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Afterward, she would visit her mother and tell her the good news. She was coming home.
Failure was not an option, but if she didn’t have enough clients within a year, she’d have to make some hard decisions about returning to the city. But for now, she could live off her savings.
An hour later, she got in her Jeep Wrangler Sport and unsnapped the top to let the sunshine in even though it was late January. Yes, it wasn’t a glamorous vehicle, but it was a lot of fun. She’d gone off-roading with it, taken it to Colorado, and even to the beach on the National Seashore on Padre Island. The jeep had been her first major purchase out of college and she loved her vehicle.
Strapping in, she backed out of the real estate office lot and hurried out of town. Fifteen miles later, she turned down the road that led to the Kissing Oaks Ranch. It had changed so much since Adrian won the lottery. He’d made significant improvements, adding security and a very distinct iron gate with the silhouette of a tree.
The Kissing Oaks tree.
She stopped at the intercom and pressed the button. A camera swung in her direction. “Hi, Roger. It’s me Madison. I’m here to see my mother.”
“Sure, Miss Benton. I’ll open the gate for you.”
The gate swung open and she hurried on down the road. Years ago, the ranch had been nothing, but now a brand-new fancy house sat at the end of the lane. Since her mother’s stroke, Madison had been trying to get her parent to retire, but she loved living out here. After working for the Landry brood for over twenty years, she considered them family.
“Who will cook for them?” she had said when Madison mentioned retirement.
“They’re rich; they’ll find someone,” Madison told her, but her mother refused.
Frankly, Madison didn’t care. They were grown men, and yet her mother loved taking care of the six guys who were scattered about the ranch. The men’s mother and father had passed away over ten years ago when Adrian was only eighteen, a senior in high school.
She pulled around to the back of the house closer to the kitchen area. After parking the car, she leaped out. It was Sunday evening and she planned on returning to Dallas tonight.
As Madison rushed into the house, her mother met her at the door.
“Madison, I didn’t know you were coming today,” she said giving her a hug.
“I told you, Mom,” she said, hoping this didn’t mean that her mother was getting dementia. “What smells so good?”
“Oatmeal cookies,” she said. “Adrian has been moping around today, so I made his favorite cookies hoping to cheer him up.”
Maybe this wouldn’t be a good time to speak to him after all. But all he could do was say no. But she needed him to say yes.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“A good housekeeper minds her own business,” her mother said, taking the cookies out of the oven. “What are you doing here?”
That same rule didn’t apply to her daughter.
The kitchen door swung open. “Do I smell cookies?”
It wasn’t Adrian but Blake his brother.
“She’s just taking them out of the oven,” Madison replied.
Her mother took a spatula and plated the snacks. Madison and Blake reached for one. She popped the delicious sweet in her mouth. Her mother was an excellent cook.
As the smell drifted through the house, the brothers began to congregate in the kitchen. Finally, Adrian appeared.
“Oatmeal cookies,” he exclaimed. “You are supposed to be resting.”
“A body can only lie around so much before it turns to stone. Plus, I got bored.”
Never once did her mother mention the real reason she’d made the cookies.
“Good to see you, Madison,” Adrian said, glancing at her. “I’m not letting your mother do much around the house.”
Madison’s brows lifted and she shook her head. “Do you really think you could stop her?”
