“Stop meddling in things you know nothing about.”
Bobby Ray had listened silently to the entire exchange, then regarded him wryly. “Still looking out for Marianne, aren’t you, cousin? That was always the problem. I thought I’d won, but you were always right there between us.”
“Maybe in your mind, not in Marianne’s and certainly not in mine,” Kevin insisted. “Why couldn’t you see that, Bobby Ray? Was it because even after you married her, you were still too busy trying to get even with me?”
“Probably,” he conceded. He looked at Gracie, his expression wistful. “Do you think second chances are possible?”
“Always.”
“Even after I’ve made such a mess of things.”
Gracie nodded with certainty. “Even then, if you’re sure about what you want.”
“Which he’s not,” Kevin said emphatically. “A half-hour ago he came in here moaning because Sara Lynn had abandoned him. Now you’ve talked him into rebounding straight into Marianne’s arms. It’ll be a disaster.”
“They’re old enough to decide for themselves if it’s what they want and to work out whatever obstacles are in the way,” Gracie retorted. “All I’ve done is plant the idea in his head.”
“Well, I hope to hell you’ll be around to pick up the pieces when it all blows up in our faces.”
She stared him down, a stubborn jut to her chin. “I guess that all depends on you now, doesn’t it?”
“Me? How?”
“You can kick me out of your life for meddling in family affairs or you can learn to share the problems with me. It’s up to you.”
“Well, I can’t very well kick you out now, can I?” he grumbled. “You’ve managed to get yourself entwined with me and my relatives so tight, it would take a crowbar to pry us all apart.”
Gracie gave him a tight little smile. “You don’t have to sound so downright elated about it.”
“Believe me, I am not elated.”
“Scared, maybe?”
“Of you? Never.”
Her grin broadened. “Bet you are.”
“Hey, you guys, don’t mind me,” Bobby Ray said, backing away from the table. “I think I’ll just slip on out before the fight picks up steam. Got enough troubles of my own.”
“Where are you going?” Kevin asked.
“Home,” Bobby Ray said. “The cab’s waiting down the block. Jimmy said he’d stick around till I was finished up here. I’ve got some thinking to do. I figure it’s time I thought first, then acted. Maybe I’ll avoid making another mistake that way.” He winked at Gracie. “It’s about time, wouldn’t you say?”
“Something tells me you’re going to get it right this time,” she told him.
After he’d left, walking considerably more steadily than he had when he’d arrived, Gracie faced Kevin defiantly.
“Are we going to fight about what just happened here?”
“One of these days,” Kevin said, reaching for her. “But not just yet.”
“Oh, no,” she said, backing away. “I’m not going to bed with you now, knowing that you’re going to fight with me later. Let’s get it out in the open now.”
He sighed. “Okay, then, what you did here tonight was risky and ill-conceived and, more than likely, a huge mistake.”
“That’s your opinion. I think I gave him something to think about.”
“Darlin’, Bobby Ray never thinks. He acts impulsively. He’ll be over there proposing before daybreak. I don’t want Marianne and Abby getting caught up in that again.”
“It’s not your call,” Gracie said. “Marianne’s capable of telling him to take a hike, if it’s not what she wants.”
“That’s the problem, sweetpea. I’m afraid she might want it too much. She’ll grab on, only to find out it’s another one of Bobby Ray’s impulses with no substance or staying power behind it.”
Gracie shrugged off his concern. “Then I guess it’ll be up to you and me to see that doesn’t happen.”
For some reason he couldn’t entirely explain, the weight that had settled in his stomach when Bobby Ray first called began to ease. The reaction defied logic, because his head was practically screaming that things were going to get a whole lot worse.
But not until after he’d had one more chance to make very passionate love to Gracie.
Gracie knew she had taken a huge risk by interfering in Daniels family business the night before. Obviously, Kevin hadn’t appreciated it, and it remained to be seen if Bobby Ray or Marianne would thank her. Still, she couldn’t help thinking that Abby deserved one last shot at having her family back together. From everything she’d heard and observed, there were still sparks amid the ashes of Bobby Ray’s relationship with Abby’s mom.
By the time Gracie arrived at the Victorian, Delia, Abby, and Helen were all seated around the huge worktable Gracie had moved to the kitchen. Wallpaper samples had been stacked into neat little piles, paint chips had been sorted, and there was a whole new collection of carpet and linoleum samples.
“Abby’s been making calls again,” Delia said as she ran her fingers over a lush piece of carpet in a soft weeping-willow green. She held it up for Gracie’s inspection. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful, but I thought we were going with blues.”
Helen winced. “Sorry. When I went through the wallpaper samples, I hated most of the blues.” She plucked up a pile. “See for yourself.”
Even Gracie had to agree most were either bland and uninspired or too much like every other historic home that used Williamsburg blue for its decor.
“Now look at this,” Helen said, and showed her a pattern that had the same soft green as the carpet, along with a tiny touch of blue and a bit of gold.
“Better,” Gracie admitted.
Helen’s eyes lit up. “And look at it with this,” she suggested, tossing a fabric swatch across it.
The fabric had blue-and-gold irises on a light beige background, but the predominant color was the soft green of the leaves.
“It’s fabulous,” Gracie declared, drawing a collective sigh of relief from the other three. She grinned at them. “Were you all worried?”
“Well, it wasn’t what we talked about,” Delia said.
“And I didn’t want to go against your wishes,” Helen said. “It is your bed-and-breakfast, after all.”
“They had a backup in blue, just in case,” Abby revealed. “But we all liked this one best.”
“Helen, do you have time to do the measuring and then order what we need?” Gracie asked.
Helen looked pleased by the request. “Of course. I was hoping you’d ask. I haven’t had this much fun in years.”
“Speaking of fun,” Delia began, studying Gracie with open curiosity, “why don’t you tell us how your evening went.”
“As productive as ours?” Helen inquired, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
“That remains to be seen,” Gracie said enigmatically. “By the way, how far along are they upstairs? Has anyone checked?”
“I was up there first thing,” Delia said.
“And guess what?” Abby chimed in happily. “Daddy’s here.”
“Oh, really?” Despite the previous night’s activities, Gracie was startled by that particular turn of events. She’d figured Bobby Ray was going to be laid low for days with a monumental hangover. “What’s he doing?”
“He and Uncle Kevin are painting.”
“And so far they haven’t turned the brushes on each other,” Helen said. “You have no idea what a triumph that is.” She regarded Gracie curiously. “How’d you manage it?”
“Manage what? I had no idea they were going to be here.”
“But you were behind their peace treaty,” Helen said. “You must have been. Nobody else has ever had any luck. I actually heard them laughing a while ago.”
“It’s true that Bobby Ray came by the house last night and we all talked,” Gracie conceded. “I wasn’t expecting this, though.�
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“I was thinking, since it’s Saturday, maybe I should call Mom and ask her to come over and help,” Abby said. “Is that a good idea or not?”
Seeing the longing in the child’s eyes, Gracie squeezed her hand. “I think it’s a very good idea.”
“You do?” Helen and Delia said in unison. They both sounded skeptical and more than a little worried.
Gracie opted not to explain about Sara Lynn’s departure. That was Bobby Ray’s revelation to make. But she didn’t see any harm in throwing him and Marianne into close proximity.
“Call your mom,” she repeated to Abby.
“But for heaven’s sakes, don’t tell her your father’s here,” Delia warned. “She won’t get within twenty miles of the place.”
“I know that much,” Abby said. Ignoring the phone on the wall, she practically ran from the room to use the phone Gracie had had installed in the foyer.
Delia chuckled. “I guess she figures we’re better off not hearing what sneaky schemes she uses to lure her mother over here.”
“Well, I for one am glad she left the room,” Helen said. She turned to Gracie. “What on earth went on last night when Bobby Ray came by?”
“Don’t tell her, Gracie,” Bobby Ray said, coming down the back stairs into the kitchen. “She’s been snooping in my affairs since the day I was born.”
“Somebody had to keep an eye on you, for all the good it did,” Helen muttered. “I’m your big sister and I want to know what happened last night. At this very moment, your daughter is trying to lure her mother over here. What’s that all about?”
Bobby Ray looked sheepish. “I can’t speak for Abby’s motivation, but I’ll have to admit I’m glad she’s taking the initiative in this particular instance.”
“Why?” Helen asked suspiciously.
“Because I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to work up the courage to go over there or what Marianne would have done when I showed up.”
“Whapped you upside the head with a frying pan, if she had any sense,” Delia commented.
“Thank you, Aunt Delia. You never did have much patience with my shenanigans, did you?”
“Not since you got old enough to know better,” she agreed. “And that was many a year ago, young man.”
“Thanks to Gracie, I’m a reformed man,” he announced.
“We’ll see,” Delia retorted.
“Bobby Ray, stop gabbing with the women and get the hell back up here,” Kevin shouted just then from the top of the stairs. “I’m doing more than my fair share.”
“That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Bobby Ray shouted back. “You’re the responsible one.” He winked at Gracie, grabbed a couple of sodas out of the refrigerator and bounded back up the stairs.
Gracie chuckled, then realized that Helen and Delia were staring at her as if she were some sort of miracle worker.
“Okay,” Helen said seriously. “I want to know exactly what went on last night.”
“From the beginning,” Delia chimed in.
Gracie thought of the beginning, in her bedroom, in her bed, and concluded that neither of them needed to know every detail about that. Nor about the way the evening had ended.
“Well, you see, Bobby Ray called…” she began, and told them the basics of the conversation she and Kevin had had with him the night before.
“Marianne won’t take him back on a bet,” Delia said when she was done. “Not if she has any sense.”
“Oh, come on, Delia, she adores him. She always has,” Helen said. “Despite everything he did to her, all of it lousy, she still loves him.”
“I’m sorry,” Delia said. “I’m afraid I’m with Kevin on this one. It’s going to be a disaster and Abby’s the one who’ll pay the price.”
Gracie was shaken by the older woman’s fierce declaration. Had she been wrong to try to get Bobby Ray and his ex-wife back together? Had she jumped feet-first into something she knew far too little about?
“Stop looking so glum, Gracie. Delia’s just worried about Abby,” Helen said. “The kid’s been to hell and back, thanks to her father’s foolishness. That hasn’t stopped her from loving him. I don’t think it’s stopped Marianne, either. And if the changes I’ve seen in my brother this morning are any indication, it could just work this time around.”
“I hope you’re right,” Gracie said.
For all their sakes.
21
Abby came bounding back into the kitchen, beaming.
“Mom said she’d be here in an hour, as soon as she’s done with the laundry. I told her we needed her to stop and pick up lunch. She’s gonna do ham and cheese and tuna sandwiches from the coffee shop. I called ahead and ordered lots and lots. Is that okay?” She regarded them worriedly. “I know we usually go out, but I couldn’t think of anything else to get her over here.”
“You could have tried the truth, young lady,” Delia chided.
Abby looked shocked. “You mean told her Daddy was here?”
“That’s correct.”
“No way,” Abby said, shaking her head emphatically. “She wouldn’t have come. You said so yourself.”
“And now I think I was wrong. Sue me. It should have been her choice.”
“Come on, Aunt Delia,” Helen protested. “Leave Abby alone. We need to eat. What difference does it make if Marianne brings us lunch?”
“That’s right,” Gracie said. “It’ll give us more time to decide whether to sand and polish the floors upstairs or to carpet them.”
“You don’t carpet over fine oak floors,” Delia protested, clearly horrified by the suggestion. “What on earth are you thinking?”
Helen grinned at Gracie. “Oh, I suspect I know exactly what she was thinking.”
“Hush,” Gracie warned. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“What worked?” Delia demanded. “Would the two of you stop talking in riddles?”
Helen stood up and tucked a hand under Delia’s elbow. “Come on. Let’s go see what kind of shape those floors are in, okay?”
“Can I help Daddy and Uncle Kevin paint?” Abby pleaded. “I’ll be careful. I’m bound to be neater than they are.”
Gracie nodded. “If your father says it’s okay.”
“All right! He never says no.”
“More’s the pity,” Delia grumbled.
Despite her complaints, though, Delia beat the rest of them up the stairs and led the survey of the wide-planked floors. “Nothing a little elbow grease and polish won’t fix right up,” she declared. “The last few years I was here, I couldn’t keep up with them the way I should have. And since then, well, no house fares well when it’s been untended. I suspect we can rent a buffer and fix these up in no time.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Gracie agreed, which she had all along. There was no way she would have put carpet over the wood, but Delia never had to know that. Fussing over the floors had gotten her mind off Abby’s deception.
“Well, of course, I’m right,” Delia huffed. “I ought to know my own floors.” She sighed, a nostalgic expression on her face. “Oh, my, how they used to gleam. There’s nothing quite like the look and scent of good wood, when it’s just been waxed.”
Just then Kevin stuck his head out of the bedroom door at the end of the hall. “Gracie, could I see you in here a minute?”
“Sure,” she said and went to meet him.
“Inside,” he insisted.
When she stepped into the room, he closed the door behind her, then backed her against it in a movement so swift it caught her totally off guard. His mouth slanted across hers in a hungry kiss. Several breathless minutes later, he stepped away and smiled.
“Morning, darlin’. Seems like I’ve been waiting for hours to get the day started right.”
Gracie’s senses slowly stopped spinning. When she could finally gather her wits, she murmured, “Good morning to you, too. You must be having a good day.” Apparently, he was also over his irritation with her.
“Good night, good day,” he said. “They’re all sort of rolling together lately.”
She glanced around. “Where have you stashed Bobby Ray? I thought he was in here with you painting. You haven’t locked him in the attic, have you?”
“No. I just sent him on to the next room, so you and I could have a little privacy.”
“And Abby?”
“She’s with him. Bonding, I hope.”
“I don’t think you need to worry any more about the two of them bonding, not if it’s left up to Abby. She has plans. Big plans.”
Kevin’s expression turned worried. “Oh?”
“Marianne’s on her way over.”
His good mood soured at once. “Gracie! I thought we discussed that. I thought we’d decided to stay out of it, now that the idea’s been planted in Bobby Ray’s head.”
“I don’t recall agreeing to any such thing. Besides, I didn’t have anything to do with it, I swear. It was Abby’s idea.”
“But obviously you didn’t try to stop her.”
“No,” she said with a touch of defiance.
“I’m amazed Marianne agreed to come.”
“Actually, she thinks she’s coming to bring lunch. I don’t think she’s aware that Bobby Ray is here, unless she happened to wonder at the number of sandwiches she’s picking up. Abby said she called ahead to the restaurant and ordered enough for an army.”
Kevin sighed. “I see.”
He didn’t sound convinced. “Marianne can leave right away if that’s what she wants to do,” Gracie pointed out, trying to sway him.
“I suppose.”
She stood on tiptoe and gave him another smoldering kiss. “Stop worrying.”
“I can’t. It’s what I do.”
“And you’re very good at it. Everyone appreciates the fact that you care so deeply about them.”
“You must not have been around all those times I was told to mind my own damn business.”
“True. I missed that.”
“Taking care of this crowd is not terribly rewarding.”
“You’re looking for the wrong sort of rewards then. Take Helen. Have you noticed the sparkle in her eyes?”
“No.”
Amazing Gracie Page 23
