Chapter 12

Move back to New York? Lindsay thought.

"What?" she asked.

"Would you consider moving back to New York?" Danny asked again. He'd made the mistake of not coming after her after she'd left the first time, and now he was paying dearly for it. He'd realized, in the short time she'd been back, that he'd made the biggest mistake of his life in not doing right and going after the woman he knew he loved.

"Um..." she chuckled slightly, "I don't know, Danny." she looked over to the other side of the table as their meals were brought to them. It all looked wonderful. Surely he'd expect her to help pay.

Madison sat quietly, studying her reaction.

"Mama," she began.

Mama? I bite my tongue. I don't remember the last time I called my mom Mama. And in a restuarant too!

"I don't wanna move to New York," I tell her sheepishly. "I like Montana. I have friends, and Grandma and Grandpa Monroe are there, and Grandpa was showing me how to rope a calf."

"Ropin' a calf?" I hear Danny ask. He sounds surprised. What? Didn't he know that that's what we do in Montana? When you go over to your family's house you help. Sometimes Grandma Monroe will ask me to help in the kitchen, but when I stir the mashed sweet potatoes I usually burn them. After the second or third time of messing up dinner, Grandpa Monroe said it would probably be better if I helped him out in the barn.

FLASHBACK

"Oh, darn it!" I cried, the sweet potatoes sticking to the bottom of the pot. It was starting to smoke... I was burning it! Phewy! It was the second time I'd done it.

"Oh Maddie..." Grandma Monroe gets me a gentle bump of her hip and I'm suddenly out of the kitchen.

"I'm sorry Grandma Monroe..." I say.

"This is the second time, Maddie," she says, breathing hard as she moves the pot to a different part of the stove. "I told you, dear, if it starts to smoke, you move the pot!"

"I forgot!" I shout.

"Don't you shout at me!" she turns to me and gives me a smack on the bum. "You're just like your mother! I swear, she moved to New York, got herself mixed up with the wrong type of people and now look where you are!" she breathing hard again, and I see her turn back to the pot of mashed potatoes.

I start to cry and run outside. Grandpa Monroe is out in the field with the calves and ponies. I run to the fence and climb halfway up so I can see what he's doing.

"Hey Grandpa Monroe!" I shout to him. See, out here it doesn't matter. I can shout AS LOUD AS I WANT, and Grandpa Monroe won't say anything about it. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Tryin' to break this calf, honey!" he shouts back. All that means is that he's trying to make the calf a little more calm.

"Can I help?" I shout, more asking a question very loudly.

"Not with this part!" he shouts again. "It's too dangerous for a girl your size! Why don't you go into the barn and muck out the stall for the pony?"

Muck out the stall? Eeew! Moving all that horse poop around? Yuck!

"Okay!" I'm wearing a pair of jeans, so I can hop over the fence and off I go.

When Grandma calls us into the kitchen for supper, Grandpa and me are all covered in muck and guck, so I hafta have a bath before supper. Mom comes to the house after work to pick me up, and Grandma says she should stay for supper too. When I get dressed again after my bath, Mom is waiting with Grandma and Grandpa, and we sit down for supper. Grandma made beef stew, and the almost burned mashed potatoes are there too. For dessert, which I helped make, 'cause I like to help with that part, we had chocolate cake. YUMMY!

We have to go home now, and Mom hugs Grandma before we go.

"Thanks for looking after Maddie, Mom. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it." I hear her say.

"My pleasure dear..." Grandma says. "Mind you watch that mouth on her though. Never had that problem with you."

"Gets that from her father." Mom grumbles. She'd mentioned him before, but not his name, and not where he lived, so I didn't know much about him. Just that I had his mouth.

"Yeah," I answer as I poke at my spaghetti.

"Sounds cool," Danny nods, taking a bite of his... whatever it was he ordered.

Mom still isn't saying anything. She takes a bite and swallows. That meat looks pretty darn rare to me, but didn't they say it was raw? Mom's pretty brave to try something like that!

"When's your flight home?" Danny asks Mom as he takes a drink.

"In a couple of days," Mom says. "Stephen bought as the tickets.

"Sure seems like a nice guy," Danny says.

"Meh, he's nice enough," Mom says. "Why?"

"I got the day off tomorrow. I was wonderin' if you, me, and Maddie could do somethin'."

"Like what?" I take a bite of my spaghetti.

"I don't know, what do ya wanna do?" Danny asks me. He's asking me what I wanna do? He wants to know what a seven year old wants to do on her first day in New York?

"Can we go shopping?" I ask.

Ha ha, Danny made a face.

"Maddie..." Mom says, putting her fork down and her plate and looking me in the eye. "Despite evidence to the contrary, with this nice dinner and all, Danny is not a bank. We can't keep asking him to spend a lot of money on us, that's not polite."

"Huh?" Danny asks. Is that a twinkle I see in his eye? "Since when do you care 'bout bein' polite, Lindsay?"

"Don't start up with me!" Mom's temper is flaring up again, I can see the vein in her temple.

Oooh, they're gonna start fighting... COOL!