the crazy train and catch her breath, it was her other cousin Scarlett. She had a front-row seat to Sadie’s frenzied life—parenting twins with little help from her ex, working forty hours a week, then spending Saturday and Sunday catching up on the laundry and shopping. Throw in an emergency doctor visit, a missed child-support payment or a flat tire and the crazy train derailed.
A sliver of guilt pricked her. She hadn’t yet told her parents that she’d been laid off because she knew they’d insist she and the twins move to Florida, where they could better meddle in her life. She’d planned to look for another job, but then the director of the boys’ new preschool had suggested she register Tommy in a special program for kids with ADD, insisting he’d benefit from the extra attention. The recommendation made sense except without a job Sadie couldn’t afford the higher tuition and because it was already the end of August, enrollment for the program was closed. Tommy had been placed on a waiting list for the spring semester. With the lease on her apartment up for renewal and Tommy having difficulties in school, Sadie had packed up their belongings and put them into storage so she and her boys could take a much needed break from life.
Tommy’s troubles made her feel like a failure as a mother. She worried that if she didn’t get a handle on Tommy’s behavior by the time he entered full-day kindergarten in just over a year, he’d risk being held back. Splitting up the boys would only create a new set of problems for her to deal with.
The rain finally let up, and Sadie loosened her death grip on the wheel, then switched the wipers off. If not for having to drive through several downpours after leaving San Antonio, they would have made better time.
“Mom?”
“Yes, Tyler?”
“Is Dad gonna miss us?”
“Of course he will, honey.”
She took several slow, deep breaths, a trick she’d used to help keep her calm when Tommy tried her patience. The day the boys had been born, Sadie’s stress level skyrocketed and had remained high ever since. As if giving birth to twins wasn’t enough strain on a working mother, being married to a man who had never pitched in had made her days even more taxing. But that hadn’t even been the worst part—Pete had been disloyal. The first time she learned he’d cheated on her, she’d been eight months pregnant. For her sons’ sake, and because being a single mother of twins had terrified her, she’d given Pete a second chance. Two years later he’d “slipped up” again—his words, not hers. Marriage wasn’t a game of baseball, so after two strikes she called him out.
“If you want to talk to your father while we’re visiting Aunt Amelia, let me know and I’ll call him.”
Silence greeted her offer.
She had no regrets about the divorce. Pete had spent so little time with the boys that they’d barely noticed a difference when he’d moved out of the apartment. And they didn’t think it odd that they saw him only the second Wednesday and third weekend of each month—that was, when Pete didn’t cancel on them. Not only did her ex go back on his promises to his sons, but he was often late paying his share of the preschool bill. When that happened, she had to cover his portion, then wait a week or more until he paid her back.
If there was anything good about the boys growing accustomed to their father’s absence in their everyday lives, it was that they hadn’t objected when Pete had announced his plans to move to Baltimore with his girlfriend. Sadie admitted that it was difficult to watch her ex date—not because she was jealous of the other women, but because she was envious of Pete never having to worry that the twins might sabotage his relationship. Sadie’s two brief forays into dating had ended immediately after she informed the men she was a mother of twins.
Learning that her cousin Lydia had married the infamous Gunner Hardell, Stampede’s notorious bad boy—a man who’d flirted with rodeo and hadn’t planned on settling down and having children—gave Sadie hope that one day she’d meet a guy who was willing to be a father to her boys. She wouldn’t care what he looked like or what he did for a living as long as he was dependable and helped make her life easier, not more stressful.
“Who’s Amelia?”
No surprise that Tyler didn’t ask any more questions about his father.
“She’s your great-grandmother’s sister. You can call her Aunt Amelia.” The boys had just turned two when she’d taken them to Texas for the first time. Back then, she’d needed to regroup after she’d filed for divorce, and she’d chosen to visit her aunt instead of her parents, who’d moved to an adult community in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
She wished she was closer to her mother and father, but she’d disappointed them badly when she’d become pregnant. Neither of them liked Pete and they’d offered to help Sadie financially if she didn’t marry the babies’ father. But Sadie hadn’t wanted to be a single mom, and Pete had been willing to give marriage a try, so they’d tied the knot, hoping for the best. Unlike her parents, Aunt Amelia had always treated Sadie warmly and hadn’t judged her for the mistakes she’d made. It was only natural that her great-aunt was the first person Sadie would turn to when her life was crumbling around her.
“You’ll like Aunt Amelia’s house. She has a lovely attic that I played in with your aunt Scarlett and aunt Lydia when we were kids.” Every summer, Sadie had tagged along when her grandmother visited her eldest sister in Stampede for a month. She had fond memories of running around in the big Victorian.
“What’s an attic?”
“A secret room tucked up under the roof.”
“Are Poppa and Nana gonna be there?”
“Nope. They’re leaving tomorrow on an Alaskan cruise.” Sadie’s parents had visited Madison for a week in May, carving out two afternoons to spend with the boys. Because they’d insisted Tommy was too difficult to handle, Sadie had used two of her vacation days to join their visit to the zoo and a museum, where she’d been subjected to her mother’s parenting lectures. She’d been told that if she didn’t get a handle on Tommy’s behavior, he’d end up serving time in a juvenile detention center. Poor Tyler hadn’t been mentioned at all, as if he didn’t even exist. Needless to say she’d been relieved when her folks left town, and she wouldn’t have to see them until Christmas.
“What did you do in the attic?” Tyler asked.
“We played school and pretended we were trapped in a castle waiting for Prince Charming to rescue us.” She peeked in the mirror and Tyler’s big blue eyes blinked at her. He was a worrier just like her.
“Can I read in an attic?”
“Of course you can.” Tyler had learned to read before Tommy and at first Sadie had believed it was because he was smarter. Then one evening Tyler had been reading on the living-room floor, and Tommy had thrown a Lego block at his head to get his attention. Tyler hadn’t even flinched. It was then that she understood her son’s obsession with books. The only time Tyler was able to escape the chaos that followed his brother everywhere was when he was lost in a story. With such different personalities she often wondered how long it would be before the boys drifted apart.
Sadie’s thoughts shifted back to work and her stomach churned. Surely it wouldn’t be difficult to find another job when she returned to Madison. She’d worked in Dr. Kennedy’s dental office the past five years as a bookkeeper/office manager and had been caught by surprise when he’d announced he was merging his practice with another dentist and her job was being eliminated. Dr. Kennedy had offered her a generous severance package, which included six months’ income and health insurance coverage for her and the boys, so she had time to find another job and a place for them to live.
“Is Dad gonna come to Aunt Amelia’s house?” Her little copilot refused to go to sleep.
“I don’t think so. Baltimore is a long way from Texas.” The boys and their father had said their goodbyes last month when Pete had stopped at the apartment with toys from the dollar store. The schmuck had enough money to wine and dine his new ladylove, but he couldn’t