Madison walked over and kissed the older woman’s cheek.
“You look wonderful today.”
The nurses here took good care of her. Madison made certain to stop by at unexpected times and days, to make sure nothing she saw was for a visitor’s benefit.
“Thanks. So do you.” Franny giggled a bit, making Madison think she was in an earlier age.
“I took a walk in the garden today. I was hoping that good-looking man, Daniel, would come by.”
Madison’s heart clenched. “Did he?”
Franny shook her head. “Not today, so I played cards with some friends after lunch.”
“A good day then?”
“So far.”
Madison smiled because, in Franny’s mind, that’s all that counted. And maybe that should count for Madison too. Franny wasn’t unhappy now.
“What about you? Where’s that handsome man you’ve been telling me about? Aren’t you going to bring him to visit?”
Madison decided to play along as if she were Gracie, answering with her own life’s truths.
“Last time I brought him, you were asleep. I’ll try to bring him by again, but he’s interviewing for a new job, and I’m not sure if that’ll take him out of town or not.”
Franny frowned. “You sound sad about that.”
“Do I?” Madison sighed. “I’m a little torn about it.” Feeling a bit weird since Franny didn’t really comprehend, Madison still explained what her history really had been with Alex and brought her up to date with the situation now.
Franny patted the edge of the bed, and Madison settled in beside her. “Madison, honey, do you love him?”
Madison’s gaze swung to Franny’s. She was here. And this might be the last chance she ever had to talk to her. She swallowed hard, nodding. “I tried really hard not to love him, but I do.”
“You can’t keep running from love just because you’re afraid of being left behind, right?”
Madison shook her head. “Wow, when you have a good day, you really go for the jugular.”
“I have to say what’s important when I can.”
“Yeah.” She understood, and the lump formed again in her throat. The doctor had said to cherish these precious moments.
“Look, we both know that by the time you came to us, you’d been in and out of so many homes, you didn’t want to count on anyone.”
Madison looked down at her lap rather than into her foster mom’s bright green eyes.
“It took me a year to win you over and get you to believe I wasn’t going to turn my back on you. Ever.”
Tears sprang to Madison’s eyes because, with this damned disease, that’s exactly what she felt like Franny was doing to her. The rational part of Madison knew the memory lapses weren’t within Franny’s control, but the little girl in her felt abandoned all over again.
“I know, honey. I know,” Franny said, obviously reading her mind. “But I will always love you, even if I can’t say it or if I don’t recognize you.”
Madison managed a nod. Then, because she owed it to her, she told Franny the rest of the truth. “Eric took me to court over your power of attorney and health care proxy. I hired the best attorney I could, but the judge ruled in his favor. He’s going to sell the house so they can build condominiums. And he’s going to try to keep me from seeing you.”
Franny blew out a long breath. “He’s got a mean streak. You can’t let him stop you from seeing your man, Gracie. You know that, right?”
And just like that, it was over. Madison teared up all over again.
“I know.” She managed to pull herself together and decided to say everything she would have said to a lucid Franny. “I would do it all again to help you the way you helped me. I did everything I could for you.”
Franny clasped her hand and began to hum a tune Madison didn’t recognize. “Remember that song? We’d sing it when I was waiting for Daniel and you were waiting for your man. Are you waiting for him now?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go see where he is,” Madison said.
“That’s a good idea.”
Madison looked at Franny. “Thank you for everything. But most of all, thank you for being the only real mother I ever had,” she said, pulling the frail woman into a long hug.
“That’s my girl,” she thought she heard Franny whisper.
Or maybe she’d imagined it. It didn’t matter.
She was Franny’s girl, Madison thought. From the moment the couple had taken her in, they’d treated her like their own daughter. It didn’t matter what Eric thought or what the court said. She was Franny’s daughter of the heart. And that was the only thing that mattered.
Madison shook her head. “I don’t know if he’s my man.”
But she did. In her heart, where it counted, Alex was hers. Madison decided it was time to go home and deal with her real life. The one that existed in this moment.
And if that meant she had to live with whatever career choices made him happy, wasn’t that a small price to pay? She didn’t have to like it, but she did have to live with it. Up till now, he’d done all the changing and giving. It was her turn.
* * *
Alex was getting good and worked up, pacing Madison’s apartment and glaring out the window. By the time her car pulled into her assigned parking spot, he was out of his mind worried, not knowing where she’d gone after getting the bad news, and she hadn’t returned his texts or his calls.
When she put the key in the lock and walked in, he was waiting in the living room, back to the window, arms folded over his chest. “Well, it’s about damned time.”
“Excuse me?” She blinked, her eyes puffy and red from crying. The sight hurt, but he was still furious she’d left him hanging without a word.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was?”
She shook her head. “I thought you were calling and texting from New York, not Florida. How would I know you were home? And if anyone was left hanging, it was me. Where the hell were you for the last twenty-four hours? You didn’t pick up the phone and text or call!” She tossed her keys and purse onto the table and folded her arms across her chest, mimicking his pose … and calling him on his hypocritical bullshit.
“Madison—”
“And while we’re at it, tell me why I had to see those photographs and still not hear a word from you.”