Page 60 of The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever
He gave one curt nod.
“Here? At the house? Did you guys talk? How was it?”
“No, we didn’ttalk,” he said sharply. “That man has no business anywhere near my life.” He pushed to his feet and paced. “Roy tried to warn me, but I was too tied up all day to call him back, and then Frank washere.”
She went to him, but he took a step back, holding up his hand to warn her off.
“I’m sorry, babe, but I’m too tightly wound. I don’t want to take it out on you.”
She’d never seen Reed like this, but she didn’t want to be shut out, and shereallydidn’t want him to think he was stuck dealing with this alone. She put her finger into his belt loop and pulled herself forward, until they were standing thigh to thigh. His lips curved up, though his eyes remained tortured, and he lifted his gaze toward the moon.
“Gracie, please don’t.”
“Don’t what? Love you?” she said. “Because for me to stay back while you’re hurting, or conflicted, or angry at your father, that’s what would have to happen.”
“I’m so angry,” he said through gritted teeth. “Tooangry. I don’t want you to take the brunt of it.”
She wound her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his chest, feeling his heart beating fast and hard. “I know. You won’t let me. I’m not worried.”
“Who does he think he is, showing up like that?”
She knew he wasn’t looking for an answer.
“What right does he have to interrupt my life? What makes him think I’dwantto see him?”
She eased her grip enough to look up at him. Worry lines deepened along his brows and beneath his eyes. His mouth twisted angrily. And yet somehow the weight of sadness overshadowed all that rage, making her ache even more for him.
“Did he say anything? Explain why he came after all these years? Did Roy offer any clarity?” she asked.
He shook his head and finally put his arms around her, letting out a long sigh before responding. “Roy said Frank had stopped by his place asking where he could find me. Roy asked the same questions you did, but I don’t have the answers. I sent Frank away. In my head, he’s like an infectious disease I don’t want to risk being around. I’m sure that makes no sense. There was a time I would have given anything to have a relationship with him. But that’s gone, Gracie. Maybe it makes me a terrible human being, but I don’t want it. Frank Gilbert does not exist to me. As far as I’m concerned, I’m Roy Cross’s son. I don’t want or need to hear excuses about why Frank’s been absent from my life for all this time. He abandoned me once, and it took forever for me to move past it. Heck, babe. I’m still not past it. He’s not a part of my life. He never was.”
She had so many questions, so many things she wanted to say, but none of them mattered, because she wasn’t Reed. She hadn’t been the child asking Santa for his father’s love or the preteen harboring resentment, curiosity, and hope, all of which went unanswered. And she wasn’t the boy who had to find his way to manhood with all the unanswered questions Reed carried on his shoulders. She was only the woman who had loved him long enough to try to keep those thoughts and questions to herself in an effort to help him heal.
Chapter Twenty
IN A SPAN of forty-eight hours a man could reunite and fall in love with his high school sweetheart, he could finish renovating a Victorian porch, and, Reed discovered, his house could become a home. What he didn’t expect was that just as quickly that home could become the place where his demons came back to haunt him. Reed stood in the kitchen, staring at the shoe box and wondering if it held the answers he’d always wanted or decades of hurt. Twice he’d driven by that freaking hotel at the edge of town where Frank was staying. And twice he’d cursed a blue streak and driven away.
He still wasn’t ready to play that game of Russian roulette.
“I’m ready,” Grace said as she rushed down the stairs. They were meeting Meggie, Roy, and Ella at the Majestic to take a tour of the inside. “Sorry we ran late with the auditions today. I can’t believe how many people want a part in this play. I changed as quickly as I could.”
He closed his eyes for a moment to regain control of his emotions and felt her arms circle his waist. Her cheek pressed warm and loving against his back, and he reached behind him, keeping her close. She’d been careful not to push him toward seeing Frank, but he knew in his heart she thought he should. He also knew she didn’t need any more angst in her life. She had enough on her plate with running around town to coordinate the play, dealing with the director about her next production, which seemed to take hours of emails, texts, and phone calls, and handling the idiot actor who was causing problems on her current production. Reed wanted to head to the city and shake the life out of him, tell him to grow up and do his job. It was probably a good thing Grace was more levelheaded, because his unresolved anger and hurt toward Frank made him less than rational. He tried to concentrate on Grace and happier things, like the fact that he finished the porch two days early, celebrating this coming Friday night with their families at the barbecue, and buying the Majestic. He needed the distraction of that project now more than ever, as Grace’s—and Frank’s—departure loomed.
Grace spread her hands over his stomach and said, “How about if we move the box out of sight until you’re ready to deal with it?”
He turned and embraced her, telling himself to man up and look in the darn thing already. She smiled up at him, and it sliced right through the heartache to his very soul. Grace was what mattered, not his past. He’d never be able to bring his mother back, and no matter what Frank had to say, it wouldn’t repair the damage he’d done. It was time to close that door for good, and putting the box away was a start.
He pressed his lips to hers and then said, “I’ll put it away after we get back. Everyone’s probably waiting for us.”
They arrived at the same time as Roy and Ella and greeted them outside the theater.
“Grace, we’re excited to see your family Friday night.” Ella embraced Grace. “It was awfully nice of your mother to invite us.”
“Everyone is looking forward to it. Amber is even planning to close her bookstore early so she can be there.” Grace looked lovingly at Reed and said, “Reed did such an amazing job on the porch, Mom and Dad want to break it in properly. I think the words my father used were ‘timeless perfection.’”
“This get-together is a long time coming,” Reed said.
As Grace and Ella talked about the barbecue, Roy ran an assessing eye over Reed and slung an arm over his shoulder. “How are you holding up?”
