Mariah Stewart - Coming Home

“Thanks, Hal.” Vanessa rummaged in her bag for her key ring.

While she was removing the old and sliding on the new, Grady asked Hal, “Do you happen to know if anyone’s working on getting a match for those prints?”

“Garland worked on it this afternoon, but so far, nothing. Of course, there were so many prints in the shop, it’s going to take some time,” Hal explained.

“I thought it was premature, but I thought I’d ask anyway.” Grady stood and shook Hal’s hand. “Thanks for dinner, Hal. I’m sure I’ll see you again. Maggie, it’s been a pleasure.”

“You don’t mean that, but I appreciate the thought, Grady,” she replied. “It was nice meeting you. Take care of my little girl. Don’t let anything bad happen to her.”

“Oh, Maggie, for God’s sake,” Vanessa muttered.

“I will try my best to keep her safe,” Grady promised.

“Good night, you two.” Vanessa took Grady’s hand and headed for the door.

“What do you suppose his intentions are?” Maggie murmured after Grady and Vanessa were gone.

“Well, now, I think he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her from harm’s way, just like he said.”

“You could do that just as well.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He’s a lot younger and stronger, and he’s had the benefit of a lot of training that I didn’t have.”

“Yes, but you’ve got a gun, right?” Maggie asked. “Do you think he has a gun?”

“Probably not,” Hal said after thinking it over. “I doubt he set out for his sister’s wedding thinking he needed to come armed.”

“Maybe he should have a gun.”

“Maybe he should.” Hal thought it over. Maybe he should…

Maggie turned to Hal. “I know what you were trying to do tonight, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know you want for Vanessa and me to get along, and I appreciate that so much.” She paused. “It didn’t go too badly, do you think?”

“Not too,” he agreed, and signaled for the check. He’d hoped for better, but he knew it could have been much worse.

Well, he thought as he finished the rest of his beer, it was a start. They were talking-maybe not so much friendly talk, but at least they were talking. Judging by what Maggie had told him last night, it had been a long time coming.

He felt protective of both of them, the woman he’d once loved and the girl he’d taken into his heart and come to love as his own. Over the next few days-for however long Maggie was staying in St. Dennis-he’d do his best to help them make their peace. But in the end, he knew, it was up to them. And then there was Beck. Hal shook his head. If he thought it was rough trying to get Maggie and her daughter on the same page, the thought of getting Beck to come around to even discussing Maggie made Hal’s head hurt. Well, he reminded himself, he had almost two full weeks before he’d have to deal with that. One problem at a time, his father always told him. One problem, one solution. He smiled as he signed the credit slip for their dinners, remembering all his father’s clichés that could apply. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. And Hal’s personal favorite: miracles take time.

Well, maybe a miracle was what it was going to take to make this all work out right for all of them. Where to find one… now, that was another matter altogether.

YOU’RE awfully quiet,” Vanessa observed as she and Grady walked the last block to her house.

“I’m just trying to stay observant,” Grady replied.

“You mean in case someone’s following us? It’s still light out. It’s tough to stalk someone in this neighborhood when all the kids are still outside playing and so many people are sitting on their porches or out for an evening stroll.”

“Someone came into this neighborhood in broad daylight and broke into your house,” he reminded her.

“True enough. But they weren’t following me down the street before they broke in.”

She waved to a neighbor across the street.

“I heard about your shop, Vanessa,” the woman called to her. “I’m shocked.”

“So was I, Andrea,” Vanessa called back.

They reached Vanessa’s house and she took the keys from her bag as she started up the walk.

“Wait.” Grady took her by the arm. “I want to check around the outside first.”

“Why?” She frowned.

“In the unlikely event that someone’s been back while we were gone, I want to know before we go in.”

“Oh.”

Grady walked up the driveway and to the backyard, and Vanessa followed. He checked the plants under the windows and found none of them trampled down. Next he looked over the area around the back porch and the door that led to the stairs down to the basement, then he walked around to the other side of the house. Vanessa paused to pull a few weeds from one of the flower beds as she passed.

“Doesn’t look as if anything’s changed since this morning when I looked, so I guess we’re okay so far,” Grady told her when he returned to the backyard.

“Good.” She shook the dirt off the weeds. “Oh, these smell nice. I wonder if this is one of Alice Ridgeway’s herbs.” She looked up and smiled. “The previous owner grew a lot of herbs and some flesh-eating plants as well. Isn’t that an interesting combination?”

She raised the thin stalk to her nose and sniffed. “It’s definitely something.” She passed it to Grady, who took a sniff of his own.

“I can’t place it, but it’s nice.”

“Well, I guess I have my work cut out for me back here,” she noted. “I should get all these beds cleaned up, but I’m afraid of pulling out the wrong things. I don’t know the herbs from the weeds from the flowers.”

“From the man-eaters?”

“Flesh eaters,” she corrected him. “Mostly Venus flytraps, the Realtor said.”

Grady walked around the entire yard, pausing to take a closer look at this or that. At the back corner, he stopped.

“Fishpond?” he turned and asked.

Vanessa nodded. “I heard she used to have koi. As soon as I find some time, I’m going to clean that out and refill it, buy some koi and some water lilies. Maybe I’ll get one of those little stone waterfalls.” She loved the thought of having a little water garden and the sound of the water trickling over her very own falls, no matter how small they might be. She’d never appreciated how soothing the sound of water in any of its many forms could be until she lived near the Bay.

An empty black flowerpot sat on the bottom step leading up to the porch, and she tossed the unidentified plant matter into it as she climbed the steps, her keys in her hand.

“The new key works just fine,” she told him as she pushed open the door and went inside.

“Give me a minute to check things out.” Grady walked through the kitchen and into the front of the house.

She heard his footsteps on the uncarpeted stairs and the floorboards squeak overhead as he went from room to room.

When he came downstairs, he called to her from the front hall, “Everything seems secure. No visitors. No pretty wrapped packages.”

“Good.” She went into the kitchen and tossed her bag onto the table. For the first time in days, she felt uncomfortable in his presence, so she found little things to do. She washed a few dishes that were in the sink, and she dried them. She heard him behind her when he came into the room and sat at the table overlooking the driveway.

“What’s that bundle of dried stuff that’s hanging over the back door?” he asked.

“Oh, that weedy stuff?” She shrugged. “I don’t know, exactly. It was there when I moved in. I suspect it was some herby thing that Miss Ridgeway nailed up, probably some good-luck thing. I keep meaning to ask Miss Grace about it and I keep forgetting when I see her. I heard some things about her-that is, Miss Ridgeway-and I want to see what Miss Grace knows. She grew up right around the corner.”