Judging Joey (7 page)

Eddie chimed in again, his voice sounding suddenly tinny. “Maybe our squirt brother is growing up. Now if we can only get him to do his own laundry.” Eddie laughed through the phone. “I’m going to hang up now. Got to get back to working on these briefs.”

They all said goodbye, then Caitlin turned her focus on Joey again.

“I hate going to the Laundromat. It takes too much time.” Joey had to admit that was one of the disadvantages of living on his own.

“Of course, why go there when you can come here, have Mom do it, and get fed at the same time?” Caitlin made no attempt at mincing her words. She never had.

He leaned over and grabbed a new pillow off the couch and threw it playfully at his sister. “Why you . . . I can’t help it if she insists on doing my laundry.”

When he reached for another, Caitlin shouted, “You better not. Mom will kill you if you rip her new pillows.”

Thinking his sister happened to be right, Joey rose and fluffed up the pillows and straightened them up on the couch. Then he sank down into the comfort of the plush cushions. He ran a hand down the smooth material. “Nice.”

Caitlin’s eyes turned into slits. “Seriously, Joey, the only girlfriend we want our kids to meet is the future Mrs. Joey O’Neill. Is that clear?”

“Cait, when is it going to be clear to you that you haven’t been able to boss me around since grammar school?” He leaned back and put a pillow behind his head watching her clench her teeth together and getting ready for a fight. At times like these he instantly recalled the many brawls he and Caitlin had had over the years. Since they were the youngest and closer in age than the rest of his siblings, they seemed to argue with each other the most. And Caitlin could fight like a boy. She’d had plenty of practice observing her older brothers.

He loved busting on his sister, but if his love life was affecting his nieces and nephews the way they all seemed to think, then he could easily keep his dates away from his family. He shrugged. “Sure why not? It’s not like I plan to get married any time soon. Probably never.”

Caitlin smiled, victorious. “Good. Knew you’d see it our way.”

Joey raised his arms and placed them behind his head. “Now tell me about Miss Madeline White.”

Chapter 6

“How come neither one of us remember her from high school?” Joey scratched his head as he pondered possible explanations.

Kevin came back in the room and looked as if he was about to say something, but before he could, an idea came to Joey as he recalled Madeline’s shapely legs. Spectacular long legs that led up. And up. “You ran track, Caitlin. Did Madeline do track? I didn’t hang with any of those guys.” He let out a low whistle. “She sure has the legs for it.”

Caitlin stood suddenly and puffed up like an indignant peacock whose feathers got ruffled. Her whole body began to shake. “Don’t talk about Christopher’s teacher like that.”

“Like what?” Instinctively he moved back a degree. Man, his sister was sensitive today. And more bossy than usual.

“Ugh!” She rolled her eyes at him and turned to her husband for help. “Forget it. He’s impossible.”

Kevin shook his head and frowned at Joey. Then he grabbed his wife’s hand and pulled her toward him. “I know. Let it go, honey,” he said in a loving and understanding tone that Joey never did quite get.

The familiar, yet foreign tone Joey immediately recognized, having heard his parents and his married siblings use it many times, was lost on him. Something twisted in his gut as the idea hit him that maybe there were some perks to the whole marriage thing. Married couples seemed to have a bond, a connection like no other. He looked away from his sister and her husband. Suddenly Joey felt like a third wheel.

Caitlin plopped down on the couch and hugged a pillow. “No, Madeline wasn’t on track. I would have remembered her then. But I did ask around today about that because I thought it was kind of weird too. I already knew some stuff about her having a bad childhood. And both her mom and her aunt died recently. Just about a year ago.”

Joey, more serious now, turned back to his sister and narrowed his focus. “A bad childhood?”

“Madeline wasn’t blessed with a family like ours or a mother and father who’d do anything for her.” Caitlin held out her hand for Kevin to hold and she squeezed it when he did. “Her mother was the furthest thing from motherly and when her dad died, her mother abandoned her.” Her voice tightened again and her expression told him she meant business. “This is not to leave this room. I was told this in the strictest of confidence by someone on the PTA.”

The news his sister delivered of a neglected child seemed in contrast to the confident, but perhaps slightly odd, redheaded woman he met earlier. “Bummer. Can’t even imagine what that would be like.”

Caitlin nodded and rested her arm on Kevin’s leg for support. “Even worse, I found out today that she grew up in some small town in Upstate New York where no one knew that Madeline was practically raising herself. Then her dad came down with terminal cancer and she tried to take care of him without her mother’s help. A teacher finally called child services about possible neglect. When he died, her mother, who had some sort of substance abuse problem, left, and child services contacted her mother’s much-older brother and his wife.”

Kevin whistled and frowned. “How old was she at this time?”

“About fifteen. Can you imagine any of us taking care of mom or dad at that age? And to think Madeline grew up with an uncaring mother is horrible. She’s so loving to all the students at the school,” Caitlin said.

Joey leaned in, becoming more fascinated with Madeline’s background. “So what happened when they called her uncle and his wife?”

“They took her in, of course. From what I heard, they had no children of their own and always wanted them. The only problem was that they lived here. She had to leave everyone she knew in New York and transfer here in sophomore year.”

Kevin shook his head again. “That must have been hard on her. Leaving all of her friends that she knew growing up and starting over. Especially at that age.”

Joey had to agree. “Yeah.” Madeline must have found it tough to make new friends, he thought, as he ran his hands across the smooth material of the couch. Most kids find friends in elementary school and stay together through high school. He did. He even worked with some of his childhood friends. In fact, he was meeting them at the park the next day to finish that interrupted basketball game.

He ran his hand down the couch again. “Mom upgraded, huh? The old couch was really beat up.”

“Yes, they were finally able to get rid of that cheap replacement for the other one we had about ten years ago. Remember that hunter-green one? Mom loved that couch, but then we went away, and that jerk Scott had a keg party.”

Kevin chimed in. “Caitlin told me a bit about that.”

“Yeah, Mom and Dad were furious with his parents because they trusted them to house-sit for us,” Joey said.

“They offered to replace the couch that Scott ruined and then they bought one with an awful busy flower pattern.” Caitlin added, then smiled. “Mom hated it, but kept quiet since she knew that family was already in turmoil and she didn’t want to add more stress to their lives.”

Joey had to smile, too. “Dad eventually figured out how much Mom despised it, but he couldn’t afford to buy another at the time.”

“Do you ever think about Scott?” Caitlin asked Joey.

“No, not since high school. When his parents split and his dad dragged him to Florida, I thought maybe it was for the best. That kid was heading for trouble.”

“Yeah, his Dad probably did him a favor getting him away from his mother. I never liked that woman. Even less now. When Mom’s heirloom brooch went missing the night of the party, she blamed it on the cleaning crew she hired to take care of Scott’s mess.”

“I thought Scott blamed it on some girl at the party,” Joey said. Something his sister had just mentioned tugged at his memory.

Caitlin shrugged. “Thank goodness it turned up.”

His mother and aunt called from the kitchen to help set the table. Lots of chatter followed everyone as they left the kitchen, including Christopher, who rattled on about the carnival as he carried a basket of rolls to the dining room table.

Joey drowned them and the clanking of silverware out as he imagined a redheaded girl sitting alone and eating a microwavable dinner. Madeline must have never experienced a moment like this growing up. No matter how much he complained about his family, he wouldn’t change this for anything.

He doubted Madeline White would say the same about her family. Life had not handed her a deck of winning cards.

His neck tensed and he got that feeling he sometimes did when he was on duty and he knew something was about to go down. “I remember Scott telling the team about some girl who crashed the party. He claimed some redheaded chick from the school newspaper went ballistic when she realized I wasn’t there and started to throw food and drinks around and stole Mom’s jewelry.”

He stared at his sister. How could they have been so blind? “Don’t you see? Miss Madeline White must have been that redheaded girl.”

Madeline checked her watch. One o’clock. Careful not to tug on Rusty’s leash, she kept time jogging alongside Sabrina and her dog, Pepper. “Not bad,” she said, wiping sweat out of her eyes. “Ready for a cool down?”

Sabrina nodded. “Let’s hit the dog park afterward so we can really chat.”

“Sounds good. Then I have to head back. My dentist appointment took longer than expected this morning. Thank God, we have dental insurance at work.”

Sabrina shrugged. “It’s decent enough, but it could be better. At least your teeth won’t fall out.”

Madeline laughed it off, but she found it far from amusing. Fact was, her teeth could fall out if she wasn’t diligent about her dental hygiene. “At least we have
some
insurance.”

Slowing down to an easy jog, Sabrina looked sheepish. “Sorry. That was insensitive.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Sabrina stopped abruptly and grabbed Madeline’s forearm with a clammy hand. “No, I need to check myself before inserting foot into mouth.” She pointed to her well-worn grayish sneakers.

The image of where those sneakers had just been, and Sabrina literally putting one into her mouth, made Madeline chuckle. “Okay, that’s just gross.”

Sabrina’s grip tightened. “It’s not your fault no one made sure you brushed your teeth, or had fluoride treatments, or went to the dentist.” Sabrina studied her with such concern in her eyes Madeline couldn’t help but hug her. Sweat and all.

Madeline knew her friend meant well, so she would never question her motives. Sabrina was the closest thing she had ever had to a sister. “Forget it. Let’s go to the dog park.”

They stopped briefly at their cars for reusable plastic water bottles, sports towels, and portable water bowls for the dogs. At the dog park, they got water from the drinking fountains and filled up the collapsible bowls for the dogs.

The dogs lapped up the water and soon took off when the women released them. While Sabrina gulped water from the fountain and then filled her bottle, Madeline stole a glance at her friend of several years and recalled when they had first met. Both had volunteered at the local dog shelter, and they had immediately bonded. Been inseparable since. It was Sabrina who told her of the teacher opening at their school and helped her get a job there.

Madeline had quit her former teaching job at a private school to take care of her aunt when she had taken a turn for the worse. Aunt Patty’s failing health became too much for her uncle to handle all by himself. Madeline and Uncle Mark both refused the doctors’ suggestions of putting her into hospice care. Aunt Patty wanted to stay at home as long as possible. When her aunt passed away, Madeline desperately needed a job to help support herself and her uncle and was forever grateful to Sabrina for her assistance in landing her new teaching position.

Sabrina leaned her head back, her long, dark-brown ponytail stretching behind her. She tipped the bottle as she quenched her thirst. Dark freckles, splattered across her nose, sparkled as the sun reflected off her face. It sometimes caught Madeline off guard how much Sabrina reminded her of Allison. Madeline had never recovered from the catastrophic event that had caused the disintegration of Allison and Madeline’s strong friendship.

Madeline’s lip quivered when she thought about how at one time she had felt as close to Allison as she did now to Sabrina.

“You’re staring,” Sabrina said.

Madeline glanced away. “Sorry. Sometimes you remind me of an old friend. From high school.”

“You never mentioned that before.” Sabrina swiped a hand across her mouth to catch a drip of water.

“Didn’t I?” Madeline strolled over to the fountain and pressed on the pedal. Cool water cascaded up and she guzzled it more out of a need of avoidance than thirst.

“Who was she?”

Madeline turned from the fountain and searched for Rusty, like a concerned parent after a toddler. He was playing with Pepper and another dog, named Chloe. She spotted Chloe’s owners, Chet and his brother, Steve. They both waved.

She smiled at them, and then turned to fill her bottle.

Sabrina waved back. “Don’t avoid the question. What was her name?”

“Allison, her name was Allison. She was my best friend, my only friend, when I came here from New York. She had long, dark hair and brown eyes like you. But she had shiny metal braces.” Madeline smiled and shook her head. “She hated those.”

“So what happened? Did she move? Is that why you’re no longer friends?”

“Hardly. No, it was thanks to Joey O’Neill and his football buddies that I lost my best friend.” The venom in her voice startled even Madeline.

Sabrina’s eyes widened like huge saucers, reminding Madeline of a cartoon character her first graders were fond of. “Well, don’t leave me hanging,” Sabrina insisted.

Madeline sighed and looked around for an empty bench. She found one under a maple tree’s shade amongst the many pine trees. She pointed to it and they sat down.

Pushing imaginary hair out of her face, she hesitated. She had never told anyone what had happened that night. And had just recently told her uncle part of it. Maybe she should have. Not only had it destroyed her friendship with Allison, it had caused an uncomfortable rift between herself and her guardians. They never understood what had caused Madeline’s moodiness or her loneliness during the last two years of high school.

Her lips went dry and she licked them. “You have to promise me you’ll keep this to yourself,” Madeline heard herself saying.

Sabrina crossed her heart. “Stick a needle in my eye and all that.”

Madeline contemplated what to reveal as she protectively watched Rusty. Chet and Steve were throwing Frisbees to the dogs. Chloe did much of the fetching. Madeline guessed Rusty and Pepper were tuckered out after jogging with Madeline and Sabrina. But they were occupied and seemed to be entertained, so she relaxed her grip on the bench handle and sat back into the seat. A slight breeze brushed over her and added a calmness. Oddly, after all these years, now seemed the right time to get the massive weight off her shoulders. A load she had carried far too long.

Certain that Sabrina would keep her word, Madeline decided that finally sharing the events of that horrible night might do her some good. It might be a relief to unburden herself of that still vivid memory.

Madeline took in a deep breath. A mixed scent of pine needles and sand greeted her. She welcomed it.

Moisture built up in Madeline’s eyes as she was about to tell the whole sordid story. Suddenly, Madeline felt a presence behind her even before she saw its shadow.

“Hello, ladies.”