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Damn it, he thought as he listened to her stomp down the stairs. Not only had all this not gone the way he’d planned, but Adelia was going to be pissed that she had to get another check written. Now he had two angry Chamberlain women on his hands.
Chapter Nineteen
An unexpected knock at the door startled Maddie out of her thoughts. She was sitting at her desk trying to wade through the bakery bookkeeping she’d ignored these last few weeks while she’d spent time with Emmett. It’d been a week since they broke up and now that all that was over, she had a mountain of receipts and other paperwork to deal with. It was hard enough when she stayed on top of it. She was no mathematician, but with her business finance software, she could keep her arms around it.
Today, she couldn’t focus. The visitor at the door was just the latest in a string of interruptions she’d allowed because she didn’t really want to deal with any of this. Her head was somewhere else, running over that fight with Emmett again and again. Something about it wasn’t right. Something about the look in Emmett’s eyes when she hurled insults at him haunted her. There was a mix of betrayal, fear, and then the anger came in and she watched him completely shut down. That was her fault. She’d pushed too far and let her own hang-ups get in the way. Now, all she could do was worry about bookkeeping and try not to think about how she may have ruined something really special.
With a sigh, she sat a cupcake paperweight on the crinkled and precarious stack of receipts and went to the front door. It was late afternoon on a Sunday, the time of day usually reserved for watching football, taking naps, or cleaning up after Sunday supper. She couldn’t fathom who would be stopping by her house at this hour.
She opened the door to find her grandmother standing there. She was still dressed up in the light blue suit she’d likely worn to church that morning. Her pocketbook was resting on her forearm, a tiny powder-blue pillbox hat sitting stylishly askew on her head. There was also a concerned frown on her face and that was what made Maddie’s stomach start to ache with worry.
“Granny,” Maddie said, trying to sound excited.
“You’ve missed two Sunday suppers in a row,” Adelia said, stepping into the house and pushing Maddie aside to enter her formal living room. She chose a wingback chair to sit in and looked at her granddaughter expectantly.
Maddie knew her cue. She was a properly raised southern woman after all. “Can I offer you something to drink? Something to eat?”
“Something warm to drink would be lovely. It’s certainly November now. Quite chilly outside today.”
Maddie nodded and went into the kitchen. She made a pot of English breakfast tea and paired it with a plate of orange jasmine scones.
She returned to the living room, pouring them both a cup of tea. “I’m sorry about supper, Granny. I’m just not quite ready to face everyone after what happened on Halloween.”
“Why?” her grandmother snapped. “Nothing happened to you, from what I can gather.”
Maddie frowned and hid it quickly with a sip of tea. It felt like something had happened to her. She’d been lied to by her father and had a brother she didn’t know about. “Not directly,” she admitted. “But Daddy did something terrible to Mama, and I didn’t want to be around to watch their marriage fall apart. I’m not ready to hear Daddy try to apologize to me or the other kids, either.”
Adelia Chamberlain snorted indelicately. “Do you think your father is going to apologize to anyone? He is many things, but self-aware is not one of them. I doubt he sees that he’s done anything wrong in the situation with Logan. The child was conceived before he married Helen, so he won’t allow her to be angry with him. He probably believes that keeping the secret was the noble thing to do, protecting you kids.”
“I doubt Logan would agree with that assessment.”
“No, I very much doubt that as well. But again, none of this is about you. Yes, your father lied to you while protecting his secret, but that’s hardly the end of the world. So tell me the truth about why you haven’t been to the house. There has to be more to it than that.”
There was. Really, the breakup with Emmett had been what had kept her in the house this week. She didn’t want to talk about that, though. Her grandmother had played an unwitting role in that debacle and she’d rather Granny not know about it. “I’m just not feeling very sociable, Granny.”
“I hear you’re also not feeling much like serving your remaining community service. You missed Wednesday and Judge Griffin told me that if you didn’t show up Saturday, you’d be facing contempt charges and he’d issue a warrant for your arrest. Did you go yesterday?”
Maddie shoved a dry bit of scone into her mouth to prolong her answer. When she finally chewed and swallowed, chasing it with a sip of tea, she had to shake her head. “No, I didn’t.” Not because she didn’t value the local government or feel like she’d served the price for her time. She simply hadn’t wanted to spend all those hours alone with Emmett. Not after their blowup last week. She’d rather get arrested than deal with that right now.
“Something happened with you and Emmett,” her grandmother said. “I can tell. What did you do?”
“Me?” Maddie said with a near-hysterical edge to her voice. “Why is it that you assume I was the one who did something wrong? And anyway, since when do you know Emmett so well as to take his side on anything?”
Adelia sighed and sat back against the plush cushions of the chair. “My dear, there are a great many things you don’t know about me and your Emmett.”
“Like what?” Maddie challenged. “Like how you’re giving him loads of money?”
Adelia’s white brows went up in surprise, but she recovered quickly. “I told you he was lining your mother’s closet with cedar.”
“Try again, Granny. He told me that wasn’t true and the check I saw was for a hell of a lot more money than a cedar closet upgrade.”
“Ah,” she said, folding her hands in her lap. “I was wondering what had tipped you off.”
“That wasn’t the only thing. If the story about the closet is a lie, why did you sneak into Woody’s that afternoon? What was that about?”
Her grandmother narrowed her gaze at Maddie. “I should just tell you that I was visiting for a little afternoon delight. That would certainly shut down the questions, wouldn’t it?”
Maddie winced. “Granny, please. I don’t want to even think about the idea that you two were . . . ugh.”
