“Rat.”
“Do what?”
“Nolan calls him a rat on steroids.” Melanie stifled a guffaw at Grace’s exaggerated wink.
“He’s right about that. Grace, I said a watchdog. This is not a watch dog!” Craig was becoming genuinely angry.
“Sure it is! He barks a lot, when he’s awake anyway, and his name is Rolex. There can’t be a better watchdog than a Rolex. You know me. I’ve gotta have the best—especially on your dime. Here are the receipts. Nolan will expect reimbursement for his expenses by the end of the week.” Grace and Melanie collapsed in helpless laughter at the look of disbelief on Craig’s face.
It took little time for Craig to concede defeat. He couldn’t help it. The rat was adorable, and the women in his life loved him. What the dog wouldn’t do in deterring an intruder, he would make up for in companionship. Moreover, he wasn’t exactly surprised that Grace had chosen a small dog. She hadn’t hidden her fear of large canines as well as she thought she did.
“Just keep the doors locked and take the bus or call Mel when you have to go somewhere, ok?” Craig’s concerned tone caused Grace a moment of guilt.
Cade had been working diligently on his homework during Grace’s introduction of her new pet to her brother’s family. He and Rolex had become fast friends upon Cade’s arrival from school. Rolex whimpered at Cade’s ankles as the boy tried to finish his homework. He was eager to play again with the little dog but knew his mother would arrive at any moment. At the sound of squeaky brakes in front of the house, he sighed.. With great disappointment, Cade put his books in his backpack and after patting Rolex’s head, ran to his mother’s waiting car.
Grace watched the boy talking animatedly to his mother as they drove away before turning to her brother and his bemused wife. “Anyone feel like taking me to dinner? I am famished, and I sorta spent my late morning and early afternoon having a baby.” As an afterthought, she added, “Oh, and you can tell Aunt Fran about Rolex. I am not going there.”
Chapter Eleven
November
Exhausted, Grace lounged on her couch and worked diligently on a smocked dress. Every stitch seemed to take an amazing amount of effort, but Grace plodded along, determined to be productive even as she rested. Across the street, an expensive looking sports car roared up to Nolan’s house and screeched to a stop. While Grace tried to determine if the hood ornament was a Jaguar or not, the driver exited, looking like a model from an Eddie Bauer catalog. His dark skin looked amazing against the cranberry sweater he wore.
“Either he’s the casual riche, or he’s trying to look the part of a bumpkin on a millionaire’s salary,” she muttered amusedly to herself.
Nolan hurried from his house and greeted his guest. “Hey, David, glad you made it! Did you find me ok?”
David Corbin slapped his college buddy on the back and immediately started teasing. “Well, actually it was easy enough to find, but I was sure I was in the wrong place, man! What, are you slumming it?”
Unaware that snatches of their conversation could be heard through the slight crack in Grace’s window, Nolan laughed good-naturedly. “Well, you know me… always have to try something new.”
From many of Nolan’s acquaintances, the question would not only have been serious, but a deliberate cut. While none of them would admit to being snobbish, the fact is, most of the people Nolan knew well were extremely well to do and lived in a style unseen in Brunswick. They simply would not have understood Nolan’s desire to blend into the woodwork of life in his new town.
Nolan saw Grace at the window and waved. “That’s my neighbor, Grace. She’s great. I’ll have to take you over later to meet her. With any luck, she’s been baking.”
“Housewife?”
“Homemaker, anyway. She’s not married.” Without realizing that he appeared to be deliberately changing the subject, Nolan led David into his house and gave him the quick but grand tour. “In here is my formal living room which I use for an office. I started off down the hall, but I like being nearer the front where I can watch the kids playing and keep an eye on Grace. We’ve had a rash of attacks—”
“Yeah, I heard about those. I wondered if everyone knows how new you are. This place is much smaller than I thought. Could you be a suspect?”
Nolan’s laughter echoed through the rooms. “Not on your life. I’m too tall for one thing, and I’ve been with people during attacks so, even if people did figure out I was new, they wouldn’t think it was me. The town has nearly thirty-thousand people, Dave. It’s not like we’re Backwater Village, population one hundred twenty-two… until Ina Mae has her baby anyway.”
The men laughed and Nolan poured coffee for Dave as they continued through the kitchen. “Black, right?”
“Well, I don’t mind, but it’s not politically correct these days…”
“The coffee, man,” Nolan growled as he shoved the cup into his friend’s hand.
“Well, if you insist. So you make your own coffee? Do you cook too?”
“It’s a different world here. I wanted to blend in so I rented something small—except that it’s really bigger than I need.”
“Sounds cramped to me. So tell me; why are you here? Be honest with me because you’ve got friends in Rockland who are concerned about you.”
Nolan relaxed in his favorite chair and propped his feet on the ottoman. “How many of these friends wear spiked heels?”
“Touché.”
“So, what is up at the church? Did they agree to help the homeless mission down on Washington?”
The men drove to the store for snacks and talked about things back in Rockland on the way back. Once parked in front of Nolan’s enormous television set, the conversation lulled to short sound-bytes during muted commercials as they watched the Rockland Warriors fight for their place in the upcoming championship. Nolan needed this day more than he’d realized. Just the presence of someone who knew him, knew his likes and dislikes, and accepted him, was a huge relief. For the first time in weeks, Nolan didn’t have to explain himself. He could just be.
“So, what’s with the suburban life? This place isn’t much bigger than your old guest house.”
“Well, for one thing, Brunswick is a solid middle to lower middle class town. There are some nicer homes on the outskirts but nothing like Mom and Dad’s place. I just rented—”
“Well, at least you’re just renting, but, man this place has to be twenty years old! Why not rent something newer? A townhouse maybe?”
“The house is over thirty years old. Built in the early seventies, I think.” Nolan wondered, as he did it, why he answered such an irrelevant question. “I rented it because it was in an established neighborhood with children and a nice view over my back fence. Just fields of nothing right now. Come spring, there will be alfalfa or something out there.”
“That still doesn’t make sense. If you wanted out of the city, why not try Fairbury or New Cheltenham, or even Marshfield. All of those places had nice homes, cultural centers, and good restaurants. This is soccer mom central.”
“Because the church here had the highest number of unattached females.”
The answer hung over the room. Finally, David said, “Well, if that isn’t forthright, nothing is. So you were on a woman hunt and none of your friends in Rockland were good enough?”
A slight edge to David’s voice unnerved Nolan. He wasn’t used to his friends not understanding. “Dave, can you see me with Sheila or Jennifer? Do you think I’d be satisfied with a life of nannies and trips to the tropics?”
“Did it ever occur to you that the women you know might also want something different but not know how to go about it?”
Nolan’s mouth opened to answer but nothing came. He sat there slack-jawed throughout the rest of the commercials before taking a drink of his root beer and returning his concentration to the game. At the next break, he turned to Dave and admitted, “I didn’t. I never thought of that. I guess I assumed that they would have shown some kind of desire for something different. All I saw was the perfect manicures, the perfect wardrobes, and the stilted conversations about whatever was the ‘in’ thing of the week. Why wouldn’t someone ever mention a desire for change?”
“Because, like you, they weren’t willing to put themselves on the line.”
“What do you mean? What do you think I’m doing?”
At the next commercial break, the conversation continued as though without a pause. “You’re running away. You’re pretending to be someone you aren’t in order to find what you’re looking for.”
“Are you saying you think I’m a fraud here?”
“I’m saying,” David replied carefully, “I’m saying that you appear to be just another guy here, but you’re not. You’re a very wealthy man who is accustomed to more than you can find here.”
A whole quarter passed without another word. Near the final two minutes, commercials drove them nuts as the score hung at thirty-four Warriors, thirty-five Cardinals. “After this is over, I want to take you over and introduce you to Grace. Maybe you’ll understand why I haven’t flaunted my—”
“I’m not talking about flaunting. I’m talking about hiding. You seem to be hiding under a façade of suburban middle class when we both know even your parents had a hard time remembering those days.”
“Look who’s talking! Mr. Son of a real estate developer!”
“But I don’t pretend.”
The game exploded on the screen, effectively silencing both men for several minutes until they finally threw popcorn at the screen in disgust as their team lost. Dave branched into a new topic. “So, in this paradise of available females, have you met anyone?”
“Paige Matthews. She’s intelligent, modest, and incredibly gorgeous. I’m just getting to know her, but it’s nice to have to do the pursuing for once.”
“Oh, so this is really about your desire for the hunt.”
Laughing, Nolan shook his head. “The hunt is an enjoyable novelty—it’s not as easy as you’d think—not with Paige anyway. But what I really like is that I’m not on the defensive. I don’t feel like a car on the showroom floor. Everyone’s looking, wanting to take it for a test drive, and I’m terrified to find out who finally buys me.” The look on David’s face was priceless. “Come on, Dave; let’s drown our sorrows at Grace’s house.”
Ignoring the unfinished discussion, both men ambled across the street, and their stomachs rumbled at the scent of stew and pumpkin pie as they climbed the steps of her porch. Grace’s call of, “come in” sounded closer than Nolan expected, and he was surprised to find her sitting on the couch stitching something. He introduced his friend. “Oh, stay there. I rarely see you sitting, you know. It’s a nice change.”
“I’m just so tired and cold today. I hope I’m not coming down with anything. I’d hate to get you or David sick.”
She turned to David, and without giving Nolan a chance to respond, insisted he take a seat. “So, what brings you to Brunswick today?”
“We watched the Warriors vs. Cardinals game.”
“Warriors lost.”
Before David could comment, Nolan asked, “You watched it?”
“No. I could tell by the tone of your voices that you weren’t happy. Are you guys hungry? Stew is done and there is pumpkin pie in the oven.”
She moved to get up, but Nolan threatened to sit on her if she tried it again. “I’ll take care of it. Should I check that pie? Knife in the middle, right?”
“Right. You remembered.”
David watched in shock as Nolan tested the pie and sent it back into the oven declaring it “not quite done.” He brought a tray and three bowls into the living room and ladled the stew from a cast iron Dutch oven on the wood burning stove. The scene was so utterly foreign to David that he was dumbstruck. Nolan hurried back into the kitchen for spoons, napkins, and glasses of water for everyone. The sound of the oven timer sent him racing back to the kitchen to check on the pie.
“Are you staying over, David?”
“No, I was going to try to talk Nolan into a movie and dinner, and then I planned to head back to Rockland. I’m supposed to fill in for a friend at church tomorrow.”
Nolan overheard and commented, “I think Nick does that because you get those kids hungry for more. You really should take over the thing.”
Grace ignored the tangent and returned to the topic. “Are you set on that? I mean the whole dinner thing, because my stew is pretty filling, and if you eat pie—”
“How about a triple checker round?” Nolan interjected.
“I’m lousy with checkers, but I’m game.”
Nolan and Grace grinned simultaneously as Nolan pulled the checkerboard out from the lower shelf of the coffee table. “Set ‘em up!”
~*~*~*~
Nolan stood next to David’s window rubbing his arms for warmth. “Thanks for coming, man. I’ve missed you.”
“This is your new life then, huh? Pie and stew and checkers on a Saturday night?”
“Be honest, Dave, did you have fun?”
He nodded as he rolled up the window, whipped his car around, and drove down the street. “I had fun, man,” Dave said to himself, “but mostly watching you. I had no idea that the domestic scene fitted you so perfectly.”
Chapter Twelve
For the next two weeks, Grace taught the puppy to “go” on newspaper, sleep in his bed, and not cry at night. She mastered smocking and worked hard to be ready for an upcoming craft show. Her life was a whirlwind of activity, and though she enjoyed keeping busy, she began to look forward to the quieter days of winter after Christmas.
Exhaustion kept her from the retirement home until even Craig finally said something to her about it. The next morning, Grace left the housework and met the early bus. It was time for a visit with Aunt Fran.
“So I have to hear about your new pet from your brother. You caved, Gracie.”
Grace’s expression was priceless. “I got him, though. I knew he’d pester me until I went crazy, so I agreed to the dog and then chose one on my terms.”
“Craig wanted a shepherd. He’s always loved them. What’d you get?”
“A Pomeranian puppy. Seven weeks old.”
Even Fran Buscher had to laugh at the mental image of a dog like that as her solution to her supposed need for protection. “I bet he wasn’t happy. He said he wanted a watch dog.”