“I see,” Frank said good-naturedly, then turned away to hide his laugh, for he could see that Madison was furious and that Roger was going to catch it. “I’ll just put your luggage in the back of the pickup.”
As the older man carried two suitcases to the truck, Madison turned to her husband. “You didn’t tell them I was coming?” she hissed.
“Could we talk about this later?” Roger said, motioning his head toward Frank’s back.
Madison wasn’t about to stop. “You didn’t even tell them that you’re married.” Madison had to calm herself or she thought she might explode in anger. “If you didn’t want to admit to having a wife, then why did you put on such a show to get me to come with you? I wanted to stay in Montana.”
“Look, it’s complicated, so I’ll explain later.”
“You’re damned right you will,” Madison said as Frank turned back toward them.
“Sorry about the mix-up,” Roger said to Frank, “but I couldn’t very well leave the ol’ ball and chain at home, now could I?”
His attempt at humor fell flat with Madison. When she glared at her husband, all the anger she felt showed in her eyes.
As Frank picked up another suitcase, he slowly looked Madison up and down. “Roger, you must be getting old if you can forget to mention something like this extraordinarily beautiful woman.”
At that, Madison smiled at Frank in gratitude. It had been a long time since anyone had called her “beautiful.” And she wasn’t sure anyone had ever added “extraordinarily” onto the word. And considering that, to her eyes, she was too thin, her hair was scraggly, and her sadness showed on her face, she was especially pleased by the compliment.
“Madison, my dear,” Frank said, “why don’t you sit up front with me? Roger can get in the back with the luggage.”
“I’d love to,” Madison said happily.
But Roger moved forward on his canes and placed himself between Madison and Frank. “I think that, under other circumstances, that would be a great idea, but . . .” He gave a sigh and his face was full of sadness. “But I think that after what has happened to me, I would be much more comfortable sitting inside the truck rather than on the hard metal truck bed. And the luggage being loose like that might further injure me.”
Madison, who was more than used to this, just gave a quick look skyward, then put her hand on the back of the truck, ready to vault over the gate and place herself next to the luggage.
But Frank’s laugh halted her. “Boy, you have one enormous case of self-pity, don’t you? Well, we don’t allow pity, self or otherwise, up here. You can get in the back of the truck, and this gorgeous young lady can sit up front with me.”
For a moment, all Madison could do was blink at him. Since her marriage, just after Roger’s injury, she’d been isolated in Roger’s parents’ house, with just Roger and his parents for company. An oxymoron if she ever heard one, she’d often thought. His parents were all concern for Roger and none for her. If Roger kept her awake all night, they cared only for his pain, not that she’d had to run up and down stairs for eight hours. After the miscarriage, they’d said, “Well, maybe it was for the best.” She’d nearly lost it then. “Best?” she’d shouted. “Best for whom? For you? If I had a child to care for, maybe you’d have to shell out the money for a nurse for your son. If I had a child, it might cost you as much as you pay for one of your vases, wouldn’t it?” At that his parents had left the room and Roger had put himself in the doorway so she couldn’t follow them. Madison had locked herself away for two whole hours and cried.
But now here was a man she’d never met before not giving pity to Roger. What was more, he hooked his arm around Madison’s, led her to the passenger side of the truck, opened the door for her, and helped her climb up to the seat. He left Roger alone to get into the back of the truck all by himself.
Once Frank was behind the wheel and had started the engine, Madison began to apologize. “I’m sorry about the mix-up,” she said. “I didn’t know that I wasn’t expected, and I know that an additional guest will be a burden on your hospitality, so—”
Frank heard her words, but he was listening harder to her tone, and he cut her off before she could finish her apology—before she could offer to leave. “Our family has known Roger for years, so I know he and my younger son are a great deal alike. They want to be thought of as men of the world, so they don’t want anyone to think that they got ‘caught’ by a woman. Mark it down to immaturity.”
Madison turned away, quick tears coming to her eyes. He is a very kind man, she thought, and he was making something awkward and embarrassing into nothing. And he was taking her side over Roger’s!
“My eldest son, Thomas, is studying medicine, and he explained to us about Roger’s accident and what kind of rehabilitation it’s taken. I’m sure that you’ve been a great help to him.” When Frank said this, he glanced at Madison to see her expression.
But she looked away for a moment so he couldn’t see her face. No doubt this sweet man believed that Roger had round-the-clock nurses and a wife who played tennis at the country club, only returning occasionally to check on the progress of her injured husband. It was something that Madison had encountered all her life: people assumed that beauty gave you an easy life.
“So, Madison, how tough are you?” Frank asked as they pulled onto the highway and headed north.
“Tough?” she asked, puzzled. “You mean, can I play touch football with the guys? That sort of tough?”
Frank laughed. “Not at all. I think that if you played football with the guys, there’d be one big, collective tackle and that would end the game.”
“You’re wonderful for my ego. Want to have an affair?”
At that Frank let out a shout of laughter that made Roger, who was sulking in the back and holding suitcases away from his legs with his canes, turn and glare at them through the back window.
“I would love to,” Frank said, “but I don’t think my heart could take it.”
“Or your wife,” she said, smiling and loving the teasing. It had been so long since she’d talked of anything except Roger’s physical problems.
“She’d probably be glad to get rid of me for the day, or the week, however long I lasted.”