by Nora Roberts
“Up! Out!”
“You bet. Gotta pee?”
“Gotta pee,” Aubrey agreed and giggled when Grace lifted her out of the crib.
The toilet training was coming along, Grace decided, checking Aubrey’s overnight diaper as they headed into the bathroom. It had its hits and its misses.
Aubrey hit it this time, and Grace launched into the lavish praise over bodily functions that only a parent with a toddler could understand. Teeth and hair were brushed in the closet-size bathroom Grace had brightened up with mint-green walls and awning-striped curtains.
Then the breakfast routine began. Aubrey wanted cold cereal with bananas but no milk. She plopped her hand over the bowl when Grace started to pour it on, shaking her head vigorously. “No, Mama, no. Cup. Please.”
“Okay, milk in a cup.” Grace filled one, set it on the high-chair tray beside the bowl. “Eat up, now. We’ve got lots to do today.”
“Do what?”
“Let’s see.” Grace made herself a piece of toast while she went through the projected day. “We have to finish the laundry, then we promised Mrs. West we’d wash her windows today.”
A three-hour job, Grace estimated.
“Then we have to go to the market.”
Aubrey gasped in pleasure. “Miss Lucy.”
“Yes, you’ll see Miss Lucy.” Lucy Wilson was one of Aubrey’s favorite people. The supermarket cashier always had a smile—and a lollipop—for Aubrey. “After we put the groceries away, we’re going to the Quinns’.”
“Seth!” Milk dribbled out of her grin.
“Well, honey, I don’t know for certain that he’ll be there today. He may be out on the boat with Ethan, or over at his friends’ house.”
“Seth,” Aubrey said again, very definitely, and her mouth puckered up into a stubborn pout.
“We’ll see.” Grace mopped up the spills.
“Ethan.”
“Maybe.”
“Doggies.”
“Foolish, for sure.” She kissed the top of Aubrey’s head and gave herself the luxury of a second cup of coffee.
At eight-fifteen Grace was armed with a stack of newspapers and a spray bottle that contained a mix of vinegar and ammonia. Aubrey was entertaining herself on the grass with her Mattel See ’n Say. Every few seconds a cow mooed or a pig oinked. And Aubrey never failed to echo the sound.
By the time Aubrey had switched her affections to her building blocks, Grace had finished cleaning and polishing the outside of the windows on the front and side of the cottage and was right on schedule. She would have stayed on schedule if Mrs. West hadn’t come out with tall glasses of iced tea and a desire to chat.
“I don’t know how to thank you for seeing to this for me, Grace.” Mrs. West, the grandmother of many, had brought Aubrey her drink in a bright plastic cup with ducks on the side.
“I’m happy to do it, Mrs. West.”
“Just can’t do like I used to, with my arthritis. And I do like my windows to shine.” She smiled, deepening the wrinkles on her weather-scored face. “And you do make them shine. My granddaughter, Layla, said how she’d wash them for me. But I tell you the truth and shame the devil, Grace, that girl’s a scatterbrain. She’d like as not start the job and end up sleeping in the vegetable patch. Don’t know what’s to become of that girl.”
Grace laughed and scrubbed at the next window. “She’s only fifteen. Her mind’s on boys and clothes and music.”
“Tell me.” Mrs. West nodded so vigorously that her second chin wobbled with the movement. “Why, at her age I could pick a crab clean faster than you could blink. Earned my keep, and kept my mind on my work till the work was done.” She winked. “Then I thought about boys.”
She let out a hearty laugh before smiling at Aubrey. “That’s one pretty little lamb you got yourself there, Gracie.”
“The light of my life.”
“Good as gold, too. Why, my Carly’s youngest boy, Luke? He’s not still for two minutes running and spends every waking hour looking for trouble. Just last week I caught him climbing up my parlor curtains like a house cat.” Still, the memory made her chuckle. “He’s a terror, that Luke is.”
“Aubrey has her moments, too.”
“Can’t believe it. Not with that angel face. You’re going to have to beat the boys off with a stick to keep them from sniffing around that sweetheart one of these days. Pretty as a picture. Already seen her holding hands with one.”
Grace bobbled her spray bottle and looked around quickly to make certain her little girl hadn’t grown up while she wasn’t looking. “Aubrey?”
Mrs. West laughed again. “Walking on the waterfront with that Quinn boy—the new one.”
“Oh, Seth.” The sense of relief was so ridiculous, Grace set the bottle down and picked up her glass to drink. “Aubrey’s got a crush on him.”
“Good-looking boy. My young Matt goes to school with him—told me how Seth came to sock that little bully Robert a few weeks back. Couldn’t help but feel it was about time somebody did. How they doing over at the Quinns?”
The question was her main purpose for coming out, but Mrs. West believed in leading up to matters.
“Just fine.”
Mrs. West rolled her eyes. This pump needed more priming. “That girl Cam up and married sure is a beauty. She’ll have to have quick hands, too, to keep that one in line. Always was wild.”
“I think Anna can handle him.”
“Went off to some foreign place to honeymoon, didn’t they?”
“Rome. Seth showed me a postcard they sent. It’s beautiful.”
“Always puts me in mind of that movie with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck—where she’s a princess. Don’t make movies like that anymore.”
“Roman Holiday.” Grace smiled wistfully. She had a weakness for the classic and romantic.
“That’s the one.” Grace looked a bit like Audrey Hepburn, Mrs. West mused. Coloring was wrong, of course, with Grace being blond as a Viking, but she had the big eyes and the cool, pretty face. Lord knew, she was skinny enough.
“Never been anyplace foreign.” Which included, in Mrs. West’s mind, two-thirds of the United States. “They coming back soon?”
“A couple days.”
“Hmm. Well, that house needs a woman, no question. Can’t imagine what it’s like over there, four males in one house. Must smell like a gym sock half the time. Don’t know a man on this earth who can manage to pee and hit the toilet with the whole stream.”
Grace laughed and went back to her windows. “They aren’t so bad. The fact is, Cam was keeping the house pretty well before they hired me to take over. But the only one of them who remembers to empty the pockets before tossing his pants at the hamper is Phillip.”
“If that’s the worst of it, it’s not bad. I expect Cam’s wife’ll take over the house once they get back.”
Grace’s hand tightened on her wad of newspaper as her heart did a quick hitch. “I . . . She works full-time in Princess Anne.”
“Most likely she’ll take over,” Mrs. West said again. “A woman likes her house kept her way. Best thing for the boy, I expect, having a woman there full-time. Don’t know what Ray was thinking of this time around, I swear. A good-hearted man he was, but once Stella passed . . . shifted his moorings, I’d say. A man his age taking on a boy thataway. No matter what was what. Not that I believe one word of the nasty gossip you hear now and then. Nancy Claremont is the worst, flapping her lips every chance she gets.”
Mrs. West waited a beat, hoping that Grace would flap hers. But Grace was frowning intently at the window.
“You know if that insurance inspector’s coming around again?”
“No,” Grace said quietly, “I don’t. I hope not.”
“Don’t see how it makes a matter where the boy came from as far as the insurance company goes. Even if Ray did suicide himself—and I’m not saying it’s so—they can’t prove it, can they? Because . . .” She paused dramatically, as she did wh
enever she made the argument. “They weren’t there!”
She said the last on a note of triumph, just as she had when she’d made the same statement to Nancy.
“Professor Quinn wouldn’t have killed himself,” Grace murmured.
“ ’Course not.” But it did make for such interesting talk. “But the boy—” She broke off, her ears pricking up. “There goes my telephone. You just let yourself in when you want to do the inside, Grace,” she said as she hurried off.
Grace said nothing, kept working steadily. But her mind was whirling. It shamed her that she couldn’t concentrate on Professor Quinn. She could think only of herself and of what might happen.
Would Anna come back from Rome and want to take over the house? Would Grace lose her job there and the extra money that went with it? Worse—much worse—would she lose those opportunities to see Ethan once or twice a week? To share a meal now and then?
She’d gotten used to—even dependent on—being a part of his life, even a peripheral part, she realized. And as pathetic as it was, she loved folding his clothes, smoothing the sheets on his bed. She even allowed herself to believe that he would think of her when he found one of her little notes around the house. Or slipped between freshly laundered sheets at night.
Was she going to lose that, too—and lose the pleasure of seeing him coming in from his boat or scooping Aubrey up when she demanded a kiss, or glancing over at her and giving her that slow smile?
Was all of that going to be only pictures she tucked away in her mind now?
Her days would go on and on, without even that to look forward to. And her nights would go on and on, alone.
She squeezed her eyes tight, struggling with despair. Then opened them again when Aubrey tugged at the hem of her shorts.
“Mama. Miss Lucy?”
“Soon, honey.” Because she needed to, Grace lifted Aubrey into her arms for a fierce hug.
It was nearly one by the time Grace finished putting away the groceries and fixing Aubrey’s lunch. She was only half an hour behind, and she thought she could make that up without too much trouble. It just meant moving a little quicker and keeping her mind on her work. No more projecting, she ordered herself as she strapped Aubrey into the car seat. No more foolishness.
“Seth, Seth, Seth,” Aubrey chanted, bouncing madly.
“We’ll see.” Grace climbed behind the wheel, put the key in the ignition, and turned it. The response was a wheeze and a thump. “Oh, no, you don’t. No, you don’t. I don’t have time for this.” A little panicked, she turned the key again, pumped the gas pedal, and sighed with relief when the engine caught. “That’s more like it,” she muttered as she backed out of the short driveway. “Here we go, Aubrey.”
“Here we go!”
Five minutes later, midway between her house and the Quinns’, the old sedan coughed again, shuddered, then belched out steam from under the hood.
“Dammit!”
“Dammit!” Aubrey echoed joyfully.
Grace only pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. It was the radiator, she was sure of it. Last month it had been the fan belt, and before that, the brake pads. Resigned, she eased to the side of the road and got out to open the hood.
Smoke billowed, made her cough and step away. Resolutely, she swallowed back the knot of despair in her throat. Maybe it wouldn’t be anything major. It could just be some belt again. And if it wasn’t—she sighed hugely—she would have to decide if it was better to pump more money into this wreck or to worry her beleagured budget into buying another wreck.
Either way, there was nothing to be done about it now.
She opened the passenger-side door and unbuckled Aubrey. “The car’s sick again, honey.”
“Awww.”
“Yeah, so we’re going to leave it right here.”
“Alone?”
Aubrey’s concern over inanimate objects made Grace smile again. “Not for long. I’m going to call the car man to come take care of it.”
“Make it feel all better.”
“I hope so. Now we’re going to walk to Seth’s house.”
“Okay!” Delighted by the change of routine, Aubrey set out at a scramble.
A quarter of a mile later, Grace was carrying her.
But it was a pretty day, she reminded herself. And walking gave her a chance to look and really see. Honeysuckle was tangling along the fence that bordered a tidy field of soybeans, and the scent was lovely. She picked off a blossom for Aubrey.
By the time they skirted the marsh that edged Quinn land, her arms were aching. They stopped to study a turtle sunning on the side of the road, to let Aubrey giggle over the way its head retreated into its shell when she reached out to touch.
“Can you walk for a while now, baby?”
“Tired.” With her eyes pleading, Aubrey lifted her arms. “Up!”
“Okay, up you come. Nearly there.” It was past nap time, Grace thought. Aubrey wanted her nap directly after lunch every day. She would sleep for two hours, almost to the minute, then wake up ready to roll.
Aubrey’s head was already a snoozing weight on Grace’s shoulder when she climbed the porch and slipped into the house.
Once she had her daughter tucked onto the couch, she hurried upstairs to strip beds, gather and sort laundry. With the first load in, she made a quick call to the mechanic who did his best to keep her ailing car alive.
She rushed upstairs again, remaking the beds with fresh sheets. To save herself steps, she kept cleaning supplies on each floor. Grace tackled the bathroom first, scrubbing and rinsing in a flurry until chrome and tile sparkled.
It would be, she realized, her last full hit on the Quinn place before Cam and Anna returned. But she’d already decided, sometime during the mile walk from her broken-down car, to carve out a couple of hours for a quick polish the day they were expected home.
She had pride in her work, didn’t she? And certainly another woman would notice the tidiness, the clean corners, the few extra touches she tried to add. A professional woman like Anna, a woman with a demanding career, would see, wouldn’t she, that Grace was needed here?
She raced downstairs again to check on Aubrey, to drag wet clothes out of the washer into a basket and put the second load in.
She would make sure there were fresh flowers in the master bedroom when the newlyweds returned. And she’d put out the good fingertip towels. She would leave a note for Phillip to pick up some fruit so she could arrange it prettily in the bowl on the kitchen table.
She’d make time to paste-wax the hardwood floors and wash and iron the curtains.
She hung clothes on the line quickly, without any of her usual enjoyment in the task. Still, the simple routine began to calm her. Everything would be all right, somehow.
She caught herself swaying and shook her head to clear it. Fatigue had come quickly, like a punch to the jaw. If she had bothered to calculate the time she’d been on her feet and moving that day, she would have counted seven hours, on a short five hours’ sleep the night before. What she did calculate was that she had another twelve to go. And she needed a break.
Ten minutes, she promised herself, and as she sometimes did on long days, stretched out right in the grass by the clothes that waved on the line. A ten-minute nap would recharge her system and still give her time to scrub down the kitchen before Aubrey woke up.
Ethan drove home from the waterfront. He’d cut his day on the water short, letting Jim and his son take the workboat out again to check the pots in the Pocomoke. Seth was off with Danny and Will, and Ethan figured on grabbing himself a quick, if delayed, lunch, then spending the next several hours at the boatyard. He wanted to finish the cockpit, maybe get the roof of the cabin started. The more he managed to do, the less time it would be before Cam could get into the finish and fancy work.
He slowed down when he saw Grace’s car on the side of the road, then pulled over quickly. He only shook his head when he looked under the open hood. Damn thing was held toge
ther with spit and prayers, he decided. She shouldn’t be driving something so unreliable. Just what if, he thought sourly, the goddamn thing had decided to break down when she’d been coming home from the pub in the middle of the night?
He took a closer look and hissed through his teeth. The radiator was a dead loss, and if she was entertaining the idea of replacing it, he’d just have to talk her out of it.
He would find her a decent secondhand car. Fix it up for her—or ask Cam, who knew engines like Midas knew gold, to tune it up. He wasn’t having her driving around in a wreck like this, and with the baby, too.
He caught himself, took a couple steps back. It wasn’t any of his business. The hell it wasn’t, he thought, with an uncharacteristic flash of temper. She was a friend, wasn’t she? He had a right to help out a friend, especially one who needed some looking after.
And God knew—whether or not Grace did—that she needed some looking after. He got back in his truck and drove home with a scowl on his face.
He’d nearly slammed the screen door before he saw Aubrey curled up on the couch. The scowl didn’t have a chance. He eased the door shut and walked quietly over to her. Her hand was bunched into a fist on the cushion. Unable to resist, he took it gently and marveled at those tiny, perfect fingers. She had a bow around one of her curls, a little ribbon of blue lace that he imagined Grace had tied on that morning. It was lopsided now, and only sweeter for it.
He couldn’t help hoping that she woke before he had to head out again.
But now, he needed to find Aubrey’s mother and discuss reliable transportation.
He cocked his head, decided it was too quiet for her to be upstairs doing whatever it was she did up there. He walked into the kitchen and noted that the signs of a hurried breakfast were still in evidence. She hadn’t gotten to that yet. But the washing machine was humming, and he caught a glimpse of clothes flapping in the breeze on the line outside.
The minute he stepped to the door he saw her. And hit full panic. He didn’t know what he thought, only that she was lying on the grass. Terrible images of illness and injury crowded into his head as he rushed outside. He was barely one full stride away from her when he realized she wasn’t unconscious. She was sleeping.