Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game(47)

Josh gave me a wide grin, showing the gap from one of his newly lost teeth. “Yeah, he’s one of my daddy’s favorites.”

“Is that right?”

“Uh, huh. You know Beautiful Boy?”

“Yeah, I know it,” I replied. Warmth filled me because it was one of my mom’s favorite songs. She loved for me to play it because she said it was exactly how she felt about me. She also had me change all the times John mentioned “daddy” to “mommy”.

“Will you play it then? Daddy plays that one for me a lot.”

“Okay.”

Maddie went to her dad’s office and came back with a shiny Gibson Southern Jumbo. “Wow, nice,” I mused.

She smiled. “It’s Daddy’s treasure.”

I gently took it from her. “I promise to be very careful.” After I eased down in the chair next to the couch, I took the pick out of the top and then stared down at the strings. My body shuddered as I realized the last time I’d held a guitar in my hands was at Jake’s funeral. If I closed my eyes, I could almost hear the symphony of weeping and or smell the sickening sweet aroma of all the flowers.

“Noah?” Maddie questioned.

“Uh, I’m sorry…I haven’t played in a while,” I replied as I started strumming a few opening chords. As I focused on the music, I tried desperately to push away the suffocating pain ricocheting through my chest at the thought of Jake and his funeral.

Instead, I focused on entertaining Josh. With rapt attention, he kept his eyes on me for most of the song. Of course, they started drooping by the end of the first chorus, and by the end of the song, he was asleep. I glanced up at Maddie. A strange look flickered in her eyes before she smiled at me. “Thanks,” she whispered.

“No problem,” I replied.

She motioned me towards the kitchen where we could talk. “I’m really sorry about your clothes and all. I can wash them for you if you want,” she offered.

“Really, it’s not a big deal at all, so please don’t apologize. Things like that happen when you’re sick.”

“Yeah, they do.”

I shifted on my feet before nervously raking my hand through my hair. “Listen Maddie, I came over here because I wanted to ask you something.”

“You did?”

I nodded. “My mom is getting married two weeks from Saturday, and I wanted to know if you’d like to go with me.”

Her eyes widened as she gazed skeptically at me. “As your date?”

“Of course.”

“Sure, I’d love to,” she replied with a smile.

“Great.”

“So does this mean you’re okay with the wedding and all?”

Leave it to Maddie to always play Dr. Phil. “I’m still not thrilled with the prospect, but I’m learning to deal with it.”

“Because you know your mom will be happy?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

She nodded. “I know what you mean. My parents have so much going on with Josh and with…” She hesitated like she was going to say something but then thought the better of it. “I just try to think of things I can do to make them happier, but it’s hard.” She smiled ruefully. “That’s why I work so hard to keep my act together—the last thing they need is me worrying them.”

I bit my lip before I finally asked her what was on my mind. “Um, Maddie, is there something besides Josh’s illness going on?”

Playing with the hem of her t-shirt, she asked, “What do you mean?”

“You’re just acting a little funny—like about your parents being gone. I just wondered if everything was okay.”

She sighed. “No, it’s not okay. It’s about my brother.”

“Josh?”

“No, my older brother, Jace.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise. “I didn’t know you had a brother. Is he away at college or something?”

Pain flickered on Maddie’s face. “No, he’s in Charter Peachford for drug addiction.”

I swayed a little on my feet. Pastor Dan had a son who was a drug addict? The idea was almost too hard to comprehend. Maddie and Josh were practically Stepford Children. It was hard believing there was a bad seed in the perfect Parker gene pool.

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay.”

“How long has been an addict?” I asked.

“On and off for five years. He started experimenting when he was fifteen, and it went from there. He hit the really hard stuff about a year and a half ago. After he lost his scholarship dropped out of college, we finally did an intervention, kinda like that show on TV.”

I nodded.

“That’s when he went into treatment. But he’ll stay for a while and then leave. He comes home and tells us he’s better, but he’s really not. Mom and Dad refuse to let him come around anymore because it’s too hard on Josh—both physically and emotionally.” Maddie sighed. “It’s hard on all of us.”

I reached over to tenderly rub her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Maddie.”

The moment I touched her, she jumped like she’d been shocked. We stared at each other, barely blinking or breathing. Finally, Maddie murmured, “Thanks.”