by Cat Schield
“Lia...” Grady sang again, more agitated now as he tried to make himself understood.
“Lia?” Constance stared at her father-in-law, and then glanced at her son for clarification. “Who is Lia?”
But when the answer came, it was Grady who spoke up. “Ava...baby.”
* * *
After her run-in with Paul Watts the day before, the last place Lia expected to find herself was seated beside Ethan in his bright blue Mercedes roadster on the way to the hospital to visit his grandfather. Overhead, clouds dappled the dazzling February sky. Around them the sweet scent of honeysuckle and crab apple blossoms mingled with the sound of church bells coming from the Cathedral of Saint Luke and Saint Paul. It was a glorious day for driving with the top down, but this was no joyride.
“I’m really not sure this is the best idea,” Lia said, shuddering as she pictured her last encounter with Paul Watts. “Your brother was pretty clear that he didn’t want me anywhere near your grandfather.”
“Paul’s occupation makes him suspicious,” Ethan said. “And Grady’s illness has made him even more edgy. Add to that the fact that he doesn’t like surprises and that explains why he overreacted at finding a stranger visiting his grandfather.” Ethan shot her a wry grin packed with boyish charm. “And you were dressed like Rapunzel so that had to throw him off, as well.”
Lia rolled her eyes, unmoved by his attempt to lull her into giving up her argument. “Are you sure Paul will be okay with me visiting?”
She craved Ethan’s reassurance. No one had ever treated her with the level of suspicion Paul Watts had shown.
“He wants Grady to get better just like the rest of us.”
“That’s not the same thing as being okay with my visiting,” she pointed out, the churning in her stomach made worse by Ethan’s evasion. Paul’s bad opinion of her bothered Lia more than she liked to admit.
“Look, Paul’s not in town at the moment so you don’t need to worry about running into him. You just visit Grady a few more times and be the ray of sunshine that will enable him to improve and by the time Paul gets back, Grady will be on the mend and Paul will realize it was all due to you.”
“I think you’re overestimating my abilities,” she demurred, even as Ethan’s praise warmed her. Each time she’d visited Grady she held his hand and sung to him, pouring healing energy into his frail body.
“Trust me,” Ethan declared, taking his espresso-colored eyes off the road and shooting a brief glance her way. “I’m not overestimating anything. Your visits have been transformative.”
“But I’ve only been to see him four times,” Lia murmured, determined to voice caution. If Ethan gave her all the credit for his grandfather’s improvement, what happened if Grady took a turn for the worse? “I can’t imagine I made that much of an impact.”
“You underestimate yourself.” Ethan spun the wheel and coasted into an empty spot in the parking garage. “He started communicating a little yesterday by singing the way you suggested. That’s given him a huge boost in his outlook and he’s growing better by the hour. You’ll see.”
In fact, Lia was excited to see Grady improve. She believed in the power of spiritual healing and trusted that she could tap into the energy that connected all living things and bring about change because she willed it. It didn’t always work. Some concrete problems required real-world solutions. For instance, the broken axle on her camper trailer and her totaled truck.
Meditating hadn’t gotten Misty fixed. She’d needed money and a mechanic for that. But after asking for help, the universe had found her a wonderful job, terrific coworkers and an affordable place to live. She’d been offered a solution at a point when she was feeling desperate.
Ethan shut off the engine and hit her with an eager grin. “Ready?”
“Sure.” But in fact, she was anything but.
When they got off the elevator on the fourth floor, Ethan’s long strides ate up the distance to his grandfather’s hospital room, forcing Lia to trot in order to keep up.
As they neared Grady’s room, Lia spied a familiar figure emerging. “Hi, Abigail,” Lia said, as the distance between them lessened. “How is Grady doing today?”
For a moment the nurse looked startled that a stranger had called her by her name, but then she took a longer look at Lia and her eyes widened. “Lia! I didn’t recognize you out of costume.”
Lia gave an awkward chuckle and glanced at Ethan. “I’m not sure Grady will recognize me, either.”
“Mr. Grady will know who you are.” The nurse’s reassuring smile did little to ease Lia’s nerves. “There’s a keen mind locked up in there.” She glanced at Ethan and when he gave her a confirming nod, Abigail continued, “He’s going to be so glad you’ve come today. Your idea to encourage him to sing has worked wonders. He’s so excited to be able to communicate with people again.”
Beside her, Ethan radiated smug satisfaction.
“That’s great,” Lia said, delighted that her suggestion had produced a positive result.
“His family and all the staff are so thrilled that things started to turn around yesterday. He’s doing so much better that the doctor thinks he’ll be able to go in a few days.”
“Wow,” Lia murmured, “that’s wonderful news.”
“We’re so glad she showed up when she did,” Ethan declared. “She’s worked a miracle.”
“Please stop,” Lia protested, the praise making her uncomfortable. “The credit really should go to all of you who’ve been taking such good care of him this whole time.”
“There’s only so much medicine can do when the will to keep on living is gone,” the nurse said.
“Mind over matter,” Ethan said. “People don’t give it enough credit.”
“They certainly don’t,” Abigail agreed before heading down the hall toward the nurses’ station.
Ethan set his hand on Lia’s elbow and drew her into Grady’s hospital room. As soon as she stepped across the threshold, Lia was struck by the room’s buoyant energy. The first time she’d visited Grady Watts, he’d been an immobile lump beneath the covers, unconscious and unaware that she’d taken his hand and softly sung to him. Today as she stepped closer to the bed, she noticed that he was wide awake and eagerly watching her approach. The directness of his gaze reminded her of Paul and she shivered. Ethan had mentioned his grandfather had a sharp temper and forceful manner when crossed.
Grady wiggled his fingers and she took his hand. His dry skin stretched over bones knobby with arthritis. She gave his fingers a light squeeze, shocked at the rush of affection for someone she barely knew. Yet was that true?
Usually she moved on every couple months and rarely got tangled up in people’s lives. In this case, her accident extended her time in Charleston, leading to numerous massage sessions with Ethan where he’d spoken at length about his family. As the weeks turned into months, Lia had grown ever more invested in their stories until she almost felt like part of their circle.
“Hello, Grady,” Lia said, her voice warbling as affection tightened her throat. “It’s Lia. You probably didn’t recognize me without my costume. How are you feeling today? You look really good.”
Grady’s fingers pulsed against hers as he acknowledged her with two sung words. “Ava daughter.”
Ethan had explained how Grady had been desperate to reunite with his missing granddaughter before the stroke, even speculating that the patriarch’s illness had been brought on by the crushing disappointment of a recent dead end. Since then, Grady had brooded nonstop about what had become of her and the family’s failure to bring her back into the fold.
“That’s right, Grady,” Ethan said, beaming at Lia. His eyes held a wicked twinkle as he added, “Ava’s daughter has come home at last.”
Delighted by the news, Lia glanced at Ethan and noticed the way the handsome businessman was regarding her with purposeful intent.
Her heart began hammering against her ribs as the import of what Ethan was saying struck her. She shifted her attention to the man lying in the hospital bed and she caught her breath to protest. But before she could voice her sharp denial, she saw the love shining in Grady’s eyes for her. No. Not for her. For his missing granddaughter.
Head spinning, Lia turned her full attention on Ethan. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that Grady knows you’re his granddaughter.” Ethan gripped Lia’s elbow with long fingers while his eyes beseeched her to go along. “I explained how Paul located you through one of those genetic testing companies. It’s long been Grady’s dream to reunite you with your family. And now here you are.”
Lia’s mind reeled. The position Ethan had put her in was untenable, and to drag his brother into the mix was only going to create more drama. But the sheer joy in Grady’s eyes tied her tongue in knots. This could not be happening. She had to tell the truth. She wasn’t Ava Watts’s long-lost daughter. To claim that she was the missing Watts granddaughter would only lead to trouble.
“We need to talk about this,” Lia growled quietly at Ethan. She put her hand on Grady’s shoulder. “We’ll be right back.”
Leaving a confused Grady behind, Lia fled out into the hallway. To her relief, Ethan followed her. Worried that Grady might overhear their conversation, Lia grabbed Ethan’s arm and towed him down the hall toward the waiting area near the bank of elevators.
“Have you lost your mind?” she whispered as soon as they reached the empty family lounge. “How could you tell him I’m his granddaughter? And why put Paul in the middle of it? He’s going to be furious.”
“Grady came to that conclusion all by himself,” Ethan explained. “And the reason I gave Paul credit was to help repair the strained relationship between him and Grady.”
“Your brother will never go along with this.”
“He will when he sees the way Grady is recovering. Overnight his whole prognosis has changed. And it’s all because he believes you’re his granddaughter. It was his deepest desire to reunite with her and now he has a reason to live.”
“But I’m not his granddaughter. Why would he think I am? I don’t look like any of your family.” Lia’s heart twisted as she realized her protest might rouse Ethan’s angst over being adopted.
“You could be Ava’s daughter.” Ethan lifted his hands in a beseeching gesture. “We’ve been trying for years to find her with no luck. I told you that after my aunt died, her baby was adopted and the records were sealed. Believing you’re her has given Grady a reason to go on. Do you seriously want to go back in there and break his heart? He’s been so depressed since the stroke. In less than a week you’ve brought him back from the brink of death.”
Lia closed her eyes and spent several seconds listening to the pounding of her heart. This could not be happening. And yet it was.
“I just can’t do this.”
Besides being wrong, even if she agreed to a temporary stint as Grady Watts’s missing granddaughter, there was no way Paul was going to let her take on the role.
“You can,” Ethan insisted. “Making people feel better is what you do.”
“Sure, but not like this,” Lia protested. “And I don’t want to lie to your family.”
“I understand, but they aren’t any good at keeping secrets. We’ve never thrown a successful surprise party or gotten into trouble without everyone in the family knowing about it. For this to work we need to leave them in the dark or else risk that someone will slip up and give you away.”
From Ethan’s aggrieved tone, this obviously bugged him, and Lia sympathized. Having been isolated from relatives all her life, she couldn’t imagine having so many people in her business. Yet there was a flip side. Ethan could also count on his family to have his back.
“And what about Paul?” she quizzed. “Surely he’s already dug up enough info on me to know I’m not your cousin.”
“Let me handle my brother.”
Lia slid sweaty palms along her jean-clad thighs. “Damn it, Ethan. You can’t deceive your grandfather this way.”
“I can if it means keeping Grady alive,” Ethan said and his voice held genuine pain.
“It’s a lie,” Lia insisted, but she could feel her determination failing beneath the weight of Ethan’s enthusiasm. “A big fat dangerous lie. And you know I wasn’t planning on sticking around Charleston much longer. Misty is fixed. I almost have enough saved to replace my truck.” While this was true, Lia didn’t have enough to buy a quality vehicle she could trust. “It’s time I got back on the road.”
“All you need to do is stay a couple weeks until Grady’s completely out of the woods and then we can reveal that a huge mistake was made with the genetic testing service.” Something in Lia’s expression must have betrayed her weakening resistance because Ethan nodded as if she’d voiced her agreement. “I’ve thought the whole thing through and I know this will work.”
If she hadn’t grown fond of the handsome Charleston businessman since he’d become her massage client six months earlier, she never would’ve agreed to hear him out, much less consider such a wild scheme, but the pain Ethan felt over his grandfather’s illness had touched her heart. Plus, he’d made the whole scheme sound so reasonable. A couple of weeks of playacting and then she’d be on her way again. A bubble of hysteria rose inside her. What were more lies on top of the ones she was already telling?
“But I’ll be lying not just to Grady, but your whole family. It’s a cruel thing to do to all of them.”
“I’ve thought about that, too, but if we do this right, they’ll be so happy that Grady is healthy again that it will make the eventual disappointment of you not being family easier to bear.” Ethan gripped her hands and hit her with a mega dose of confident charm.
Lia was rallying one last refusal when the elevator doors opened and a slender woman in an elegant suit the color of pistachios stepped off. Instead of immediately heading for the hallway that led to the hospital rooms, she glanced toward the family lounge. Her expression brightened when she spied them.
“Ethan,” she said, coming toward them. “Glad to see you here.”
“Hello, Mother.” Ethan dipped his head and kissed her cheek. “This is Lia.”
Constance Watts was every inch a genteel matriarch of the South with her blond hair styled in a long bob and her triple strand of pearls. Her keen blue eyes assessed the jeans and thrift-store T-shirt Lia wore and she braced herself for censure, but Constance only smiled warmly.
“Ethan told me all about you,” Constance said, her captivating Southern drawl knotted with emotion.
“He did?” Lia hadn’t yet agreed to the scheme and bristled at Ethan’s presumption.
“Of course.” Constance glanced from Lia to her son. “He said Paul found you through a genetic testing service.”
“I’m really—” Lia began.
“Overwhelmed,” Ethan broke in, closing his fingers around her hand and squeezing gently. He snared her gaze, his eyes reflecting both determination and apology. “And can you blame her? Finally connecting with her real family after all these years is pretty momentous.”
Ethan’s need and his mother’s elation were a patch of quicksand, trapping Lia. To her dismay, she began nodding.
“Ava’s daughter is finally home,” Constance murmured, stepping forward and embracing Lia. “You are going to make Grady so happy.”
Three
Paul was crossing the hotel lobby on his way to the first panel of the day when his phone buzzed. Incensed at Ethan for bringing a stranger into their grandfather’s hospital room, Paul had been ignoring his brother’s calls since leaving for the conference. He pulled out his phone and was on the verge of sending the call to voice mail when he spied his mother’s picture on the screen. His first reaction was dread. Had Grady’s health taken a turn for
the worse? Is that why she was calling rather than checking in by text?
“What’s wrong?” he demanded, shifting his trajectory toward a quiet nook opposite the reception desk. “Is Grady okay?”
“He’s fine. In fact, he’s doing better than ever.” Constance Watts sounded breathless with delight. “I just wanted to update you that Grady is coming home from the hospital today.”
“That’s great news,” Paul said, stunned by the upswing in Grady’s progress. “So he’s finally rallying?”
“Thanks to Lia.”
“Lia?” Hearing that woman’s name was like touching a live wire. The jolt made his heart stop. “I don’t understand.” Paul believed in cold hard facts not instinct, but at the moment his gut was telling him something bad was happening. “How is she responsible for Grady’s improved health?”
“I can’t believe you’d have to ask,” Paul’s mother said. “Ethan told me you found her.”
“He did?” Paul responded cautiously. Obviously, his brother had neglected to mention Paul’s suspicions about the woman. “Has she been visiting Grady?”
Constance laughed. “She’s been by his side constantly for days. Having her there has made his recovery nothing short of miraculous. All the hospital staff are talking about it.”
“Grady’s getting better?” The volume of Paul’s relief almost drowned out the other tidbit his mother had dropped. Lia was visiting Grady despite being told to stay away.
Obviously Paul had underestimated just how intent she was on interfering with his family. Well, he’d send her packing as soon as he returned home.
“...Ava’s daughter back in the fold.”
Who was back? His mother had continued to prattle on while Paul had been preoccupied. He shook his head to reorient his thoughts.
“I’m sorry, Mother, it’s really loud where I am. Can you repeat what you said?”
“I said, Grady is thrilled that you found Ava’s daughter,” Constance said.
“I found...” Now Paul understood why Ethan had been working so hard to get in touch.
