The little boy nods, and the sight of the two so obviously in awe of one another makes my heart leap.
“He’s in daycare?” I ask, wondering how on earth George manages a career and his son.
George looks down. “My mom watches him during the day. She went to get some coffee. You just missed her. I think Georgie gave her the scare of her life today. No more jumping off the landing, right?”
I come closer to little Georgie, and take in his sweet expression and babylike features. “He’s gorgeous.” I allow my hand to touch his cheek, and I’m rewarded with a toothy grin. “Just like his father.”
“You see what I mean about being an optimist? Sometimes, our biggest mistakes give us our greatest rewards.”
“The fiancée?”
He nods and stands up, lifting Georgie onto a table. “They’re just about to check us out of here. You up for some dinner?”
“Me?” I put my hand on my chest.
“The four of us: Georgie, my mom, and me and you, of course. We’d love to have you if you aren’t too busy, and now that I’m not your lawyer, you can get that good meal you’ve been craving.”
“I’d love to.”
“We’ll celebrate me losing my job.”
“And my last night of true freedom.”
I slide my father’s ring back on my right hand so I don’t lose it, and then I ask if I can pick up Georgie from the table.
“What do you think, big man? You want to see Miss Morgan?” He warns me, “He’s getting heavy to hold.”
Georgie grins widely, and I pick him up, “I can handle it. All that time at Square One wasn’t for nothing.” I stare into the most beautiful, innocent blue eyes I have ever seen. I feel my eyes prick with tears as I think about his purity, and the depth of love George so obviously has for him.
“He likes you.”
“I bet he’s like his dad, and probably sees the best in most people.”
George’s mother comes back into the room, blowing on her steaming hot cup of coffee. She looks like George, with dark brown hair tinged with gray and dark brown eyes. She pauses in surprise when she sees me, but when she notes my emotion, she smiles warmly.
“He’s just like his daddy. Goes straight for the pretty girls, don’t you, Georgie?”
“Mom, this is Morgan Malliard.”
“The lawsuit girl?”
The fiancée girl, the spinster of death, the daughter of denial, the ice princess . . . take your pick. I just nod and she does the strangest thing—she grabs a lock of my hair.
“You’re much prettier in person. The papers don’t do you justice.”
I just laugh.
“I loved that wedding gown. You have to tell your best friend she’s a heck of a designer.”
“She is, isn’t she?”
“You hear my son got fired today?”
I nod.
“Did you have anything to do with that?” She narrows her gaze.
“Probably. I sort of attract trouble like a lint roller.”
Mrs. Gentry puts her arm around me. “Good, then we’ll get along just fine, honey.”
George takes his son from me and sets him on the table, tying his shoes. The act is so simplistic, yet so beautiful all at once. When he’s finished, I reach out my hand to him, saying with my eyes how hopeful I am. Laying out the fleece, and wondering if he’s been feeling the same thing as me. He clasps my hand tightly, and we look into one another’s eyes. This time, it’s not my imagination.
The three of us walk out of the room, following his mother. I don’t take my eyes off of George, and I think to myself, sometimes our biggest mistakes give us our greatest reward.
Y
ou know that I’m unemployed, and I live with my mother.” George’s words make me laugh out loud, and his mother purses her lips.
We’re at Denny’s. Fine dining and Georgie are not a good match, but he’s partial to the chicken dinosaurs with a side of ketchup, and I can’t say there’s anywhere I’d rather be at the moment. Tomorrow holds so much trepidation for me, and being in the mundane environment of Denny’s makes me forget I’m special. Either as a former diamond heiress or a possible grand-jury defendant. Tonight, I’m just Morgan Malliard eating a Swiss-mushroom burger at Denny’s.
“You think unemployment scares me? Hah! As long as you’ve got under two wives, I think we should talk.”
“This isn’t funny,” Mrs. Gentry says calmly. “You two think this is funny?”
George and I meet each other’s smiles and laugh all over again. “Hmm. No job, living with his mama. You sound just like one of my former fiancés.” I shrug. “Is there a problem? Of course, you do realize that I’m under federal investigation, and am facing twenty-eight years in jail for wire fraud and illegal offshore accounting?” I raise an eyebrow.
His mother is shaking her head, “Could we eat our dinner without this? You’re both giving me indigestion.”
Georgie is happily marching his dinosaurs across the plate, then biting their heads off with vigor, leaving little headless chicken nuggets askew.
“I’m sorry.” I breathe in deeply. “I’m just nervous, I suppose. Hearing your name associated with the term
grand jury
is a little daunting.”
She puts her hand on mine, “I’m sure it is, honey.”
No one knows what will happen tomorrow. I know my father’s lawyers won’t allow me to separate myself from him and the charges, for fear he’ll be sent up the river for a long time, and I just don’t think I could do it anyway. I don’t care how my father has always treated me, he doesn’t deserve to be abandoned.
“You’re thinking about your father,” George says seriously.
I nod, looking over my half-eaten hamburger, but having forgotten my appetite.
“I think we can get your case separated, Morgan. Plead ignorance.”
George dabs his napkin in water and wipes it across Georgie’s ketchup-laden mouth.
“It’s too late. The grand jury is meeting tomorrow, and Daddy’s already planned his defense. Our defense. I can’t just let him take it alone.”
George slams his hand on the table. “Why not? Why can’t you let your father take the rap for doing what he did? It was illegal, Morgan. If he pulled the trigger on the man, would you take the blame?”
I open my mouth, but I can’t find words.
“Come on, Mom. I’ve got to get home. I’m preparing a case for Morgan Malliard.”
I don’t get up from the table. “Don’t do it, George. It doesn’t matter.”
“Look at you, Morgan. You’re beautiful, you’re fabulous with kids, and you have more love for that stone of a man than I can possibly imagine. Do you know what that says about your character?”
I smile up at him, “It says I’m an optimist.”
“Who is acting very ignorant. I’ve seen the preliminary hearing information, Morgan. It’s obvious your dad did this.”
I clutch my stomach, feeling a wave of nausea hit me, and I shake my head. “He wouldn’t.”
George kneels beside me at the table, which makes everyone in the restaurant turn towards us as if he’s asking me to marry him. We’re in Denny’s, people. I may not have huge criteria for a fiancé, but I am adamant that I would deserve a better proposal than in Denny’s over a Swiss-mushroom burger that has just given me onion breath.
“He did it, Morgan. I’ve seen the wire transfers. I’ve seen the illegal laundering of money. It’s not a mistake you’re named on this. It was a way your father could launder more money.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t believe that.”
“Morgan, I have absolutely no reason to lie to you. None. Look into my eyes.”
I search the deepness of his eyes, and I look at the happy giggles of Georgie as he roars and rips the feet off another dinosaur.
“Fathers don’t allow their children to suffer. Normal fathers would give up everything to give their children more.”
I force the lump in my throat away. I know what he says is true. I think about the letter from my mother, the harsh words from my father, and I know it’s true. “But if I separate on the lawsuit, even if the grand jury allows me such a luxury, I’m only piling more on my father, and I can’t do that. I’m the only one here to love him. If I’m not Jesus to him, who will be?”
“Morgan, you can’t be a doormat and go to jail. Look at Georgie. Don’t you want to know what your child might look like? Don’t you want a chance to live your life?”
I nod. “I do, but not at the expense of my dad.”
George’s expression falls. “I understand.”
But it’s clear he doesn’t. “I didn’t profit from any of that money, George. They can’t prove that I did. It will be fine.”
“They can prove it, and they will unless you defend yourself and separate from your father.”
I shake my head. “I can’t do that.”
“Let’s go to the bathroom, Georgie.” Mrs. Gentry takes her grandson by the hand, and they leave me alone with this incredible man I want to trust with my whole heart, but can’t do at the risk of watching my father lose everything he worked for. I know the money is secondary to his reputation. This has to be killing him.
“Why are you working so hard for him, Morgan? When are you going to believe the truth that he has brought you into this mess?”
“I took advantage of it. I never questioned the money or what I was able to buy with it.”
George gets back up and sits in the chair. “So what can I do?” He holds his hands out.
“You can pray, George. We’ve only seen the preliminary ruling. The actual charges have to come down from the grand jury, and I’ll get my say tomorrow.” Inside, of course, I don’t feel nearly so confident, and when I see George and his family, I do know what I could be missing. To see how a normal family functions with love and laughter gives me pause like I hadn’t imagined.
George has suffered, there’s no getting around it, but he has also come out victorious. I can only hope for as much grace as God bestowed upon him.
I stand up, and I take his hand, “I hear you, George. I know you think I’m incredibly naïve, but I can’t destroy my father to save myself. I just can’t. He may not be the father that you are to Georgie, but I really do believe his motives were pure. He just got in over his head and was seduced by the money.”
“You’re making excuses for him.”
I nod. “I probably am. Say good night to Georgie and your mother for me.” I walk towards the door. George runs after me, and I turn to see him laying forty dollars and the bill at the cashier’s desk.
“Morgan.”
I walk outside under the cool fall night, and I pull my sweater around me tightly to ward off the damp. “You’re incredible, do you know? I believe you, George, if it makes any difference. I really do, but something inside me says I deserve this. I lived off this money and it’s time to pay the piper.”
“Not the illegal stuff, don’t you see that? The illegal stuff was off in an offshore account somewhere.”
“George.” I walk to him, stand before him and feel his breath, which clouds in the night’s cold air. I’m face to face with him. He can’t be any taller than me, and I suddenly feel so gawky and huge. I close my eyes, imagining what life could be like if I’d been born smarter, or into a family that played by normal rules. A family that didn’t think fat was a plague, and poverty a disease.
His arms come around me, and he presses his lips against mine, and I feel the kiss through my entire frame.
This is what it feels like to be loved.
I pull the blue diamond off, easier now with the cold night shrinking my fingers, and I put the ring into his hand, closing his fingers around it.
“Diamonds are most certainly not a girl’s best friend.” I reach up and I kiss his cheek and put my hand on his neck as I say good-bye. Inside the restaurant I see Georgie, and I feel my eyes welling up again as I turn away.
“Morgan, the ring? What’s this about?”
“Pick a better fiancée next time. That little boy in there deserves it.”
I smile to myself as I walk toward the garage housing my car. Grand jury, here I come.
The loft is dark and eerie as I arrive home, but I’m floating on a platinum-lined cloud. To kiss a man like George— someone who is capable of loving a person past their accomplishments— was an incredible feeling, however brief. He’s proof of grace. And while I might never see him again, the possibility is enough to keep me soaring upward. Although I’ve always known my father’s ways weren’t right, now I have proof positive of grace on earth, of action that I’ve heard spoken of for so many years in church. The knowledge that sometimes we don’t get what we deserve, and life isn’t all about living up to a perfect ideal. The beauty is often in the flaws.
Speaking of flaws, Nate is outside the door when I get home. “Is Lilly coming home tonight?”
“She’s staying at Max’s.”
He whistles.
“Her husband’s house. They got married.”
He whistles again.
“Can you let me in?” he asks.
“Why?”
“Kim says her driver’s license is in there.”
“Kim?” I ask. “Would that be the Kim whose stuff you splattered all over the front steps?”
“Passionately.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “I threw it passion-kristin ately. She gave me an ultimatum. I don’t like to be challenged. No man wants to hear his days as a playboy are over.”
“Clearly.”
“But she was right, so we’re going to Reno tonight to get married. Do you want to come be a witness?”
“Doesn’t anyone have a real wedding anymore?”
He shrugs. “I think it will help our relationship.”
“Uh-huh,” I say, unconvinced. “I wish you the best, but I’ve got court tomorrow afternoon. I’m afraid weddings are off-limits for the time being.” Not to mention, if I showed up, it probably wouldn’t happen. I have a knack for canceling weddings.
I open the door, and Nate goes for the refrigerator, where he pulls Kim’s driver’s license off the top. Of course, why wouldn’t it be on the top of a friend’s fridge?
“Good luck tomorrow, huh? No hard feelings.” Nate holds his hand out to me, and I shake it.
“Thanks, Nate. You, too.”
He takes off, and I’m left to the quiet roar of Lilly’s loft. I guess it will be my loft soon. I take out the library of paperwork George left me with this afternoon, and see all the charges left to become formalized by a grand jury. I suppose we’re lucky we got a preliminary hearing. A typical grand-jury indictment can come down without any chance to defend yourself. At least I’ll get the opportunity, even if it’s nothing more than a glimmer of hope.