Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance Read Online Free Page B

kinda trampy in high school. Of course she’d been fairly jealous of the time Eli spent with all his girlfriends, so she didn’t have high opinions of any of them. But she definitely didn’t think much of a mother who would deny her kid his father and then drop him off without warning seventeen years later.
    “I don’t think badly of you,” Maddie insisted even while realizing it was a lie. However, she needed not to offend Becca right now. “But do you really think dropping Rogan with a complete stranger is the best thing for him?”
    “I’m out of options and Eli was always Mr. Responsible. Rogan’ll be fine. He adapts quickly.”
    That was a pretty big assumption about a man she hadn’t seen in eighteen years. Fortunately, she was right. Maddie looked across the driveway at Rogan, wondering how many times he had been dumped with various relatives. No matter how hard she concentrated, Maddie couldn’t buy the teenager as well-adapted. Something pulled deep in her chest at this cast-off, recognizing a like soul.
    Eli sneezed as he pulled a red plaid pillow, sized for a musk-ox, from the back seat of the car. Maddie wondered if he’d say anything about his allergies as he carted his burdens toward the front door and sniffled.
    “How do you know Eli will make a good father?”
    “Is there something that I should know?” Becca asked off-handedly while picking at a loose thread on her long, quilted coat.
    After thinking about it a moment, Maddie had no question about what kind of father Eli would make. He had the patience, the organization, and the discipline to be a good parent.
    “No. But you can’t drop your kid on a father he doesn’t know. What have you told him about Eli?”
    Becca looked away refusing to meet Maddie’s eyes and rocked from foot to foot. Finally, she shrugged as pink tinted her cheeks. “I told him he died.”
    “What have you told him since then?”
    “Nothing. I said I was misinformed.”
    Outrage flowed through Maddie. She straightened to her full height, wanting nothing more than to grab Becca by the hair. “Misinformed?” she asked, unable to keep the knife-edge of anger from her voice.
    “I couldn’t tell him I lied.”
    “So now he probably thinks that Eli was ducking his parental responsibilities.”
    Becca rocked from one foot to the other. “Look, I’ve done the best I could do.”
    Arguing that point could easily push Maddie to violence. “Why didn’t you tell Eli when you found out you were pregnant?”
    She paused for a very long moment. “I thought his family would try to take Rogan away from me.”
    Maddie fought to control her tongue. Typical, selfish Becca.
    “But it turns out, raising a kid is harder than it looks.”
    The Redmonds were a happy, close-knit family and Maddie had no problem believing Eli’s mom and dad would have made great grandparents. Poor Rogan had missed out on so much.
    Maddie didn’t bother to ask why Becca didn’t bring him back to Sudden Falls once she realized how hard parenting was. What was the point?
    As Eli and Rogan took the last load into the house, Becca backed away toward her car.
    “Aren’t you going to at least say goodbye?” Maddie asked, her heart breaking for the teenager while at the same time she wanted to wrestle Becca down into the snow and beat the stupid out of her.
    Before Rogan even stepped back out onto the porch Becca yelled in the general direction of the house, “Bye, Rogan.” As Rogan came out the front door, Becca got into her car. Maddie couldn’t help but remember that she had not only thought Becca was a tramp in high school, but a self-centered one at that. Clearly the self-centered thing seemed to have bloomed to epic proportions.
    Maddie watched Rogan dispassionately gaze after his mother as she drove away. He stood tall, but the arms braced around his torso revealed how he really felt.
    Maddie turned back around as Rogan disappeared into the house, slamming the screen door behind