The Stand

by Lila Kane

  “Awesome?”

  Grace nodded. “That’s what they said. Awesome. And appropriate.”

  “Appropriate is good,” he said with a chuckle. “And the rest of us? What do you need us to do?”

  “You get to paint some more.” He raised his brows. “Want to change your mind about helping?”

  Nathan lifted his burger. “Nope. I’ll paint.”

  “Good. Oh, one more thing.”

  “What?”

  Grace swirled a French fry in ketchup. “Could you just…not tell Riley about what happened earlier?”

  “Which thing?”

  “What do you mean which thing?”

  “About you seeing your father–”

  “I don’t know if he’s really my father.”

  “Okay, about the man who claimed to be your father,” he amended, “or about trying to get something to happen with the star?”

  Grace frowned at the second part of his question. “I was talking about the first thing,” she mumbled.

  “So the second is fair game?”

  “I thought we already cleared this up. I need to find the star.”

  Nathan wiped his hands on his napkin and leaned back against the cushion of the booth. “I think it’s worth talking about some more.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “I think it’s a decent compromise,” he told her seriously, “if you don’t want me to say anything to Riley.”

  Grace shook her head. “That’s not fair.”

  “I don’t want to see you hurt and I don’t want you to deal with this on your own. You’re making it difficult. Now, that’s not fair.”

  Their gaze held for a long moment, then she broke eye contact and looked to her plate again. “Fine. We’ll compromise.”

  “Good.” He went back to his burger, satisfied with the deal for now. At least she was being reasonable.

  Chapter 5

  Upstairs in the youth center, a teenager with a cap turned backward on his head had his stomach to the floor, painting the bottom of the wall. Two girls debated over colors at the edge of the scene.

  “Hey,” one of them said, grin spreading, “are you Nathan?”

  “I’m Nathan.”

  She stepped forward. “I’m Tracy, this is Kiley. That’s Shawn on the floor over there.”

  A muffled “hey” came from that direction and Nathan smiled.

  “Riley said you and Grace were coming soon,” Tracy continued, “but he said we could get started because this is going to take a while.”

  Nathan gestured to the wall. “It’s really impressive.”

  Tracy shrugged and looked over, giving a smile. “Well, Shawn’s the artist–”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled, “and this is a really big wall.”

  “Do you want to help?” Tracy asked Nathan.

  He was already itching to pick up one of the markers on the edge of the rundown foosball table. “Sure.”

  Shawn pulled himself into a sitting position. “You think you can draw this kids’ jeans?” He pointed to another figure that had been started just feet down the wall.

  “I think I could do jeans.” Nathan glanced back at the door. “Let me check on Grace first and I’ll be back.”

  He left the rec room, passing the study and bathroom. He paused at the built-in bench that stretched the length of the wall across from the stairs and the rail. He kneeled on the bench, taking a peek out the window. Grace was still there.

  She stood at the edge of the patio, arms crossed, attention on something past the boundary of the house. The trees, perhaps.

  Nathan stepped back and returned to the study. He could see her more clearly from this vantage point. But still not enough to be able to tell what she was looking at.

  “Nathan.”

  He whirled, stomach dropping at the familiarity the voice. Amanda’s voice.

  He didn’t see anyone.

  “Shit.” Nathan forced himself to keep calm and stepped cautiously toward the door. On the brink of the hallway, he peered out, not sure what to expect. Again, he found nothing.

  “You should come back home.”

  His head jerked to the left. Inside the study, standing next to the window in the spot he’d just vacated, was Amanda. His heart spasmed at the sight of her. Shock mostly, but also from the fact that he knew it wasn’t really her.

  This Amanda looked different, hair flowing back from her face. She wore a summer dress that swayed to her knees. Her finger traced the trim of the window, innocence in her motion.

  “We could work it out, Nathan, if you came home.”

  The words pierced his soul. How many times had he wanted her to say that? How many times had he wished for a compromise, a spark of hope?

  Her eyebrows lifted and her lips moved in a smile. “You should come home,” she repeated.

  It took courage to turn away, courage not to run away or worse, walk further into the study and have that conversation with her. That one he’d longed to have so many years ago. Because he knew she wasn’t really there. And if he did, he’d be engaging with the power behind the star.

  He walked away from the room. He looked out the windows at the top of the stairs, needing to see Grace standing there. Needing to see that she was still okay. Then he descended the stairs. He’d let Riley know what had happened, have him check on Grace, and they’d deal with the rest later.

  ~ ~ ~

  The trees were filling out, bringing the promise of summer to the woods behind the youth center. Grace had intended to give the back patio a quick assessment but found herself instead hovering on the edge of the wide slab of cement remembering a time long ago.

  When Grace was eight she had pigtails that reached to her shoulder blades. Grandpa had been her daddy for four years and she liked it that way. He’d tell her stories before bed and make her grilled cheese sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly because she hated peanut butter.

  Best of all, he’d give her free rein of the antique store. When he talked with customers or worked on the books, she’d pull over the plastic stool she’d stand on sometimes to work with him at the high counter or nestle it right up next to the old globe. The globe sat on a brass stand three feet off the ground. When it spun it sounded like the whisper of wind through the trees. Grace would drag her finger along the surface, stop it without looking, and then lean in close to see her destination.

  Wherever she landed, she would imagine she was going to travel there. She would find trinkets and books around the store, pretend to pack them and then bring them on her journey. Grace visited states as close as Wyoming and countries as far as Morocco. She’d gone on great mountain treks and surfed in the waters near the Great Barrier Reef.

  One warm summer evening, after she’d locked the store for her grandfather, Grace stood putting away books on the shelf near the door. When she turned, she found Grandpa looking at her with a suspicious smile.

  “You know, Riley said he was going to stay in the rest of the night. You could go home too.”

  “Nah, I like being here.”

  “At the antique store? You’re here a lot.”

  “I like it,” she repeated stubbornly.

  Grandpa lifted a curious brow. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Gracie?”

  Grace moved away from the bookshelf. She let her hand twirl one of the pigtails. “Probably if I got paid to travel, I’d do that.”

  His smile was kind. “World traveler. Maybe you’ll be a missionary.”

  “Like you were, Grandpa?”

  “Maybe.”

  Grace sighed. “But I would miss you too much. And the store. So…maybe I’ll just work at the antique shop.”

  Grandpa abandoned his post at the counter and moved halfway in her direction. She met the gap and smiled at him.

  “What about ballerina?” he asked.

  Grace tilted her chin to look up at him with narrowed eyes. “Ballerina?”

  “Veterinarian? Princess?”

&nb
sp; She laughed out loud. “Princess! No way!”

  Grandpa dropped a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Why not? You’d make a beautiful princess.”

  “Princesses always meet Prince Charming and get married,” she informed him.

  “Sounds like a nice little fairy tale to me. What’s wrong with that? You don’t want to get married?”

  Grace frowned. She squirmed out from under his hand. “No.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cause married people always have babies.”

  “So, don’t you want babies?”

  “No, it would be too sad.”

  His brow furrowed, concern etched into the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “Why?”

  “Because then I’d have to leave them. Mommies and Daddies always end up leaving their babies.”

  Grace had only been eight when she’d had that conversation with her grandfather but she could remember as clearly as if it were yesterday. More than her words, she remembered the expression on her grandfather’s face. Sadness and tenderness.

  The wind teased her hair and she brushed it behind her ears. A suspicious coolness pooled at the corner of her eyes. Grace closed them, trying to will away tears. Crying wasn’t going to help. And no matter how much she wanted her grandfather here, he was gone.

  The sound of movement behind her had her whirling in surprise.

  Riley stood a few steps behind her, hands in his pockets. He rocked back on his heels. “We’re in desperate need of a supervisor in there.”

  She tried a nonchalant swipe at the corner of one eye and smiled. “I’m coming.”

  He started to turn, almost didn’t notice, but then his eyes narrowed and he said, “Are you okay?”

  “Yep.”

  Grace faced the trees again. She crossed her arms tight over her chest as a breeze blew past.

  Riley walked up next to her. “Nathan said–”

  “What?” She turned to him. “What did Nathan say?”

  “Just that you’ve been out here a while,” Riley answered, suspicion coating his voice. “What’s going on Grace?”

  “I miss Grandpa,” she said honestly.

  Riley’s arm came around her. She couldn’t help but turn into it, giving into the embrace. Riley had always been solid and safe, especially when she’d been a kid. He gave her consistency until they went to live with Grandpa.

  He probably thought she didn’t remember, but she did. Vague pictures of her mother swirled in her mind, a young woman with an enthusiasm for life. A woman with a sharp temper and a love of money. A woman who had stolen cash from Grace’s piggy bank to use for gambling.

  “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you Grace?” Riley murmured, squeezing her shoulders. “If something happened with the star, you’d tell me, right?”

  “Nothing has happened.”

  His nod was thoughtful. “Are you worried?”

  Grace shrugged and pulled back. He seemed reluctant to let go but moved to her side again and tucked his hands in his pockets. His gaze traveled toward the direction of the river, buried in the depths of spring trees.

  “There’s nothing to be worried about yet,” she told him.

  “I meant, are you worried because nothing has happened yet?”

  He’d hit the nail on the head. Grace was ready for something to happen. She needed it to or else she’d wonder at the truth behind her wish. She’d wonder why she was the only one who hadn’t found her piece. She’d wonder what her future–and the future of her friends–would hold because she’d failed.

  “You are,” Riley said, his blue eyes narrowing again. “You’re worried. Grace, it’s going to work out.”

  “You’re right.” She bobbed her head quickly in agreement. “We should go in.”

  He caught her arm. “Grace, hold on. You’re not getting any ideas, are you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He sighed and released her arm. “I mean, this is going to happen when and how it’s supposed to. It’s dangerous to try to provoke something.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Grace promised. Which wasn’t the same as saying she wouldn’t try anything.

  “Being cautious doesn’t mean you’re not trying to make something happen.”

  “Dammit, Riley.” Grace scuffed her foot on the ground, crunching it against some dried leaves, but she had to laugh.

  “What?”

  “You’re awfully perceptive today.”

  His eyes crinkled some. “It’s because I know you, Grace. That’s how you do things. You make up your mind and then you jump in with reckless abandon.”

  “Reckless abandon,” she echoed, smiling again. “I like that.”

  “It’s true.”

  She moved one of her shoulders in a shrug. “Yeah, kind of.”

  “That means you’re probably doing what you can to find your piece of the star.”

  “It’s my turn, Riley, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

  “Maddy and Kara didn’t have to do anything to make things happen. In fact, they were pretty much trying to avoid them–”

  “I’m not Maddy or Kara.”

  “My point,” he said with a purposeful look in her direction, “is that it’s going to start eventually. You don’t need to make anything happen. And you need to be extra careful. You’re the last person to find the star, which means it’s probably going to be the hardest for you.”

  Grace wanted to argue with him, to tell him she could take whatever was thrown at her, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. They were nearing the end of the ten years and there was only one more piece of the star to find. It made sense things would get more difficult.

  “You’re right.”

  He nudged her arm with his own and tossed her an easy smile. “You know how much I like to hear that.”

  Grace rolled her eyes and nudged him back. “Come on. I want to see the mural.”

  Chapter 6

  “That’s the last of it,” Riley said, loading the box into the back seat of his car.

  Outside Moore’s Antiques, with the key to the door in her hand, Grace could only nod. An ache lingered in the back of her throat.

  Today was the end of Moore’s Antiques. She was closing the store for the final time. Not only that, she was proceeding on to her house to gather more of her boxes there. After today, nothing was going to be the same.

  Everyone was here with her. Maddy and Kara hanging off to the side, looking ready to engulf her in hugs. Elliot keeping his place next to the back of the car, not far from Nathan, who’d helped load and kept his distance as well. And Riley, of course, because he knew best how much the store meant to her. They knew she couldn’t do this alone, even though they were smart enough not to say it out loud.

  She shielded her eyes against the brilliance of the sun and her gaze traveled across the street. Out in front of Serendipity stood another figure looking their way. A man, tall and lanky, familiar. Lewis.

  Grace’s mouth parted in surprise. She looked instinctively to Nathan. He raised a brow and gave a slight nod, and she knew he’d seen Lewis as well. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything, and she grudgingly forced herself to appreciate that he was at least a man of his word.

  Lewis saw her gaze, shoved his hands into his pockets and turned the opposite direction.

  What was he doing here?

  She thought he might have left Serenity Falls. Thought maybe she’d never see him again and she could forget about him. Did he still want to talk?

  Grace pushed herself away from the car abruptly. “I think I’ll take one last look around, then lock up.”

  Kara and Maddy walked next to her and she smiled at them, wrapping her arms around their waists. She knew how much the store meant to them, too. Knew they’d grown closer as friends because of it. Grandpa had also been like a surrogate father to them both, there for them like their own parents were not.

  They entered the store together, dust particles dancing in the light of the doorway. The woo
den floors had been swept clean, bookshelves cleared and removed. The counter still remained, but it was empty of all the trinkets she’d gathered there over the years.

  “When was the first time you came in here?” Grace asked aloud to her friends.

  “When I was running from my father and hid in the armoire,” Maddy said immediately. Her gaze traveled in the direction of the other room, the place where the armoire had stood for over fifteen years. It was now in the living room at her and Riley’s house.

  “You and Maddy brought me here the week after I met you both at the youth center,” Kara told her.

  Grace nodded in memory. “I wanted to show off all the antique books Grandpa had.”

  “What about you, Grace? When was the first time you came in here?”

  Grace pulled away from them both and wandered to the counter. She slid a finger on the smooth surface before turning to face them. She chased away some of the sadness with her first memory of the place. “I think I was four or five when we came to live with Grandpa. He told us he owned an antique store but I didn’t even really know what antiques were. I thought it was going to be the most boring place ever. But Riley and I got to come the very next day after we moved.

  “I thought this was the coolest place I’d ever seen. And Grandpa had a story for everything that was in here. I wanted to travel to all the places everything came from because of what he told me. He made me fall in love with this place.”

  Kara sighed out loud. “I’m sorry, Grace.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “But I’m the one who wanted to throw those stars. I’m the one who kept looking at the book.”

  Grace’s gaze traveled to Maddy’s in surprise, then back to Kara. “You think this is happening because of the star?”

  Kara nodded.

  “It might be,” Maddy said. “That’s what your wish was about right, Grace? You said you wanted to stay in Serenity Falls and make something important, do something important.”

  She ignored the twinge of guilt. That wasn’t exactly what she’d wished, but it was part of it. It was the part she’d told Maddy and Kara.