by Mandie Tepe
“That’s good. I was really worried about you last Sunday.”
“Learned my lesson. I did go see Drake play soccer yesterday, but those games don’t last too long.”
“How did he do?”
Sonny laughed. “He almost made two goals yesterday. He was thrilled. We celebrated with ice cream.”
Gracie laughed too. “Sounds like he’s getting better and better.”
“I did get to hang out with some buddies who live on base Friday night. They came over to watch some baseball. We ordered pizza in. It was nice to hang out with some guys for a change. The girls were over off and on all week, bringing more food and stuff. I appreciate it, but I was ready for a guys’ night.” He looked chagrined for a moment. “Please don’t tell them I called them ‘girls.’ Okay?”
She smiled. “Oh, good. Blackmail dirt.”
He shook his head. “So that’s how it is, huh?”
She sat for a few moments as if weighing her words. “So, Luca . . . you and Tobi, huh?”
“Me and Tobi what?” He tried to look innocent, but he was squirming a bit.
“I couldn’t help but notice how . . . close . . . you seemed.”
“Well . . . we dated for a while. Briefly. Nothing serious.”
“What happened?” Gracie asked.
“Nothing really. We had some fun together, but it never really clicked, so we phased into a friendship, I guess. She’s great.”
“It hasn’t been awkward?” she asked skeptically.
“Not at all. She’s one of those great girls . . . um, I mean women . . . who don’t haul a lot of drama around with them. What you see is what you get.”
Gracie nodded. “Well . . . in that case, it’s a shame it didn’t work out.”
“I think that too sometimes, but if the chemistry’s not there, it’s better to move on.”
“I suppose.”
He looked a little uncomfortable. “At the risk of ruining this good vibe . . . how ‘bout you? Did you leave someone behind back home?”
“No. I haven’t been involved with anyone in a couple of years.” She looked uncomfortable too.
“Was the last one serious?”
“Yeah. But it ended suddenly. I really . . .”
“. . . don’t want to talk about it,” he finished for her. “I know.”
The waitress showed up with their food and Gracie sighed with relief. She knew he was getting frustrated with her unwillingness to talk about her past. The fact that he was so open with his, only underscored how closed off she was. Maybe she should just quit asking him about his life. But that was hard to do. He was so fascinating to her.
She looked down at her plate. “We probably shouldn’t have shared that funnel cake on our way out of the park. But I can never pass up funnel cake. It’s a weakness.”
He chuckled and they tucked into their food, quiet for a while. She finally broke the silence. “Hey Luca, what are you doing for dinner tomorrow?”
He looked surprised. “Leftovers or whatever the ladies send over, I guess. Why?”
“Matty’s flying in tomorrow morning. He’ll be here ‘til Saturday morning. Do you want to meet us for dinner? I know he’d like to see you.”
“Well, yeah. That’d be great. But don’t you want him to yourself his first night in?”
“Not really. I’ll have him to myself for most of the week,” she snorted. “You could be my buffer for the evening.”
“Buffer? What does that mean?”
“Well, Matty is really protective of me—overly protective really. So you can save me from a few hours of being lectured. What do you say?”
Sonny laughed. “Okay. But what makes you think I won’t just pile on with him?”
“I’m hoping you won’t, but I’ll risk it. If nothing else, it’ll be fun seeing the two of you together again.” She smiled. “I was never invited to play with you guys when we were kids.”
“Well . . . you were a girl . . . and a little sister . . . four whole years younger. We couldn’t be seen with you. It would have ruined our reputations.”
Gracie rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. I forgot. Wonder what being seen with me now would do to your fragile reputations,” she laughed.
He just smiled. He knew his answer would bring her walls up again. Because he would’ve said he’d be the envy of every guy they came into contact with when they saw them together.
CHAPTER 6
Sonny knocked on Gracie’s door the next evening at six o’clock. When Mathias answered they both laughed and threw their arms around each other, the best they could around Sonny’s crutches. They were quite a mismatched pair, Sonny with his shaggy hair and wiry, yet muscular build, and Mathias with his tall, lean sophisticated look, black hair styled with a pricey haircut. Sonny looked a little like the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks, and Mathias the rich boy from Nob Hill. But they knew each other inside out, and fell right back into their old friendship.
“Wow, Luca. You look a little rough around the edges,” Mathias joked. “Kinda scary.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sonny looked him up and down. “You look a little too pretty. Don’t you work at all?”
“Hah! Workaholic . . . ask any of my last three girlfriends. They’ll be happy to list all of my faults—but not working isn’t one of them. Working too much is, though,” he snickered.
“Well, you’re not working this week. Right?”
“That depends on Gracie. She can be a lot of work. Gotta make sure she’s really okay.” He looked concerned. “Is she really okay, Luca?” They both sat down on Gracie’s pretty little sofa.
Sonny felt a little uncomfortable. “I think so. I don’t know anything about what brought her to this point, though, so I really don’t think I’m the best judge.” He cleared his throat. “All I can say is she seems to be adjusting to everything here okay.”
He glanced around her apartment. He’d never been here before, so he was interested to see how she lived. It was very small and cute—a corner apartment on the bottom floor of an old house of Spanish architecture. The living room contained an overstuffed small couch and club chair, perpendicular to each other, with a lamp table between them and a coffee table in front of them. She used a matching lamp table in a corner across from them as a TV stand. The upholstery of the furniture was brown with small ivory flowers. The back cushions were covered in solid celery green fabric. There were a few small salmon-colored pillows scattered around. Her tables were painted the same ivory as the tiny flowers on the bottom and sides of the couch and chair. There were shelves above the couch and television with colorful votive candles—browns, greens, salmons and gold—and funky black and beige picture frames with family photos tucked inside.
She had a small black dining table with two chairs, on the far right side of the room in front of a tiny galley kitchen. On the other side of the wall behind the sofa was a space—almost a cubbyhole—just big enough for a double bed, bedside table, dresser and chest to be crammed inside. There was no door, but she had hung a beaded curtain, with coral and tortoise shell beads, across the opening to give an illusion of privacy. There was a bathroom with a tiny claw foot bathtub and a showerhead, a pedestal sink and a commode. All the walls in the apartment were left a natural stucco color to match the exterior of the traditional Spanish house. She had several beaded lamps of different heights scattered around the living area.
Mathias interrupted Sonny’s study of the apartment. “So she hasn’t told you anything?”
“No. She won’t talk about anything that happened before she came here. Except for when we were kids.”
Mathias nodded, worry lines creasing his brow. “I’d fill you in, Luca, but I don’t want her thinking we’re plotting . . .”
Just then the door opened and Gracie came bustling in. “Hey, guys! Sorry I’m running a little late. First day of school and some of the new parents were late picking up their kids.” She dropped her stuff on the dining table and flung herself into Mathia
s’ arms. He’d stood to greet her as she came in.
He squeezed her and lifted her off the floor. “Hey, Gracie,” he said tenderly. He set her down and leaned back to look into her face. “How’s it goin’?”
She patted his cheek. “It’s goin’ good. Don’t worry! I’m getting settled in. And I’m happy.” She stressed the word, trying to make him believe it. She let go of him and went over to brush her lips over Sonny’s cheek—which stunned him. “And I have your watch dog here to guard me,” she laughed as she patted Sonny’s shoulder.
Mathias leaned back against the dining table. “Well? Are you hungry? I’m starving.”
“Yeah, but nowhere fancy. Okay? I’m going to change, but I don’t want to dress up.”
“Okay.”
Sonny heard the beaded curtain rustle as she went into her bedroom. He enjoyed watching the two of them together. He could tell they were very close. He’d always wished he’d had siblings, but he’d been able to find substitutes wherever he landed. He had Mathias when he was young. Now he had a whole team of them, even if they were halfway across the globe.
Gracie was chattering from her bedroom—something about one of the new kids locking himself in a bathroom and the daycare’s director having to take the door off its hinges because the boy didn’t understand he could turn the lock in the other direction. Sonny and Mathias were chuckling as Mathias straightened from where he leaned against the table and started back toward the club chair. As he moved away from the table he knocked her mail off and the few envelopes scattered across the floor. He bent to pick them up, stacking them haphazardly. Sonny watched as Mathias slowly straightened, staring in horror at one of the envelopes and every bit of color drained from his face.
Mathias choked out, “Gracie. Honey . . . come out here a minute.”
The beads rustled again as she walked out in cropped jeans and a ruffled camisole, pulling a pale plum colored cardigan sweater over it. She looked at him curiously. “What is it? Matty? Are you alright? What’s wrong?”
He flung the rest of the mail back onto the table, gently took her arm and steered her to the sofa, sitting her as close as possible to Sonny—right up against him. He looked Sonny in the eye, as if to convey some sort of message to him, but Sonny had no clue what that was. What was going on?
“Matty! You’re freaking me out,” Gracie exclaimed.
Mathias handed her the letter and all the color left her face too. Sonny glanced down to where she’d dropped it on her lap, as if it had bitten her. It was a personal letter, with the mailing address handwritten. The return address was . . . holy crap . . . California State Prison-Sacramento. That’s when he noticed she’d started trembling. She knocked the letter to the floor and shook harder as each millisecond passed. Sonny got it then—what Mathias needed from him. He wrapped both arms around her and held on. She reached up and gripped his forearms and seemed to settle a little bit.
Mathias picked up the letter from the floor, where she’d knocked it, and sat on the edge of the coffee table, directly in front of her. “Gracie, honey. Look at me.” She’d been staring blindly at nothing, but at the sound of his voice, her eyes focused. “Gracie . . . how long has it been since you got the last letter?”
“A . . . a . . . months . . . I don’t know . . . nine months?” she stammered.
“Okay,” he said soothingly. “Did you open that one?”
“No!” she said in horror. “I’ve shredded them all!” She leaned over and started groping for something under the lamp table beside her, but Sonny didn’t let go. “My . . . my shredder is under the table. Just shred it!”
“Wait a minute, Gracie. We need to think about this. I can read it for you. Okay? You can sit here with Luca and I’ll go in the other room and read it.”
“No! No! If you read it, I’ll know you know what it said. It makes it real. That’s why I can’t read them. If we don’t read them it’s like he never wrote them!” Her voice rose higher and higher in panic until Sonny squeezed her and murmured non-words to her. She seemed to calm down a little.
He wished to God he knew what was going on. He didn’t think she even knew he was there.
Mathias patted her knee. “Okay, honey . . . I don’t want to upset you, but . . . how would he have your new address? How would he know you moved away?”
Her eyes jerked back to the envelope he held in his hands. “Oh, God! He wrote my new address. It’s not forwarded.” Her eyes jumped back to Mathias face. “I don’t know. Did Mom and Dad tell someone in his family where I went?”
“I don’t think so, Gracie. They wouldn’t do that. But we’ll call in a little while and make sure.”
She nodded jerkily. Then the tears started to fall. It was like the initial shock suddenly subsided and the floodgates opened. It was the worst kind of crying too. No sobs . . . no sound at all. Just tears falling in a steady stream silently down her face. She didn’t even seem to notice.
Sonny studied Mathias’s face and saw the exact moment the white-hot anger hit him. He jumped up from the table and started pacing. Not that there was much room to pace. “I’m driving up there. I’m gonna pay that little SOB a visit.”
Gracie choked out, “No, don’t! Please don’t!”
“Why not? He deserves a lot more than that. I’d like to get my hands on him. Like he hasn’t done enough . . . and now he has to make his presence known this way—just when you’re working so hard to get back on your feet. I can’t believe this! The least I can do is warn him away from ever contacting you again.” He ran his hands through his perfectly groomed hair, leaving it disheveled. He glanced over at Sonny. “I can bring Luca with me. He can wear his intense Navy SEAL face and really scare him off.”
Gracie jumped at that and her eyes swung to Sonny’s face. She looked startled, as if she had just realized he was there in the room, and how closely he was holding her. She blushed and pulled away. He continued to stare into her eyes and said softly, “I’ll do anything you want me to.”
“Oh, Lord!” she cried and buried her face in her hands in embarrassment.
Sonny looked at Mathias. “Do I need to leave?”
“No.” Mathias moved Gracie’s hands from her face. “Gracie, we need to tell Luca the whole story. Okay?”
She looked so miserable, Sonny almost said, “Oh no, that’s okay.” But it was looking like they might have a stalker issue . . . with some convicted felon. He knew he needed to know everything to try to protect her.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Over an hour later, Sonny sat in the corner of the sofa, with Gracie curled up on the other end. He looked over to where Mathias sat at the dining table on the other end of the room. He had his cell phone to one ear and his head in his hand, talking quietly to his parents. Sonny couldn’t hear what he was saying. He glanced down at Gracie, who was staring at nothing, her eyes swollen from crying. At least she’d stopped.
He was stunned after hearing the story. Sweet Gracie, still so young, had been married to her high school sweetheart, pregnant with his baby. What kind of jerk treated a woman he’d been with so long—a woman who was carrying his baby—that badly? Sonny thought he’d seen some of the worst mankind had to offer, but this? This was something even he couldn’t imagine. He reached over to stretch her legs across his lap. He was surprised they weren’t cramping, curled up in a fetal position the way she was. He started massaging her calves.
“Now you know,” Gracie said in a tiny voice.
His eyes jerked from her legs up to her face. She was focused on him now. “Know what, honey?”
Her eyes pooled again, but she didn’t break down. “How stupid I am.”
“Don’t do that. None of that is on you. It’s on him.”
“But, why didn’t I see it? I keep wracking my brain, wondering how I could be so stupid about him.”
Sonny leaned closer, willing her to really hear what he was about to say. “Gracie, when we’re doing all o
f the things we’re supposed to be doing, we just assume those closest to us—our teammates, so to speak—are doing all of the things they’re supposed to be doing. How can you expect to see things that are being kept hidden from you? He wasn’t flaunting anything in your face, was he?”
“Well . . . after I found out about the cheating, I saw things—in retrospect. But I believed all of his reasons for being gone at the time.”
“Of course you did. Why wouldn’t you?”
“I remember wishing he’d step up more. You know? I was so miserable some days . . . with the pregnancy—morning sickness and I was so tired. I wondered why he didn’t see it sometimes, and then felt guilty for thinking that. I mean . . . he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Studying hard and preparing for our future. But I never suspected . . .”
“He was selfish,” Sonny stated flatly.
Gracie laughed humorlessly. “Well, I did know that—kind of. The whole time we dated, all through high school, his mom spoiled him rotten. So when we got married, I guess he never changed. It was just my turn to keep spoiling him.” She blushed a little. “And the thing is, I didn’t mind it too much. I wanted to do things for him.”
“Of course you did, Gracie. You loved him. Most people want to do things for the people they love.”
“But he didn’t, I guess.”
“Well, he’s a jerk.”
Gracie whispered, “But all of that isn’t the worst of it. Why didn’t I see what he was capable of, Luca?”
“You’re talking about the violence,” Sonny prodded.
She nodded jerkily, sat up and leaned against him, her head resting on his chest. He wondered if she did it for comfort, or so she wouldn’t have to look at him.
“Gracie, he never showed it to you. Thank God it didn’t go on for years. What he did to you that once was bad enough.”
“But, if I saw it sooner—little glimpses of it, before that day—I could have left and saved my baby.”
“Please don’t do that to yourself,” Sonny pleaded.