Madison Wallace?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Madison pressed the phone closer to her ear. “This is she.” She glanced at the clock. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be late for the big Rainbow’s End Treasure Hunt rally that was taking place at the park. “Can I help you?” “It’s Mr. Swanson with Swanson Group.” Madison swallowed hard. It was the PR firm from New York. She’d had a phone interview a few weeks ago and a Skype interview last week. “Yes sir?”
“We’d like to invite you to come to New York for the final round of interviews,” he explained. “We’re working on a short time frame, though. Can you be here day after tomorrow?”
Day after tomorrow? She and Grant had planned to go back to Ha Ha Tonka and get the final cache. And she’d promised Grandma that they’d go to the grocery store and stop for dinner at the new barbecue place. But this was her future. “Of course.”
“Good, good. I’ll have my assistant e-mail you to confirm your travel plans. We’re looking forward to seeing you, Madison. Everyone here has been very impressed with your body of work.”
She thanked him and clicked off the phone. An interview in New York. It was almost too much to process. She sank onto the bed, thankful she’d planned to meet Grant at the park. It would give her time to figure out how to tell him he was about to be minus a geocaching partner.
Twenty minutes later she left her car in the lot and hurried across the street to the park. She waved at Hadley and a couple of the other geocachers who’d already settled into chairs.
“Glad you’re here,” Grant said from behind her. “So we’ll get our full participation points.”
She turned to face him. His yellow T-shirt and khaki shorts showed off his deep tan. When they met, she’d thought his curls were unkempt. But today she wanted to reach up and touch them. “Wouldn’t miss it.” She frowned. She needed to tell him about New York.
“Let’s go sit down. I think they’re about to get started.” He grabbed her hand and led her toward a row of chairs.
She pulled her hand away. “Actually, I need to talk to you.”
He turned to face her. “Is everything okay? Is it your dad?”
“No. It’s just …” She glanced around. “There’s a bench in the back. Let’s go there. Maybe we can still catch some of the announcements.” She led the way, trying to muster up her courage as she walked.
“What’s up? Have you mapped out some caches for the rest of the week or something?” He grinned. “I know there are a couple of groups ahead of us, but we could still beat them, especially if we find the Rainbow’s End coin.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “No. Nothing like that.” She avoided his eyes. “Actually, it looks like you’re going to be on your own for a little while.”
“I don’t understand.”
She bit her lip. “There’s a PR firm in New York that I’ve done a phone interview and a Skype interview with. They called this morning.” She looked down at her hands. “They want me there in two days for the final round of interviews.”
“New York,” he said. “Is that really what you want?”
She swallowed. “You know that’s always been my plan.” She waited for him to try and talk her out of it, but he didn’t.
“So you’re leaving. Just like that.”
She shrugged. “Well it’s not a done deal or anything. They might hate me.”
Grant’s lips turned up in the slightest hint of a smile. “They won’t.”
Madison remembered how his lips felt on hers. Like they’d been made especially to fit her. But there was no turning back now. “I hope not. This is what I’ve always wanted.”
Grant stood. “So this is good-bye then?”
“I’m sure I’ll be back.” Madison stood and faced him.
He smirked. “Right. In six more years.”
She frowned. This wasn’t going like she’d expected. “We can stay in touch though, right? E-mail or Facebook or something.”
“Sure, sure.” He cleared his throat. “Listen, they’re about to start the rally. I want to hear the announcements.” He pulled her into an awkward hug. “Bye, Madison.” He walked away without another look back.
She stayed rooted to the spot and watched him go. Maybe she hadn’t meant as much to him as she’d thought.
Twenty minutes later, she pulled into the driveway at Grandma’s house. It was funny. At the beginning of the summer, she’d avoided the place because the memories made her too sad. But over these past weeks, she’d spent more and more time here. She and Grandma had years of catching up to do, and last week she’d finally learned how to make biscuits from scratch.
She rapped on the door and turned the knob. “Grandma?” she called as she walked inside.
“Madison,” Grandma said, shuffling into the living room. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at the rally.”
Madison sighed. “Yeah. I was, but I needed to come talk to you.”
Grandma settled into her rocking chair. “What’s wrong, dear?”
Madison perched on the couch. She quickly explained about the interview. “I think it’s a really great opportunity.”
Grandma didn’t look convinced. “New York. That’s so far from here. And you won’t know anyone.”
“I’m sure I’ll make friends. It’s always been my dream, you know.”
“Your mama’s dream, you mean.”
Madison didn’t respond.
“I want you to look at something.” Grandma picked up a faded blue photo album from the table next to her chair. She flipped through the yellowed pages until she found the one she was looking for. “You see this?”
Madison walked over to look at the photo Grandma pointed at. “Wow. I haven’t seen that in years.” Mama and Daddy stood on the porch, holding hands. Madison and Brook were in front of them in matching dresses.
“It was Easter Sunday, and y’all had come over here after church. You and Brook both had new dresses.”
Madison smiled. “Mama made them. She let us choose the colors.”
“And look at your parents.” Grandma pointed at them. “What do you see?”
Madison leaned close to the album. “They’re laughing.”
Grandma nodded. “They were always laughing. Even when times were tough, they had each other, and they had you girls, and that was enough.”
“What are you saying?”
Grandma closed the album and grabbed Madison’s hand. “You’ve spent your whole adult life running away, saying you didn’t want to turn out like your Mama—stuck in a small town.” She shook her head. “But she didn’t feel that way. She wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else but right here. And deep down, I think you know that.”
Madison’s eyes filled with tears. Trying to chase her mother’s dream had been her purpose in life. If she gave that up, what would she have left? “I should go. I need to pack and check on my travel arrangements.”
Grandma rose slowly from her chair. “I’ve seen you with the Simmons boy. You have the same spark your mama had around your daddy.” She cocked her head. “Make sure you know what you’re throwing away.”
“I do,” Madison whispered. Grant hadn’t even cared enough to try to talk her out of going. She had her answer there.
“And what about your daddy? I guess this pushes you into making a decision quickly.”
Madison had finally let go of the anger toward her dad. It had taken most of the summer, but she could at least see that holding on to the bad feelings was like poison. “I can get tested as easily in New York as I can here. I’ll go by the house and tell him when I’m on my way out of town.”
Grandma pulled her into a hug. “I love you, dear. But you might be even more stubborn than your mama was.”
Madison kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll call you soon.” She hurried outside and climbed into the car. There was one more stop she needed to make before she went back to Brook’s. And it might be the hardest good-bye yet.
She parked her Altima in the same spot Grant had parked his truck on their very first day of geocaching. That seemed like so long ago. She hurried through the cemetery gate, past the bench where they’d found the cache, and stopped at her mama’s grave.
“I got an interview in New York, Mama.” Madison sank to her knees. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a formality. Can you believe it?” She traced the words on the headstone and stopped on the Bible verse. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Mama’s treasure had been Madison and Brook and Daddy. It had been her parents down the road and a church full of people who’d prayed for her when she got sick. Mama’s heart had always been here. Not in New York.
Madison’s eyes filled with tears. She’d wasted so many years separated from the people who loved her and whom she loved. And why?
“I thought you might be here,” a voice said from behind her. She turned to look at Grant. “What are you doing here?” “Sorry for being so abrupt earlier. I had to process things.” He knelt down next to her. “You saying good-bye?”
She swallowed against the lump in her throat. “That’s why I came.”
He took her hand. “You have every right to follow whatever path you want to, but I’m not going to let my pride keep me from telling you how much I’ve grown to care about you.”
She looked at him, and he flushed. “How much I’ve grown to love you. Might as well say it. I’d have never believed it was possible, but how I feel about you makes me realize that Samantha did me a big favor by leaving me at the altar.”
“Really?” She could barely choke out the one word.
He nodded and grinned, even though the pain was evident in his eyes. “If I’m going to be mourning the one who got away for the rest of my life, I want it to be the real deal and not just hurt pride.” He tightened his grip on her hand. “Stay or go, Maddie. But as far as I’m concerned, you’re the real deal.”
She turned her tear-filled eyes back to the tombstone and willed her heart to quit slamming so wildly against her ribs. Funny how coming from Grant, her old nickname didn’t sound so bad. In fact, she kind of liked it. “I came here to say good-bye. But right before you walked up, I realized something.”
“What’s that?”
Madison pointed at the verse on Mama’s headstone. “That was her favorite verse.”
“It’s a good one.” He smiled. “I know it by heart.”
“I realized that Mama was right where she wanted to be. She loved Daddy more than she loved the idea of moving to the city. And she wouldn’t have traded the years she had with me and Brook for all the high-powered jobs in the world.”
Grant nodded. “Of course not.”
Madison swallowed. “I’m not going to the interview,” she said quietly. “I was going for all the wrong reasons.” “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “My heart is here. With you.”
He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. “I didn’t dare even dream you’d say that.”
“It’s true. I don’t want to leave. I want to see where this goes.” She smiled. “And I want to let Grandma teach me to bake, and spend time with Brook and her family.” She stood. “And get tested to see if I can donate a kidney to Daddy. He and I have some lost time to make up for.”
Grant stood up and pulled her to her feet. He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. “And you’ll keep hunting geocaches with me?”
She laughed. “Of course.”
He put an arm around her, and they walked toward the parking lot.
Madison felt more peace than she’d felt in years. She knew there were challenging times ahead, but with Grant and her family at her side, she could face them. Thank you, Lord, for showing me the way back home.