Grace had almost expected that response from the woman and she’d already pulled her cell phone out of her purse, which was sitting on the floor next to her. She hit the speed dial button for Matt.
When he answered, she simply said, “I have an emergency here Matt. I need someone removed from my house.”
She was so proud of her big brother right then. He didn’t question anything. He just said, “I’m on my way Gracie.”
With that, she placed her phone back in her purse and turned to face Meredith. But before she could say anything, David spoke up for the first time.
He reached out and touched his wife’s arm. “Meredith, don’t you think we should go now and we can talk about this another time when everyone is a little calmer?”
Meredith shook off his hand and turned her glare on him briefly. “If you’re not going to help me David, then stay out of it.”
She turned back to Grace and said, “I have just as much right to have my granddaughter in my home as you do and I’m going to do it no matter what you say.”
She started toward Brianna and Grace jumped up and placed herself in front of her daughter. Just then, they all heard the low rumble of Matt’s Harley pulling into the driveway.
Grace breathed a sigh of relief as the front door jerked open and Matt stood there looking down on David Donaldson who was six inches shorter and over a hundred pounds lighter.
Apparently, realizing David wasn’t the problem, Matt looked past him to Meredith who still had her arm extended toward Grace with her finger pointing at her.
He stomped over there and leaned down until he got right in Meredith’s face. “I think it’s about time you left.”
Meredith didn’t back down at first. She turned to her husband who gave her a helpless look and opened the door. She looked up at Matt one more time then followed her husband out the door.
At the door, she paused. “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”
Matt laughed and said, “No it isn’t. If you don’t leave Grace and Brianna alone, we’ll get a restraining order against you.”
They both stared at the closed door for a moment then Grace turned back to Brianna who looked about to cry. She dropped down in the loveseat and wrapped her arms around her daughter.
“Mommy, I don’t want to go with them.”
“No Sweetheart, you won’t have to go with them.”
Matt started for the door. “Well, I’ve got to run. I was on my way to the hardware store when you called. That’s why I got her so quick.”
“Thank you Matt.”
With that he was gone leaving Grace with the job of calming her daughter down after her grandmother’s latest attack.
Chapter Ten
Grace went through her day at school Friday almost in a daze. She still couldn’t believe that she was actually going out on a date with Kent Jackson. Kent, who had always been a friend but never anything more, at least in her eyes.
She still cringed whenever she thought about the fact that everyone was sure that he’d been in love with her back then. How could she have been that blind?
Finally, she and Brianna were home and she began getting ready for her date with Kent. Her mom had volunteered to come get Brianna to take her back home with her for the night. That relieved some of the pressure Grace had been under for this date.
Kent had told her that he wanted to take her to Kansas City to a nice restaurant and movie there, where there were so many of both to choose from. Therefore, she knew they’d be late and she didn’t want to have to drag Brianna home after her bedtime.
They were in Grace’s bedroom and she was finishing her hair with Brianna sitting on the bed behind her. Brianna called out, “Mommy?”
Grace looked back and saw a puzzled look on her daughter’s face. “Yes Sweetie?”
Brianna scrunched up her face before saying, “Where will we live when you marry Michelle’s daddy?”
Grace just knew that she couldn’t have heard her daughter right. “What?”
Brianna frowned as she looked up at Grace. “Michelle said that you and her daddy are going to get married.”
Grace placed her hairbrush down on the table and turned all the way around to face Brianna. “Where in the world did she get such an idea?”
Grace was surprised to see her fair completed daughter blush brightly. She waited and finally Brianna smiled sheepishly. “Well, I only told her that if we prayed really, really hard for something, and it was something that was really, really good then God would give it to us.”
Grace was still trying to put all the pieces together when Brianna went on. “Well, we’ve been praying for you to marry her daddy so we know it’s going to happen.”
Grace was speechless. Her daughter and Kent’s daughter were praying for them to get married? Oh my! That was so rushing things. But how was she going to get it across to two seven-year-old girls that things like that took time. If it was going to happen at all, that is.
She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer for guidance. “Look Sweetie, Michelle’s dad and I have been good friends since we were your age.” She pulled her bottom lip with her teeth in thought. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to get married.”
Brianna was shaking her head. “But Mommy. Michelle heard her Aunt Sheila telling her daddy that he’d always been in love with you and he said that he has.”
Well, how did you argue with that? She’d been told the same thing by both her mother and her brother. Maybe it was really true after all. But that didn’t mean that they’d be getting married. Did it?
After all, they’d both had bad experiences with marriage. She, for one, wasn’t in any hurry to try again, especially now when she and Brianna were just getting settled here in Strawberry.
She was saved by the doorbell. Brianna raced out of the room calling out, “That’s grandma.” She stopped in the doorway and said, “But I’ll look first Mommy. I don’t want to let the mean grandma in.”
Grace felt tears flood her eyes at the grownup way Brianna had sounded just then. Her little girl was growing up much too quickly. That made her even more determined to keep Meredith away from Brianna.
Brianna came running back into Grace’s bedroom shouting, “Mommy, it’s the good grandma.”
Grace’s mom came in and sat on the bed next to Brianna who had jumped back up there.
“My, my, does that mean what I think it means?”
Before Grace could think of a safe answer to give her mother in front or Brianna, the little girl pipped up with, “The mean grandma was here yesterday, and she tried to take me away with her.”
Grace only shrugged her shoulders when her mom gave her a pointed look. Then Grace knew the look her mom was giving her meant that they would talk about that later.
“So Grace, are you ready for your first date with Kent?”
Grace looked her mom in the eye and couldn’t help noticing a smug smile. Then she realized something that she should have noticed yesterday if she hadn’t still been in shock over Kent asking her.
“Mom, exactly how much did you have to do with Kent asking me out on this date?”
Her mom actually blushed and tried to hide it. She turned to Brianna instead. “Are you ready to go to grandma’s house Brianna?”
“Mom!”
Brianna, unaware of the tension between her mom and her grandma jumped off the bed, grabbed her grandma’s hand, and started for the door.
“Mom!”
“Oh, all right. I might just have mentioned that if he asked you, you just might accept. That’s all.”
With that, they were gone leaving Grace grinning broadly and she wasn’t quite sure why.
* * *
Kent had just finished dressing and was combing his hair when he heard a soft knock on his bedroom door. He turned around and called out, “Come on in Michelle.”
The door opened enough for his daughter to stick her head in. “How did you know it was me Daddy?”
He
laughed and said, “I can tell your knock from Grandma’s. Come on in.” He didn’t say that grandpa wouldn’t be knocking on his door at all.
Michelle was grinning as she slowly made her way to the bed and pulled herself up on the edge. He was wondering what she might be up to now. His little girl seemed to have adjusted to living with him so well, he could hardly believe it. Not only that, but he was adjusting to having her around too and was beginning to anticipate her moods.
But she just sat there silently watching him comb his hair. Kent knew she had something on her mind so he waited to see if she’d come out with it on her own.
Michelle sat there for a couple more minutes just watching him as he finished combing his hair and then filled his pockets with his wallet and keys.
Finally, she said, “When you marry Brianna’s mommy, can we be flower girls, Daddy?”
Kent felt like he’d been sucker punched. All the air left his lungs and he had to sit down so he sat on the bed next to his daughter. Why would she be asking him such a question?
He pulled enough air into his lungs to speak. “Where in the world did you get such an idea Michelle? Tonight is the first date we’ve ever had!”
She just grinned back at him and said, “I heard Aunt Sheila tell you that you’ve always loved Brianna’s mommy and you told her you had too.”
Kent thought back quickly and remembered the conversation that Michelle was referring to and yes, he had agreed with Sheila. But what could he say to Michelle about that now?
He looked down at her eagerly expectant face. “Well, Michelle, things don’t always work out the way you want them to. And yes, I did love Brianna’s mom back before we both got married to someone else.”
Her smile grew brighter.
“But that doesn’t mean that she loved me. Remember, she married someone else. She married Brianna’s daddy.”
“Yes, and you married my mommy.”
He thought he was getting somewhere until she said, “But she’s not married now and you’re not married now. So you can get married to each other.”
Now what could he say to that?
He was saved from having to continue that particular conversation when he looked up and saw his mom standing in the doorway.
She clapped her hands together softly and cried out, “Oh Kent, it’s just so wonderful to see you and Michelle sitting there together that way.”
He looked down at Michelle and she grinned up at him. But if he thought the previous conversation was over, he was sadly mistaken.
“Grandma. Daddy’s going to marry Brianna’s mommy then we’ll be sisters for real.”
With that, she jumped down from the bed and raced out of the room, giggling.
Kent’s mom didn’t say a word until she’d crossed the room and taken Michelle’s spot next to him on the bed.
“Would you like to tell me what that was all about? You didn’t tell her that, did you?”
Kent shook his head adamantly. “No mom, I’m not sure where she got that idea. But she said she heard Sheila and me talking about how I used to love Grace.”
He frowned and shook his head again, slowly this time. “I guess she just jumped to her own conclusion.”
She smiled back at him. “Oh Kent, probably about the only person who didn’t know that you loved Grace back then was Grace herself.”
Kent looked into his mom’s eyes. “Mom, I think there’s something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
She giggled like a little girl and that startled Kent.
“Well, I think all of this may have something to do with the fact that Michelle told me the other day that she and Brianna are praying that you and Grace will get married They so want to be real sisters.”
Now, he really was shocked, and getting angry.
“Did you … ?”
She shook her head. “No Kent, I haven’t talked about praying with Michelle. She must have gotten it from Brianna.”
Kent left his house to go pick up Grace with all sorts of thoughts flying around in his mind. Just as he pulled into her driveway, he decided that he’d not think any more about any of that stuff. He finally had a date with Grace and he was going to make the best of it.
* * *
Grace was nervous. Well, when she thought about it, didn’t she have a right to be nervous? After all, she hadn’t been out on a date since before she had married Randy, and that was eight years ago. She was sitting in the living room waiting for Kent to arrive when her cell phone rang. It was her mom.
“Oh Grace, did I catch you before Kent came?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m just sitting here in the living room waiting for him right now.”
“Good.” There was a pause and Grace knew her mom was trying to think of how to say what she wanted to say next.
“Grace, I didn’t want to say this in front of Brianna before but I’m worried about Kent.”
That certainly grabbed Grace’s attention but before she could ask why, her mom continued, “I think he’s having some sort of bad headaches. He seems to wince quite often and sometimes he even holds his head for a few minutes.”
Grace saw Kent’s car pull into her driveway and said, “Well, Mom, Kent’s here now. I’ll talk to you about this later. Okay?”
“Sure Dear. I just wanted you to be aware of it so you could watch for it and maybe ask him about it. That’s all.”
Grace met Kent at the door and was surprised when he brought a bouquet of flowers out from behind his back and stuck them in her face. She took them into the kitchen quickly and put them in water.
Soon, they were in his car headed for Kansas City. She looked over at Kent and couldn’t think of a thing to say. Apparently, he was having the same problem, since he seemed to be staring straight ahead, as he drove. Then she noticed that his knuckles were turning white on the steering wheel.
All of a sudden, she felt a strong emotion sweep over her. It was so strong that it almost brought tears to her eyes. As she looked at Kent, she couldn’t help but compare him to Randy. But what hit her the hardest of all was that there really was no comparison between the two men. She was certain now that Kent was everything that she had thought Randy was but hadn’t been.
She was about to ask him where they were going when he finally started talking.
“I hope you like Italian food. I have reservations at a great Italian restaurant.”
She smiled back at him. “I love Italian food. Don’t you remember all the pizza and pasta we ate when we were in high school?”
He turned to look at her quickly. “I wasn’t sure if that was one of the things that had changed about you.”
Her smile evaporated at that comment. Had she changed that much? Or did Kent just think she had? She decided to ask him.
“Kent, do you think I’ve changed very much?”
His frown was so deep that she knew he was sorry he’d said what he had.
“It’s okay Kent. I’m sure we’ve both changed more than a little in the last nine years, don’t you think?”
He seemed to relax a little. “Sure. I guess being married to Shelly changed me quite a bit too. Of course, not knowing where Michelle was for five years really tore me up, on top of everything else.”
She hadn’t thought about how terrible it must have been for him not to know where his daughter was for so long.
“Oh Kent, I am so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t begin to imagine how that must have been. I know I’d be devastated if I couldn’t see Brianna even for a week.”
She realized that she was beginning to babble. She needed to calm herself down quickly before Kent got the wrong idea.
He was frowning again. “I guess that’s what we need to do tonight then.”
When he didn’t finish, she prompted him. “I’m sorry Kent. I’m not sure what you mean.”
He laughed at that. “Well, since we haven’t been around each other very much for nine years, we probably need to get to know each other all over again.”
Grace couldn’t keep the smile off her face at his choice of words. “Okay then, I guess I can go first.”
She proceeded to tell him about her college days and meeting Randy. But when she came to the part where Randy’s parents tried to take Brianna away from her, she noticed that he was gripping the steering wheel tightly again. This time he was even gritting his teeth so much, that she could see his jaw muscles tightening.
Finally, he spoke. “They sure don’t sound like very nice people to me.”
She hid the smile that tried to appear on her face at the way he seemed ready to defend her. It was nice. Even though she now had her dad and Matt close by, it was nice to think that Kent would defend her too.
She shook her head. “No, they’re not. At least his mom, Meredith, isn’t. I’m not so sure about his dad, David. I think he just goes along with everything that Meredith says.”
When he didn’t say anything else right away, she said, “At least, I think he was trying to get her to calm down yesterday when she wouldn’t leave my house.”
This time, Kent took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a puzzling look. “They were here … yesterday? I thought they lived in St. Louis.”
Grace almost laughed again at the expression on his face and at the way he whipped his head back around when he realized he’d kept his eyes off the road too long. Thankfully, they were on the Interstate and the traffic was light.
“They do live in St. Louis, but they bought a house down here. They said it was so they could be close to Brianna. But I think it was so Meredith could harass me and try again to take Brianna away from me.”
There was still enough daylight left for her to be able to notice the way his forehead creased when he said, “Does Matt know about all this?”
“Yes, he does. In fact, he had to come over yesterday and almost throw them out of my house when they wouldn’t leave.”
“Good!”
Grace was almost shocked at the anger she sensed coming from Kent. She’d always thought of him as a mild-mannered person before. Was that one of the things that had changed about him?
Walking Away (The Walking Together Series Book 2) Page 12
