Chapter Twenty-Seven
Alicia
The notes filled the wide hall of the church in the most exuberant way, the ones following mine not as loud but just as strong. Laura played with confidence beside me, our duet together not our first but the debut of her playing for a crowd. She’d been an excellent student in the past few weeks, expressing interest in learning to play piano well early on. She’d been patient. She’d been hungry, and today, the world got to see her in this morning’s service. Laura had been nervous about playing, naturally some of that old shyness creeping back within her. She had grown in bounds, a lifetime in a few months and that bravery continued on as she pressed those keys with a life that we’d all seen form within her.
One would be hard-pressed to see that eight-year-old of before now, a little girl in her Sunday best while literally a congregation held onto her every sound. She wanted to play at the service, which preceded the church bazaar, all who desired to display a talent invited to play today. This church had been highlighted with the music and feeling of a small town, many voices and instruments performed in only a few hours. It’d been a time of magic and blessings I’d been fortunate to be a part of, a little girl wanting me beside her as she played amongst the lot. Laura had dedicated this performance to her daddy, the man sitting in the front row with his shirt ironed and his hair moussed after a fresh haircut. Gray usually sat in the back during services we’d attended in the past.
He sat up front today.
He’d held Laura’s hand just before she came up here, mine in her other, and together, we pushed those nerves full out. She had this. The world had always been hers.
I heard nothing of voices, chatter, or even breathing during her playing. It was just Laura with the accompaniment of myself and how the world rang after we were done.
She sat there with the final note, her hands on the keys while applause boomed around her, and leaning, I touched my head on top of hers.
“Look,” I told her, smiling wide across her crown. She always smelled of sunshine, heaven’s little angel. “They adore you.”
She looked up after my words, seeing that adoration, but her vision didn’t leave the front row. Gray’s booming applause I was sure could be heard well beyond the front row, but he wasn’t allowed to do it long.
Laura jumped up from the piano bench but she hadn’t made it to him before he made it to her. Down on one knee, he brought his arm around her, a rose he had on the pew in his hand. Upon giving it to her, he spoke words I couldn’t hear over the sound in the room, but I didn’t need to read lips to know he was proud of her.
Some days I truly didn’t believe my life and the decisions I’d made following up to the very point of it. They’d been decisions I hadn’t made lightly and would require time to work themselves out completely. I had a life before this place, obligations and commitments well before the town of Mayfield, Kansas. They’d need my care to make sure they panned out, but the toughest hurdle had already been overcome.
I let myself be happy.
The church was a wash of activity following the performance of Laura and several others who dared to put themselves out there for their community. It’d been a day of happiness and smiles and the energy due to it was easy to become addicted to. There was beauty in such simplicity and I myself had been fortunate enough to be at the forefront of a lot of the gleeful chatter. By now, the entire community had pretty much heard of my intent to stay, more than a few hugs of welcome casted my way. The church bazaar followed the performances and I was basically hugged out by the time the event started. So much love was sent my way, the people of this town a true oddity to me. I’d never been cared about as much as I had by so many new people in my life. It was nice.
Ava, Jolene, and myself were placed in charge of the bake sale portion of the bazaar and we started right away in getting the foundation set up and the tasty treats donated, plated, and labeled with signage. Gray had been good for the set up, a strong back and a huge pair of arms to make sure everything was structured in the way it should be structured. He and a few other congregation members contributed to that, and I had to say, put on a nice little show for even some of the married women of the church. The women seemed to have found their way over to Ava, Jolene, and me, talking to us while we set up, yes, but watching the men just the same with subtle smiles. By the time Gray and the other men finished, I’d pretty much heard the voices of the entire female population of the town, everyone at service today and the bazaar.
Gray came over to me after, a hammer in his hand after he set up a makeshift display table to go on top of one of the folding platforms. The man seemed to always have a hammer in his hand these days despite concluding the project for me. I may have been busy recovering from the fallout of deciding to stay here, putting in resumes for local law offices both here and in neighboring towns and cementing my life here, but he was taking on jobs several towns over, his day to day extremely busy.
But I knew it made him so, so happy.
The man’s smile couldn’t be kept off his face these days and he shined it on me, welcoming me by a touch of the hip. His hand ventured to go higher, until averted eyes by Jolene, Ava, and the other women who lingered in a circus fashion around him let him know now wasn’t the time for that, unfortunately. Instead, he offered to brush a kiss on my cheek.
“Are you okay here?” he asked, pulling away. “I have to take Laura back to the house.”
“Oh?” I asked, knowing he meant his house despite what we’d talked about. We hadn’t spoken to Laura yet about the changes that were arising, but not out of fear. We actually planned to take her on a mini vacation outside of the city, make a real thing of it and let her know she and Gray would be moving into my aunt’s house with me.
Make a family thing out of it.
Gray had been in an absolute tizzy trying to plan it, and because of that fact, I decided to take the reins, the trip in our near future.
He nodded, a flash of grin to his full lips. He had the kind perfect for sucking and I did often.
He rubbed the smile away a little. “Yeah, she left a plate of cookies for today on the counter. I told her you all look like you got it handled,” he paused, gaze sliding over the buffet of goodies that still seemed to be coming in. He chuckled. “But she’s insistent. She feels bad and stayed up most of the night making them. Well, basically I made them but she helped.”
I could only think, “Could this man be more sweet?” I was hard-pressed, it took me so long to realize it. He’d been so sharp with me at first, a blade, which cut at the easiest instance. Eventually, that razor edge dulled and I was glad it had.
I told him of course it was fine he left me, more than. I got a soft kiss on my forehead and the ladies behind me a wave, which caused half of them to blush before going away, Ava included. Jolene had the decency to avert her eyes, but Ava came right over, gratefully the appearance ended up being her asking if I was ready to work.
I tapped her shoulder. “Always.”
She handed me pies and we went on, setting up the rest of the displays. The bazaar didn’t officially start for another twenty minutes or so and we still had several boxes of cakes and things that needed to be broken down. Even the town’s local bakery donated items and I had a feeling many would end up on my kitchen table. They all looked so delectable.
I must have been smiling while placing because both Ava and Jolene stared at me by the time I got done setting up my last box. My return stare inquisitive, Ava simply brushed my shoulder.
She shrugged. “It’s just nice to see you happy,” she said, shaking her head a little before using a box cutter to the back of a box. “That everything worked out.”
“Worked out?”
Her gaze went up slightly, a smile in her eyes. “Everything with Gray. You guys seem happy.”
“We all see it.” Jolene cut in with that last part, arranging some pies.
The fact everyone knew what was going on in my personal life though unsaid used to alarm me, but as this was such a small town, it no longer did. It was wonderfully small.
I couldn’t stop the smile on my face, agreeing with them. I stepped with a box and was nearly sideswiped by a little girl, Laura’s friend Jasmine. It seemed without her cohort, Laura back at the house getting cookies, that the young girl was wild and free and Jolene slid an arm around her niece, the girl looking so much like her with her flourish of red hair.
“We pay attention now, don’t we?” she told the young girl, but she tugged on her braid with a smile after she said the words.
“It’s fine,” I told them both. “And I am happy. It did work out.”
It worked out so well it scared me sometimes. There were still some things about Gray that lingered in the wanderings of my brain, but these were things I knew over time I’d gain answers to. It’d just take the time of knowing him and getting to know him beyond those things that no longer needed knowing. I knew the man’s heart already though, his soul.
I knew his love.
He was an incredibly good person and maybe the best I’d ever found myself around and that, well, that was enough.
Jolene went on with her tasks, letting Jasmine play near us with a beanbag she kicked around and Ava shook my arm.
“That’s so wonderful,” she said to me. “And even more that you’re staying from what I hear.”
I was surprised she hadn’t brought that up sooner, the first to give her two cents most days.
What could I say, I loved the girl.
“Yes,” I said and she grinned.
“So Jo’s property… you’re staying on it and everything?” she asked with a hair flip up, almost an afterthought as she moved onto another box filled with cupcakes.
I nodded. “That’s the plan. I still have a lot of things to figure out.”
Up until literally a few weeks ago I had been intending to sell, the developer picked out and everything. I had people giving offers well over market value following the write-ups in the many publications my aunt’s house had been a part of. It’d actually been helpful for me to find buyers. I had people falling out of my aunt’s windows wanting to turn the place into everything from a campground to a resort, the house itself untouched, but the land around it and even part of the town included in the restructuring of the project. They wanted to launch something huge, something that would change this town on its head and though progressive it really wouldn’t be the same town. It would change it.
“I can imagine,” Ava said, eyes on me. “But everything will be okay. I know it.”
“Oh, it will.” I smiled at her, leaning on a box. “I’ll figure it all out. Well, Gray and I. He’s been really helpful with all the decisions and everything. He’s going to make sure my aunt’s land is treated right.”
He’d probably keep up with it until his dying day if I let him.
Would we get that far?
I hoped so and the very thought had me smiling.
Ava gave me a knowing smile and she went silent while we finished setting up. A beanbag hit one of our tables at one point, which got Jasmine chastised by Jolene. I retrieved it for the girl, saying it wasn’t a big deal before giving it back to her.
“What do you say?” Jolene questioned, eyeing her.
Dark-green eyes and a huge smile went shy on Jasmine’s face.
“Thanks, Ms. Alicia,” she said, chewing her lip a little.
I smiled. “No problem and it really isn’t a big deal.”
That one had been for Jolene, the woman patting Jasmine’s shoulder. She guided her off to play, but her niece lingered a second. She followed us around from table to table, playing with the little decorative streamers we placed around the baked items. I figured with her new intrigue Jolene would send her off and I think she would have.
If not for what she said.
“Now that Ms. Alicia is staying everything will be good,” she said, smiling wide. “Now that she’s not selling everything will be good.”
I didn’t understand what she’d said and her saying something of that nature was quite odd to me, causing me to look up at her.
I ended up panning over to her and I had some eyes before me, ones that’d definitely heard what she said.
Jolene’s hands came together and Ava’s eyes… well, escaped entirely. It seemed the inside of her arms became her fascination when she crossed them and Jolene put her hand softly on Jasmine’s tiny shoulder.
“Run along,” she told her. “Run along” like she didn’t say something weird.
Like she didn’t say something weird that involved me.
The young girl skipped off and that left a vacancy in the air, one in which I wanted answers to and no one was giving them, both ladies’ eyes on everything but me.
My arms folded, I approached Jolene, her niece the one that said the words.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why did she say that?”
A breeze of her bright, auburn bangs flipped when she lifted her head. The school teacher opened her mouth perhaps to say something, but Ava seemed to have finally found her voice.
“It’s okay, Jolene,” she said, her jaw moving a little. “I’ll talk to her.”
The teacher left us to our peace and more of that silence occurred, which at this point, was really testing my patience. Ava had moved over to one of the pie tables at this point, tapping her fingers on it and I joined her.
“Ava?” I questioned. “What’s going on?”
She had no words for me at first, kicking her boot behind her and then…
“What do you want me to say, Alicia?”
My eyes flashed, not understanding.
“Say…?”
She nodded, her eyes sad all of a sudden. I wasn’t used to this on her, not at all. She may have been shy sometimes but was never sad.
Nor ashamed.
Her arms moved over the other, her gaze panning over the little world of busy townsfolk, which worked around us.
“We just figured,” she started, eyes moving, sight circulating. “We just figured if you saw all this, saw Mayfield and everything… Got to know us and all that you wouldn’t…”
She said… us.
My gaze travelled now, everyone around us working, but in this part of the bazaar, this part of my world was crumbling.
“You didn’t want me to sell?” I concluded, the reality coming in a chilling wave. “You didn’t want me to sell so you were what…? Nice to me—”
She had always been nice. She’d always been there and well before recently with inviting Gray and me along to functions with her friends. She was always there.
She was always good.
“That’s not why I—”
She came closer, but I veered away, my arms tight around me.
Ava’s hand closed like she was attempting to reach out, touch me when she truly knew she shouldn’t.
Her mouth moved. “That’s not what it was like.”
“Then what was it like?”
“It was…” Her voice stopped on the end like she was trying to choose her words, her lashes lifted when she seemed to have found them.
“That’s what it started as,” she admitted, the dagger sharp, the slit inside deep. “But then we got to know each other.”
They’d gotten to know me, this town. It’d become less trying to get Josephine’s niece not to sell and more about actually liking her at some point, knowledge in which most likely the whole town was in on.
Everyone except me.
The reality had me turn from her, a tremor in my arms. It filled me up, angered me, and even more when I remembered one other person. He’d been the person, the one that mattered most with his daughter.
My phone in my hand, I started dialing, but then I heard his voice. My vision panned out the door, the church event room open to the sun. A clear view of the parking lot displayed from here and that’s where Gray was, his daughter’s hand in his. He let her run out, then tugged her back into a hug.
“Alicia?”
Ava’s hand pushed over my shoulder, the hand of whom I thought had been my friend.
“Alicia… it all changed.”
Meaning she was actually my friend now. It all was no longer a ruse, but the thing was, it took two people to make a friendship.
And maybe I didn’t want to be her friend anymore.
Leaving her hand, I heard her call my name, which I ignored. I needed to ask someone something, his eyes lighting up the minute he watched me cross the threshold of the church.
But then he saw it, saw something in my eyes. The realization caused him to let go of both his smile and Laura’s hand, his own guiding behind her shoulder.
“Did you know?” I asked before I even got to him, Laura between us. “Did you know about the town? People pretending to be nice? People pretending to be my—”
He’d gotten to me at this point because I stopped unable to go any further.
My lashes lifted. “Did you know about the town trying to get me not to sell my aunt’s estate?”
His gaze travelled over my face in a way that didn’t necessarily tell of guilt, but not unknowing either. The very existence of the latter drove the wind clear out of me and he squeezed Laura’s arm.
“Laura, go play.”
“Laura, stay.”
Her attention ventured between us both, not knowing what to do. This man was her father.
But I was her friend.
We’d gained more than that, this girl and me, and because we had, she wasn’t moving, Gray pulling her back into a hug since she wasn’t.
His face straightened, serious, but he wasn’t talking quick enough.
“Did you know?” I asked, truly not a hard question. “Did you know and were you in on it too?”
“Of course I didn’t want you to sell, Alicia,” he said, shocking the hell out of me in the purest form. He’d been so honest. He shook his head. “I didn’t want developers coming in here, slashing up Jo’s property.”
“So you knew? So you—”
I started to walk away but he used a hand, grabbing me. He made me stay with that hand and he made me listen despite what he’d already done to my heart. He’d done a number on it. He really had.
Breathing, he pushed his hand down my arm.
“I may have heard word about it,” he said. “This is a small town, and yes, I may have heard something.”
I closed my eyes and he guided me closer, his voice near my ear.
“But listen to me when I say I had nothing to do with this,” he went on. “I may have not wanted you to sell, but I respected your decision. Damn—” He reconsidered his words when he noticed Laura below. He squeezed me. “Alicia, I helped you for God’s sake.”
He may have helped me and even respected me, but that didn’t leave him victimless. He had knowledge of something he could have shared with me at anytime.
He just chose not to.
Leaving his hands, I couldn’t hear anymore.
“Alicia!”
My name called wasn’t deep but light, the sound of a little girl.
Her voice truly almost had me turning around, but I couldn’t stop my steps, moving forward. Somewhere in the distance I heard a, “Let her go,” then a quieter version of the same. “Let her go.”