All for Maddie by Jettie Woodruff

I
begged, seeing the first car heading to the office to checkout. I couldn’t deal
with it yet. Not until I had some caffeine in my system.
    “Well, I was going to deal
with all of it. You’re off this weekend, remember?”
    “Shit, I am. What am I doing
here?”
    “Shit,” Maddie just had to
say. Why did she only say the words that were going to get me that look from my
dad? Yup, that one right there.
    “Let’s get out of here
Maddie, before Papaw puts us to work.”
    “I have a feed a fish.” She
stomped the red cowboy boot to the floor. It was the middle of summer. Why she
insisted on wearing those damn things was beyond me. They looked lovely with her
lavender shorts and pink top.
    “Are you taking your bike
home?” my dad asked, derailing her fish thoughts.
    “I have a ride it. You watch
me, K?” she said taking my hand.
    I carried the bike down the
steps and set it on the blacktop. I kept her at the front of the lot when I saw
the white sports car coming our way. Thank God he was leaving. I never looked in
his direction when he got out of his car, leaving the blonde waiting in the
passenger seat.
    “You feeling okay?” Jaron
yelled from the dining room deck.
    I couldn’t yell the choice of
words that I wanted to, not with Maddie there anyway. I smirked and tilted my
head, hoping he could see my go to hell expression. My eyes were literally away
from Maddie for a split second. I quickly turned when I heard the thud and then
the scream. She drove right into the side of Alex’s sports car as he pulled
out.
    I picked her up and looked at
her. “You’re okay. You have to watch what you’re doing.”
    Alex jumped out and ran his
hand over the side of his very expensive front fender.
    “You almost ran over my kid,
and you’re worried about your car?” I asked, rubbing Maddie’s back.
    “Hey, you okay?” he asked,
touching her arm. I turned, jerking her away from him.
    Maddie just had to go and
look up at him. I will never forget the look in his face. It was like an
instant realization. He stared at her in disbelief. I was praying to God
almighty himself, that he didn’t see it. That he didn’t see the same little
cowlick on the right side of her forehead that he had, that he didn’t notice
the same uniquely gray, green eyes that he had, or that he didn’t relate her
long dark lashes to his. He did. I knew he did. It was written all over his
face.
    “Whitley?” he said in question.
    I picked up the bike and
stormed away with my daughter. I knew what he was asking, and I wasn’t
answering.
     
    Maddie and I spent the day at
our little beach. I packed us a picnic. We sat in the sand eating peanut butter
and banana sandwiches, chips, and spear pickles. I didn’t pick the combination.
She did. Maddie loved her pickles. You could bet they were on my grocery list
practically every Saturday morning.
    “Did you have a fun
birthday?” I asked, pulling a strand of hair from her mouth.
    “Uh-huh, I have a birfday a
morrow too.”
    “You can’t have another
birthday till you are four.”
    “I be four a morrow.”
    I wasn’t even going to try. I
would hear about her birthday for a few days yet, and then she would forget it.
I picked my phone up, hearing the beep and read the text message from Reed, You
want to get together later?
     
    “What that say?” Maddie
wanted to know, leaning over my leg to see for herself.
    “It says Madelyn Rae Bradshaw
is the prettiest little girl in the whole world. She should finish her
sandwich,” I pretended to read. She giggled.
    No not tonight, long
weekend , I texted back. I couldn’t handle Reed, not that it would have
lasted long, but still.
    “What that say?” Maddie
asked.
    “It says: Madelyn Rae
Bradshaw looks like she is ready for a nap.”
    “Her not,” Maddie assured me,
looking up to me.
    I cleaned up our picnic while
Maddie played in the shallow stream, and then sat in the sand watching her and
of course contemplating Alex. I wasn’t overly