It's Not About You (30 page)

"Grace…" April began as she looked at the pictures and I moved away to put the rolls in baskets. "What's up with this guy? Who is he? And more important," she said as she looked at me. "How old is he?"
 

Kevin set his beer down and held out his hand to April. She handed him the pictures and he looked through them. "Michael's a friend of Kyle's. They work together and Gerald brought him over a few times because he's new in town. He's just a friend."
 

But April was looking at me with a seriously concerned frown on her face.
 

Tanae walked into the kitchen at that moment, her phone stuck to her ear. "…and Skyler came. No we we're still waiting on Hoshi to call…" She moved around April to the fridge, apparently intent on getting something to drink when she saw the pictures in Kevin's hands. "Oh…" She stepped and pulled his arm down so she could see them. "Who's that with mom? He's cute."
 

"He's a friend of Kyle's," Kevin said as he looked at me with a questioning look on his face.
 

I gave him one of those
no I never told her
looks and he winced.
 

"He's good looking. But why are he and mom planting flowers?" She paused and angled her phone back to her mouth. "Hello? Hello?" Tanae pulled it back to look at the face. "He hung up on me."
 

"Who was it?"

"Dad."
 

Oh. Fuck.
 

I smiled and just kept piling rolls into baskets and then put the baskets in the cooling oven. I tried to convince myself Burt got disconnected or he hung up because Tanae was talking to someone else. That was one of his pet peeves. Having his victim on the phone and they weren't giving him 100% of their attention.
 

Too bad no one ever did when he was on the phone because all he ever did was complain about his life, his job and me. Only to me he complained about our daughter. Or he used too.
 

I never took his calls if I could help it.
 

But if he heard what she said then he hung up because he was pissed because Tanae said there was a good looking guy planting flowers with mom. So he was either going to start calling my phone again or he was going to call the house. I waited for the phone to ring.
 

But it didn't.
 

Maybe it was just a chance disconnection.
 

Gerald and Kyle came back in the kitchen at that moment and I grabbed up a plate of appetizers and handed them to Gerald. "Will you put these in the living room for me?"
 

His gaze slid off my face and onto the little treats. I was pretty sure I saw he was salivating. "Oh…sure thing, Grace." He left the kitchen.
 

Yeah that was a strategic move. I figured he'd start eating them the instant he was past the kitchen door and Harold, who was still in the living room, would never see them or taste them.
 

Kevin clapped his hands. "Anything I can help get to the table?"
 

"Yeah," April said. "Grab that green bean casserole and I'll put my soufflé on the table."
 

Once they left the kitchen I yanked on Kyle's sleeve. He'd started messing with the turkey. We needed to get it transferred to the serving platter. "Well?"

"Just calm down, Gracie. I gave him a little story about how you two were getting close because he reminded you of your brother."
 

"I don't have a brother."
 

"You did."
 

"He died in a car accident when I was three."
 

"So it isn't a lie."
 

This was getting ridiculous. I finally just gave up and helped Kyle transfer the bird to the plate of stuffing and cranberries. We got it over with no problems and he carefully carried it into the dining room.
 

I wanted a quick shower before we ate. I was still in my morning clothes.
 

The home phone rang and Tanae yelled out from the bedroom. "That might be Hoshi!"
 

True. So I wiped my hands and grabbed the wireless. "Hello."
 

"What the hell did she see? Was it naked pictures of you with Kyle? Was it you with some guy in bed and planting flowers was some kind of code?"
 

Burt.
 

"They were pictures of me planting flowers with a friend, Burt."
 

"Right. You expect me to believe that. You don't have friends."
 

I took the phone from my ear and glared at it.
 

Kyle came back in the kitchen. "Is that Burt?" he mouthed.
 

I nodded and put the phone back to my ear. "She'll call you when she's done. And don't pick her up. She'll come to you."
 

"You're just pissed off because your ploy to keep me from my daughter for Thanksgiving didn't work. You couldn't keep me in jail."
 

It was being married all over again, with the crazy accusations that no one in their right mind believed but him. "Burt, that was never my intention. You can see your daughter when ever you want. She's eighteen. She makes up her own mind."
 

"You took out another one of those ridiculous restraining orders, Grace."
 

"Because I don't want you here. She'll be done this afternoon and she'll call you and then you two can have fun this evening and spend all the time you want. Just. Not. Here."
 

"You can't keep me from her."
 

It was like a broken record. I didn't understand his logic. No one did. "No one is keeping you from her, Burt. She's spending time with me then she'll spend it with you."
 

"I want to see her there."
 

"No."
 

"Mom! Your cell phone is going off!"
 

I pulled the phone away. "Bring it to me, please."
 

"Hang up on him, Grace. He's crazy." April said as she came in the kitchen and realized who was on the phone.
 

"Is that April? You convinced her to block my calls didn't you?"
 

Tanae came back into the kitchen but instead of holding my phone, she was talking on it. She'd answered it. I told her to never answer my phone. I looked at her and mouthed "who?"
 

She pointed to the fridge where Kevin had put the pictures back up.
 

Fuck…
 

"Burt," I interrupted one of his non-sensical diatribes. "She'll be done by five. I'll have her call you so you'll know when she's on her way to you." I disconnected and yanked my phone from my daughter. "Hello?"

I was instantly worried because I knew Michael wouldn't call today unless it was an emergency.
 

"Hey, I'm sorry to bother you. But is your cop friend there?"
 

I looked at Kevin and he was looking at me. "Yeah he's here. What's wrong?"
 

"Melissa's boyfriend followed her here. We woke up to someone breaking into my house. It's him. He broke a window and fired a gun off. She and I got away in our pajamas on my bike but he followed us. I think I gave him the slip but we're freaking out."
 

Holy shit.
 

"Where are you now?"

"I'm near the
Trade In Bean
. We're hiding and she's keeping a look out."
 

"Michael, I'll tell Kevin. You stay put, okay? And keep the phone clear. Call the police."
 

"But I don't—"
 

"Call…the police. Tell them what's up. I'll call you right back." I slipped my phone into my apron pocket and grabbed Kevin. "We need to talk."
 

"Honey what's wrong?"
 

"Little emergency." I passed Tanae on the way out and dragged Kevin into the back and into my room. Forget the fact I hadn't made my bed and I had bras and panties and dirty clothes everywhere. It was just that kind of morning.
 

"I'm not sure I want to hear this." Kevin had his hands on his hips as I shut the door.
 

"Probably but not but this is serious." I told him what happened the night before, and how Kyle had arranged for Michael to come to the house and I met the sister. I told him everything, to how I feel about Michael and how he said he felt about me. And then I told him about the trouble Melissa had had with her biker boyfriend.
 

When I got to the point where they were being shot at and hiding, Kevin had gone into cop mode and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Give me Michael's number."
 

I did and he called him. Michael must've answered on the first ring. "Yeah…give me this guy's name."
 

I grabbed a pen and paper from my nightstand and handed them to Kevin. He scribbled the information down.
 

"Has there been any sign of him yet?" Kevin looked at me as he listened to Michael. Then, "Okay they should be there in a few minutes. I'm on my way from Grace's. Just stay hidden."
 

I followed him down the hall and grabbed his coat from the closet. As he put it on he went down the stairs. There he paused and looked at me since I'd trailed him down. "I'll make sure he's safe."
 

"Kevin I—"
 

"It's okay. We gave it a shot and I was hoping to give it another one but," he said and then shrugged. "I'm always going to care about you."
 

"You're mad."
 

"Hell yeah I'm mad. But I'm not going to let that get in the way of being a good detective." He reached out and put a hand to the back of my head before he planted one hell of a kiss on my lips.
 

Right in front of Harold, Gerald, April, Kyle and Tanae and all her friends.
 

Then he was out the door and I was locking it behind him. When I turned from the door everyone was staring down at me. I shrugged. "We dated for a while."
 

"When was this?" Gerald said from where he stood beside Kyle.
 

Kyle looked at me with worry as he turned to everyone. "The table is set and it's already getting close to 1:30 and some of us have a second Thanksgiving to get to. So…everyone to the table."
 

I waited for the traffic to clear away from the top of the stairs before I climbed them. I wanted a shower. No…I wanted a long, hot bath in a house with no one in it but me. Well, Kyle could stay.
 

And I wanted Michael in the tub with me. I didn't want to let on how frightened I was. I'd heard the fear in his voice and the thought this stranger, this person I didn't know anything about had shot at his house with him in it…

I was an inch away from becoming a blubbering pile of goo on the floor and I wasn't going to relax until I knew Michael was okay. And just to add to the tension, he was being rescued by a guy who would probably prefer he was out of the picture.
 

Everyone found a place to sit and insisted Kyle take the head of the table so he could lead everyone in a toast to Thanksgiving and my sister could do her prayer.
 

I only half listened as we held hands, with Kyle on my right and Tanae on my left. Her words became a droning noise since my thoughts were with Michael, praying for the phone to ring or the door to—

Someone banged on the front door and jammed the doorbell repeatedly as if they were in a hurry. It couldn't be Michael and Melissa with Kevin, it was too soon. Kevin couldn't have gotten there that fast.
 

Tanae jumped up and ran to the living room to the window. She stepped back and looked directly at me, though we were all looking at her. "It's dad."
 

No one said a word as he continued banging on the door. I think that was because we could hear him yelling now. Out there. In the front yard. Yelling his head off for me to open the door.
 

I panicked. My chest vibrated because my heart pounded too fast and too hard. I tried to remember if I took my blood pressure medication that morning and decided I probably did. Or I hoped so because I wasn't going to be able to take much more of this.
 

"Kyle, call the police," April said.
 

"No!" Tanae came back to the table and looked at me and then at April. "Don't put him in jail again. I'm afraid if he goes back he'll actually have to do time."
 

"And how is this a bad thing?" Kyle said, though I nudged him with my hip. I didn't disagree, but I could tell this was upsetting Tanae as well.
 

"Isn't he crazy?" Skyler said. She was still as cute and blond and perky as she'd ever been and stood a half a head taller than Tanae. "I mean, you used to talk about how nuts your dad was." This comment she directed at Tanae.
 

That was news to me. I never paid much attention to how my daughter felt about her dad other than loving him because…well…he was her dad. But I suppose it was possible to love crazy people.