Echoes of Summer (11 page)

“How you feeling, buddy?”

“Better.” Milo looked up from the video game he’d been playing quietly on the couch. He still looked pale, and his eyes weren’t as bright as usual, but he did look improved from the morning.

“Good. I’m going to take a bath. Stephen said he’d bring us some soup in about an hour. You be good.”

“Kay.” Milo’s eyes trailed back to the TV screen, and she headed to her bath.

Madison turned on the playlist on her phone and set it on the counter. She poured in some of her bath salts, the fragrant ones she saved for special occasions, and slid into the hot water, sighing at the way her muscles relaxed. If only there was some way to bottle up that sensation. The music, combined with the warm water made her drift off to sleep, and she woke with a start when her head tilted to the side and water filled her ears.

The water was still warm enough to remain for a few minutes longer, so she slipped under the water, submersing her head; she rubbed her scalp, enjoying the sensations that brought. Knowing she should get out soon, she pulled the plug and turned on the shower to rinse off, then reached out for her towel.

She lathered herself in her favorite body lotion, and combed through her hair then let it hang down her back. She didn’t want to bother blowing it dry. She looked for her change of clothes and realized she hadn’t grabbed a set or her robe. Not wanting to put her dirty clothes back on, she tossed them into the hamper, wrapped the towel around her body and tucked the corner in to hold it like a sarong.

It didn’t go down her thighs very far, but it was still long enough to cover her butt. And Milo wouldn’t even notice; he’d probably still have his eyes glued to the television. She checked the clock. It was six-thirty, so she knew she should hurry and get dressed before Stephen came over with the soup.

She opened the door, and the sounds of Milo’s game reached her ears. She headed toward the front room. “Milo, it’s time to turn that off and do a tidy up if you—” Her words fell right out of her mouth as she met Stephen’s big brown eyes. She froze and stared at him.

***

Stephen sat next to Milo on the couch, the game controller forgotten in his hands as he stared at Madison. The towel covered her just as much as some dresses he’d seen on women, but his face flushed at the idea of nothing there besides that bit of terrycloth fabric. She brought her hands up to the edge of the towel and pulled it up just a little, but that only brought his attention to her full figure, and he struggled to keep his eyes on her face and not let it roam over her body.

Madison didn’t walk away, just stared at him, and though he wanted to speak, he couldn’t think of a thing to say. At least nothing that wouldn’t get him in trouble.

“Oh, Mom, Stephen brought the soup.”

Madison seemed to struggle to take her eyes off him, giving Stephen a jolt of hope. He smiled and glanced at Milo, hoping to give her time to come to grips with his presence there. “I got off a little early and started the soup, then thought I’d bring it over to help you get better sooner.”

Milo pointed at the kitchen. “It’s on the stovetop. He wanted to keep it warm for you.”

Madison nodded numbly then turned without a word and disappeared back down the hallway. He stared at the place she’d stood, not able to get the image of her beauty out of his mind. Seeing her like that definitely solidified his desire to rekindle that flame they’d once shared. And she hadn’t gotten angry at him, hadn’t yelled and told him to leave, hadn’t over reacted at being caught in a towel in the privacy of her own home.

This soup idea was paying untold benefits. He only hoped it was actually as good as what Grandma Iris had always made. Stephen turned to Milo. “Maybe we should turn this off and do the tidy-up she was talking about.” He looked around the room, trying to figure out what needed to be done, but it looked pretty good to him.

Milo sighed but shut the game off, put the controllers away, then grabbed his blanket and folded it before placing it in a basket next to the couch.

Stephen looked toward the kitchen with the little table in a breakfast nook. “Should I set the table?”

Milo nodded. “Yeah.”

Stephen went back into the kitchen and checked the soup; he turned the temperature off and placed the hot pad he’d brought with him on the table. He examined the closed cupboards and made a guess to which one housed the dishes. He guessed wrong on the first try but found the bowls on the second and set three at the table. He hoped she’d let him stay and decided he’d fare better if he played it cool and just put them all on and had it ready for when she came out.

He looked up after placing the last spoon near the bowl to find Madison watching him. He smiled and turned to face her. “I’m sorry about the early arrival. I should have called first.”

Madison shrugged. “No harm done.” She looked at the table, her gaze resting on the pot. She took a slow breath and smiled. “Smells amazing. Thank you.”

Stephen motioned for her to sit down and called for Milo to join them. He came in and slid onto his seat, then Stephen sat down. He was glad there were four chairs around the table instead of just two. Stephen met Madison’s eyes, and she smiled then spoke. “Would you like to offer a blessing on the food?”

Stephen blinked in surprise, not used to doing that on his own, but it had been a tradition in his grandparent’s house, even though it wasn’t at his own. He paused for a moment, wondering what to say, then decided to just speak his heart and let the words come as they would.

When he finished, Madison met his eyes again but didn’t speak. He looked away from her and used the ladle to dish her up some soup, filled Milo’s bowl, and then his own. Milo paused for a minute, looked at his mom and back to Stephen. “Does this have any nuts in it?”

Stephen shook his head. “No.”

Madison studied the bowl in front of her. “Does it have anything that could have been processed with nuts?” She turned to Stephen.

He smiled. “I can just give you the recipe. You don’t need to go about it this way.” Madison opened her mouth to respond, but he kept going. “I know, he’s got a nut allergy, but I don’t think there is anything that contained nuts, but if you’d like I can tell you all the ingredients.”

She took a slow breath and sighed. “What do you think, Milo? Do you trust him?”

For a second, Stephen worried she was serious, then the twinkle in her eye as she glanced at him while Milo mulled it over made him smile.

“Yeah, he’s good.” Milo lifted his spoon, blew on the soup, and took a sip. He put the spoon down inside the dish, then his eyes widened, and he grabbed his throat. Stephen dropped his spoon back into his bowl and leaned forward, panicked that he’d added something wrong. Milo stuck his tongue out, rolled his eyes to the back of his head, and dropped his head to the side, making a theatrical croaking sound.

Madison giggled, and Stephen leaned back, shaking his head. “That was mean.”

Milo grinned. “Sorry, Dad. But you should have seen your face.”

Stephen froze at the use of the word Dad. It sounded so strange to his ears, but he loved it, feeling such a strange mix of emotions. He was terrified he’d do something wrong and mess up any chances he had with these two, but to know Milo had accepted him and didn’t hold his absence against him was amazing.

Stephen turned to Madison, who had focused on her soup. She took a slow bite, savoring the flavors, and sighed. “Well, Mr. Kohalohini, I think you might almost be as good as your grandma with this soup.”

Stephen smiled and took a spoonful as well. It wasn’t anything huge — it wasn’t even fancy — but Stephen loved this moment and hoped there would be a lot more of them.

Chapter Seventeen

Madison finally felt well enough Saturday morning to venture out to the store for a few supplies. As she wandered the store aisles with Milo beside her, she wondered about getting something nice to cook for when she invited Stephen over for dinner. He was a good cook, at least with the soup, so she’d have to think of something impressive.

“Hey, buddy, what do you say we invite Stephen over for dinner next week?”

Milo lit up just like she’d expected him to. They discussed the different types of meals that Milo liked and tried to come up with one that they thought would be good for Stephen.

“Can we make cupcakes too? Stephen said he liked those,” Milo said. It sounded strange for him to call his father by his first name, but she preferred it over the times he’d used Dad. Stephen had said he was fine with it and would let Milo call him what felt comfortable for the boy, and that made her appreciate him even more.

“Yeah, cupcakes sound great. And I think I remember his favorite flavor was chocolate.” Madison smiled at Milo’s toothless grin since he’d recently lost another one of his front teeth. “Let’s go see what we can find.”

The more she thought about inviting him over for dinner, the more excited she got, and the butterflies in her stomach told her maybe she would enjoy it as much as Milo would. She couldn’t wait until Monday to see him at work. She’d invite him in person instead of a text.

On Monday morning, Madison took extra care in getting ready for work. She made sure her skirt and blouse were attractive but not too provocative. As she dropped Milo off at her sister’s, Karen caught her excitement and asked about it.

“I’m just feeling a little hopeful today. Milo and I decided we’d invite Stephen over for dinner.” Her cheeks hurt from the grin that wouldn’t go away.

Karen studied Madison and smiled. “Good for you. Take a step forward. From everything Milo’s said about him, he sounds great. And you’ve not had anything bad to say about him for a while now.”

Madison nodded. “He’s really good with Milo. I can actually say I’m glad he’s part of his life now.”

Karen hugged her quickly, and Madison rushed back to her car. She wanted to get to work a bit early to make sure everything was running smoothly so she could focus on the right time to ask him for dinner. She knew Carrie had been covering for her on the accounts since Robert hadn’t been able to do them from home, like Mr. Carlson had hoped. Carrie was good, and Madison wasn’t worried about finding a mess to clean up. In fact, she hoped she might convince Carrie to take over the accounts for good so she could start working more with Stephen to bring in new clients. She’d discovered she was pretty good at it and working with someone of his talents made it even better. If she was lucky, maybe she could convince Mr. Carlson to let her stay in the new client manager position even after Robert returned.

Inside her office, she restocked her candy dish, generously putting a couple extra Butterfingers on top. She opened her laptop and started reviewing the files and customer accounts. Everything looked to be up to date, and there were only a few notes in the accounts from Carrie on things that Madison would need to finish up. It was such a relief to come back after being sick and not have a mountain of work.

Carrie knocked on her door as she entered. “Hey, Madison. Good to see you’re back. Are you feeling better?”

Madison smiled. “Yes, much better, thanks.” She pointed at the computer. “You did awesome. Thanks for taking care of this.”

“No worries. I just wanted to make sure you were here and find out if you needed me to do anything, or if you had questions about things from when you were gone.”

Madison shook her head. “No, the notes in here are perfect. I’ll take care of those last few things and get these other accounts in progress.”

Carrie nodded. “’Kay, let me know if you have questions later.” She turned to walk out the door, and Madison watched her leave through the glass walls, thankful for a co-worker who was so helpful.

She turned her head down toward her laptop, but from the corner of her eye, she saw Stephen’s large frame and looked back up, excited to see him. Before he reached her door, he raised his eyes to look at Carrie who’d turned around and moved back to join him.

“Anything you need help on this week?” Carried asked.

Stephen shook his head. “Can’t think of anything. Now that Madison’s back, we’ll pick up where we left off and get the proposal ready.”

He turned to Madison’s door and walked in, not bothering to knock this time, probably since she was watching him.

“Hey, Madison. Good to see you back.” He moved into the office and picked up a candy.

Madison smiled smugly.

“Looks like Grandma’s soup did the trick.”

Madison nodded. “Thanks. It was just as good as I remember it.”

Stephen smiled. “I’ve got skills.” He blew on his fingers and rubbed them on his chest. “You up for meeting at three still? We’ll go over the pitch for this Wednesday.”

She nodded and swallowed. “Sure. Three’s good.” She looked at her laptop. “I have a few things to take care of, but Carrie was thorough while I was gone.”

“Carrie’s pretty impressive.” Stephen glanced behind him toward the door. “Mr. Carlson has a great staff here. I’ll be sad to leave it when the time comes.”

Madison frowned at the reminder. Of course he planned on leaving still. “I’ve got to make some phone calls. I’ll see you at three.”

Stephen nodded and grabbed another Butterfinger before walking out of her office.