by Ciana Stone
“Well, at least now you know,” Vivian said.
Grace turned her attention to Vivian. “And just how long have you known, Vivian?”
Vivian shrugged. “I don’t know. Six months? When did you tell me Trish?”
“What?” Grace looked at Trish. “You knew?”
“Well, yeah, I mean we all knew.”
“You all…” Grace was completely flabbergasted. “You all´knew? You all knew she was screwing my husband and no one thought I should be told?”
“Well, we just didn’t feel that it was our place,” Trish said.
“Right,” Madeline, the hostess of the gathering, added. “I mean, we didn’t know how to tell you and didn’t want to drive a wedge between you and Amy so –“
“Drive a wedge?” Grace had to force herself not to scream. “I can’t believe you – any of you. Especially you, Amy. After what happened with you and Doug two years ago, I thought you’d be the last person to do to some other woman what was done to you. I guess I was wrong. About a lot of things.”
“Gracie, I -- I didn’t want you to find out this way,” Amy said through tears. “I swear I didn’t want to hurt you. I tried, Grace, I did, I tried so hard—“
“Tried to what?”
The sound of Tad’s voice from the door leading out onto the back patio had more than one person gasping in surprise, along with Viven’s “oh fuck,” and Trish’s “oh no!”
“That’s what we’re all waiting to hear,” Grace kept her attention on Amy. “You tried so hard to what, Amy? Not screw my husband?”
With that question the room went as silent as a mortuary. Grace looked from Amy, who was staring at Tad, to Tad whose gaze was locked with Amy’s. Oh god, it’s true.
It took every bit of strength Grace possessed to walk over to Tad. “Give me your keys.”
“My –my keys?”
“Your car keys. Give them to me.”
“Grace, if you’ll just give me five minutes to ex-“
“Give them to me now.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the keys and dropped them into her outstretched hand. Grace, turned and marched out of the house, calling to her children, Sherri and Theo who were in the back yard. “Come on, kids, time to go!”
“But we haven’t eaten yet,” Sherri, the eight-year old complained.
“Grace, wait!” Madeline, whose house it was, ran outside. “Please.”
“I’m sorry, Madeline. No. “
She took Theo’s hand as he ran up and motioned for Sherri with her free hand. “Come on, Sherri. Now.”
“Fine.” Sherri grumbled and ran across the yard to her mother.
“Grace!” Tad ran out of the house, calling to her. “Hold up.”
Grace ignored him, and tugged on Sherri’s hand when she tried to stop. “Come on, Sherri.”
“But daddy—“
“I said come on.”
Tad was yelling at her, Sherri was tugging on her hand and protesting and then Theo started fretting. “Why isn’t Daddy going with us? Why do we have to go home and he gets to stay?”
It was like something out of a nightmare for Grace. Everyone was watching, and talking and she had no doubt that the talk would be about nothing else all weekend. She had never felt so embarrassed in her life and it took all her will power not to cry, or yell at her kids in frustration.
She knew they were confused and she didn’t want that, but she had to get them out of there. “Come on, kids. We’re going to go to the Sonic. You know how you love to eat at the drive in.”
“In Daddy’s car?” Sherri looked up at her wide-eyed in surprise. “He never lets us even have water in his car.”
“Well, today is special.” Grace tried to smile. “So hop in and let’s get going.”
She got both the kids into the car, started it and pulled away from the curb of Madeline’s house. She made it two blocks before the tears came and she swiped at them angrily.
Of all the things she expected from life, this was not one of them. She’d been a good and faithful wife for ten years, supportive of Tad and his career and never complained about work dominating his life. She knew he wanted to make senior partner in his law firm and she’d do all she could to make life easy for him so that he could focus his energy on his career.
And this is what it got her. Humiliated in front of every friend she had in the world and cheated on. With her best friend, no less. Well, what she’d thought was her best friend.
It hurt that someone she’d cared so much about and thought of as her best friend in the world would betray her that way. How long had it been going on? How long had Amy and Tad looked her in the eyes and lied to her? How long had they made fun of her behind her back?
And how long had the rest of her friends known about this because they obviously were in on the secret? How many days, weeks or months had she been the topic of gossip and pity?
Grace wanted to pull over, curl up in the fetal position and bawl her eyes out. She wanted to run away and hide, never show her face to any of those people again.
Grace Summerfield, what the heck happened to you? She remembered a time when she was vivacious, full of plans for the future, a woman with dreams and goals. What the hell had happened to that woman? How had she allowed herself to come to this place?
When had she stopped being Grace and started being Mrs. Tad Finley? It hit her that he might have been the one who cheated, but she’d cheated as well. She’d given up on her dreams in favor of his and had somehow expected that one day he’d return the favor.
But instead, he achieved his goal and then turned to another woman. The bastard. She’d not give him the satisfaction of her tears. So, she sucked it up, plastered a smile on her face and made up her mind there and then that she was done with spending her life for Tad Finley’s comfort.
From this day on, her life was going to be about her kids. And herself. She was going to find that woman she used to be and she was going to find her dreams again.
Chapter Two
Beau walked outside onto the sidewalk in front of his office building and squinted at the setting sun. Today, like the one before it and the one before that, had been a scorcher.
Mrs. Ida Summerfield, the lady who ran the apothecary shop down the block was walking along the sidewalk with a basket looped over one arm.
“Afternoon, Mrs. Ida. How’re you doing today?”
“Can’t complain, Beau. It’s a bit hotter than I’d hoped for this early in the year, but it is what it is. How do you like being back in Legacy?”
“I like it. For the most part anyway.”
“You staying at the family ranch?”
“No, actually my brother John Luke came back home and is living there. He’s getting married soon to the lady who runs the new wildlife research center, Dr. James.”
“Yes, Dr. James mentioned that when she stopped in last week looking for some essential oils. She’s a nice young woman. I like her.”
“Yeah, Ily’s great. But enough about me. I heard about Mr. Summerfield, and I’m real sorry. He was a nice man who helped a lot of people in this town and I know he’s going to be missed.”
“Thank you, Beau. You know he thought of you like a son. Why there was a time when—“ She stopped abruptly and shook her head. “Listen to me, going on like I’d lost my faculties.”
“I care about him too, Mrs. Ida. And how is Grace?”
“Living in Baton Rouge with her husband, Tad and their two kids.”
“So, she’s still with Tad?”
Ida nodded and looked away. “Looks like we might have a chance for a storm this evening. I better head on home and get tucked in before it hits.”
“Well, let me walk you to your car.”
“Thank you, Beau, that’s kind of you.”
Beau took her free arm and as they walked they chatted about the town, the new people who’d moved in, new businesses that had opened up and people who had moved away. The one thing they didn�
��t talk any more about was her daughter Grace.
In a way that was a relief. Grace was the girl who got away and Beau didn’t know if he’d ever really get over losing her. He helped Ida into her car, made plans to have dinner with her the next evening and then watched as she drove away.
Ida was the mother he’d always wished for, kind and funny, full of life and always there with a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen. There was a time Beau thought that she would end up being his mother-in-law.
Then they went to college. Separate colleges. Grace majored in journalism and he majored in business and business law. As often happens, they drifted apart. Beau met a girl, Tamara Bell, and started seeing her. He told Grace and she accused him of cheating. That’s when she started seeing Tad Finley. After that Beau’s dream went out of the window. Tad promised Grace the moon and she married him.
Now, ten years later, Beau still felt the pain of losing her. He’d like to blame Tad Finley, but the truth was, Beau had lost Grace on his own. He wondered what her dad had thought about their split up.
Mr. Summerfield was an apothecary and nearly everyone in Legacy had gone to him at one time or another for a remedy for what ailed them.
He was a man who loved to fish, to hunt, but with a camera rather than a gun, to wander the land looking for rare plants and to be present for every event in his daughter’s life, and even in the life of her sports oriented boyfriend.
Beau couldn’t remember a basketball or football game that Mr. Summerfield had ever missed. He assumed it was because Grace was a cheerleader, but when she got strep throat and missed two games, he was still right there, cheering Beau on.
It gave Beau a good deal of regret that he had not had a chance, as an adult, to thank Mr. Summerfield for his time and his attention. Now that he was gone, Beau felt that the best way he could honor the man was to give care to Ida. With Grace living in another state, she was all alone.
Beau turned and headed for his car, trying to dismiss thoughts of Grace Summerfield and the love they’d lost. He wondered what would have happened if he had not started seeing Tamara. Would they have stayed together? Graduated and gotten married?
Or would something else have split them apart? Was it fate that things didn’t work out or just bad luck? And was Grace the only love he’d ever know or would he one day be lucky enough to find it again?
His phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. His brother’s face was on the screen. Beau smiled and answered. “John Luke. What’s up?”
“Ily’s busy in her lab tonight so I was wondering if you wanted to head over to the ranch, have a few beers and throw a steak on the grill?”
“Yeah, sounds good. I’ll stop by the house and change. Anything you need me to pick up?”
“Nope, we’re good.”
“Okay. Hey, you remember Grace Summerfield?”
“How could I forget? She was too young for me or Logan, but we still thought you were nuts letting her get away. What ever happened to her?”
“She got married and had two kids.”
““Wonder if she still looks as good as she did back then?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well what made you ask if I remember her?”
“Just ran into her mother and it got me to thinking about old times.”
“About the one who got away?”
Beau, having reached his car, unlocked it and climbed in. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Ever wonder what if?” John Luke asked.
“From time to time. But not much point in it.”
“I guess not. Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
Beau started his car and pulled out of the parking lot. As he drove he thought about those days long ago and wondered if he would ever see Grace again.
And if he did, would those feelings still be present or would he realized that those feelings he’d had as a young man were no longer real?
A note from the Author
I've been a reader my entire life, finding solace, excitement, happiness, fear and love in the pages of books. If anything has been a constant in my life it's reading.
I also remember all of the times in my life when being able to buy a book was a luxury, a treat that I didn't get every week. I've never forgotten those times
That's why I am so grateful to you, the readers. Regardless of your level of income or profession, I understand how precious your reading dollars are and I feel humbled that you've used some of those dollars to purchase my books.
I hope my stories prove worthy of your investment and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Many blessings.
Ciana
About the Author
You can find all of Ciana’s books on Amazon. Visit her author page:
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Books by Ciana Stone in reading order:
(Connected Books)
Honky Tonk Angels Series
Southern Comfort – Honky Tonk Angels, Book 1
Finding Justice – Honky Tonk Angels, Book 2
Baby I’m In. Honky Tonk Angels, Book 3
Ask me to Stay – Honky Tonk Angels, Book 4
Playing for Keeps – Honky Tonk Angels, Book 5
Lookin’ for Trouble – Honky Tonk Angels Book 6
Honky Tonk Angels Box Set
Legacy Series
Longing
Craving
Untamed Series
Feels Like the First Time
When You Least Expect It
Colton’s Memory
Rangers or The Whisperers
(Can be read in either order)
Rangers The Whisperers
Zeb Staking a Claim
Kade Making a Stand
Taking a Chance
The Seven
On My Knees – The Seven Book 1
Ruffle My Feathers – The Seven Book 2
A Taste for Jazz – The Seven Book 3
Kiss of Fire – The Seven Book 4
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Hot in the Saddle
Chase’n’ Ana
Molding Clay
Scout’n’Cole
Conn’n’Caleb
Stand Alone Titles
Renegades
Let the Game Begin
Wrath: Voodoo's Angel
Wolfe Tale
That Which Survives
A Matter of Trust
Box Sets
Untamed: A Three Book Box Set
The Whisperers: Simply Irresistible – A Three Book Box Set
Claimed by the Alpha: A three book set
Tales of Betrayal, passion, danger and love
Hunger: The V’Kar Series – A three book set
