by A. C. Arthur
She smiled just as one tear slipped down her cheek. Gray caught it, wiping it away with his thumb, and smiled down at her.
“We’re going to have a fabulous Christmas, something new and exciting for us all. We’re not going to think about this mess with the fire or anything else that doesn’t make us feel happy and content. Just for one day, we’re going to do that.”
He looked up at the ceiling and then back down to her. “I wish there was some mistletoe up there right now.”
“Why? So you could kiss me and then get lucky? Taking advantage of an emotionally drained woman doesn’t seem like your style, Mr. Gray,” she told him jokingly.
Gray smiled. “I’m going to put you into this bathtub and I’ll take advantage of you later,” he said before kissing her lips.
She kissed him back, wrapping her arms immediately around his neck and making Gray want to get into that tub with her. In fact, Gray thought in that moment that he wanted to do everything with this woman. Eat, talk, plan, pray every day—he wanted it all.
Chapter 14
Gray carried Lily into her grandmother’s house, while Jack walked beside Morgan holding tight to the Spider-Man super car Gray had given him this morning.
“Merry Christmas!” Granny shouted the moment she walked into the hallway to see everyone taking off their coats.
“Merry Christmas!” the children replied as they ran and hugged her.
Gray turned to hand Morgan their coats, as she was standing near the closet and had just hung up her own.
“Merry Christmas,” he said, and she turned just in time to see him locked in a tight hug with Granny.
Wendy came out next, an apron around her waist and an already exasperated look on her face.
“Merry Christmas, y’all,” she said, bending down to hug the kids as they ran to her.
Granny pulled Morgan close for a hug after she’d hung up the coats, which he’d finally given to her after his embrace with Granny.
“Stop looking so sad,” Granny whispered in Morgan’s ear. “It’s Christmas, remember. Only happiness today.”
Morgan nodded as she released her grandmother, but seeing Gray also hugging Wendy and laughing made her pause once more. They’d slept together again last night—no sex, just sleep. Gray held her all through the night, his arms wrapped tightly around her while Morgan had tried to fall asleep. She’d stared into the dark for longer than she cared to remember, thinking about all that had happened in just one month’s time.
“Hey there, sis, you hanging in there?” Wendy asked as she came to stand in front of Morgan once Granny had returned to get Lily and Jack.
She was carting the children off into the living room, to open the gifts she’d bought for them, no doubt.
Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, then releasing it slowly, Morgan stared at her sister.
“I’m okay, I guess,” she said.
“We’re all going to be okay around here. It’s about time Temptation stepped into the twenty-first century. I was thinking last night that Gray is just the person to propel us in that direction,” Wendy told her.
Gray had gone into the living room, too, probably sensing that Morgan needed to be alone with her sister for a few minutes. He was like that, she thought, always knowing what she needed before she even verbalized her wishes. It was different having someone around to do that when for so long it seemed like she was the only one supplying needs in her household, putting her own on the back burner.
“But will he stay here to do that?” she asked Wendy. “Or will he go back to Miami, where his home, his business and his life is?”
“Wait,” Wendy said, grabbing Morgan by the shoulders. “You’re not asking just for the sake of the town, are you? You’re thinking about you and him? Oh, my goodness, you’re in love with him, aren’t you?” Wendy squealed.
“Be quiet,” Morgan said, waving a hand at her sister and looking toward the living room. “What’s the point in waiting until we’re alone to have a conversation if you’re just going to shout out what we’re talking about?”
“Oh my, oh my!” Wendy said, stepping from one foot to the other like an excited child. “Morgan’s in love. She’s really in love!”
Wendy had spoken in a more hushed tone this time. Morgan frowned.
“I was in love before, with my husband, remember?” she said to Wendy. Even though, to be quite honest, Morgan hadn’t thought about her marriage or her relationship with James in the last couple of weeks.
In the beginning, when Gray was here and after the first time they’d had sex, she had thought about James a lot. Reconciling with herself over the fact that there was now another man in her life, she figured. But since then, her only thoughts of James had been regarding the children and what it would mean to them to have a man around who wasn’t their biological father. Which brought her right back to the question she’d asked Wendy—was Gray going to stay in Temptation with them?
Wendy nodded. “I’m not saying you weren’t. But for so long you’ve been acting like your life only revolves around the kids. I mean, hell, you haven’t even been dressing like you used to.”
Morgan immediately looked down at her black jeans, leather knee-length boots and red-and-white holiday sweater.
“I think I look just fine,” she replied.
“Yeah, but before you met James, you looked fabulous. All the time. I mean, you wore dresses and sexy blouses. You had longer hair and did your makeup.”
“I like my hair short, it’s easier to manage. And makeup in Temptation is like snow in July—absolutely out of place,” Morgan quipped.
Wendy shook her head. “Not true. I put on my face every day, no matter what. And there are dozens of other women living here that do the same. You just adopted all these new rules once you became a widow. But now you’re in love again and you and the kids can have a complete family. I think it’s fantastic.”
“Ah, excuse me, but your grandmother sent me out here to collect you two. She said it’s time to open gifts,” Gray said.
Morgan instantly froze at the sight of him, praying he hadn’t heard their conversation, especially the parts from Wendy because apparently her inside voice was still disabled.
“We’re coming,” Wendy said happily and started walking toward the living room.
Gray looked at Morgan. “Everything all right?” he asked.
Morgan fixed a smile on her face and replied, “Everything’s fine.” She headed into the living room, hoping and praying that things would be fine in the end. Although she still wasn’t quite sure.
* * *
Gray was overwhelmed.
“Go on and open it, stop being so silly,” Granny told him after the second box had been set in front of him.
At Morgan’s place this morning, the children had presented him with another gift. Leather slippers because Jack said his mother insisted everyone wear slippers in the house and each time Gray had stayed over, he’d only walked around in his socks. Morgan had also given him a gift—a book on vintage cars because he’d told her about his hobby of looking at the cars, but had never bought one.
“You should have a hobby,” she’d told him. “Something to occupy your mind other than work.”
Gray almost told her that there was someone who had been occupying his mind more than work lately.
Now, her grandmother and sister were presenting him with gifts. It was a good thing he’d thought ahead and ordered gift cards online when he’d been picking out the gifts for the children. When he’d entered the hallway to get Wendy and Morgan for their grandmother, he’d gone into the closet to reach into his coat pocket, where he’d slipped the envelopes with the gift cards inside.
“I don’t know what to say,” Gray said as he was tearing open the box.
When h
e lifted the top and pulled back the tissue paper he was shocked to see the gift was a newspaper article in a nice oak picture frame. The title of the article was The Taylors of Temptation.
“I clipped that thirty years ago,” Granny revealed. She was sitting in her recliner, legs crossed at the ankles, her long charcoal-gray-and-white skirt giving way to bright red slipper socks that she had pulled all the way up.
“Your parents were so proud when they brought all y’all babies home. And you know what? The town was proud, too,” Granny told him. “There were so many news people here. Way more than there are now. Everybody wanted to see not only the first set of multiple births in Temptation, but the first African American sextuplets in this town. It was monumental.”
Gray held the picture in his hand, staring down at his mother’s and father’s smiling faces. They were sitting on the top step of the porch of the house where they’d lived, six baby seats with little bundles of life inside each one. It was the happiness in his parents’ eyes that grabbed on to him and held tight. Gray never remembered seeing that look on either of their faces when he was growing up.
“Wow, you kept that all this time,” Wendy said.
“I sure did,” Granny continued. “That’s what pride is. You believe in something forever and you stand by it.”
“It’s a wonderful gift,” Gray said to her finally. “I really appreciate it.”
Granny leaned forward, the recliner snapping upward with her motion. She didn’t miss a beat, but rested one elbow on her knee and pointed a finger from the other hand at him.
“I don’t want you to appreciate me giving you that picture. I want you to do something with your legacy. It’s your duty and your parents expected it. They worked hard, saved and borrowed money to make it possible for the six of you to be here on this earth. It’s shameful that none of you live in this town, or even bother to visit. I don’t care how Olivia and Theodor’s relationship ended, there was once love between them and you children are the product of that. Don’t let it be in vain, you hear me? Don’t disappoint them like that.”
Once more Ida Mae Bonet’s words echoed in Gray’s mind, long after she’d spoken them. So much so that after the dinner at her house and after he’d dropped off Morgan and the children at their house, Gray returned to his room at the resort and called his sister.
“Merry Christmas,” he said to Gemma the moment she answered.
“Well, merry Christmas to you, too, Grayson,” his sister replied happily. “I thought you were going to be the only one I didn’t speak to today.”
“You talked to Garrek?” Gray asked.
“I sure did. Only for a minute, though, because he said something about needing to catch a flight, but it was good to hear his voice,” she told him.
Gray nodded. “It’s good to hear your voice.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“Are you all right, Gray? Did something happen?”
He sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes as he’d also allowed himself to really think about what had happened last night.
“The community center burned down last night,” he told her. “It’s completely destroyed.”
“Oh, no. How did that happen?” Gemma asked him.
Gray shook his head, then remembered he was on the phone with his sister and not having a face-to-face conversation with her. How long had it been since that had happened?
“Oh, no, Gray. That’s such a shame. What’s going to happen now?” she asked after a few moments of silence.
Gray sat back in the chair, the phone to his ear, his other hand pushing the curtains back so he could see out the small window in his room. He liked the view out of Morgan’s bedroom window better because George was still standing, even though his bottom layer was partially melted, and his nose and one of his eyes were gone. It had snowed twice since the big storm, but there hadn’t been much in the way of accumulation.
“I’m going to build a new one,” he said simply.
The decision had been just that, simple and unquestionable.
“The town needs the community center and the hospital and we need to keep the house. It’s what Mom and Dad would have wanted,” he said for the first time out loud.
Gemma went quiet.
“Are you sure?” she asked finally.
Gray nodded again. “I’m positive. So listen, there’s something else going on here. I went through Dad’s papers and things and he left an envelope for each of us. I’m going to send them out tomorrow, so you’ll have yours by the end of the week. He was doing some things that we didn’t know and I’m still trying to figure them all out. But I’ve decided to keep all the buildings and see some of his intentions to fruition. I typed up a memo with a summary for all of you to look over, but I really think it would be a good idea if you all came to Temptation. Just to see how you feel about everything.”
This idea had come to Gray while he sat at the cherry oak table in Ida Mae’s house earlier that night. There was talk about the Valentine’s Day dance coming up and then the Spring Fling, which they were all hoping that Millie did not plan the way she had last year. The children were excited about summer break and going swimming at the lake. All things that he and his siblings had done at one time in this town.
“Wait a minute, are you asking us to move to Temptation?” Gemma asked him.
“No,” he replied quickly. “Not at all. I’m just thinking that we all owe it to Mom and Dad to do more. They cared about this place and since we were born here, maybe we should, too.”
“Gray,” Gemma said, “is there someone in that place that you care about now?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He had felt as if he had no one to talk to about all these new emotions brewing inside of him.
“She’s a single mother. Multibirth, just like Mom. She teaches and she directs children’s plays. No bigger than a fairy, but stubborn and resilient as hell. And the kids, they’re adorable. Jack has a quick mind while Lily is the thinker—she contemplates and then decides. She’s as sweet as candy, but serious and no-nonsense like her mother,” he said before sighing heavily. “What am I going to do without them when I head back to Miami?” he asked, more to himself than his sister.
“Hmm, maybe you should be asking yourself what you want to do with them there in Temptation” was Gemma’s reply.
Chapter 15
“Arson,” Dave said solemnly as he sat across from Gray at Pearl’s Diner, three days after Christmas.
“Used paint thinner and lots of it,” he continued. “Started with it down in the basement, right near that fuse box you were talking about, and poured it all the way up to the top floor. The origin was in the basement, though, right by the back door, so they could escape quickly.”
Gray rubbed a hand over his chin as he took in each word that Dave had said.
“Burned quick and fast, it did. Still hot over there, too, so don’t you go poking around. I’ll have a written report by the end of the day so you can send that to your insurance company,” he told Gray.
“Thanks for that,” Gray said. He’d just finished eating the best tuna and lettuce on whole wheat he’d ever had in his life and now he had to attempt to digest this news on top of that.
Dave shrugged and finished his coffee. “Just doing my job, nothing special.”
“Would contacting the sheriff about your findings be part of your job?” Gray asked.
Dave nodded. “Sure would. And I’ve already done it. Sheriff Duncan and his deputy, Harlow, are going to meet me there in about an hour and I’m going to show them where I found everything.”
“You mean the origin of the fire?”
“No. I mean where I found the earring and the bucket that points to who started the fire.”
Gray sat straight up then, staring Dave directly in th
e eye.
“You know who set the fire?”
Dave Alderson was a stout man with an olive complexion, a center bald spot and bushy eyebrows. He wore a wedding ring on his chubby finger and a gold hoop earring in his left ear. Right now, he was rubbing that bald spot and staring at Gray as if he was torn between telling him the truth and waiting until someone else could take on that task.
“If you know, Dave, I want to know. I’d rather not wait until there’s an arrest or the sheriff does whatever he’s going to do. It was my building and I want to know,” Gray told him.
“I don’t have any obligations to tell you this. Hell, you ain’t even a citizen of this town so I don’t believe I owe you any allegiance,” Dave told him.
Gray nodded his agreement to the man’s words, all the while contemplating how it would look when he jacked him up by his collar and shook the admission out of him.
Dave leaned back against the seat and let his hands drop to the table. “But my mother was a good friend of your mother’s, back when she lived here. I was about six and I can remember them two sitting on our back porch talking while I played with my dog, Loppy. Best damn golden retriever you’d ever want to meet. When he died it almost killed me.”
Dave waved a hand as if telling himself to stop his speech. “Anyway, your mother had a kind smile and always gave me lollipops.”
Gray didn’t move a muscle, simply looked at the man expectantly.
“There was an earring left at the scene, just a few feet away from the back door. Got a little charcoaled but near as I can tell it’s real gold, got some diamonds on the side of it, too.”
“So the person who set the fire was a woman,” Gray said, trying to connect Dave’s imaginary dots.
“There was also a glove and a bucket,” Dave continued. “The bucket was farther away—somebody dropped it behind the bushes down at the end of the block in the back of the building. It wasn’t burned at all and it had a price sticker on the bottom of it.”
“I don’t know where you’re going with any of this,” Gray admitted, his patience with Dave growing very thin.
