Healing Grace (23 page)

Grace understood.

Randy was a good person. They’d never be more than neighbors, but things were moving on the right track. Kaye might never like her, but Grace could live with that.

Kaye had then asked if she could host Eddy’s birthday party. Their chat ended with a few details on the upcoming birthday party. The woman acted jittery, Must be the recent excitement. Or caffeine.

* * * *

Randy Marshall whistled through his teeth. Not even the breeze whisked off the lake or the gray and dirty white clouds billowing and flattening as they rolled in shook his exuberant mood. Love truly did color everything even brighter than peaches and apples. He swung open the door of the café and returned the general greeting from Kaye’s breakfast crowd.

As always, he stopped up short at the sight of the owner. Kaye looked up and smiled back. Unfortunately for Mr. Jeffries, she was in mid-pour.

The planet started spinning again at Mr. Jeffries’s loud call. “Hey there, young lady!”

He chuckled and sauntered over to his regular booth with a grin. Yup, it would be a great day. An even better evening when they discussed their future.

He took her over to Traverse City since Jimmy was staying in that night and agreed to take care of Eddy. And Ted. Randy sat across the table from Kaye, too far in his opinion, but the ride over had been nice. She wore a flowered dress he’d never seen before and smelled of something subtle, some exotic flower, perhaps; nothing like the fruit blossoms he knew. Her hair was all curls for a change and fell loose around her face. Her lips were Courtland red and all he could think about was kissing them. He forced himself to look at her face and be content to hold her hand.

“Thanks for hosting Eddy’s birthday party,” he said over coffee.

“Oh, it will be so much fun. I used to have parties for Tanya and her friends. When she reminded me, what else could we think about? It’s really Tanya who had a blast planning it.”

Randy loved the sparkle in her eyes, her enthusiasm. But he couldn’t help wonder if this would be the last birthday Ted would share with his son.

“You’ll get custody, I assume,” Kaye stated quietly, neither of them making any pretense of not understanding what she meant.

“Ted wanted me to adopt Eddy already last year. When he seemed to recover over the winter we didn’t pursue it.”

“We all had such high hopes for him. Everyone could see how well he did. I thought he would really get better. Does the doctor have any explanation? Eddy’s always had a special place in my heart. I can’t bear to think of him without his father.” She reached for his hand again. “Not, of course, that you wouldn’t make a great father.”

She cleared her throat and closed her eyes. “I mean, you are a great father already and would be good for Eddy.” She opened her eyes to gaze into his. “I love him, too.”

Randy smiled. “I never had any doubt of that.”

* * * *

Eddy’s birthday took place during the third weekend of August. Besides children, Tanya had invited business associates and neighbors, along with Matty, Shelby, Dave, and little Alyssa, who cooed and smiled obligingly at everyone.

Eddy reigned supreme from his favorite red leather and chrome stool at the main counter. He leaned in to blow out the six candles on his oversize apple and cherry cake made especially for the occasion. Having extinguished them, he twirled on the stool and waved to the applause of the gathered crowd, delighted.

Grace took a step back from the counter. Eddy leaned over and wrapped his arms around her neck before she could move away. He forced her to bend low to his sticky little face to hear his whisper, “You wanna know what I wished for?” Hot breath tickled the hair near Grace’s ear. “I wished you were my—”

His eyes slid past her to a shadow darkening the door to the restaurant. The bloom rushed from his cheeks leaving them paper white underneath his tan and red drink stains.

“—Mama!”

A blast of searing outside air accompanied the jeans-and-leather-clad woman who sauntered in. She stood, hands on hips in a defiant pose, surveying the party scene, a smirk across her wide, chapped lips.

With cruel certainty, Grace knew she faced the past. She didn’t need the steel in Ted’s eyes, Tanya’s gasp, or Eddy’s declaration to know that Jilly Marshall had come to town.

Eddy sat like stone on the seat, his arms wrapping tighter around Grace’s neck, threatening to choke her. He was only six years old, and hadn’t seen Jilly since he had turned two. He wouldn’t have known her but Grace had seen the grainy snapshot he kept by his bed. It was still a stretch; Jilly had changed in the four years since that picture. She had kept herself tiny, but was somehow hardened with harsh lines alongside her mouth. Her lips looked like they could no longer form a real smile. Perhaps it had been little more than instinct that caused Eddy to call out to her.

Grace closed her eyes. She realized her rather compromising situation, and started to untangle the child’s arms from their chokehold. She sought Matty’s face for help and the mixture of sympathy and encouragement in the other woman’s eyes comforted her.

Kaye moved first. She stepped out hesitantly from Randy’s shadow. “Why, if it isn’t Jilly. This is a surprise.” She faltered. “Well, maybe not. You’re just in time for a piece of birthday cake.”

Jilly’s eyebrows came together under the red kerchief tied around her head. Another blast of hot air from the opening door hit them as a greasy-looking heavyset man in motorcycle leathers and sunglasses strode in. He claimed Jilly by wrapping a beefy hand around her right shoulder and giving her a proprietary shake which nearly lifted her from the floor.

“Jilly.” Ted Marshall’s voice matched the aloofness of the expression. “What brings you back to East Bay?” He did not move from his position, leaning against the side of a booth. Strain showed in the lines beside his mouth and the tremor of his left hand, which Grace noticed he kept carefully out of his ex-wife’s line of sight.

Jilly nodded at her former husband, but turned her gaze to the crowd of children as if searching. Her eyes finally settled on Eddy. Grace had separated from his death grip, but let his hand stay in hers, slippery with nerves and fear. If, somehow, Sean could be restored to her now, she might feel the same way. She squeezed Eddy’s hand, then urged him forward, praying his mother would not squander this precious moment.

Jilly glared daggers at Grace before bending down to sweep Eddy into a frantic hug. “My baby!”

Eddy squirmed. “I’m six. I’m not a baby. Mom?” His mouth puckered and he inhaled, making a face.

The biker man stayed attached to Jilly. Grace wrinkled her nose and noticed others doing the same. Oil and sweat on stained leather did not blend well with punch and cake. Eddy focused on his dad, sensing the tenseness of the atmosphere, and squirmed in Jilly’s embrace. She let go, and he scampered close to his father, touching his legs and staring back in frightened fascination.

Shelby gave Alyssa to Dave and came to Grace, settling an arm around her waist.

“Ted.” Jilly’s voice was well modulated and suave for such a tiny woman. She was short, not fat, but solid, and after she removed the scarf, fluffed up the blonde spikes of hair dyed red and blue at the tips. She zeroed in on Randy and Kaye.

“Well, well, well.” Jilly walked toward them, biker man towed by an invisible leash.

“You shouldn’t be so surprised, Kaye Smits,” Jilly purred. “After all, you invited me here, remember?”

Grace felt as though a giant vacuum sucked the air from her lungs. This explained why Kaye had been so nervous. At Randy’s hissed intake, she stepped away from him. “That was a long time ago.”

“So? I didn’t know invitations had statutes of limitations. Anyway, how could I miss my boy’s birthday?”

Biker man grinned, baring a mouthful of chiseled, silver-capped teeth.

“You never bothered for any of the other ones,” Randy inserted.

Jilly sized him up before she turned to Kaye. “You couldn’t have my Marshall, so you settled for second best, I see.”

Biker man stopped grinning.

Grace was not about to step into the fray but the kids were starting to get restless so she signaled for Tanya to finish cutting the cake and dish it out.

Kaye’s chin rose. “It’s not like that. And Randy is not second best, you...uh.” She looked around as if remembering where they were. “Won’t you and your friend sit? Over there?” She pointed to a far booth.

“Please, please, don’t spoil his birthday,” Grace whispered under her breath as Jilly and her biker sauntered past and sat. Shelby glided around the room, helping the children settle in front of paper plates of cake and ice cream. A balloon popped, resulting in quickly hushed giggles. Alyssa shrieked.

Grace shivered at the unnatural gleam in Jilly’s eyes as she stared at Ted who remained motionless, as if mesmerized by a cobra.

The party fizzled, and after most of the guests had departed, Grace stayed to help clean up. She introduced herself warily to biker man, who, unthreatened and uninterested, told her his name was Gus. He took her hand in his great paw and wrung it gently. “Mechanic. From Spearfish.” His wealth of information exhausted, he lapsed back into his fourth tall glass of iced tea, apparently fascinated by the patterns light made through the ice cubes.

Grace smiled and went back to picking up plates and glasses and putting them in a gray plastic tub. At the swinging door she stopped, momentarily unsure what to do when she heard the exchange of low, angry voices from the kitchen.

“It was four months ago—four
months
!—since I contacted you! How could you just show up like this?”

“Hey! It takes a while to get here. Lighten up! I’m here now. Yeah, I can see why you wanted me to come. Ted’s in rough shape, isn’t he? And who is that b—”

“Jilly! And put that out. You can’t smoke those stupid cigars in here.”

Grace didn’t want to be eavesdropping, much less be caught doing it, so she left the tub on the counter and quietly let herself out the front door. The last thing she saw was Gus holding up his glass to the light as the door closed behind her with a gentle tinkle of bells.

She almost ran into Matty who paced the sidewalk obviously waiting for her outside the café.

“So! You jus’ gonna lay down like a rug and let that wooman valk on you?” she demanded in her typical no-pussyfooting-around-the-issue fashion.

“Why are you still here?” Grace jammed her floppy green hat on her head.

Matty hissed like a wet cat. “Dat wooman!” Her Dutch accent grew thicker, proving how upset she was. “No one liked her before. What is she here for now, I say?”

“It’s Eddy’s birthday. A mother can spend time with her son on his birthday, can’t she?” Grace was not going to share with anyone the partially overheard conversation in the kitchen.

“There’s no gud in the air, mark my vords,” Matty replied darkly. She veered off toward her parking spot while Grace went around the block to her own hot car and the drive back home.

Home. Where was home?

* * * *

Randy stood with Kaye in her backyard at dusk. A stiff breeze kept mosquitoes at bay. Heartsick, he listened to her repeated apologies, but he had no doubt that she couldn’t possibly imagine the trouble she caused, especially if she truly understood how bad things were with Ted. The legal issues were still somewhat in flux.

She squeezed his hands. “I wrote to her a long time ago, last spring, Randy, when I was upset about—just when things weren’t going so well. How was I to know that she’d show up now? She never replied. Took me a while to track her down, too. It was for Eddy. I did it for him.”

Kaye collapsed against Randy, leaning her forehead against his chest. “At least, that’s what I thought. Ted… I didn’t know what to think. A child should be with a parent, you know? I can’t believe how much she changed.” She sighed. “But I should have realized that a mother who didn’t want her child before wouldn’t change her mind now.”

He swallowed a bitter taste in his mouth. “You know having her here will be trouble.”

“I see that now,” Kaye said, her chin wobbly. “I’d undo it if I could. I swear, I’ll make this right. I’ll do whatever I can—go to court, whatever.”

Randy pulled her into his arms. “When she finds out about Grace…”

“She already knows,” Kaye said, her words muffled against Randy’s shoulder.

“Oh, Lord,” Randy breathed out.
What next?

Four days later Randy came home to find his brother, white-faced, holding an official-looking letter. “What is that?”

“She went and did it.”

“Did what?” Randy reached for the letter, which Ted surrendered.

“I can’t believe it.”

“You’d better believe it, man,” Randy replied after skimming through the official language. “But she doesn’t stand a chance. How could she? She abandoned her child.” He looked up at Ted. “I can’t understand how she thinks she could get away with this, but we’d better call Alvin to have him start the paperwork.”

* * * *

They sat at a round table in attorney Alvin Marlby’s meeting room where he and Ted had worked out the trust and guardianship arrangements months earlier. Jilly wore a softly feminine beige tailored suit, though Ted caught a whiff of burnt tobacco. Stupid. She’d started in college, puffing on cheap cigars, to convince herself she could keep up in a man’s business world. Apparently there was still a lot of business to capture in biker world. Her hair, devoid of garish colors, lay close and smooth around her face. Gus was not in evidence. Ted couldn’t help but remember earlier years when he thought he and Jilly were happily married. She had been pretty and enthusiastic, smart, charming. It had all been a sham.

Jilly’s lawyer leaned over the table now, whispering to her while Marlby took his time thumbing through the proffered documentation. Ted and Randy both sported button pins presented to them with a knowing smile by Eddy’s first grade teacher. She’d made them in time for the open house so that parents and teachers could become acquainted before school started. “They’re for all the parents,” she explained. “I’d like you to have yours early, if that’s all right.” A digital camera image of each student, with the message, “I love Daddy,” and “I love Mommy,” or in Eddy’s case, “I love Uncle Randy.”