Truly Yours Contemporary Collection December 2014

by Joyce Livingston, Gail Sattler, Joyce Livingston

  “She seemed nice, I guess.”

  Grace waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. He simply flicked the switch on the coffeemaker and turned around. “Done. Want to go back to the living room?”

  “Sure.”

  Grace parked herself on the new couch while Phil selected a different CD and dropped it into the tray. “I just got this new praise CD last week. I think you’ll like it. It’s really good.”

  When the music began to play, Phil adjusted the volume until it was at a comfortable level. He then sat at the opposite end of the other couch, leaving what Grace thought was a vast chasm for such a small room.

  He hadn’t been down for more than three seconds before he stood again. “I just thought of something. It’s good to have Dale home again, but even during something so simple, Dale really was in the way. I’m going to move him, and what better place than on top of the television? It’s out of the way, it’s safer than on top of the coffee table, and it’s also a good spot to display him as a central point of reference in the room.”

  Grace watched Phil’s every move as he picked Dale up, walked across the room, then carefully positioned Dale just right, perfectly centered, on top of the television.

  He stood back and crossed his arms. “There. What do you think?”

  Abruptly, Grace sat upright. “That’s what the difference is in here! The television!”

  Phil blinked and knotted his brows, but otherwise didn’t move. “We moved the television, yes, but we moved around pretty much everything in the whole room since you’ve last been here. Maybe it just feels different with Dale on top. He does kind of cheer things up in here. Kind of like an angelic aura or something.”

  Grace shook her head and waved one hand in the air in the direction of the television. “No, you don’t understand. It’s not Dale; it’s the television itself. It’s not on. That’s why the room feels so different. Even though it’s all been rearranged, it’s the same furniture with the exception of the new couch, which I’ve heard about many times. The difference is the noise level. Neil always has the television on, even when we’re really not watching it.”

  Phil nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’ve taught myself to ignore it when Neil does that, at least most of the time. When I’m alone and there’s nothing on that I’m specifically watching, I turn off the television and put on some music. I can’t say it’s less noisy, though. Sometimes I crank the volume pretty high.”

  “Maybe, but steady music is different than the blare of voices and the blasting of special effects with loud bursts of short bits of instrumentals for emphasis on the action at the time. No matter how good the show might be, if you’re not watching it, it’s just noise. Sometimes I wish I could turn up the volume on my CD player, too, but living in an apartment block, I don’t have that option without bothering my neighbors.”

  “One day you’ll have a house, and you can put it up as loud as you want. If you want, I can turn it up real loud for you right now.”

  He moved as if he were going to stand and actually do it. Grace suspected he was only kidding, but she raised her palms to stop him anyway, just in case. “That’s okay! I didn’t mean now.”

  Phil grinned. “Relax. I was just getting up to go pour the coffee.” He gave her an exaggerated wink over his shoulder as he left the room. “Gotcha.”

  Grace smiled. The old Phil was back, and she liked it that way.

  “Maybe I’ll just stay here and let you serve me,” she called out. “You know how I like my coffee by now.”

  In three minutes flat, he was back with a mug of coffee, just the way she liked it.

  She told herself that if Neil hadn’t arrived by nine-thirty, she would leave. To her surprise, at ten o’clock, there was no sign of Neil, and she was still there, still talking to Phil.

  Since she had to get up at 7:10 to be on time for work, Grace excused herself. Phil saw her to the door and waited while she pulled on her boots and slipped into her coat.

  “It’s going to be a strange week with Thanksgiving on Thursday, then going back to work on Friday. I’m going to my parents’ home, and it’s a long drive back for me after a big supper, and always a late night. I’m always wiped out on Friday, which tends to be busy, as so many people have the day off. I wish I had more seniority at the bank and could book the day off.”

  “I know what you mean. I can never get the Friday off either. I always go to Granny’s place for Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving is going to be really different because she’s moved into her apartment, but she wants to still have everyone over just like every other year. It’s always been important to her to have all the big holiday family dinners at her house, and it’s really upset her that she can’t anymore due to lack of space. We’re all going to try to fit into her small apartment for one last Thanksgiving, but starting this Christmas, my parents are going to host all the family dinner occasions. It feels really strange, but I guess all families go through this when a tradition passes on to the next generation.”

  “Yes, I think you’re right.” Grace hiked her purse over her shoulder and reached down to pick up her guitar. “I was a child when my grandparents died, but it still felt very different the first time my parents hosted a family dinner. Suddenly things changed from the whole extended family to it just being our own family. Of course, now that my sister is married and has kids, the family is getting larger again, just one generation down.”

  “Oops, wait for a sec. I forgot something.”

  She lowered the guitar to the floor while Phil disappeared into the kitchen for a few seconds.

  “I forgot to give you this yesterday.” He held out her travel coffee mug that she’d loaned him the night Ralphie attacked poor Dale. “I would have filled it up, but having more coffee so close to bedtime probably isn’t a good idea.”

  “Probably not,” she said as she reached out to take it from him. As she wrapped her fingers around it, he didn’t release it. Instead, his left hand covered her right, sandwiching her hand between his and the plastic mug.

  “Drive safely; it’s slippery in places,” he murmured. “Thanks for coming. I really enjoyed this evening.”

  Mesmerized by his eyes, Grace stood frozen, completely unable to move. “Y–yes,” she stammered. “Me, too.”

  “Good night, Grace.”

  All she had to do was move and he would have released her hand. She couldn’t. The heat of his hand seeped into hers as she stared up into his limpid gray-green eyes. Eyes that said so much. Eyes that said he might kiss her good-bye.

  Grace yanked the mug out of his grasp, backed up, and picked up her guitar case in one brusque motion. “Yes. Good night, Phil.” She turned around so fast, the neck of the guitar case bumped the door frame on her way out.

  She was halfway to her car when Neil’s pickup pulled into the driveway.

  The driver’s door opened, and Neil slid out just as Grace opened her own driver’s door.

  “Grace? Is that you?”

  “Hi, Neil,” she mumbled over top of her car. “Sorry I missed you. It’s really late-I-have-to-go-bye.”

  She nearly threw her guitar and purse across the driver’s seat and into the passenger seat, slid in, and turned the key, all before Neil arrived beside her door. He tapped on the window with his gloved fingertips, so she had no alternative but to roll the window down while her car warmed up.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Nothing, really. Wouldn’t you know it, you’d come when I finally gave up.”

  Neil straightened, pushed the cuff of his glove away from his wrist, then he tilted his wrist to catch the light from the streetlight. “Oh. I didn’t know it was so late. Sorry I missed you. I guess I’ll see you Wednesday.”

  “Probably. Good night, Neil.”

  “Good night, Grace.”

  Without first leaning in through her open car window to give her a good night kiss or even a token peck on the cheek, Neil backed up, turned, and walked into the house, leaving her al
one in the driveway.

  Grace stared at the closed door while she waited for her engine to warm up sufficiently.

  Neil didn’t try to kiss her good night. It didn’t look like he even wanted to. In fact, she could count on one hand the number of times he’d kissed her good night in the past month.

  On the other hand, Phil had looked like he had wanted to kiss her good night. His gorgeous eyes had almost looked like he was in pain because he didn’t, except Grace knew that couldn’t have been the case—she knew she’d completely misread him.

  But if that was what he was thinking, and he had tried to kiss her, Grace wasn’t sure she would have pushed him away.

  Grace blinked hard, tore her gaze from Neil and Phil’s house, and turned her concentration to where it should have been, which was driving home.

  Safely. Just as Phil had said.

  ten

  The door creaked open and banged shut. Two thuds echoed down the hall as Neil’s boots bumped the wall when he kicked them off. At the same time, Neil’s voice drifted through the house. “What was Grace doing here?”

  Phillip sucked in a deep breath as he tucked his guitar back into the case. Very slowly, he pushed his amp into the corner of his bedroom. He wasn’t ready to talk about Grace, especially to Neil.

  He’d acted like a moron. When he opened the door and saw Grace on the porch, waiting to be invited in, all he could do was stand there with his mouth hanging open. Without Neil being there, part of him wanted to see her, and part of him didn’t. Since he had to make a decision, he let her in, first because she’d done him a favor by bringing Dale, and second, because she’d also come to do him another favor with the guitar lesson.

  Once they settled in together and actually started the guitar lesson, all, not part of him, didn’t want Neil to come home.

  At first he was so tense he couldn’t think straight, but Grace was so gentle and patient with her instructions that he soon forgot himself and his nervousness. By the time the lesson ended and they sat back to talk, he’d relaxed so much that the evening disappeared as if it had only been minutes, when in fact she’d been there nearly three hours.

  He didn’t know what was happening, and he didn’t know if he liked it. When they weren’t together, he seemed to spend most of his time, including free moments at work, thinking of her. When they were together, he was torn between wanting to hold her tight and kiss her and wanting to run for the hills.

  He’d never been so confused in his life.

  “There you are. I said, what was Grace doing here?”

  Phillip spun around on his toes. Neil stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for a response.

  Phillip struggled to think of something to say. He didn’t know when it happened, but he’d crossed some kind of line, even though he couldn’t determine where the boundaries lay.

  All he knew was that he was in way over his head. Common sense told him he needed some distance from Grace, but his heart told him not to let her go; he simply liked her too much.

  Nothing they did was hurting anyone. Grace’s relationship with Neil hadn’t changed, nor had Phillip’s friendship with Neil. As Grace proclaimed, Neil didn’t seem to mind him spending so much time with Grace. In fact, many times Phillip had not only encouraged Neil to come with him to Grace’s apartment, Phillip had insisted Neil come when Neil really hadn’t wanted to go. It almost seemed that Phillip valued the relationship between Neil and Grace more than Neil did.

  Phillip cleared his throat and stared pointedly into Neil’s eyes. “She brought Granny’s angel back, plus she gave me a guitar lesson. We waited for you for a long time. When you didn’t show, she gave up and left. It was past her bedtime, anyway. Where were you?”

  “I was at Tyler’s. We got carried away, I guess, and lost track of the time. So how are you coming with that guitar? Can you make music yet?”

  Neil turned and walked into the living room, so Phillip followed him.

  “I’m working on it. I’d really like to get the chord chart for that new song we did last Sunday and try to figure it out. Do you remember the name?”

  Once in the living room, Neil picked up the remote from the coffee table and aimed it at the television, then lowered it again before he hit the power button. “Very funny, putting your angel on top of the television.”

  “I figured that’s where it’s the safest.”

  Neil again aimed the remote at the television, but Phillip spoke out, once again stopping him from pushing the button.

  “Why do you need to turn the television on now? Look at the time. Nothing’s on; it’s almost bedtime.”

  “I want to watch the news.”

  “You never watch the news. You turn it on, then go into the kitchen and make yourself something to eat. By the time you come out, the news is over and twenty-year-old reruns are on.”

  Finally Neil pushed the button, but the television remained off. “Hmm. . . ,” he mumbled, then pushed the button again, but with the same result. “What’s going on?”

  Phillip felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, and he couldn’t stop it. While Neil stood, stone-faced, turning the remote over in his hand, Phillip couldn’t stop his grin from turning into a smile, then to a muffled chuckle, until he broke out into a full laugh. “Grace took the batteries out!” he choked out between gasps. Picturing Grace giggling as she removed the batteries and hid them under the couch cushion, Phillip laughed so hard he had to press one hand into his ribs.

  Neil didn’t laugh. He didn’t even crack a smile. The battery-less remote control still in his hand, his arm fell to his side. “She did what?”

  Phillip wiped his eyes as his laughter wound down. “I said she took the batteries out. We both thought you watch too much television, so she decided to do something about it.”

  “Grace would never do something like that. You set her up.”

  Phillip couldn’t hold back his grin. “I didn’t. In fact, it was her idea.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “I don’t know why you think she’s so shy, Neil. She may take awhile to really make up her mind on something, but once she does, she can really be a force to be reckoned with.”

  “I think you’re a bad influence on her.”

  Phillip shook his head. “Not true. She also said that instead of sitting on the couch watching all that hockey, you should be outside, playing hockey.”

  Neil blinked and stared blankly.

  “That’s right. She even suggested that this weekend the three of us should go skating.”

  “I haven’t been on skates in years. Neither have you.”

  “Neither has she, but that isn’t going to stop her. She said she’s going to borrow skates from a friend, wear double socks, and we’re all going skating on Saturday afternoon.”

  “I don’t believe this.”

  “Believe it.”

  Neil waved the remote back and forth in front of himself, then ended up pointing it at Phillip. “Didn’t you have anything to say while she was making all these plans?”

  Phillip shrugged his shoulders. “What could I say? I agreed with her. We all need more exercise, and you watch too much television. Loosen up. You might have some fun.”

  “But. . .” Neil’s voice trailed off.

  Before Neil could recover, Phillip turned around, speaking over his shoulder as he walked away. “See you sometime tomorrow. It’s late and I’m going to bed. Night.”

  ❧

  Phillip pushed the buzzer for Grace’s apartment and waited, hoping he’d arrived early enough before she had to leave for her weekly Bible study meeting.

  Grace’s distorted voice blaring through the cheap speaker did funny things to his stomach, but he told himself that it was only because he was too hungry, since he’d come straight from work and hadn’t stopped for supper.

  He leaned closer, although he knew he didn’t have to. “Grace, it’s me. Phil. I’m really sorry, but I need your help
. . . .”

  Even through the static, he could feel the silence hang before she finally told him to come up and pushed the button for the buzzer.

  Just like every other time he visited, when he stepped out of the elevator, Grace awaited him in the hall in front of her apartment door. Immediately on seeing him, her eyebrows knotted and her gaze dropped to his hands, which were empty. As he walked closer, her eyebrows quirked up, and she met his eyes.

  Not wanting to keep her in suspense, he spoke as soon as he was close enough to speak without raising his voice. “It’s Dale,” he said as he reached into his coat pocket. “I’m afraid I had a little accident.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Dale is in your pocket? It’s that bad?” She pressed both palms to her cheeks. “What happened?”

  He gave her a one-sided smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not that terminal that he’s all squished up and rammed into my pocket. It’s just the halo.”

  Once inside her apartment, he pulled the small plastic bag out of his pocket while Grace closed the door behind them.

  “I’ve got to give you my excuse first because I’m trying to make myself feel not so stupid. I thought the halo looked a little lopsided. You know, we’ve taken it off a couple of times, and he’s been moved around a lot lately. So I thought, it’s a piece of wire the beads are strung on, right? I should be able to bend it back into shape easily, right? I tried to bend it with my fingers, but I couldn’t get the kink out, so I took my needle-nosed pliers and tried to get between a couple of the beads to press the wire flat. I must have pressed too hard, or the width of the pliers put too much pressure on where it’s twisted together or something, because the thing snapped. I knew the beads were small, but I really didn’t know how small until I had to look for them. I think some rolled down the heat vent, and I think some slipped in that little space where the carpet ends when it hits the wall. I’m sure there are some that I couldn’t find when I tried to pick them out of the carpet. I’ll probably hear them getting sucked up when I vacuum.”