Stealing Home by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

He needed to deal with his resentment in a more constructive way than lashing out at anyone and everyone around him.
    “Sweetie, yes, we’ve talked about his, and I know you don’t understand what your father’s done,” she said for what must have been the thousandth time. “But that doesn’t give you the right to call him names, okay? He’s still your father and deserves your respect. I do not want to have to tell you that again, understood?”
    He regarded her incredulously. “Come on, Mom. I know you keep painting this rosy picture of things, but even you have to know what a jerk he is.”
    “What I think of your father isn’t the point,” she said. “He loves you, Ty. He wants you to be as close as you always were.”
    “Then why the hell did he leave us for her? She’s not much older than me.”
    “She is an adult, though,” Maddie said. “You, your brother and sister need to give her a chance. If your father loves her, I’m sure she has plenty of good qualities.” She managed to get the words out without gagging.
    “Yeah, right. I’ve seen her good qualities, ” he retorted. “Like a 38-D, I’d say.”
    “Tyler Townsend!” she protested. “You know better than to make a remark like that. It’s rude and inappropriate.”
    “It’s the truth.”
    Maddie fought to temper her remarks. “Look, change is never easy, but we all have to adapt. I’m trying. You could help me a lot if you’d try, too. You’re a role model for Kyle and Katie. They’re going to follow your lead when it comes to how they treat your dad and his…” Maddie stumbled. Until the divorce was final and the relationship could be legalized, there was no name for what Bill’s new love could be called, at least not in front of her children.
    “Special friend,” Tyler suggested sarcastically. “That’s what Dad calls her. It makes me want to puke.”
    Maddie would not allow herself to agree with him. That didn’t mean it was easy to give him a chiding look. “Careful, Tyler. You’re very close to crossing a line.”
    “And Dad hasn’t crossed a line?” he said. “Give me a break.”
    “Did something happen yesterday that I don’t know about?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure? Did you have words with your father?”
    He remained stubbornly silent and kept looking out the window, refusing to meet her gaze.
    Obviously she wasn’t going to get through to him, not this afternoon. But she had to keep trying. At the very least, she had to rein in his nastier comments.
    “Maybe we should table this discussion for now, but in future I want you to speak to your father—and other adults, for that matter—in a respectful manner.”
    Ty rolled his eyes. Maddie let it pass.
    “Let’s talk some more about why baseball practice sucked,” she suggested, finally putting the car into gear and pulling away from the curb.
    “Let’s not,” he said tersely, then looked directly at her as if seeing her for the first time. “How come you’re all dressed up?”
    “Job interviews.”
    “And?”
    She resorted to his terminology. “They sucked.”
    For the first time since he’d climbed into the car, Ty grinned. He looked like her carefree kid again…and so much like his dad had looked at that age, it made her heart ache.
    “A chocolate milk shake always makes me feel better when I’ve had a bad day,” he suggested slyly.
    Maddie grinned back at him, relieved to see the improvement in his mood. “Me, too,” she said, and whipped the car into the left-turn lane to head for Wharton’s Pharmacy, which still had an old-fashioned soda fountain.
    Ever since her own childhood, that soda fountain had been the place where some of the most important events in her life had played out. She and Bill had shared sodas there during high school. She, Helen and Dana Sue had shared confidences. Bill had even proposed to her in the back booth with the view of Main Street with its flower-filled planters and wide, grassy median. They’d