Chapter Five Madison
CHAPTER FIVE
Madison
I let James take Sammy back home with him after he pointed out that I’m in no state to parent tonight and would probably end up accidentally leaving my reptile-child at the bar.
It’s clear James was right as my sisters and I pretty much close down the place and stumble out to the parking lot.
The boys all left a long time ago and so Annie offers to act as designated driver and get us all back to Emily’s house.
Normally I wouldn’t think anything of it, but after what James mentioned I can’t help but find it suspicious.
We’re all tipsy (besides Annie) as we file into her powder-blue pickup truck.
We stumble, taking twice as long as usual to climb in because we can’t stop laughing over the story Amelia told us of Noah getting laid out by security on tour.
Apparently he had forgotten his badge and the security guard didn’t know he was Amelia’s husband as he opened her dressing room door.
I can’t tell if I’m more drunk on alcohol or laughter.
Annie gives her best attempt at a stern attitude as she corrals me and Amelia into the bed of the truck. “Keep your butts on the floor.” She points a menacing finger at us after slamming the gate shut.
“Yes, ma’am.” I give a serious salute, making Amelia lose it, laughing all over again.
Emily, our mother hen, gets prime seating in the front with Annie.
As we drive, Annie rolls down her windows and cranks the Chicks so Amelia and I can hear it too.
It feels so good to be home surrounded by my sisters that I’m almost guilty about it.
They don’t know why I’m back, not really.
They don’t know that I wasn’t tough enough to hack it in the city.
That for all my shouting about craving more than what Rome could give me, I couldn’t stand being away from here.
The city was wrong for me in ways I never could have predicted.
And I don’t know what that says about me.
The wind whips through my hair and I tip my head back, eyes on the sky so I can finally see the sparkling stars I’ve been dreaming about since I left Rome.
Except . . . they’re not there. I wait for my vision to adjust, but it must be too cloudy to spot them tonight.
That’s fine. Not taking it as a bad sign or anything.
A little later we pull up to Emily and Jack’s house, filter out of the truck, and stumble up the porch stairs.
The last time I was on this porch I was sobbing onto Emily’s shoulder and confessing I wanted to quit culinary school and come home.
She’s the only one who knows I ever wavered in New York.
And now that I have this job at the Huxley restaurant, I can’t decide if I’m grateful that she encouraged me to go back and finish my degree or if it was a mistake.
“Honey, we’re home!” Emily yells playfully once we walk through the door.
“We?” Jack says, coming around the corner holding their little cat, Ducky. He’s in a pair of athletic shorts, a vintage Dodgers sweatshirt, and the glasses Emily is literally obsessed with. When Ducky sees us she jumps from Jack’s arms and scurries down the hall to hide on their bed.
Jack doesn’t drink alcohol, so even though he does go with us to Hank’s occasionally, it’s not as often as Emily and the rest of us.
According to her, he mostly uses these Friday nights at home alone to write whatever mystery book he’s currently working on.
Jackson Bennett (as we learned last year) is also the New York Times bestselling author AJ Ranger.
Thanks to his asshat of a dad who leaked Jack’s identity before he was ready, the secret is out.
Emily says Jack has really made lemonade out of those sour lemons his dad gave him and embraced the spotlight.
He’s been on morning talk shows, had an epic book tour, and still loves teaching in our small town.
But no matter how famous Jack is now, he continues to treat my sister with the love and affection of a man who knows he doesn’t deserve her.
And because my sisters and I live on the same wavelength, they know to jump in front of me like a wall as I crouch behind them. In the next minute they split theatrically and I pop out with jazz hands. If I had confetti, I’d throw it.
To his credit, Jack actually does look excited to see me, even though I know he probably doesn’t care all that much. I get a nice big hug and a Glad to have you home, Maddie.
“Aw, yay! Hugs are great.” Emily is physically pushing Jack toward the front door. “Okay now, out ya go.”
“But I live here.”
“Of course you do, big guy! But get out. The girls are spending the night.”
He breathes a laugh, used to Emily prioritizing us like we are her children. “Just a minute. Are you drunk?” He twists around, cradling her face in his hands, assessing her.
She melts and holds up her fingers to signify an inch. “A smidgen.”
Fun fact: Jack is the only person in this entire world I’ve ever seen Emily melt for.
She’s still as feisty and hard-headed as ever, but I’ve also noticed something new in her since she found Jack.
The two are soft with each other. She lets him help her in a way that she absolutely won’t let anyone else. Not even me, her favorite sister.
Just kidding. Well, sort of.
Emily doesn’t actually pick favorites, but we are closer on a friend level than she is with any of my other siblings. We share the kind of bond that Annie found in Amelia and Noah has with James.
Jack grins. “Give me a minute to pack a bag,” he says, kissing Emily’s forehead. “I assume I’m off to Noah’s?”
“Go to my house instead,” says Annie. “Otherwise Will is going to act like a sad, left-out puppy and show up here.”
“And Noah would much rather have alone time,” Amelia adds.
A few minutes later, after filling a big glass of water for Emily and making her promise to drink it, Jack is driving off. It’s only us sisters, reunited and happy and tipsy.
“Okay, Chef, tell us everything about this restaurant!” says Emily, coming back from the kitchen with a bottle of white wine in one hand and clutching four empty glasses by the stems in the other.
She sets the bottle and glasses on the coffee table and then snuggles in between me and Annie on the couch.
From her seat on the floor, Amelia fills the glasses.
“There’s nothing to tell. Let’s talk about your book instead, Emmy Gold!
” Emily, in an amazing turn of events, had been secretly writing the most delicious romance book over the last few years.
Jack encouraged her to finish it, and after a few bumps in the road she signed with her dream agent and publisher.
The deal announcement went out last month, surprising us all with her cute pen name.
Have I mentioned how ridiculously successful my sisters are? And then there’s me . . .
“Publishing moves at a snail’s pace, so the book won’t come out for at least a year. Your new restaurant, however, opens so soon!” She’s fizzing with excitement. “And I know nothing about it because you’ve been so damn busy we haven’t had a chance to talk about it.”
I have been busy over the last four weeks, picking up as many odd jobs as possible to store up some cash in case I screw up this chef job.
“But it paid off because you graduated!” says Amelia, bumping my knee.
“Yes, she did!” Emily smothers me in a hug. “I’m still mad they didn’t have a ceremony, though.”
Again, guilt tugs at me. “Yeah, it’s too bad. What do you want to know about the restaurant?” I ask, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.
“First, what’s it been like working with James?” Emily asks with an odd sparkle in her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys interact without picking at each other.”
I shrug. “We haven’t.”
Amelia hands each of us a glass of wine. “Picked at each other?”
“No. Worked together.” I sip my drink. “Until tonight, we hadn’t talked since his initial phone call where he offered me the job.
Tommy took over all communication after that.
” Except for tonight, when we sat together at the bar and .
. . became friends? I’m still not sure what to make of that.
Or why my heart rate accelerates when I think about the way he smiled at me.
“That’s so weird,” Emily mumbles. She’s lightly swirling her wine around the glass and staring into it like it’s a crystal ball.
“Why is it weird?”
Her eyes pop up to me as if she didn’t actually mean for me to overhear it. “No reason. Just thought he’d want more involvement since it’ll be his restaurant . . . and he hates Tommy, so I’m surprised he trusts him enough to work on this. With you.”
I note the special emphasis but am distracted when out of the corner of my eye I see Annie raise her wineglass to her lips.
Her throat bobs lightly as if she’s just taken a sip, but something about the gesture doesn’t seem real.
Normally Annie winces slightly after each drink, because even though she tries to like it, she still mostly hates wine.
She didn’t wince after that sip though. Interesting.
“So Nancy’s old greenhouse is being turned into the restaurant, right?” Nancy is James’s late grandma.
“Yeah. Supposedly, most of the renovation is already finished. If it’s half of what Tommy has described to me, it’ll be beautiful.”
“I’ve seen it,” says Annie. “And I can confirm it’s gorgeous and will be a huge hit.”
They decided to keep as much of the original structure as possible, just replacing anything that had major damage, reinforcing the parts that needed it.
The greenhouse itself is where the dining room will be, and there is an entirely new space off the back that will house the kitchen and chef’s quarters.
It was such a relief to learn I’d have somewhere of my own to live when I came back and didn’t want to intrude on any of my siblings.