Almost Home (25 page)

He’d stood one of the canoes up against the wall and was returning for a second when his shirt was snagged by a skate blade hanging from one of the posts. As he carefully disengaged the fabric from the blade, he noticed the carving on the post:
A B C
. Funny, he thought. Was someone practicing writing the alphabet or practicing their skill with a knife?

It took him most of the afternoon, but he succeeded in clearing the way with room to spare. He was in the process of detaching the trailer from the back of the Jeep when Berry showed up with Austin at her side.

“I hope you didn’t break anything,” she said as she peered inside the building. “Or bury things so that I can’t get to them if I need something.”

“Berry, when was the last time you needed something out of there?” he asked.

“Immaterial.” She dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand. “If I want something, I need to be able to get to it.”

“If you want something that you can’t get to, I’ll get it for you,” he promised.

“Easy for you to say, since you won’t be around.”

“When you need something from the carriage house that you can’t find, I’ll come back and find it for you.”

“Damn right you will.”

He was about to ask Berry if she’d learned her alphabet
by carving letters on the post, but Austin interrupted by reminding him of the promise of ice cream after his nap.

“Let me get cleaned up and I’ll take you,” Wade told him.

“I’ll come along, if you don’t mind,” Berry said. “I’d love to see what Steffie has this week. You know she’s making something special for Dallas’s party, and Grant says …”

Berry chatted all the way to the kitchen and all the way into town and while Wade parked the Jeep in the big lot behind Scoop. Something about all the upcoming social events must have loosened her tongue, Wade thought as they walked into the shop, because he couldn’t remember her ever talking so much.

“… and so I told Olivia that I thought the pumpkins were a lovely idea.” Berry tapped Wade on the arm. “Don’t you agree, dear?”

Wade nodded. “I do.”

“You fake. You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said since you locked up the carriage house.” Berry walked past him and went directly to the cooler. “Well, then, Austin, what shall it be today …?”

Wade held Austin up to the counter while trying to see into the back room when someone, abruptly, closed the door from the inside.

“What looks good to you, Ms. Townsend?” Tina asked.

“Everything looks good, Tina. It always does.” Berry scanned the contents of the case. “I think the young master here will have a small scoop of chocolate in a dish. I’ll have the maple pecan.” She turned to Wade. “And for you, dear?”

“I’ll go with the chocolate.”

After they’d been served and Wade was at the cash register, he asked, “Is Steffie around?”

“She’s tied up right now,” Tina replied without looking up from the register. “Did you need to speak with her?”

“Just wanted to say hi.”

“I’ll let her know.” Tina handed Wade his change with a smile.

“Thanks.”

Odd, he thought, when he stopped in the following afternoon, that she was still tied up. He made sure to include Olive Street on his nightly run, but there were no lights on in Stef’s house. Odder still, she was not available the following day when he took Cody and Austin for ice cream.

“Is Stef in?” he asked Claire.

“She’s in but she doesn’t want to be disturbed,” Claire told him.

“Could you just tell her that Wade was asking for her?”

“Sure.” Claire smiled.

She was busy again on Thursday when he called and left a message, and she wasn’t around Friday after dinner, either. Too busy to return a call? Too busy to stick her head out the door and just say hi? What the hell?

He almost caught up with her on Saturday. He was in the kitchen giving Austin lunch when he looked out the window and saw her talking to one of the caterers. He watched as several of the young guys on the crew helped her unload coolers from the back of her car and place them into one of the portable freezers
on two of their trucks. He wanted to run out to catch her before she left, but by the time Austin had finished eating, she was gone.

It wasn’t until he was getting dressed for the party that it occurred to him that she was avoiding him. He tried to dismiss the thought, but it wouldn’t leave. Why would she be annoyed with him? It wasn’t as if he …

He paused, thinking back to the previous Saturday night. Forgetting for a moment that he was acutely aware that he hadn’t seen Steffie since he’d closed the car door and watched her drive away that night, he went over the scene in the parking lot. The chitchat. The embrace. The kissing before his conscience got the best of him and reminded him not to start something he wasn’t going to be around to finish. What, he wondered as he looked out the window and saw the first of Dallas’s guests arrive, had been wrong with that?

S
TEFFIE
could hear the band from the street, and it was really rocking. She wondered what the neighbors must be thinking. But of course most of the neighbors had known Dallas since she was a girl and were probably all partying just as she would be in another moment or two.

It was so odd, she thought as she passed through security, to see so many people standing around outside Berry’s fence on River Road, many with cameras trying to catch a glimpse of this actor or that actress. A well-known entertainment-show hostess interviewing the arrivals apparently thought that Steffie was “somebody,” as she’d momentarily attempted to interview her before realizing the mistake. The crowd of locals had booed when the microphone was turned from Stef to a famous director who was just alighting from his limo.

Times like this served as a reminder that, as much as Dallas fit into St. Dennis, she was one of them only because she chose to be.

The first person Stef recognized when she walked down to the tent was Grace.

“Hi, Miss Grace.” Steffie waved. “Are you here as a friend of the family or as a reporter for your paper?”

“Both.” She leaned toward Steffie and confided, “Dallas left word at the door that I was to be allowed to bring in my camera. I don’t believe anyone else is being permitted.”

“I think you may be right. Dallas didn’t want a lot of candid shots popping up on the Internet. I know Grant has his camera because he’s asked me to take a picture when he asks Dallas to—” Steffie tried to stop herself from letting the cat out of the bag, but it was already too late. She tried to cover by adding, “When he surprises Dallas with a special gift.”

But Grace was having none of it.

“Oh, my, is Grant thinking about proposing tonight?”

“I could just shoot myself,” Steffie mumbled.

“No, no, dear. Not to worry. I won’t say anything.” Grace laughed.

“Thank you, Miss Grace. Grant would just kill me if he got word of this.” Steffie gave Grace’s arm an affectionate squeeze.

“Oh, I’ve kept more secrets for more people in this town than anyone could ever imagine,” Grace said.

“Well, then, we just added one more.” Steffie took two glasses of champagne from a passing tray and handed one to Grace. “Here’s to the keeper of the secrets.”

“I’ll have just a sip to accept the honor.” Grace barely touched her lips to the rim of the glass. “I need to stay sharp to get lots of good shots tonight.”

“I’m sure you will.” Steffie glanced around the crowd that milled about the lawn and under the one
big tent that the caterer opted for instead of the several smaller tents they’d originally planned on having. At the last minute, a tent they felt would be large enough to hold the entire group was found to be available from another caterer in Annapolis and was borrowed for the occasion.

“It certainly is festive, isn’t it?” Grace nodded to the scene under the tent, where the band was playing, a few couples were dancing, and dozens of round tables for ten were draped in brown cloths and decked with flowers in shades of purple and orange and touches of red. “It’s just beautiful. I think Olivia has outdone herself with the flowers. I’ll have to seek her out and compliment her on her work.”

“She always does beautiful work. I love to walk past her shop and just look in the windows and at the displays out front. It always picks up my spirits.”

“Oh, look, there are Vanessa and Grady. Don’t they make a stunning couple?” Grace pointed them out in the crowd.

“They do,” Steffie agreed.

“I must say, though, that you look quite stunning, too, dear. That shade of green is so lovely with your coloring.”

“Thank you.” Steffie pushed back the shrug she was wearing to show off the thin straps of the dress. “I bought this from Vanessa’s shop, but I wasn’t thinking about how cool it would be tonight, so I had to add the shrug. I hate to cover up the top of the dress because it’s so pretty, but I hated the thought of shivering all night even more.” Steffie continued to scan the crowd from her vantage point near the house. “There’s Barbara.” She noticed the bookseller
in the crowd. “I know she was looking forward to this. She said she came to a lot of garden parties here when Berry was younger.”

“Oh, yes, I remember. Berry was quite the social butterfly back then.” Grace nodded. “She was every bit the hostess. Back in the day, it wasn’t at all unusual to have Hollywood types about. Speaking of which, isn’t that Cindy Sims, the actress?”

“Where?” Stef squinted. “Oh, over there near the tent. Yes, that’s her. Everyone says she’s the next big thing.”

“She’s lovely, and she’s talented. I saw her in something not too long ago, and I said to myself—”

“Hey, kiddo. Glad you could make it.” Grant appeared through the crowd in the tent and hugged his sister and planted a kiss on both her cheek and Grace’s. “And you’re looking lovely, Miss Grace.”

“Thank you, Grant. You look quite handsome this evening.”

Grant laughed. “Wait till you see Berry. And Dallas.”

“Beauty definitely runs in the family,” Grace told him.

“Gee, Grant, this is pretty heady company you’re keeping these days. I see movie stars, directors, producers …” Steffie looked around the tent. “And half the guests haven’t arrived yet.”

“I know, it’s crazy, right?” He shook his head. “All friends of Dallas’s.”

“But I see friends of yours, as well,” Grace pointed out. “I see the Madisons are all here. Brooke, Clay, their mother …”

“Oh, yeah. Dallas couldn’t have a party without her St. Dennis buddies.”

“Steffie.” Grace grabbed Stef’s arm, “Isn’t that Victoria Seymour, the writer? The author of
Pretty Maids
, the book that Dallas is making into a movie?”

“I don’t know what she looks like, so it could be.” Steffie turned to Grant. “Do you know?”

“I think it might be.” He watched Berry approach the woman with both arms out in welcome. “I know Berry’s been talking with her on the phone on and off for the past couple of weeks and they’ve been looking forward to meeting each other since Berry’s going to be playing one of the leads in
Pretty Maids.
”

“And that would be Laura Fielding joining them,” Grace noted. “She’s to play the role of Charlotte, Dallas said. It’s so exciting to see the three of them there together. Oh, and there’s Dallas, joining them. I must see if I can get a picture. If you’ll excuse me …” Grace sped off.

“Dallas looks gorgeous, as always.” Steffie watched Dallas glide across the lawn in a beautiful deep plum dress.

“She is the most beautiful woman on the planet.” Grant was clearly still mesmerized.

“So are you all ready to get down on one knee and propose in front of all these people?” Steffie teased, thinking that would be the last thing her brother would ever do.

He shocked her by nodding solemnly.

“Get out.” She laughed. “You’d never … Grant? Really?”

“Really.” He nodded. “I started thinking about what you said the other day, about giving Dallas
something that no one else could. And I talked to Mom about Nana’s ring and she thought it was perfect. Then I was thinking about how much Dallas loves a little bit of drama.”

Steffie rolled her eyes. “Duh. Actress?”

Grant smiled. “So after she’s finished welcoming everyone, and Brooke brings in the cupcakes and we sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ I thought that would be the time.”

Steffie’s eyes misted. “I never thought of you as a romantic soul, but I have to hand it to you. That’s just beautiful.”

“Unless, you know, she says no …” Grant’s voice trailed off.

“You are just so …” She gave him an affectionate whack on the arm and he laughed. “Dallas isn’t going to say no. She loves you. God knows why but she does.”

“I know. I can’t believe it either.”

“And how great was it that Krista let Paige come for the long weekend?” Steffie pointed out Grant’s teenage daughter, who was walking across the lawn with Cody and Austin.

“I really am grateful to my ex-wife for that,” Grant said. “Paige is delighted that Dallas is going to be her stepmother and that Cody will be her brother.”

“I don’t imagine having a movie star as your stepmother damages your social standing,” Stef observed.