Mariah Stewart - Coming Home

Oh, and let’s not forget Maggie.

Was it Vanessa’s imagination, or did Maggie really have her sights set on Hal again?

Dear Lord, please say it isn’t so…

She was not going to think about Maggie. Or Grady, for that matter. Uh-uh. Not going there.

She drove back to her home then, still not thinking about Grady.

He slowed down when she turned into her driveway, then beeped his horn and waved when she got out of her car. Then, incredibly, he kept on going, and drove past.

Vanessa stood on the sidewalk next to Sue’s cruiser, her mouth open. Had he just blown her off?

She knew he had plans, but still. Damn. That was just unbelievably… unbelievable. Not even to say a real good-bye? That “Thanks, Ness” back there at the car rental place… that was it?

Numb, Vanessa went into the house. Sue was still dusting for fingerprints, but she’d finished the back door and had moved into the kitchen.

“Hal called a while ago,” Sue told her. “He said that he thinks you should reconsider and sleep at his place tonight.”

“I’ll think about it.” Knowing full well she wouldn’t, Vanessa went upstairs and into her room.

The bed was a tangle, the sheets and blanket every which way. She stared at it long and hard before pulling everything off and stuffing it all-the blanket along with the sheets and pillowcases-into a laundry basket that stood near the closet door. She took fresh linens from the closet and remade the bed, taking the blanket from the spare-room bed and exchanging the pillows from one bed to the other.

She stood back to assess the newly pulled-together bed. The blanket wasn’t as pretty as the one in the basket, and the pillows were not the ones she preferred, but the important thing was that there was no scent of him there, no valley in the pillow where his head had lain.

“There.”

She took off the skirt she was wearing and hung it in the closet, and changed into her favorite jeans. She’d just slipped her feet back into her shoes when she heard the front door slam.

“Ness?”

And damn it, didn’t her heart flip just a little at the sound of his voice?

“I’m up here,” she called.

“Got my stuff from the Inn… hey, you look pretty.” He grinned as he came in the room. “Got a hot date?”

He crossed the room and kissed her.

He came back, was all she could think of. He came back…

He looked down at her feet. “Do you have any other shoes?”

She was still trying to catch up to the fact that he hadn’t left her after all.

“You are kidding, right? Of course I have other shoes. Shoes are my life.” She walked to her closet, opened the door, and pointed to a row of shelves lined with boxes. “Shoes.”

“I meant, any other kind. Shoes you could walk in.”

“I walk in these.” She turned her foot to show off the pretty brown leather pumps with their four-inch heels. “I walk to work every day in shoes like this.”

“How ’bout shoes you can comfortably walk a distance in.”

“Oh. Well, sure. I have some really cute flats.” She pulled a box from the shelf. “Aren’t these the cutest? I just got these.”

“Let’s rephrase.” Grady’s mouth twitched at both ends. “What would you wear if you went walking in the woods?”

“Nikes?” She frowned.

“You’d wear hiking boots. Where’s your computer?”

“It’s in the kitchen.”

“Come on. We’ll look up the closest athletic equipment store.”

“We don’t have to look it up. Mickey Forbes has a place right outside of town.”

“Great.” He tugged on her hand. “Let’s go.”

“Well, God knows I’m not one to pass up on a shopping opportunity, but I thought you were leaving to go on your hike.”

“I am. You’re coming with me.”

“What?”

“You don’t really think I’d leave you here, with all that’s going on?”

“You want to take me with you?”

“Sure. You won’t mind roughing it a little for a couple of days, would you?”

“How rough is rough?” She frowned again.

“Not as rough as it could be if whoever is stalking you catches up.”

“As much as I’m sure I’d love roughing it with you-there’s no one I’d rather share a tent with-but I can’t leave St. Dennis. I have to go into Bling tomorrow and figure out what I’m missing so I can meet with the insurance company. We’re coming into our busy season. I have to get Bling open as quickly as I can, or I won’t make enough this summer to carry me through the winter.” She sat on the side of the bed and he sat next to her. “I appreciate the thought, I appreciate you offering to take me with you, but I can’t go.”

Grady nodded. “I understand. I probably should have thought of that myself. In that case”-he leaned over and kissed her-“I suppose I better go get my stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“My clothes.”

“I thought you said you just picked them up from the Inn.”

“I did. They’re in the car. If you can’t come with me, I’m just going to have to stay with you. So until this is over, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. Think you can handle sharing your space? Unless you’d rather stay at the Inn-”

“What about your trip? The hike you had planned?”

“The mountain will be there when all this is over.” He started toward the steps. “I want to make sure you are, too…”

DIDN’T I tell you she hated me?” Maggie slumped in the front seat of Hal’s car.

“Well, now, hate might be too strong a word.” Hal drove away from the curb, mindful of the group of teens who for unknown reasons did not seem capable of walking on a sidewalk in this town. “I think she’s got issues, Maggie, but I don’t know that she hates you.”

“She’d rather take her chances with some crazy guy in a ski mask than have me stay with her.”

“Let’s be fair, now.” He paused, trying to choose his words carefully. “I’d guess that she’s a little put out on Beck’s behalf. You know he wasn’t expecting to see you at the wedding, Maggie.”

“You think I was wrong to come.”

“I think if he-”

“You think if he’d wanted me at his wedding he’d have invited me.”

“That isn’t what I was going to say, but yes, I think that’s probably true.”

He rolled to a stop sign, looked both ways to see what was what on Rayburn Road before continuing on his way.

“So what were you going to say?”

“I was going to say, if he’d had some time to prepare himself, if he’d had some contact with you over the past few years, he’d have taken it a little better.”

Tears welled in Maggie’s eyes. “I’ve never done a damned thing right where that boy was concerned. I didn’t know how to handle him when he was a child, or when he was a teenager, or now that he’s an adult. I’ve never known how to talk to him, Hal. I think it would have been easier for all of us if you’d been there…” She swallowed hard. “That was not what I intended to say, so forget that part.”

“Maggie, once something’s been said, it’s said.” He drove around the block to Charles Street. “You can’t take words back and pretend they weren’t spoken.” His voice softened. “Just like you can’t take the last twenty years back, and expect your children to pretend those years never happened.”

Maggie stared out the window.

“What should I do, Hal?”

“You have a lot of explaining to do to both of them,” he told her. “If you want them to let you into their lives, you have to let them into yours. From what you’ve told me, you’ve made a lot of mistakes in your life.” He hastened to add, “We all have. But you have to own up to them if you’re going to move past them.”