All for Maddie by Jettie Woodruff Page B

would be there. There was no
question in my mind. I learned pretty quickly that Alex Wesson did what he
wanted.
    “You’re partying with us
tomorrow night, right?” Jaron asked, pulling me from the empty screen on my
cellphone, waiting for asshole baby daddy to text back.
    Brilliant…..
    “You know what? Yeah, I think
I am,” I decided.
    Gaining a weird look from
Jaron, he said, “Um, okay. Good, I’ll see you later.”
    Alex wants Maddie. Okay, Alex
can have Maddie. He wanted to come and spend the weekend with her. Fine mommy
was going to have fun. She would be right there on the resort and in her own
bed. I’d show Mr. Big Shot Alex.
    I walked up to my dad’s to
get Maddie after waiting tables for a while so that Naomi could be late, again.
I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something to tell him. I was taking
his baby girl away from him. How in the hell was I supposed to justify that?
    Hey Dad, by the way, I’m
being forced to take Maddie and live with a rapist. You can come and visit.
Grrrrr. I honestly did hope that Alex Wesson died a slow painful death. I
wished he was on his death bed right that moment.
    “Papaw read a book,” Maddie
informed, sitting on the deck with my dad. She was on his lap, and he just
opened the book and began to read. She wasn’t leaving yet.
    “Johnny was excited. Johnny
was going to the zoo,” my dad began.
    “I go to the zoo,” Maddie
educated him.
    “Papaw will take you to the
zoo before summer is over,” he promised.
    “No, no, Maddie alweady go to
da zoo. My daddy take me.”
    Well, hell.
    My dad looked straight to my
startled face.
    “I seed a monkey and a dis
many fish,” she explained, holding out her arms, stretching them as far as she
could.
    “Did she go to the zoo?” my
dad asked, wondering why I hadn’t disclosed that information.
    “Uh-huh, me did,” she assured
him.
    “Whitley?”
    “Yes, Dad. She went to the
zoo.”
    “With?”
    Oh man.
    “With her dad.”
    He stood up and sat Maddie on
the swing. “What do you mean her dad? I thought you didn’t know who he was. I
thought you only had a first name.”
    “I lied, I was afraid you
would go after him. He’s older than me.”
    “How much older?”
    Shit, I didn’t know how old
he was. Okay, if I was seventeen and he was a senior in college that would make
him about…twenty-five. Yeah, that sounded about right.
    “Whitley?”
    “He was only twenty-one at
the time.”
    “How does he know about
Maddie?”
    “We ran into each other at
Kylie’s wedding a couple months back. We’ve been talking ever since. That is
why I went there last weekend. I went to see him, not Kylie.” And the lies
flowed like the river. “He’s coming here tomorrow.”
    “Why?”
    “He wants to see us. I’m
going to move there with him, Dad,” I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going. If I
let my lies stop, I might not get them started again.
    “No, you’re not.”
    “Dad, I’m twenty-one. You
can’t tell me what I can and can’t do anymore.”
    “Why would you do that,
Whitley?”
    “I love him, and he is so in
love with Maddie.” I felt sick. It was the worst thing that had ever fallen
from my mouth. I love him? Ugh….
    “How can you say you love
him? You don’t know him. He doesn’t know Maddie. I’m not going to let you take
her almost two hours from home. And when were you going to tell me any of
this?”
    “I’m telling you now.”
    “Only because your daughter
doesn’t lie. You’re not doing this. Forget it, Whitley. Your life is right
here. You’re not taking Maddie away from here, this is her home. What is wrong
with you?”
    “Dana Ray,” Dana called from
the door, trying to calm the raise in his voice.
    I’ll never forget the look on
his face. He kind of shook his head and walked away from me, off the porch and
around the house.
    “Papaw didn’t read a book,”
Maddie pouted.
    “Come on, you can take the
book.”
    “You okay?” Dana asked,
touching my arm.
    I smiled at