She’d tried repeatedly to banish her embarrassment at the way their Fourth of July had ended, but she had a feeling she’d be taking those holiday memories to her grave. The truth was that although the sex between them had been no big deal to William, his touch, his kindness, his passion as he’d made love to her, were all pretty big deals to her. She might not be able—or willing—to compete with the likes of the redhead and the blonde at Hog Heaven, but Maddie didn’t think he’d been pretending his attraction to her. Women might be able to fake it. But a man’s body was less equipped to lie.

With satisfaction, she watched decades of salt and grime wash down the stone façade to soak into the ground. She was a sodden mess but the building definitely looked cleaner, the keystone closer to its original tapioca color. The windows looked way better, too, not exactly sparkling but cleaner and less neglected. She pressed her nose to the glass after she’d washed them, curious to see what William Hightower’s studio looked like, and saw a room filled with a large, horseshoe-shaped control board and an L-shaped leather sofa and chair. On the opposite side of a glass wall were a microphone stand and a stool. The interior walls were covered in a material that resembled egg crates, and the control board had a cover snapped over it. The low hum of an air conditioner and the care taken to protect the equipment reassured her. William Hightower might not intend to set foot in the place again, but he hadn’t left his equipment to rot or mildew.

She’d begun a final pass over the building’s façade and was contemplating what color she might paint the door once it dried when an angry shout sounded behind her.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Maddie clutched at the wand and whirled at the sound of William’s voice. A spray of soapy water smacked him in the face.

“Oh!” She jerked it lower and the spray pounded him just below the stomach.

“Jesus, Maddie!” He turned his back and the pressure practically tore off his running shorts. “Shut the damned thing off!”

With a trembling hand she released the trigger but she didn’t let go of the wand. He was completely soaked. He stood stock-still as a huge soap bubble slid down one cheek and landed on his shoe. Given the set of his jaw she began to think that her nonlethal weapon might come in handy.

“I’m sorry.” She said this as sincerely as she could, but in reality spraying the shit out of William Hightower felt weirdly liberating.

“For what? For soaking me?” He stepped closer. “Or for trespassing on a piece of property that I asked—no, make that told—you to stay away from?” He came another step closer. She had to fight the urge to fall back.

“Don’t even think you’re going to skitter out of my way.”

“I don’t skitter.” Her chin jerked up.

“Oh, yes, you do. You’ve been doing it since Hud walked in on us in bed.”

“Well, whether I have a reason to skitter or not isn’t the point here. At least I don’t have sex with someone and then immediately announce that it didn’t mean anything.”

She stayed where she was as he advanced, though every part of her wanted to skitter right on out of there.

“I didn’t say it didn’t mean anything. And you’re changing the subject. You had no right to do this.”

“Do what? Pull weeds? Wash some windows? Clean a few walls?”

“You know what I mean. I know you do.” His eyes were black with condemnation.

She refused to feel sorry for him.

“I didn’t go inside your studio, though I don’t know why you care since you don’t, either.”

He opened his mouth to protest. She cut him off.

“Before I knew you, I was a huge fan. And it hurts like hell to see your studio abandoned and silent. I can’t stand to see you depriving yourself and everyone else of this gift that you have.” She had no idea what had gotten into her, but now that she’d started down this road, she couldn’t stop. “You’re the one who’s skittering. You’re the one who’s afraid. You’ve licked the drugs and alcohol. Now it’s time to man up and get back to what you do best.”

He glowered at her.

She took a step closer. “It’s not out on the water or up in the sky, though I know they somehow help bring it together for you. The music’s here.” She pressed her finger to his chest, aiming for his heart. “But you can’t keep hiding from it and then blame it for deserting you.”

His face might have been made of stone except for the tic in one cheek. “Amazing how philosophical you can be with my life when you live yours in front of a camera and let a network humiliate you and your family on a daily basis.”

She wasn’t going to let him change the subject. “That may be, but we don’t have other options. None of us have a voice like yours. And not one of us can write lyrics that make people feel something all the way down inside their bones.”

His eyes crackled with anger. But she was crackling pretty good now herself. He leaned toward her and there was enough heat and electricity between them to set the whole damned island on fire.

They could hear the sound of footsteps in the brush nearby, and then Kyra’s voice. “Mom? Mom!”

“Excuse me.” She handed him the wand as her daughter approached.

“You forgot your phone,” Kyra said, taking in Will and Maddie and their soaked states. “It’s Dad.” She handed the phone to Maddie. “Our house has been sold. He needs you to come up for the closing.”

* * *

Maddie showered and dressed and laid her suitcase on her bed. She was throwing things into it when Deirdre popped her head in. “I heard the news. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Maddie looked down and realized her hands were shaking. One minute she’d been toe-to-toe with William, ready to combust; the next she’d been racing back to the houseboat and trying to process what Steve was saying about emptying the house and getting ready for the closing.

“Selling the house is a good thing, right?” Deirdre stepped inside the tiny space. “It’ll give you some seed money for whatever comes next. And provide a little more closure.”

“That sounds right, but it doesn’t exactly feel that way.” Maddie crammed a handful of underwear into a corner of the suitcase. “My children grew up in that house. I lived more than half of my life there.” She rooted around in one of her two drawers for her nightgown. “Now I have less than ten days to empty it and turn it over to someone else. Then my old life will really be over.” It was odd to not only think but say the words.

Deirdre smiled. “I’ve been watching you. Your new life is already under way. I watched you starting it even before your old one had finished crumbling.” She lifted one shoulder. “You’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever met. You’ve been a rock to all of us. Not to mention a teacher and an inspiration. You helped me get my daughter back. I’ll never forget it.”

“Goodness.” How odd it was that a woman she’d had so little affinity for when they’d met had become so supportive. “I don’t think I’m exactly ‘all that,’ as my kids would say.”

“You’re all that and more.” She picked Maddie’s bathrobe off the floor where it had fallen and handed it to her. “You’ve even got something going on with a rock star. You don’t want to forget that while you’re packing up your ‘old’ life.”

“Well, when you figure out what I have ‘going on’ with William Hightower, I hope you’ll let me know.” She shoved two more T-shirts into the suitcase.

“It’s a little unclear. Especially to him. But there’s some kind of connection,” the other woman insisted.

“We had sex, Deirdre. Pretty outstanding sex, in my book. The likes of which I don’t expect to see again. But a connection?” Maddie shook her head. “William Hightower doesn’t really ‘do’ connections. At least not with former suburban housewives.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Deirdre picked up a lone athletic sock still lying on the bed and handed it to Maddie. “Sixty is an age when you start seeing things a lot more clearly . . . when you want to do something about your regrets. Only shallow people want the cute twentysomethings at sixty-one. William Hightower has a bunch of issues, but being shallow isn’t one of them.”

Maddie zipped up the suitcase then began to paw through her carry-on, discarding refuse and slipping in the things she’d need back in the real world. Her hand brushed against the magazine she’d been holding on to and she pulled it out. A sticky note marked the article about Matthew Perry’s sober living facility that she’d been waiting for the right moment to show Will. Who knew if that moment would ever come? “Can you give this to William for me?”

“You want to give William Hightower a copy of People magazine?” Deirdre looked down at the magazine Maddie had placed in her hands.

“I want to give him this article in People magazine.” Maddie flipped the magazine open so that Deirdre could see the piece she wanted Will to see. “Whether he reads it or not . . . that’s up to him.”

Deirdre’s eyebrow went up in surprise when she saw the headline and the accompanying photos. “You go do what you need to do and hurry back.” She closed the magazine and folded it against her chest. “I’ll put it in William’s hands personally. And I’ll stay after him until he reads it.”

Chapter Forty-one

Maddie arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport feeling as dazed and disoriented as any tourist. Andrew picked her up outside baggage claim in his Jeep, an almost grown man with a voice that had deepened over the summer and an even more serious air, courtesy no doubt of his brush with corporate America and the changes in their family dynamic. He filled her in on the internship at Coke and mentioned a girl he’d been seeing and she realized how long she’d been gone. In two weeks he’d head back to college to begin his junior year; in two years he’d be out on his own. It was almost as hard to absorb as the traffic she’d once taken for granted but that now seemed downright alarming.