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Pulling on a soft-blue gown with a fitted bodice and layers of silk organza, her mother sighed. “That one is definitely in the keeper pile. It’s gorgeous.”
“But look at the skirt. It’s huge. I love the color and the design, but can you see me climbing into his truck in this gown? No.”
Reaching behind her, she unzipped the back partway and then let her mother do the rest.
“Maybe he would get a limo,” her mother said.
“Maybe, but every time I passed a table, I’d be fighting with the skirt. I like the dress, but let’s keep going.” Nothing had just said reach out and buy me.
Grabbing the next dress off the hanger, her mother sighed. “I know little girls adore their fathers, but I always hoped you would eventually get over how your father hurt us.”
She laughed. “I tried, Mother, really I did. But when he sent the invitation to his daughter’s graduation when he couldn’t attend mine, that incensed me. I understand he has a second family. But you don’t forget about your first daughter. And who would walk me down the aisle? Him? The last time I saw him, I was sixteen and we ran into him at a store where his entire family was getting new swimsuits. Remember that? It wasn’t that he planned to come see me, it was an accident with his wife gazing at us like she wanted to kill us right there in the store.”
What pissed her off the most was that the man had two children with the other woman before he decided to leave Madison and her mom to help raise the other family.
Yes, she longed for her own family, but how could she trust a man to be there for her children? Never would she ever let her son or daughter be treated like her father had forgotten them.
“Harold wasn’t the smartest man,” her mother said. “And he certainly couldn’t keep it in his pants. She wasn’t the first one he’d cheated with.”
Speechless, she gazed at her mother. She’d never heard this story before. “You mean there were others?”
“Yes,” she said. “I kept thinking we would leave him, and then you would meet him at the door so excited to see him. And he was so happy to see you.”
“Until the day he wasn’t,” she said, recalling how he’d come home looking exhausted and frayed and he’d not given his usual greeting to her. What she hadn’t known at the time was that he was leaving that evening for good.
As she pulled on a gold gown, her mother gazed at her. “How can my beautiful daughter not find someone who will make her a believer in love.”
She gave a little laugh. “Maybe because your daughter sees too much reality that goes on between couples. I wonder if Daddy Dearest even knows I’m a lawyer. I should send him a note and offer to do his will for him.”
But she wasn’t that kind of lawyer, and she didn’t want anything to do with her father. Not even his will.
“Madison,” her mother said, “it’s best if we leave him alone. Let his other children deal with him.”
“True,” she said.
She put on another gold gown. The skirt was not huge, but it flowed while also clinging to her curves. It was like a dress from the movie-star era and she instantly loved it.
“That one,” her mother said. “It’s clingy but has those layers of soft chemise that lets you only see your curves when you walk. It’s tempting and flattering and seductive all at once.”
Madison nodded. “I like it. With some gold heels, it would work great.”
“Maybe that dress will tempt the two of you into realizing you’re perfect for one another,” she said.
Laughter bubbled up from Madison. “Mom, we’re not really dating. It’s all a sham. And soon I’ll break it off with him and we’ll be done.”
“But his dating problem will just start again,” her mother said.
That was an issue. But Madison didn’t know how to solve that problem right now. As it was, she had to pretend he was the man for her while keeping her heart from getting involved.
Love had not been kind to the women in her family, and she didn’t want to make the same mistake her mother had by marrying a man who didn’t know the meaning of one-man-one-woman-forever.
CHAPTER 6
Adrian glanced out at the land that had been in his family for four generations. His great-grandparents had been homesteaders who worked the land and went from living in a mud hut to a nice farmhouse with three bedrooms, an outhouse, a bathing closet, and an indoor kitchen.
Then his grandmother insisted they update the old house with indoor plumbing. It had been a great upgrade. Later, his parents added on by building two more bedrooms and a master suite for them. He missed the old house.
But with the death of their parents, the responsibility of the ranch and taking care of his brothers had fallen on him having turned eighteen a month earlier. The state had given him custody since Susan, Madison’s mother, would be there helping him.
