Chapter 31
Lindsey
After putting together an introductory email, attaching my resume, and sending it off to Quinley, I finally get a few hours of sleep. By the time I wake up, I have an interview set for tomorrow.
I grin all through my shower, my spirits bolstered by such a quick response.
After grabbing lunch, I pull into Kace's driveway behind an unfamiliar vehicle. Kace is supposed to be at physical therapy, and I figure it's one of his crewmates keeping an eye on the girls.
Madi is old enough to stay on her own and even babysit Dani, but with so much chaos in the last few weeks, maybe Kace feels they need an extra set of eyes on them.
Just not mine.
Don't go there. There's no need.
The sting of rejection is there, regardless. Especially if that car belongs to a new caretaker.
I inhale deeply before getting out, but as I do, I hear yelling.
"Stop it!" Madi says. "You're crazy!"
I freeze briefly before I race for the carport and see Madi, Dani, and a strange woman. "What's going on here?"
Dani is frozen, straddling her bicycle and watching her cousin and the woman with saucer-wide eyes, but when she sees me, she dumps the bike and runs toward me.
She wraps her arms around my legs and holds tight.
She isn't crying, but she is trembling, and that brings out the mama bear in me I'm only just developing.
"Don't let her take her away," Dani whispers in a desperate tone.
Take her away? Realization dawns as to the woman's identity, and the resemblance hits me first. Not in beauty or softness but in the sharp edge of anger and fear stamped all over Madi's face. "You must be Pam."
Pam doesn't take her eyes off Madi to acknowledge me. "Madison, I don't have time for this. Get your crap and get in the car. Now."
"I can't leave Dani," Madi says.
The woman waves her hand at me.
"Someone's here now. Get. Your. Crap."
My heart picks up speed and I take a breath, brain scrambling to figure out how to deal with this situation. "Madi, have you called Kace?" I ask.
My question draws the woman's attention, and she glares at me.
"Leave my saintly brother out of this. She's my kid. Not his. How dare he inform me he's going for custody?"
I blink at the woman and move closer, holding Dani's hand safely tucked in mine.
"You left Madi here without a word," I somehow manage to say calmly, aware of Madi quickly typing out a text.
The girl's thumbs fly over the phone, but I try to give her the time and distraction she needs to contact her uncle.
Pamela lifts her shoulder in a shrug. "For a visit. I said I'd be back. I'm back."
"You left her months ago," I say. "You haven't responded to calls or texts."
"I texted Mads."
"Once," the girl said. "One time the entire summer. Just go away again. Leave me here. I don't want to go with you. You're not even going home."
To me, Madi says, "She got us evicted. She wants me to go live with her boyfriend of the month and be groped every time I turn around."
Pam's face heats up like a red pepper. "How dare you!"
"See? You always defend them! Not me."
"I've never let them hurt you."
"You don't think the awful things they say to me hurt?"
Pamela stiffens. "You're my kid, and you're coming with me. Go get your crap, or it'll get left behind, and you'll have nothing."
Pamela moves toward Madi, and the girl quickly steps back, which infuriates the woman.
I scramble to think of something to diffuse the moment. "Pamela, can we— Can we go inside? Sit down and get a drink? Have a conversation?"
Pamela sends me a derisive glare. "Who are you?"
"She's Lindsey," Dani says, her voice squeaking a bit from her fear. "She's our friend."
Pamela turns to face me and crosses her arms over her abundant chest. The woman wears cutoff shorts that showcase her long, slim legs and a barely there tank top that reveals her midriff and belly piercing.
I catch a glimpse of a few tattoos scattered in various places—and a few bruises that look to be fading. Where did those come from?
"Did someone hurt you?"
The question slips out before I can stop it, and I know it's a mistake in an instant. Pamela's face freezes as though cast from stone, and the glare she sends me is intended to put me six feet under.
"Probably her loser boyfriend," Madi says. "Right, Mom? The one who's always sorry and who'll never do it again? You got back with him, didn't you? It isn't someone new, is it? That's why you took off and left me here. Because of him!"
I'm at a complete loss as to how to handle the situation, but thankfully I'm saved by the sound of a low, powerful engine roaring down the street. Gabe pulls into the yard in his Jeep and is out from behind the wheel in an instant.
Pamela curses a blue streak that has me pressing my hands over Dani's little ears.
"Pamela, time to leave," Gabe says the moment he gets within speaking distance. "Come back when Kace is here."
"You can't tell me what to do. That's my kid."
"Come back when Kace is here," he says again. "Madi's not going anywhere right now."
Pamela turns toward Madi, and I watch, my heart squeezing tight when I see the woman's expression turn from angry and resentful to…manipulative.
"You belong with me," she says, tears welling in her eyes. "I screwed up. Okay, Mads? Happy? I said it. Tad said he didn't want kids around, and we needed some time alone, so I brought you here. But I'm your mother."
Madi glances at me and Gabe and then Dani before she swallows hard and in a small voice says, "And I'm the kid you dumped for a guy who hits you. So what?"