hanging from a pole mounted to the post of the porch.
