Saving Grace

by J. M. Hill

  “So?” he said impatiently. “What are they like?”

  Kate and I both glanced at each other and smiled widely.

  “Oh, brother,” Kenny groaned. “Let me guess, single and good-looking?”

  “Actually,” Kate said. “They’re very nice. And yes, they happen to be single, and extremely good-looking.”

  Kenny rolled his eyes. “Well, you two watch yourselves,” he cautioned, suddenly serious. “Make sure you keep your doors locked. They might be some kind of psychopaths. You never know these days.”

  This time Kate and I rolled our eyes.

  “We’re not worried,” I assured him. “But we’ll still keep our door locked. To keep the psychos out and all.”

  He grimaced and shook his head. “I’m outta here. See ya.”

  Kate and I waved as he left, and then laughed.

  “I hear the cackling!” He shouted from the front of the store, which just made us laugh louder.

  We finished our breakfast, and I took our plates to the small kitchen area behind the coffee counter. I talked to Peggy about her newest grandbaby, and then went to open the bookstore. I flipped on lights and turned on music.

  I was going over receipts from the previous night’s sales, organizing them for Kate, when I heard the jingling from the bells on the door of the coffee shop. I did a double-take when I saw the Andersons, all three of them. They were dressed in business-type attire, and just as handsome as usual, but it was Michael who caused my stomach to knot when I saw him. He looked good in jeans and a t-shirt, but in a suit? He was just sexy. Period.

  “Good morning.” I walked over to greet them.

  “Hey there!” Garrett bellowed. “We came to see your store and get some of your great coffee.”

  “You don’t even drink coffee.” Michael rolled his eyes at Garrett and then smiled at me. “Hi, Grace.”

  “Hey.” I smiled and made myself look away from him so I could converse coherently.

  “No coffee, Garrett?” I asked. “We make other things, too. Do you like hot chocolate?”

  “Do you have the little marshmallows?” he asked, with a hopeful expression that reminded me of a little kid.

  I laughed, and so did his brothers. “No,” I told him apologetically. “But I can add extra whipped cream, and we even have sprinkles.” Garrett seemed to be thinking about my proposition carefully, until Miles nudged him in the arm.

  “That will be just fine,” Miles said shaking his head at Garrett. “That’s very nice of you.”

  Kate came out from the office then. She took Miles’ and Michael’s orders while I went behind the counter and started Garrett’s hot chocolate. I added whipped cream, and sprinkles, and handed it to him, making a mental note to have mini-marshmallows here for the next time.

  “This looks great.” Garrett grinned. “Thanks.”

  I glanced over at Michael, and he was watching me with a smile.

  “Can I get you guys anything else?” I asked as Kate handed him, what looked like, a regular coffee.

  “Plain coffee?” I asked.

  He looked at me inquisitively. “Too boring?”

  I shrugged, and he chuckled.

  “Okay, what do you recommend?”

  I thought for a moment. “Do you like caramel?”

  “Love it.”

  I turned and started steaming milk and preparing shots of espresso. From the corner of my eye, I could see him lean against the counter, watching me as I worked. Again, very unnerving. I drizzled caramel sauce over the heavy foam and handed the cup to him.

  “Double-shot-heavy-foam-caramel-macchiato. My favorite.”

  He eyed me skeptically for a moment, took a sip and nodded approvingly. “Very…not boring,” he said with a grin. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “So what are you guys up to today?” Kate asked. “Anything exciting?”

  The three brothers shook their heads in unison, and Garrett let out a low groan of dread.

  “I wish it were exciting,” he grumbled. “We just have a meeting in Denver with some new clients.”

  Miles glanced at his watch and then at his brothers. “Speaking of which, we should go. Kate, Grace, thanks for the coffees, it was nice to see you again.”

  I could feel the excitement rolling off of Kate as she looked at Miles, and it made me smile. I quickly put several muffins into a small bag, and handed it to Garrett.

  “For the road,” I told him.

  He smiled widely. “Excellent. Thanks.”

  Michael pulled out his wallet, but I shook my head at him.

  “No charge,” I said.

  “Thanks.”

  I watched him walk away.

  Geez. Even his walk was sexy.

  The next two weeks were rather uneventful—except for the days when the Andersons came into the shop. Miles came by himself several times and sat with Kate at one of the tables, talking for quite a while, which made Kate absolutely giddy. When Garrett came in, the two of us talked about football, and he kept asking when I was going to make him some more bread. I’m pretty sure his thought processes consisted of food and sports, in that order.

  When Michael came in, he would order a macchiato and chat casually, though he never came by himself like Miles or Garrett. I saw him almost every day during my run, but since my last embarrassing display, I was careful not to do any singing or dancing. I still blush when I hear that song. When I did see him, we waved politely to each other, and I tried desperately not to maintain eye contact for too long.

  On Thursday morning, Kate and I were making a list of supplies that we needed for the bookstore when all three of the Andersons walked through the door.

  Garrett greeted me cheerily, and just seeing his giant dimples made me smile.

  “How are you this morning?” I asked.

  He nodded with a smile and greeted Kate, while Michael sauntered over to where I stood, one hand inside the pocket of his faded jeans and the other raking through his hair. I swallowed hard as I thought about the first time I saw him doing the exact same thing.

  “Morning,” I managed, as he leaned against the counter casually.

  “Morning.” His eyes roamed over my face, and I felt my cheeks get hot.

  “Would you like your usual?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “It’s my usual already?”

  “I don’t know, would you like something different?” I asked. His eyes didn’t leave mine as he seemed to think about my question, and then he grinned.

  “No. I suppose I will have my usual.”

  I walked behind the coffee counter to make his drink while Kate chatted with them. I handed Michael his drink just as Kenny came around the corner, his eyes widening as he assessed Garrett’s size, and then cleared his throat.

  “Hey, Gracie, were you expecting a shipment today? Because there’s a box in the back.” He slowly maneuvered his way to my side and draped his arm over my shoulder. I resisted the urge to elbow him in the ribs.

  “Kenny, this is Garrett, Miles and Michael Anderson,” I said. “Guys, this is Kenny Roland, our good friend and manager.”

  Kenny’s expression turned serious as he put his hand out stiffly to shake Garrett’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.” Garrett shook his hand with a grin. “The girls have told us a lot about you.”

  “Hey, Kenny,” Michael said shaking his hand.

  “It’s great to finally meet you.” Miles smiled.

  Kenny nodded without smiling as he shook Miles’ hand, and then folded his arms across his chest with a scrutinizing expression on his face as he studied each of them.

  “You bought the old Jenkins place?” Kenny continued to probe, and the boys all nodded in unison. “Well it’s nice to meet you,” Kenny said with half a smile, looked at me first, then at Kate. “Girls, if you need me…” he motioned toward the store room with his chin, and patted my shoulder before retreating, looking over his shoulder at me and I just grimaced at him.

  Oh,
brother. I couldn’t help my eye roll.

  Garrett and Michael both chortled quietly as they watched him leave, and I made a mental note to smack Kenny upside the head the next time I saw him.

  “If you guys don’t have plans,” Kate said. “Gracie and I would love to cook dinner for you tomorrow night, say six o’clock?”

  “You two want to cook for us?” Garrett sounded surprised.

  “Sure, we’d love to,” she assured him. They looked at each other, and then back at us.

  “Hell yeah!” Garrett said excitedly, and Michael nudged him in the ribs, embarrassed by his brother’s outburst.

  “That’s very generous of you,” Michael said. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” Kate smiled. “We’ll see you then, huh?”

  “We’ll be there at six,” Miles told her with a wide smile.

  Kate followed Miles and Garrett to the front door, but Michael lingered back with me, fidgeting with the lid on his cup.

  “So, do you run every morning?” he asked keeping his eyes down. I was sure he knew I ran every morning, we saw each other almost every morning.

  “Yes,” I told him. “I try to run every morning.” He cleared his throat and his eyes met mine cautiously.

  “Are you looking for a running partner?”

  My heart pounded in my ears. “Um, sure. I go pretty early though.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “What time would that be, exactly?”

  “Seven.”

  “That’s not so early.” One side of his mouth lifted into a slight smile. “You have a nice day.”

  I watched as he followed his brothers to the silver Hummer. My heart was still pounding, and I felt a little giddy. He wanted to run with me.

  The following morning, I kept my eyes on the Anderson’s door as I pulled on my running shoes. Michael knew I ran every morning, and now he knew the time. I hoped he’d be running with me, but after tying my laces in slow motion, and walking in even slower motion to the gravel drive I realized he wasn’t coming. Disappointed, I began my run.

  When I approached my turn-around point, I heard the pitiful but familiar cry of a cat. I slowed to a walk and searched the trees until I spotted the pathetic mass of gray fur several branches high in a pine tree. With a sigh, I crossed the road and stood at the base of the tree that now looked much taller than it had twenty seconds ago. Muffin looked down at me, his tail swishing back and forth.

  “Seriously, Muffin?” I questioned the gray ball of fur. “How many times does this make now? Five? Six?”

  “Meeeeowww…” Muffin was clearly begging for my help as he huddled closer to the trunk of the tree, the cool wind whipping around him.

  “Fine,” I said. “I’m coming.” I grasped at the lowest branch, and swung myself lithely up onto the sturdiest limb. Truth was, I’d always been really good at climbing trees. There wasn’t a tree within a two mile radius of my house that I hadn’t climbed at some point in my life. Obviously, tomboy was somewhere in my gene-pool.

  “Here’s the thing, Muffin,” I huffed, as I hoisted myself to the next branch. “No offense, but I’ve always thought of myself as a dog person. I realize we’ve had this conversation before, but it seems necessary to revisit the topic.” I shimmied toward the cat and he continued to ‘meow’ pathetically. Once beside him, I took in a deep breath as I looked at the tops of the trees swaying gently in the wind. I scratched at the soft fur behind Muffin’s ears. “I guess I understand why you like it up here. What I don’t understand is how you manage to get up the tree but you can’t manage to get down.”

  “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

  The sound of Michael’s voice made my heart jump into my throat. I searched the ground below for him, not realizing how high I’d actually climbed until I found him standing at the base of the tree. His expression was amused as he gazed up through the branches where I balanced precariously.

  I grimaced at Muffin who blinked innocently at me. “See what you’ve done?” I whispered, and tucked him under my left arm as I began the descent.

  “You know she can get down if she really wants to,” Michael said, and I could hear worry in his voice. “There’s no need to risk your life for a cat.”

  When I reached the lowest branch I handed Muffin off to Michael, and he seemed relieved when my feet were safely on the ground.

  “First of all...” I brushed the loose bark from my backside, and then took the cat from Michael who still looked amused, “Muffin is a he, not a she.” Michael’s eyebrow quirked up as I continued. “And second of all, the two of us go way back. I save him from a tree every couple of months.” With that, Muffin squirmed from my arms, darting into the trees toward his home, and I sighed. “And he also never thanks me. Stupid cat.”

  Michael pulled pieces of bark from my hair as his crooked smile made an appearance. “Well I must say, the way you scaled that tree was quite impressive,” he said. “But you almost gave me a heart attack.”

  I snorted a laugh. “Do you know how many trees I’ve climbed in my life?”

  “And how many bones have you broken?”

  “What are you doing here anyway?” I hedged, hoping to change the subject.

  “Running,” he replied, as if the answer were obvious. “I thought you were going to run with me?”

  “Yeah, I thought so too. Don’t you own an alarm clock?”

  He chuckled. “I couldn’t make it at seven. I had a conference call with a client on the east coast at six-thirty this morning.”

  I nodded, and we walked in silence for a few moments, exchanging sideway glances with each other until Michael finally broke the silence.

  “So, Grace Burke,” he said pensively. “Maker of bread, fan of football, owner of bookstore, climber of trees, and saver of cats?”

  I grimaced at him. “I don’t even like cats very much, and who names a cat Muffin? If I had a cat, I’d be much more creative with names. Romeo, or Mr. Darcy, something like that.” I realized I was rambling, but he made me nervous. He laughed, causing my heart to react and I tried to keep my eyes forward as we reached my driveway.

  “So, dinner at six, right?” He asked.

  “Six,” I confirmed with a nod. “And I wouldn’t be late if I were you. Kate doesn’t do late.”

  He grinned. “Noted. Thanks for the tip.”

  “See you tonight.”

  “Have a good day.” Michael waved as I walked to my front door.

  It would’ve been impossible to remove the smile from my face, the short time spent with Michael made me unbelievably happy. In the back of my mind was the irksome reminder of Nina. The more I got to know Michael, the more I envied Nina, and the envy bothered me. I didn’t like feeling that way.

  Kate and I left work early to do the grocery shopping for dinner, and clean the house. The menu for the evening was Caesar salad, steaks, twice-baked potatoes, homemade Italian bread, and chocolate truffle cake for dessert. Not sure what the Andersons liked to eat, we concluded beef would be the reasonable choice.

  We sang with Steve Perry and the rest of Journey as we marinated, grated, chopped, stirred, and laughed. Kate and I loved to cook, and loved cooking together even more. At four-thirty we left the kitchen to get ourselves ready. When I got out of the shower, Kate had a pair of skinny jeans, a white cami, and a black v-neck cashmere sweater lying on my bed. On the floor were my black ballet flats with a silver buckle. Kate—my very own personal fashion advisor.

  Kate came into my room looking fantastic in jeans, a black and white color-blocked tunic that draped slightly over one shoulder, and a pair of killer black boots. Her brown hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and soft curls framed her heart-shaped face.

  “You look fabulous, Kate.”

  “So do you. Let me curl your hair?” she asked eagerly. I handed her my brush, and she began working her magic. Kate always managed to make my hair look good. The usual unruly waves were smooth and soft around my shoulders, and she smiled her approval.
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  Back in the kitchen, I put the bread in to bake, and the steaks under the broiler. Kate tossed the parmesan into the salad and topped the potatoes with cheddar cheese, bacon crumbles and chives, sliding them into the second oven. I connected my iPod to the stereo, and chose a playlist, while Kate finished setting the table. At exactly six o’clock the doorbell rang. Kate went to open the door as I pulled the steaks out of the oven.

  “It smells amazing in here!”

  I couldn’t help but smile when I heard Garrett’s voice bellow from the entry. I couldn’t make my heart settle down as I wiped my hands with a dish towel and went to greet our guests. When I reached the entry, Kate and Miles already seemed to be in their own private bubble, and Garrett smiled widely when he saw me.

  “Hey, Grace!” He walked over to stand in front of me. “You sure look pretty.” He looked so nice in jeans and a plain white button shirt, I wondered where he had to shop to find clothes that actually fit him. He was huge.

  “Thanks.” I smiled up at him. “You look great yourself. Are you hungry?”

  “Does it snow here?” he asked, and we both laughed.

  Just then Michael came into my view. He’d been standing behind Garrett and I hadn’t seen him. But I definitely could see him now, wearing khaki pants and a black, v-neck, cashmere sweater—very similar to mine. His hand raked through his hair as he approached me slowly.

  I thought my heart was going to explode right through my cashmere.

  My face got hot as he leaned to my ear and his amazing smell washed over me. Wow, he smelled good.

  “Trust me when I say,” he said in a hushed voice. “You make the sweater look much better than I do.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that, but I tried to muster some composure as he followed me into the kitchen where Garrett was already picking at a piece of the warm bread.

  “Grace, did you make this homemade?”

  I nodded.

  “Excellent.” He folded an entire slice into his mouth.

  The boys took their seats, while Kate and I put the food on the table. Kate sat next to Miles, and Garrett patted the seat next to him, waggling his eyebrows at me.