Through the Gates of Change
Madeline Series-M Version 1, Part 6
By Danielle Smiley-Face

Disclaimer: It’s been 10 years, but unfortunately, I still haven’t won the lottery, so the wonderful series known as “The Pretender” still doesn’t belong to me. *sigh*

~*~*~*~*~*~

Madeline drove along the road to the lakeside cottage as the sun was setting. The high school junior was more than pleased with the way her gymnastics routines were coming along and couldn’t wait to tell Park that her coach had just entered her into her first real competition since returning to the sport. It was a little over a month away, and she hoped her guardian would have enough advance notice to take the day off work to go with her.

When she pulled into the driveway, she was dismayed and a little curious to find her normal parking spot taken up by a red truck that had “Gates’ Restoration” across the side. Park hadn’t mentioned anything about having work done to their house. She parked behind Parker’s black sedan and climbed the stone stairway up to the front door.

Madeline stopped short at the entrance to the dining area when she saw an attractive man in his mid 30s standing with Miss Parker by the far wall.

“Hi Madeline.” Parker greeted her a little more cheerfully than she normally would in someone else‘s presence.

“Hi.” the girl replied tentatively, casting apprehensive glances at the stranger.

“Madeline, this is Thomas Gates. He’s going to be sprucing up the paint in here. Thomas, Madeline.”

“Nice to meet you, Maddie.” Thomas said warmly, beginning to step forward with hand outstretched.

She looked at him sharply, “Don’t call me that!”

He apologized easily but she didn’t return his smile.

“Umm, yeah. I’ll be upstairs.” she muttered before turning on heel and gracefully hurrying up to her room.

“I’m sorry about that- her father was the only one who called her Maddie.” Miss Parker felt the need to explain.

Thomas looked questioningly at Miss Parker, “Is she your daughter?”

“No!” Parker was quick to reply, “I adopted her two years ago.”

“I knew you weren’t as tough as you pretend to be!” he smiled mischievously.

Miss Parker had a strange urge to get pulled into his twinkling eyes, but just asked in a tone that was all business, “When can you start?”

“How about a week from Monday?”

“All right. It will have to be done during the day, when Madeline is at school.”

He was definitely drawn to her and would love to drag the job out as long as possible in order to have more contact with her, but he knew she was an incredibly smart woman and didn’t want her to think he was taking advantage of her. His honest side made him contradict her.

“I’m sure I could get it done in two days if I was able to work through the whole day. I‘ll just be in your way for a week otherwise.”

She raised an eyebrow icily.

“During school hours only. If that is not acceptable, I‘ll find someone else for the job.”

“Client’s wishes.” he said amicably, although confused.

“I’ll have a key made for you and leave it under the back door mat.”

“That sounds like a plan, Miss Parker. Enjoy your weekend.”

He smiled warmly at her and let himself out before she could reply. She was very unsettled about how drawn to him she was. He made her feel something Miss Parker decidedly did not like to feel, and that was out of control. He did not seem at all intimidated by her; and no matter how many sarcastic quips she fired at him, he still seemed intent on pursuing her. Miss Parker was suddenly finding she didn’t like changes to the status quo any more than Madeline did.

Ahh… Madeline. Miss Parker had read the apprehension in the girl’s eyes when she entered the room, and knew well where it was coming from. She only hoped that by insisting that Thomas work while Madeline was out of the house, the girl would be okay with it. She headed upstairs to fill her in on the situation.

The door at the top of the stairs was closed and Parker knocked and announced for clarification, “It’s me.”

She heard the click of the lock a few seconds later. She’d never known Madeline to lock the door before. Madeline opened the door before settling back on the cushioned window seat she loved. Parker sat beside her and they stared silently at the moonlight sparking over the lake for a few moments.

“When this was my room growing up, I used to love sitting here, reading for hours. My mother would have to drag me away for supper.”

Madeline turned to see a wistful smile on Miss Parker’s face, and couldn’t help smiling in return. She knew Miss Parker didn’t usually feel comfortable talking about her mother so it was always a treat when Park opened up to her about a pleasant memory from her childhood. She only wished Park had good things to relate about anything more recent.

The teenager remembered her news, and thought that might bring some joy to her somber companion.

“I entered into my first competition, for next month. It’s only a little regional thing, but it’s a good sign that I’m ready, and Jackie has faith in me.”

“Madeline, that’s great.” Parker smiled warmly.

“It’s on a Saturday afternoon. Do you think it’s far enough in advance that you could take the day off work? It’s only in Dover, so we’d be there and back the same day.”

Though she tried to offer the invite casually, Miss Parker saw how much her being there meant to the girl.

“As long as I don’t have a last minute business trip, I will definitely be there.” she promised sincerely, causing Madeline to smile brightly.

Madeline knew that “last minute business trip” was code for “a lead on Jarod”, but definitely wasn’t about to let slip that she knew anything about Jarod or Park’s real job duties.

“So, I didn’t know the house needed painting.”

“It hasn’t been painted since I moved in, and there‘s that water mark from last winter. Thomas will only be here during the day, while you’re at school.”

“But he’ll have a key, right?” Madeline worried.

“Yes, but he seems like a good, honest man. I had a friend run a background check on him, and he’s such a model citizen, it’s disgusting. Tell you what- as soon as he’s done, which will be by the end of next week, we’ll change the locks, ok?”

“If you have to go on a business trip next week, can I sleep over Amanda’s?”

Normally, she had no problem staying home alone when Parker went out of town. Knowing a strange man had a key to their house scared her to death. She’d come a long way in her work with Sydney, and knew her blanket fear of all men (except for Jarod, Angelo, Broots, and Sydney) was irrational, yet she hadn’t managed to shake it. Especially when they invaded her personal space.

Miss Parker agreed and decided the subject was settled so she moved on to the question of dinner. They both enjoyed cooking, so she homework was put aside and the unlikely pair went downstairs.

~*~

Over the weekend, Miss Parker went on one of her business trips. As he often did, Jarod used the opportunity to call Madeline to say ‘hi’. He could tell she was troubled and asked what was going on, although he thought he already knew the answer.

Jarod knew almost as much about her as Park did, so she explained in a rush about Thomas Gates and the impromptu painting project Parker was having him undertake.

“He’s a good man, Madeline. You have nothing to worry about with him.”

“Jarod,” she began in a tone that made him picture her eyes rolling in annoyance, “I know you somehow know, like, everything that goes on at the Centre, but there’s no way you know about some random painter.”

“He’s not some random painter, Madeline. I met him on a Pretend a few months ago. He’s a good man. You trust me, right?”
“Absolutely.”

She knew Jarod well enough by now to trust his instincts when it came to people, and to know that he would never willingly put her or Miss Parker in even a remotely dangerous situation. He’d drop clues all day long that would drive Park mad, but would never intentionally cause her pain.

~*~

School got out an hour early on Thursday because of a burst water main in the cafeteria. Madeline knew Thomas would probably still be working. She had overslept that morning and left her gym bag at home in her rush to get to school on time. After learning that Jarod knew and trusted Thomas, she felt comfortable heading home to grab her bag.

She arrived home to find him hard at work. He wasn’t painting like he was supposed to be, though. He was enlarging a basketball-sized hole in the wall.

“When did Park tell you to do that??”

“I was up on the roof earlier, and I noticed there’s a whole other room behind this wall. I‘m sure you two could use the extra space. I figured I‘d surprise her with it when she gets back.”

“Just trust me on this one- it was her mother‘s room, and surely you‘ve discovered by now how touchy she is when it comes to her mother. If you want to live to work another job, you’ll patch up that hole and we’ll pretend this conversation never took place.”

“Thank you for your advise, Madeline, but the wall is coming down.”

“It’s your funeral.” she muttered as she went to grab her gym bag.

“She didn’t kill me.” were the first words out of Thomas’ mouth when Madeline walked in the next day.

“How close did she come, though, seriously?”

“Well, if looks could kill, I’d be dead. She told me in no uncertain terms to put the wall back up.”

“Then why the hell is the hole bigger than when I saw it this morning? Thomas, you’re a nice guy so I don’t want to see something bad happen to you. You need to patch it up like she said.”

“At the risk of being shut out of her life, I’m doing this for her, whether she knows she wants it yet or not.”

“Okay, well, forgive me if I don’t want to be around to be a witness to your execution. It was nice knowing you.”

Madeline decided to spend Saturday night at a friend’s house to give Park a chance to calm down from the explosion that was sure to follow after seeing the new door. She was more than a little concerned to pull in the next morning to find Thomas’ truck still in the driveway. She knew Park was going to be really upset with him, but surely she wouldn’t have actually killed him!

She opened the front door quietly and glanced around apprehensively. A gorgeous wooden door led to Catherine’s room, and the end table was attractively arranged next to it. Nothing else looked amiss. She followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen, not quite sure what she expected to see.

Thomas Gates standing in front of the coffee machine shirtless at 8 in the morning definitely hadn’t been a possibility.

“Hi.” she said softly, so as not to wake Miss Parker, who she could see still sleeping through the partially closed bedroom door.

“Hi Madeline.” he greeted her sheepishly.

“So I guess she wasn‘t so upset about the door, huh?” she raised an knowing eyebrow.

“We came to an understanding about it.”

She let out a small laugh and glanced at the open bedroom door with a smirk beyond her years.

“Uh huh. I‘ll be upstairs.”

It soon became commonplace for Tommy to spend the night, but Madeline was perfectly at ease with him by then. She enjoyed his company and seeing the joy and relaxation he was able to bring out of Miss Parker.

She’d roll her eyes good-naturedly when she came upon them kissing in the kitchen or snuggled close together watching tv, but inwardly she enjoyed seeing them together like that. Though she felt slightly guilty for eavesdropping, sometimes she couldn’t resist sitting at the top of the stairs out of sight after saying her good-nights. She enjoyed listening to their easy banter and the clear affection in their voices.

She wasn’t quite consciously aware of it yet, but seeing Park find such happiness was helping to repair her own battered soul as well as show her that not all men were an evil to be avoided.

~*~

Madeline was at the dining room table doing her homework when the front door opened.

“Hey, Park. You’re home early! Going on another business trip?”

“I wish!” Parker signed heavily, “My father is having a little family get-together tomorrow night, but his house is being worked on, so he wants to have it here!!”

Madeline couldn’t quite understand why that seemed to be such a big deal, aside from the fact that it would be Thomas’ first introduction to the family. Madeline wasn’t sure if Park was worried her family would scare him off.

“Okay. I’ll take the night off gymnastics. What do you want me to cook?”

“It can’t be a simple little meal when it comes to my father! Of course he says ’dinner, drinks, nothing fancy’, but he’s expecting it to be. I’ve got to find a cleaning service to come out first thing, find a caterer, decide on an appropriate menu…” her shoulders slumped, “Try to prepare Tommy for meeting my family. And you‘ll need a nice dress. I‘ll give you money and you can go shopping after school tomorrow.”

“Thomas is a great guy. Your family can’t not like him.” Madeline tried to reassure her, although with Mr. Parker, you could never be sure. She had realized not long after meeting him that his continued dislike of her wasn’t completely personal, per se, it was just his way.

Parker muttered something Madeline didn’t catch as she headed for the phone book in the kitchen.

Madeline was watching Debbie after school the next day so they went shopping together. Debbie was delighted, sharing stories of the time she had to stay with Miss Parker and they went shopping for similar outfits. She especially seemed to enjoy recalling the horrified look on her father’s face when he saw them dressed alike.

It only took a few stores for Madeline to find a lovely, deep purple dress that was flattering and brought out the blue in her eyes, but something she didn’t think would attract much more unwanted attention from Lyle than usual.

She dropped Debbie off at the Broots’ and found the cottage bustling with activity, even though the dinner wasn’t set to begin for another three hours. There were two maids polishing the tables and dining room chairs. A waiter was putting the finishing touches on the table dressing and she could smell something wonderful coming from the noisy kitchen, which turned out to have not one, but two, very professional-looking chefs efficiently and quickly preparing the meal.

A harried looking Park was going over the evening’s course of events with a waitress. Madeline caught her eye and smiled supportively before heading upstairs to try and get some homework done.

Miss Parker came up a little later and sat down on the window seat with a small sigh.

“Did you have luck finding a dress?”

Madeline got it from the back of the bathroom door and held it up for inspection.

Miss Parker nodded approval.

“Are you doing all right?” Madeline asked her.

“I just know something’s going to go wrong. I’ve spent all day making sure everything goes perfectly, but something is going to go wrong.”

“Everything’s going to go great.” she managed to make it sound sincere, although Park wasn’t the only one nervous.

Madeline was more concerned about having to spend the evening around Lyle. From the moment they had met, he sensed her discomfort and seemed to enjoy trying to intensify it. She planned to stick with Tommy and hoped to avoid Lyle as much as possible.

“Everyone’s getting here at eight.” she reminded Madeline before rushing out the door.

Madeline went downstairs at half past seven.

“You clean up well.” she teased Tommy with a smile.

“Thank you, young lady. You look lovely this evening.”

“Thanks.” her smile got wider and her nerves calmed a bit knowing he was on her side.

“Where’s Park?”

“Still getting ready.” He gestured towards her room, “I don’t understand why she’s so nervous. I’m the one meeting her family!”

“I think Mr. Parker’s got really high expectations and she doesn’t like to let him down. She said she was sure something‘s going to go wrong, even though I‘ve heard her go over the game plan with the staff at least half a dozen times.” Madeline shrugged.

When Park emerged from her room, she looked simply stunning. Madeline could only hope that one day she’d be as graceful.

She and Thomas walked over and overheard her telling the waitress the schedule.

“Um, ah, drinks first, then dinner, then I'll climb up onto the top of the roof and jump head first onto the driveway.”

The woman looked at her strangely and Parker told her it was an old family tradition. Thomas leaned in and gave her a reassuring kiss. Madeline smiled when Thomas stopped her nervous fussing by assuring her that she looked incredible.

The doorbell rang and Miss Parker answered it to find her father and Brigitte, also not one of Madeline‘s favorite people, but still preferable to Lyle.

“Angel!” the old man greeted as warmly as he ever seemed able to.

When Brigitte asked if they could come in, Park replied with, “Well, looks like you’re already in.”

Madeline’s jaw nearly dropped when Brigitte said, “We appreciate you hosting this little shindig. Damn floors. You know how slow construction workers can be. Morons with hammers.”

“Bridget…” Miss Parker warned.

“Brigitte.” the brunette corrected.

Madeline loved how Park always intentionally mispronounced her name, and the fact that it never failed to get a rise out of the blond.

“Whatever.” Park easily dismissed her, returning her attention to her father.

“Daddy, this is Thomas.”

“The construction moron. Don't worry, I left my hammer in my other outfit.” he shook hands with Mr. Parker with the friendly smile that came so easily to his lips.

“I've heard a lot about you, son.”

“Well, don't believe everything that you hear.” Thomas joked.

“Like what?” he asked in all seriousness.

Madeline wondered why Park hadn’t thought to share a few key bits of information with Tommy earlier, like the fact that her father had no sense of humor whatsoever.

Madeline decided now would be a good time to step forward and greet their guests as well. She got an insincere smile from Mr. Parker and an equally insincere kiss on the cheek from Brigitte. She stepped back apprehensively when she saw Lyle coming up the stairs over Brigitte’s shoulder.

“Hi. I hope I'm not late.”

“Tommy this is my... brother, Lyle.”

Madeline couldn’t blame her for hesitating to call Lyle her brother.

Lyle actually sounded sincere when he said, “So this is the lucky guy who won my sister's heart.”

“Yeah. I'm the lucky guy.” Thomas replied with an affectionate glance towards the woman in question. Madeline’s jaw dropped a second time when he innocently asked, “What happened to your thumb?”

That was another subject Madeline knew Park really should have mentioned as being off limits.

“Who needs a drink?” Miss Parker headed towards the bar.

Mr. Parker did away with his daughter’s seating arrangement, which had thoughtfully put Madeline as far away as possible from Lyle; claiming he wanted his “two best girls” on either side of him. He placed Lyle next to Brigitte, and Thomas across from Lyle, next to Miss Parker. Madeline was at the other end of the table, uncomfortably close to Lyle. She surreptitiously moved her chair closer to Thomas’ side
of the table first chance she got.

The meal had a few road bumps when it came to conversation, but otherwise, everything went off without a hitch. Madeline could only wonder what Thomas was thinking at the many lines of tension running rampant through the air.

“Oh, I thought the dinner party from hell would never end.” Park said in relief as she closed the door behind her departing guests.

“Good night.” Madeline gave Park a hug.

“Good night. Thank you, Madeline.” Park smiled wearily.

As Madeline headed for her room, Thomas came out of the kitchen with a cup of tea and handed it to Miss Parker.

“I made something to help you sleep.”

“Hmm.” Parker took an appreciative sip.

“Well I thought that tonight went, ah, pretty well.”

Madeline stood at the top of the stairs, interested to hear Parker’s response.

“Nobody died.” was as much of an agreement as he got.

“Brigitte seems like a nice person and she makes your father happy. “

“It's so hard to watch him throw his life away like this.”

“Then don't. If it's making you this miserable, maybe you should stop spending time with them.”

“They're my family.” Madeline heard Park defend weakly.

“Maybe you should think about... starting a new one.”

Madeline smiled and crept up the last few stairs to her room, closing the door gently behind her. She liked Thomas more and more every day.