Aunt Elizabeth was painfully polite until they left. “What a waste of money!” She stood with hands on her hips looking at the new bed as though she wanted to dismantle it with an ax. “Don’t they have grandchildren of their own to spoil?”
Samuel clearly liked his big-boy bed, though Grace intended to keep him in his crib a while longer. He could spend nap time in the race car. “They have one daughter, single and in the military.”
“Oh.” Aunt Elizabeth’s shoulders relaxed. “Well. No wonder.” She sighed. “At least there’s a nice, thick rug on the floor and the bed isn’t so high he’ll fall off and fracture his skull.” With that grim blessing, she swung Samuel up into her arms. “Come on, Rapscal. Let’s play with the Duplo blocks I brought you.”
Aunt Elizabeth called, upset, a week later. “Did you give the Gerlings my address? They sent me an invitation for Thanksgiving.”
Grace confessed and waited for Vesuvius to erupt. When her aunt didn’t say anything, Grace sent up a silent prayer before searching for a concession. “If you’d rather it was only the three of us, that’s fine. Your place or mine. I just don’t want another Thanksgiving to go by without you.”
“On that we certainly agree.” The long pause made Grace bite her lip. Her aunt sighed. “It was actually a very sweet invitation.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind?”
“I’ll let her know I’d love to come.” Her tone was tinged with slight sarcasm. “I hope she doesn’t put oysters in her stuffing.”
Thanksgiving Day with Dorothy and George turned out to be very pleasant. Christmas was fast approaching, and Grace found herself thinking more about Roman, wondering how he’d celebrate the holidays. She’d thought time and distance would diminish her feelings. Most days she was working so hard, she didn’t think about anything but Samuel and what needed to be done to provide for him.
Evenings were different, and nighttime, the hardest. She had vivid dreams about Roman and sometimes awakened in tears.
Today was one of those days when she couldn’t get Roman out of her head. Samuel toddled over and wanted to climb onto her lap. She worked that way for a while and set him down to play again. A few minutes later, he came back. Grace closed her laptop and lifted Samuel. “Okay, little man.” She kissed his warm neck and breathed in his sweet, baby scent. “How about a bike ride, Rapscal?” He loved bike rides and flapped his arms, making her laugh.
Closing the garage door, Grace pocketed the remote and set off down the street. They wore matching neon helmets, the only brand-new things she had splurged on so far. By the time they returned, she was tired and Samuel was sleepy from the cool wind in his face. She put him down for a nap in his race car bed and was intending to go back to work when the phone rang.
“Hey, girlfriend!”
“Hey, back atcha.” Grace laughed. In addition to frequent texts and e-mails, Shanice called every few days to check on her.
“How are things going?”
Sprawled on the sofa, Grace sighed. “Right now, I’m done in. I just took Samuel out for a bike ride.”
They carried on their usual friendly conversation for fifteen minutes before Shanice admitted she had another reason for calling. “I wanted to talk to you about Roman, honey.”
Grace’s heart started to pound. “What about him?”
“Well, he’s not the man I met in Topanga Canyon, that’s for sure. He and Brian have become good friends. Roman sold his house and moved into the apartment complex where Brian lives. He just finished a project for the church. You should see it, Grace. It’s drawing a lot of attention. Some reporters showed up, and there have been a couple articles on the piece. Check it out on YouTube. It’s amazing!”
“I’m glad to hear he’s doing so well.” Grace tried to keep her tone neutral, despite the wild beating of her heart and the surge of hope she needed to crush.
“Do you want me to tell Roman where you are?”
“Did he ask you?”
“No, but I’m sure he’d like to know.”
Grace closed her eyes tightly, unable to speak for a moment. “I think it’s better to leave things as they are.” If Roman loved her, wouldn’t he have asked about her by now? She left Los Angeles months ago.
“Are you sure, honey? He might have reasons for not calling you.”
Just as she had reasons for keeping her silence. God, am I doing the right thing? I don’t know anymore.