Page 95 of Holding Grace

Chapter 34

Michael

It happened again that Sunday afternoon as Grace and I were finishing up lunch with Mercy and Levi at a local wing place. Ace and Ry were on the road, driving back from a builders’ conference just north of Cincinnati, so Levi and Mercy had taken the week off cooking and the four of us had gone out to lunch instead.

We were getting close to finishing up when I felt it: a sense of being watched that sent a tingle down my spine and made the hair stand up at the back of my neck.

When it had happened at the pub, I’d written it off as an instinctive reaction to the late night and shadowed surroundings. Now I connected it to the situation with Grace.

I ran my eyes over the busy restaurant as casually as I could, but no one seemed to be paying me, or us, an unusual level of attention. I glanced at the big windows lining the front of the space. For all I knew someone could be standing outside, observing us, although I didn’t think that was the case.

Levi and I sat with our backs to the wall facing the front doors and between us had a good view of the room. If anybody approached our table, we’d see them coming. Of course, a server could...

“Oh, Mercy, no!” The distress in Grace’s voice yanked me back into the conversation. “You love that building.”

“I do,” Mercy conceded, “I just don’t think we need that space anymore.” I rewound the conversation in my head, trying to reorient myself. “You and I have done great working from our apartments. I know neither one of us wants to do that forever, but that building is in a prime leasing area.”

The office. Mercy was talking about the office space where she and Grace had worked, the one across the street from Grace’s old apartment and around the corner from where she’d been attacked.

“For what we’d get from leasing that space, we can easily take both of the ground floor units in Mercy’s current building offline and convert them into office space, one for both of you, and one for another tenant,” Levi explained. “There are a lot of other mixed-use buildings in that area so it would be a good fit.”

“But it’s not downtown,” Grace argued.

“It’s not, but once we renovate the space in my building, we’ll still be on the ground floor and there’s good foot and vehicle traffic in the area for visibility.” Mercy reached across the table and squeezed Grace’s hand. “I’ll be stealing the dream commute you once had, but you’re not going back to your old apartment downtown anyway.”

Grace neither confirmed nor denied Mercy’s assumption and I kept my mouth shut. I knew what would happen if I had my way, but it wasn’t up to me, and I didn’t speak for Grace.

“I feel like it’s yet another thing Ellis is forcing on us. I hate it.” Grace shook her head quickly, squeezing Mercy’s hand in return before releasing it. “Sorry, I’m just frustrated.”

“Understandable. Look at it this way,” Levi rested his elbows on the table and leaned in, focusing on Grace. “We’re not being forced to do anything. We’ve just been given the opportunity to look at things a different way and consider options we may not have thought of before. I’m with Mercy, I love that building, but Baron Properties works all over the region. We don’t need an office downtown. By moving it, we’ll save money in the long run and will have zero problem leasing that space at a nice rate.”

Grace eyed Levi with reluctant admiration. “I’ve told you this before, but you’re really good at that.”

Mercy rolled her eyes affectionately. “Believe me, he knows.”

“Greatness is a burden some of us have to bear.”

Grace and Mercy looked at Levi, then each other, and burst into laughter, turning a few heads our way.

I couldn’t help a grin of my own as I looked at Grace, her smile wide and eyes shining with amusement.

I shook away the feeling of eyes on me. I’d call Detective Chase later, let him know about both incidents, and leave it at that.

I tucked the situation away, resolved not to tell the others. There was no chance I was going to be the one to wipe that beautiful smile from my wife’s face.

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