“We’ll be there by four on Saturday,” Traci assured him.
“Shall I make dinner reservations for you?”
Mike shook his head. “I’ll call Marcello’s in Fairbury. We’ll do dinner and a movie over there and be back—”
“Then I’ll meet you in Fairbury, and I’ll bring the kids back. I’ll be there at four.”
Before they could protest, he rolled up the window and drove away. Mike looked at his wife and grinned excitedly. “We could so milk this.”
Traci laughed and pulled him toward the house. “You’re bad. You’re very bad. I like it.”
Chapter Fifteen
Amber was ecstatic. The smells coming from Grace’s house were enough to make a stuffed lumberjack’s mouth water. Thanksgiving with Grace was going to be so much fun. Marci was trapped in Chicago, thanks to an untimely ice storm, so Grace insisted that Amber spend the day with her at Craig and Melanie’s.
Nolan’s SUV crunched across the street and pulled into Grace’s driveway. Amber met him at the door, excitedly chattering about the day, the plans, and the food they’d be eating. “And I get to hold Graceanna when Mrs. Buscher needs me to!”
“Now that sounds wonderful. Are you going to share with me?”
Amber grinned. “When she gets heavy or stinky you can take her.”
Once Grace’s Hungarian Coffee Cake was drizzled with icing, all three of them piled into his vehicle and left. Amber insisted on singing “over the river” all the way there, and the ways that they improvised to get the “perfect” words made for a hilarious ride.
“I hope Aunt Fran won’t be too hard on you today.”
“I’ve heard about her but I’ve not met her yet.”
Amber’s little voice piped up morosely. “Lucky you. She always has something mean to say. Just ignore it like Miss Gracie says, and it doesn’t hurt your feelings too badly.”
Grace shrugged and grinned at Nolan. “Children say it like it is, don’t they?” She climbed from the car and grabbed the coffee cake. “Happy Thanksgiving; may the Lord bless you this day!” Grace called their traditional greeting as she marched up the walk.
A voice from inside the house nearly sent Nolan into a fit of laughter. “The Lord blesses those who leave His name out of it.”
Nolan marveled at the way she seemed to forget recent tensions with her brother and ignore annoying aunts who tried to grate on her nerves. As he reflected, he became concerned. It wasn’t healthy to stuff down the frustration that Grace had exhibited toward her brother just days earlier. How long before that dam burst?
As Grace made room on a buffet table for all the food she carried, Craig came over to Nolan’s side. Before he could speak, Grace turned to him. “Oh, Craig, well, can you put this in the fridge for me? I don’t want the whipped cream to melt.”
The next few moments were a bit chaotic and extremely funny. Grace pretended to trip over her feet and fell, pie first, into Craig’s face. Nolan expected a roar of indignation to erupt from Craig’s shocked face. His surprise was evident as Craig, Melanie and Grace dissolved into helpless laughter.
“I—I—” Craig struggled to speak through guffaws. “I didn’t even see it coming. I figured you’d wait until you thought I was comfortable.”
“I knew if I didn’t do it right away, you’d be on your guard. Woohoo! That’ll teach you.”
“Melanie, think he’s sweetened up enough?”
“Like a little whipped cream could cure him,” Fran’s voice interjected.
Nolan marveled at the way practical jokes were easily enjoyed
and
forgiven in their family. His home had been loving but slightly formal. They enjoyed humor but practical joking had been a rare occurrence; certainly, nothing like the give and take that was sure to be a part of today’s repartee.
Melanie eyed her husband warily. It appeared that Craig was inching toward an exceptionally flaky crusted pie. “Knock it off, Craig or you’ll wear the turkey too!”
While the rest of the group played games and sang songs from old Mitch Miller albums, Melanie and Grace worked on the finishing touches to dinner. Aunt Fran complained about the “caterwauling” and then about screaming babies as Graceanna’s wails drew Melanie from the kitchen when the baby became hungry. “Can you handle things, Grace? Need me to call Craig in?”
“Nah, I’ve got it under control, let them play.”
Grace continued stirring gravy in between slicing canned cranberry sauce. Gripping the counter next to the stove, she steadied herself. Nolan watched in concern. After overhearing her conversation with Melanie, he’d decided to offer to help. It might be a chance to talk to her and see what she thought of him— as a man. “Grace? You ok?”
Grace turned around quickly. Too quickly. Dizziness overwhelmed her and she found herself lurching for the table. “Acck. The room is spinning!”
He seated the unsteady woman and continued stirring the pan she’d been working over. “What’s wrong? Did you forget to eat?”
“No… I’m just exhausted. I don’t think I slept well last night.”
A cheer went up from everyone in the living room. The game of charades was apparently over. Amber dashed into the kitchen looking for nibbles and stopped short. She gave Nolan and Grace a funny look before turning and running back into the group. Nolan looked at Grace.
“Did I miss something?”
Grace shrugged. “She is a mystery sometimes. Her mother calls her ‘intuitive.’ I call her silly. I think she prefers silly.”
Chuckling, they carried the bowls and plates into Craig’s dining room and placed them on the large sideboard. “We’ll eat buffet style. It’ll be faster so the food won’t get cold.”
“Let me make a plate for your aunt. You go sit down and eat.”
Fran accepted the plate, smiling broadly at Nolan. Grace sat wondering if her aunt truly liked Nolan, or if it was just the air of courtesy she sometimes put on at appropriate occasions. She was rude to most of her family, rude to service people and store clerks, rude to people who intruded into her living space uninvited, but the rest of the time, even if she didn’t feel like it, she managed a cordial civility that always seemed out of character somehow.
Unaware of her niece’s curiosity, Fran enjoyed her conversation with him. Over turkey, stuffing, and hot mashed potatoes that only Grace could have made, she quickly learned that Nolan Burke was one of
the
Rockland Burkes and that even if he and her family didn’t know it, he’d be a part of the family in the near future. His genuine interest in her and her life as a real estate developer in the early years of the Westbury boom gratified her and endeared her to him.
An hour later, the group lounged in the large family room, everyone too stuffed to make any unnecessary movements. “Why do we do this every year?” Melanie groaned and shifted the baby from her stomach.
“Because we’re all hedonists if we’re honest with ourselves,” quipped Fran to an uninterested and non-listening room.
“Anyone feel like singing?” Craig’s tone implied that his heart wasn’t into the idea.
“Anyone feel like meditating day and night?” Nolan’s quip earned him a few pained chuckles.
“Let’s get up a good game of Twister! Come on, Paige; show ‘em what my girl can do!” Chuck’s oblivious self-absorption appeared to be reaching new heights.
Nathan looked askance. “Um, Chuck. Cool it. The girl is resting. It’s what most people do when they finish an excellent Thanksgiving dinner.”
Amber appeared to be the only one with any latent energy. Despite her obvious dislike for Chuck, she conned him into a pick-up game in the back yard. “It’ll be fun and they’ll be ready to do something by the time we come in… come on, Mr. Majors!”
As the back door shut behind the would-be soccer players, Nathan turned to Paige. “Does a nice, slow amble down to the park and back sound like too much of an assault on your stomach?”
Paige shook her head and the couple slipped silently out the front door. Nolan sighed. He’d considered making the same offer to Grace before the episode in the kitchen. Just as he began to formulate another plan to try to talk with Grace, Melanie stood to put Graceanna in her crib. Moments later, Craig followed. “I’m going to lay down for a few. I feel like those decadent Romans who overfed themselves. I need a rest.”
Fran stood and followed them to the guest room next to theirs. “If you need me, find someone else. I don’t want to be disturbed.”
“Looks like you’re stuck with me.” Grace’s voice lacked any traces of mirth.
“Why do you say it like that? Are you still angry with me?” Nolan seemed confused.
“I don’t know. Tiredness talking, I guess. I’m not angry. I wasn’t actually angry before. Well, I was when Cade was reading this verse out loud and I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it!”
Nolan’s low chuckle was comforting. Their friendship had already resumed its comfortableness. “I appreciate your understanding. I’m still embarrassed. I mean, I don’t even remember reading that verse before.”
“I think it’s pretty personal between Mel and Craig.” Grace blushed as she realized that she was passing on information that she shouldn’t.
“Paige seems pretty happy with Nathan. Think they’ll get a ‘real’ chance? I mean…”
Grace nodded. “Paige said that Nathan knows how to take care of it if he has to. I hope he’s as wonderful as he seems; I’d hate to see her hurt again.”
He hesitated. Would she resent him asking about personal things? “Paige implied that you’d been hurt yourself.”
“Ahhh, no.” Grace’s laugh was genuine. She looked at him with undisguised amusement in her face. “Paige persists in believing that my father’s in home care assistant ‘trifled with my affections and then dumped me when he discovered how low the life insurance was.”
“Can I ask an extremely personal question?” Ever since discovering that Grace was everything that he’d asked for in a wife, he had changed his perception of her.
She eyed him warily. “Well, I guess it depends upon the question.”
“Have you ever considered marriage?” Nolan began to feel foolish for asking.
“Marriage in general, or to someone in particular?” Grace wasn’t as oblivious to the change in Nolan’s perception of her as he believed, and she wasn’t sure what she thought of it. It was one thing to desire a husband and children, but her relationship with the Lord was so intimate—so special. She didn’t know if she was willing to risk that changing—even for someone like Nolan.
“Well, how about both?” He was beginning to think that Grace was either incredibly dense, or she wasn’t interested in sharing anything personal with him.
“Well, marriage in general? I’ve prepared for that my whole life.”
Now this was going somewhere. “How? How have you prepared? What kind of wife do you see yourself as? What kind of husband or marriage have you been hoping for?”
“Well, it’s a matter of what you think the design for men and women are, and what the purpose of marriage is. I believe that God has intended for most people to marry, so I prepared for that—almost from birth. Craig too.”
“What about when Paul says that he wishes that most people would remain single like him?”
“Look at the whole passage, Nolan. He says ‘for this present distress.’ He knew that a very difficult and dangerous time was coming, probably speaking of the fall of Jerusalem, and he still qualified it with, ‘let each man have his own wife’ etcetera because it’s better to ‘marry than burn.’”
“Excellent point. So what did you do to prepare? What did Craig do?”
Grace spoke of years of the excellent example that her parents had exhibited for her and her brother. The lessons in homemaking and learning to serve others above herself were taught lovingly by her mother as she lived it. As Nolan listened, fond memories came over him. He remembered similar times of instruction that he’d spent with his own parents.
“That’s beautiful. So why haven’t you married yet?”
“Well, I’m not exactly old, but I’ve been called an ‘old maid’ by some of the little girls at the church. They like to read antique books and assume if you’re over twenty-two, your hopes are gone. But you didn’t ask about that.”
He hesitated and finally gave in. “So… how much older is Craig than you?”
Her laughter rang out gleefully. “That’s a smooth one! I’m thirty-two. My birthday is July fourth.” She stretched. “But you wanted to know why I’m not married. I’d say because no one has ever asked me, but that implies that I’d just accept anyone.”
“I can’t imagine that happening. I don’t think that Craig would go for it.”
“Uh… no. That he wouldn’t.”
“Come on, tell me. If you could describe your husband if you could pick one out at a store, what would he be like?”
Grace grew thoughtful. Eventually, she began describing a very special person. The warmth with which she spoke implied that she wasn’t just making this up on the spur of the moment. As she spoke of the qualities she hoped to find, Nolan realized that she was describing a man much like, if not exactly like, her father.
“You miss him, don’t you?” The question didn’t need to be asked.
“It’s our second Thanksgiving without him. I miss him. Sometimes I feel so alone in that house without him. Everyone thinks that I am happy to be alone in my own little world that I’ve created. I’ve been told how lucky I am. I have a nice house that I can do whatever I want with. I don’t have the hassle of in-laws or sharing the remote. Who wants to be alone like that for their whole life, unless it’s exactly what the Lord has planned for them?”
Grace paused for a moment before continuing. “I don’t want to presume to know the mind of God, but I just don’t think that God means for me to be single.”
“You really want a home and family, don’t you?”
“On the other hand, and while I don’t want to sound pietistic and I truly do want a husband, children, and all that comes with them, I have a very close relationship with the Lord. I know that marriage will change that. It won’t tear me away from the Lord, but my relationship will change, and I don’t know if I want it to. Does that make sense?”
Nolan nodded slowly. “Do you mean something like a living example of ‘the wife is concerned with the things of her husband but the single person, the things of the Lord?’”