“NO, CELESTE, I AM being serious. Listen to me: this is not a joke. Okay, one more time and in a nutshell. The will.” Maddie took a deep breath, preparatory to launching into the details. On the phone with her employee, she was stretched out that next evening in the hammock in her very own backyard in Hanscomb Harbor. Twilight was deepening. The air was warm and sweet and filled with the sounds of insects tuning up for their nightly serenade. And her life was totally screwed. “I know it’s confusing. I keep trying to get a handle on it, but it’s too big. The numbers, I mean. Astronomical. Yes, like light-years. But here we go.
“So, okay, James left me everything that was his, Celeste. Everything. Money. Billions of dollars of it. Houses. Cars. Airplanes. Helicopters. An actual airline. Real estate holdings in most states of the union. Entire cities. Farms. Banks. Malls. Stocks. Bonds. Portfolios. A globally known Fortune Five Hundred company—Madison and Madison Advertising, to be exact. And his dog, Celeste. Let’s not forget the dog. I hear you. But how was I to know James was that Madison? He never said. I agree: you’d think it would have come up.
“No, I can’t quit my job and sell the shop and the house and go on a shopping spree with you. No I can’t. No I can’t. Now, stop that and let me explain. I have no access to anything for six weeks. Because there’s a big ‘if’ attached, that’s why. Hank Madison? Is he pissed? Wouldn’t you be? Exactly. He’s all that and more. So here’s what he has to do. I hope you’re sitting down, Celeste. Good. The will stands—meaning everything is mine—unless Hank takes a vacation of no less than six weeks. No, honey, not a vaccination. A vacation. You heard me right. And it had to start yesterday. Yep. The very day of the reading of the will.
“Totally. Just drop everything, here’s your packed bag, and go relax in, of all places in the world, Hanscomb Harbor. For six weeks. And while he’s here, he can’t perform any Madison-business-related work, either. No phone calls. No faxes. No meetings. Can’t sign anything. Nothing. In fact, he can’t even leave Hanscomb Harbor—or he loses everything to me.
“Quit cheering, Celeste. It’s not cool. No it isn’t. You need to know I don’t want the money or any of the rest of it. I am serious. I don’t want it. Because it’s all too mind-boggling and complicated and it’s not really mine. I wouldn’t want it at another person’s expense. Yes, I know I’m too nice for my own good. But I just think it’s rightfully Hank’s. So I don’t want any of it. Not the money and especially not the dog. I know she’s a sweet dog. But I don’t like dogs. Remember those rabies shots I had to take as a kid? Haven’t forgotten them or the dog that bit me.
“Now, don’t sidetrack me because there’s more. No, not more money, sweetie. More details. Guess what? I’m in charge of him. Hank Madison has to report in to me every day for six weeks. Exactly. Oh, he’s very happy about that. Ecstatic.” Maddie pressed the heel of her free hand to her throbbing temple as she listened to Celeste at the other end of the phone line. “Certainly it’s insane. I mean, a vacation? How hard can that be? Why? Well, all I know is what Jim Thornton said. He’s that attorney who came to the shop that day. Yes, the one who looks like a bulldog. Anyway, he said James had a lot of regrets about his life and believed that the Madison men are workaholics who don’t learn, sometimes until it’s too late, what is important. Exactly. All the mushy stuff. Families and love and companionship. Rest and relaxation. Time to smell the roses. All of those things. So this will was James’s way of freeing his grandson from making the same mistakes he did.
“What? Why involve me? I guess because he liked Hanscomb Harbor and I live here and he liked me and trusted me to carry out his wishes. That’s it. Seriously. Again, because I’m nice. Yuck. Anyway, if Hank stays here for an uninterrupted period of six weeks and doesn’t work, he wins. And if he doesn’t, everything is mine. No. I think it’s awful. I do. For the same reason I would have hated it if my parents had left everything to a total stranger.
“No, Mr. Thornton tells me I can’t just sign it all back over to Hank, should he fail and everything goes to me. It’s more complicated than that. How? Well, if I don’t agree to participate, or if Hank doesn’t agree, then everything Madison will be put in some kind of megatrust something that I don’t understand and Hank can’t get to it. Right. Mind-boggling. So, the bottom line is, if I don’t do my part, Hank loses. And if he doesn’t do his part, he loses. But at the end of the six weeks—say Hank does his time here—then he gets his life and his holdings back. And I get James’s personal fortune. Stop cheering and listen to me. Are you listening? Neither one of us can walk away. I agree. It’s either insanely brilliant. Or brilliantly insane. I don’t know which, Celeste. And it’s all giving me a big headache. Look, honey, I’m going to go for now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay? Thanks for listening. Bye.”
Maddie pressed the off button on her cordless phone and tossed it carelessly onto the hammock with her. Then she lay there, swinging gently and trying not to think. Even though she wore only denim shorts and a tank top, the August air felt warm as it caressed her skin. Overhead, a full moon flirted with the lengthening shadows of the day. In the blue-black velvet of the sky, starry night-lights coyly twinkled on. As if it were a game of tag, Maddie tried to catch them in the process but was unsuccessful. Smiling, taking a deep breath, she reached over to a small table next to the hammock and retrieved her iced tea.
Just then, the cordless phone rang, startling her into all but jackknifing and nearly spilling her drink. Fighting the suddenly unstable swing of the hammock, and limited to using only her one hand, since her other hand held her slippery glass steady, Maddie fished around under her body and finally came up with the phone on the third ring. She didn’t have caller ID, but she suspected who this was. Hank Madison. Time for the prisoner to check in. Maddie took a deep breath for calm, blew it out, and answered. “Hello.”
“Maddie? It’s me. Hank Madison.”
Maddie felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck. What a voice. It was as if he’d taken lessons to get that smooth, deep, pearls-rolling-around-in-whiskeyed-cream timbre to it. Maddie’s nerve endings sent gooseflesh darting over her skin. “Hello,” she said again, striving for his tone—cool and civil and businesslike. After all, this was no social call. Then she heard herself blurting, “Look, let me just say that I know you have to call me. But I’m also totally aware that I’m the last person you want to talk to, under the circumstances. And I don’t blame you. I really don’t. But I just wanted that said up front.”
She heard a heavy sigh at his end. Somehow she knew he was running a hand through his hair. At least, that was what she pictured him doing. “I appreciate that,” he said. “But I’m calling for more than one reason.”
More than one reason? Maddie’s grip on the phone tightened. “Okay. So what are they? No, wait. Hank, this is really hard. I had no idea what James was up to. None. I swear. I didn’t even really know who he was—I mean, one of the Madisons. I thought he was just a Madison.”
“So you keep saying.”
Maddie firmed her lips at his tone. “I keep saying it because it’s the truth.” Hank responded with a silence that unnerved her and had her prodding him. “That’s all I have to say. Your turn.”
“Thank you.”
His tone of voice, so cool and superior, really made her mad. How did he do this? One second she was apologizing to him. And in the next she wanted to tell him off, which meant she would again have to apologize to him. Like she needed this. Then she remembered that his life, not hers, was the one in the can right now. The emotional basement. Hadn’t the guy had enough trauma and drama in the past week without her laying into him? Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to smack him around right now. Maddie suppressed a sigh, hating that she never could stay mad at people. What was wrong with her? But she knew. She was nice. It was like a curse. “Are you still there, Hank?”
“Yes. Is there someplace here in Hanscomb Harbor where we can get a drink? One you won’t throw on me, that is.”
Bam. Her temper flared. “That was an accident.”
“I remember. Will you have a drink with me?”
He was waiting for her to say yes. Maddie realized she was tempted to join him, if for no other reason than the privilege of feasting her eyes on him. But uncertainty on another score assailed her. Should she talk to him without a lawyer present? What if he tried to talk her into signing something or tried to get her to agree to some legal something she really shouldn’t? Given how her libido behaved around him, she just might weaken and do it. “You’re kind to ask,” she settled on saying, erring on the side of caution. “But I’m not sure that would be such a good idea.”
“Really? Why not? I think we could both use a drink, if you ask me.”
“Well, you could be right about that.” Still, she hesitated. She heard his breathing in her ear. Maddie told herself she was not affected. Yeah, right. Not affected by the man who was a major heartthrob and probably, in his circle, the most eligible bachelor on the planet, as well as one of the richest men on earth. Or had been until yesterday. Thanks, James, was Maddie’s droll and defeated thought.
“So what do you think? Yes or no?”
Blinked back to the moment by the sound of his voice, Maddie considered the question at hand. A drink and where to get one. Then she thought of something else. “Did you bring your hit men with you?”
“My hit men? Oh, you mean George and Burton. No, they’re not with me. Part of the agreement in the will.”
“Oh. Right. I forgot.” The will. It would always be between them. The realization had her stumbling badly and babbling. “Well, anyway, if they were, I would have been forced to bring Celeste with me.”
“Celeste?”
That one word, the way he said it. He thought her an idiot and still she couldn’t leave off this attempt at levity gone awry. “My employee. The little white-haired lady in the bright green suit. You remember her. Rude. Weighs about twelve pounds.”
“Ah, yes. Vividly. But Maddie, you don’t have to worry. Yes, I’m upset.” He chuckled, but it wasn’t because he was amused. “Now that had to be the understatement of the millennium. But I’m not violent. Besides, getting rid of you would only complicate matters and revert my inheritance to that trust. So, you’re safe.”
Was he kidding her or what? “You say that so calmly.”
“Because I know I’m not violent. Or homicidal. If I were going to be anything, it would be suicidal. But I’m not that, either. Because if I offed myself, you’d win. And I hate to lose.”
Maddie swallowed. No more Mr. Nice Guy, obviously.
“So will you meet me for a drink tonight?”
“Gee, how could I say no after all that? Such a heartfelt invitation.”
“This is business.”
“It sounded like it.”
“Jesus, Maddie, can you cut me a little bit of slack here? Yesterday was the icing on a three-layer cake of one huge personal shock after another.”
“You have every right to be off balance, Hank. I’ll give you that. But you don’t have the right to take it out on me.”
Another humorless chuckle. “My apology. I can see how you’re totally innocent in all this.”
That did it. “You know what? You’ve checked in with me. Fine. You’ve fulfilled your obligation here. I’ll write down your call in my notebook—”
“You’re keeping a notebook?” He sounded incredulous.
“Oh, tell me you wouldn’t. There’s a lot at stake here. And you know what else? If I were you, I’d be nice to me. I didn’t ask for any of this, whether you believe it or not. But you do need me now. And that’s not some power trip talking. I’m just saying you’re in a hard place and—”
“And a man who finds himself already in a hole should quit digging, right?”
“Exactly.”
Silence ruled the airwaves for several ticks on the clock. Hank spoke next. “All right. You’re right. Truce? Let me buy you a drink? Remember, my grandfather thought I worked too hard and needed to relax. This is me relaxing.”
Maddie rubbed at her temple. “Let’s talk about that for a minute. I mean, I don’t know you, but I don’t get what’s so hard about taking time off. So James wanted you to take a vacation. Obviously, this was a point of contention between you. Why don’t you just take one and get on with your life? All you have to do is sit around on the beach. It’s not like he said you have to go bear hunting with a stick or wrestle live alligators.”
“I may as well because sitting around will kill me quicker. I can’t do it. We Madisons are workaholics. And he knew that. He’d been one, too. I know you don’t understand, Maddie. He was my grandfather. I loved him, but he was totally nuts.”
“He was not. He was a sweet old man and—”
“I agree. But how would you like to chair a stockholders’ meeting at Madison and Madison?”
“What?”
“According to my grandfather’s will, you’re the new chairwoman of the board. That means you get my life.”
“Yeah, but only for six weeks. I don’t have to really do anything—”
“Wrong. There’s a stockholders’ meeting next week in New York City.”
That sent a cold feeling to the pit of Maddie’s stomach that had nothing to do with her glass of iced tea. “Oh, God. He was nuts.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
Riding the wave of her panic, Maddie blurted, “So James just gives me a Fortune Five Hundred company and about a billion dollars in cash and tons of real estate and all the headaches that go with them—and you nothing because you worked too hard? Why in God’s name didn’t you simply take a vacation now and then, man? We could have avoided all this.”
“Like I said, I can’t, that’s why. Not ‘won’t.’ Can’t. Well … couldn’t.”
“Help me understand this,” Maddie wailed in desperation.
“I will. This would be easier in a smoky bar over drinks, but okay. I could never relax before, partly because my grandfather was like Elvis Presley.”
That silenced her. Then she said, “You’re going to have to help me here, Hank.”
“I don’t mean the music and the outfits. I mean every time my back was turned, he gave things away to strangers. Big things. Like cars. Money. Like Elvis did.”
Maddie gave in. “I need a drink. I’ll meet you at the Captain’s Tavern. It’s at the end of the boardwalk by the water. Give me thirty minutes.”
“You got it. See you there. Bye.”
“Bye,” Maddie said, but he was already gone. She hit the off button on her cordless and gave herself over to her troubled thoughts. Just what did Hank think could come of their having a drink together? Obviously he wanted to discuss the will and that made her uncomfortable. There was nothing either one of them could do to change it. Jim Thornton had made that very clear. And surely Hank realized that she was the pawn here and not him. Surely.
* * *
Must be locals night, was Hank’s guess. A couple of tourist types sat self-consciously at the long wooden bar inside the Captain’s Tavern and chatted up the bartender. But for the most part, everyone here looked as if they’d answered a casting call. Rough-looking men, brawny types who were probably fishermen, Hank surmised, owned the pool tables and peppered the atmosphere with their boisterous talk. A few couples sat at the tables scattered around the place, and a friendly waitress moved among them, smiling and taking orders. Creating background music was the clinking of glasses and the bursts of laughter that rose above it all.
Hank realized that he liked it here. This establishment could become a trendy watering hole if the right people discovered it, he decided, viewing it with his advertising mogul’s eye.
Seated alone at a table with his whiskey and soda, he looked around now with a touch of poignancy and a sense of loss. Had his grandfather come here? Had he maybe sat at this very table, the crazy old coot? Hank finally admitted it. He missed the old guy. Or would, once he got over being mad at him for his damned will. Hank shook his head at his grandfather’s antics. Before this will debacle, Hank had really only been amused by his grandfather freely giving away things of great value. The money was, after all, from James’s personal fortune and his to do with as he saw fit.
Of course, the grasping women out to rook James Senior had been another matter. When that happened, Hank had stepped in. But overall, what James Senior had done was merely be generous and kindhearted and make other people’s lives better. Couldn’t fault a man for that. Until this punch in the gut masked as a legal document. Hank raised his drink in a subtle and silent salute to his grandfather. Thanks, old man. I never saw this one coming. But I’ve never been one either to walk away from a challenge. And you know that. His sort-of toast completed, Hank took a healthy swig of his drink and watched the entrance to the bar. Any minute now his problem and its solution, all rolled into one pretty woman, would walk through that door.
As if he’d willed her to appear, she did so right on cue. Suddenly she stood framed in the doorway. Hank’s heart all but stopped. Damn. And then he believed his hearing followed it. Because there wasn’t a sound in the place. What the hell? Just then, the place erupted in called greetings, all of them addressed to Maddie. “Maddie, girl, how’re you doing?” “Hey, Maddie, good to see you.” “How you holding up, honey?” “Maddie, my kid said his first word today. He said da-da. Smart like his old man, eh?” “Maddie, buy you a drink?” And on and on. It was like Cheers and she was Norm.
Laughing and accepting the room’s accolades, like some kind of queen, Maddie waved to everyone, shook her head no, and indicated Hank sitting there at his table. Mock groans and catcalls filled the air. Not knowing what to make of this, Hank shook his head and turned back to Maddie. Blond, slender, arresting, looking fresh and casual in jeans and a white shirt, she made her way over to him and said, “Hi. Sorry about all that. I grew up here.”
“I figured.” Hank surged to his feet, only to realize he was grinning and had a hand held out to her. As if he meant to pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek. The realization hit him like a brick wall and stopped him cold. Maddie stopped just as abruptly in leaning toward him. Her expression faded into a grimace of confusion as she searched his face. Hank suddenly realized she’d been intent on the same greeting. Now, that was interesting.
Maddie recovered first. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting. I had to change clothes and then the phone rang and it was Celeste—and I’m babbling and you probably don’t care about all that, do you?”
“No problem.” Hank stepped hastily around the small table to pull out a chair for her. He wished she hadn’t mentioned changing clothes. All he could see now in his head were her long, firm limbs and the slender roundness of her wonderfully feminine proportions, scantily clad. Easy, Hank. She’s your jailer and possibly the enemy here.
As she sat down, her perfume’s flowery-musky scent, warmed by her body’s heat, wafted up to fill Hank’s senses. His blood threatened to leave his head and travel south. Behind her, Hank could only stand there, lost in his desire and hating himself because he wanted her. Christ, he couldn’t believe this. The one woman in the world he didn’t dare want, and yet he did. And she held his whole future in her slender hands. One wrong move from him, one wrong word, and he was done for. Boy, it didn’t get any better than this.
Hank roused himself enough to return to his chair. He thought to signal to the dark-haired waitress but saw she was already on her way over to their table. Hank directed an inquiring look Maddie’s way, wanting her drink order.
But the waitress usurped him. “Hi, Maddie.”
He should have known. Hank sat back and watched the exchange.
“Hi, Stephie. How’s your mother?”
“Good. She’s out of the hospital now.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. But she should know better than to eat anything Mrs. Hardy sends her. The woman is lethal.”
“Honey, Mrs. Hardy brought the muffins right to Mama herself. What could she do but sample one?”
“Oh, God. Poor thing. Still, tell her I asked after her. And Bill, how’s he?”
The pretty waitress grinned self-consciously and pointed secretively over to the pool tables. “Here every night, playing pool and talking trash to me.”
“He hasn’t proposed yet?”
Stephie all but sat down with them. “No, girlfriend, I tell you, men nowadays. Afraid of commitment? I guess. They think because they got the milk for free, they don’t have to buy the cow—”
“Excuse me,” Hank cut in, seeing how this could sour in a hurry. Both women gave him their attention. “Would you like a drink, Maddie?”
Stephie waved an apologetic hand at Hank. “Oh, sorry.” She turned to Maddie. “Your usual, hon?”
Her usual? For some reason that made Maddie all too human to Hank. He had a sudden sense of a real, live person here who had existed with a full life of her own before she’d ever popped up to bedevil him. Of course, rationally he’d known that was true anyway. But still, confirmation of her life before now left him feeling jealous. As if until now he’d been left out of something fun. And still could be. Goddamn will. Yet he was acutely aware that without it, he most likely never would have met Maddie. Curious, that.
Then Hank heard Maddie’s order. “I think a nice big glass of some chilled white wine will do.”
“Very funny,” he told her.
Sober of expression, essentially ignoring his comment, she looked him up and down. “In a glass big enough to cover an area, oh, I don’t know, approximately sixteen and a half by thirty-four, I’d guess.”
Amused despite himself, Hank looked down at his maroon knit shirt tucked into his khaki slacks and grinned. “Good guess.” He turned to soberly address the cocktail waitress. “Bring me another whiskey and soda. And a white wine in my shirt size for the lady. Oh, and a couple of dry towels for me, please. I think I’m going to need them.”
“Probably will with Maddie,” Stephie chirped as she executed an about-face and flounced away, heading for the bar.
Maddie grinned at Hank. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.”
He gestured his forgiveness. “Don’t hold back on my account. So what’s your usual here? Drink, I mean.”
“Rum and Coke.”
“Ah. A real drinking woman.”
“I was. Not so much anymore.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I finally got over a few things, let’s say.”
“Drowned your sorrows?”
“In a way. More like I washed that man right out of my hair.”
“Anyone I know?”
She shook her head. “No. Not your grandfather. Although I do miss him and am sad at his passing.”
Hank focused on his drink, then met Maddie’s gaze. “Me, too.”
She smiled sympathetically. “I can tell you loved him, even if he did drive you crazy.”
A burst of sorrow tinged with momentary bitterness and anger swept over Hank. He swallowed, as if by doing so he could rid himself of the unfairness of it all. “I only thought he drove me crazy before, Maddie. He topped himself this time.”
“I agree. And I think you think I had something to do with that. I certainly didn’t.”
Hank wanted to believe her. She seemed warm and genuine and intelligent … or she was a really good actress. He just didn’t know which yet. He slouched against his chair’s back and stared at her. “Maybe you did. Maybe you didn’t.”
Maddie threw her hands up as if defeated. “Where is this coming from, Hank? You act like I took James for his money. Or your money, I guess. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Not in my experience.”
Maddie started to make some comment but her friend Stephie made her appearance at their table with her laden tray. “Here we go.” She put the wine in front of Maddie, the whiskey and soda in front of Hank, next to his previous one—and two fluffy white towels in the middle of the table. “You kids play fair now,” she chirped, smiling big and moving on to the next table.
Maddie picked up her wineglass and sipped at it. Hank downed his old drink and set the squat little tumbler aside, pulling the fresh one in front of him. “You were getting ready to say something,” he prompted Maddie, ignoring the tug on him of her deeply blue eyes.
“Yes, I was. But it can wait. You asked me here for a drink. And here I am. So … what’d you want?” Then she held up a hand. “As long as it’s not about the will or legal business.”
“It’s not,” Hank assured her, knowing better. But that was all right. He could go down this conversational side street for now. “It’s about Beamer.”
Maddie’s expression fell. “The dog? What about her?”
“Gerta, my grandfather’s housekeeper in Long Island, is bringing her to town on Friday. She’s yours now, you know, thanks to my grandfather’s largesse.”
Maddie’s expression was remarkable for lack of expression. “I have no comment.”
All Hank could see in his mind was Maddie in Jim’s office with her hair spiked up with dog spit. He tried not to laugh. “Well, I just thought you might want advance warning so you could lay in a supply of kibble.”
Maddie rubbed a hand over her face. “Oh, God. What am I going to do with a dog?”
“Well, you have to walk her, for one thing.”
Maddie dropped her hand to her lap. “I know that much. I have just never wanted a dog after being bitten by one. And especially not a great big one who adores me.”
“That’s the best kind, from what I hear.”
“So you say.” Then she narrowed her eyes at him. “Mr. Thornton could have called me to tell me that.”
“That’s true.” Surprising Hank was the realization that he was enjoying himself and didn’t really want to bring up anything confrontational right now. “Okay, so the real reason I called you and asked you to meet me was…” He cast about for something. “That kiss yesterday.”
“Oh. That.” She looked everywhere but at him.
Hank watched her profile, wanting only to kiss her again. “Yes. That. I’m sorry it happened.”
She cocked her head now and stared at him without blinking. “Well, thank you. You couldn’t say that over the phone? You had to see my face to say you’re sorry you kissed me? Great. I’m sorry you kissed me, too, by the way.”
This wasn’t going well. “I didn’t mean it that way. The kiss was great. I just meant that I’m sorry if I surprised you with it. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Oh. Well. Then … it was okay, I guess. The kiss, I mean.”
Now Hank was insulted. Time to get back to business. “Before Stephie came over with the drinks, you were going to make some comment.”
“I was? Oh, yes, I was. Well, I said no business, didn’t I? But here I go. I was going to ask you what your experience has been that makes you think I used an old man to gain a fortune I don’t want.”
Hank shrugged. “Everybody wants a fortune.”
“Not me.”
Up until this point he’d been prepared to believe her. Everyone wanted a fortune. Everyone. But then she’d overstated her case. Or understated it. “Look, say you did, uh, use your feminine wiles—”
“Oh, stop right there. He was eighty years old, for God’s sake. And a sweet little man—”
“The last woman was two years ago and she was twenty-three.”
Maddie jerked forward, her mouth open with surprise. “What last woman? What are you talking about?”
“The woman my grandfather was going to marry because she ‘loved’ him.” Hank said it sarcastically. “She’d already knocked off her first elderly husband a year before that. And she wasn’t even the first one to try to get to James Senior. Not that they all wanted to kill him. But she was the fourth one. They saw an easy mark in my grandfather.”
Maddie sat back abruptly and sipped at her wine. “This is incredible. I had no idea James was so vulnerable.”
“Well, he was. But not a one of them got a dime.”
Maddie’s face colored. With guilt, anger, or embarrassment, Hank couldn’t say. “Until me, right? And I got it all. That’s the way you see this, isn’t it?”
“You know, I want to. It would make everything else a lot easier. But I just can’t really buy it myself.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is a temporary situation. I sit for six weeks and then I’m out of here.”
“Providing you can do it.”
“I can do it. How are you going to feel when I do?”
“Relieved. I know you don’t believe me, but that’s the truth. I’m not like those other women, Hank. James was someone I saw in my shop or around town for about six weeks every summer. We were summer friends. So he didn’t tell you about me because there was nothing to tell you. And no one could have been more surprised than me at the reading of his will yesterday. No one.”
“Except me.”
Maddie saluted him with her wineglass. “Of course.”
Not blinking, holding her gaze locked to his, Hank allowed the silence between them to stretch out.
After about six ticks on the clock, Maddie’s expression fell. “You still think I’m a gold digger.”
“I didn’t say it. You did. And I’m serious. Four other women. All blond. And that’s my experience with my grandfather. And in my own life? Two. Women want us for our money.”
“For God’s sake. Either you’re selling yourself short, Hank Madison, or you need to work on your personality. Or maybe you need to have someone else pick women for you.”
Hank slouched back against his chair. “Suits me. Know any nice women?”
Maddie crossed her legs as she set her wine down atop the table. “Yes, I know a nice woman. Me. But you shouldn’t equate nice with weak. And I think you do. I also think you’re behaving like a spoiled brat. I mean big whoop. You have to take a vacation. Learn to slow down. From where I’m sitting, James did you a favor.”
Hank shook his head. “No, he didn’t. He totally disrupted my life, and you know it. But what he didn’t know, and couldn’t know, was the timing. I mean, his dying, as hard as that sounds, couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Madison and Madison.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
Hank exhaled. “Two things. And I’m only telling you all this because I have to, since you’re the chair right now.” Totally undone by just the enormity of what could go wrong, Hank ran a hand over his face and muttered, “Christ Almighty.” Then he focused on Maddie, figuring he looked as haggard as he felt. “Anyway, there’s the stockholders’ meeting next week. You have to chair that.”
She slowly shook her head no. “Oh, I really don’t want to do that.”
“And I really don’t want you to, either. But there’s more. I’ve been working for two years on a major deal with a company in Japan. Major. Huge. I’ve been trying to get these guys to the table forever. And now, they’re ready to talk. So how’s your Japanese?”
“Oh, God.” Her eyes rounded, her mouth turned down.
“Exactly.” Hank leaned over the table toward her. “It’s not about being a spoiled brat, Maddie. I think you can see what a tough spot I’m in. The timing couldn’t be worse. I’m hoping you can see that I can’t stay here and play these games my grandfather put in place. I just can’t. If I don’t show up at the office next week, there may not be a Madison and Madison to go back to. If nothing else, the documents require my signature. Aside from that, the stockholders are going to be spooked once the news of this damned will gets out. And that spookiness could kill the other deal if everyone starts dumping their stock. If that happens, then everything will tumble like a house of cards.”
Maddie now looked as frantic as he felt inside. She’d leaned forward in her chair and her blue eyes were big and rounded. “But how’s that possible? I mean, there’s so much of everything. It can’t all be tied up in this deal.”
“James’s personal fortune, everything you would get, no. But all of my assets, yes.”
Maddie exhaled weightily. “I see. Wow. Sorry about that spoiled-brat thing. This is a tough spot you’re in. But what do you want me to do about it? What can I do about it?”
Hank picked up his drink, brought it to his lips, and eyed her over the rim of his glass. “That’s why I asked you here tonight, Maddie. Pretty much, I need to break the deal. I have to take care of this. And then we can start over.”
Maddie picked up her wine and began drinking in earnest. Then she thunked the glass down on the table. “But if you do this—sneak away to New York … I assume you’re intending to keep this from Jim—then you’ll lose Madison and Madison anyway, Hank.”
“I don’t intend to lose my company, Maddie. Not by any means. All I’m asking for is a few days. And you can go with me. I’ll broker the deal and you can chair the stockholders’ meeting, all on the same day. Then we can come back here and relax.”
“Until the next crisis. And after having already cheated and broken the provisions of your grandfather’s will.”
He was losing her. Hank started to feel too warm. “I see. Your sense of honor is involved.”
She looked as if he’d insulted her. “Isn’t yours?”
“Yes, dammit,” he all but spit out. “It is.” He ran a hand over his mouth and chin. “I could have simply gone, Maddie, and not told you and got back here without you ever knowing. I could have lied and cheated, but I didn’t.”
“It obviously occurred to you to do so.”
“Yes, it did. It would to anyone, I think.”
“You’re probably right. But Hank, do you see that you’re asking me to do those things now? Lie and cheat, I mean.”
“I don’t see it that way at all. For either of us. I see it as a couple days’ reprieve. An aboveboard thing. We’ll even get Jim’s opinion, if that would make you feel better. All I’m asking for is a temporary stay of execution. Or vacation.” He grinned and raised his eyebrows hopefully.
“Stop that,” she cried, laughing at him. “Now you’re trying to manipulate me.”
Hank set his glass down and spread his hands wide. “Would I do that?”
“In a heartbeat you would.”
Hank impulsively reached across the table and took her hand. He remembered its feel. So warm and small, yet elegantly long-fingered. “Come on, Maddie, work with me here. All I’m saying is I don’t deserve to lose everything I’ve worked so hard for because my grandfather, whose company I was running, came unhinged on his deathbed, as cruel as that sounds.”
With her gaze on his hand atop hers, she shrugged. “Well, it’s a mess, I’ll give you that. And you were pretty much blindsided by all this. Just as I was.”
She was softening. Hank’s heart rate picked up at this first sign of hope. “Are you saying you’ll do it, Maddie?”
She shook her head and Hank’s heart plummeted. “No. But I will think about it. I want to talk to Jim first.”
Hank adjusted, releasing her hand, sitting back. “All right. That’s fair. Talk to Jim.”
Now she looked worried. “What do you think he’ll say?”
“‘No’ would be my guess. He’s a real stickler. And an attorney.”
“Yikes. Then what will happen?”
“That would be up to you.”
Maddie frowned. “I swear I could just beat James for involving me with you Madison men. And God, I hate money and all the problems that come with having it.”
Two strikes against him. He was a Madison man. And he came with the money. Therefore, he was one of those problems she’d rather not have. What surprised him was how that made him feel. Bad. Real bad.
“All right,” she said, breaking the silence between them and standing up to leave. “So I’ll think about it, talk to Jim, and let you know in the next day or so. Until I’ve made my decision, well, I don’t want to see you. Just call me to check in, leave a message or something, okay? It will just be easier for me to do it this way. Thinking about this is all I can promise you, Hank.”
He smiled, meaning it sincerely, and stood, too. “Then that’s all I’ll ask you for, Maddie.” His appraising and masculine gaze slid over her. For now, he added to himself.