“No bad diagnosis.” But Phil was right. She wasn’t herself anymore. All this pretending for the damn inheritance was totally messing her up. The lines between the person she was and the one she was pretending to be became blurrier every day.

“Mad?”

“I…I’m not sure how to answer.”

“All this family stuff is messing with you.” He took a deep breath. “It almost happened to me too a while back, you know?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, well, last year there was this guy. Divorced. He had a son. We dated for about two months. I really liked him, but…I’m just not the settling-down type and neither are you.”

“Last year? Why didn’t you say something to me or the guys?” Or at least to her. They were best friends, dammit.

“It wasn’t serious, so nothing to tell.” After a slight hesitation, he asked, “But it’s different with you, isn’t it?”

And how different. She hated lying to him, but he was the biggest chatterbox in the States.

Out of nowhere, Jake appeared behind the couch. “Madison?”

Madison turned. “Yeah?” Into the phone she said, “Give me a minute.”

“Mom told me not to draw you a picture.” He fidgeted. “But I thought if I ask you, you, um, would let me. I mean, the drawing is for you, not for Mom, so…” He looked up at her with a hopeful expression.

Sherry came from the hall, probably from a visit to the bathroom. “Baby, what are you and Madison talking about?”

Jake spun around. “Nothing.”

“Shall we talk another time?” Phil asked.

Madison suppressed a sigh. “Yeah. That might be better. I’ll call you later.” Their conversation wasn’t over yet, and she had to think about what to tell him when they spoke next time, but for now she had to talk to Jake.

They said their goodbyes, and Madison put down her cell on the coffee table.

“Don’t lie to me, Jake.” Sherry came closer. “You wanted to ask Madison if you could draw something for her, didn’t you?”

Jake nibbled his lower lip.

The gesture reminded Madison of Sherry. “Jake, I asked your mom to tell you not to draw something for me.”

An expression of hurt crossed Jake’s young face. “Oh.”

His sadness hit her in the chest. “But maybe a drawing wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. I mean, um, we could hang it up somewhere.”

Like a switch had been turned on, Jake grinned at her.

And she had caused that. Oh my, she really was changing.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Madison walked past Jake’s door just as Sherry sat down on the edge of his bed to read him a bedtime story. As if under a spell, Madison stopped to listen.