Chapter Eight
Suck it up, girl. Grace scolded herself silently as she studied her reflection in the mirror. It was just a regular family dinner. With one guest. One guest who just happened to have been her first love, her first… everything, and the one man who had the power to turn her legs to mush with a glance.
I’m screwed. And not in a good way, although the word did send her mind to places it should not go, places she’d visited all too many times during the lonely years of her marriage. Actually, it wasn’t to a place she’d traveled in those fantasies and moments of self-pleasure, but a who.
Oh, I am so completely screwed. Her brows furrowed as she summoned resolve. She was not a child or a lovestruck teen. She was a grown woman with two children, and she knew how to do conduct herself, how to behave in nearly any situation with decorum and good manners.
Grace blew a raspberry at herself and turned away from the mirror. With luck, Beau would be cool and distant, and the hurt and anger that would evoke would keep her from mooning over him.
Please don’t let me make a fool of myself. Just let me get through this with my dignity.
She went downstairs to find Sherri helping Gran set the table.
“We’re eating in the dining room?” Grace asked.
“We’re having company, Mama,” Sherri announced. “Gran’s friend, Mr. Beau.”
“Is that so?” Grace decided playing dumb was the wisest course of action.
“Yeah. Mr. Beau and Gran have dinner every Wednesday. One week she cooks and the next they go into town and eat at a restaurant.”
So, this wasn’t just a special occasion as Grace imagined. It was a regular event. And that probably meant that her mother had talked about Grace and the kids. The question was, what she had said about Grace.
“Well, isn’t that nice?” Grace looked at her mother. “Every week, huh?”
Ida met her gaze. “Yep. It’s real nice. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Beau’s company. He always has had the kindest heart of anyone I’ve ever known.”
That took the wind out of Grace’s sails because it was the truth. Beau was one of the kindest people she’d ever known and what he had been doing for her mother was a wonderful act of giving.
It shamed Grace that she’d immediately thought of herself and the impact the dinner might have on her. How could she have failed to see that her mother had been terribly lonely since Grace’s dad died? Beau apparently saw what Grace had not and made a special effort to let Ida know he cared.
“He does indeed,” she finally agreed. “And I’m real glad he’s been keeping you company, mama. You and he always did have a special relationship.”
“You mean like he’s Gran’s boyfriend?” Sherri asked, having followed the conversation.
Ida laughed. “Oh no, honey. He’s way too young for your Gran. Mr. Beau was your mama’s boyfriend when they were young.”
“You had a boyfriend?” Sherri looked up at Grace with wide eyes.
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“But you love my daddy, right, Mama?”
Grace’s eyes met her mother's, and after a moment, Ida sighed and looked down at Sherri. “Honey, you know your mama will always love your daddy, right, Gracie?”
“Yes,” Grace agreed. “I’ll always love him because he’s your and Theo’s daddy.”
“But he’s not your boyfriend no more?”
“No, sweetie, not anymore. Now he has another girlfriend.”
“You mean Miss Amy.”
Grace felt like she’d just been punched in the gut. She’d been so careful never to discuss the separation in front of the children, not even when she was on the phone. How could Sherri have found out about Tad and Amy?
“What would make you say that, sweetie?”
“’Cuz daddy kisses her and squeezes her butt in the laundry room every time.”
The phrase “saw red” had always been abstract. Until now. Now, Grace understood. Rage blossomed hot and red and raw, and at that moment all she wanted to do was physically hurt Tad and Amy.
She was searching her brain for a way to respond to her daughter when Ida dropped a glass. “Oh, my goodness, look at the mess I’ve made!”
It took just one look to for Grace to realize what had happened and she silently mouthed thank you to her mother.
“Come on, honey bunch.” Ida took Sherri’s hand. “I could use your help. Let’s get the vacuum and trash can and clean this up.”
“Okay, Gran.” Sherri hurried off with Ida, leaving Grace to try to settle herself.
She left the dining room and crossed through the parlor, headed for the stairs, but voices from the front porch drew her to the door. It stood open, with the screen door closed, allowing the evening breeze into the house.
Grace looked out and saw Theo sitting on the porch steps with Beau. Theo was showing Beau his Transformer lunch box.
“And this is Optimouse Prime, and he’s really, really big,” Theo said.
“He looks really big. Is he a good guy or a bad guy?”
“Oh, he really good and steps on bad guys.”
“Well, I bet he smushes them flat as a pancake with those feet.”
Theo must have found that funny because he giggled and repeated, “smushes them fwat as pancakes.”
Beau chuckled as well. A growl from just beyond the steps had Grace putting her hand on the door to push it open.
“That my dog Brick,” Theo announced. “Brick, you be nice.”
Brick’s head was lowered, and the hair on his neck stood up. Just as Grace pushed on the door, there was another low growl, this one deeper and more menacing. And coming from Beau.
She didn’t know who was more shocked, her or Brick. But she saw the impact of the growl on the dog. He went silent and then cowered.
“Good boy,” Beau said and held out his hand. “Come on, Brick. Come make friends.”
Brick crept over and licked Beau’s hands, then wiggled his stump of a tail and crowded in closer.
Theo laughed and hugged the dog. “Him like you, Mr. Beau.”
“Well, I like him too.”
“You be Brick’s friend?”
“Why, sure.”
“You be my friend?”
“I’d really like that. I imagine you’ve already made a bunch of new friends. You’re five, right?”
“Yes, five.” Theo held up one hand with his fingers spread wide. “Mama makes me go to kindergarten. I no like it.”
“No? Why not?”
“Them kids are mean there. That boy pushes me down every day and he takes my juice too.”
Grace’s hand went to her mouth. Theo had not told her a word of this. Beau put his arm around Theo and slid the child close. “Tell you what, little man. How about I come have lunch with you tomorrow, and if that mean boy tries to take your juice, I’ll have a talk with him.”
“You could growl and skeer him. That’s a really good growl.”
Beau chuckled and hugged Theo to his side. “Well, I just might have to do that.”
“You really come to my school?”
“I will. I’ll find out what time you have lunch and be there. I promise.”
“Thank you, Beau.” Theo scrambled into his lap and threw his arms around Beau’s neck.
The waterworks started despite her best effort not to cry. Grace wiped at her eyes, feeling her chest full and tight. How was it that a man who’d only just met her child could be so caring and filled with compassion and the man who had fathered that precious little boy had not ever displayed a smidgen of that kind of caring.
As much as she didn’t want it, Beau’s actions brought back to her why she had loved him so much. He wasn’t just handsome and strong and smart; he was a person who genuinely cared about other people.
A hundred things flew through her head, remembrances of times gone by. She was so caught up in the past that she didn’t realize Theo had spotted her.
“There’s my mommy. Mommy! This is my friend, Beau. He coming to have lunch with me at school.”
Beau stood, holding Theo in one arm. “Hey, Grace. This sure is a fine little boy you have here.”
“Yes, he is.” Grace smiled and pushed open the door. “Come on in, Beau.”
“Thank you.” He stopped beside her and looked down into her eyes. “I wasn’t sure I’d be welcome.”
Grace knew what he meant, and that girl inside her, the one who’d been hurt by what she’d perceived as a betrayal, wanted to sink back into the resentment and punish him. If it hadn’t been for what happened between them, maybe she never would have said yes to Tad. She wouldn’t have married him.
And she wouldn’t have Sherri and Theo. No, she couldn’t be that girl anymore. Tad might have been an unfaithful and neglectful husband and father, but her children were worth every unhappy moment she’d spent with the man.
It had taken a more than a decade, but what she’d just seen happen on her mama’s front porch allowed her to release all those old resentments. “You’re always welcome, Beau.”
His smile rivaled the slanting rays of light from the setting sun and was every bit as beautiful. “It’s good to see you, Gracie.”
“I hungry!” Theo announced. “Eat eat time!”
Beau laughed and put Theo down. As Theo raced for the kitchen yelling “Gran! Me hungry!” he looked at Grace. “Truce?”
“How about letting bygones be bygones?”
“I’d like that a lot.”
“So would I. You want a beer?”
“I brought wine. It’s on the porch.”
“Would you rather have wine?”
“Oh heck no. Give me a cold beer any day.”
“Same here. Come on.”
They headed for the kitchen and Beau smiled down at her. “It’s good to know that some things don’t change.”
“Yeah, it is.” Grace agreed, thinking to herself, and it’s downright terrifying as well.
Because good or bad, smart or stupid, she still had it bad for Beau Legacy.