Free Bring on the Rain by Eve Asbury

time with him pressures me. Trying
to hold onto him, so he doesn’t get tired of waiting for you to
give in, that pressures me. It makes me feel desperate.”
    There it was. The facts laid out for
her to look at. To accept and to respond to, because her daughter
was reaching out to her for the first time in months. Brook had
been honest, she could see that clearly enough. Her daughter’s
feelings were as real and as vulnerable as her own.
    Madeline nodded. “All right. We’ll work
something out, but you have to agree to it. If we’re going to be
honest here, you know your word hasn‘t meant much
lately.”
    “ I know. If you only gave me
Friday night or Saturday, it would make me happy.” Brook’s smile
was hopeful.
    “ I’d rather you didn’t go to
Copper Creek. Mitch and Jude aren’t married, and it doesn’t look
nice.”
    Brook laughed. “Man, but you are
paranoid.”
    “ You have a good reputation.
People like you. Your friends are diverse and that makes me proud.
You might settle here one day, and hanging out there alone with him
would cause talk. Not to mention--”
    Brook cut in dryly, “You think his
uncle would let us screw around, right?”
    Madeline flushed. “Men don't see it the
way we women do.”
    “ If I do it, Mom, it’s not
going to be there.”
    She dropped her hand and turned toward
the bed muttering, “I don't want to know.”
    Brook laughed again.
    She walked a few steps and she felt her
daughter touch her shoulder. She kissed her on the cheek and said,
“I’ll fix breakfast in the morning. And we’ll talk.”
    Madeline watched the door close behind
her as she slowly sank down on the bed. She buried her face in her
hands and breathed in a shuddering breath. Somehow, she knew this
was going to be the most difficult week of her life.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 6
     
     
    They woke up to a wild spring storm, no
electricity, and had to haul out the Coleman stove for her
essential coffee. For a while they watched the rains drench the
little house, form a river of water flowing through the yard and
down the road. It carried leaves, tree limbs, and debris with it.
At times, they flinched from the loud boom of thunder in the
distance.
    Madeline thought dryly that it seemed
fitting, after her opening that locked door of her past. Well,
Madeline amended, it was cracked, but she didn’t intend to fling it
wide anytime soon.
    The sky remained a murky gray. They sat
on their big multi-pillowed sofa and talked.
    With the curtains open, a backdrop of
thunder, lightning and slamming rain, she listened to her daughter
for some time, steered clear of Mitch as a subject, but agreed to
let her have Coy at the house on Friday night and Saturday day.
They could go out as long as she called home. She made Brook
promise not to sneak off to Jude or Mitch’s house.
    Eventually they made peanut butter,
jelly sandwiches, and drank milk. They discussed school, different
kids, college. The fact Brook couldn’t decide on a major didn’t
freak her out. She didn’t want her to rush in over her head. By
evening, Brook was laying with her head on Madeline thigh,
stretched out on the sofa while they laughed about different things
and argued over others, not the bad kind of arguing, the
exasperating kind.
    “ I’m telling you, Mom, if I
got a tattoo on my ass, who’d know it?”
    “ I would. And what’s the
point? You wouldn’t be able to see it.”
    “ It’s that or a nipple
ring.”
    “ Ugh, God! You will not maim
your boobies like that.”
    Brook crowed with laughter, “No, I
think it’s gross. I wanted to shock you.”
    “ It worked.” Madeline
shuddered. “How about another hole in your ear as a
compromise?”
    “ I could get my nose done,
or my eyebrow.”
    “ Hell no. I will not pay for
that.”
    “ I’m joking.”
    They laughed before falling silent a
moment. Brook sat up, facing her and tucking her legs beneath her.
The rain settled into a steady drum outside and the wind