I was about to tell him. I was about to say it, when something stopped me. I thought back to all the things I’d heard Grant say about marriage and commitment. It wasn’t for him. He’d never let himself get tied down. The words were right there on the tip of my tongue, just waiting to be spoken, but I chickened out.
“Remember you told me that you masturbated to my photos, when we were younger?”
“Of course,” he said.
“Well, I have a confession of my own to make.”
“What is it?”
“The first time I ever brought myself to orgasm, I was watching you from my bedroom window.”
“What?”
“Yes, sir. You were right outside this barn, hosing yourself down after a hot, sweaty day on the vineyard.”
“And you watched me?”
“Yes, I did.”
“You naughty little girl.”
I laughed.
“I ought to punish you for that.”
“No, please don’t. I don’t think I could take it.”
“Oh, you can’t tell me a thing like that and then expect to get away with it.”
“No, Grant, please.”
But it was too late. He was back on top of me, and judging from his rigid shaft, he was ready to give me another seeing to.
Chapter 41
Lacey
WHEN I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Grant had left early to see to some business. He said it was related to the job he’d done the night before. I made him let me change the bandage on his shoulder before he left.
After he was gone, I made some coffee, and then wondered if I was still allowed to drink coffee now that I was pregnant. I hadn’t read that chapter of my book for expectant mothers yet, but I knew they were always getting stricter with what was deemed good for the baby. I decided to just drink some hot water instead, until I had time to ask Faith about it. She’d know the answer.
I put my hand on my tummy and thought of Grant. What had we done? What had he meant when he said I was his girl now? Did it mean we were a couple? I never could tell with Grant. He seemed pretty clear about what he said and did in his life, but when it came to me, everything always got confused.
I had to find out what was going on. I had to get some clarity from Grant. I picked up my phone and dialed his number.
“Hi, Grant,” I said, shyly.
“Hi, Lacey.”
“Are you busy?”
“I’m spending some money.”
“So, there really is something important I have to tell you,” I said, nervously.
“Is it what you were going to tell me last night, before you told me that you used to spy on me while you masturbated?”
“Oh, well, yes.”
“Don’t worry, I already know it.”
“You know it?”
“Sure I do.”
“What do you know, Grant?”
“I’d never have seduced you like I did last night if I’d thought you were still engaged to be married.”
“What?” I asked.
“I know you and Rob are finished.”
“How do you know that, Grant?”
“I took care of it.”
“You did what?” I gasped, suddenly feeling my emotions rise to the surface.
“I took care of everything.”
I suddenly felt a quiver come into my voice. I was upset, and it hit me completely by surprise. I was so in love with Grant, but all of a sudden I felt like crying.
“You took care of everything?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to upset you, Lacey.”
“I’m not upset.”
“I can hear it in your voice.”
“Well, I’m just surprised, Grant. What do you mean, you took care of everything.”
“You’re finished with Rob, right?”
“Yes, but how do you know that?”
“I guessed.”
“You didn’t guess.”
“I felt it. I know you wouldn’t sleep with me unless you were finished.”
“Bullshit, Grant.”
“It’s not bullshit, Lacey.”
“Just tell me the truth. I’ve been lied to enough times in my life. You said you took care of it. What did you do?”
“Lacey, don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“I didn’t mean to do anything to upset you.”
“Just tell me how you knew that Rob and I were finished.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Then Grant sighed. Finally, he spoke. “I had a talk with him.”
“You what?”
“I had a talk with him.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Last night?”
“Yes.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Lacey.”
“Just tell me, Grant.”
“We talked about you, Lacey.”
“What did you say?”
“I asked him to reconsider whether or not he really was the right man for you.”
“You asked him to step aside so that you could take me?”
“Lacey, it wasn’t like that.”
“But that was basically the point of the discussion?”
Grant sighed again. “Fine, if you want to look at it that way.”
“You interfered with my life?”
“With our life.”
“With my life, Grant.”
He took a moment to answer. “Yes,” he said at last. “I interfered with your life.”
“What makes you think you have the right to do that, Grant? Do you think you know better than me what I should be doing with my life? What made you so sure I wasn’t in love with Rob? What gave you the right to interfere like that?”
“Lacey, I wasn’t trying to interfere.”
“Then what would you call it?”
“Lacey, please don’t do this.”
“Was it Rob who shot you last night?”
There was resignation in his voice when he answered. “Yes.”
I hung up the phone. I didn’t know why, but my emotions were at boiling point. Maybe it was the hormones from being pregnant, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of Grant interfering in my relationship with Rob. I mean, I didn’t even disagree with him. He’d told Rob not to marry me, and the truth was, I should have been thanking him for doing so. I knew that was the right decision. I didn’t want to be with Rob, and Rob didn’t want to be with me. But I wanted to think that I’d reached that outcome on my own, because I was in control of my own life. I didn’t want to feel like everything was being orchestrated by Grant, just because he knew better. I was tired of being the failure when it came to relationships. I wanted to be with Grant, but I wanted to get there on my own terms, as his equal.
It was as if I’d thought I’d achieved something on my own, and then found out that he’d actually been behind the scenes, pulling all the strings on my behalf. It was infuriating. I was still one hundred percent in love with Grant, but I hated being treated like a child. I wanted to believe I was capable of making my own decisions, and I wanted to know that Grant believed that too.
I took a deep breath. As I thought about it, a part of me also felt stupid for being so mad. I was so conflicted. I was mad at Grant for interfering, but I was just as mad at myself for being mad. And I was embarrassed that I’d shown Grant just how mad I was. And most of all, I was distraught that I’d just been the cause of our first fight.
I was so mad at my phone for letting me make that call. There should be a time limit built into phones for how soon after making love you could call a guy. Especially when you were simultaneously in the process of breaking up with your fiancé, and pregnant too.
Chapter 42
Grant
OH MAN, I’D REALLY PUT my foot in it. What had I been thinking? I hadn’t been thinking, that was my problem. Why did I tell Lacey I knew it was over between h
er and Rob? Of course she’d be upset with me for stepping into her life like that. I hadn’t meant to. I’d gone to Rob’s apartment to teach him a lesson, but not because he was Lacey’s fiancé. It was because he was using her to try and get himself out of debt. He was trying to steal from her. What kind of a guy would I be if I didn’t step in to protect her from that? He wasn’t really her fiancé. He was a con artist. If it hadn’t been for those circumstances, I wouldn’t have sabotaged any relationship of hers, no matter how strongly I felt about it.
I’d royally screwed up. She thought I’d pushed Rob out of the picture so that I could move in. Of course she was mad. She had every right to be. I should have gone straight to her with the information about Rob. The truth was, I had treated her like a child. But I’d done so out of love. I’d wanted to protect her. I didn’t want her to know that she’d chosen another cheating, lying son of a bitch. I wanted her to know that she was better than that, that she deserved more.
Why were women so complicated? Why was life so complicated?
But there was nothing I could do about all that right now. I had work to do. A lot of work.
First, I went to my bank and deposited the money I’d stolen the night before into a numbered account. Then I went back to the neighborhood Lacey and I had driven through on our way to the flower market. I’d found out the address of the house where we’d stopped to talk to those boys and I headed straight for it. When I got there, I even saw the boys, sitting outside the house on the front porch. They waved to me.
“Shouldn’t you boys be in school?” I said.
“Who’s going to make us go? You?”
I shook my head. “You’ll see,” I said to them, and drove off.
The realtor was located just a few blocks away, in a small office in a strip mall. A bell clinked over my head as I entered. I was upset about the call from Lacey but I couldn’t focus on that for now. I had important things to take care of.
“Can I help you, sir?” a realtor in a short skirt with blonde hair said to me.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I want to buy a house for my new wife. It’s a surprise.”
“How nice. And do you have a particular house in mind?”
I told her the address of the house that was currently occupied by the teenage boys.
“That house is available at a good price, but I must warn you, sir, it’s currently occupied by some local youths. It might be a bit of a hassle getting rid of them.”
“I don’t want to get rid of them,” I said.
“What do you mean, sir?”
“I mean, they’re welcome to stay. I’m not kicking them out.”
“Well, that’s weird.”
“I’m a weird guy,” I said with a grin.
“It’s actually pretty kind of you.”
“My wife’s the one who’s kind,” I said. “This is all for her.”
“Do you have any idea how much you’d like to offer.”
“What are they asking?”
“It’s on the market for five hundred, but I’m sure we could bargain them down.”
“No, five hundred is fine. Just get all the paperwork drawn up for me. I want this to go through as soon as possible.”
“And will you be financing the transaction with a loan?”
“Cash.”
I signed some documents, left a ten thousand dollar deposit, and went back to the house. The boys were still all there, sitting on the porch as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They looked like they were having fun, but I could tell from the looks on their faces that there was some tension and worry under the surface. They were concerned about their futures, and why wouldn’t they be? They had as much right as anyone to look forward to their future lives.
“Hey,” I said to them, “who lives in this house?”
The boy who looked like he was the oldest spoke up.
“We all do. There’s eight of us.”
I looked around at them and counted. They were all between the ages of about sixteen and eighteen.
“Are you all enrolled in school?”
“The local high school,” the oldest boy said.
“And you don’t want to be taken in by child services?”
“That would be a disaster,” the boy said. “I mean, foster homes would be one thing, but they don’t have foster homes for boys like us. We’d all go straight into the system. We’d be institutionalized. It would be the first step on a route that would end us all up in prison.”
“I know that route,” I said. “I almost travelled it myself. If it wasn’t for a very good man, I’d be in prison right now.”
The boys nodded.
“So, I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen,” I said. “You remember the lady that came by a while back in the car?”
“We remember her,” one of the boys said.
“It ain’t every day a white lady comes by here,” another said.
“Well,” I said, “this house belongs to her now. But she doesn’t want to kick you out.”
“She doesn’t?”
“She’s got a soft spot for boys on a rough road.”
“Lucky for us,” one of the boys said, and laughed.
The oldest one rose his hands. “Wait a minute. If she ain’t kicking us out, what is she doing?”
“That will be up to her, but I imagine she’ll want what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for us?”
“Yes. So as of now, you’re all good to stay here, as long as you stay enrolled in the high school, and maintain good enough grades to graduate.”
“That ain’t hard,” the oldest boy said.
“Good. I’ll make it your responsibility to make sure everyone’s taking school seriously. If anyone flunks out or gets in trouble, I’ll need to know.”
The boy shrugged.
“What’s your name?” I said to him.
“Arnold.”
“All right, Arnold. My name’s Grant. This is the deal.” I handed him a credit card. It was one of many I had, and the limit wasn’t especially high. I knew he couldn’t cause too much trouble with it if he let me down. “You hold onto this card. As well as making sure everyone’s in school, I want you to call the power company, the heat company, the internet company, the phone company, and even cable if you like.”
“You mean, we can get hooked up?”
“Yes. Hook everything up. If there are any problems, let me know.”
I wrote down my cell number on a piece of paper.
“You got a phone?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
I gave him my number.
“Thanks, Grant,” Arnold said.
“Don’t thank me,” I said. “Thank Lacey. She’s the one who’s responsible for all of this.”
“Will we be seeing her?”
“You’ll see her soon enough. And you better be nice to her. She’s a good woman, and if you do right by her, she’ll change your entire life. Her father did it for me, and now I live a life most men could only dream of.”
“Because you stayed in school?”
I smiled. “There’s more to it than that, but don’t worry. I’ll show you when the time comes. For now, stay in school. Later, I promise you I’ll teach you skills that you’ll be able to use to give yourselves good lives.”
“What kinds of skills?”
“It’s too early to tell you, but know this. If you listen to me, and if you listen to Lacey, you boys are going to do all right. I guarantee it. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll make men out of you. Effective men, who know how to get what they want, and know what to do with it when they get it.”
The boys all nodded, as if they were hearing for the first time what they’d been waiting their entire lives to hear.
“So you’re saying, you’re going to look out for us?”
“Sounds good, don’t it?” I said.
“Too good,” Arnold said.
“Well, it won’t be a free ride, but
I promise you this much. Lacey and I won’t ever ask you to do anything that won’t help you to become the men you want to become. So you think about it, and if it sounds good, you stick around in this house.”
They looked at each other. I knew they’d all take the offer. They didn’t have a lot of options.
“So when you said to hook up cable?” Arnold said.
“Everything,” I said. “Sports, movies, whatever you want. Just make sure you all don’t flunk out of school. If anyone’s failing, the rest of you help him out. If anyone flunks out of school, you’ll all pay for it.”
“All right,” Arnold said.
The rest of the boys seemed to be in agreement.
“Arnold, come over here with me,” I said.
He followed me out of the house, to the sidewalk. I wanted to speak to him privately.
“I know this is a lot of responsibility to put on you, but you look like you can handle it.”
He nodded.
“I’ll get a cleaner, a plumber and an electrician to come over and check things out. We’re going to make this a nice home for you guys. I’ll also get some furniture and other stuff organized. In the meantime, you help these boys get their schoolwork together, and keep the house clean. Do you hear me? When Lacey gets here, if this place is a mess, she ain’t going to be happy.”
“I hear you, Grant.”
“And go to the grocery store. Get some groceries. Fill the refrigerator. Healthy stuff. Milk, fruit, cereal, snacks. Use the credit card.”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Lacey will be here soon. You have this place looking good for when she arrives.”
Chapter 43
Grant
AFTER SORTING OUT THE BOYS at the house, I made a phone call to Jackson. I always knew I could count on him for anything.
“Grant, what is it?”
“Jackson, I need your help with a few things.”
“Anything you want, brother.”
“I’m planning something. An event.”
“What sort of event?”
“You’ll be able to guess. Will you help me with it?”
“Of course.”
“Do you have a pen?”
“What do I need a pen for?”
“To take down a list.”
“There’s a list?”
“Yeah, there’s a list.”
Heart of the Hunter Page 63
