Page 3 of Her Summer Hope

It was Rob’s mother. Again.

The conversation went as it usually did—Rob’s mother beating around the bush about her call, offering her some gossip about Rob’s father’s friends who she didn’t know at all, and then a demand for a weekend visit from the kids.

She turned her down with excuses, as she always did, and offered to bring them over on Sunday afternoon for a few hours instead. It was the same thing she always offered, and they always accepted though the visits were awkward.

Rob’s parents didn’t know how to interact with the kids.

They brought them into the formal living room, offered them toys, and then proceeded to grill them on the school lessons Madison taught them. No amount of competency on her part would relieve their minds and they always ended the visit by forcing hugs from the kids and urging her to enroll them in a real school.

She always held her tongue out of respect, but her nerves were worn thin and sleep deprivation didn’t help.

She finally hung up, relieved and yet dreading the next wasted afternoon visit to their house.

She put Emmie in her crib, stroked her scant blond hair, and went to tell the others goodnight. She was looking forward to another night of sleep and another day between her and the worst day of her life.

∞∞∞

Helen Thompson was a healthy and hearty retiree who seemed to have the stamina of a teenager and the wisdom of a Depression-era housewife. It made sense considering that her mother had lived through the Great Depression and passed down her lessons to her only daughter.

Helen, lacking any daughters to pass her stories and knowledge onto, had adopted Madison.

She had saved Madison’s life, figuratively speaking, and the kindest thing was that she pretended that Madison was doing her a great favor by leaving all the children with her for a laughably small sum of money.

It was only because of her that her children’s routines hadn’t been overly disrupted after Rob’s passing. She couldn’t have done it otherwise.

“I have to run,” Madison said, placing Emmie’s bag down on the floor in the living room near the playpen. She gave Emmie smooches, her heart twisting painfully at the thought of leaving her, as it does every single morning she goes to work, before turning to kiss the others.

Ellie hugged her and returned her kiss on the cheek. Jackson leaped on her and kissed her square on the mouth with a loud smacking sound.

“Eww, girl kisses!” he joked, before sliding down to find the toys.

James allowed her to kiss his forehead briefly before running off to join his brother. Ellie was already settled in on the couch with a book while keeping an eye on the baby cooing nearby.

“I’ll—”

“Be back at ten, and again at lunch, and again at two,” Helen said, waving her away. “I know. Go on now so I can cuddle with my Emmie-bug and watch these youngsters build some sort of contraption from Legos and my kitchen spoons.”

Madison smiled. “I love you, Helen.”

“I love you too, but go now before they fire you for being late.”

Madison took one last inventory of her children before rushing back across the yard to her house and grabbing her keys and her purse.

∞∞∞

The shop door tinkled as she unlocked it and pushed it open. Despite Helen’s warning, she wouldn’t be fired for being late. Christian was grumpy and valued punctuality, but he wasn’t mean.

And he knew her circumstances.

As long as the shop was doing well, she wouldn’t have to worry about her job, at least. That was a huge weight off her mind. Her pay wasn’t great, but it was more than she would be able to earn elsewhere with very little college education and practically no other work experience.

The hardest job she’d ever had was being a stay-at-home mom, and unfortunately, that counted for very little in the real world. It was massively unfair, but she’d given up thinking about it long ago.

“Morning, Madison. Coffee’s in the back,” he grumbled.

He said the same thing to her every single day. He muttered about it, but he never failed to buy her a cup of her favorite coffee in the mornings. She flashed him a smile and a word of thanks before going to the back to store her purse and take her first sip of caffeine.

She closed her eyes and braced herself for the day ahead.

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