“That was our last hope, Ben. I can take you, but I’ll be working when practice ends, and there’s nobody to get you to the library.”
“I’ll walk.”
“That’s too far for you to walk alone.” Ellyn had explained to Grif, “Ben’s ride had to cancel because his friend’s little sister is sick – maybe chicken pox.”
“But I have to go ...”
“I’m sorry, Ben, but – ”
“What time?” Grif had asked. And in minutes it was worked out that Grif and Meg would be back from their trip in time to pick up Ben at baseball practice. They might even catch the last half hour or so – a prospect that added an extra few watts to Ben’s already dazzling smile as he dashed off to get dressed.
Ellyn had given him a smile, less dazzling, but extremely satisfying, and a bag with ham sandwiches for the trip and a surprise.
She’d looked up at him almost sternly, and said in a faintly scolding tone, “You’re a good man, John Griffin Junior. The best.”
And then she’d kissed him on the cheek.
What might have complicated matters was that the next time he’d looked up, Meg was standing in the doorway staring at him.
Had she seen Ellyn’s gesture of affection and misinterpreted it?
He hadn’t misinterpreted it, and it still had complicated matters for him. It had complicated reminding his body that Ellyn was a friend when it responded so strongly to her nearness, her scent and – the feel of her lips against his skin.
He knew why she’d done it. He’d understood completely. She wanted to make sure they both knew that what had happened the night before hadn’t meant anything.
An accidental tangle of one body with the other. Could have happened between two strangers in a crowded hallway. Except it hadn’t been a stranger, it had been Ellyn. If her leg had advanced another inch, if she’d swayed another millimeter closer, she would have known that friendship was a lie.
* * *
Grif spotted Ellyn behind the Banner’s display table as soon as he walked in the library door, with Meg on one side and Ben on the other.
Fran Sinclair entered his field of vision as she leaned over to say something into Ellyn’s ear. He thought he heard “nice picture,” but that seemed unlikely to make Ellyn glare at Fran that way, so he figured he misheard.
Ellyn had pinned her curly hair back into the semblance of a bun at her nape. On her it looked anything but staid. Especially since ringlet strands kept escaping. One rested against her cheek. In another second, trying as always to tame the curls, she’d tuck the strand behind her ear.
“Grif!” Fran moved to meet him, taking his offered hand in both of hers, then pulling him into a hug. “It’s so good to see you. But it’s past time you came for a visit.”
“You’re right, Mrs. Sinclair, that I should – ”
“Mrs. Sinclair?” protested Fran. “You’ll call me Fran, like everyone else, except these two scalawags.”
“Okay, thank you.” That would take some getting used to; she’d been Mrs. Sinclair all his childhood. But he’d noticed Ellyn called her Fran. Besides, Mrs. Sinclair still applied to Ellyn. He didn’t like the taste of that reminder.
Kendra, Daniel and Matthew Delligatti came up just then, saying hello to the newcomers.
“Well, I’ll take my grandchildren off for lunch now, if it’s all right with you, Ellyn.”
“Thanks, Fran. That would be great.“ She made sure the kids each thanked Grif politely for the rides, then sent them off.
His reason for being here had ended, but he felt no inclination to leave. He picked up a copy of the supplement that promised an in-depth look at the history of Far Hills, Wyoming.
“Hey, Bub, you read, you pay,” Kendra teased.
“I don’t want to deplete your stock before your afternoon rush. I’ll get mine later.” And he’d buy them out if need be to make this a success for Ellyn. It was one way to help Ellyn that she couldn’t refuse.
“I hope there is an afternoon rush. It is awfully quiet,”
“I think most people are at lunch,” said Ellyn, “I sent Marti for a break, too.”
“And she sent me back here with drinks,” announced Luke Chandler, walking up with a cardboard tray with cups of sodas and water, which were gratefully accepted.
“If the afternoon’s as busy as this morning, we can all use the break,” Kendra said. Her grin evaporated as she looked over Grif’s shoulder. “Speaking of give-me-a-break.”
That was the only warning he had before he was clutched on either side by a pair of unfamiliar hands.
“It’s so good to see you!” and “How wonderful to see you!” came from opposite sides of him simultaneously. He looked down into two totally unfamiliar late middle-aged faces.
Ellyn provided a lifeline. “Grif, you remember Helen Solsong and Barb Sandy, don’t you?” She nodded first to the woman on his right, then his left.
“It would be better if you were in uniform,” said Barb Sandy, with an assessing look that would have made a side of beef squirm. “But at least your haircut is neat.”
“Yes, and such good posture. And manners,” Helen Solsong agreed with an icy look toward Luke.
“It’s so nice to see a young man who’s grown up in this country choose to serve.” Barb laid her hand on Grif’s arm and leaned close, although her voice didn’t lower. “Makes one feel safe, you know. That’s why we were so disappointed that we already had plans when Marti invited us to your welcome-home tonight.”
“Our calendars are just too full to accommodate last-minute invitations. Even now, we can’t be dawdling.” Helen made the announcement with great importance. “We have a meeting for the committee reviewing use of the church for all those mothers who leave their children all day.”
“It’s a baby-sitting cooperative, in which parents participate extensively.” The steel in Ellyn’s voice surprised Grif. But it didn’t seem to surprise anyone else, including the two older women. Unfortunately it didn’t cow them, either.
“Whatever you call it, it’s brought a lot of noise and dirt to the church.”
“Dirt!” started Kendra, and Grif could see his cousin was about ten seconds from ripping into the women.
“Only way to be sure there’s never any dirt or noise is to close the doors and keep everybody out,” Daniel said cheerfully. Grif noticed Daniel had shifted so he was slightly in front of the others – a barrier between the two women and his wife and child. Grif doubted the other man was even aware of it.
To have a family that was yours to protect... A surge of emotion washed through Grif. It took a moment to recognize jealousy. God, he was a sad case.
“Course that wouldn’t be very generous,” Daniel added, as if the idea had just occurred to him. “Not the way most people think a church – and church-going people – should behave. I expect that’s what you’re going to tell that committee, now isn’t it, ladies? We certainly wouldn’t want to hold you up in doing that.”
Barb Sandy appeared nonplussed, or possibly dazzled by the winning smile Daniel bent on her. Helen Solsong sniffed her disapproval, and departed with her cohort following.
“Those two nasty biddies!” Kendra muttered. “I’m surprised the church roof doesn’t fall in on them when they walk inside.”
“Be grateful Helen’s working at the commissary at Fort Piney these days. Remember how bad she was when we were kids and she knew even more town gossip to spread?”
“I remember her now,” Grif said, “but what was that all about?”
Kendra sighed. “Well, now that those two have let the cat out of the bag, you might as well know, Grif. When you go to the main house for that quiet dinner Marti invited you to tonight it’s going to be a full-blown party.”
“I knew that. I meant – ”
“You knew?” interrupted Ellyn. “How? Marti’s had everybody standing on our heads to keep it a secret. I reminded the kids every time they talked to you not to tell.”
“Nobody told. Unless you count Matthew.”
“Matthew?” Kendra stared at her son. “He told you?”
“Let’s say he confirmed my guess. I figured Marti would be up to something before long. But I still don’t know what those two were aiming at with their verbal air strikes.”
“Stuff about manners and haircut was meant to put me in my place.” Luke clearly couldn’t have cared less.
“And they were trying to imply Daniel’s not a true-blue American, and that he and I had a wild orgy one night last fall,” Kendra supplied. “Little do they know he spent the night asleep on the couch.”
“Hey, don’t say that so loud,” Daniel complained. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
Kendra grinned at him. “The reality’s more important than the reputation, and you do just fine.”
The look her husband sent back threatened to ignite the air.
Grif’s gaze went to Ellyn without conscious volition. She was watching Kendra and Daniel with a faint smile that also held wistfulness. She glanced at him, as if she’d sensed his watching her, then away, paying careful attention to straightening the stack of special sections in front of her.
“What I want to know,” said Kendra, drawing his attention from Ellyn, “is how did Matthew confirm your guess?”
“He’s been saying a word every time he sees me the past few days, and he’s either connected the word party with me or he’s calling me pretty.”
* * *
“I have something I hear you’d like to see.”
The gathering that evening had reached its third stage when Marti appeared at Ellyn’s elbow with that announcement.
Marti had been known to lament that modern parties at Far Hills Ranch lacked the longevity of those when guests arrived from distant homes by wagon at noon, ate and danced all afternoon, evening and night, then had a full breakfast before departing into the morning light. But she did her best.
The first phase had been sorting out the arrivals and their contributions to the spread big enough to cover the kitchen table, even with extra leaves in. At its center was an impressive roast of Far Hills Ranch beef, carved and ready for eating.
Everyone who’d come through the kitchen door – and they all did, because these were people familiar with Far Hills Ranch – had greeted Grif with a hello and a handshake or a hug.
After catching sight of a faintly hunted look in his eyes when Sylvia Chasen from two ranches over enfolded him in a motherly embrace, Ellyn had moved to his side, whispering a name or phrase to help him get his bearings.
When the flow eased up, Grif cupped his warm hand around the back of her upper arm, to bring them hip to hip, so he could say quietly, “Thanks. You should get a lifesaving medal.”
She smiled up at him. “You were pretty cool under fire.”
The moment stretched long enough for her to realize that the warmth she felt came from more than his hand.
He abruptly dropped his hold and backed up a foot.
“We’d better get in line or there won’t be any food left.”
“You go ahead. I want to check on the kids.”
Phase two was the piling of plates and stuffing of stomachs. For the kids that resulted in rocketing energy levels, so they were banished to the side-yard play area to work off some calories. For most of the adults it meant a mellow slide into phase three, where folks drifted easily from one conversation to another.
Ellyn had been watching the flow of people when Marti came up behind her.
“No reason to jump because I caught you looking, Ellyn.”
“I wasn’t looking at anything in particular,” she lied. Her gaze had traveled often to where Grif and Daniel stood across the room. Two attractive men engaged in a conversation that clearly interested them both was an appealing sight. That’s all.
“Well, you should be.” Marti’s declaration was accompanied by a nudge to a nearby loveseat. ”But never mind that,” she added as she slung a large, black tooled-leather photo album around so it rested across both their laps. “Fran said you wanted to see this.”
“The Susland album? I saw the old photos when we picked out the ones for the section.”
“They all look the same, but this is a more recent book. See, this starts with my father as a teenager. And here he is marrying my mother. Then Nancy and Wendy were born. And me a little later.” Marti flipped the oversize pages carefully, but still fast enough to give Ellyn the impression of decades flashing before her eyes in a blur of growth spurts and fashion changes. “Ah, here – Nancy’s wedding pictures.”
Marti smoothed out the page, so Ellyn could see the photograph of the young bride from thirty-eight years earlier.
“She looks so much like Kendra,” Ellyn murmured. “I didn’t know...”
“Uh-huh. I took after Mom, but Nancy and Wendy took after the Suslands. Like Kendra.”
“Like me what?” Kendra came up, along with Fran.
“Like you looking like a Susland.”
“Oh.” Kendra sat on the sofa arm. Fran went around the back of the loveseat to look over Marti’s shoulder. “Aunt Nancy’s wedding picture. I remember this picture. My mother had a copy.”
“I’d forgotten how little Grif looks like Nancy,” Marti said in a thoughtful tone.
Ellyn looked across the room at Grif, and knew the other women were doing the same. He glanced up as if called by the scrutiny, then away.
“He doesn’t get any of his looks from the Susland side, does he,” added Fran.
Marti slid the book over so the other page of photos was more directly in Ellyn’s view, including one of the bride and groom.
“Oh, my – !” Ellyn covered her mouth to stop the exclamation.
“Talk about a spitting image,” murmured Fran.
Marti had been thumbing ahead in the album, and now held open another page – Grif’s graduation picture from West Point. “Two peas in a pod,” she said, as she flipped back to a similar picture of John Griffin Senior.
Kendra whistled.
“What is going on over here?” Even amused, Grif’s voice held a tinge of command. He expected an answer.
“We’re looking at old family photos,” said Marti. “Your mom and dad. Ellyn wanted to see them.”
Ellyn was aware of his eyes narrowing on her, and she gave a slight shake of her head, but he’d already looked away.
“This wedding picture of your mother is beautiful. You should see – ”
“Oh, Grif has a copy,” said Marti.
“Yeah, but it’s your dad who’s the shocker, Grif. I hadn’t realized you were the exact image of your father. Look at this, Daniel,” Kendra added to her husband, who’d followed Grif.
Grif’s posture tightened, as if going to attention in slow motion. But no one else seemed aware of the new tension in him. Or that he made no move to look at the photographs.
“Not exact.” Ellyn spoke directly to the man in front of her, though he didn’t look at her. “Their eyes are different.”
“Not that I can see,” Kendra argued. “Those graduation pictures look like carbon copies – right down to the uniform.”
“Uniforms don’t change much.”
Ellyn smiled at him. “But the men in them do.”
His eyes were aimed at her, but Ellyn had the feeling he wasn’t seeing her at all.
* * *
“Please, Grif? Pleeeeeeeaaaaassseeee?”
Ben’s request had caught Grif totally unprepared. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting when the boy tugged on his arm and said urgently that he had to talk to Grif. In private.
Not that he’d minded the distraction.
He hadn’t seen those old family photographs in years. He had the one of his mother, but seldom took it out. He remembered his mother without a photograph. Besides, the woman in that old picture wasn’t the one he remembered – even before the illness had changed her so cruelly, he had never seen her looking at his father the way the young bride gazed up at her
groom. And he’d certainly never seen his father smile back at his mother the way the pictured officer did.
Their eyes are different.
Count on Ellyn to try to see the good side. But she was wrong. Terribly wrong.
“Will you, Grif? Will you? Pleeeeease?”
Fifteen months ago, pleas from Ben had had to do with a ball stuck in a flower bed where he wasn’t supposed to have been playing, or a particular gift on his birthday wish list that his parents showed no inclination to get him.
But when they slipped outside of the house to sit on the side steps for a while, Grif soon realized this request was considerably more complicated. Not complicated in its implementation – that wouldn’t be hard – but in its ramifications.
And those complications were not ones he could share with Ben. Grif sighed.
Taking Meg to Buffalo had been no picnic this morning, but in retrospect it had turned out fine. But this... Was it worse to endure Meg’s mistrust or risk Ben’s absolute faith? And what about Ellyn? How would she feel about this?
“Please, Grif?”
Grif looked into a face that blended Ellyn and Dale and came out entirely Ben’s own. “If you’re sure. And – ”
“I’m sure! I’m absolutely, positively, totally sure!”
“And if it’s okay with your mother. We have to check with her first.”
Abrupt silence yawned hugely between them.
“Ben?”
“Don’t tell her, please, Grif?”
More than the appeal, the urgency behind it had Grif frowning. “Why not?”
“It’s just...it’s just I don’t want you telling her.”
“Then you have to talk to her about it.”
“Okay. I will. It’ll be okay with her. I know it.”
“You can’t know that unless you ask her.”
Ben clearly took that answer as a parting of the clouds. “Thank you! This is going to be so cool!”
That wasn’t the word Grif would have chosen, but he was committed now...unless Ellyn overruled him.
He could always hope.
Heroes in Uniform: Soldiers, SEALs, Spies, Rangers and Cops: Sexy Hot Contemporary Alpha Heroes From NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors Page 116
